Icehouse with the neighbor

I was hanging out on my porch the other night having a few beers with my neighbor. He brought over some icehouse, which I haven't had since I was in college. I have to say; in my opinion this beer is crap. It’s basically a marketing ploy that has absolutely no merit, but hey its cheap, and I didn't have any beer at the time. Beggars can't be choosers.
I hang out with my neighbor quite a bit; generally we sit on my stoop late at night drink beers, and heckle the club going cokeheads that pass by. He's married with 2 kids, so I think he really enjoys getting out of the house, and I have to say I really enjoy his company. The total package as a good dad, and a true asset to society.
The other night we were talking about work, etc. and he tells me a story about something that happened to him at work. He's been at the same job for more then couple years, and has been promoted heavily. He literally started from the bottom and has worked his way up. (He's Mexican by the way). So a new guy(whitey) starts working at his shop. This guy immediately assumes my neighbor must work underneath him. Imagine his surprise when he learns that my neighbor is in fact his boss. Now a lot of people would get pissed about the total lack of respect, and general racist behavior exhibited in this situation, but my neighbor just laughed it off, and told the guy to get to work. Then he took it a step further and bought everyone pizza for lunch, including his new asshole worker. Totally a cool guy.
Icehouse...is considered to be an upmarket shit beer. Meaning they market the beer likes it’s a higher end product, but it’s really a poor in terms of quality. Its sister beer is "Red Dog" and both are under the plank road label, which of course is a miller product. Interestingly enough, the plank road brewery was started by Pabst's very own Charles Best in 1850, but was soon bought by miller in 1853. Thus its one of the original Miller products and is actually the beginning of the miller empire. I give icehouse a 1 out of 5 meaning I only drink it with no alternatives present.

Oranjeboom in the big boom boom can

Let me start out by saying, I have started to get a method behind the development of this blog. What the hell does blog stand for anyway? I will try to update as close to daily as possible, but will also only write an entry as it relates to beer. It can be a specific beer, like today, or it may just be a situation involving beer. I'm going to try and refrain from mentioning specific names, but I make now guarantees. Now on with the beer.

Oranjeboom was originally a Dutch beer, which was brewed in Rotterdam. It was bought out at some point by interbrew. In doing some research, it seems that the brewery doesn't actually exist anymore, as it was demolished in 2003. Kind of strange, since I just had one last night, more on that later. It is considered to be a cheap supermarket beer, kind of like the pabst of the Netherlands and England (interbrew is English). I first tried oranjeboom in the black rock desert. It comes in a 16oz. can and is best when ice cold. I have to say, this is an extremely refreshing beer, and is an especially good desert beer. When its 110 you have to drink something constantly, I usually just drink beer, and its nice to grab a tall boy out of the cooler a get "hydrated".

After discovering oranjeboom in the desert, I soon realized it was for sale at the Trader Joes in Pasadena, right by my brother's house. 3.99 for a 6 pack of tall boys, now that is a killer deal. Back home in Chicago it's 4.99 still a good deal. I would take an oranjeboom over a Heineken any day. Not only is it a true Dutch pils, it is cheap as balls. Most people in the states don't realize that the Heineken we drink is nothing like the Heineken in the Netherlands. In fact it’s brewed in Canada....If we've learned anything it’s that Canadians only drink malt liquor, and they hate Americans. The way I see it, if you drink Heineken, you are really just drinking over priced Canadian piss and spit. I'll take my oranjeboom thanks; at least it doesn't even exist....

So I went out for cheeseburgers and beers with a few friends. We went to this overly pretensions bar in Logan square, that used to be a real cool place to chill. Hey they had $4 burgers, which were very tasty, and the beers were good. Once we finished we went back to my friends' place and sat outside to have beers. What did we have, none other then oranjeboom. A fantastic evening and fantastic beers. I give orajeboom a 7.5 out of 10 (still need some sort of wacky rating scale, any suggestions greatly appreciated). We discussed all the usual things, the environment was great...slight rain and we were surrounded by 10ft sunflowers. I'm in a really strange chapter in my life, and its real nice to have great friends to distract me, and more so, to be here in life with. Can't imagine life with out so many great people surrounding me. Cheers!!!!!

