Rum Aged - Innis & Gunn

Innis and gunn are a scottish brewery out of Edinburgh that have been around since 2003. They typically divide craft-beer fans who claim they are Faux-craft, due to their clear bottles and their outsourcing their brewing to another company. But the only question that matters to me is does the drink hold up on it's own?

Innis and Gunn's entire line centers around Wood-aged beers, and today I'm going to focus on Rum Aged. Rum aged is a Scotch ale that was originally a limited selection, but is now part of their regular lineup. Aged over oak heartwood and infused with Rum spices, it's pedigree talks a good game. And it looks the part, pouring a nice amber red that any true Scotsman would feel proud of, with a nice beige head that fades to almost nothing. No lacing to speak of, but it looks pretty tasty all the same.


And whoa, what an incredibly robust smelling Ale; lots of Caramel and rum with a nice bit of malt to it. Most excitingly, there's also a lot of Spiced rum smell to it. It reminds me a lot of christmas, which is a nice thought as it's hot enough to melt asphalt in central Florida in the summer.


But there's only one thing that truly matters at the end of the day and that's the taste. Hope you like sweetness, because this little Scotch Ale has it in droves. All that Caramel and and Spiced rum just floods over the palate, and mixes with strong Vanilla, and Toffenut. I'm looking over my notes I use when I taste something for the first (or third) time and the only thing I have written in notes column is "SO GOOD!"


So is this beer a winner? I'd say yes. It's incredibly sweet, and can be a little bit heavy to have more then one at a time, but it's so dammed good you're doing yourself a disservice by not trying it. Remember, beer drinking like every other worthy endeavor is a matter of taste, so ultimately don't be persuaded by anyone but yourself. Try it and make up your own mind!

• Brewer: Innis & Gunn 
• Style: IPA 
• 6.8% ABV 
• Price: $6.00\4 
• Rating: 9 out of 10

Best songs about drinking

So many songs have been written about heartache, and even more about being addicted to the bottle, and even a handful where one led to the other. So I thought I'd offer a change of material and share some of my favorites this week.

Roadhouse Blues - The Doors

There's two eras of The Doors- The lizard King, which was pure 60's avant garde freak out, and Bearded Bard, which is 70's blues wrapped in cheap beer. And the beer doesn't get much cheaper (or blues encrusted) then Roadhouse Blues. Morrisons voice strains like he had just drank every Milwaukee's best in a 100 mile radius and you feel it in every bone in your body.

Brass Monkey- Beastie Boys

#RIPMCA

Let's get real though, no list about drinking is complete without some vintage Beastie boys. From those fat sax and bass hits, this song is like opening a window into underage drinking. Who doesn't remember the first Brass monkey they drank?

One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer - George Thorogood

This song is actually a little two for one action. The first half of it is a blues standard called "House-rent blues", a tale of woe about a guy who loses his job and pisses off his old lady. Of course the next logical progression is to end up at the bar. Interesting trivia about Thorogood, he's actually a Teetotaler who doesn't like to drink.

 Family Tradition - Hank Williams Jr.

Oh Junior, you are such a card. Yeah, you've kinda unveiled yourself to be an unrepentant piece of shit, but so is Ted Nugent and Stranglehold is still a good jam. I digress, I had to pick this because aside from being a true tale of the legend of the Williams family boozing (We're talking about the son of the guy who got so drunk they kicked him out of the grand ol opry), it's also deeply sentimental. My mom would often pplay this song in an attempt to explain our long standing history of dysfunction. So I guess in my own way, I too am just following those family traditions.

Where everyone knows your name - Gary Portnoy

Listen to those first few notes and tell me you don't feel your heartstrings being pulled. You know deep down inside we all just want to walk down to someplace where everyone knows your name, even if that place only exists in our hearts...

Plus it has young Woody Harrelson in it. 

NORM!

Theme from Cheers - Titus Andronicus

But let's get real, Cheers is just a show, and this alt-country alcoholism-fueled ballad probably a more accurate portrait of someone who's known by name at a bar. Only a concept album about the civil war could really paint the real pain of someone who has to drink just to get through the day.

"And the walk home is going to be a real shit show--
I'll be picking up half-smoked cigarette butts all up and down Rock Road
and then throw up in the warm glow of the traffic light.
But I'm gonna put the devil inside me to sleep if it takes all night."

Bartender (Nashville Version) - Rehab

Now I'm not one for Radio-edits, but c'mon, this is so good. A tale of white-trash woe, a regular trailer-park opera, fueled by a drunken outburst. It's like "What made Milwaukee famous" without any regrets.  Plus anyone has ever been at dive bar in the southeast, you've heard this song at least two dozen times. Might as well cop to the fact that we all love it.

Too drunk to Dream - Magnetic Fields

Many a beautiful song has been written about needing the bottle, and many a beautiful song has been penned about a broken heart, but nothing speaks more universally then mending a broken heart with the bottle.

