This is an aggressive beer. You probably won't like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory - maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it's made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beer will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this.

These bold words are printed on the back of the Arrogant Bastard Ale bottle and pretty much sum up what craft beer drinkers think to themselves, but don't actually say, about their "tasteless fizzy yellow beer" drinking friends. The best thing about Arrogant Bastard Ale isn't the rude and hilarious disclaimer; the best thing is that it totally lives up to this brash statement.

Stone Brewing Company from the San Diego area makes some of the best beer I've ever had and Arrogant Bastard Ale is one of their best sellers. The bold names and fantastic art work make Stone's brews stand out but it's whats inside the bottle that really makes them shine.

Arrogant Bastard Ale poured a dark brown with a light tan head. The head lasted throughout leaving a lot of lacing on the glass. It has generous amounts of the piney hops that I am so fond of but there is a lot more going on here as well. This a complex beer with hints of caramel, chocolate, citrus and roasted malts.

I really enjoyed this beer. The only real problem I could find with it is that it will ruin your taste buds for any other beers for a while and I'm not sure I would want to drink multiple 22 oz bottles.

According to the bottle Mammoth Brewing Company's IPA 395 is an "ode to the Eastern Sierra and the Highway 395 corridor, this double IPA is distinctively bolder than our Epic IPA and is brewed with wild local hops (when available), desert sage and mountain juniper." The sage and juniper really dominated the flavor of this beer, even overpowering the hops. At first this was a nice surprise but it soon grew tiring. By the time I finished my half of our 22 ounce bottle it had warmed a bit and the sweet juniper/hop flavor had completely taken over. I appreciate the effort Mammoth made to incorporate some unusual ingredients, I just think they could have backed off a bit on the juniper and sage to make a more drinkable beer.

I learned about Rubicon Brewing Company when I tried their IPA at our local brewfest. As the Beer Whench would say I: had a craft beer epiphany. Rubicon's IPA cemented my love for IPAs and my status as a hop-head. After tasting their IPA and learning that they're located in Sacramento (~90 miles South of us) we had to make a trip to the brewery. We had a great time then and on subsequent trips. All their beers are great and I think it's cool that they have beers from other breweries on tap as well. It shows a sense of collaboration and love of craft beer in general when breweries are willing to serve beers that they appreciate from other breweries.

Red Ales are one of the most balanced styles of beer with their roasted malts countering their hops. I don't think Rubicon is real big on balance. Every beer we've tried from Rubicon has had big hops. If you've read any of our past posts you'll know that we love big hops. I don't think they were serving their Irish Red Ale when we visited Rubicon in the past so this was a new one for us and it didn't disappoint. It poured a deep red amber color with foamy off-white head. Like their other beers the Irish Red Ale was full of delicious hop flavors...way more hops than any red ale I've tried. This is more like an IPA with roasted malts. The flavors were complex with citrusy hops throughout and a roasted malt finish. I really enjoyed this beer and will grab another next time I see it on the shelf. As I said, this seems like a departure from typical red ale style; but that is quite alright with me.

On a side note: big thanks to Peter at BetterBeerBlog for the mention!

I didn't like this beer. I am seriously thinking the bottle we had may have soured. I really wasn't in the mood to drink last night. We didn't start until eleven mostly because we just weren't in the mood and subconsciously put it off. Keith said "you know what we still have to do? Drink a beer." I seriously considered not drinking and then just posting that we had. My integrity won out though. I drank the beer and we watched Top Gear.

Watching Top Gear was very much reminiscent of the night we drank a beer and watched Blazing Saddles. We didn't want to drink that night either. Top Gear cheered us up and made the unwanted drinking more entertaining. Top Gear is a BBC show and we love it. Who knew that a show that is essentially about high-end cars practically nobody can afford would be so damn entertaining? Well it is. My favorite episode is still the "lorrie" episode. "Lorries" are British semi-trucks. It was too funny to describe, I cried and may have almost peed, I laughed so hard.

When Keith poured the beer he called from the kitchen that there was sediment floating in the beer. I looked and sure enough the dark golden beer was speckled with floating sediment. I waited a while for the sediment to rest but it never went down. I don't know if this a purposeful thing or not. When I took my first drink I noticed a very metalic taste. This was my first indicator that the beer may be bad. The beer also had a sour finish. I have had one or two beers that were no longer fit for drinking and this reminded me of those occasions. I can't really properly review this beer. The bottle we had was a recent purchase, but sometimes these things happen. Maybe some day I will give Eye of the Hawk another try and be able to give it a proper review.

Boddington's was a suggestion from our friend Betty. Even before Betty said we should try it I had been planning on putting it on our list because my friend Allen loves it. Allen is a good friend of ours, he performed our wedding ceremony. To date that was the best wedding ceremony ever performed. When we met with him to discuss what we wanted our ceremony to be like he asked " Do you want a lot god, a little god or no god?" and "robes or suit?" He really gave us a ceremony that meant something and reflected who Keith and I are as a couple. So I figured I should try the beer I am always buying for him. Betty's suggestion that we try Boddington's sealed the deal.

I have had more English beers during this month than I have ever had in my whole life. I find them all very interesting and Boddington's was no different. It has an interesting taste. I didn't know before drinking that Boddington's is imported and distrubuted by Anheuser-Busch. I find it interesting that a company as big as Anheuser-Busch would import beers that are far superior to theirs. Boddington's is a light version of a pale ale. It is creamier in flavor and has a slight hint of honey at the finish. I enjoyed it, it's a very easy beer to drink.

Boddington's, like many UK imports is shipped in a nitro-can. There is a small plastic, nitrogen filled ball inside the can. This sounded like a terrible idea to my uneducated mind. I know little to nothing about UK beers and their precious heads. The nitro ball is there to ensure that the beer pours from the can as it would from a draught, or as close as possible. So now I know.

