A Stout Weekend

On a recent trip to visit me here in Saint Louis, one of my best friends (AB... pictured to the right) from Madison, Wisconsin met a lovely young lady and they struck up a romance. Subsequent to that original meeting, they have been commuting back and forth to visit one another giving me an opportunity to see my best friend with greater frequency than any time I can remember outside of our college years! Since STL is a vacation destination for him, we took one of his recent trips here as a time for some serious RandR. 

First up... Fountain on Locust. This is a retro styled soda fountain style restaurant that prides itself on its retro cocktails (think Old-Fashioneds / Gimlets / Grasshoppers) diner style food and they claim to have the "Americas Best Restroom" (I dropped a deuce there once... it wasn't THAT great. Since this place is famous for its cocktails, I felt like I would be remiss if I did not have at least one cocktail. I KNOW it's against the spirit of this blog, but I drank a Grasshopper. For those readers not familiar with a Grasshopper, it is a classic after dinner drink consisting of ice cream, and green creme de menthe. This one was came complete with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was fucking good! Minty as shit and smooth like butter. Like I said, I KNOW this is supposed to be a beer blog, but every now and then its nice to try something different!

After Fountain, we headed down to the Schlafly Taproom in downtown STL. I have been here far too many times and have drank pretty much every beer style they have in the house. However, I know that AB likes the Stouts, so I decided to try one of their special brews, the Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout. This is a beer aged in Bourbon barrels that is incredibly aromatic and highly potent. Served in a Brandy snifter to highlight some of the oak-y and malty aromas that this 10.5% ABV beer is not only delicious but also easy to drink! This beer goes down smooth and delivers on the promise on the label that the "Bourbon Barrel" aging process posits. A real treat and most definitely a "special occasion beer" for those of you with a palate for stiff stouts!

We finished off the night with a Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout. This beer should really need no introduction and the fact that I am reviewing it is almost a joke. This beer is the shit. It is consistently ranked as one of the best beers in the world from one of the best breweries in the world. I will not even subject it to a review. Just fucking buy it! Seriously, do yourself a favor, even if you don't like stouts. Buy this beer and drink it. If you don't like it, I will buy the beer back from you because it is THAT good!
 

Till next time, and as always, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure just click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. 

Typical Minnesota Evening

When I think of what a "normal" night in Minnesota might consist of, I think about getting drunk. Being a native of the (previously) great state of Wisconsin, I can appreciate the idea of how most evenings should be spent in the company of good friends, appreciating cocktails or beers until the alcohol wins and you must pass out before the sun rises. Perhaps my perspective is slightly skewed to highlight the drinking... but this is a drinking blog after all! There are few things in life as important to me as my friends. Although I have spent very little time with them, Abby's friends from college (Kyle and Erika), who currently live in Minneapolis are considered to be great friends. These are people I would go out of my way to see and to spend time with. They were part of my wedding and we always make an effort to spend time with them when we can. Seeing as how I spent the last weekend attending a conference in downtown Minneapolis I wanted to take this time to see them again!

My week in Minneapolis was very busy talking Science with other like minded "nerds" and discussing the intricacies of neurobiology and the complexities of behavioral neuroscience. Honestly, all I wanted to do was go hang out with my friends Kyle and Erika and drink some Surly! Fortunately for me, I was able to break free for the chaos of the conference for one night to grab dinner with them and pound a beer or 6! 

Since I was without a car, Kyle and Erika picked me up at my hotel and we headed to the Nordeast section of Minneapolis. Although I did not get conformation of this, I believe the term "Nordeast" to be some sort of Norwegean or Dutch version of the word "North East". We ate burgers on the patio of a bar called "Bulldog NE" and drank some brews! My first beer of the evening was Surly Brewing Company's Furious. Furious is an American style Pale Ale that is dark in color and loaded to the brim with hops. I love this beer. It always reminds me of being in Minneapolis and how much fun I have there. Since its only available in the MSP area I "HAD" to consume at least 2 of them!

My next beer was Rush River Brewing Company's Unforgiven. After drinking a Furious, the Unforgiven tasted like a more watery amber ale. They claim this beer to be a session beer and comes in at a meager 5.5% ABV but was over powered by the Surly. I feel bad that I can't give this beer a raving review seeing as how I typically love Wisconsin beers. Maybe next time I am in the area, I will give their beers another try!

