TWIB – Makeshift Irish Car Bombs and $13 Beers

Happy 1st Birthday Short On Beer

Today, January 9th, marks the first birthday of this website. It’s been a wild ride. I recapped most of it’s milestones last week here. Thank you so much for continuing to visit and share on Short On Beer. On with this week’s TWIB…

Here’s to 2014

On New Year’s Eve I hosted a few friends for dinner and drinks. I’d like to point out that originally it was supposed to be just drinks. But The V, which we booked in early December because they didn’t have a set menu, called two days before and said they decided to have a (pricey) set menu. So we cancelled the reservation and with it being this close to the NYE everything was already booked. My friends Jeff and Meredith grilled us up some filet mignon and everything turned out okay.

New Year’s Eve with My Friends (Photo Credit: Mitch Witte)

Filet mignon seemed like a perfect pairing for Adroit Theory Lux, a bourbon barrel-aged wheat wine I’d been saving for a couple months. Here’s what I can recall since I was a few beers in at this point. Lux was boozy. In fact, that’s the majority of what I can recall about the beer. Boozy. It wasn’t particularly carbonated. It had a murky brown color and was flat out boozy. This beer wasn’t for me but feel free to try it for yourself. 9% ABVers like Lux usually aren’t. The other beer I’ve had from Adroit Theory B/A/Y/S, an Imperial Stout, was also a 9% ABVer. This was also quite hard-hitting.

I drank Lux and smiled as always. I learned that trick downing cognac after cognac with my father-in-law even though I am now a huge fan. Pledging might have been a factor in this trait as well…

I was then feeling quite good after a couple more beers including Lost Rhino HopStar, which I wasn’t a fan of either. I decided it would be a good idea to make Irish car bombs. However there was no Guinness or Baileys. I can’t tell you why but everything always seems like a good idea at 1:00am. That’s why I’m usually asleep by 10:00pm. Using a Trader Joe’s Stockyard Oatmeal Stout, some generic Irish cream liquor I had in the back of my fridge and of course Jameson I concocted this evil. Learn from my mistakes — makeshift Irish car bombs are a bad, bad idea (AMIRIGHT, LBS??). I lived with a minor headache in the morning but wasn’t feeling up to drinking again until Sunday when I met the $13 beer.

The $13 beer and Walter Mitty

Sunday I went and saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Their bar, Glass Half Full, is one of the best places, and my favorite places, to find an interesting or rare craft beer near me. Their prices fall in line for the most part with other bars/restaurants in the area. You’ll be paying $6-8 for most of their beers, which I don’t mind. That’s average to slightly above average and it’s worth it because they are good people and serve fresh beer out of beer clean and the proper glasses. However their board doesn’t list prices. This isn’t really out of the ordinary either. So when I order a beer that’s $13, maybe a little warning would be nice? What made it worse was that Mrs. Short On Beer was with me so of course I’m momentarily scolded for the purchase (-1 beer credit for frivolous spending). I’m cool with paying $13 for a beer. Just give me a heads up before pouring it.

It’s okay though. The beer was worth every penny. It was a Hugh Malone by Allagash Brewing. Hugh Malone is a Belgian-Style IPA. It had a rich, golden color with a thin bright white airy head. There was a constant strain of bubbles that floated up from the center of the glass, at least until the lights when out in the theater. Very good beer even after the buttery popcorn wrecked my taste buds.

As far as the movie went, I recommend it. There are a lot of special effects and you don’t notice any of them. Awesome VFX work and cinematography. My favorite part was the music. It has a kick-ass soundtrack including a bunch of songs by Jose Gonzalez.

New Conversations with Beer Bloggers

Have you checked out the CBB from the other day? We met Brad Westmar from the Craft Brew Crew. Brad and I talked about making YouTube videos, St. Louis beer, Trader Joe’s and more. Check it out if you haven’t already.

On Monday night I was able to record the next CBB with Doug from Baltimore Bistros and Beer. I’ll have that one up for you early next week.

One of the coolest parts about CBB is actually getting to see and hear these beer bloggers. I have no idea how guys like Nick McCormac, Tom Aguero and Doug would look or sound. It’s a blast to connect with people from all across the country (maybe the world one day) just through an Internet connection and a love of beer.

How was your week in beer? Try anything new or have an exciting story? Leave it below!

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Cicerone Certified Beer Server Exam Study Guide Part IV – American Styles

This is Part IV of a series on knowledge for the Cicerone Certified Beer Server Exam. All information disseminated is from the syllabus provided by the Cicerone website and mixed with my own thoughts. I’m doing this to 1) help me learn the material and 2) share the knowledge with people who haven’t heard of the exam or are planning to take the exam.

Feel free to skip ahead to other sections. Here’s a list of all the study guide parts:

• Part I – German/Czech Styles
• Part II – Belgian/French Styles
• Part III – British Styles
• Part IV – American Styles
• Part V – Off-Flavors

This is Part IV on American Styles.

