The Beersocks Beer Blog

This Blog is dedicated to my many thoughts and feelings about beer. I will describe different beers and my experiences with them

Friday, September 30, 2005

Oktoberfest=Woohoooyummyinmytummy


Fuck Beer
Just got great news, KYM AND GREG are now rents....Oh no, we are all doomed!!!
Tip your glasses to our newest family member Alma Marshal.

ps Lakefront Oktoberfest is good.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Bells 20th Anniversary Ale

A fantastic tribute for a fantastic brewery. This tastes like a mellow version of the 2 hearted ale. It has the same complex flavor, but the hops come off as more refined and subtle. Had a chance to have a few on thursday and I was impressed. 10/10

Thursday, September 22, 2005

The Situation in Madison


I had a the amazing opportunity to go stay with two of the greatest people this weekend, in their wonderful home of Madison. I must report that the situation in Madison has grown to something between a donkey swimming across the English Channel to a large chunk of swiss cheese falling from a 747 and destroying the largest ball of twine. Our mission for the weekend was to drink beer, eat waffles, and have the best vegetarian grits ever made. I must say we were not only successful, we completed our mission in record time. Now I must move onto the beer portion of this story, as this is a beer blog.

We started out adventure at the New Glarus Brewery. God I think these guys are my favorite now. Run by a husband and wife team, this brewery is considered to be one of the top in the world, and it shows. When you pull up, you are immediately struck with the sent of mash being created. Mmmmm smells like really warm grains just churning over heat. We took a self guided tour of the brewery, which at the least demonstrates the pride that they have in their tradition, brew, and facilities. At the end of the tour we did a small tasting, which was so so, but hey they did let us have some beer. I also took home a bit of beer, as we can't get this stuff in Chicago. I was most impressed with the Belgian Red, which is a spontaneously fermented lambic style beer. Mmmm this stuff apparently has over a pound of cherries per bottle. The staff was great, and I really enjoyed the brewery. Just one question, What is the world's most expensive hop? No one knew, but apparently they use it on their Octoberfest.

We then visited the Capitol Brewery, which I have talked about in previous posts. I was a little disappointed with them, as it was more like a bar then a brewery. They only do one tour a day and we missed it. Although we were there, they neglected to inform us we would miss the tour, and instead sent us out for lunch. Lunch was good, but we drank spotted cow. Did get a chance to try the Autumnal Fire, which was a strong bock that went down smooth. Still love their beer, just a little disappointed with their facility.

To finish our drinking tour we decided to hit the Essenhaus in Madison. This is a gigantic and fairly traditional German bar. Serving beer in everything from 1/2 liters to 2 liter boots (now banned in Chicago). Knowing where I was, I decided to spend sometime getting to know the Octoberfests. I tried a liter of Spaten and a liter of Hauf Brau Haus. Yum on both accounts the HB was a little lighter, and I actually preferred it over the Spaten, but it was pretty much a toss up either way. God after all this beer I thinkn we were all drunk, but we decided to have a 6 pack and a fire, which put everyone over the edge.

All in all an amazing taste of Wisconsin and a great weekend.
As for ratings New Glarus 10/10
Capital 8/10
Octoberfests 9/10
Yum

Monday, September 12, 2005

Ahhh Yes the amazing Capital Amber


Well nothing sparked this post, but I did drink a few of these over the weekend so that should qualify. This has to be one of my all time favorite beers, and is possibly one the most drinkable beers in existence. How about a little history on the brewery...
The brewery was founded in 1984 just outside of Madison Wisconsin. They are a consistent medal winner at various brew fests. They brew a variety of beers, of which I have tried most. All are good, but today I'll talk about the amber. It has rich yet light malty flavor. The hops are subtle yet prominent. I'm pretty sure they are using a German hop, but I have no confirmation. It isn't cascade for sure.
Funny story about capital amber. The Foremost liquor by my house use to sell them for 6.50 a six pack. This was a fantastic deal, and with help of a good friend, I drank a lot of these. Then the owner raised the price to 7.50 and lowered sierra Nevada from 7.50 to 6.50. I'm convinced its because we were drinking so many capitol's and nothing else. He even admitted it a little, suggesting that our demand for the product was enough to raise prices. I still drink them, but I'm less happy about it.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Ooops no picture and a mistake


Ok the barley wine from Abita is called Andygator not alleygator.

Abita and Hurricanes

An early example of American craft brew, Abita has been making some excellent beers since 1986. Located just outside of New Orleans it has certainly become the choice beer of New Orleans. On a trip to New Orleans last year, I got a chance to try a bunch of their beers. They have an awesome variety, although in Chicago we only see the turbo dog, amber, and purple haze. I think my favorite was a barley wine, which isn't listed on their site. Let me try google real quick...ahh there it is, called the allygator it is a fine example of a barley wine. Barley wine is a very strong beer defined as:Barley wine is an English-style of ale characterized by a high original gravity, resulting in a high alcohol content, more typical of a wine than a beer (10% by volume is typical). This requires special yeast with a higher tolerance for alcohol. Barley wines are often full-bodied, highly hopped, with a residual malty sweet character. They can vary in color from a light copper to a deep brown. Barley wines can often improve in bottle for years.
hmmmm all I know is it will get you drunk. I also just noticed that Abita is currently up and running, although many of their employees are missing.
Now my non beer related rant. What the fuck has gone wrong with the government of this country. They have lost perspective of their primary function to the point they have now decided that the people of New Orleans are nothing but a bunch of refugees. If we are the greatest country in the world, how is it that we can't take care of our own people in midst of a great natural tragedy such as a hurricane. Many factors have lead to this being so terrible, amongst them...Most of the national guard is elsewhere in the world, our energy policy has caused us to completely change the natural face of the bayou (new Orleans natural protection from hurricanes)and caused us to have a severe economic dependance on oil and refining, bipartisan politics leads the feds to do nothing well, and finally our great leader has been on vacation for 5 weeks. This tragedy is only a sign of trouble on the horizon for our culture. We have come unhinged and seem to act like the dictators we are supposedly fighting.