After dinner we hit up a MSP landmark. Nye's Polka Bar is a dark throwback to the 1970's. Stiff drinks, cheap beer, classic 70's style vinyl booths and of course some crazy old guy on an organ playing classic rock and oldies in a karaoke style. By this time, we had gained one to our group, one of E and K's friends from the NE neighborhood, Alison, joined us in singing classic Bob Seager songs and drinking more beers! Since there were NO craft beers in this joint, I went with the closest thing I could find: Leinenkugels Honey Weiss. The beer was served in large (probably 24 oz) glasses that were frosty cold and served with a slice of lemon. I rarely drink this beer, but it used to be one of my favorite brews when I first started drinking. Pounding 2 of these while singing songs and hanging out with good friends really reminded me of my "good old days" and made the experience of Nye's all that more enjoyable.

It was a great night with great friends and I hope they were not too hung over for work the next day! I hope too much time doesn't pass before I get to see them again!

Anyway, that's enough mushy-ness for one post. Stay tuned, as I am brewing a batch of homebrew this weekend and will be again blogging the recipe and keeping my readers posted on the status of the beer!

Till next time, and as always, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure just click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. 

Battle of the Scotch Ales

Beer people are great! They are always willing to share stories of great beers and some are even kind enough to share cherished beer with friends and fellow beer people. In a recent blog entry, I spoke with Keeley McGrew of HandleBar fame about what beer she would drink if it were the last beer she could ever have. Her answer, for those who may have missed that blog entry, was Three Floyd's Robert the Bruce. In her kindness, she even shared one of her precious RtB's for me to review (big thanks Keeley and Paul!). This is a Scottish Style Ale with a malty body and very sweet notes of caramel and roasted grain. This is a malt lovers beer! Right out of the gate, as soon as I poured this beer from the bottle, I was blown away by the rich, dark color and the scent of sweet, sweet caramel. The beer poured thick and rich with a beautifully foamy head that begged to be drank. It coated the tongue in a smooth layer of malty, tasty goodness that lingered and made you anticipate the next sip. Coming in at a hefty 7.0 ABV this is a very drinkable beer that packs a punch! When I was finished with this beer, I was very sad. Sad because there is no place in St Louis for me to get this beer again. I believe Chicago to be the closest place where this beer can be purchased, so if any of my loyal readers are heading that way and would like to bring back a case of this beer for me, I would not only pay you for it, but be indebted to you for some time to come!

My foray into Scottish Style Ales continued next with Schafly's Scotch Ale. Coming in at a meager 6.2 ABV, this beer seemed almost "watery" compared to the RtB. Schlafly's version was significantly lighter in color and lacked the sweetness that I experienced in the RtB. I would say, this is not a "Bad" beer, but when you put it up against such an amazing beer in RtB, its hard to say anything spectacular about Schlafly's attempt at a Scottish Style Ale.

My last beer of the evening, a generous gift from friend and reader of the blog, Mr AB, was Ale Asylum Brewery's Sticky McDoogle. Coming in at a "not to shabby" 7.2%ABV, It is my opinion that this beer is closer in nearly all aspects to the RtB than it is to Schlafly's attempt at a Scottish Ale. It still lacks the color and the caramel-y finish that I loved so much about RtB but remains a well balanced and wonderfully complex beer. For me, the determining difference between this and RtB is the lighter color and the grainy, 2 row barley finish. This beer is smooth and finishes great!

This was a great experience doing 3 beers of similar styles for comparison. I think I will try this more often! I want to again thank some of the people involved with bringing me beer: Keeley, Paul and AB, you are wonderful people and I thank you for sharing your beer with me!

Till next time, and as always, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure just click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here.  

Pitchers of Summit

One of many pitchers of Summit

I am spending the next 3 days in Minneapolis attending a conference where I will again talk about my laboratory work (day job). I always relish these opportunities because that means I will be able to drink beer that I normally can't get in Saint Louis.

Yesterday, after the conference had concluded for the day, my boss dragged me out to drink with him. We ended up at the hotel bar at the Hyatt and I was a little disappointed with the beer selection. In typical "sports bar" fashion, the bar carried your standard, Miller/Bud products with almost a complete lack of anything resembling a craft beer. I say, an "almost" complete lack of craft beer, because they did have the Summit Extra Pale Ale on tap and fortunately, this is the beer that my boss ordered! Don't get me wrong, since he was paying, I would have drank pretty much anything!

