Ode to Rogue

Rogue makes some of my all time favorite beers. They're located up in lovely Newport, Oregon and have two brewery locations. They are an awesome brewery with equally awesome beers. They're also quite good at coming up with nifty names for their beers (Dead Guy Ale is one of my favorites) and giving them funny labels with some random bearded bespectacled back woods dude holding a pint and a lobster or something. I'll start this post off by noting that I'm listening to my dad's old Talking heads album on repeat for some unknown reason. I've always be into Psycho Killer but Burning Down the House is the jam.

The first beer is an oldie but goodie. Our favorite bald bartender at the local Yard House recommended this sweet and nutty brew to us one day, and coincidentally my favorite local dive has it on tap so we got a pitcher later that night. It's still top of my list when I go out beer hunting. This one is called Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar. It's an American Brown Ale coming in strong at 6.2% ABV. I'd also like to note that BeerAdvocate gave this one a 91 (out of 100) rating so you might as well just be drinking liquid gold or something because they just don't throw around A's to any old beer. They used to only sell these (at least that I could find) in the taller bottles, but this week my local Total Wine started stocking them in little ones, which I guess was sort of neat.

This guy...

Dedicated to the Rogue in each of us.

This next one I'm a little too excited about. I have a small weird obsession with neat bottles, and Rogue did a special seasonal release of a new IPA and it comes in this rad ceramic pop top bottle. So I've been swooning over it for the past month or so since Total Wine opened, but I never purchased it because the 750 ml will run you a pretty penny at the store (15 bucks a pop to be exact). Vinnie brought some over the other day to surprise me and it might actually be worth the 12 dollars. Okay, maybe not that much but it was really really good. This one is an American Double/ Imperial IPA and comes in at 9.50% ABV. It's perfectly hoppy and not too heavy and really refreshing. I'm not really usually into drinking the head/foam of the beer but this was delicious. The XS Imperial IPA rates 92 on BeerAdvocate by the way. If you've got the cash I seriously recommend that you go pick one of these suckers up.

mmmmmmmmmmm

Happy Drinking!

50 ways to open a beer bottle with out a bottle opener....

#1.

My boyfriend and I have taken to collecting the caps of all the beers we drink so that we can eventually make something out of them, I think something along the lines of a tall bar table topped with caps would be pretty neat. So, to do this, you can't bend the cap all out of shape in the process of opening your bottle. If you haven't noticed, most bottle openers damage the cap in some way. So here's Vinnie trying to teach me how to open a beer bottle without bending the cap using a rusty old pair of pliers.

I'm sure there's some physics principle having to do with levels and fulcrums at play here but whatever. 

He should probably be the one writing this post, but my understanding is put pressure on the cap with your hand pushing down then upwards with the flat tool of your choice.

And voila like magic.

Punk as f***

You're all going to have to bear with me because my lovely beautiful Canon 5D Mark II is out of commission and I have to bring it in to their service center tomorrow. Until then, all photos are from a borrowed crummy little point and shoot that I don't like. hopefully I'll have it back in time for Stone Brewery in October! Today I had a pretty laid back day, just class in the morning and then spent the rest of the day hiding inside in the air conditioning hiding from the 90 degree weather. So we are nearly Autumn, my favorite season, which means candy corn, halloween candy, cinnamon spices and .... pumpkins!!! So how could I resist the Dogfish Head Brewery Punkin beer staring me down in the seasonal isle of the local Total Wine?

I was a bit nervous at first that it would be overwhelming and too sweet like a pumpkin pie or something, but it was surprisingly subtle. It smells a bit like Christmas and Thanksgiving and tastes earthy and a little spicy (in  the cinnamon and nutmeg sense, not like salsa). It's a stronger beer at 7% but not terribly overwhelming, and I think I could actually drink a few of these without getting sick of them. Usually sweet or flavored beers get a little old after one pint. So get in the fall spirit and go drink some pumpkin beer and think about what you're going to be for Halloween.