http://www.reasonablyclever.com/lego/owlship/index.html

Blondes are not usually my type (in more ways than one), but I’m really glad I gave this a shot.

First thing I noticed was the color. Its clear, light, and almost hazeless. Not what I usually expect from a microbrew. There is a really interesting malt aroma that could be called citrusy.

Very little hop bitterness to it. I really like the malt aftertaste that in leaves in my mouth.

For under $2, I can’t complain about this. A nice, light summery beer. I’ll buy it again. Not stunning, but you could drink it all day.

6/10

Tonight I’m trying the Turbodog.

To start off, it poured way darker than I initially expected, but with a description on the bottle like this one, I probably shouldn’t be too surprised.

“Abita’s Turbodog is a dark brown ale brewed with a combination of pale, crystal and chocolate malts, dry-hopped with the finest Willamette hops, and fermented using a unique German ale yeast.”

The go on to mention toffee, and chocolate again.

It poured with very little head, which is not what their website photo would have you believe. It is, however, as dark as it looks in the pictures.

Not much but malt aromas, sweet, and sure, let’s call that toffee. Pretty accurate.

The flavor is not nearly as big as I expected looking at it. There is a chocolate to the maltiness, but its quickly lost to the lively carbonation that picks up in your mouth, but not in the glass. And the hops aren’t there too much, just some bittering.

Really, this is not at all as good as I had hoped. It feels like it needs MORE of something - more hops, more malt, more alcohol; something.

Is this beer bad? No, not at all. Its not great by any stretch, though. Were I offered one, would I turn it down? No. Will I buy it again? Probably not, even at $1.89 a bottle.

5/10

I grabbed to bottles of beer from Abita Brewing first, since a friend mentioned them recently. She’d had them on her honeymoon in New Orleans, and was trying to find some in the area. Yup, only one liquor store carries it.

Anyhow, the next thing I grabbed was the Lift Bridge Brown Ale from Keweenaw Brewing. They’ve had them in stock for a little bit now, and its kind of odd to see craft brews in a can.

So I picked the brown over the blonde and the red. After tonight though, I’ll probably try the others.

I can’t tell you what the color is like exactly - it comes in a can so I didn’t pour it. Felt more natural that way.

But I can tell you that its tasty, pretty light, and a good choice for a summer beer. The mouthfeel has a bit more body than I expected - but that’s probably just my surprise from drinking a good beer from a can.

Not too bad with pizza, and just bitter enough for a brown ale.

For $1.79 I will totally buy this again.

6/10

I thought about the Bittersweet Lenny for a while (possibly my favorite beer ever), but I didn’t want anything that big and hoppy tonight.

The manager isn’t crazy about fruit beers, so he didn’t think I should get the Origin, as its a pomegranate amber ale. But after talking it over with one of the other guys the consensus was “why not?” I like everything else I’ve ever had from the brewery, and I don’t mind fruit beers.

So I bought it on my way out the door.

First off, its not as red as I expected, even for an amber. It has a nice, deep gold color, and something closer to an amber at the heart. Pours without a lot of head.

It has a nice, fruity, sweet aroma. You can definately smell the malt, but there’s something else there too. I’m not enough of a fruit connoisseur to tell you, but I’m going to assume that’s what pomegranates smell like.

Its a nice change of pace from normal ales. Its not too weird that you’ll be turned off, but if you want something with a flavor that’s a bit off the path for an ale lover, this might be it. I wanted something fairly light, and not too hoppy - this fit the bill; you can taste the hops, but its not too much (although my tastes in hops runs a bit heavier than most).

I have no complaints, except that it might not be worth $6.19 a bottle. For a dollar less it might find its way into a mixed six pack more often, but as it stands, this’ll be something I’ll only get now and again.

7/10

The Watchmen comic is pretty excellent for instance, the paper cut-out method of animation fits the noir vibe really well, but the voice acting just kills it for me. The guy does a good job, but Sally Jupiter he aint. Anyone else have any thoughts on the new-media trend to animate comics for the web?

Neil Gaiman + Andy Kubert + Batman = ORGASMS OF PURE FUCKING GOLD

Via YesButNoButYes.

So tonight is the night Brian and I are brewing our first Barleywine. Sweet! We’ve never made one before so it’s gonna be sweet.

As we do every time we brew, we have a couple beers, hang out, jam some tunes, and make beer. I’ll blog our recipe later, but for now, I’ll be covering one of the beers we’re drinking tonight.

We started with one of our favorites, Bittersweet Lenny’s RIPA. Shortly thereafter, we opened up and split a bottle of Espresso Love from Arbor Brewing.

Its immediately evident from the scent that there’s coffee in this, no question. But hey, its a breakfast stout, right?

Generally, I dig it a lot. Its no Breakfast Stout but for $1.99, in my mind you can’t beat it.

Brian had this to say:

“There’s clearly nothing there but coffee. It was a little lighter than I expected. I’ve had it before, but its lighter than your average java stout. Its really dry, in fact. I mean, it finishes like, almost a tart, dry… until you get to the really, espresso, coffee aftertaste. Up against the front of your tounge, its really tart.”

He’s pretty right about that. Having worked at a big-name coffee shop for a couple months now, I would have to say that his characterization of the coffee flavors are more or less right.

All that said, I think I like it more than he does.

Reasonable, tasty, it deserves a 7.

Brian: 7/10
Ian!: 7/10

6/10