Finally a Stone Brewing Company beer! Yes! I love everything about Stone. I love their labels, logos, apparel, and mostly their beer. Keith and I pour for the Chico Soroptomist brewfest every year and I aspire to pour for Stone. I would love to pour for Sierra Nevada, but I know that won't happen, that slot is coveted and I don't feel like fighting to pour my home town beer. So that leaves me with Stone as my goal. Maybe someday.

Arrogant Bastard is one of my favorite beers. I love the challenge that Stone issues to their drinkers. "Try this beer, I dare you, you probably won't like it, it's too much for you, but go ahead and try it." Just go to the website and see for yourself. Some beers make big statements and can't follow through. Arrogant Bastard is not one of them. This beer is a hop punch in the mouth. Arrogant Bastard will ruin your mouth for other beers, so plan on drinking it all night. This beer takes dedication and courage. It doesn't let up in flavor. There's no watery, mellow finish, no touch of weakness. This beer is aptly named.

Every time I look at their site I go to their apparel store. I want everything in there. Seriously. Keith and I send each other links to the items we want and then lament the fact that we can't really afford to buy everything we want. It's a oddly enjoyable torture. If you like strong, knock your palate out beer, go get you some Stone. I recommend the Arrogant Bastard or the Ruination IPA. Do it at your own palate peril, though if you are like me you'll love every minute of it.

Avery Brewing is a small brewery in Boulder, Colorado with a wide selection of beers. Their IPA poured a hazy golden color with a fluffy white head. It had a hoppy citrus aroma. While the hop profile doesn't compare in strength to the California IPAs I'm used it was the dominant flavor at 69 IBU. The citrus I smelled was in the flavor as well with a malty finish.

This beer was good and very drinkable but I didn't find anything special here. There isn't a lot of complexity and it isn't very unique. I imagine it would pair nicely with a meal that a hoppier IPA would overpower, something like fish or herb chicken.

There are specific days I have looked forward to in the beer calendar we made. They are nearly all IPAs. I'm funny that way. Mammoth 395 Double IPA, isn't my favorite IPA ever, but it's still an IPA so I was happy to have it.

The bottle says that 395 is a double IPA. I don't believe them. It definitely tastes more like a simple IPA to me. The double IPA is supposed to have more malt flavor and twice the hops power. That wasn't the case with 395. It is a good IPA and has a nice sharp, clean hop flavor with a hint of juniper and sage. The juniper and sage are what make the beer I think. The combination of the juniper and sage gives the 395 an herb taste. This flavor was strongest at the finish for me. I prefer a citrusy hop finish to a piney hop finish in general so this herby finish was a nice change of pace.

I think the 395 needs to go back to the recipe book to reach that true double IPA flavor. If you ignore the label and just enjoy the beer you will be pleased with this IPA.

While I'm not ready to make the definitive statement about Celebration Ale that Stephanie did it is easily one of my favorites. After taking the first sip I asked Stephanie "why have we been drinking all those other beers?" I've enjoyed beer month and I enjoy trying new beers but Celebration really blows most of the beers we've tried out of the water. The complexity and balance of this IPA is fantastic. Celebration is a seasonal offering from Sierra Nevada and is available through the winter months.

Our Celebration poured an amber color with a fluffy white head. It started out with a mix of piney and citrusy hops, moved to a smooth malty flavor with a hint of spice, and a bitter hop aftertaste. Celebration isn't ideal for a hot summer day, but it almost makes me look forward to the rainy winter months.

It is so hard to find a good red ale these days. There are not many breweries that make them. I was so excited that one of my favorite breweries, Rubicon, has one! Rubicon is a small brewery near the capitol in Sacramento. The food is great, the beer is great and the atmosphere is pure California pub.

We were supposed to go to Sacramento for a day trip to visit Rubicon and Pyramid, but fate conspired against us and we had to cancel the trip. Don't feel too bad for us. We were treated to dinner at a great Japanese steakhouse and karaoke at the bar in our home town. We spent the evening with my family and their best friends the Comptons. It was a good time. I must say though, I am very glad that I am of strong will and not easily embarrassed. Dinner with my family and the Comptons always turns into drunken laughter over horridly inappropriate jokes and behavior. Mostly the behavior is on the part of my dad and Craig Compton, but Cassy and I can't stay out of the fray too long. Needless to say I have great memories of the evening and am not likely to forget it any time soon.

We got home fairly early and lounged on the couch drinking the most delicious red ale I have ever had! Rubicon really knows how to please people's palates. Their restaurant has great food and their beer is excellent. I am a huge fan. The red ale poured a lovely cooper amber color. The roasted malt added a nutty, mellow quality to balance the aggressive hop flavor Rubicon brews have. I love the nutty, smooth quality the red ale had without being sweet.

With beer names like Monkey Knife Fight (their pale ale) and Hop Sauce (double IPA and my personal favorite) there is a lot to appreciate about Rubicon Brewing. I would strongly suggest you include it on your list of things to do in Sacramento. You'll thank me for it. Photo of Rubicon brewery by brewpublic.com

Avery IPA is not my favorite IPA ever. I probably wouldn't buy it unless it was the only IPA in stock. It just doesn't measure up to my IPA standard. It is too well balanced, too bland, too, well, boring. IPAs should light up your palate. They should leave your mouth feeling fresh and piney.

The Avery IPA is a neat package with little acutal substance. The bottle is cool but the beer is mediocre. The only thing that I found interesting was the unusal fruity after taste, not citrus, not berry, maybe apple. That I found interesting, but even that wasn't strong enough to warrant too much notice. I didn't hate it. I haven't found an IPA I hate yet. I don't think I will be eager to try it again though. It just didn't quite make it to the levels of Torpedo, Racer 5 or Ruination.

