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287. Kona Brewing – Longboard Island Lager
Mar10

287. Kona Brewing – Longboard Island Lager

As I mentioned in my last post, I was out at the Hickory Street Bar and Grill in Austin, TX at SXSW.  My new friend Robert and I enjoyed the view of Congress Ave. from their patio while we ate.  After starting with a Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale, I thought I’d try something else from them along with my meal.  The only other Kona beer on their menu was this one, so it made my decision easy. Numbers: 4.6% ABV, 18 IBUs, 13 degrees plato...

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284. Grupo Modelo – Pacifico
Mar09

284. Grupo Modelo – Pacifico

We’re finished with the iMedia Brand Summit, and we’ve got a day off before the Social Business Summit, and then SXSW Interactive.  Since it was a great afternoon, my new friend Robert suggested was try out Chuy’s Hula Hut for lunch.  Since I’m a big fan of Mexican food, and I had a craving for a cerveza, I was in. I nostalgically became a big fan of this beer after my trip to Cabo San Lucas in 1999, where...

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278. Asahi Breweries – Asahi Super Dry
Feb25

278. Asahi Breweries – Asahi Super Dry

As I mentioned in my last post, we’re out to dinner at Kobe in Bloomington, IL for my wife’s birthday.  Before dinner, I started with a Tsingtao, and wasn’t thrilled with it.  So for my next drink, I went for the Asahi.  We continued to watch the show and I had this beer with my dinner. Numbers: 5% ABV Appearance & Aroma: It was very clear and was golden-yellow in color.  The head was bright white with some big...

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277. Tsingtao Brewery – Tsingtao
Feb25

277. Tsingtao Brewery – Tsingtao

Today is my wife’s birthday, and to celebrate, we went out to Kobe Steakhouse here in town for dinner and a “show.”  It’s usually fairly entertaining, although they’ve got the same gimmicks at all of these types of places.  Since we were celebrating, it was a chance to have a beer, and a unique one that I could add to the list. Numbers: 4.8% ABV Appearance & Aroma: It was in the bottle here, but I...

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252. JOS. Schlitz / Pabst – Schlitz
Dec30

252. JOS. Schlitz / Pabst – Schlitz

This was one of the specials tonight at Legends, and several people were having them.  So, I thought, despite the fact that this would be another pale brew from a big brewery, I’d add it to the list.  The label was the same as the old school labels, proclaiming this is, “The beer that made Milwaukee famous.” It was a bright yellow color and extremely clear in the glass.  There was a decent, half-inch thick, bright...

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245. Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg – 2009 Samichlaus Classic Bier
Dec26

245. Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg – 2009 Samichlaus Classic Bier

I mentioned a few weeks back that the presentation at our local homebrew club meeting was holiday beers.  This beer was one of the samples, and I knew I had to pic up a bottle. As I learned that the Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson, had written about this beer – the strongest lager in the world, at 14% ABV, it is aged for a year from St. Nicholas day.  The bottle reaffirms hist story, saying, “Bottled only once a year on...

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235. Moylan’s – White Christmas Spiced Winter Lager Draft
Dec13

235. Moylan’s – White Christmas Spiced Winter Lager Draft

After a great Christmas party with the ABNormal brewers on Saturday night, we’re back at it again tonight at our monthly meeting at Fat Jack’s in downtown Bloomington.  They usually have some decent beers on tap, so it’s a chance to add another one to the list.  In the spirit of the season, and our meeting (seasonal beers), I decided to try the Moylan’s White Christmas lager. It was light orange in the color...

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175. Great Divide Brewing – Hoss Rye Lager Draft
Sep17

175. Great Divide Brewing – Hoss Rye Lager Draft

A friend from the ABNormal Brewers gave me a call and said that he was also out in Denver for the Great American Beer Festival.  He was also interested in checking out Great Divide, so I grabbed another beer and a chair and waited for him to come by. The Hoss Rye lager was clear and red in color, not reddish, but red – the reddest beer I’ve ever seen.  There was, as you can see, an amazingly large and creamy white head,...

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105. Full Sail Bewing – Session Black Lager
Jul20

105. Full Sail Bewing – Session Black Lager

It’s my last night in Hood River, and very, very early tomorrow morning I head to Portland to brew at Full Sail’s Riverplace location.  So, before I left Hood River, I thought I’d step right behind my hotel and enjoy a Full Sail Session Black Lager while the sun set over the Columbia River Gorge.  This is a beautiful place that I’ll always remember and I couldn’t think of a better place to do this review....

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101. Full Sail Brewing – Dunkopple Draft
Jul20

101. Full Sail Brewing – Dunkopple Draft

It was another incredible day at Full Sail Brewing. Today I helped out in the cellar area, cleaning, moving hoses, transferring beer, transferring yeast, etc. Then I got to move back up to the brew deck to help brew the IPA – including dumping in over 260 lbs of hops (and those were just the hops added at the end of the boil). Since brewmaster Jamie Emmerson had sat down with me yesterday and gone over all of Full Sail’s...

