Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Southern Tier Boys Never Dissappoint

Reddish orange in color with an orangish creamy head. Sweet caramel malt and piney hops on the nose. Oh I needed that. We're talking a strong caramel and raisiny malt just slightly overbalanced on the malt, but the hops make an appearance in the back of the palette. It's more of a barley wine than an Imperial IPA, but who the hell buys barley wine. 4 Stars for the Southern Tier Unearthly IPA.

So it turns out my birthday is this Saturday, my 30th birthday. And I must getting simpler as I get older. All my other birthdays I tried to invite everyone I've ever known for a cookout, beer, and maybe some UFC. Now I may still do all that, but Don Taylor is perfectly happy smoking cigars and drinking high quality beer with some of the boys at Downing Street at night with 18 holes of golf that morning. Otherwise, I'm just going to renovate my wardrobe a JA Bank and leave it alone. Must be old age.

As an added bonus to my birthday week, I made it to the AHA Rally at St. Arnold's Newery just north of downtown Houston last Sunday. Oh so sweet. This place was very spacious, with a drinking room that was lightly but tastefully decked out in brick and cream walls. Has the space to be a killer beer hall. The kettles provided the perfect backdrop. Brock Wagner himself did a one room tour. I bought a couple SA glasses which I used to drink the Spring Bock. I walked around waiting for someone to start speaking. But there was no agenda at all. I just chatted it up with the Foam Ranger boys and the Defalco's guys, as well as some other beer enthusiasts. And you could drink all the beer you wanted until 3PM. Now THAT'S A DAMN POLITICAL RALLY. You pay your money to join, then you drink beer as much beer as you can stomach until they kick you out. If the Tea Parties had this one, I would be right up there with Sarah Palin.

Had to cancel my trip to Toronto (sad face) as the job is more important and my projects come to a head right when I would be on my 5th pint at Volo. So I sent the email today to back out. (crying face). To make things better, I've resolved to drink Imperial IPA for the rest of this week, as I have a LOT of it and the wife doesn't like it. So that's a bomber a night all to myself. Should be fun. Thursday night we'll hit the Saucer and probably Downing Street. If I can get box seats to the rodeo, I'll check that out on Friday night. Saturday and Sunday I'll just visit some friends and relax.

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