Celebration Ale is the best beer ever made. Period. End of story. I have been waiting for this beer all month! Cele (pronounced Sell-y around here) is a seasonal brew from Sierra Nevada. It typically comes out around my birthday, Halloween. It's like Sierra Nevada is giving me a gift every year. My friends know to bring a box with them to my house when we are having a gathering. It is pretty much all I drink from October to January, longer if I can stock pile. A few years back, for my birthday, everyone who brought beer brought me a box of Celebration, I have never loved my friends more.

I think everyone has that beer, or drink, that just goes right to their happy place. Whether it's the taste of the beer itself or the memories made while drinking with friends, everyone has that one special beer. Celebration is mine. The Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas gambit is my favorite time of year. I wear jeans and sweatshirts, hang out with my huge family and drink Celebration. We take it by the case to our family gatherings.

So now that you understand how much I LOVE this beer we can move on to the taste. Celebration is a seasonal brew and as such is subject to change from year to year. The flavor is just a little different every year. I am a hop head, I love a bitter, fresh, hoppy beer. Celebration is what really started me off on that path. When I first tried it, back in 2001 or 2002, it was the most powerful beer I had ever had. The piney, hop flavor punched you right in the mouth. That punch stays until the end. Just a hint of malt smoothness comes through at the end to soften the blow.

That is how it used to be anyway. The last three or four years I have noticed a more balanced flavor to the Celebration. The power punch of hops has receded from an Ali or Lennox level knock out to perhaps a Chris Brown level. I am all for balance in my life, but leave it out of my Celebration! I still love this beer, it is still the best.

I wouldn't recommend that all you habitual Coors, MGD, or Corona drinkers take on a Celebration. It's too big for you, maybe when you're older and can drink big kid beer you should give it a try. I was so happy to have this beer in April, but I was so sad to drink my last one, knowing I have to wait until October to have another!

Bard's Gold is a vegan beer made from sorghum instead of wheat, barley, oats or rye like most beers. As many as three million Americans have celiac disease, and even more have less extreme versions of gluten intolerance. I often season my gluten with more gluten, but we tried Bard's for everyone who's body hates flavor gluten.

This lager style beer had a floral aroma and poured a clear golden color. Bard's is the only sorghum beer I know of and it has an unique flavor. It tasted sweet and a bit grainy with a hint of carmel. There's not much hop flavor and overall Bard's is pretty thin. The malt-like flavor is not bad, but it is very odd. If the choice is between not having beer and chronic diarrhea I would have Bard's again. Thankfully that is not a choice I have to make so I think I'll skip Bard's in the future.

*Sorghum photo by jdpage

Bard's Gold is the beer our friend Jenney recommended, Bard's Gold is the only gluten-free beer on our list. That makes it unique.

This is one of the only beers Keith and I have consumed separately. He had his during dinner and I had mine after rehearsal. I love the label. I am a sucker for labels and advertising. I like how simple it is, it's so clean. I have been looking forward to this beer for the simple fact that it's different. I had no idea what to expect. This is a first for me. The previous beers were different takes on a specific style, brown ale, IPA, stout and so on. This beer is completely different, it's gluten-free. It is made with malted sorghum. It still has hops and yeast, but no barley. Sorghum is basically a type of grass. They use it to make all sorts of things that need gluten-free substitutes.

I liked the beer. It had a subtle, sweet flavor. More saccharine sweet that any other beer I have ever had. It tasted more like table sugar had been used. It had a very low hop impact and the yeast flavor was there but very mild. I think that if I couldn't tolerate gluten and wanted a beer I would definitely reach for a Bard's. As a lover of all things gluten-filled I am going to stick with my barley malt beers.

Ah yes 4/20, if we had been thinking we would have purchased Hemp Ale, or maybe one of the beers from Weed, CA. We were not thinking about the MJ holiday when we made our calendar. We match beers with numbers in their names to the date that corresponds, we're clever like that.

I very much enjoyed my April 20, 2010. I worked, had lunch with my handsome, wonderful husband, went to Spiteri's and had pitchers and food with the boys, then birthday dinner for cousin John, ending the evening with Idol and beer with my sisters-in-law. It was a nice day. We took our bottle of Twentieth over to their house.

Twentieth is made by North Coast Brewing Coompany in honor of their twentieth anniversary. It is an oak barrel aged Belgian style ale. I didn't like it. Agave nectar was also an addition to this beer. It poured out a pretty color, light gold and the bottle is neat. I like the label. That is about all I can say in a positive way about this beer.

I am so glad the North Coast Brewing Company exists. I love most of their beers. Twentieth wasn't one of them.

The saleswoman at the brewery practically warned me that I wouldn't like this beer. She doesn't know that I'm a little odd and don't mind spending a bunch of money on a big bottle of beer that I won't like. It's more about the experience for me, and trying a rare and unique beer is my idea of a good time even if I don't end up liking it.

The dire warnings about North Coast's Twentieth Anniversary Ale were well founded. This is an odd beer that probably turns a lot of people off.

XX is a unique beer, pale and lightly hopped, brewed with agave nectar and fermented with a special yeast strain. Some of the lots were aged in oak barrels and then blended to perfection so the final is a complex, subtle new direction in brewing art.

We could smell the agave as the beer was poured. It poured a clear golden color and in addition to the agave it had a floral odor with a hint of apples and white wine. The flavor was crisp and alcoholic, almost like white wine. This white wine flavor verged on a tequila flavor with the agave influence. The high yeast and alcohol content with the agave and lack of hops didn't make for a good blend for me. It's great to see North Coast experiment though, and I hope they continue to make interesting beers for many years to come.

