Ginger is one of my favorite flavors. I have ginger in my green tea, I garnish my food with it, I even use ginger toothpaste for that extra zing every morning. So when I was looking to satiate my ginger craving in The City (NYC) the big “Ginger” sign on this bottle drew me in from across the deli.

Unfiltered Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost has pure and natural ingredients and a wonderfully fresh mouth feel. Unlike other ginger beers and ginger ales, it doesn’t leave you with an unnatural tongue burn. As you can see in the picture above, the small pieces of ginger settle at the bottom and it is recommended to give the bottle a gentle shake before you drink. It is made it with a surprisingly simple list of ingredients: water, pure cane sugar, ginger, and citric acid .  There is only one Whole Foods Market in Michigan that is stocking this ginger ale but hopefully more will start [full distribution list here].

Michigan has had absolutely beautiful weather lately and there is no better way to spend a Spring evening than making music with friends.  In preparation for watching the sunset from my porch, Ian and I went for a quick shopping trip. As he perused the isles for the best microbrews, I search for root beer. I almost missed the stack of Abita root beer until he pointed out this six pack.

Abita brews their root beer with spring water and they use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. This root beer is not very rooty and gives you a very soft mouth feel. Abita has kept the carbonation low so that you can enjoy the subtle taste. I wouldn’t pair it with any overpowering flavors.

I am really happy to see Abita is making muslim-friendly drinks. I highly recommend their root beer. It has been a fast favorite for me.

8/10

P.S. Thanks a lot to the Beer and Comics crew for letting me post here! I like root beer almost just as much as they like beer. I look forward to sharing my passion with you all.

As for taste, there’s a definite sour bite to it. Its very similar to a lambic, or a spontaneously fermented beer. That could be expected though, from the scent. While I doubt this is spontaneously fermented, the apple certainly lends that character to it. The biggest surprise is the smokiness. I get that it’s a smoked apple porter, but I after reading the label which mentioned the smoked malts, I wasn’t necessarily excited for it. I thought that the malts would taste more burnt. This was clearly incorrect, and this is a smoky, slightly sweet, sour treat. Very different from anything I’ve had before. I can honestly say I’m thrilled by this in ways I hadn’t imagined I would be.

Is it the greatest beer known to man? No. Is it stellar? That’s up for debate. All I’m comfortable saying is that I really like it for it’s strangeness. In a career of tasting well over a thousand beers, I’ve never had anything like this. It is truly completely one hundred percent unique. Shorts is doing a great job of DOMINATING that category right now. Buy any of their special beers (I highly recommend Good Humans as well) and you will likely be knocked off your chair. Not by the booze, necessarily, but by the innovation.

8/10

A self-taught artist, Davis won the Eisner last year for pencils and inks; after hearing him talk and seeing some of his examples of each it’s no surprising. His layouts look like sketches, and his pencils look like layouts, somewhere in between the pencils and the inks magic happens. His work transforms into intricate, often Lovecraftian horrors and rich, detailed backgrounds. Knowing that the audience expects an explanation, Davis relies heavily on the idea that he’s just faking it; that he prefers going from very rough pencils to the detail work in his initial inking because he already knows what he wants, and drawing it twice doesn’t seem too prudent. His nonchalance with this idea alone should demonstrate how deserving he is of his Eisner. Not only is his art as good as anything out there today, his method is absolutely amazing.

As he recounted his history in comics, starting with his indie work for local zines drawing his teenage creation Quonto, on to his work with friend Mike Mignola on the B.P.R.D. books, he kept straying back to the idea that he was just faking it. While showing some of his early work on the anime inspired The Realm, he kept pointing out the inaccuracies of his figure work and as he passed through the rest of his catalog, he highlighted specific and general influences which have brought him to his current style. One interesting anecdote he shared was how, just after starting work on Baker Street, he sent a Zot! story sample to Eclipse, while not accepted for publication, it was passed on to Scott McCloud. McCloud recognized his potential, but also that his exposure to styles outside of the tights and cape look was limited. About a month later, Davis received a box of European comics to peruse for inspiration, courtesy of McCloud. Bringing up early and late art samples from Baker Street, Davis showed how his work had changed with the broader exposure to more gritty work to better match the gutter punk sensibilities of his story.

The other main theme of his talk was that of typecasting. After working on the Vertigo Sandman Mystery Theater, he developed a reputation as “the guy who draws hats,” while his true love was drawing hideous monsters. After years of work in progressively more disturbing books, Davis is happy splitting his time between working with friends and on his own, getting his fill* of both mainstream collaborative work with B.P.R.D. and genital inspired demons in The Marquis.

A few of my favorite insights from his talk had to do with character design and reputation in the industry. After looking at his entire history and seeing that with some of the sensibilities of his current work, he has in a sense come full circle, Davis commented, “It always comes back to hats and monsters.” When discussing his work on The Nevermen for Darkhorse Davis discussed that one of the inspirations for the style of the book was Dick Tracy; in that the heroes are very boring looking every-men, while the villains are physically grotesque and outlandish. Initially he received some resistance from his editors with some of his villain designs. Questions arose based on the plausibility of the designs, to which Davis responded that it was not important to think too hard about the why of the villains, but to remember that they were thugs and beyond that, their eccentricities were what made them comic book characters.