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94. Stella Artois – Stella Artois Draft
Jul12

94. Stella Artois – Stella Artois Draft

I’m still stuck in the Memphis Airport, with not a whole lot of beer selection.  However, since I’m here, and there’s beer, I thought I’d just knock another macrobrew off the list.  After having ABInBev’s Shock Top Belgian White, I went for another “Belgian” beer – Stella Artois.  As a side note, if you find yourself in Memphis, I highly recommend finding a place to eat/drink before you...

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92. Tommyknocker Brewery – Ornery Amber Lager
Jul10

92. Tommyknocker Brewery – Ornery Amber Lager

I had a great day today at the ABNormal Brewers homebrew club picnic.  My son and I had a great time fishing, swimming, and having fun with the other members of the club.  I’ve also got the kids to myself tonight, as my wife is away on a girls weekend.  So, I thinking the title of this beer was appropriate while watching my ornery kids, I opened up this beer to top off the evening. A few years ago, my friends and I went through...

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89. Avery – Avery Anniversary Lager, Seventeen Dry-Hopped Black Lager
Jul08

89. Avery – Avery Anniversary Lager, Seventeen Dry-Hopped Black Lager

As I mentioned in my last post, things are pretty crazy around here lately. That has had me going to the beer fridge quite a bit, and tonight, I really wanted another really good beer So, I grabbed the Avery Anniversary Black Lager, Seventeen Dry Hopped Black Lager. The bottle says that it is “a dark study in German hops” and that it was bottled in May 2010, had an original gravity of 1.078 and alcohol by volume of 8.69%....

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79. Two Brothers Brewing – Dog Days Dortmunder Lager Draft
Jun30

79. Two Brothers Brewing – Dog Days Dortmunder Lager Draft

We had our homebrew club steering meeting at Fat Jacks, here in Bloomington.  They usually have some decent beers on tap, and tonight they had a decent special on little 10oz beers.  It was a hot day out, so I thought I’d go for a lager.  I hadn’t had the Two Brothers Dog Days before, so I thought I’d try it. It was a cloudy, straw-yellow color, and there was absolutely no head on it.  In fact, it didn’t seem...

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75. Sierra Nevada – 2009 Summerfest Lager
Jun18

75. Sierra Nevada – 2009 Summerfest Lager

I found this Sierra Nevada 2009 Summerfest Lager when I picked up a few different beers (as I mentioned in my Boont Amber Ale review) in a “mix a 6” 6-pack at a local liquor store.  I was a little hesitant, since it would probably be about a year old and likely sat in the store at about 73 degrees that whole time, but I went for it anyway.  The bottle says that it is 5% ABV. When I poured it in the glass, it had a dark...

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63. ABInBev – Busch
Jun04

63. ABInBev – Busch

Yes, my Friday night back in my college town of Columbia, MO, was an eventful one.  Yes, this is my third beer review from that evening (and a few more to come).  We moved over from Booches to Coley’s (or as I remember it being called Grill One-Five).  We met up with some older alumni, who pretty much live on Busch… So, when in Rome… I had a Busch bottle. Since I drank it straight from the bottle, I can’t...

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61. St. Louis Brewery Schlafly – Helles Style Summer Lager Draft
Jun04

61. St. Louis Brewery Schlafly – Helles Style Summer Lager Draft

I’m finally catching up on my posts, because this weekend I went back to my old college town – Columbia, Missouri – for a golf tournament with some fraternity brothers.  It’s an annual event that I haven’t been able to attend in a couple of years, but I was really excited to be back.  So our first stop was burger joint/billiards hall we used to frequent back in the day (I’ll talk more about it in my...

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39. Heineken Brouwerijen – Heineken Premium Lager
May12

39. Heineken Brouwerijen – Heineken Premium Lager

I really can’t thank my travel partner Steve enough for all the upgrades to first class. On our last day of travel, I again sat in first class on our flight from Tampa to Chicago. As I mentioned in my review of Budweiser, my choices on the flight were limited, so I thought I’d try Heineken – which I had never tried in the can – since it’s not something I’d probably pay for if I didn’t have to....

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38. Birra Peroni Industriale – Peroni Nastro Azzurro Draft
May12

38. Birra Peroni Industriale – Peroni Nastro Azzurro Draft

As I mentioned in my last post, we stopped for lunch at Millers Ale House in Tampa, FL.  Also, as I mentioned, for a place called an “Ale House,” their beer selection was pretty domestic, generic, and ironically, filled with lagers.  Although, a lager, I saw that the Peroni was on draft, so I thought I’d give it a try. It had a nice, pinky finger sized head with tiny bubbles which stuck around for quite a while due...

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36. Desnoes & Geddes – Red Stripe Jamaican Lager
May11

36. Desnoes & Geddes – Red Stripe Jamaican Lager

As I mentioned in my last post, it was the last night of our three weeks of intensive travel for work, and we had dinner at the RiverHouse Reef & Grill.  I started with a Yuengling, but I ordered the mahi-mahi and grilled shrimp, so I thought I’d try something a little lighter.  Besides, we were sitting on a pier overlooking the bay and Bradenton, FL, so I thought it would be good to go with a beer that would go with the...

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