Most people know the story of King Midas. The man gifted with the golden touch after returning the wayward Selinus to Bacchus. Midas himself didn't have much to do with alcohol, but Bacchus and Selinus did. The story of how Dogfish Head came to make the beer is far more interesting.

A little over ten years ago the contents of King Midas's tomb, mostly dishes, were chemically analyzed. What they found in the drinking cups would eventually become Midas Touch beer. This beer is based on a 27,000 year old recipe. It is possibly the oddest ingredient list I have eve heard of for a beer. Then again, Dogfish Head is one of the most experimental breweries in the US, maybe even the world. I think it is entirely possible they would have worked their way around to using muscat grapes, honey and saffron in a beer someday.

Midas Touch has a very wine like flavor, undoubtedly from the grapes and honey they use. It has a very light flavor, a little spicy but overall it is a subtle beer. It doesn't really taste like beer. There is a slight malt flavor at the beginning but that is about the only thing that says "I'm a beer." Dogfish Head is big on recreating historical booze. I am pretty sure they are working on,or may have finished, an Aztec chocolate, chili beer.

This beer was interesting. I wouldn't run out to the store to buy it for everyday drinking, but I am very glad I tried it. I can now say I know what King Midas drank and roughly how it tasted. That's pretty cool.

This recipe is the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world. The recipe showcases the known ingredients of barley, white Muscat grapes, honey & saffron found in the drinking vessels in King Midas’ tomb. Somewhere between a beer, wine and mead, this smooth, dry ale will please with Chardonnay or I.P.A. drinker alike.

...

This recipe is the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world! It is an ancient Turkish recipe using the original ingredients from the 2700 year old drinking vessels discovered in the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between wine & mead; this smooth, sweet, yet dry ale will please the Chardonnay of beer drinker alike.

Beer from King Midas' tomb? This is why I love Dogfish Head, they're always pushing the boundaries of craft beer. Whether its their seriously over-hopped 90 Minute IPA that we'll be trying later this month or their brown ale aged in wood barrels made from the Paraguayan holy tree that we tried on Day 9 they keep experimenting and the results are usually delicious.

Midas Touch poured a golden yellow color and had odors of spices, fruit and honey. This is a very unique beer with an odd spicy flavor; hints of papaya, banana and grape; and a mead or white wine quality to it. Sweet and spicy flavors dominated with an alcoholic burn from the 9% ABV.

This beer was an interesting experience but I don't know that I'll buy it again. I'm not big on mead or white wine but the story behind this brew is worth the price alone.

Sapporo is a rice lager named after the city it originated in: Sapporo, Japan. This is one of a couple departures we took from American craft beers to add some international flavor. I don't know if Sapporo is a good representation of Japanese beer, but it is probably the best known Japanese beer in the US.

I think Sapporo compares favorably to American macro-lagers. It didn't have the dirty dishwater aftertaste you get with Coors or Budweiser. It was very smooth and very easy to drink. Like its American counterparts it is mostly flavorless and really doesn't compare to the craft beer selection that we're used to at Operation Monthly.

Sapporo isn't something I'm planning on drinking often, but if I'm having some sushi and the choice is between it and sake I'll gladly order a Sapporo.

Sapporo is one of the most boring beers I have ever had. I am not even sure where to begin. The can was cool and surprisingly sturdy. The beer was just a complete waste. We drank this beer while Keith's sister Jen made us dinner. Keith's sister is not big on beer. Her wife Karen however loves beer so we shared the Sapporo with them. They didn't like it either. Jen made carne asada and veggies. It was delicious. Keith and I taught them how to play Shanghai Rummy and we drank beer that we like. Karen drank Kellerweis and I drank Apricot Ale.


Drinking a beer every night has now become routine. That is actually the easy part now. Even though I don't always want to drink alcohol I can totally put down a half a glass. Some beers are harder than others. We are beyond the half way point and there have only been a couple beers I just couldn't drink. I have liked most of the beers. I have been surprised by how much I liked some of them. I have not been surprised by how difficult it is to keep up on our posts. I am desperately trying to get caught up this week.

I liked Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot so much that I immediately ran out and got a tattoo. OK, well maybe not quite that much...but it is one of my favorite beers.

Bigfoot pours a dark reddish brown with a strong aroma of malts and hops. It has a robust alcoholic flavor that is wonderfully complex. It is well balanced in the sense that everything about this beer is big. It is very sweet, hoppy, and malty; all at the same time.

It seems to me that Sierra Nevada has mellowed out Bigfoot just a little bit each year. Maybe I'm just getting used to it but I remember Bigfoot being much harder to drink. It now has a much nicer balance than years past when the hops would punch you in the face and the alcoholic burn would follow with a kick. I've stashed a six pack in my basement for comparison with future releases.

I love Sierra Nevada. I know I am from Chico and that makes me biased but that doesn't make it any less true. Sierra Nevada has so many beers to choose from, one for every palate. Bigfoot is a Chico favorite. Everyone has a "I can drink this many Bigfoots without blacking out" claim. I myself have topped out at four without puking or blacking out. I was seriously drunk though! It was also over the course of an entire evening of partying.

Bigfoot is a barley wine. The Bigfoot we had was bottled in 2010. There are some beers that are always changing in flavor, Celebration and Bigfoot are the first to come to mind. Bigfoot is different every year. It always has that huge hop flavor that punches you right in the mouth. It is a hugely flavorful beer. Some years, when the AVB is higher the alcohol finish can some what taint that pure flavor, but not this year. I thought this years Bigfoot was remarkably smooth and easy to drink. Maybe that's because it's only at 9.6% AVB this year.