The Summit EPA is a refreshing, light in color pale ale that with a malty pale finish and just enough hops to be noticed. This beer was a "craft beer" before most people even knew what a craft beer was. It was originally brewed in 1986 and has recently been awarded the following awards:

• Gold, 2010 World Beer Cup®, Classic English-Style Pale Ale
• Silver, 2010 Great American Beer Festival®, Classic English-Style Pale Ale

My boss and I knocked back pitcher after pitcher until we called it a night. I easily polished off at least a pitcher or two myself and was feeling pretty drunk after all was said and done. Although I typically like to try many different styles of beer when I'm out drinking, the fact remains that free beer is always the best tasting beer. and even though the EPA is not the best Pale Ale that I have ever had, I feel good knowing that I drank some local flavor and it didn't cost me a dime!

As always, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure just click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here.  

Graduation Party!

As loyal readers of my blog will know, my wife recently defended her PhD and graduated from graduate school. Last night, to celebrate this accomplishment and to also wish her well on her summer adventure as she travels to Woods Hole MA. for "Science Camp", we hosted a little get together with some of our closest friends in St Louis to eat some burgers and drink some beers! I would like to thank all those in attendance for helping make this a special occasion, specifically Justin and Griffin from the hit podcast My Brother My Brother and Me for their message to our party!

I wanted to blog about last night, even though I didn't dip into any really great beers, just to commemerate the evening and solidify it in the annals for the blogosphere. Also, I have been feeling slightly guilty about not writing (read: drinking) as much as I know I am capable of! Being in the last 4 months of my PhD and having to move across country may not have been the smartest time for me to start a blog where I drink copious amounts of alcohol to entertain relatively few readers! Oh well.

So, last night I had a wonderful conversation with my friend Dan P. about my current favorite IPA and I figured, since I had not blogged about this topic, nor had I consumed any reviewable beers last night that I would take this opportunity to blog about this! As I have made clear to all my readers, I am a "hop head". I love IPA's and for me to declare one absolute favorite is a pretty bold statement. I would love to hear from my readers how they feel my IPA choices rank with their favorites.

Top 5
5) Schlafly APA
4) Great Divide, Titan IPA
3) Bear Republic, Racer IPA
2) O'Fallon, 5 Day IPA
1) Ska, Modus Hoperandi

All of these beers with the exception of the Bear Republic have been reviewed previously by me, however, I will make an effort to get this beer reviewed ASAP!


As always, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure just click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. 

Commencement Celebrations!

 I would like to start this post by first congratulating my beautiful wife for successfully defending her thesis and obtaining her PhD! I would also like to thank the electrical line workers who promptly returned power to my house after last weeks storms so that I can write this here post, but more on that later. I would also like to apologize to my loyal followers for my lack of posts in the past week. My schedule has been preoccupied with post commencement celebrations, shuttling parents from engagement to engagement and keeping busy with my work which includes speaking at a regional conference over the memorial day weekend. Since I was so busy, my beer drinking was sort of limited in both scope and breadth, so I figured lumping all the beers I drank together into one big post would be an easy way to share with you, my experiences over the past week.

First off, early in the week I picked up a 6 pack of Left Hand Brewery's Milk Stout. I have previously had some of Left Hand's other beers; none of which I have ever blogged about, but suffice it to say that given my previous experience with Left Hand, that I had very high hopes for their Milk Stout being a winner! Indeed, my hopes were not dashed! This is a really wonderful beer! The beer pours with a rich head and dark body that lets little to no light through. It finishes with a sweet and caramel finish that you sometimes don't get from other stouts. I believe that LH's website summarizes the experience of drinking this beer really well when it says "Milk sugar in your stout is like cream in your coffee". If you like a dark beer with a sweet finish and great mouth feel, pick up a six pack of this stellar brew!

