I am not a blithering idiot

Most of these posts are about the beers I have had to drink. Tonight, this blog is about the beer I did not drink. I was at a new local establishment call the Tremont Tap House. They have great beer and a good beer selection. I decided to have a Brooklyn Brown Ale with my dinner.

Although I was being encouraged to have another beer after dinner, I decided to pass. There was a lot of pressure applied upon me. (Actually, I deserved it because I was trying to encourage my friend to come to my apartment to drink IC Lights). At any rate, I managed to weave my way around the Weyerback Blithering Idiot.

I think that might be a first or last beer of the night kind of drink.

Bells Two Hearted

On Friday night, I checked out a new restaurant/pub in the the neighborhood. Not only did they have great food, they had great beer selection. There were some beers that I had never heard. It was pretty exciting and I will definitely return to explore.

Last night I had the Bell's Two Hearted Ale. Maybe it is was the name of the beer. It was quite yummy, by the way. However, it game me the courage to send out a message to my friends from the world tour. (see photo)

Yes, the bar had a section that was covered with chalkboard paint, and the proprietors leave chalk out for the patrons (another reason to return). I got some immediate responses from my WLWTOB friends. Can't wait for the next tourney. The local bar has mini kegs of Bell's Two Hearted. Definitely think it will help my game - at least the trash talking part.

Ringing in the New Year

Well, 2008 is upon us. It seem like 2007 has gone by so quickly. I just wanted to take a few minutes to recap some great beer events from the past year.

March 13th - The day I started the blog. When we actually started to grow the World Tour Team.

March 22nd - Hitting the midway point in the tour.

May 13th - Finishing the Century of beers at Winking Lizard.

July 2nd - The First Annual Corn Hole Extravaganza

August 15th - Discovering Shipyard and Smutty Nose brewing on my trip to Down East

September 11th - Having my first try of Magic Hat #9 - which has become one of my favorite beers

November 11th - Learning how to pour a half and half from the Guinness experts

December 31st - Pouring my last half and half of the year before drinking a bottle of champagne with my sister-in-law at midnight.

A Light Beer from Iron City

Yes, my blog has been a bit quiet lately. As I have mentioned before, it is the holiday drinking season. Only a few days until it is completed. It feels like it was more of an endurance challenge than the Winking Lizard World Tour of Beer.

As I am rounding the bend to the finish line, I am taking time to go back and appreciate the beers I have enjoyed over the years. Last time, I reminisced about the Sierra Nevada Christmas Ale. Today, I am thinking about an old stand by IC Light from the good folks at Pittsburgh Brewing Company (also known as Iron City Brewing).

They do have a few other good selections such as Augustiner - it reminds me of Yuengling Lager.

Not only is IC Light one of my favorite light beers, it is amazing how innovative a company they are. Here is a list of a few I really like:

• inventors of aluminum beer bottles
• First Snap Top can, produced in conjunction with Alcoa, revolutionized the beer and soft drink industries 1962.
• First Twist Off Resealable cap, 1963.
• First brewery to print scenes honoring local sports teams and individuals.
• First draught beer available in a can, Iron City.
• First light beer, Mark V, made in 1976

Of course, I am from Pittsburgh, so there is a lot of hometown pride in there for me as well. That is amplified because I know the stories of close calls when the brewery almost shut down. If they need to sell more beer to keep brewing after 142 years, I think I can have a couple bottles to keep the production going.

Cheers!

The Long Forgotten Christmas Ale

Daily life seems to go by at a break neck pace, especially at the holidays. In the midst of this crazy pace, I have forgotten many things. Life is quite lovely in the way it reminds us of the things we have tucked away in our memories.

I attended my company holiday party on Friday. At the holiday party, there was Rouge Ale - Santa's Private Reserve and Anchor Steam Christmas Ale. Both were really good brews, maybe not as good as Great Lakes version. However, they stood up on their own.

With all of these Christmas ales hitting the market, I seem to have forgotten the first seasonal ale that started the tradition for me. As I was getting beer for my own holiday party, a lovely 12 pack of Celebration Ale was staring me down in the beer aisle. It has been a long time since I had the good stuff from the people at Sierra Nevada. How could I be so forgetful. I enjoy their Pale Ale all year long.

I even have a special connection from the days when I first graduated from college and was extremely poor. A good friend of my sisters introduced me to Sierra Nevada. She also had the good grace to bring along some Celebration Ale to a party my parents were hosting one year. (nothing better than the girls kicking the boys butts at Taboo and making them sing Christmas carols in front of the tree).

