26 February 2023

1749. Taxman 1040EZ

Once upon a time, Taxman was my favorite Indiana brewery.
That has changed.  This beer sucks.  

I was over at the Miller house, watching Bayern and celebrating Mason's birthday (who shares his birthday with the founding day of FC Bayern Munich).  I found this beer in their fridge, and Garrett offered it to me.

And it sucks.  The flavor isn't good.  It's dry.
I'm not a fan.




22 February 2023

1748. Destihl Hawaii Five Ale

Hm.
I should have known.
Wait, first things first.
Tonight Jason Maier, Jason Richardson and myself are recording our March episode of Shane Talks.
I'm opening the episode discussing this beer.

Back to the beer.
After the terrible taste of the Peanut Butter Cup over the weekend, I was scared to buy this beer.
And for good reason.
But it said "coconut" and you KNOW those are my magic words to get me to buy a beer.  
Or a drink.
Or a deodorant.
Or a body spray.
Or a body wash.
Or a candle.
Or a lotion.
It's just a magical word!

Destihl is NOT becoming a favorite brewery of mine.
My first clue, when I poured the beer, it sounded like I was pouring a fizzy soda.
My first drink had ZERO flavor to it - like it had less flavor than a Miller High Life.
However, some favor does sneak into the back, but it's not a nice blending of th flavors, it's like drinking a suicide from the gas station.  They are all just there, and don't work well together.

Major disappointment.





18 February 2023

1747. Steven's Point PB Cup

DID I OPEN THE SAME BEER?
This crap tastes just as bad as the previous beer I threw out!
Ugh.  Tonight has turned into a huge disappointment.
One drink, and the taste was exactly like the previous crap beer.
So, I let this one sit for 30 minutes to warm up, and see if that chalky-taste would go away.
It did not.  It also got poured down the sink.

Years ago, I would refuse to pour beer down the sink.
Years ago, I would not "waste" beer the way I did tonight.
But now, I refuse to subject my mouth to beer that sucks.




1746. Destihl Peanut Butter Porter

Uh, this beer sucks.
This is not a good beer.
Their attempts at chocolate flavor obviously comes from cacao, because it's dry and chalky.
This beer lacks all peanut butter flavor, because all I can taste is dry powder.
Three drinks, and I poured out the rest of this beer.  
I wasn't willing to subject myself to any more of this terribleness.




Double Peanut Butter Cup Night

These two beers have been sitting in my fridge for a few weeks.
My original goal was to drink them on Valentine's Day, with some Reese's Hearts (my LEAST favorite Reese's holiday offering, as it has the worst PB:Chocolate ratio out of all of them), but I never got around to buying the hearts, and just didn't care about it enough on that day.

So, I was at the store and saw the Eggs, which are the BEST PB:Chocolate Ratio, and I figured I'd repurpose my purpose of buying those beers.

Now, here we are.  It's Saturday night, and I'm going to pair each beer with a Reese's Egg.
Delicious times.




17 February 2023

Founders Green Zebra Rankings

Showed up at Joe's Fishers tonight to hang out with my buddy Ben.
My friend Durant was bartending, and was very happy to show off the Green Zebra Variety Pack that he ordered for the bar.  I saw this a perfect opportunity to try some tasty new beers for the website.

And now, I'm going to give my final rankings.

#1. Mango.  There's just something great about this one.  The mango flavor is powerful and sour, and I think it's really tasty.
#2. Watermelon.  The original, it's still delicious, and it's so refreshing.  Perfect flavor.
#3. Pineapple.  Not sour, not tart, just a powerful pineapple flavor that would be perfect for sitting on the beach on a hot summer day.  Very refreshing.
#4.  Peach.  Blah.  Not a fan.  Very powerful peach flavor, that's not sour or tart at all.  If you like peach, you should like this - I do not.




1745. Founders Green Zebra Pineapple

Green Zebra #4 - Pineapple!
This one is good, it's not great.  It does have the pineapple flavor down perfect, but it also lacks any sour or tart-ness to the beer.  It's still tasty, and I think it would be perfect for a hot summer day on the beach.  The pineapple flavor is very refreshing.
Easily the third best Green Zebra tonight.




1744. Founders Green Zebra Peach

Green Zebra #3 - Peach.
Blah.  I'm not a big peach fan, and this has serious peach flavor.
It's also the least sour or tart of any Green Zebras so far.
I'm not a fan of this at all.  I'm putting it into last place - yes, fourth place, I can't imagine the next one can be worse than this.
If you like peach, you should like this.




1743. Founder Green Zebra Mango

Green Zebra #2 - MANGO!
The original Green Zebra is very good, but the Mango is a step up.
I really enjoy the citrus flavor, and this one tastes a little more sour than tart.
Mango has moved into the #1 spot on the Green Zebra Charts.




