Second. I got a puppy.

Third. (Thirdly?) Stock photo.

Have I found my favorite beer?

No.

Because that’s like picking a favorite kid, you can’t, you love them equally.

However, you do go through times/seasons, if you will, where you have a favorite kid, I’m sure. Where he/she just really isn’t being an a$$hole and is generally awesome to hang out with, right? Other times you want to punch that kid in the face. I’m currenty in the season where the above is my favorite beer. I’m sure I’ll move on..

But let’s talk.

9.75 ABV (Yowza)

Hoppy. (Of course)

Seasonal. (Bummer)

Cool name. (Obvi)

Based on a cool TRUE story. (Here.)

So yadda yadda, Lagunitas = expense 6 packs, fantastic beer. Check your local Total Wine or specialty beer spot and try to find it yadda yadda. Speaking of speciality beer spots, if you’re in NC check these out:

City Beverage.

Deep Roots Market.

The Brewer’s Kettle.

These places are awesome and local and you need to scour your city on sites like Yelp, etc, to find some near you!

But what I really want to discuss here is this…

Is the Charles Ramsey Dead Giveaway song better than the Bed Intruder song? This choice has been affecting me.

You decide.

xoxo,

Charles Ramsey

One thing I’ve learned is that craft beer is an adventure, and sometimes a beer you don’t expect much from is outstanding. Other times, you get burned.

Let’s be clear, I’m a huge fan of spicy food. Boiled crawfish might be my all time favorite food in the world, especially when they soak in a ton of spices.

Some people brew beer with raspberries; others brew beer with blueberries. No Label Brewing Co., a fairly new local brewery just outside of Houston in Katy, TX (most famous for the Katy Mills outlet mall), decided to brew a beer with raw and roasted jalapeños.

Don Jalapeño pours a hazy orange with a small white head. The scent, unsurprisingly, is full of jalapeños. It might have a bit of a tortilla chip scent in there as well; maybe it’s the jalapeño causing the association. The taste is pretty much the same; full of jalapeño and a little bit of a malty backbone. Not much bitterness at all. It’s a fairly thin beer; the jalapeño flavor burns in the back of your throat for quite a while.

While I appreciate what No Label is trying to do with this one, it’s tough for me to recommend it. If you don’t like spicy food, then you definitely won’t like this beer. For those who do like it spicy, it’s practically a one note wonder. It might be good for a one-time tasting, but I wouldn’t suggest grabbing a six pack from the store. Don Jalapeño is more of a novelty than a beer to kick back a few with.

Disney has just announced that the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, taking place from September 27 – November 11, 2013, will feature a Scotland booth!

Traditional flavors with a twist will pair with beers, meads and Scotch at the new Scotland Marketplace designed by Walt Disney Imagineering.  Scottish officials were so impressed with the hit Disney film, “Brave,” that they contacted festival planners about participating in this year’s festival.

Belhaven makes some of the more famous Scottish beers, but I have a suggestion for Disney. Get some beer from the Scottish brewery Brewdog. They brew some really good beers; their beers have been reviewed here a couple of times (5 A.M. Saint and Bitch Please, the latter’s name would never fly at Disney though).

Of course, we’ll be seeing some whisky as well. Glenfiddich 18-year single malt, please.

Yes, that’s right, I recently came into some Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. As the story goes, my wife asks if I’ve ever had this beer at random one day. I respond that I haven’t, and she tells me that our friend “bought the wrong Guinness” and doesn’t like it, so she’s going to give the rest to us if we want it. Naturally, I say we’ll take it, and I’m currently the owner of three (well, now two) bottles of Foreign Extra.

I can understand the confusion. Guinness makes a number of beers that are very similar in color, style, and name. There’s the classic Guinness Draught sold in cans and bottles and on draft all over the place (which I’m guessing is the beer our friend was looking for), Guinness Extra Stout (also known as Guinness Original in some countries), and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.

So what’s the difference?

Draught is the popular, smooth beer infused with nitrogen rather than carbon dioxide. Extra Stout is actually Guinness’ original beer; not quite as popular today but a bit different than Draught and carbonated instead of infused with nitrogen. Foreign Extra is also carbonated but hopped up more for export from Ireland. This is also key; Draught is fully brewed and fermented in Ireland, Foreign Extra is brewed in Ireland but the unfermented wort is exported and fermented locally, and Extra Stout is completely brewed locally (for North America, this takes place in Canada).

Foreign Extra has a strong scent of roasted malt, coffee, and dark chocolate. The beer is pretty much black and has a one finger sized tan head. The taste, however, is more complex than you would expect; sure, the roasted malt, coffee, and chocolate are there, but they’re more subdued. There’s also a dark fruit taste that blends in nicely. None of the flavors overpower. It doesn’t seem to be an especially thick liquid, and the carbonation is fairly light.

I’m surprisingly impressed with Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, which is good because it’s served at Raglan Road in Downtown Disney along with a number of other interesting beers. It’s a fairly common beer at the store, so it may not be your first choice but it’s a solid choice.

Production for all three beers available at the store was moved out of Chicago after AB-InBev purchased the beer in order for capacity for other beers to increase at the Chicago brewery, such as the wildly sought after Bourbon County Brand Stout. This India Pale Ale was brewed in Fort Collins, CO.

As far as how different the beer tastes coming out of Fort Collins instead of Chicago, I’ve never had a Goose Island beer before so I can’t be the judge. I did, however, get a beer with an upside-down label which made me question AB-InBev quality control a little bit. Yes, that’s from our Instagram account; if you like random pictures of beer and sometimes other things, be sure to follow us!

