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The best beer that Half Acre does imo

I was up at my bro-in-laws place in Elkhorn Sunday and Monday and grabbed a six each of New Glarus Fat Squirrel and Black Top. Also grabbed a 4 each of the Thumbprint IIPA and Chocolate Abbey.

Sunday night is a bit of a blur. All were solid offerings and I have a bit of each left in my fridge at home now. I actually expected a bit more complex flavor to the IIPA. Not knocking it but it just wasn't as robust as I expected. Of course my expectations were raised by my Wisco friend that was drawing comparisons between that and Hopslam. I think he was way off on that one. Still a good beer.

The Chocolate Abbey intrigued me a bit more. It has an interesting flavor and was not nearly as heavy as I expected it to be. Not something I'd drink a lot of but a good beer when I'm in the mood for something a little different.

Black Top and Fat Squirrel both make it into my fridge pretty regularly. If I can't make it up to Elkhorn my bro-in-law picks up cases for me sometimes and brings them back. I could drink those 2 beers all day.

Came up with this to beat the heat on Monday...

1.5 oz RinQuinQuin a la Peche (sweetened white wine flavored with peaches...muddling some peach in Cocchi Americano would give you something of the idea)
.75 oz Leopold's Navy Strength Gin
.5 Koval Ginger Liqueur
8 drops Bittercube Jamaican Bitters #1
Stirred, strained and garnished w/ freshly cracked black pepper

Extremely tasty. Very light and summery to start, with the spice becoming rather concentrated in the last few sips.

I love this beer

2007 Domaine du Vieux Lazaret Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Exceptionnelle

pretty ripe vintage not really my style

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my food shots

This goes under the "what did I drink" category. We went to the Two Brothers Hop Juice Festival in Aurora this past Saturday. I had the opportunity to taste/drink the current versions of Hop Juice and Hop Juice Black along with their aged versions (2010, I think.) It was really interesting to taste them side by side. One of the guest taps I tried was the Avery Uncle Jacob's Stout, which clocks in at about a 17% ABV. It was a good beer day.

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-Mary

Year old Hop Juice? Seems like it would be a bitter mess?

I'll take my hopped beer fresh please!

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my food shots

The aged ones were described to me more as tasting like barley wine. I haven't had much barley wine to make an educated comparison. I liked trying the different versions, but I preferred the Hop Juice Black 2012 the best.

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-Mary

Verdita and tequila at the Whistler.

http://www.drinkspirits.com/cocktail-re ... as-friend/

The hot/sweet/fresh combination of the verdita is startling. Sip (or shot) of verdita followed by a sip (or shot) of Don Fulano 100 Proof Silver Tequila. Yum.

http://whistlerchicago.com/cocktails/16

Cherry flavored Vodka mixed with Faygo Root Beer.
Right now the only way I am going to survive the political discussions at the neighborhood dinner with the Walker/Barret thing tomorrow. I just cannot wait for this to be over with.

A few of my friends made it out to that and my one buddy picked me up 3 bottles regular and 3 bottles of black. Hoping to enjoy a couple of those this weekend.

Last night I had had a bottle of REAL SANGRIA, imported from Spain. $6.99

Like it better than Yago as its not as sweet. First 2 glasses nice grape flavor. Then as I finished it off I noticed the Orange and Lime flavors. Had it nice and chilled with a tender juicy as heck cooked on the grill Costco Ribeye (Medium Rare) Good stuff.

Arnold Palmers. white wine spritzers with lime. Maybe gin and diet squirt with a slice of lime. Ask me next year and I will probably say the same thing.

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Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare

Not one of my usual suspects, but I've been enjoying "Son Of A Peach" from R.J. Rocker. It opens up with a nice nose of fresh peach, but that flavor in no way overwhelms the beer itself. We've sold out of our allotment as of tonight, the last one going home with me! It's a nice, "damn it's hot out" brew.

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D.G. Sullivan's, "we're a little bit Irish, and a whole lot of fun"!

Last night at Hopleaf, a perfect double header. A pint each of Zombie Dust and Red Streak Cider.

The Zombie Dust (Three Floyds) is actually almost as good as its press, with wonderful Citra hop flavors, and a nice malty base.

But the highlight was the cider, absolutely an order of magnitude better than the east coast sweet ciders (like Woodchuck), and a phenomenal drink!

Right now I am enjoying my back yard and being away from my wife who is upset about my camping out with the kid this weekend.
I just saw a huge buck that I wish I could have taken pictures of that was within 20 yards of my grill. Since I have to deal with the wife after this, doing cherry vodka and soda.

My homebrew. Only done it once, and it was a complete success, imho. This is an Imperial Stout that is actually one of the best I've ever had. The pic you see here is one that I'm drinking now (that's the title of the thread, right?), as opposed to some of the pics below which were taken during my first tasting a couple of months ago. Perfectly balanced with creaminess, slight hopiness, coffee and chocolate notes, roasty...everything I'm looking for in an Imperial Stout. My pastor and friend from Crossroads Church here in Chicago is also a pretty badass brewmeister, and he was my Mr. Miyagi for this and 2 other creations, which were 2 different Pale Ales (see below).