1140 REVISITED: Founders Green Zebra (Watermelon)

The date was July 15th, 2018.
France and Croatia were playing in the World Cup.
It was the first official time that my family hung out with Garrett's family, and of course Ryan Miller was late to the party.  We tried to go to Chatham Tap, but two hours before the match, they were full.
So, we ended up down the street getting pizza, and I had this beer (Beer #1140) for the first time.

It was delicious.
It is still delicious.
Wonderful Gose, not super sour, but a nice tart.
I am still a fan.





AND.  Tonight, I get to try three variant for the first time! 
So, here we go!

12 February 2023

1742. Metazoa Good Boy

Super Bowl Second Half!
Rihanna was a decent halftime show, I was disappointed that Eminem didn't show up to do either of their songs together.  But, her song selection was nice, and the dancing was interesting.  Kind of minimal, but nothing wrong with that.  Visually had some moments.

So, as the Chiefs kick off, I'm opening a beer from Metazoa, and it's fine.
It's a pilsner, and it tastes exactly how a pilsner should.
It's light and easy to drink, and the flavor is what I expect.
So, it's a fine beer, but there's nothing special or unique about it.




1741. Four Day Ray Mystic Ember

Super Bowl Beer #1!
My original plan was to find a Kansas City beer and a Philly Beer, and then drink whichever one of them won the Super Bowl.
Then I was thinking about getting those two beers and drinking one each half, based on whoever had the first possession in each half.
But then I would need one more from each city, so that I could drink to whoever the winner was.
And in typical Shane fashion, I completely talked myself out of even trying this, because I was giving myself so much anxiety over it.

Instead, I'm starting off the Super Bowl with the beer that was given to me by my buddy Ray.
A Four Day Ray from Ray.  That was cute.

It's  a good rauchbier.  I enjoy it, but I think I would honestly enjoy it more around the campfire.
I don't know exactly why, by the flavors of this beer, invoke the memories of a campfire, and I think this beer would be a good one for a chilly night, that's warmed up with a fire.  

The smokiness gives the beer a warm flavor, but it's also light enough that it's refreshing and doesn't leave my mouth dry.  So, I dig it.  But, also think I would only give it another go under the conditions I previously mentioned.




10 February 2023

1740. Voodoo Love Child

It's "Dateline" time!  And it's a Keith Morrison episode.
The skeleton on this can, represents the murder being showcased on "Dateline" tonight.

Belgians and Tripels used to my jam.  I really loved them.  Do I still love them?
This is my second tripel tonight.  Another 9.5% ABV-er.
It's fruited.
But it's not fruity.
Very similar taste to the previous beer tonight.
Once again, it's not bad.  It's just not something I really enjoy.
Bummer.




1739. Victory Berry Monkey

It's a Pacers Friday Night!
And I had an amazing week at work, so I'm in the mood to celebrate all the good and amazing things that are going on in my work life.  I'm probably going to have a couple of beers tonight, and the first one is another Monkey from Victory.

BEER 812 was the Golden Monkey.
BEER 1082 was the Sour Monkey.
And tonight, it's the Berry Monkey.

Berry Monkey is okay.  
It's not very sour or tart, like it is  little bit, but I think the 9.5% ABV hurts the flavor.
The beer isn't bad, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.
This beer is kind of putting a damper on my celebratory mood...
Victory at work, not in my pint glass.
Hopefully my next choice is superior to this.





04 February 2023

1738. Prairie Artisan Slush

It's another Saturday Night Live Beer!  This week I'm excited for both Pedro Pascal and Coldplay!
I'm a huge fan of Prairie Artisan, and I'm happy to find a new sour from them.
It is really tasty.  Mild tart, but it leaves a really nice lingering sour taste. 
Nice berry flavors mixed with citrus flavors.  I dig it.






03 February 2023

1737. Hidden Springs Full Moon Party

Another sour from Hidden Springs.
Not as good as the other one - but again, it was also out of a can.
I would try it again, if glassware was involved, but it was barely sour, and I didn't care of the flavor.  It wasn't bad, but just nothing good.




1736 Hidden Springs Riot Juice

Went to a showing of "The Room" at the Kan Kan Theatre, it was my first time there, and I was happy to see some sours that I have never had.  The first one I tried was Riot Juice, and it was pretty good.  Nice tart, but hard to really enjoy out of the can.  The beer smelled good, but I got none of that aroma when I was drinking it.  So, not a lot of flavors came through, but it was a nice tart, and mildly sour berry taste.  I enjoyed it, and would like to try it again with glassware.  (They do have a full bar, and I probably could have asked for a glass from them, I bought this beer at their concession stand, and didn't think about the bar until I was already seated.)