I can't say that the smoothness is all the lower AVB though. Celebration (my favorite beer ever) has also been getting progressively smoother. Maybe it's a sign of Sierra Nevada perfecting the recipe, maybe it's an attempt to appeal to the bigger market. Either way Bigfoot is a beautiful barley wine.

Day 16 brought us Eel River's Acai Berry Wheat and it brought me a case of the sinus crud. The two don't mix well. Doctors rarely prescribe beer and I wasn't really feeling up to drinking anything alcoholic. Sometimes you have to go to war with sinus congestion you have, not the sinus congestion you might want...or something like that...clearly the copious amount of snot has leaked into my brain.

I bravely sacrificed my health for you, our loyal reader, and gave the Acai Berry Wheat a try. My illness was effecting my sense of taste so my review of this beer is useless. I couldn't taste much of anything. It tasted like a very light wheat beer to me and I couldn't find a hint of any kind of berry. I've had this beer before and remember enjoying the berry taste so my taste buds were clearly not functioning correctly.

There are a few beers on our list that are a part of my normal beer buying routine. Eel River Brewery's Acai Berry Wheat is one of them. I love Eel River Brewery. They are located in Fortuna, CA. I love everything about them. The make great beer, great food and they have natural pest control. Cats. That's right, cats! There are a few cute, friendly cats roaming the restaurant and beer garden. They don't get on the tables or really come too close to you, they mostly lie around in the sun. It was something I have never seen before.

The Acai berry is the latest super fruit. It is everywhere. I love the juice, although it is so tart I prefer it mixed with something like cranberry juice. Keith prefers blueberry-acai juice combos. I would not have thought to mix acai with beer. I would think that the extreme tart flavor of the berries would pair badly with yeasty, bitter beer. Wheat beer seems to be the only variety that would work.

This beer is subtle. When you first drink you notice the crisp wheat taste, perhaps there's a little more bite than normal. The finish is all berry, with almost no yeast taste at all. I drink this beer year round, but I love it in the summer. The Eel River is an organic brewery, their slogan says it all "Be Natural, Drink Naked." It is my favorite beer slogan ever! I also think it's great advice.

We have had good luck with the darker beers so far so I was optomistic about Murphy's Stout. That optimism immediately began to fade as we poured it and I got a whiff of its strong coffee odor. It poured a dark brown with a toffee colored head. It looked thick and creamy, partly due to the nitrogen ball used instead of normal carbonation.

The Murphy's stout started out with an ashy roasted malt flavor. It then moved to a coffee flavored finish with a hint of bitter dark chocolate. The stout I have the most experience with is Guinness and I didn't like Murphy's nearly as much as I like Guinness on tap. However, Murphy's reminded me of Guinness out of the bottle which I do not like.

I don't like it. I was feeling really good after the Taddy Porter. I was thinking that I could handle the Murphy's, but I was wrong.

It pours out black with a mocha head. That was my favorite part, pouring it out. It has a nitrogen ball in it to make it pour correctly. It starts out cloudy and swirly brown then settles into clear black. It is really cool to look at. I would pour it for anyone just to watch it. Just don't make me drink it.

It has a smooth start, maybe a hint of chocolate, but the finish is all coffee. I think that at this point it is safe to say I don't like stouts. Porters I can handle, but please keep stouts away from me. I think this may mean I can only call myself a beer lover, not a beer snob or even connoisseur. It is sad.

Trying to keep up with my posts has been the most difficult part of this whole process. The thing about doing something everyday for the purpose of sharing it with other people is that you have to share it! Who knew. Over the weekend I ended up much busier than I had planned and fell way behind. I am writing tonight as I drink, I feel very accomplished right now. Goodnight.

This beer was confusing. Before opening it I tried to pull up the URI printed on the bottle, www.redbranchcompany.com, and a webmail interface came up. After some googling I found a company claiming to make day fourteen's beer: Rabbit's Foot Meadery. Fair enough, must be a small brewery that hasn't worked out their web identity yet. Then I poured the beer and it wasn't really red, it was more of a golden orange color. Then I tasted it. Even with honey in the name, and even coming from a meadery, I couldn't imagine how this was a red ale. Red ales usually have a roasted malt flavor and this tasted like a watered down mead. I googled up the interwebs some more and found a few scant mentions on sites like Beer Advocate and none of the reviews sounded like what we were drinking. At this point I'm starting to wonder if this was mis-bottled.

I enjoyed this beer, it just wasn't at all what I was expecting. It had a sweet and alcoholic flavor like a mead or white wine and pretty much none of the roasted malt flavor I was expecting. The few meads I've tried were a bit much for me, tasting too much like wine. The Honey Red Ale was like a lighter, more beer-like version of the meads I've tried and I enjoyed this balance. If anyone has had this beer before please let us know what your experience was. I'm curious to know what the story is with this beer and if this was really supposed to be a red ale.

Red Ale!! I love red ales. They are hard to find. Not many breweries have one that they mass produce. Sierra Nevada for example did a limited edition red ale called Red Taxi that was only sold on tap at the pub. I loved it. I was peeved that Sierra Nevada didn't bottle it or continue to make it. I only had two pints! I still pine for it, obviously. I insisted that we get a couple red ales for Operation Monthly if we could find them. We only found two and bought them both.

The Honey Red we had was unlike any red ale I have ever had. Red ales are essentially pale ales with roasted malt added. The roasted malt adds a mellow sweetness, a light nutty quality to soften the hop punch. The particular red ale was made by a company that makes mead, Rabbit's Foot Meadery.

