365 Days of Beer

I've had some personal issues come up so I don't know how frequent I'll be posting over the next several days. Yesterday afternoon I had to find something to eat because I hadn't eaten anything all day, and I stumbled into the Manhattan location of the Waterfront Ale House quite unexpectedly.

I ordered the French Dip (roast beef on a French garlic baguette with onion broth for dipping; also had the onions and cheese on it) and to go with that, I ordered...

109) Sleeman Cream Ale - This was a $4 pint which is probably a $1 too much but their other beers are $.50 to $1 cheaper than most bars. Not very good but better than a Budweiser.

Also with dinner I had:

110) Dominion Pale Ale - Another one from my beer of the month club shipment. Quite an amazing American style pale ale. Really great hops aroma. Tastes just like the bottle looks, woodsy and piney. Awesome. Also heard the owner of this brewery is selling it, but that nothing is going to change and neither will the staff. That is certainly good news.

255 left to go... talk to you again hopefully soon.

I hope everyone is enjoying the great weather we are having in NY today. Just a quick update - had another new beer w/ dinner last night.

108) Bink Blond - This is a Belgian ale that I received as part of my latest beer of the month shipment. A decent session ale but not as good as others within the style that I have had. The aroma was sweet but the taste was not as complex as say, an Orval. Still I'm looking forward to the other two bottles I have on hand.

108 beers for the year leaving 257 to go. Not sure if I'll have another one tonight but check back again soon!

So... finally I will recap the other two beers I had on Sunday, but before I get to that there was a nice article in today's Metro titled "Microbrews ready for another round."

The article discusses the growth of America's microbreweries and the reasons behind that growth. Craft beer production grew 9% last year and their market share keeps growing. The explanation given is the "aging of America." While I think this is partially true, there are still lots of older people who only buy the big brand name beers, and at many of the recent beer events I have attended the crowd is getting younger and younger, with much of the attendees including myself, being under 30. So not only is the older crowd getting more sophisticated, the younger crowd is as well, as I have stated in an earlier blog entry.

Some facts from the article:
- Last year 6.3 billion gallons of beer were purchased in the US.
- The current top 5 brands in terms of sales are Bud Light, Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Natty Light.
- There are 1,368 craft breweries and brew pubs in the country
- Current craft beer sales make up 3.5% of the market while imports make up 12.5%. However these numbers are on the rise while the macrobrewers continue to lose market share.

Again I think these trends will continue, and outside of just making better beer the macros will not be able to stop their decline.

So yesterday I didn't have any beer and even went to the gym for a nice workout. I was going to write today about how to lose weight yet continue to enjoy good food and drink, but since this article appeared I decided to go with that instead.

Sunday I had 2 other new beers which I haven't reported on yet.

106) Harpoon Hibernian Ale - Harpoon is a micro brewer out of Boston. They were the first micro-brewery that I ever personally visited (the first brewery I visited was the Anheuser plant in Williamsburg). Even back then in my early 20s I knew I had an interest in good beer, and while I have since discovered many breweries better than Harpoon I'm always interested in seeing what they are up to. This is an Irish ale with a sweet, malty aroma. However, nothing special going on in the taste. It is kind of one-dimensional. However, outside of Smithwicks, this style seems a bit tough to come by in my area.

107) Tremont IPA - Got this as part of the latest beer of the month shipment. Kind of a boring IPA. Nothing outstanding. Of all styles of beer, other than pale lagers, I have had more IPAs than anything else so I am kind of getting bored of them, and one really has to blow me away to impress me at this point.

107 beers down the hatch and 258 to go. Tonight I expect to have another new one so stay tuned and stay drinking!

This weekend I had 3 new beers but today I going to devote to just one. On Saturday I had beer number 105 for the year and it was also the 300th overall beer I have had.

Saturday was Fantasy Baseball Draft Day. In our league we are allowed to keep 3 players from our previous year's roster and then we hold a live in-person draft to fill out the rest of the teams. Our league is hosted by Yahoo. If you are in a year-to-year league on the internet with your friends I highly suggest you go the live draft route rather than an online draft or auto draft. It is much more fun and will give your league a yearly "event" to look forward to.

