Beer Blog Review - Great Lakes Brewery - Nosferatu

Just in time for Halloween....yesterday. Nosferatu, Dracula, the undead mother pucker, this beer is teh tits. Great Lakes brewery is the best thing to come out of Cleveland since the 1986 Browns and their slow ass quarterback. Since Cleveland is the land of wasted talent and bone crushing ball smashing defeats I would think that they would know how to produce some high alcohol content great tasting beer. Unfortunately it is not offered in Indiana...anywhere. You have to cross state lines to enjoy Great Lakes brews. Believe you me, it is worth it. There are many to choose from in the Great Lakes family and none of them suck. Let me stick with this one though, Nosferatu.


Name: Nosferatu

Brewery: Great Lakes Brewery outta Cleveland, Ohio

Alcohol content: 6.4%

Presentation: Classic. As you can see, it has the titular character gracing the cover making it feel like you're getting drunk on Holloween.

Hangover Factor: High. High alcohol content, drink only 6 in a setting if you're a big alcoholic like me. 2 if you're a normal person.

Only Available: Between September and October. Dammit.

Color: Red

Type: Ale

Taste: Harsh yet bold like a good cigar. I recommend a good cigar with it by the way.

The Best Thing: USC loses, Yankees win, Big Ten rules for the day. Nothing to do with the beer but. WOOOOOOOH!

Great With: Meat. Anti-vegan, my type of beer. Just don't tell Natalie Portman who thinks that eating meat is akin to murder and rape, but signed the free Roman Polanski petition. Hollywood is the land of the hypocrite, isn't it

Beer Blog Rating: 3.888888 out of 4.

Porn Star Equivalent: Candy Samples. Plump yet delicious.

Web Site: http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/

This is a great beer, and believe me, I will be visiting the Great Lakes line in the future.

Fat Tire Beer - New Belgium Brewing Company

While making a drunken pilgrimage (literally) to Chicago's Wrigley Field I stumbled (literally) onto this beer. After downing a couple of Old Styles at the stadium and drunkenly buying a Cubs hat my friends and I headed over to a nice little watering hole 5 blocks south (or north, or east, you get the point) of Wrigley to wait for the traffic to thin out. While enjoying the Redskins/Giants game the friendly, sarcastic, emo-loving bartender suggested this beer. Was I impressed? Yes, yes I was.

Fat Tire Beer

Made by: New Belgium Brewing Company outta Fort Collins, Colorado. Owned by hippies that use "clean energy" to make their brews. Not wind farms directly but they pay an increased rate to "ensure of the cleanest energy possible." Al Gore's ego and his wallet just got bigger, if that's possible.

Type Of Beer: Belgium style Amber ale.

Presentation: I only bought the twelve pack after waking up on my front lawn after the Chicago trip. I guess my sister-in-law kicked me out of the car, god love her. The bottle is interesting with nice little curves and a catchy label. The artwork on the label is by some hippy artist. The makers of the beer credit the artwork for their success. Whatever.

Color: Amber, deerrr.

Taste: Bold and smooth with a hint of a bitter aftertaste. Though I don't recall as much of an aftertaste with the draft version. Of course I don't recall a lot of that trip to Chi-town.

Deviate From The Norm: Uses a lot more spice, fruits and esoteric yeast strains (had to look up the meaning of esoteric) to make their delicious brew.

Hangover Factor: High, of course I would not suggest drinking 8 in 2 hours like I did.

Great With: Smithwicks. It is dubbed "The Half Acre" when these two mighty brews are mixed together in equal portions.

Alcohol Content: 7.5%

Beer Blog Rating: 3.75 out of 4

Overall: This is a great brew that will darken the door of my refrigerator many more times to come, or until I die of cirrhosis. All yellow and bloated. New Belgium have other beers to choose from which I'm sure I'll be partaking of sometime down the road.

