Category: beer

I went for drinks with some guys from the office, after work. I ordered a glass of Speckled Hen Ale (which was on special: $2 / 20oz). It was on the bitter side, as beers go, but not in a bad way. However, it didn’t have as much flavor as, say, a Newcastle might.

I’m not one to “drink for the sake of drinking” so, after the Speckled Hen, I hadn’t planned on necessarily ordering another. However, my boss was nice enough to buy a “snake bite” for me. He was previously aware of my penchant for cider and he assured me that I’d enjoy it ;).

A snake bite is 1/2 pint Lager and 1/2 pint Cider (sweet or dry). They’re layered in a glass much in the same way that a black & tan would be.

Anyhow, I tasted the snake bite, and it was delicious. It had the creaminess of the lager mixed with the sweetness of the cider. And, the bitterness of the lager just pokes through. Ooh, that was one tasty beverage. And, I may just have to order them from time to time :).

Preface: Before reading this entry, I'd recommend reading the one posted just before this one, on Rolling Rock.

So, in that last post, I waxed nostalgic about Rolling Rock beer. Now, it's not my absolute favourite of beers, though it may very well be in my Top 10. (Note to self: I could write an entry about my Top 10 favourite beers sometime).

There are so many good beers, that it's tough even to decide upon a Top 5. Let's see... Killian's would be in there, for sure, and Heineken would likely make an appearance, Bass has a good chance of making the cut as well.

But, without a doubt, I believe that Sam Adams would take the top spot, #1. Now, before I get angry comments from Germans or Belgians ;), I must make a disclaimer: Sam's Adams is my favourite beer, of the beers that I have a reasonable chance of finding in a given maket.

I can't even recall when I first tried Sam Adams. But, man, it's delicious. But, what sparked my interest in writing this entry is that Sam Adams Double Bock has won the Grand Champion trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards in Melbourne.

Samuel Adams Double Bock won the Grand Champion Trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards in Melbourne.

The 8.5% abv German-style lager from Boston Beer Co. won out over 421 other beers from 19 countries.

The Double Bock also won the trophy as best lager, while Rogue Imperial Stout brewed by Oregon's Rogue Ales won Champion Stout.

[...]

Ooh. “Sam Adams Double Bock” is now at the forefront of my must-buy-at-the-next-available-opportunity list of beers. And, if the DFW Mozilla-1.0 party ends up being this Saturday, I have my hopes up that the organizers may choose to hold it at the Flying Saucer (full name: Flying Saucer Draught Emporium). The Flying Saucer for those not aware is a “restaurant”, but only in the sense that it's a beer-paradise (over 100 beers on-tap!) that also happens to server food ;)

So, if we end up going to the Flying Saucer for the Mozilla-1.0 party, then I'll definitely try to snark some Sam Adams Double Bock there. Also on my list of beers-to-try: Sam Adams Triple Bock. Priced at $4.75 per 8.75 oz bottle, and at 17.5% APV, this is no ordinary beer. Hey, the Mozilla 1.0 release is probably one of the better celebrations I'll be having this year, so maybe I'll seek out both Sam Adams Double Bock and Sam Adams Triple Bock if we end up holding the festivities at the Flying Saucer.

Last night, I was going grocery shopping at Kroger. Though I hadn't originally intended it as such, it ended up being one of those “big shopping trips”. Mainly, it was about 30-40 of those fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts. As Jason and I eat those for lunch everyday, we go through them rather quickly.

I hadn't planned on buying beer at Kroger, primarily because beer is cheaper at Sam's Club. Besides, Sam's Club sells beer by the case, which is also convenient since we each drink a beer with dinner (because of health its health benefits but also, you know, because it's delicious). Back a couple of months ago, we had found some K Cider. Being a cider-fan myself, I really enjoyed, though I wasn't sure what Jason would think of it. As it turns out, he really enjoyed it as well. Aside: I was quite relieved that Jason and I had found true commonality in beer/cider, as he tends towards the see-through beers while I prefer the dark stuff.

So, we figured, "Hey, let's just get K Cider all the time!" (up until then, we were just rotating through various brands). So, next time we went to Sam's Club, we looked around, but it appeared that K Cider had been taken off of Sam's stock-list. So, we went back to the beer-rotation.

Still, I didn't give up. With Texas' sensibly low-regulation of alcohol stores (beer, wine, liquor), it sometimes seems like there's a beer/wine store on every corner. So, a couple weeks ago I realized that, though cider wasn't available at Sam's Club (K or otherwise), that I could still check the local beer/wine stores.

One by one, I checked. Generally, I was disappointed. Either, they were overpriced ($7-8 for a 6-pack?!), or they were ok-priced ($6 per 6-pack), but only available as a six pack (a case or half-case would have been a more convenient form factor since Jason and I go through the beer/cider at a steady rate).

Ok, back to the present day. So, I'm at Kroger and everything has been crossed off my shopping list one-by-one. I figured “Hey, let's just stop by the beer isle — maybe they'll have cider.”

Well, they didn't have cider. But, they did have Rolling Rock (on sale, no less!). In Pennsylvania, where I'm from, Rolling Rock is often affectionately known as “that crappy local beer”. Of course, that's all in jest — it's actually half-way decent.

At any rate, I bought two 12-packs at the not-too-shabby price of $8.99 each. And, as Sam's Club certainly didn't have Rolling Rock, I had quite a hankering for tasting it again (Sam's strategy appears to be really-good-prices with the trade-off of not-as-many-brands, for better or for worse).

And, having tried Rolling Rock again, after not having had any for (thinking back) probably over a year, it still holds up. It's a lighter beer, to be sure, but it functions well as an everyday-beer. After thinking about what it compares to, this evening, I've kinda come to think of it as a domestic version of Foster’s. Is that about right?

Up next: more beer commentary (I'm on a roll!)