Double Dead Guy Ale, Rogue Brewery, Newport, OR

There are 3 things you can do when confronted with peer pressure (this blog is sponsored by a very special episode of Blossom) , either ignore it, succumb to it, or do something something so over the top that those pressuring you see how crazy you are and leave you alone. The problem with option one is that you will most likely keep on getting pressured and or teased. The problem with option 2 is that you essentially weak and will be victim to the peer pressure forever, and the problem with option 3, well there's a reason you were being peer pressured in the first place, so to go above and beyond that, well that takes a different kind of person. This is the situation I found myself in, with my dinner companions chanting that I order the Dead Guy Ale, I weighed my options. Option 1 wouldn't work because my companions had had a few and were determined to keep chanting, option 2 could lead to a night of them chanting outrageous drinks and god forbid they start chanting for Mind Erasers, so I went for option 3. I didn't order the Dead Guy Ale, I ordered the DOUBLE Dead Guy Ale. My critics were quieted. Now here's the dangerous part, the Dead Guy Ale is 6.6% ABV, the Double Dead Guy is 9.5% ABV (not exactly double, is it Rogue Brewery, get your math straight). Now this wouldn't be a bad move if I were having just one, but this was the end of the night. This was guarantee hangover city. I had friends in college who used to have Tuesday night parties in the summer. They always tapped the Busch Light keg first and the Bud Ice keg second. You could always tell who was at their parties because the next day the people had their heads in their hands and walked like zombies around campus This is not logical, you should always start strong and then go weak, trust me you'll feel better in the morning. I should have remembered my college example, but alas I did not. I took on the Double Dead Guy Ale, and it was delicious. It was citrusy and sugary. It was overflowing with hoppy goodness. It did have a little alcohol bite to it, but the caramel and citrus confluence of flavors complemented it perfectly. The Double Dead Guy gets a 4.0

Advice: Don't Eat Yellow Snow

Hmmmmmm

Imperial India Pale Ale, Rogue Brewery, Newport, OR

What's better than an IPA? How about an IMPERIAL IPA? It's like the old Tim Allen bit where he always wants more power, well I feel that way about hops and the Rogue Imperial India Pale Ale was bringing the hops. The beer was very hoppy and the Cascade hop bitterness quotient is perfect. This IPA is not for the faint of heart, the ABV is at 9.5%, and while there is a slight alcohol tinge to the taste, it does not detract from the beer. In fact the only problem was that it only came in a 10.5 oz serving. If you are looking for a strong IPA, definitely pick this one up. The rating is at a 4.5.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Rogue Brewery, Newport, OR

I am a sucker for Brown Ales, I'll admit it, so when I saw the Hazelnut Brown Nectar on tap, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I was quite suspicious of the Hazelnut piece, but after all Pumpkin beers don't taste like pumpkins, right? Right? Wrong. This beer is like a giant hazelnut syrup, which on the good side means it was smooth, but on the bad side, it means the beer is very sweet. There is a nice chocolate maltiness to the beer, but the Hazelnut is very overpowering in the aftertaste. This is a novelty beer, where you should only really have one and move on. The 6.2% ABV is surprising since the beer comes off so smooth and the sweetness makes it more like a Bacardi Breezer. The overwhelming hazelnut flavor really knocks this one down a lot, coming in at a 2.5

Weekend Notes

Good weekend for beers this weekend. The restaurant I went to had a Rogue Ale beer night, so my posts this week will be very Rogue Ale centric. I find out Tuesday if I will be travelling this weekend, if so it means up to Maine for some Maine brews and possibly some Belgians as one of our hosts is a big Belgian beer guy. We also had dinner at a friend's house and found another pumpkin beer enthusiast. I didn't know there was such a thing, I blame El Nino for this epidemic. Another epidemic I saw this weekend, was bar salesmen. These are guys who come into bars and try to sell you things. Having lived in a sketchy area where this was a frequent occurrence, I thought this was only a local occurrence. I did not think this happened other places. Now I have been offered many things in bars, bicycles, dvds, meat, but this weekend the guy was selling tan suits. Amazing. Definitely an item I would have bought if cooler heads weren't around to stop me. I mean imagine the stories I could tell of the suit I bought in a bar, oh well.

Enjoy the Rogues this week, I did and I had the headache to prove it.

Oldie but Goodie email - Investment Advice

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines
one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year
ago, you will have $33.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers
one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year
ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans
for recycling refund, you will have received $214.00. Based
on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink
heavily & recycle.

It is called the 401-Keg.

A recent study found that the average American walks
about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22
gallons of alcohol a year.

That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles
to the gallon!

Makes you proud to be an American!

Glacier Harvest, Harpoon Brewery, South Boston, MA

I was out at a generic Irish pub and found the Glacier Harvest on tap. It's a member of Harpoon's 100 Barrel Series so it is only available for a limited time. The Glacier Harvest had a very alcoholly taste and it seems this beer was driven by its bitterness. The bitterness is most likely the result of the wet hops. Wet Hops, are essentially fresher hops that have been harvested in the last 24 hours or so. They are supposed to give a fuller hop flavor. It also appears this beer had an 07 distribution as well, as I found an email from a friend discussing this bee and the wet hop process. I, however, was not interested in an encore performance. The 6.7% ABV and the bitterness defeated me and I give this beer a 2.0.