the Judicious Tippler's best friend

I'm better than Kathie Lee Gifford

well.... for at least one evening I was. after seeing Kathie Lee drink Dogfish Head on the Today Show, I had to treat myself by drinking some high end beer. did I accomplish this task? you're damn right I did - one evening and three beers all rated in the 97th percentile or higher on RateBeer.com. first up was Alesmith's legendary Speedway Stout. only a myth until now, this 12% chocolaty stout lived up to the hype with a well balanced, yet uber-flavourful beer. the more it warmed up the bigger the taste was. I tasted chocolate, coffee, toffee and some vanilla. it was delicious from start to finish, but unfortunately this bad boy hasn't been brought into any of the Vancouver specialty stores, so you'll never be able to contradict me.

Tippler Ben was riding the stout train, so I hopped on board with him and tried some Mikkeller's Beer Geek Breakfast. all I can say is, "choo, choo!". I've had this one once before, but I forgot how great it was. while Alesmith makes a stout with loads of flavours, Mikkeller makes theirs focused on one - coffee. and they do it very well. if I had more money, I would dedicate a fridge shelf to it. but, at $10 a bottle, I'll have to settle with having it on special occasions.

last up was Brooklyn's Sorachi Ace. this is a saison that uses just one hop varietal; Japanese sarachi hops. all the saison characteristics were there, pale yellow and a thin head, wrapped up in cloudy unfiltered goodness. there was some lemon and a bit of banana in the taste, but what I remember most about it was this beer's incredibly dry finish. Tippler Ben may be able elaborate a little more on this one as, for some reason, my memory of this one is hazy. I do recall stating that Big Love would love this beer.

there we go. three awesome beers in one night... I'm waaaay better than Kathie Lee.

Alesmith Speedway Stout - 750ml, 12% alc
Mikkeler Beer Geek Breakfast - 500ml, 7.5% alc
Brooklyn's Sorachi Ace - 750ml, 7.6% alc
(I think I'm going to to abandon the A to F school grading system for these ones as they're all exceptionally good beers.)

PS. I just remembered that we had some Stone IPAs afterward. that's another one hundred percenter on RateBeer. Kathie Lee and her Dogfish Head look pretty damn lame now.

am I drinking crazy juice?!

I turned on the tv this morning and through my sleep deprived eyes I saw Kathie Lee Gifford on the Today Show drinking Dogfish Head beer! is it a bad sign that Kathie Lee drinks better beer than I do? I couldn't find the actually video of her drinking the Dogfish Chateau Jiahu, but here's photographic proof that I don't dream of 60 year old beer drinking talk show hosts.

Michelada -- Tastes Like a Sweaty Redeye!

have you ever had a Redeye before? that's when you add a couple ounces of Clamato juice to a lager. to anyone overseas that is reading this, Clamato is a mix of tomato juice and, yes, clam broth. from what I understand Clamato is a primarily Canadian mixer, usually used to make another Canadian classic- the caeser. anyway, the addition of Clamato juice into a pint of substandard lager can be somewhat refreshing at times. I won't go as far as advocating it's use on a regular basis, but when your in Dundurn, Saskatchewan, do as the Dundurnians do. so when Big Love and I stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch on the weekend and I saw that one of their signature drinks, a michelada, mixes beer with a "traditional spice mix juice", I had to try it. our waitress said it was a mix of lime juice, Maggi seasoning, and other stuff. she had me at 'other stuff'.

a couple of ounces of 'spice mix juice' was delivered to the table in a salt rimmed sleeve with a bottle of Negra Modelo beer. after pouring the beer into the mix, it looked like a chunky, frothy beef stock. now, the taste can only be described as sweaty. real sweaty - not exactly the refreshing bevvie that I was looking for. the salt from the rim masked some of the initial foulness. to be fair, after the initial sip, the drink was passable for a moment. but, as it started to warm up, I could no longer trick my brain into thinking that I was enjoying a beer as the taste was replaced by what can only be described as a sort of soy saucey, beefy, sweaty mixture. delicious.

The Dog Days of Summer - Granville Island Belgian Wit (Limited Release)

Granville Island Brewery

breaking up the relatively mundane selections of Granville Island's arsenal of beer are their more interesting seasonal limited releases. past releases have included, a ginger beer, a Scottish ale, a pumpkin ale, the Jolly Abbot (their version of a Belgian tripel), and a Christmas ale that I look out for every year. this summer's release from Granville Island is their Belgian Wit.

this beer pours like you would want a wit to pour, very pale yellow, cloudy, with a thin head. usually wits like this have a banana aroma that I'm obsessed with, sadly the smell of GI's Belgian Wit doesn't fuel this olfaction obsession of mine (what kind of music would a band called Olfaction Obsession play?) . there are, however, some strong lemon notes at first that die quickly. I'm disappointing with the taste, as the is no evidence of orange peel and coriander - two classic white beer ingredients. I wouldn't be disappointed if GI hadn't specifically noted on the beer's label that these are what were used to flavour the beer. what I do taste is some tart lemon. the minimal carbonation provides a nice, smooth drink, but it is a bit dry and yeasty - leaving me with an remarkably average white beer to drink. BUT that being said, it was a nice fresh relief on a scorching hot Vancouver day (yes, we get one or two of those per year).
[*the happiness of the dog is not representative of my love of the beer in particular, just my love of cold beer on a hot day.]

C+ 650 ml, 5%