**Note – PB stands for Perceived Bitterness**

American Styles

Historical

American Lager (Light/Standard/Premium)

• PB – Low
• Color – Straw, very pale
• ABV – Lower to normal

California Common Beer

• PB – Pronounced
• Color – Light amber to dark amber
• ABV – Normal

Modern

American Wheat Beer

• PB – Moderate
• Color – Straw to gold
• ABV – Normal

American Blonde Ale

• PB – Moderate
• Color – Straw to gold
• ABV – Lower to normal

American Pale Ale

• PB – Pronounced
• Color – Gold to amber
• ABV – Normal

American Amber Ale

• PB – Pronounced
• Color – Amber to dark amber
• ABV – Normal

American India Pale Ale (IPA)

• PB – Assertive
• Color – Gold to dark amber
• ABV – Elevated

Imperial IPA

• PB – Highly assertive
• Color – Dark gold to dark amber
• ABV – High

American Brown Ale

• PB – Moderate
• Color – Light brown to dark brown
• ABV – Normal

American Stout

• PB – Assertive
• Color – Black
• ABV – Normal to elevated

Oatmeal Stout

• PB – Moderate
• Color – Black
• ABV – Normal

American Barleywine

• PB – Assertive
• Color – Light amber to light brown
• ABV – High to very high

Imperial Stout

• PB – Pronounced
• Color – Black
• ABV – High to very high

Happy studying and good luck on the exam! Remember to check out the other posts. Here they are again:

• Part I was on German/Czech Styles.
• Part II was on Belgian/French Styles.
• Part III was on British Styles.

If you passed the exam and used any of these posts as help, I’d love to hear about it. Leave your thoughts on them, the exam or anything else below!

April Dirty Thirty Day 1 – Adroit Theory B/A/Y/S Ghost 003

Well here we are. April 1st is upon us. Baseball has started and so has the April Dirty Thirty! First up to bat is…

Adroit Theory B/A/Y/S Imperial Stout

Adroit Theory Brewing Company B/A/Y/S Ghost Batch #003

Imperial Stout

The Mud Hound Sessions

Critical Information:

• 9.1% ABV
• 80 IBU
• 38 SRM

My Experience:

– Pour

Poured from a corked bottle into room-temp mug. Beer warmed up to about 50 degrees (recommended 52-56). Deep, dark black color not even penetrated by iPhone flashlight. Small head with not much to hardly any carbonation.

– Smell

Strong smell of cherries accented with some rubbing alcohol and hazelnut (a little angry that it says cherry and hazelnuts those on the bottle. I got the cherries right off the bat before I read it then was able to find the hazelnuts after).

– Taste

Potent. But hey, it’s an imperial stout. I could really taste the cherries and some woodiness. I sensed some black licorice too.

– Mouthfeel

It coats the mouth very smoothly without any carbonation.

– After taste

I’m typing this while drinking it so as I write this I feel the alcohol content and cherries lingering. The coating left from the previous sip/gulp keeps the flavors active for 2+ minutes.

– Food

This would be an after dinner dessert drink. I could see it being paired with an ice cream or anything with whipped cream.

– Overall thoughts

This beer is 80 IBU but you wouldn’t know that unless you read the bottle. It is also, as I said earlier, potent. The strength of the flavor is definitely in conjunction with the beer style. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of the high-alcohol content imperial stouts (even though I will gladly drink a regular stout any time of the day). However this is a local beer made by a new brewery and real, regular people. That definitely helps me enjoy the beer more.

Score: 5/10

Brewery and B/A/Y/S Information

Adroit Theory was started in 2011 by Mark and Nina, the owners, and Greg joined this March as the brewer. Nina decided on Adroit which means “clever” or “skillful with the hands.” Mark chose Theory because, “it captured the theoretical, boundry pushing concepts we try to put into our recipes.”

They hope to have the build out of our warehouse done later this summer, and with the proper licenses in place, have a few soft openings this fall.

B/A/Y/S is, “an acronym based on the lyrics “Black As Your Soul” taken from a lyric by a Nine Inch Nails song. Given the mysteriouos and multi-layered dimensions in the bottle artwork, we thought it was a clever turn of phrase. Plus it perfectly describes the pitch black aspect of the brew.”

What’s different about B/A/Y/S from other imperial stouts is that it’s aged on Chestnut wood. “Chestnut is virtually extinct, and we have to take reclaimed wood from old barns etc, and plane them down into staves. The Chestnut gives an earthiness to the stout that I have not tasted anywhere else. When paired with the cherries and hazelnut additions, I think it really works.”

Thought for the Day

One thing I truly believe is that beer tastes better when you can connect with it on a personal level. Knowing who the brewers are and what went into making the beer makes any beer better. I hope Adroit Theory keeps pumping out new batches and continues to succeed. This was a great start to April Dirty Thirty. What did you start #AprilDirty30 with?