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Category Archives: beer

ales and mahjong

Last Monday (after posting my Mixology Monday entry) I shared two very nice bottles of beer over mahjong at a friend’s house. I failed to meet my expected performance of winning three-four hands over the course of the night and got taken to the cleaners. The first ale was Stumptown Tart, from Bridgeport. This is […]

“Old” Schlitz

My Dad and I were waxing poetic over a few beers one evening when he told me that Schlitz used to be a great beer and he drank it all the time. Sometime in the 1970s, the formula was changed and afterwards it wasn’t worth drinking ever again. Of course, I tried it myself and […]

The HST – a cocktail named in honor of our patron saint

Ingredients: 1 pint Guinness stout 1 shot glass, filled with loosely packed psychotropic mushroom dust Drop the shot of psychedelics into the pint of Guinness and consume the entire contents immediately. Go to Logan airport and board the shuttle to New York after upgrading yourself to first class. Enjoy your flight.

The Buy-Back: Getting comfortable in NYC

“Next round’s on me.” That’s when you know you’ve got the bartender in your pocket. It’s New York City and you know your bars. You will juice your local dive for whatever amenities you can find: free jukebox, cheap pool table, even free food. You will not pay more than five dollars per pint. Five […]

A Winding, Mostly Pointless Story About Booze

Some time ago, between the time when Jurassic Park left theatres and Dummy hit the airwaves, we acquired a case of Bud Light through the aide of some false identification and some liquor store clerks who could be described as “less than vigilant.” Sitting on a tree stump by the froggie pond knocking back twenty […]

circling the abyss like a shark

Once a year the Deschutes Brewery in Bend Oregon produces an imperial stout, a portion of which is aged in new oak, in (used) bourbon, and in (used) pinot noir barrels. It is a dark dark liquid, thick (leaves legs on the side of a glass), high alcohol (10-11%), and designed to improve with age. […]

Brooklyn Brewery, grow a pair

One of the best things about living in New York City is that every last deli, grocery store, and bodega in the city will, in addition to the usual assortment of watery domestic piss that goes under the name of “beer” in less enlightened parts of the country, have several varieties of beer from the […]

Duchy Originals Organic English Ale

Duchy Originals Organic English Ale Wychwood Brewery Company, Ltd. 5% ABV, 20.9UK fl oz. (596.67 ml), $3.99/bottle Bodine Value: 7.47 Total consumption time: approx. 1 hour You discover some interesting things wandering the aisles of Russian-owned, Korean-managed, various-South-American-staffed markets in Brooklyn. Golden Farm, on Church Ave. at East 4th St. happens to have far more […]

quick note

This evening I had more than a couple (Imperial) pints of the Anchor 2007 Christmas Ale. It is really good. Dark-bodied, a scent of sarsaparilla, a slight sweetness, a slight hint of mint. It reminds me of the 2002, but without as much sap-iness as that vintage had. But it is a good year. I […]

Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer, an review

Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer 6.6% ABV, 11.2UK fl oz. (326.72 ml), $4.99/bottle Bodine Value: 4.32 Total consumption time: approx. 1/2 hour So-called “specialty” beers are a bit of a gamble. Does microbrew status, foreign provenance and gimmicky aging style equate to a delicious, worthwhile experience? Are they worth the money? Today at my […]