Depot Street Freight Hopper IPA

This one is from just up the road in Jonesborough Tn. It poured with a thick, mushroomy head. The first sip is a full of hoppy goodness. The hops remain in the foreground with the associated citrus tastes in the body.

I can honestly say that this IPA is sweet, and sour at the same time. The malt is stable and not too sweet and the hops remain dominant. Another great beer from the Southeast U.S.

Grade: 4 of 5 possible pints.

I had that dream again.

I'm back in school and the school's been design by post modern architects intent on bringing the work of M. C. Escher to life. It is a minimalist pyramid with stairs that wrap around the outside of each level. I discover an escalator just when I start to become lost in these crowded pathways. Of course, in the confusion, I have to climb over the hand rail to gain access to the escalator.

The school has a student radio station which constantly broadcast discussion panels. I meet some old friends who are broadcasting their crowd sourcing campaign to reprint a favorite childhood book. I am not familiar with their favorite childhood book and don't get involved in their surreal commerce.

Flash forward and I'm sitting at a bar drinking beer from a can. (I'm sure this is dream symbolism for cheap beer.) I have an ink pen and am drawing an endless invisible circle on the bar, the cap is on the pen. The bartender becomes annoyed with my invisible circle and places my nearly full beer out of reach. I appeal to fellow costumers and other bartenders to retrieve my beer without success.

Next, I'm riding in a van with someone, perhaps it is a group of people? I'm telling the driver of my experience, drawing invisible circles, with the bartender. The navigator of the vehicle has little concern for my earlier experience at the bar and says, "I'll talk to you later," as we pull into his driveway. The implication being; "free beer."

Then the cat woke me up.

Yes, I still have T-shirts!

Yeah, I have fallen a bit behind with the T-shirt Tuesday feature. I could blame this on the rigors of modern life but I'll not present excuses, I'll only present t-shirts. Here are two I have acquired recently.

One of our local public schools, Karns, has chosen the beaver as their athletic mascot. I believe this is due to the local geographic point, Beaver Creek or something. Regardless, I became enamored with their mascot and found the shirt at Wal-Mart for $10.

The second shirt I picked up while Sally and I were in St. Louis. It's a St. Louis Cardinals St. Patrick' s Day shirt which reads, "Luck? I doubt it." This is a reference to any chance luck may have played in the Cardinals 2011 World Series Championship. I'm not strictly a Cardinals fan but I am a baseball fan and couldn't pass up this shirt which was on the bargain rack at the Cardinals Club House store.

 

 52 shirts posted 313 'til 365. As I've mentioned, since starting this project, I now suspect I only own around 100 t-shirts.

Smuttynose Winter Ale

This brown ale pours with a solid inch of foamy head. The smell is malty and the first sip has a hint of hops in the caramel malt and some chalky aftertaste. I'm concerned about the age of this beer since it's a winter ale and a purchased it at the first of Sept. The date on the bottle indicates May, 2012. This must have been produced at the end of the 2011/2012 Winter Ale production run.

Continued consumption leaves all concerns and chalky flavors to be forgotten. Flavors of cola and dried fruit and balancing hops remain consistent to the end of this surprising winter ale. Smuttynose Winter Ale was much lighter than what I expect from the style. It reminds me of a Belgian Brown Ale with dominant fruit flavor. I'm sure glad I picked this one up while traveling, it's not available in East Tn.

A solid 4 out of 5 pints.

Thomas Creek: Class Five IPA

This beer's name should be pronounced; "I. P. AHHH," and the pitch of your voice should rise an octave to pronounce the letter "A." The first sip is screaming with hops, then it settles to a more moderately measurable pallet. Subsequent sips are a more  balanced blend of fruit and malt influences. The hops never vanish, but after the initial introduction, they do not over power the taste buds.

Class Five IPA is a definite example of the fact that IPA is now an American beer style too.

Grade: Four of five possible pints.

Rock out to Pandora!

More beer on Monday should return later today. Here's a side note I'd like to share, if I had known, more, about Hawkwind when I was in college I would have been one of the biggest Hawkwind fans in North America. I've never been a big fan of Prog Rock, all those endless keyboard runs just bore me. But Hawkwind transcends Prog Rock, today they'd be referred to as genre bending.

If you'd like to check out some Hawkwind, and other odd musical assortments, just type "Radio Free Tanelorn" in the Pandora search and prepare to explore the universe with your mind. (Corny  yeah, some of this music is pretty corny too but some of it is surprisingly good.)

An unfair comparison.

Honestly, nothing could be more fair than this comparison between Ass Kisser; Tight Ass Hefeweizen and Atwater Brewery; Dirty Blonde ale. These beverages both claim to be wheat ales and each is a very distinctive version of the style.

Atwater Dirty Blonde ale pours light golden with a floral smell and pallet. It is clean, bubbly, lightly hopped, all the traditional qualities of a wheat beer. Dirty Blonde even has the banana and butter flavors so frequently associated with Wheat and Hefeweizen styles. Homer J. Simpson could appreciate this one.

Ass Kisser Hefeweizen has none of the traditional wheat beer qualities. I honestly wonder if they put pale ale in this bottle? Hops are the first impression from  Tight Ass Hefe, I'm guessing this is a west coast wheat style. I concede that brewers have the right to throw a new twist on traditional styles but I am, believe it or not, a stickler for keeping the traditional styles recognizable. The Ass Kisser Hefe was hoppy from start to finish and just doesn't qualify as a wheat beer for me.

When shopping for a wheat beer and left with these two choices, I'd take home the Atwater Dirty Blonde.