Some of you will cringe when I say this, but hype usually makes things seem better, at least for a little while. Being pumped up about an experience or a product can place a set of rose-colored glasses firmly on your face, which blind you to some of the shortcomings you might experience.  There’s a […]

I’m in full-on get-in-shape mode right now.  I’m waking up at the crack of dawn to work out, I’m watching what I eat like a hawk, and I even got one of those Nike+ Fuelband gizmos to remind me to get off my ass and move around. On the beer front, I’ve gotten very rigid […]

Let me begin this post by saying I am in no way complaining!  I had an absolutely wonderful Christmas this year, which was hard to believe given all the current challenges my family currently faces.  It was great.  We opened gifts, truly enjoyed each other’s company and with the exception of an overdone beef roast […]

Last week I puffed out my chest and crowed about how I received a box of free beer from Schalfly.  Among those bottles was one of my favorites: their amazing Reserve 2008 Imperial Stout.  I can get the 2010 around here, but the 2008 is all gone.  Or so I thought.

My buddy Chad (you may know him as @BeerPoet on Twitter) and I have been discussing for some time getting together for lunch and drinking some of our “ungettables”.  For me, I brought a 2007 Pannepot Belgian Quad, and Chad brought a 750ml of Ivan the Terrible, Big Sky Brewing’s barrel aged Stout, the 2010 […]

I’ve said it before and will say it again – timing and mood matter with beer. You can have a great beer when you’re not in the mood for it, and most of its charms will be lost on you.  This happened to me a few times by the tail end of GABF, when I […]

I posted a fairly glowing review a few weeks ago about Smuttynose Imperial Stout.  I was impressed with it’s rich, smoky flavor and its in-your-face hop profile.  But then something happened last night that totally changed my thoughts on this beer – I had another one. It was the same beer at the same location, […]

I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad beer from Smuttynose, and I know I’ve had a few that were very good.  But for some reason I usually pass them over in the beer aisle.  I think it might be their packaging, as while some brewers scream for attention at the shelf, Smuttynose seems content […]

There was this made for TV movie that fascinated me when I was a kid called The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything.  It starred Robert Hays, the guy from Airplane!, as a fella who inherits this gold watch from a rich relative and it allows him to stop time. In the process, he wins Pam Dawber’s […]

Don might be the one spending the week in New Orleans (I hope he takes lots of pictures, ’cause I don’t think he’ll remember much), but that doesn’t mean I can’t get a little taste of black magic up here in New Jersey.  In this case I’m talking about the Voodoo Brewing Company’s bodacious oak […]

Usually a beer label will turn me off if it’s too cutesy or if the beer has a pun for a name (looking at you HE’BREW).  For some reason, I feel if they’re trying so hard to grab your attention with kitsch, the beer inside must not be that special.  It’s a stupid way to […]

If this were the Dark Ages, I’d be roasting on a spit right now, because I’m a huge fan of Heresy.  Not the religious type  (but I’m probably guilty of that, too), but of Weyerbacher’s wonderful barrel-aged stout.  Heresy starts life as Weyerbacher’s Old Heathen imperial stout, which is then aged in oak barrels that […]

Don Vito Corleone was famous for his offers you can’t refuse, do so and your life was mmmm…lets say, in question.  Marlin Brando played the mobster in this quintessential role.  So if you are so bold as to name a beer after the Godfather it best live up to the name.  The folks at Laughing […]

Well I find myself back in Grangeville, Idaho.  Another project meeting at the highway district tomorrow at 1:00pm.  With the weather being unpredictable I chose to come up the day before and hang out at the hotel room for the evening while I watched the end of the Independence Bowl and the final broadcast of […]