“Would you like to taste Santa’s Butt?” I just asked my wife. Of course, I tasted Santa’s Butt before she did. Yes, sometimes I’m so juvenile that I make Beavis and Butthead look mature. Huh. Huh-huh.
Just like Bad Elf, this beer is brewed in the UK by Ridgeway Brewery, and imported by Shelton Brothers. […]

The Hook Norton Brewery in Oxfordshire, England was founded in 1849 and is still going strong today. It is the only brewery in the UK that remains powered by a steam-engine.
The twelve days ale pours a clear brown and has a sweet aroma. It starts with a sweet malt flavor and a definite nuttiness, […]

The Christmas season always tends to get me in a bad mood. Dealing with all the idiots in the stores and out on the streets just gets to me and makes me grumpy. I tend to be a bit of a scrooge and go around using my own combination of four-letter words as my personal […]

Bad Elf is brewed in the UK by the Ridgeway Brewery. This ale made the news in 2005 when the state of Connecticut tried to ban its sale because they claimed the label appealed to children. Luckily, we’re not quite that uptight here in Iowa, so I was able to get some of this for […]

My love for all thing Troegs is well known. Mad Elf Ale is their Christmas seasonal. It’s brewed with Belgian yeast, honey, and cherries. It’s also 11% alcohol. I know that because the proprietor of my local gourmet beer and wine shop warned me when I was buying the beer. When the shopkeeper warns you […]

Yes, I know it’s a Coors product. However, I’ve always been a fan of the Blue Moon White Belgium, so I thought I’d give this a shot. My local grocery store now has their own six pack holders and a section of refrigerated singles. You can make your own six pack for $7.99. Not a […]

I picked Blue Moon’s fall seasonal brew Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale a few nights ago while remembering the fantastic Pumpkin Ale we enjoyed several years ago at Raccoon River Brew Pub. What says fall better than a delicious pumpkin ale?
I have to say I was greatly disappointed. It was a clear amber and tasted like […]

I’m continuing on in my summer beers series because well, it’s summer. I need to start out with a warning here. Mom, if you’re reading this, stop now. Don’t ask why, just stop. I mean it.
Sam Adams’ beers are like sexual positions. Some are really good, and others not as good; but even the ones […]

I poured this into my pint glass expecting to see a cloudy wheat beer; after all isn’t everything labeled as a “summer beer” some hefeweizen variation? But Redhook’s Sunrye is a clear, golden yellow, without a hint of cloudy, floaty stuff in it. It looks like a typical lager, but tastes better.
It starts with sweet […]

Right now I’m sitting on our patio while the kids splash around in our 10′ EZ-set pool. It’s sunny and about 86 degrees out. The lovely wife is sitting next to me trying to read one of her a novel in between interruptions from the kids. I’m sipping a Leinie’s Summer Shandy, an interesting combination […]

This is the last beer left from my Sam Adams Winter Classics Mix Pack. And what better day than Thanksgiving to sample a cranberry lambic. If you’re not familiar with the lambic style, it originated in Belgium and its most notable characteristic is that rather than fermenting with a specific strain of yeast, the wort […]

There is a bit of folklore surrounding porters. The story goes that in victorian-era London, there was a beverage called “three threads” which was a mixture of three styles: ale, beer, and two-penny. Three threads was very popular with London’s baggage carriers, and a when brewers started making a single brew that replicated the flavor […]

This is another beer from the Sam Adams Winter Classics Mix pack. It’s named after some character from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I’ve never read A Christmas Carol, but I’ve seen the Muppet version a few times. In that take on the story Fezziwig is played by Fozzie the Bear (Fozziewig), and Fozzie always […]

Remember when I said the big breweries were going to be producing more specialty beers this holiday season? Well the first one I came across is Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale from Anheuser-Busch. I said the beer snobs might react negatively to these beers, but I’d keep an open mind and be willing to sample them.
Maybe […]