Goose Island India Pale Ale has a light copper color with a white head. Not a whole lot of a scent to it in my opinion; a little bit floral, a little bit spicy, but nothing big. The taste is also pretty light; a little bitter, a little spicy, some malty, bready taste. Nothing offensive but nothing very exciting either. It might be a good session beer.

The other night I had an Abita Spring IPA and this beer back to back. I definitely preferred the Spring IPA to the Goose Island IPA.

Honker’s Ale at the Epcot Food and Wine Flower and Garden Festival, coupled with the increased output at the Fort Collins brewery and the AB-InBev connection, may be a sign that we may see more Goose Island at Walt Disney World.

Dogfish Head Noble Rot is a saison-like beer that was one of Dogfish Head’s experiments. Two types of grape must, the freshly pressed grape juice normally used for wine making, were used in brewing this beer. First, viognier grape must must infected with botrytis, the “noble rot” itself, is sometimes used for dessert wines. The second must came from pinot gris grapes.

Both of the grapes used are white wine grapes, which is evident in this beer. It’s a 9.0% ABV beer and comes in 750ml bottles; putting a cork in this bottle might fool a few people into thinking this is champagne instead of beer.

Noble Rot is a golden colored liquid with a medium-sized white head.  Very champagne like with definite grape qualities and lots of carbonation, but a Belgian yeast funk in it too. Lighter mouthfeel; leaves a lot of lacing on the glass.

This is not your usual beer; it’s quite good though and may be a good way to introduce some wine drinkers to a delicious brew. Noble Rot runs about $15 per 750ml bottle; it’s certainly not cheap but definitely worth sharing a good bottle on a Saturday night.

One of the beers in Sierra Nevada’s High Altitude series, Bigfoot Barleywine-Style Ale was born the same year I was. Each year in the winter, Bigfoot comes out of hiding and onto store shelves. Each year’s batch is clearly dated and beer fans enjoy collecting each edition and aging them. Vertical tastings often occur around this beer; several years’ bottles in a row are sampled to taste the differences. This is the first year I’ve been able to grab some; unusually, it’s been on the shelf at my local grocery store for a while now.

Bigfoot is a beast of a beer, brimming with flavor from massive amounts of roasted malt and spicy hops; brewed in the barleywine style, with a rich, bittersweet body and whole-cone Pacific Northwest hops.

Pouring into a large tulip tulip, Bigfoot has a tan head with nice lacing on the glass. Deep red color with copper highlights. Complex aroma with some sweetness, a bit of hops, and grass. The taste is complex as well; sweetness of dark fruits first, followed by a roasted malt flavor and a bunch of bitterness from the hops. This bitterness lingers on the palate for a long time. A very good beer for sipping as it’s thicker with some prickly carbonation.

I will definitely be aging a couple of these to see how the flavors develop as time goes on, and hopefully I will be able to pick up future editions to make comparisons.

Abita’s description of the beer:

Spring IPA (March-May) is a West Coast-style IPA with an up-front intense hop flavor and aroma. Amarillo and Centennial hops give the brew a rich and resinous flavor of citrus and spice. This bright pale ale has a malt sweetness that will give way to a pleasant bitter. It pairs well with Mexican or spicy Szechwan Chinese food. Spring IPA is a nice accompaniment for cheeses with strong flavors, like sharp cheddar or goat cheese.

Spring IPA starts with an earthy, grassy scent with a little bit of a floral scent as well. Similar taste; lots of grass, a little pine, a little bit of pepper. I’m not getting a whole lot of the citrus Abita mentions though. Light-bodied and finishes clean.

Overall this is one of Abita’s better beers, especially if you enjoy IPAs. Another new seasonal, Lemon Wheat, is coming in the summer. This should replace Abita’s previous summer seasonal simply known as Wheat.

Here’s another one of Jester King’s unique brews; El Cedro is described by Jester King as a hoppy cedar-aged ale with Brettanomyces. As far as I know, this is the first time Brettanomyces have been specifically mentioned on here so let’s dive in a little bit.

Commonly referred to as Brett, Brettanomyces are a genus of yeast. In many beer styles, Brett is considered to be a contaminent as it is a wild yeast that can ruin a batch. However, some Belgian and Belgian-style ales specifically use Brett for the flavors it produces. Brett is more commonly used in wine, and some wine-like characteristics can be found in beers fermented using Brett. Sour beers are especially known for using Brett among other wild yeasts.

El Cedro, however, isn’t a beer that pushes sourness. Instead, it’s full of American hops and aged with Spanish cedar. Brett is used as the yeast along with Jester King’s farmhouse yeast. This particular bottle was from batch #1 and it was bottled in January 2013.

This beer is light orange in color with a very large foamy white head; it rose up to the top of the glass and sat there for quite a while. Scents of cedar, citrus, floral, spice, and the funk of the yeast. Cedar, bitterness, and funky Brett tastes fill the palate. Finishes dry and woody. Carbonation not as noticeable as the large head suggests.

El Cedro is an unusual but very good offering from Jester King. It’s seasonal and may be difficult to find, but give it a try if you run across it!

Lag started brewing this one in 2010 and calls it “a malty, robusty jobless recovery ale”. It was named this because in 2010 the economy was supposed to be recovering, but it wasn’t really recovering. Jobs weren’t being created and many weren’t better off than they were in 2009. They brewed this for the first time: an imperial brown ale.

WTF is brown (as it should be) with reddish highlights and an average-sized white head. Fairly clean scent with an unusually hoppy scent for a brown ale. A light roasted, dark chocolate taste with a bit of bitterness and a touch of hops. The roasted taste lingers for a while. Light carbonation.

Here’s the video description from Lagunitas:

It’s a very balanced beer for an imperial brown ale. Neither the malts nor the hops dominate; both get a chance to bring out their flavors. This would do well as a seasonal at Carthay Circle with the other Lagunitas beers.