I was so excited to have red ale and had been thinking about it all day. When Keith poured it and brought it to me it was a beautiful copper color. Despite my excitement, I had a headache and wasn't quite ready to drink alcohol so I let it sit there for a bit. When I finally drank it, I was so disappointed! It tasted like mead. I was expecting the honey flavor, but it actually felt like drinking wine. It tasted like someone poured mead into my beer while I wasn't looking. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't a red ale either. The mead taste completely covered the nutty, hoppy flavor red ale should have. In my opinion red ales are the perfect balance of hop and malt flavor. None of that balance was evident in this beer.

I like mead. I like honey flavored ales. There is a local brewery that makes one that I really like. I don't like mead ale. Mead and Ale are two different kinds of alcohol and should stay in their corners.The only thing I liked about this beer was the bottle and the label art. I am a sucker for pin-up art. If you are curious about red ales, skip this one.

I was so stoked for tonight's beer. I have loved Apricot Ale, now known as Audacious, since the first time I tried it. It is probably one of the beers I drink most often. We always have some in our fridge.

I have one small problem with Pyramid Brewery at the moment. They are one of my favorite breweries, their food is great and their beer is even better. However they are breaking a cardinal rule: if it ain't broke, don't fix it! They are currently completely re-branding their beers. Apricot Ale is now "Audacious," as if an alliteration will attract more buyers! Their labels used to be clean and clever. The new labels are clumsy and ridiculous. Who drinks beer while biking, or surfing. It makes them look like energy drinks. I loved the old labels, so much in fact that I have always wanted a Curve Ball tap. The Curve Ball label now has a guy playing FRISBEE on it, not a baseball as the name implies! You knew what you were getting with the old labels, the pyramids clearly visible, the beers name evidenced in a subtle clever way. I am posting a picture of the old Snow Cap and Apricot Ale labels and some of the new stupid labels to prove my point.

Pryamid can't seem to pull their heads out of their asses when it comes to their branding and advertising. They still make one hell of a beer though. I refuse to call it "Audacious," never the less, the Apricot Ale is tops. It is so refreshing and crisp. The apricot flavor stays with you. It is technically a hefeweizen, but that yeast taste is beautifully masked by the apricot. It's still there but it is well balanced. Anyone who likes a nice, light, fruity beer should pick up the Apricot Ale.

I've had Pyramid's Apricot Ale before. It was the first fruity beer that I liked. Until Pyramid I assumed all fruity beers were bad after tasting a few duds from other breweries. Pyramid has since renamed this beer Audacious Apricot Ale and it continues to please.

I'm not sure what most other breweries are thinking with their fruity beers. The fruit flavor never comes out tasting like their namesake fruit. You end up with weird artificial fruit flavors that ruin the beer. The apricot flavor in Pyramid's Apricot Ale tastes like actual apricots. It is a hefeweizen and one of my favorite versions of the style. I also like Pyramid's Haywire Hefeweizen; I imagine their recipes are similar. The apricot and hefeweizen flavors are really well balanced making for a very tasty and refreshing beer.

Like Newcastle, Samuel Smith Brewery has been making beer in England for approximately eleventy billion years. Stephanie and I were both hesitant about Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter. Neither of us drink a lot of porters or stouts but we added it to the list for some variety and to expand our horizons a bit.

The Taddy Porter poured a dark brown and had a sweet coffee smell. It had a smokey coffee flavor with a caramel finish. The coffee flavor that is usually characteristic of porters and stouts is the main reason I avoid them. Surprisingly despite the coffee flavor in the Taddy Porter I actually enjoyed it. I think the caramel finish really mellowed it and left a nice aftertaste.

Honestly, if you gave me a Taddy Porter and told me it was a Guinness I might believe you. My porter/stout palate is completely unrefined. I occasionally enjoy a Guinness on tap and after trying the Taddy Porter I will be more open to try other porters in the future. I have a feeling that the relatively mellow flavors of the English imports we've tried may be characteristic of UK brews...a porter from a California micro-brewery may still be a bit much for me.

There are a number of beers on our list that I am afraid of. I am the kind of person that sticks to what I like. I enjoy experiments, but in truth my experiments are never that far out of my comfort zone. Porters and stouts are outside my comfort zone and we have a few on our list. Beers that have coffee, espresso or creamy in the description are a turn off. Beer number twelve was certainly a lesson in why I should experiment more often and more broadly.

Taddy Porter from Samuel Smith's Old Brewery was a beer that I was not pleased to buy. I really was not thrilled by the prospect of drinking a porter and the purchase only happened because we felt we needed to have a variety of styles for our mission. It poured out nearly black in color with a walnut colored head. It had a moderate coffee scent and I almost put it down and refused to drink it. I hate coffee. Seriously. I tried to like it when Starbucks was first getting really popular and all the cool kids drank mochas. I lasted for part of my eighth grade year before I gave it up. Coffee is my beverage nemesis. Lucky for me and my mission the Taddy Porter only smelled of coffee. The taste was smooth and malty with a nice caramel finish. I was shocked. I liked it.

I am noticing that when it comes to the dark beers (browns, porters, stouts) I prefer the English imports to the American craft brews. In truth the English beer taste like the watered down versions of the American beers I have tried. I wonder however if they only taste watered down because they are not overly flavored with hints of this and notes of that. The flavor is simple, coming in easily identifiable layers. The Taddy Porter has a clear begining, middle and finish.

Much like the Newcastle, I won't be drinking the Taddy Porter frequently, but I certainly won't be afraid to experiment on English imports anymore!

The flagship ship of Mendocino Brewing Company was drinkable but it didn't really do anything for me. Red Tail Ale poured a amber color and smelled sweet and malty. The malts dominated the watery flavor with a touch of citrusy hops. This malt flavor had a muddy washed out taste with a bit of caramel, reminiscent of ice tea.