This is a pic of the inaugural pour of the Imperial Stout a few months ago at Pastor Mike's house. As you can see, we took the opportunity to do a little grillin too...


That day we also cracked open both Pale Ales. Each Pale Ale was brewed the same way, except that 2 different yeasts were used for the fermentation process. Both beers tasted different but awesome nonetheless. I'm still trying to figure out which one I liked more. The picture you see here shows some pretty awesome lacing from one of the ales (I forget which one) and some remaining sediment in each of the bottles. I was amazed when I tried the sediment. It tasted like a completely different beer than the Pale Ales themselves. The ales minus the sediment were moderately hoppy, piney as a opposed to straight bitter hoppiness [which I prefer], and all around crisp. The sediment, on the other hand was amazingly different; clovey, banana-y, much cloudier, kind of like a summer or wheat beer. Great contrast. I learned a lot, and can't wait to do it again. GO YEAST! It's truly a miraculous fungus.


Thanks for the lesson Pastor Mike! Can't wait to brew with you again.

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"Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens..."
- Wyatt Earp, Tombstone

Nicely done! An imperial stout is a pretty ambitious first brew. Wish I could try it

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Well I got drunk and I ate a chicken
I ate a chicken I found in my kitchen
Not just a leg and not just a wing
I'd like to let you know that I ate the whole damn thing

Rogue Pink Spruce Gin and Tonic at the Edgewater. The gin is aged in Oregon Pinot Noir barrels. It was very smooth. I will have to look for this gin for our liquor cabinet.

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-Mary

Thanks Jim. Maybe we can work out a trade? I know from your other posts that you homebrew. You're also very close to where I live (Oak Lawn) and work (Markham). PM me if you're interested. In the meantime, this was yesterday at a beautiful golf course in Edwardsville, IL:

It was a great day...

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"Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens..."
- Wyatt Earp, Tombstone

my 2nd homebrew batch. An (accidentally) Imperial American Pale Wheat Ale. I messed up the volume so it's basically now sitting at somewhere near 10% ABV. Strangely, it had more head and lacing last week. Hopefully it was just this bottle. I'll have to test again in another week when carbonation should officially be finished (4 week carb period)

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--- some things taste good with some sauces. ---

Byrrh on the rocks or Byrrh and bitter lemon.

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Gypsy Boy

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” (Julia Child)

The damage from Spike's 23rd birthday…

Damn. That's my kind of party

Ha, I reckon the damage came after all those bottles were drained!

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http://fishsticksandketchup.com/

Two Brothers, Hop Juice is tasting pretty good right now while sitting in the shade on my back deck watching the grass getting watered.

two brothers hop juice by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr

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my food shots

no beer in the fridge so....

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my food shots

From the 4th:


The one on the end was my favorite of the night. Hess is a tiny, yet growing brewery in SD. I went on a brewery trip there in Dec. and was given some good advice about stopping at Hess. I did a vertical tasting, which included several of their brews, and the glass you see pictured below; all for $10...can't beat that! It didn't hurt that the all of their beer rocked. The one pictured here is their Oatmeal Stout, which is called Fors Hibernae. The bartender suggested I take home a growler, but I explained that I didn't like growlers generally because of the limited time you have in which to finish the brew. He said that because it was a stout it didn't have much carbonation to lose. He also suggested that he could duct-tape the cap, which would help it last longer. He thought that it would likely be good for 6-7 months! Since the growler-fill was only $10 as well, I had to take the chance. He was spot-on! Remarkably, it tasted just as good as the night I had it back in Dec. Actually, it tasted better because this time I had some tres leches cake to go with it!


Cheers...

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"Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens..."
- Wyatt Earp, Tombstone

Going to be having a Kentucky Mule with dinner tonight.

Bourbon
Ginger Beer
Lime juice
Bitters

I picked up a bottle of El Mal Pais reposado mezcal over the weekend, and set out to recreate the El Fin from Frog N Snail. However, I don't have any Thatcher's Tres Chiles liqueur, but saw it described as "a sweet liqueur infused with serrano, jalapeño, and habanero chiles", and I don't have any jalapeños or habaneros on hand, so I improvised:



Ghetto El Fin:
2oz reposado mezcal
1oz serrano-infused St. Germaine (just grated the chile, let it sit in a bowl with the liquor for 5 minutes, then strained the chile out)
1oz fresh grapefruit juice
.25oz fresh lime juice
7 drops of Bittercube Jamaican #2 bitters
A couple hearty shakes of smoked paprika (hot, not sweet)

Shaken with ice, strained into an ice-filled lowball, garnished with a light dusting of the hot smoked paprika.

This drink will undoubtedly become a heavy hitter in our summer cocktail rotation.