Kegs, not 1 but 12

They said it can't be done, they said there is no way we can do this project. You’re insane, there are to many variables, and how the hell will make it work. Its not like you can just bring x amount of kegs to something like this. I thought, hmmmm, I like beer and I hate garbage....
Sometimes you just have to put a little work, and some money and things just come together. The concept was to have unlimited beer, well, actually it was to get real drunk on ice cold beer.
We needed a way to keep all this beer cold. Much debate ensued, copper vs. stainless, 1 tap vs. 2 taps, homemade vs. premade, synchro pays vs. who pays. All this came to ahead when one brave soldier stepped up to the plate and purchased a brand new jockeybocks. It was tested in the hot humid environment of central Texas.
It now became clear that my vision of barrels and barrels of beer would come to fruition, but how much beer, and how much would it cost. I started doing some barstool math and identified some key factors. Rate of consumption (in our case high), Number of drinkers, Number of days, number of people per day. After consulting the bottom of several bottles, I came up with some numbers that would work. We needed 4o people to drink 12 kegs at a cost of $30 per person. This would allow us to drink a variety of beers, and would also allow us to drink as much beer as we want. The estimate also included an extra amount of beer for those that didn't purchase a share but would be drinking beer. Of course I should have factored in tax and the few non payers, which put my costs a little higher, but hey it was worth a little extra to see everyone get bombed time after time. They said it couldn't be done, but next thing they knew, they were all drunk and full of beer. The list of beers was a who's who of American craft beers...Bells, Pabst, New Glarus, Sprecher, Abbita, Goose Island....all served ice cold, and at the very end we learned how to regulate the pressure in the CO2 tank to avoid foam.
All this great beer came with a price...not just financial, beeeeeeeesssssszzzzzz!!!!! Ohhh they were attracted to the luscious taste of stale beer, and they also liked the candy necklace someone left on the bar, so much that they were willing to sting anyone that came near. All in all we only drank 10 of 12 kegs, but it is better to have more then less, especially when you’re surrounded by dry counties.
All in all it was well worth all the effort to make all this beer happen, I could have done without the bee sting. Would I do it again? Maybe

Polar

The national beer of Venezuela. A six pack was left in my fridge while I was out of town last week. It’s a very typical South American lager. A crisp taste; especially when ice cold, and a light body. You can drink them quick, and you want to drink them quickly, because as they warm up they become less and less appealing. This beer is great symbol for the current state of my life. It’s like a fairy that came in through my back door, knocked up my daughter, and stole my TV. Still I give it 5 out of 10 (still need a wacky rating system). It was fun to drink them with a friend last night, playing Baseball on playstation and shooting the shit. Unfortunately its also the last thing my exgirlfriend left in my house.... uggghhhhhh
Getting away from my personal strife, and back to what really matters, Polar has several different varieties. The best imho was Polar Ice. It is generally served in 10oz. bottles, which is perfect when you’re in a country that borders the equator. There are some other beers in Venezuela; all are similar to Polar, which by the way is one the biggest exports for Venezuela, aside from oil of course. When I was there, I tried every beer that I could find. There version of light beer, is absolutely terrible. Strange to have a light beer, when your beer is already a light beer, but thats how marketing works.

The Brew Thru

So I was all over the place last week. Went to 5 different states in 5 days. Ended up down in the Outerbanks for some surfing with a great friend. WE used to go down there all the time when we were in College, and I hadn't been back since. One of our favorite things to do after surfing, was goin to the Brew Thru. Its a fantastic concept. Essentially you drive in to a garage and pick out your beer, then they hand it to you. You don't even have to get out of the car. We selected the Brew Thru ale, which was a beer brewed out of Deleware. It was pretty good, I would give it a 6.5 out of 10. The following day we wen t to get some wings in the Northern Virginia area, and the restaurant had its own brew. Well sort of, when we asked what it was, we were told in a quiet tone, "Miller Highlife". Man that isn't exactly a home brew is it? Not feeling for any champagne, we decided to go with a Foggy Bottom Ale, I'd say it was a 6.5 as well. Maybe I should come up with some sort of wacky rating scale? I need to remeber to start taking a camera with me on these trips. It would be great to get some live images. On this trip I also tried a Mendecino Red Hawk, a DogFish Head BPA (Brown Pale Ale), A Mendecino White Hawk, and a Red Hook Ryesomething? . All were good, and I would say with the exception of the redhook, which I give a 5, they would be rated at 8 out of 10. All in all it was a hoppy good time.