Tank 7 by lamplight

For all those readers not from the Saint Louis area, last week we experienced some pretty horrible springtime weather. We had pounding rain, tornado sightings, extremely large hail and wind gusts that blew down trees. As a result, my house was without power for 24 hours. In my neighborhood there were 6 trees that knocked down major power lines and caused a lot of damage. Fortunately, my house is still standing and the only inconvenience to me, was a little leaf and branch clean up, and of course the fact that my power was out for 24 hours! I didn't want to open the refrigerator for fear that the food in there would spoil, so Abby and I decided to go out to dinner. After a couple of Stone Levitations at Barristers Pub in Clayton, I still wanted another beer, so we stopped off and grabbed a bottle of Boulevard Tank 7 and hoped that the power would have returned so I could enjoy this beer. Tank 7 is classified as a "Saison" style beer, however, with strong fruity notes, this beer is just barely reminiscent of a Belgain style ale. The hops in the beer are present but not over whelming and the light color in this beer make it extremely drinkable for an 8%ABV beer. I really like Boulevard beers and this one is so unique and flavorful that it has lost its "special occasion only" status and has been promoted to a "daily drinker"! Unfortunately, when we returned home to drink this beer, our power had not yet returned. Abby and I turned this negative into a positive however. I grabbed my iPod and put some music on, turned on my camping lantern and we played cards and drank beer by lamp light all night. It was like we were camping in our living room! It was a truly wonderful night at home with the wife!

The power returned the next day and life returned to normal, and as is customary on Thursday nights, we went to HandleBar for trivia night. I was informed by friend of the blog, Paul McGrew, that 2nd Shift Brewery's hop filled Art of Neurosis was flowing on tap and as a self proclaimed "hop-head", boy was I excited for this beer. This is a 7.1% ABV "hop sandwich" featuring Simcoe and Columbus hops. It pours from the keg with a golden light color that is clear and emits an odor of almost pure hop tea. It finishes very clean with the crispness you would expect from a beer destined to be in the hands and mouths of hop heads everywhere. I am currently unaware if this beer is being bottled and sold anywhere in Saint Louis, I believe this beer is a limited engagement as the 2nd Shift website claims that they "should be making this one again soon". I really hope its sooner than later because I NEED to get this beer again!

Our trivia team this week did pretty bad, and by "pretty bad" I mean we tied for last place! This did not concern me in the least however. Maybe this weeks topics were just not in our wheelhouse. I am confident we will be able to redeem ourselves next week... at least I hope so! I also hope the AON will still be on tap next week!

As always, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure just click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. I am also keeping a compiled list of beers tasted HERE that you can look at.   

Headin' to the HandleBar

This blog post also got lost in the shuffle... it may be a little outdated, but there is still some good stuff in there.

Tonight was a busy night. It started off with a Pubcrawl meeting where we purchased all of our costumes for the upcoming Quinceanera Crawl. It is going to be a blast and I hope to see all of my readers there as we celebrate the 15th year of Pubcrawls through the Central West End. You can respond your attendance on the Facebook group page found HERE or you can just join us at the following bars (you may have to decipher our "spanglish" interpretation of some of these bars):

6:00 Tortillaria
6:40 Zona de Loading
7:20 Flora Loco
8:00 Rosa’s
8:40 34 Casa
9:20 Cantina Louie
10:00 El Duff’s
10:40 El Dressel’s
11:20 !Viva!

Titan IPA

After we gathered our costumes together (we look great by the way), we capped the meeting at Wildflower for a quick beer or two. My first beer there was Grand Rapids Michigan's Founders "Dirty Bastard". Dirty Bastard is a very malty Scotch Ale that was, for the lack of a better word, good. there was nothing Earth shattering about this beer. It's a pretty standard Scotch ale. It may be a little maltier than most, but I am so much more a hops guy than a malt guy, so maybe this beer was just not for me!

Second and Third beers were both the "Titan IPA" made by Great Divide Brewery which I have blogged about in a previous post. This is one of my favorite beers of the moment and I will have to suggest that everyone try it!

Cheers! PCC!

After 3 beers, it was time to play some softball! We have been bombarded with rain in Saint Louis this year, essentially ruining any hopes for a normal softball season. The weather tonight, however, was spectacular and we were able to get our game in without incident! After our hard fought victory, we were looking for a place to grab a cold beer. The HandleBar on Manchester Ave was where we ended up. Not only do they have an exceptionally great selection of beers, but they also have wonderful food and a very unique bicycle theme throughout the entire bar. A unique feature of this place is the selection of local beers they have on tap. This is not the place to go if you are looking for some of that "fizzy yellow stuff".

Mena hiding!

Tonight I started off with 2nd Shift's Colaboration ale This beer was a little light for my tastes, so I decided to jump back to an old favorite for my following 2 beers; O'Fallon Brewery's "5 Day IPA". For all intents and purposes, this is my "go-to" beer when I am looking for a delicious craft beer. It has a rich dark color and the hops are present and almost sweet to the tounge, making it a very easy to drink IPA. O'Fallon does not distribute much outside of the Midwest, making this a beer that will be missed when I move away from here.

