Bye Bye and a Boddingtons

As I had mentioned in my previous post, the original location of the Winking Lizard is closing. The team, which has grown significantly due to the increased number of fans, had a last meeting there.

It got me thinking about how this venture started with AneLyn and me. It was meant as a way to get through our daily work life and keep sane. OK, so we really like the beer, wings and burgers as well. Like all really good things, it just kept growing. It became a fun excuse to leave the office at 4:30. It gave us a chance to commiserate.

As I was sitting there, it was the usual cast of characters plus 1. Over the past few months, Loose Lips has been joining us for cocktails. You might be wondering why he never made it into any of the blog posts. I had been wondering about that as well. It seems the antics of Hollow Leg had dominated for awhile. I also realized I had started to shift the blog into a conversation about beer.

Loose Lips has been a very good addition in this regard. He loves a good beer. Yesterday, he was drinking Arrogant Bastard ale. That's right, it was referenced in a previous post about Hollow Leg's visit to Arrogant Bastard's brewing company - Stone Brewing.


At any rate, it seems like such a short span of time for this gathering to become such a great part of my life. It is always fun and never dull. Generally, we manage to drag it into the gutter part of the way through the evening - Loose Lips definitely is a strong contributor in this area as well. (I should mention that Loose Lips alternate name was going to be piglet.

It is hard to believe that I actually finished the World Tour , or hit the century mark as they say, back in May. At the time, Hollow Leg suggested that we should do a second round. I declined because I thought we wouldn't be able to do it . . in hind sight, football season is on the way.

Cooler heads did prevail. I finished my last Boddington's and had a shot with the Team. Sandbox bought the girls a "Last Call" t-shirt. The boys weren't nearly as organized!

So Bye Bye old Winking Lizard, hello new Winking Lizard! Can't wait to see what good time we have there.

One last Wink at The Original Lizard

So today is the day for me. It is my last trip the original Winking Lizard. Yes, it is true, the original joint is doing a last call celebration to send the fine lady out in style. They have been serving up the love since 1983.

Granted, they will be just moving next door. It is not like the current space is that spectacular. It just seems like all other things, everything is moving, changing, getting an upgrade. I work in the Internet industry. Working with my clients is like being on perpetual upgrade.

I just think back to all the good times. I think about getting my pirate from Sandbox, hanging out with the Cheerleader and her husband Bill.

I think about the birthday shot (a blow job) that I had to do the first time I went there with co-workers. Nice, eh? I drank it on the sly when no one was looking. How embarrassing!

Watching OSU play in the NCAA basketball tournament. Sitting with AneLyne and Hollow Leg and drinking so many beers I had to be driven home. Just because a girl sets off the fire alarm because she uses the back door 5 minutes after it is armed doesn't mean she is an idiot. How stupid is a place that lets you use a door until 5pm?

On second thought, maybe this new place will be better. At any rate, we are going to celebrate and remember.

I will leave you with the words of the Beatles

There are places I remember all my life,
Though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain.

Is 32 ounces better than a quality 12?

Ok, so the team has a meeting last Thursday. I managed to arrange a covert meeting so I was able to join them. Actually, I had business with Hollow Leg, but he was out buying school supplies, so it had to be postponed until this week.

At any rate, we were at the Winking Lizard, shocking I know, having a few beers and taking advantage of the burger night. I managed to order the baked potato instead of the fries, so that just tells you things were off to a strange start.

Normally, I really peruse the beer menu and think about what I am in the mood to drink. Somehow, magically, I noticed the beer specials section of the menu. It must have been a lie because a 32 oz. Labatt was only $4.

It true that I can be as much of a beer snob as the next person, but you can't disregard a value. I am a bigger sucker for a good deal. Apparently, Sandbox (code name) thought so as well because she ordered one, too.

Maybe it was just that we were both kind of having a hard day. Maybe it is that we would have had to ordered three Traquair House Scotch ales to get the same volume of alcohol. Well, Sandbox would have had Old Peculiar (which is a fav of mine as well.)

It got me thinking, was it really a better value? Labatt was the clear winner in the volume category. However, what about ABV (alcohol by volume). Let's take a look - each of the beers are given a ABV for a 12 oz serving. (all ABVs were obtained from RateBeer to assure parity of measurement.)


Labatt Blue Lager 5.0%
Old Peculiar 5.7%
Traquair House 7.2%

Ok - based on these figures. Labatt is holding Old Peculiar hostage in the value department. So it got a little more complex with Traquair. Here is the dinger. Traquair is a hefty $7/bottle. Even if I only needed to drink 2 of them to get the comparative ABV, you are still looking at $14.

The way I see it, drinking Labatt paid for my burger and the tip. You just have to love those Canadians.

Down East Brewing Adventure

Going to a bridal shower is not necessarily what you would call a fun weekend. Fortunately, the bride and other bridesmaids are a blast and love good beer. There were so many new brews to experience. When we went to dinner in Maine (a very short jaunt from Portsmouth, NH), I had one of the local beers, but failed to get the name of it. Shame on me.

When we returned to New Hampshire, I tried the Lobster Ale from Shipyard Brewery. It was good beer. It had a nice character. Mostly, I tried it because I liked the name.

As the night moved on, I started drinking the Red Hook Long Hammer IPA. You might ask, isn't Red Hook a Seattle-based company. Well, I asked the same question. It is, but apparently, Long Hammer is batched brewed in Kittery, ME. OK, so it wasn't local, but it was fresh. As you know, I really like the IPA style and enjoyed this beers great finish and smooth taste.

The next day, I moved onto the local brews from Smutty Nose Brewing. As you might have guess, I first tried the IPA. Then I moved onto the Portsmouth Lager. It was "awarded best Vienna/Marzen larger in the Northeast" and it was a well deserved title.

The Bridal party sat on the water's edge at an area the locals call the Decks. We were at a bar named Harpoon Willy's. We got the corner spot on the deck and proceeded to drink Smutty Nose until the sun went down.

New England is indeed a great place!

Ending Prohibition

The focus of this blog has been around the team outings that are part of the Winking Lizard World Tour of Beer.

I think it might be a combination of the wicked rain storms, and the craziness of summer. It just seems like I haven't met with the team very much lately. I think it is also because I have been trying to cut down on the carbohydrates.

So, I have been unfaithful. I have been hanging out with my new work associates. You know how it is when you start a new job. You have to make friends, you have to go back to the old school ways of drinking Miller Lite.

Part of it is that Cleveland starts to shut down in the rain and the highways are crazy. The other part of it is this: I have been dating. The days of dating prohibition are over for me.

It is a weird thing to say, but it is true. Now there are two sides to this story. Side one - the uncomfortable madness of meeting new people. Side two - getting to have lots of groovy drinks and being exposed to groovy stuff.

Let me start with my latest - the Great Lakes Prohibition Pilsner. I have to mention that I did go for it because of the low alcohol content. I do have to say, I was disappointed. Here is the irony, I met with someone and I had the same kind of experience.

I needed to switch back to an old favorite - the Burning River IPA. Here is the quandary and why life and beer drinking are so similar. When you go out, do you stick with the drink that you have had before. You know you enjoy it. It is available in a lot of places and other people enjoy it. However, there is always the burning desire to try new things, to check some other things out. Maybe they will be better. Maybe it will be more engaging.

In this case, it would have been better to start with the Burning River - at least it isn't the same old Miller Lite.