"I gotta get too drunk to dream

'Cause dreaming only makes me blue

I gotta get too drunk to dream

Because I only dream of you"

And finally, saving the best for last, I give you...

Tik Tok - Ke$ha

Ok so i'm not  a proponent of Ke$ha, but this song does make me want to drink, so there is that. Plus this video pretty much always makes me happy. I have a weakness for drunk Shatner.

We multi-media now!

Coming to a Cat-video broadcasting machine near you!

Aprihop - Dogfish Head Brewery

Aprihop is a season beer by Dogfish Head Brewery. It advertises a hopped up experience, an IPA infused with apricot flavors. Which is pretty much the same draw of a #9 by Magic Hat.  Is it as good as that old stand-by?

The old saying goes that you drink with your eyes first, and that's very true with Aprihop. It looks very inviting in my footed Pilsner glass. The beer pours a very nice amber color, almost Autumn colored, but with almost three fingers worth of cloudlike foam resting on the top and clinging to the side. The scent is hoppy, kinda spicy. but with a hint of the fruit that is promised on the label. Promising stuff here folks!

But for all the hype I give Dogfish, it's actually a pretty refreshing beer! Not a game changer by any means, but fairly decent. Crisp hoppiness, a nice amount of carbonation, and a side serving of fruity goodness including the aforementioned Apricot mixing with your usual Grapefruit citrus tastes from the hops before subsiding into almost a fruity maltiness. Like I said earlier, it's fairly similar to #9, but while it's not distinct in almost anyway, it's very good.

Would I drink it again? Maybe when spring rolls around again. Like I said,  it's nothing special, and while I've never drank a bad beer from Dogfish, this one is at worst forgettable and at best an opportunity for someone to cut their teeth on Craft-beer. Maybe next years batch will give us something more, but only time will tell.

• Brewer: Dogfish Head 
• Style: IPA 
• 7% ABV 
• Price: $6.00\4 
• Rating: 7 out of 10

MACRO MONDAY WEEK THREE: Yuengling Black and Tan

Yuengling, yuengling, yuengling; you can do no wrong in my heart, I Swear baby. Now some of you out there in B-N-B land are crying foul, because I’ve already done a macro-monday on Yuengling -- to which I say, I don’t care. Who cares?

Anyways, the beer I’m reviewing (and I use that term loosely in the case of Macro-Monday) is Black & Tan. Black & Tan is a combination of delicious Porter mixed with “Premium Beer”, which I’m guessing is Yuengling Lager, which is good.

But wait, let’s pump the breaks for a second. Yuengling makes a Porter? Apparently so, even though I’ve never seen one in the wild Yuengling has been making Porter’s for many years. So long that they were often the only Porter game in town.

But I digress. You didn’t come here for a history lesson about Yuengling. Well maybe you did, in which case you came to the wrong blog, I apologize profusely. Maybe that’s a good idea for a future post, comment if you agree.

I digress again, lets move on to the matter at hand. Black and tan is a delicious little beverage. On the surface it’s got the typical Yuengling packaging. Poured from a nice longneck bottle into my favorite belgian tulip, Black and tan looks very...porterish for lack of a better term. It’s a nice midnight color with this thin beige head that dissipates to nothing. Fairly usual all thing considered.

The smell is equally predictable, it’s got this fairly hoppy smell, with a little bit of the porter-y goodness waiting in the wings. Yes I keep using Porter as an adjective, no I don’t care that it’s not really one.

The taste is what we all care about, no? And the black and tan actually holds up pretty well in this department. Just like the smell, it’s got all the hoppy goodness from what I can only assume is the premium beer, followed up by a mellow, if not serviceable porter flavor. Some nice roasted malts, maybe some coffee, and a hint of chocolate. It’s pretty refreshing

So the big question is, should I buy this? The answer, Yeah man-- you could do a lot worse then a Black and Tan. It’s dark enough to keep a veteran alcoholic happy, but also fairly drinkable from a lager perspective. It’s one of those rare beers that is both good to drink at a ballgame or have sitting down in your living room. So next time you’re grilling out, why not pick up a sixer? You could do a lot worse. Especially since finding Yuengling’s actual porter is like seeing a Unicorn romancing a Narwhal.

Panic Attack! - Holy Mackerel

Holy Mackerel is a brewery out of Ft Lauderdale Florida who is doing things different. Their whole ethos is based around small batch, craft beer, and boy does it show. Panic Attack, there Saison offering is a hell of a beer. Brewed with Canadian malted barley, golding hops, and belgian yeast, it is not a feeble beer, but a mighty broad river of flavors.

Sitting down at the bar at Cavallari Gourmet, I poured a bottle of the good stuff into a cup. Not a lot of head of lacing to speak of, but the beer itself is a beautiful golden brown color. You knows from the moment the beer hits the cup that this is going to be an undertaking, but in the best way possible.