The HandleBar, proved to be a very welcoming place with everything I look for in a good bar; great local tap beer, awesome selection of food, knowledgeable and interesting bartenders and of course, my favorite, trivia nights! I really enjoyed myself tonight and hope to sample more of the delicious beers they have on tap. If you would like more info on the HandleBar, follow the link to their website HERE... or follow them on Twitter like I am... they are @HandleBarSTL.

In my continuing "Adventure", I like to become inspired by the people who serve me beer! With this in mind, this is the part of my post, where I ask my bartender the following question: If you had committed some heinous crime and were to be sentenced to death... What would your last beer be before you were put to death?"

It is an admittedly morbid thought, but I think it not only yields insight into the personality of my bar keep, but also exposes me to potentially interesting beers!

Tonight my bartender was a perky and very knowledgeable young woman by the name of Keelee (I hope I spelled it right). Keelee stated that she would want her last beer to be Northern Indiana's own 3 Floyd's "Robert the Bruce". I did not drink this beer tonight, but found out later that this beer is a malty "Scotch Ale" named after the great Scottish King and Warrior. Being completely uninterested in history, I had never heard of "Robert the Bruce" (The beer or the man) before this evening, and found it interesting, that one of the patrons of the bar who had over heard my conversation with Keeley knew a whole lot about the man (not so much about the beer). I didn't get this fine young man's name, so I will refer to him as "Historian", because he really did know a lot about history. Historian went on and on about all the reasons that Robert the Bruce was such a great king and that he fought vast armies to keep the Scottish safe... most of which I sort of tuned out because I wanted to drink my beer! However, I did take away the fact that Robert the Bruce, was sort of like the character of King Leonidis' in the movie "300" where he slaughtered massive amounts of enemies in order to preserve his land. I intend to find out more about "Robert the Bruce" (the beer) in coming weeks as I add it to my list of beers to seek out. If any of my readers spot this beer around Saint Louis, please post in the comments below where you have spotted this beer!

That is all for today, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure, please click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. I am also keeping a compiled list of beers tasted HERE that you can look at.   

Start of Craft Beer Week

Today is the start of American Craft Beer Week. Do your duty and follow the links to find out more about American Homebrewers Association founder and all around beer guy, Charlie Papazian and the festivities contained in American Craft Beer Week. I would also like to give a big STL shout out to fellow beer blogger Mike from STLHops.com for keeping me in the loop about all sorts of great beer events going on all around the Saint Louis area!

To celebrate the start of Craft Beer Week, I decided to highlight 3 of my favorite breweries in this post! First up, Saint Louis's own Schlafly Brewery. Schlafly has been a staple of the Saint Louis's beer scene for 20 years now and they have recently grown in popularity due to the fact that 1) they make awesome beer and 2) people want to support the local economy and not give their money to (evil) AB/InBev! Schlafly has been a favorite of mine since I first moved to Saint Louis 6 years ago and even in that short time, they have changed and evolved making better and better beers to keep up with up and coming beer trends. For a long time, their Dry Hopped APA was my "go to" beer! Tonight I started Craft Beer Week with their "special release" Export IPA, a British Style IPA with fruity/yeasty notes and a lemony citrus bite from the British style hops used in this 7.2% ABV beauty. I typically love west coast style IPA's, and this is NOT one of those, but I still loved it! This is bitter and fruity and has a really strong caramel malt backbone to stand up to those big flavors. I drank three of these things; one right after the other because they were so delicious and also because at the time I was unaware that they were so high in alcohol!

Next up, Great Lakes Brewing Company's Burning River. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit the Great Lakes Brewery while on a trip thru Cleveland last fall and I was not only shocked at how good the beers were, but about how awesome the company itself is. GLBC prides itself on what it calls the "Triple Bottom Line" - to engage in economic, social and environmental practices that achieve a sustainable, yet profitable, business. I could go into detail about how much I liked that they use their low fills of Ela Fitsgerald in their ice cream sundae's to avoid waste, or how they grow their own crops for the food they serve in the brewpub, or how they feed their spent grains to the cattle that eventually make their way to the tables at the brewpub to highlight exactly how they run such an a virtuous business, but that would be distracting from the fact they make kick ass beers!