My keepers this year were Albert Pujols of the Cardinals (a no-brainer really - he'll be on my team for many years to come), Carl Crawford of the Devil Rays (has potential to contribute in all categories), and Barry Bonds of the Giants (a controversial and very risky pick). Bonds could make or break my whole season. If he is healthy I can expect a high OBP (we use this category instead of Avg), 40 HRs, and 100 RBIs. If he misses significant time I am pretty much screwed.

My other keeper option would have been Jake Peavy of the Padres, who I wound up grabbing in the first draft round with the 2nd pick anyways.

I didn't really pay attention to many of the player notes this year and didn't really prepare before the draft so I made some questionable picks. Also I was drinking and that influenced me as well. I drafted Grazy Sizemore of the Indians to cockblock my friend who had been talking about drafting him. Then I drafted my arch-nemesis the D-Train simply to get a reaction out of his previous owner. I predict this one will burn me when he only wins 11 games behind a shitty offense but if he wins 15 or more or gets traded to a winning team I will rip into those who mocked me.

Ironically the best draft was had by a manager who did not even attend the draft in person (he is in CA) and used the official Yahoo rankings. He wound up with a decent staff and a powerhouse offense. However as all fantasy baseball managers know, the league is never won at the draft but in the day to day management of your club and the use of the waiver wire.

After the draft we went for our traditional group dinner, and this year was probably the best choice yet. We are now in our 5th year of doing the league, and this year we went to Taka, a small Japanese restaurant on Long Island. They have only been open a short time but have already been getting rave reviews. Their sushi is some of the best in the area and their dishes are great as well. Take it from me, as a half-Japanese, I highly recommended it.

Onto the beer. One of the other managers has gotten into the hobby of homebrewing, and his latest creation was served up at the draft, and I expressly blame him for clouding my judgment that day.

105) Miyagi Memorial Date Rape Oktoberfest - I had 3 22 oz. bombers of the stuff. Pours a deep cloudy orange color with a huge long-lasting head. Bonus points for the layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Very foamy stuff that took a while to settle. Taste wise I was very impressed with this homebrew. Honestly, it was better than most of the Oktoberfest beers I have had. Similar in depth and flavor to the Brooklyn Oktoberfest. I can't wait for the next D.R. production.

105 down for the year and 260 remaining. I had two other new beers on Sunday but I will wait until tomorrow to blog about those. Tonight I think I will restart my gym routine as the weather is getting a bit nicer now. So, expect to see my drinking slow down a bit in the coming months.

I just heard the cops closed Hop Devil Grill because they had served beer to underage cadets. Wonderful.

Fuckin' cops.

Thankfully it looks like they should open back up in a few days but you just hate to see things like this happen to a good place like the Hop Devil Grill.

And to the bartender... CHECK EVERYONE'S ID WITHOUT EXCEPTION!!! It's not worth the fines to just play it cool and let things slide every now and then.

What a night it was to return to David Copperfield's! I met up with Big Daddy Cal & Jim, the Marillion fan from England, and we had a great time just drinking, having dinner, and talking about various topics.

I did have 3 new beers last night, and the first one I went with was:

102) Rogue Shakespeare Stout - This one was black and thick. Very dense indeed. Aromas and flavors of chocolate dominated. Very roasty and easy drinking.

For dinner I went with the blackened burger. I don't think I've had a bad meal at Copperfield's yet. They do as good a job with their food as they do with their beer. I recommended the southwest chicken sandwich to Jim and he loved it. Big Daddy got the turkey burger, as he is trying to lose a little weight.

I can't recall what everyone else drank, so I'll just continue with my rundown.

103) Thomas Hooker Liberator Doppelbock - Allow me to plagarize a bit and steal TH's description of the doppelbock style: "The doppelbock style of lager came into being in Middle Ages era Bavaria in what is today southern Germany. It was originally brewed by monks to provide themselves with a liquid form of nutrition during the fasting period of Lent when no solid food was allowed. This has earned the doppelbock the nickname "liquid bread" because of its rich and filling capacity. The Thomas Hooker Doppelbock Lager blends huge amounts of imported Munich, Vienna and Moravian malts with select dark roasted malts to achieve a malt lover's dream of a rich and creamy brew. Subtly hopped with noble German and Czech hops and cool fermented with a Bavarian lager yeast, this beer will leave you happy to give up solid food for a while. No dessert necessary."

Really this was almost as good as the Ayinger Celebrator I had recently. Very chocolately. I hope to try more of Thomas Hooker's stuff in the future.