The smell is very sweet, with a little bit of fruit and berries mixing in with a strong alcohol vapor on it. It comes off almost a little bit sickly sweet, but not in a candy or light way. Almost in a Licorice sort of way.

As for the taste, it’s definitely full flavored. This is no babies first beer, no sir. Panic attack works every bit of your palate, sitting as heavy as a ton of lead, but with a nice bit of fizziness to it. There’s the fruit, which honestly reminds me a lot of my all time favorite, Three philosophers. Then there’s a nice little slice of hoppiness before washing over a typhoon of maltiness, and then a bit of bitter anise mixing in with the strong alcohol taste.

Oh did I mention it’s 10%? Because panic attack is 10%. This is not a beer to have during a scorching day with your ham and cheese sandwich. this is a sit your fat ass down and savor it kind of beer. so in closing, I’m going to give Panic attack 7.5 out of 10. It does take some getting used to, but it’s a hell of a beer.

• Brewer: Holy Mackerel 
• Style: Belgian Strong Ale 
• 10 ABV 
• Price: $12.00 
• Rating: 7.5 out of 10

MACRO MONDAY WEEK TWO: Pabst Blue Ribbon

Pabst Blue Ribbon is a beer that conjures up all kinds of images. A decade ago, that image would most likely be your average working man: the construction worker who considered budweiser too fruity to keep in his icebox. Today mention Pabst and the image is undoubtedly a trend-seeking, bearing wearing, vintage denim sporting hipster. But is it a good beer? Beyond all the hype, is it worth drinking?

Pabst Blue Ribbon is the namesake of Pabst Brewing company. Pabst, through a variety of acquisitions now brings us all sorts of beers, from Lone Star to Schlitz. But since its inception, Pabst Blue Ribbon has been there No.1 Beer. Reportedly named Blue Ribbon after winning an award at the World's fair, but more then likely because Pabst used to put silk little blue ribbons on every bottle.

But whether the ribbon in question is figurative or literal in this case, I intend to get to the bottom of whether it's a half decent Adjunct Lager. I cracked open a can that had been cooling in the back of my refrigerator for some time, and poured it into a nice and clean Pilsner Glass. The beers a nice yellow color, with plenty of head that fizzles away to nothing. No lacing, looks pretty light. All in all a pretty unassuming Lager.

The taste is pretty good though. Your usual adjunct lager flavors, corn, bit of malt, slight taste of hops, and just a touch of citrus. Very light, very bubbly. I once heard a Redditor on /r/Atlanta wax poetically about PBR because it was the ultimate palate cleanser, totally inoffensive and fine with anything. In that way, PBR excels fantastically. It's definitely crisp and refreshing, and would be as good grilling a burger as it would at a concert.

So all in all, PBR is a pretty-ok Beer. It's better then Natty Ice, and a good beer to share with friends on a lazy weekend, but that's about it. And that's ok! We need beers like that, and Pabst isn't putting on any aires, we are. So enjoy a PBR, it's not a Yuengling, but it'll do!

Turbodog - Abita

Turbodog is considered by many to be the best that Abita has to offer. I’ll make no mention to hide the fact that I’ve avoided Abita at every chance, considering their short, red stripe sized bottles to be the ranks of posier beer. And I have somewhat of a good reason to believe this, as every time I’ve seen someone drink Abita, it’s been Purple Haze, and it’s usually a 23 year old white woman trying to be edgy. Nothing against that demographic, but it’s just not my scene. To put it another way, Abita would seem right at home next to a sixer of Shocktop.

 But holy jesus was I wrong about Turbodog, and I was wrong about Abita in general. This English brown ale poured a domineering dark black with shadows of red on the edges. The head was a beautiful fluffy affair, khaki colored and three fingers at first pour before settling down to two. Nice bit of lacing clinging to the side of the glass too.  The smell is even more inviting than the dark richness of it in a glass. Caramel, Dark chocolate, stings of coffee mixed with Toffee. Not a lot of sweetness upfront but a decent amount of toasted malts.

But I truly knew this beer was a winner when I had my first sip. Rich, roasted malted flavors, incredible dark chocolate, Toffee, and hints of smooth coffee danced over my palate. And to be such a full-flavored beer, it tasted so light! Incredibly smooth and easy drinking.. On the whole, I’d describe it as being very Neal Degrasse Tyson-esque: Dark, smooth and complex.

So should you pull the trigger on a sixer of Turbodog? At $10.00 for a six-pack at the local grocer (neither the local liquor store nor the local gourmet grocery carries it), it’s a pretty pricey beer. But it also happens to be incredibly worth it. This English Ale is strong, rich, delicious, complex, and most importantly drinkable. The only thing that would go better with a Turbodog is another Turbodog.

• Brewer: Abita 
• Style: English Ale
• 5.6 ABV 
• Price: $10.00\6 
• Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Sorry everyone!

Post by Baucom on Beer.