I fell in love with the Celebration ale. It was really expensive; and I didn't really have the resources to buy a case of it. I was more of a Rolling Rock for $10 a case type of girl back then. I guess people and their tastes grow up.

At any rate, I was doing some Christmas shopping at a local mall. As I walked in, I spotted a wad of cash on the floor. I picked it up and looked around. There wasn't anyone near me. I was tempted to take it to the mall concierge desk, but I was enough of a veteran of the mall to know it would never make it to its rightful owner.

I stopped for a minute. Maybe this was a small miracle - a gift. There was about $30 in the stack of cash. That was just about enough money to buy a case of Celebration Ale. In general, I didn't have this kind of money and it did happen to fall into my path.

Maybe I won't go to heaven for taking found money and buying a case of beer with it. I know I definitely enjoyed having those beer with my friends. Maybe I am OK with that when I think of these famous lines.

"In heaven, there is no beer. That is why we are drinking here."

The Holiday Drinking Season

It is true that I did not write a post to ring in the official holiday drinking season. Yes, it starts on Halloween. Think about it. When Halloween hits, all bets are off.

It quickly wanders into Thanksgiving, the mac daddy of all drinking holidays. It is a holiday that is engineered for you get together with friends, have dinner, drink wine and beer, the eats lots of left overs. I think the idea of black Friday isn't just about retailers making boat loads of dough from holiday shoppers, it might be that people are a little hung over or drink so much on Thursday night they black out by Friday.

Here is the thing that is important about the drinking season. First, it provides so many opportunities from Halloween until the New Year to go out and be social. Second, it also provides a chance to try lots of different types of beer, wine or other assorted drinks.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was in Atlanta. While I was there, I was introduced to Sweetwater Brewing Company. I had the Sweetwater 420 at a local pub when I was in town. This Extra Pale Ale was a great little brew. It is Georgia's equivalent to Great Lakes in Cleveland. Although I do have to say, any beer company would not have a tough time in comparison to the local favorite, Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR).

I have never really enjoyed drinking PBR. People are super loyal to this brand. My brother indicated it was a Southern thing. I guess my neck wasn't red enough to really enjoy it. He said if it is really cold, it tastes better. I commented that it needed to be so could you couldn't taste it.

I will say this for Atlanta, the Guinness was great. Everywhere we went, they managed to pour a good glass of the black stuff. Apparently, the bartenders in the Peach Tree State are well versed in the pouring technique necessary for a good pint.

Well, the holidays are underway (as you can tell by the Christmas decorations that have popped up everywhere). The holiday ales have made their appearance . . . and I love it.

Now, the only thing to really worry about it the amount of time I need to exercise to stave off the inevitable holiday sludge that manages to attach itself to my body during the days of eating, drinking and being merry.

Does the walking during a bar tour constitute as exercise?

Guinness Believer Event in Chicago

As I was cruising through all of the random emails I get every week, one caught my eye . . Guinness True Believer. I thought it was probably spam, but when it comes to Guinness, I am willing to take that risk.

I opened the email and it was an invitation to a Guinness event being held in several locations, none of which was my current hometown. As you know with the Irish, luck happens upon us from time to time. One of the events was in Chicago the weekend I was going to be there for business.

My co-worker and I made our way to the West Loop of Chicago. We started standing in line a couple of minutes early . . thank heavens because it was first come, first entry. I had no idea what to expect, the sign outside of the event didn't give any indication either.

We get into the venue after a few minutes in the windy Chicago evening (our event was at 9pm). When you get into the room, you take a token to the bar and great a freshly poured pint of Guinness. I was liking this event already. They told us we had until 9:40 when we would be asked to go to another room.

My co-worker and I moseyed up to the bar, waited in line for a bit and waited for the nice bar keeper to pour our pints. I was fevered with anticipation. Could there be a band inside? We had all kinds of theories.

Of course the reality was not as good as us imaging U2 was playing a super secret gig in Chicago and we were there to see it.

It was pretty cool. There was a Guinness pouring competition. Everyone learned how to pour a half and half. We got mini pint glasses and a half and half spoon. There were a few other things going on. Overall, it was definitely worth the trip and the experience.

It made me really long for Ireland. How much I miss the relaxing experience of sitting in a pub, reading a good book and having a few pints. Slainte!