And finally...

104) Brooklyn Fortitude - This is a Belgian strong ale and very respectable version at that. Basically their version of a Duvel and while its not as good as that it is a beer that I will gladly have anytime.

So that's it for now. 104 down and 261 to go. I'm saving #105 for Saturday so there will be no new beer tonight or tomorrow.

DON'T LET ME DOWN SAMANTHA! I'LL SHIV YA!

Okay so I only had 1 drink, but it was a new beer so that makes it okay!

Plus I stuffed myself on tasty Korean BBQ at Seoul Garden and didn't have room for anything else.

101) OB Lager - Basically the same thing as a Budweiser. I downed it like it was water. It was refreshing, I will give it that much, and it well with the bulgogi. I think I may have had this years ago at Kum Gang San but since it is not on my list and I can't remember for sure then I am counting it as a new beer.

I am pretty much addicted to Seoul Garden. I go there with friends from work quite frequently and enjoy the natural tofu soup, free dishes they give you, and this was the first time I went in for dinner.

If they didn't make such tasty food I would never cut the Korean baseball team any slack.

Now that I've had 101 beers I only need 264 to go. Tonight I'm going to David Copperfield's with Big Daddy Cal and Jim the Marillion fan from England and I will have 2-3 more new beers but no more than that.

I am currently basking in the glory that is the victory of Japan over the rest of the world in the World Baseball Classic.

I had no doubt in my mind that Daisuke Matsuzaka would lead team Japan to victory over Cuba.

It is indeed a day to be proud of my Japanese heritage.

BANZAI!!!

It is also a proud day because I have reached a milestone.

BEER #100 for 2006!

Here it is folks, the beer that had this prestigious honor:

100) Victory Old Horizontal - This wonderful barley wine comes to us from Victory brewing. My reasoning for choosing this beer for the honor of #100 is twofold. First, Victory is currently my favorite brewery. They never fail to disappoint. Everything I have had from them has been top quality and I can easily say this is a good candidate for my top 10. Second, so confident was I in Japanese victory in the WBC that I decided what better way to pre-emptively celebrate than by drinking in the Victory!

I do have to admit, at first I was skeptical about the WBC and was very against it simply because I do not like change but now that it has played out and was such a huge success with the fans I cannot wait for the next one. It was a real treat to see meaningful and hard fought games so early in the year. There was truly a special energy and vibe coming from those crowds, something which has been lacking in the World Series lately.

So obviously 100 beers down means 265 to go. I may have a new one tonight at dinner, depending on where I go. A return to David Copperfield's is in the cards for tomorrow night, where I'm sure I'll add another 2-3 to the list, setting me up for my friend's homebrew on Saturday which will be #105 for the year and #300 for my "career."

BANZAI!

...run out of beer in thy refrigerator. That is rule numero uno and our good friend Cracka is guilty of this hanis and unforgivable act against drinkers everywhere.

You disappoint me.

I feel like I shouldn't talk about Cracka that much, lest this become the Cracka sucks blog, but this was information that needed to be made public.

In conclusion you are a bad person.

Now this weekend I went out to dinner at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse in Grand Central. It is owned by the same group that owns my favorite steakhouse (Strip House) and the executive chef is the same. However Strip House is definitely a cut above ol' #23, my most hated basketball player of all time.

You cannot... CANNOT be a real Knick fan and show any admiration for "his airness." Respect his achievements? Fine... but there must be HATRED in your heart.

That being said his steakhouse is still pretty good.

We ordered a bottle of Saintsbury Pinot Noir which was an awesome wine, then had the Warm Garlic Bread with Gorgonzola Fondue. Unbelieveably decadent and tasty. After the garlic bread was gone we used the free bread to soak up the rest of the cheese.

At steakhouses I have one rule and one rule only. Order steak. Don't get any of the other bullshit. Veal chops, lamb, fish, you name it. Get the steak. That is why you are there.

I am ribeye man. The ribeye is the most marbled cut and thus it is usually the tastiest and juiciest. On occasion i will go with a strip steak but that is when I am in a certain mood.

The ribeye at Michael Jordan's is 22 oz. Truly a massive and hulking amount of beef. I couldn't finish it. It was seasoned well but not as good as they do at Strip House, and the broiling is done better at Strip House as well. I do enjoy a good charred outside with a medium rare interior. It could have used maybe a minute more but I never send food back.