Like I said, this beer is drinkable. It just doesn't have much of the flavors I like, and the the flavors that are there seemed a bit off to me.

Sunday was a busy day! Our friends Storey and Marcus got engaged over the weekend and were on their way home from Mendocino so we had to hurry to get their welcome home present set up. Then it was off to MacBeth rehearsals for me and dinner with the Adams clan right after rehearsals. We got home at a decent time, around nine o'clock actually, but we were so tired. It has been a long couple of weeks and the exhaustion seems to be taking over. We arrived home and went to the fridge to open beer number eleven, Red Tail Ale.

Red Tail Ale is made by the Mendocino Brewing Company. It is not our favorite brewery. It hurts me a little to put that thought in writing, but it's true. They use two different kinds of malted barley and two different hops. I blame the use of two different kinds of malted barley combined with their "special proprietary yeast strain" for the overly earthy almost dirt like taste. It just doesn't taste right. My sister-in-law loves it, so does my father-in-law. I think that the bottle we drank is one that my sister-in-law brought over to our house.

Don't get me wrong, I drank it all. I didn't hate it. I just don't really like it. There are so many other "clean" tasting beers that I prefer. If you like Lagunitas, you will love Red Tail Ale. They have very similar qualities.

We finally reached our tenth beer, Brother Thelonious from North Coast Brewing Co.! Keith and I love Fort Bragg and go there whenever we are able. One of our favorite places to eat once we are there is the North Coast Brewery. The food is excellent and the beers are delicious and the atmosphere is classic Fort Bragg. I love the slow, easy pace there, it's like life slows down just a bit. We almost always get the beer sampler so that we don't have to choose which beer we want until we have tried them all.

The Brother Thelonious is a relatively new brew for North Coast. North Coast makes great beer, but unlike Sierra Nevada or Dogfish Head they don't experiment much. Brother Thelonious is the newest creation but has been available for a few years. The bottle says it's a "Belgian Style Abbey Ale" but the website says it's a "Belgian Dark Strong Ale" whatever it is, I like it. I was nervous about this one. A beer that comes in a wine-esque bottle and has a cork is usually too dark and malty for me. Brother Thelonious poured out a clear brown color reminiscent of Pepsi or Coke. It was just as bubbly as soda too. The taste was very mellow for a beer with a 9.3% AVB. It was very drinkable.

Most people don't know this, but I can't drink alcohol while eating. It's a very odd thing, but it's true. I will open a beer before dinner and then switch to water while eating, going back to my beer once the meal is finished. I may sip my beer, but I have to have something non-alcoholic while eating. Weird. The reason I bring this quirk of mine up is that I was able to drink the Brother Thelonious during dinner. Although I didn't drink much, I didn't feel like I had to get up and get water or a soda. I was rather amazed actually.

I most likely would not drink Brother Thelonious regularly, but I thought it was tasty. I also enjoy the benefit of my beer drinking doing something good for the world. A portion of the sales of Brother Thelonious are donated to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a nonprofit education organization. It was founded by the Monk family and Maria Fisher, an opera singer. Its mission is to offer the world's most promising young musicians college level training by America's jazz masters and to present public school-based jazz education programs for young people around the world. All of these programs are offered free of charge to the students and schools. So you should go and get a bottle, enjoy the beer and help some kids get the musical education they desire!

I have some catching up to do. We drank Brother Thelonious on Saturday and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. I've found that drinking beer every day isn't hard. Writing about it every day is a bit more difficult. I've slacked off the last few days so now it's time to get back into it.

We bought the big bottle of Brother Thelonious on our last trip to North Coast Brewery along with their 20th Anniversary Ale that we'll be drinking in another week. Visiting North Coast is always a priority when we make a trip to Fort Bragg. Stephanie and I have been to a lot of breweries and North Coast is one of our favorites.

The Brother Thelonious poured a clear dark brown with lots of bubbles. It smelled strong, malty and sweet. A 9.4% Belgium style ale has no business being so smooth and delicious. I didn't take notes and I drank this beer a couple days ago so I can't provide minute details but I really enjoyed this beer. It had a fantastic balance of malt, hops and yeast with a very complex flavor. My recommendation may be a bad indication of how true this brew is to the Abbey/Belgium style since I'm usually not a fan but I thought Brother Thelonious was fantastic. And just look at that label, that has to be one of the coolest looking beer bottles out there!

We had beer number nine while eating dinner with our friend Sam. We were quickly eating our Chicken Satay so that we could make the second night of my friend Duch's show Keeper of Fury. Duch wrote and directed the show. I wanted to buy him flowers to give to him after the show so I was in a hurry to get going.

We drank the Palo Santo during dinner which was a first for us during this project. The Palo Santo Marron is a brown ale. A very strong brown ale at 12% AVB. You can taste every percent of that alcohol. I had the same reaction to this beer as I did to the Old Stock. I didn't like it and barely managed to drink any of it. I dumped the rest of mine into Keith's glass as a matter of fact.

I have stated before that I am a IPA fan, a hop-head, a lover of the bitter. I have had strong ales and double IPAs with ABVs that were almost as high as Palo Santo Marron and consumed them with glee. I can't however seem to tolerate the malt heavy, sweet beers with a high AVB. The combination makes my head shake and my face look like the inspiration for the bitter beer face commercial. I always thought that commercial was funny, but inaccurate. I get the malty beer face. I just can't seem to like them.

I keep hoping that I will find a malt heavy beer that I will like enough to drink the entire bottle. I guess I am going to have to turn in my beer snob club membership card until I do.