Website: www.newbelgium.com/beer/fat-tire

Beer Blog Hall Of Fame - Four Horsemen Irish Ale

Back in 1995 (when my alcoholism was officially born) by dad came home from South Bend after dropping off my very confused and dementia riddled grandparents (may they rest in peace) to their house. On the way back he stopped by a liquor store, which we all have done after the "grandparent drop off" aka Homeward Bound 4: Just Really Sad and Depressing. There he found this lovely ale, Four Horsemen Irish Ale. He had one on the way home (don't judge) and was completely smitten. He bought 2 6 packs which between me, my brother and my dad lasted roughly fifteen minutes. This stuff is teh tits.

Beer: Four Horsemen Irish Ale

Brewer: Mishawaka Brewing Company outta Mishawaka, IN. (go figure).

Color: Deep reddish-copper color.

Taste: Initial maltiness with slightly bitter aftertaste. Gives a general warm satisfaction, the kind of satisfaction Ed Begly, Jr. gets while humping a tree.

Alcohol Content: Roughly 5.7%

Hangover Factor: Moderate.

Good Tip: None, good as is.

Porn Actress Equivalent: Holly Body, a very well built beer.

Beer Blog HOF Induction: 2009

It's great that a Indiana brew is initial inductee to this very prestigious (yet totally irrelevant)) hall of fame. Makes me damn proud to be a Hoosier.

Beer Review - Shock Top Beer

Usually I don't buy American (especially cars, rot in hell Ford) but I thought I would make an exception to this one. It was on special and in this time of financial upheaval and uncertainty (especially the soon to be devastating Cap and Trade and ObamaCare on the horizon) it's time to start being fiscally conservative. Sorry, I promised no politics but that seriously pisses me off, besides, John-O never visits this site anyways. I was drawn by this beer because I've never seen it before and I can only review Leinenkugals for so long. The bottle is pretty slick and the color was decent, and I like Belgium style wheat beers. Jeanne Claude Van Damme is from Belgium and he's teh tits, so I thought I would give this a shot.

Company: Anaheuser-Busch outta St. Louis, Missouri.

The Bottle: Pretty slick with a orange slice with a cool pair of shades gracing the cover.

The Color: Golden and cloudy.

Suggested Pouring Technique: The traditional side pour, then rock the bottle back and forth to pour to 1) get good head (giggidy) and 2) get all the yeast.

Suggested Glass: Wide-mouthed (giggidy-giggidy). To allow the fumes errr flavor out.

Taste: Meh, not bad for American but no where near the big dogs. In other words, it can't pee in the tall grass with Bass, Guinness, etc. It's like your expecting California but getting Minnesota, or something like that.

Aftertaste: None, really. Just don't have chocolate ice cream with it. Hey, my wife's pregnant, she's got weird tastes.

Good Tip: Slap an orange slice or two into it, helps with the flavor.

Hangover Factor: Probably won't find out since my tolerance is so high W.C. Fields is impressed. God rest his drunk, smutty soul.

Beer Blog Rating: 2 out of 4 bottles.

Porno Actress Equivalent: Jenna Jameson, your expecting a lot but getting little in return.

Overall: For the price it isn't bad. I paid $6 for a six pack, it's usually $7.50. But I probably won't buy it again.

The Beer Review - Leinenkugel's 1888 Bock

Jake and John Leinenkugel are fifth generation brewers and are the 5th generation of the brewery. Hailing from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin these guys are not afraid to take chances and make new brews. The boys came out with the 1888 Bock series. How does it stack up to the rest of the great beers? Well, kind of a downer.

Taste: A little too bitter. Almost tastes stale which is pretty dissapointing considering the rep of Leine's.

Aftertaste: Pretty crappy actually. Pretty stale, like waking up with that film in your mouth, you know that taste.

Packaging: Excellent, at least the presentation is good.

After Having Too Many In One Night: When it first came out back in December I downed 7 in one night. Actually it was nine. I'm a raging alcoholic, sue me, but the hangover was awful. I felt like I was run over by a bunch of fat hookers.

Overall: 2 out of 4. I hate to be negative with the first review but this was really dissapointing. You just can't rush into a Bock and I'm afraid that Jake and John did just that.

Would I Recommend It: Well, it depends on your taste. My father in law thinks it's pretty good but agrees with the aftertaste. Personally I wouldn't but hey, give it a shot.