Pet peeve: I hate reading steakhouse reviews where people complain about the charred outside and claim that their steak was overdone. THEY ARE NOT COOKING ON YOUR WIMPY BACKYARD GRILL!!! Cut into your steak and you will see beyond the charred outside it is cooked exactly as you want on the inside. They know nothing, those people. Go eat at the Sizzler. And I don't care about service in steakhouses either. As long as they get the order right and are timely and don't forget anything I don't care if they are gruff, distant, unfriendly, rude, etc.

Their creamed spinach was awesome as well.

For dessert we had the huge chocolate cake. It wasn't great but this is a steakhouse dessert where you are just adding food on top of food and you order for the purposes of indulging.

I also had a nice glass of Fonseca.

I took pictures of the food but I gotta get a decent digital camera and figure out this picture uploading business because I don't like reading all text blogs and it pains me that I might be boring the crap out of anyone who actually reads this thing.

On Sunday I returned to the realm of beer and had:

99) Allagash White - One of my good friends is dating a Belgian guy and she mentioned he had tried the Blue Moon Belgian White but wasn't impressed. With complete confidence and my reputation as a beer expert on the line I will make sure he gets a bottle of this next time he is in NYC. This is right up there with any witbier in the world.

99 beers down means 266 to go but more importantly it also means that my next beer will be a milestone beer so I've gotta make it a good one. I am undecided as of yet but there is no rush. I have some good bottles in my fridge and on Wednesday I am slated to make my return to David Copperfield's so there will be plenty of choice.

Because I am so far ahead I may get back into the wine a little bit. I had neglected my love of wine since the year began and I went on this little beer quest but this weekend's dinner reminded me just how good it can be. I doubt I will blog about it but there are some bottles of wine in my "cellar" aka my dining room cabinet hutch that are staring at me, begging to be opened.

Really quick post today... last night I opened a bottle of:

98) Smuttynose IPA - I'll cut to the chase. This is one of the best IPAs you can have. Hands down. Really terrific, nicely bitter, complex and lingering. Cracka would die.

98 down and 267 to go. Enjoy the weekend but don't forget to have a pint of Guinness today! Slainte!

So last night I stopped into Stout NYC for a get together with some local Marillion fans and also one from across the pond in England. We had a great time talking about the band and just about things in general.

Back in their native England, Marillion fans have to take a lot of crap because of one or more of the following misconceptions that they can seemingly never shake: 1) that they are a Scottish heavy metal band [their former lead singer was Scottish but they have never resembled anything even close to a heavy metal band], 2) that they are a prog-rock Genesis clone band [one of their first b-sides was a proggy track bearing some resemblances to Supper's Ready and they never did anything like that since... AND THIS STIGMA HAS STUCK?!?!?!], 3) that they broke up in the late 80s and were that "Kayleigh" band ["Kayleigh" was a huge hit in 86 in Europe and probably would have been in the USA as well if not for the payola scandal that hit EMI around that time. If you ever wondered why there are so many English girls named Kayleigh who were born in the 80's, this is why.]

Here in the USA they don't have to deal with any of that bullshit, they are just another unknown band.

So most of England has missed out on 16-17 years of great music that they have put out since they allegedly "broke up." Their loss, my gain, I guess. Of all the bands I am into none have a more close-knit, community feel among the fanbase. I cannot wait to attend the convention in 2007 where I am sure to make friends from all over the world.

Now, onto my review of Stout NYC. I haven't been there in a while, as I honestly don't enjoy the massive pre-event, after work crowd that congests the place, but when I did go in the past I did enjoy the selection.

However this time around they had only 2 of the 4 stouts they advertise on tap. Guinness & Murphy's Irish. Same stuff you could get anywhere.

Also there were two times where we asked for bottled stouts and they were out. If you are going to take yourself as a serious beer bar then please update your list at least once a week so we know what is and isn't in stock. On the positive side, the staff is friendly, the bar is big and clean, and the food is decent.

However it seems like they are just trying to make the quickest profit possible at this point. Even the small chalkboard above the bar had several beers erased and the selections are now dominated by the US macros. When we went downstairs to get a bigger table they did not serve any bottles down there.

I promised my fellow anorak Jimbo from the UK that we would stop into a REAL beer bar next time. I would like to treat him to a good US microbrew.