Dogfish Head Brewery is known for their gutsy experimental brews.  Their Palo Santo Marron is a great example of this.  This 12% ABV brown ale was an experience.  It poured a dark opaque blackish brown with a brown head.  Dogfish Head describes it as having a caramel and vanilla complexity, but this beer is so over the top and so complex I had a hard time picking out any particular flavors.  The flavor was defintely dominated by roasted malts.  This beer has all the nutty, earthy malt flavors that our previous brown ale Newcastle was missing, and then some.  I can understand the caramel description, it was definitely sweet...maybe even a molasses flavor.  The bottle also states that this brew is aged in wood barrels and you can taste this influence.  The Palo Santo Marron would likely pair a lot better with steak than it did with the chicken satay we had for dinner.  I wouldn't drink something so strong and overwhelming on a regular basis but I enjoyed giving this unique brew a try.

I drank my Pacifico at 10:45 last night. Keith enjoyed his while playing poker with the boys, I had MacBeth rehearsals.The show is going well thus far. Unfortunately somebody came into the building while we were rehearsing and stole my friend Delisa's bike. Asshole!

I pretty much only drink Pacifico at Mexican restaurants, so drinking it at home is an interesting experience. I really like Pacifico. I don't think I have ever poured it into a glass. When I got home I went to the fridge, pulled out my Pacifico, opened it and flopped down on the couch. Once I was seated watching the end of the Mentalist I realized that I hadn't poured it out into one of our wedding or brewfest glasses. I was comfy on the couch so I didn't bother to get up to pour it into a glass.

I have never been to Mexico but the first thing I want to do when I get there is lay on the beach with a book and an ice cold Pacifico. I know that sounds dangerously close to a commercial for Pacifico but it's the truth.

There is a time and place for Pacifico.  Poker night isn't it.  The proper environment for Pacifico involves a bucket full of ice nestled in a sandy beach on a hot day.

Pacifico is a Mexican lager.  Compared to the other Mexican lagers Pacifico is my favorite, and I give the Mexican lagers a slight edge over the US made macro-brewery lagers.  Compared to most other beers, it is crap.

I didn't bother pouring the Pacifico into a glass.  Like I said, Pacifico is meant for a hot beach and you drink from the bottle on a hot beach.  As you can imagine it is the same pale fizzy yellow color as other Mexican lagers.  Where Pacifico departs from the likes of Coronoa, Sol and Tecate is that it actually has some nice flavors hiding in there.  It has some citrus flavors with just a hint of some hops.  It absolutely must be cold as the quality degrades quickly as it warms.

I followed the Pacifico with a Sierra Nevada Torpedo and was congratulated on graduating to a real beer from the Sierra Nevada junkies at poker night.  The Torpedo tasted like chewing on a Christmas tree compared to the Pacifico and was a needed salvation from my warming lager.

Kellerweis is one of Sierra Nevada's more recent releases.  It is a hefeweizen style beer.  Hefeweizen is an unfiltered, bottle conditioned variety of wheat beer characterized by low hop content, high carbonation and malty sweetness.  Being unfiltered the yeast is left in suspension, adding to it's characteristic flavor and cloudy appearance.

From Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis press release:

Several years ago, the brewers began working with a unique Bavarian hefeweizen yeast strain unknown in this country. This amazingly flavorful yeast was so exciting that they began working on a recipe for a traditional German hefeweizen with the Sierra Nevada twist. Traditional hefeweizen is a style that seems deceptively simple, but in reality is devilishly complex.  For years the brewers weren’t satisfied with the beer; something was missing. In a flash of inspiration, an epic trip was arranged. The brewers took a whirlwind tour through the legendary Bavarian wheat breweries to see what they were doing. It was there they realized the advantages of making wheat beer using the traditional system of open fermentation.

...

Using shallow open fermentation, the yeast has space to build layers of flavors and aroma that would otherwise be impossible.

Generally I'm not a big fan of hefeweizens.  Although I appreciate the unique and complex flavors they offer I think it's all that yeast that disagrees with my palate.  I sometimes even feel a bit congested after drinking a hefeweizen.  My uneducated theory is I'm having an immune reaction to all that fungi.

Kellerweis is one of the few (Pyramid's being another) hefeweizens I've enjoyed.  It poured a hazy golden color with a large white head.  Banana flavor dominates with a hint of clove.  This beer is sweet, smooth, and very refreshing.

Beer number seven was Kellerweis! Kellerweis is Sierra Nevada's latest edition to the year round line up, known in Chico as the flagship. I don't know why the year round beers are the flagship, but I like it. Kellerweis is a hefeweizen. I love the Kellerweis but I was sad to see the Wheat go. Sierra Nevada is no longer bottling the Wheat, but you can find Chrystal Wheat on tap at the local bars and restaurants. I have always loved the Wheat, especially when I am out at the bars and don't want anything heavy or on a hot day in August.

I think the Kellerweis is a good beer, but I don't think it was a worthy substitute for the Wheat. The Wheat is a kristallweizen and has a nice clean flavor. The kristallweizen means that it has been filtered and is a clear golden color. I could drink it all day long and not feel full. Kellerweis is a hefeweizen and has strong banana and clove flavors. Hefeweizens are unfiltered and are a cloudy golden color. As you drink it you get that nice yeasty hef taste, followed closely by a strong banana and a clove finish. I hate cloves, so I always try to drink my Kellerweis before it gets warm. When it is cold all you taste is the yeast and the banana. You can smell the cloves as you drink but you can't really taste them. After the beer gets warm however the cloves take over. I love it when it's cold, but after it has gotten warm I won't even pick it back up. The sweetness of the beer is lovely but I never have more than a couple. I always feel like I need to cleanse my palate after having one, so I reach for an IPA.

I would have the Kellerweis as a nice, light dessert beer. It would be a nice end to any spring or summer evening.