This idea carried throughout the talk, from the malleability of background composition, to the design of mechanical horrors. What kept surfacing was the idea as as long as you had an idea of how something should behave that is internally consistent with the world you’re describing, the reality of the actual depiction is not as important. When in doubt, don’t be afraid to just fake it.

*Not Literally

Good Humans is billed as a Dry Hopped Double Brown Ale.  Generally, I’m not much of a fan of brown ales.  I find them bland, and unimpressive in every respect.  On Ian’s recommendation, however, I bought a 6-er of this.  I also warned him that if I wasn’t into it, I’d punchisize him.  In a fierce way.

So, what was I expecting from this?  Well, I was expecting lots of malt.  Lots of really bland malt.  Maybe a teensy bit of hop in the nose, and a decent amount of alcohol; it is a double after all.

What was I given?  Well, in the nose, it’s major league hops.  Floral hops, citrus hops, grassy hops, dirty hops.  It’s hops though.  There’s a strange sweetness to it though, almost like strawberry preserves.

As far as mouthfeel, it’s light and fluffy, with some carbonation.  It doesn’t stick to the tongue, it just flows over smoothly and lightly.

The taste was the true kicker though.  It broke all of my expectations.  All of them.  It was not like anything I expected.  It is really hoppy.  Not like an IIPA, but very hop flavored.  It’s got a weird sweetness that I wasn’t necessarily prepared for.  Very fruity.  Very strange.  Very delicious.  Nothing at all like a brown ale.  Very delicious.  The genius responsible for this beer is certainly a Good Human of the highest caliber.

8.5/10

brian!

I didn’t cool this at all, room temp all the way.  While this is great for the flavors, it makes it a pain in the ass to pour!  This poured a delightful copper brown that I have come to know and love, and generally revere as being the epitome of beer color.  It poured a (pain in the ass) thick khaki colored head, which strangely dissipated rather quickly…  However, what you’re seeing in this picture above, is what it still looks like after 20 minutes. The lacing just does not go away.  Well played trappist monks, well played.

What can you say about the smell?  Well, it smells belgian.  Characteristically belgian in every form and facet.  Very estery, slightly sweet, no hops; belgian.

The taste can be described much as the smell.  This is the taste of a fine belgian ale.  It has a rather bubbly mouthfeel, and strangely light, but this is characterstically belgian as well.  It’s a bit sweet, and definitely fruity.  Bananas, pears and the like.  Sure, this sounds like every other belgian, but honestly, this should be the benchmark.  If you are not as good as Chimay Red, refine your technique, and do over until you’re better.

7.5

First off, let me tell you how I managed to come across this beer…  I first heard of it though a good friend of Beer and Comics, Laura Bell.  Yes, Laura, the son of Larry Bell.  The owner of Bell’s Brewing.  Laura has been a good friend of Ian’s and mine for some years now.  We were at a friends wedding when she dropped some knowledge on me about the availability of this beer and that she’d really like to see it reviewed.  I promised that if I were able to get my grubby paws on it, I would review it accurately.  Fast forward 1.5 months to today.  I received this beer as a gift for the completion of my grad school application from my friend Phantom at today’s hash.  I’ve been THRILLED with the possibility to have this for some time, and glad it finally happened.

The pour:  a bit cloudy, and somewhere between tan and amber.  Like a dark orange.  The head didn’t stick around long, and didn’t leave much lacing.

The smell:  This smells like IIPA’s should smell.  Hoppy.  There is a slight sweetness to it, but it’s overwhelmingly hoppy.  And AMAZING.  It is no secret that is what I like, and like to smell in a beer, and certainly Bell’s Oracle doesn’t disappoint.

The taste:  a medium body, with a well carbonated mouthfeel.  It’s very hoppy and bitter.  There’s a hint of malt at the front of the mouth, but it is overwhelmingly bitter.  I LOVE IT.  Fantabulous.

I’m really really happy with this.  I’ve been waiting for Bell’s to do this for some time now, as I LOVE IIPA’s.  If you can still find this out there, do it.

9/10

Long time, no read. I’ve had a pretty crazy summer and sadly my blogging (and drinking) have suffered mightily. Luckily it appears that  things are finally settling down and I’ve been able to successfully hop off the wagon and hit the ground running/stumbling. If I seem a bit rusty, I hope you understand.

I picked up a bottle of Cascade Traditional Mead at Dusty’s and enjoyed it as an after dinner treat last week. I’m a big fan of meads in general but their relative scarcity makes them something of an oddity. I’m not going to lie to you good people of the aether and tell you that I haven’t considered starting an apiary for the sole purpose of brewing my own, but I’m not sure my neighbors would appreciate it. Hit the jump for my thoughts on Cascade Mead.

Cascade Cellars is a Michigan operation based out of Grand Rapids. Their prices reflect the fact that West Michigan is not known as prime grape country, but with a mead that really is not an issue. Overall I was pleased with Cascade’s offering, it is sufficiently boozy but never overpowering. It isn’t as robust as the Chaucer’s Mead that I reviewed previously, but mead doesn’t need to be robust to be good. The most prominent feature of this mead is that it has a freshness that is uncommon in alcoholic beverages. The flowery taste of most meads was much less pronounced but was certainly there, however the taste conjured a feeling of the air above the fields of clover than of the clover itself. While I would have appreciated a bit more complexity in this draught, I wasn’t disappointed. If mead is your thing it’s definitely worth picking up a bottle.

Also:
Sart Wars!