I started out with a pint of Guinness, on Jimbo. I will pick up the first one next time. After that I got a bottle of Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout when they were out of the Young's. So that was 2 beers I had already had.

Moving on I then ordered a bottle of Sam Adams Cream Stout, which they were also out of. I gave the waitress 2 choices from the list hoping that at least one of them would be available. She returned with:

97) Coopers Best Extra Stout - This was a stout with a bitter touch to it. Pretty good stuff.

We finished up by having a pint of cask conditioned Brooklyn Brown Ale.

It was a great time and solidified my opinion that Marillion has the best fans in the world. We will definitely be getting together again in the near future (perhaps a return to Copperfield's?) and I promised to send Jimbo a list of great pizza places in the city. When you come to NYC, always make sure you eat right!

97 down and 268 to go.

In today's paper there is yet another article about the ongoing Brooklyn Brewery/Bruce Ratner/Nets arena/development debacle.

Brooklyn Brewery president Steve Hindy supports the project and is reportedly planning to build a beer garden & tourist center south of Ratner's site. They would produce 40% of the beer in Brooklyn while making most of it upstate.

I don't claim to know all the details so I will not have an opinion either way but some residents have been actively boycotting the Brooklyn Brewery while others have even been saying they will drink even more Brooklyn products in response to the boycott.

Whatever happens I hope things will work out for the best. I dislike N.I.M.B.Y.-ism but I also don't like things like eminent domain and big corporations. Somehow there has to be a happy balance. Those waterfront areas along Brooklyn and Queens aren't all that great and some kind of development should be done but the concerns of the residents there should also be taken into consideration. This is a great city and the waterfront land should be put to good use.

In other news I lost another pound and have hit yet another low. ALL WHILE DRINKING MASS QUANTITIES OF BEER!!!

One of these days I will tell you how I did it.

But that day is not today.

Last night I added 2 more to the list.

95) North Coast PranQster Belgian - North Coast brews out of California and this was a respectable version of a Belgian strong ale. Not anywhere close to those from Belgium but a good try and a beer worth having every now and then.

96) Dogfish Head Burton Baton - This I really liked. It is an oak-aged imperial IPA. Very creamy and easy to drink. If it didn't say 10% on the bottle one could easily get in trouble with this. Dogfish Head has consistently been one of my favorite brewers and they are getting a permanent link on the left side of my blog.

96 down and 269 to go. Tonight's plan is to meet up with some Marillion fans at Stout NYC after work for a few drinks. I should get to at least 98 for the year tonight and will focus on the bottled selection of stouts.

I am fast approaching the 100 mark for the year and I am way ahead of pace. I shouldn't be having #100 until April 10 but so what. Now its just a matter of what beer I want to give the honor of being #100. I could wait until the 25th to try my friend's homebrew but I doubt I can hold out until then. #105 is another milestone as it will be my 300th career beer, so maybe his homebrew will get that honor instead.

Cracka seems to think I should try to have as many new beers as possible, thus blowing through the 365. I maintain I will slow down in the summer and as I get into the 300's it could get tough to find stuff I haven't had, and there's always the possibility, however remote, that I will get bored and slack off. But I will not try more than 365 new beers this year.

das it.

Yesterday was a long day so I definitely was in the mood for a new beer.

94) Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter - Average but I looked at my list and I haven't really had many. My favorites so far are the Stone Smoked Porter and Heavyweight Perkuno's Hammer. Overall I would try it again.

I am so dead tired and today will be another long day.

94 in the books, 271 to go.

Later...

Okay, I promise that will be the last Japanese title I use this year.

Level 3 Japanese class is over. I would take the regular level 4 but unfortunately it starts at 6:10 pm on weekdays and I get out of work at 6. Therefore I will have to rely on Japanese friends to practice with. They are all female and joke with me that if I only talk to them I will wind up sounding like a girl.

Last night I made 2 kinds of burgers. One was the usual BBQ bacon cheddar burger (the recipe for which is somewhere on this blog) and the other was a new concoction that I will call the French Onion Soup burger. Mash red wine and worcestershire sauce into the meat. Then saute some onions and put them on top of the burger, top with gruyere cheese and prepare a little onion soup on the side for dipping. I took some photos and I am still going to have to hone the recipe a bit but it was pretty good. I will have to get a better digital camera and some kind of photo site going.