The Burning River is an IPA with very crisp clean flavor. It is a super drinkable IPA bursting with Cascade Hop citrus notes that I absolutely love and which makes this beer one of my favorites! I am not the only one who who thinks this is a great beer, in fact they have won multiple awards for this beer and believe me, they deserve it! This is a great beer!

For my last beer of the night, I went with a proverbial favorite of mine Ale Asylum's Hopalicious. This is a treat that I can only get in Madison, Wisconsin, and therefore I only break it out on special occasions or to share with other like minded beer nerds! 11 separate Cascade Hop additions make this IPA a floral bombing of your mouth! The citrus and pine notes dominate over a crisp clean pale ale body that doesn't interfere with the enjoyment of my favorite hop flavor! Truly a treat and one that I wish all my readers could experience! This is the beer I think of when I think of home!

Please follow me on this Drinking Adventure! Click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. I am also keeping a compiled list of beers tasted HERE that you can look at.   

Homebrew Update!!

transfer into the secondary with excess hops

The Indian Brown Ale that I started last week has been transferred from the primary fermentation vessel to the secondary fermentation vessel. In this process, I have also added 1oz of whole leaf cascade hops to the mix. This process is called "dry hopping" and will add a lot of aroma and hop flavor to this malty ale.

cat not required to make good beer

My next step is to bottle this beer. Bottling can be a tedious task. The hops need to be filtered out and priming sugar needs to be added to the beer. Priming sugar is needed to carbonate the beer. The dormant yeast in the beer, will experience a boost of sugar and wake up! They will consume the bottling sugar creating CO2 gas that pressurizes the bottle and carbonates the beer. It really is a magical thing!

dead yeasties

Hoppy Dead Guy

 I find it nearly impossible to not drink while I play with my beer. Today I chose one of my previous homebrews. This was supposed to be a clone of Rogue's Dead Guy Ale that I dry hopped. It turned out more malty than a normal Dead Guy; however, I am very pleased with how this beer tastes. It has great color and pours with a thick head of foam that clings to the glass beautifully.

If you would like more info on the progress of This batch of homebrew, or on anything beer related, please follow me on this Drinking Adventure! Click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. I am also keeping a compiled list of beers tasted HERE that you can look at.   

Trivia Night at The HandleBar

Trivia night at The HandleBar is a good time. In fact, its better than a good time, its a great time! Especailly if you like trivia and you have some good friends to play with! The trivia consists of 5 rounds. Each round has 5 different questions and you place a "bet" on how many points you want to risk based on how confident you are are in your answer. The point values go up as you progress through the night and the questions also get progressively more difficult. The two guys who run the triva actually have personality and pick topical trivia that is fun to answer. All of this, and there is great beer to drink!

For all your beer needs, I would recommend talking to Keeley at the bar. She is easily identified as a knowledgeable beer person by her grain and hops tattoos on her forearms. The HandleBar also has some good drink specials, like their version of a beer grab bag where you may get lucky by getting a good beer, or you may end up with a Stag, either way, its cheap and will get ya drunk!

Tonight I started off with a Ferguson IPA. They actually put their own home grown hops into their beer, and its that type of attention to detail that I can really appreciate! This is a very clean IPA that does not over power on the hops or the malt making it very approachable to people who may not be comfortable drinking craft beers.

After 2 of those, my homie, Mena, hooked me up with a Moose Drool in a can. This is a great dark beer from Big Sky Brewing. They say that this is a "brown ale" but it is my contention that it is too dark for a brown ale and is bordering on a porter. Regardless of nomenclature, this is a great beer for those who like malty beers. There is virtually no hop bitterness and it is a dark sweet mixture that goes down smooth and is surprisingly pleasant to drink out of a can!

I guzzled down 1 more Moose Drool in a can and Abby and Mena took down some Keystone and Stag respectively as we rolled to the final round of trivia. Going into the final round, we were in 5th place and felt like we were pretty much out of the running for the money (they give away prizes for winning trivia too if I didn't mention that earlier). The goal of this last round was to match the actor/actress to the 3 movies they list. Unfortunately I don't remember the names of the movies, but it is  insignificant as none of us had even heard of any of these movies. Using our powers of scientific reasoning, however, by matching the ages of the people listed to the years of the movies release, we deduced all the correct answers and leapfrogged 3 teams to take 2nd place and win 10$ that we will likely spend next Thursday at trivia night again!!!

I can't wait for trivia night next week!

As always, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure, please click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. I am also keeping a compiled list of beers tasted HERE that you can look at.