I spent the whole day sanding and painting. So when dinner time came around, and it was time time to throw some fish in the smoker, I figured I deserved to break into the Full Sail Black Gold that awaited me from the back of the fridge shelf. I poured the whole thing into one [...]

I hate to say anything disparaging after watching the very entertaining Brewmasters show they just put out, but holy damn if, “Waaaaugh”, wasn’t the first word out of my mouth when I drank this stout by Dogfish Head. This beer is an all out assault on the tastebuds. But not in the roasty uppercut way [...]

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this brew before, given the number of years I’ve liked it. Its a classic stout, that errs on the side of roasty rather than creamy. Still it does it subtly enough to not taste like burnt wood, which earns it high marks in the “sucks or awesome” dichotomy of [...]

Do you follow the twitter stream? If you do, you may have heard about this bottle of chocolate-y wonder. I’m not one to wax poetic about beers that claim to be brewed with chocolate, since often the flavor is so burnt beyond belief that only my sink could tell you how it really tastes. But [...]

Naming a stout after a train can really go wrong: either by implying a certain coal-tar flavor (mmmm…burnt), or with a foreshadow to the effect the stout will have on your head after drinking. Lucky for me, neither apply to North Coast Brewing’s Old #38 Stout. Its more like a smooth ride down a track [...]

“Irish style”?   You’re just inviting disaster by naming a beverage with alcohol in it “Irish style.”   While of course they mean to refer to the excellent tradition of fine brews to come from Ireland, they’re risking providing fodder for the equally rich tradition of drunk Irish jokes.  What’s the recommended serving method for “Irish Style”, [...]

I wasn’t super excited about The Abyss last year. It was good, but not great. But then Doug tells me, “no you need to put it in the fridge for a year, and drink it when the new batch comes out”. I was skeptical, but now I just feel dumb that I didn’t store more [...]

If you find yourself sitting there, and you just absolutely have to have a stout…fly to San Diego and have a Black Seal from Rock Bottom. Barring that, you could also hop in the lear jet and get a fresh poured Guinness from the top floor of their Dublin brewery. What? You don’t have any [...]

I both love stouts, and hate stouts. That is, 50% of all the stouts I’ve had taste like someone spilled ash in the fermenter. The other half however, can be be truly awesome. And as luck (or unluck) would have it, I have just had the second best stout I’ve ever had, courtesy of our [...]

So, this is what I get for daring to exercise.  A while back, I got the running bug (as I do every decade or so), ran a road race, overdid it, aggravaged a long-dormant case of asthma (not seen since high school), wound up on medication, and had to give up nasty petrochemical-brew malt liquors [...]