Had the following new beers this weekend:

92) Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout - Exciting stuff and to this point the best oatmeal stout I have ever had. I got a lot of molasses flavors out of it along with a slight smokiness on the finish.

93) Gearys Pale Ale - An English style pale ale but mediocre and not complex enough. I admit I have to try some of the better versions of this style because the ones I have had so far haven't impressed me.

93 beers down and 272 to go. I imagine I will have another new bottle tonight (since I bought a batch yesterday) and then this Wednesday I am planning a visit to Stout NYC to drink with some Marillion fans, including one from across the pond. Should be a good time...

Last night Smuttynose Brewing was kind enough to bring some of the fruits of their labor to the Hop Devil Grill. Smuttynose brews out of New Hampshire, and they make some pretty good stuff. Prior to yesterday I have only had their Wheat Wine and Old Brown Dog. I enjoyed both so I was looking forward to this event.

Sadly it seemed the turnout was a little low. I don't know if it was because of the Keegan Ales launch the day before or what but I was disappointed that there weren't too many people there for this. Things did seem to pick up later in the night, but while some people ordered the flight I didn't get the impression that too many people came expressly for this event. Maybe there have been too many of them in a short amount of time?

Either way the guys from Smuttynose were great, and we even got a t-shirt for buying a flight.

The Wheat Wine was one of the beers they brought in, but since I already had that on my list I won't review it here. The other 4 beers, however, were new to me:

88) Smuttynose Big A IPA - This beer is officially going to be nicknamed the "Cracka Killa" because of its intense bitterness. It's right up my alley, I couldn't get enough and I love imperial/double IPAs. Very aromatic and intense.

89) Smuttynose Oak-Aged Barleywine - This is their barley wine but aged in a Jack Daniels oak barrel. Nice copper color and sweet flavors.

90) Smuttynose Smuttonator - You can tell from the name that this is a doppelbock. It was rich and malty and I would never have guessed it was at 9.6%.

91) Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale - A saison. Fruity, earthy and very refreshing stuff.

So I've got 91 in the books, and have to try 274 more before the year is out. Today is only the 67th day of the year so expect me to take my time in the coming weeks. If I don't post before the weekend then I'll be back early next week...

I took the day off from work today and had a real good time. I feel very relaxed after all the classes from the weekend and busy days at work, so it was good to unwind today.

87) Spaten Optimator - The best thing about doppelbocks is definitely the names. This was an excellent brew. Why can't the commercial brewers of the USA make something this good? Dark roasted malt flavors. Just excellent.

87 down and 278 to go. Smuttynose is going to be at Hop Devil Grill tomorrow so perhaps I will put in an appearance.

This weekend I had Japanese class on both Saturday and Sunday, so I didn't really get to do much drinking. For some reason during the class, whenever the teacher would ask us what we did over the weekend or last night my responses were usually a variation of the following:

kinou shigoto no ato de baa ni itte, biiru o nonde, 12-ji ni uchi ni kaerimashita (Yesterday, after work, I went to the bar, drank beer, and returned home at midnight.)

So I got labeled as the class drunk. Oh well.

Another one of my great responses to the question, yasumi ni doko ni ikimashita ka (where did you go on vacation?) was:

Disney World ni ikimashita. Epcot o mitte, biiru o nonde, rorakosuta ni notte, Mickey Mouse ni aimashita. (I went to Disney World. I saw Epcot, drank beer, rode a roller coaster, and met Mickey Mouse.)

I guess throwing in "drank beer" at every turn has something to do with the label?

The only new beer I had was:

86) St. Ambroise Pale Ale - This is brewed by McAuslan Brewing out of Montreal, Canada. I thought it was good though a little dry and the mouthfeel was off. Like there was too much carbonation or something. Also this was shipped to me as part of the beer of the month club.

86 down and 279 to go. There are a number of beer events going on in the city this week, though I am not sure yet if I will get to attend any of them. Tonight is tax night, time to finally get that crap done. Depending on how things turn out with my refund will determine if I am willing to go out. Catch you later.

So I had another last night:

85) Heavyweight Lunacy - A Belgian style ale. Pours a hazy golden color with a thick foamy head. I couldn't pour the entire bottle into the glass because it was so thick, but that was useful because there was a thin layer of sediment on the bottom. This beer was much like a Leffe. Pretty good stuff, really enjoyable and true to the style.

85 down, 280 to go.