Clearing out my notebook

Date: October 7, 2008
State: Chilling at the Sauce in Houston

Noticed I had some entries in my beer logbook I haven't posted. This one was about a month ago when I still was not into hops. We were at the Sauce before the Dynamo game.

Lagunitas Sirius
I thought they said this was their cream ale. It was rather hoppy well into the pale ale area. Very citrusy hops. A 3 Star beer though I'm still not on the hops.

Ohara's Irish Red
Totally changing styles. This one does not have much of a smell. The player is kind of smokey coming off of a strong poofy head. Light malt and a medium body. Still not one of my favorite styles. 2 Star

Lagunitas Censored
I believe they wanted to call this one "The Chronic", but the Taliban...er...Moral Majority would not permit it. So they slapped "Censored" on the label. It has a copper color, with a nice malt and breadiness. Very nice low hops. It is very drinkable for a copper ale. Low carbonation to boot. Did not write a rating.

It's kinda hard to write in my book peacefully in a bar that is STUFF TO THE GILLS with people on a Saturday night. We couldn't even find a place to sit. So you'll have to excuse the crappy diary entries. Lagunitas has a lot of love in the craft beer community and I keep hearing about it on the old Sunday Session shows. I look forward to trying more of them in the future.

As a side note, the wife and I are thinking of making our 2009 vacation a beer tour of Belgium, with a quick stop in Munich for Oktoberfest. I've found quite a few tours that take you all over the place and into several breweries in the span of 8-9 days. We haven't decided yet, but what is really wild is the bar Delirium Cafe in Brussels. I thought I was doing well with beer bars with massive selections. The Flying Saucer in Houston clocks in with say 250 beers between bottles and taps. I've been to Taco Mac with what I think was 130 beer. The beer bars in Fells Point, Baltimore have over a hundred. These chumps in Brussels have a bar with over 2000 beer. Two-Zero-Zero-Zero. Unbelievable. I think there are over 1000 different beers from Belgium alone. I can see the scenario. I walk into Delirium Cafe, I nod at the bartender as I hear is the proper custom in Belgium, I take a look at the cooler on the back wall and the number of taps, and I just fall the fhck out. Next thing I know I'll be waking up in a hospital with a guy talking Flemish to me.