This half of Bruisin’ Ales is back and relaxed from vacationing on the lake with Mary and D-Fly. It was the first trip back to Bama since we opened the store, and whew, it’s hot there in August! We nearly forgot, living up here in our dryer, higher climate. Alabama is a lovely state, though. It gets a bad rap. (And bad beer, but you can help.)
Friday with the Tourists
So, this week is Beer 101: Beer Basics at the ballpark with the Asheville Tourists. Tickets are still available at Bruisin’ Ales or McCormick Field. Event is pre-game, starting at 5:30, through the second or third inning (depending). Full details here. Your ticket includes hors d’ouvres and entry to the game. Great beer line-up! And MALT will be demonstrating how to brew, if you’re curious about that.
Fundraising
We still need another $440 in our pledge to Bruisin’ Ales charity, Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway on Facebook. Will you help and join the cause? The goal is $500 by August 31.
A happy ending?
While this is old news during the hiatus, the Pisgah Pale Ale name “problem” seems to be fixed with the introduction of Old School Pale Ale at Asheville Pizza & Brewing. Seriously, we’re so glad that’s over. If it is, anyway.
Think of this tasting as daycare for adults. After the Magic Hat session tasting, we’re going head-first into the strong stuff with some big beers from Weyerbacher paired up with … wait for it … Sugar Momma’s Cookies.
What, you say? Cookies and beer? Oh, yes. Yes, indeed. Mike Kolker of Freedom will be there as well as Jamie, Ms. Sugar Momma herself. This tasting is pushing the envelope on flavors, so bring your tastebuds and come exploring. (You all laugh when we recommend “drunken milkshakes” in the hot weather, then you all come back and say how good they were. Open minds, people!)
Blanche (Witbier): http://www.weyerbacher.com/cwo.php?id=7&page_id=9
Cookie: Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate
Blanche is a thirst quenching beer that combines character and flavor with a moderate alcohol content. Just try a bottle. In the nose you’ll notice spiciness from the coriander seeds and dried curacao orange peels added during the boil. In the mouth you’ll find a mild and refreshing ale with a hint of dryness from the wheat ingredients. A clean finish follows with just a hint of tart spiciness.
Heresy (Oak-aged Imperial Stout): http://www.weyerbacher.com/cwo.php?id=7&page_id=14
Cookie: Banana Maple Walnut
This incredibly intriguing Imperial Stout is made by aging our Old Heathen in some very famous Oak barrels that were used for aging bourbon! What do we have when we are done? A stout whose very essence has been enhanced. A stout whose complexity has been increased. A stout with notes of Oak, whiskey and vanilla melding together to create a new sensation.
QUAD (Belgian-style Quadruple): http://www.weyerbacher.com/cwo.php?id=7&page_id=19
Cookie: Oatmeal Raisin
Massively big and delicious, QUAD is an elegant and dark ale. Rich with complexity and flavor, try savoring it after a long day or during a fine dinner. You also might enjoy it as an aperitif or as an accompaniment to a dessert, but QUAD stands alone quite well. We recommend enjoying QUAD in a brandy snifter or wineglass so you can drink in the aroma of this fine elixir. QUAD, with an alcohol content of 11.8% (by volume) is the strongest beer we make, so please pay proper accord as you enjoy it.
Blasphemy (Oak-aged QUAD): http://www.weyerbacher.com/cwo.php?id=7&page_id=52
Cookie: Almond Date
Blasphemy is our award-winning QUAD aged in bourbon barrels. But not over-aged, so we’ve picked up gentle vanilla oaky notes which complement rather than supersede the complex qualities that already make QUAD such an incredible beer.
There another Dogfish Head beer on the horizon, with a September release date. Belonging to what we call the “archeological brews,” it is similar (in theory, not taste) to Midas Touch and Chateau Jiahu. Based on pottery fragments found in Honduras, the claims to be ”the oldest known chocolate drink.” The brew is 10.0% abv and will come in a Champagne bottle. “Theobroma (translated into ‘food of the gods’) is brewed with Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs (from our friends at Askinosie Chocolate), honey, chilies, and annatto (fragrant tree seeds).”Funky!
We like the way they address “manliness” on the website:
As Valentine’s Day rears its head, it seems appropriate to examine the unmanly topic of chocolate and beer. I say “unmanly” because of all the strange, new brews that are challenging our palates these days, it’s chocolate-flavored beer that seems to draw the most viscerally negative response from the mainstream lager crowd. Offer a taste to one of these guys, and it’s as if they’d been asked to wear pink underwear and sip their suds from Lennox teacups.
A new body of archeological and chemical research, however, provides a completely different image. Namely: Aztec warriors dragging their human sacrifice to the top of a pyramid, ripping his still-beating heart from his chest, then cooking up the beaten corpse for a festive orgy.
And what did they wash it all down with? Chocolate beer, of course.
Here’s a nifty picture of the wee one we wrote about yesterday. She sent me a photo. How cool.
You wear that beerlanthropy shirt proud, girl!
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