beer and billiards

Scott met me at Shakespeare's to play pool, and so I could knock a few beers off my list.  I liked the name of this one, and then I liked the bottle even more.  Katy and I were just talking about how important the cover of a book is and how the image can make or break the book before you even pick it up.  This of course flies in the face of the whole, "don't judge a book by the cover" thing, but we both agreed it's true so get over it.

And talk about a well named beer, I can think of no better way to describe it than robust.

I needed to eat before I could play pool so I was already on to my second beer before we even started.

Sticking to the theme of picking my beer by the name I went with "old engine oil".  It wasn't bad, it was supposed to have a chocolate flavor that I didn't get quite as much as with some of the others I've tried, but it wasn't bad.  I would get it again if I saw it on a menu somewhere, mostly because I'll remember the name.

Anyways, I blame the beer (and the racking) for the travesty that occurred on the billiards table that evening...

I guess I forgot the part where Scott was some kind of pool hustler.  If the games didn't cost a dollar each, and go by in a matter of minutes, I would have stayed longer and tried to improve my craft.  Unfortunately this blood bath was over before it even really began.

I'll redeem myself next time.

dessert

omg it was so good!  When I ordered it the bartender made a face like she was jealous and wanted one herself.  Now I know why.

It was not unlike a guinness, but with way more flavor.  I guess a guinness tastes kind of smooth and creamy to me, so much so that ariel can down one in literally a gulp.  At least I think she still can do that, I haven't seen her do it in years, but oh is it a spectacle.  We used to talk about running some kind of bar scam with her and all the dumb frat guys on the upper east side.  Why did we never do that?

Besides this chocolate stout being amazingly delicious, while I was enjoying it "my guy" came on the radio.  I told the bartender that I was just talking about sister act so now I felt like I had to go home and watch it and she very earnestly said, "listen, there are worse things to have to go do".

I couldn't agree more.

flavorful

I was drawn to this beer initially because of "unibroue" because frankly, who doesn't enjoy a good unibrow.  When I read the description I was even more interested, something to the affect of, "green apple beer...NOT CIDER...beer".

When I poured the beer in to the glass the aroma of green apple was so strong it made me nervous to even try it.  After having had some bad experiences with green apple-tinis I am very particular about when I can drink green apple flavored things.  Surprisingly though the beer tasted nothing like green apple.  It was very strange, but not unpleasant.  The bartender asked me how I liked it and I told her and she said, "I know right?!" before taking a big sniff of the empty bottle.  That was also strange, yet not unpleasant.

Most of the beers on the list are about the same price give or take a dollar, but there are a few that are dramatically more expensive.  I decided that I should knock one of them off my list while I was feeling adventurous so I ordered this barn owl beer:

It was described as having a toffee flavor (which it did) that sounded delivious (which it was).  I figured toffee must be hard to add to beer or something and that's why it was so expensive until I turned the bottle around and read the back:

First lets discuss how "fuggles" sounds like a word Meghan would play in scrabble and then look at me patronizingly when I doubted its actually being a word.  I'm sure she would just nonchalantly say something like, "Oh I have some leftover fuggles in the fridge from the last batch of beer Sam and I made"

But the point is that suddenly the price of the beer made sense and I felt like I had done something good for the barn owls.  Won't somebody please think of the barn owls?!  Apparently these lushes are.

All in all I was pleased with my beer selection last night.  They satisfied my cravings in exactly the way I didn't even realize they needed to be satisfied.  That's always the best scenario, like when Mariah surprises you with a high note, or when Oprah pretends she's doing a show about sex offenders but then it ends up being her favorite things episode.

I think I'm still drunk.

still working on it

I was browsing the list of beers, feeling like I had no idea what to go with, when Kelpie jumped off the page at me.  I was expecting something that tasted more like seaweed but it actually had more of the smooth quality that comes with kelp, as Mr. P would have been quick to point out.

I quite enjoyed it, and the bartender enthusiastically said, "It's got seaweed in it, that's gotta be good for you!"

I realized I hadn't had a draught beer here in a while so I looked at the tap right in front of me and said, "I'll have that one next".  Little did I know I was going to get the most delicious beer served in the most fantastic glass:

It was so sweet and delicious, I could drink it all day.  The glass kind of reminded me of the boot, its shape is misleading as far as how much booze you have drunk/have left to drink.  I like mind puzzlies while I drink, like erotic photo hunt.  Makes me feel like I'm exercising my mind while I kill brain cells.

The best part of this trip to Shakespeare's was that they had AMC on which showed the original Rambo followed by Kill Bill part 1.  I basically got to see the best of both.  My favorite part about Rambo was when the closed captioning said, "[vietnamese shouting]", and for Kill Bill we stayed through the whole opening sequence with Vivica A. Fox (amazing) as well as the whistling scene with Daryl Hannah (also amazing).

I feel like if I had a bar I would be so good at picking out things to watch on TV or listen to or whatever.  I just don't get bars that don't understand the dynamics of entertainment.  Yesterday at Shakespeare's gives me hope for them yet.

two more down

My father and I had dinner plans yesterday but he forgot.  It wasn't until I smelled whatever deliciousness he had made for himself that I realized he wasn't going to be eating with me.  Thankfully Scott was available and wanted to meet me at Shakespeare's so I could work on my beers around the world.

I chose this first one based entirely on its name.  I felt like I needed a skull splitter yesterday afternoon.  As I was drinking it Scott asked me if it was one of the high alcohol content ones.  I said I didn't think so, then looked to see that it was like 8.7% alcohol.  It certainly tasted smooth and refreshing.  I don't think I realized how tipsy it really made me until much later when I was halfway through a frozen snickers bar wondering why on earth I would ever eat a frozen snickers bar.

Regardless the beer was quite good.  I wanted a second but couldn't muster up the strength to think about what I should get so I picked the second one based completely on number.  I chose a number on my card that seemed sad and alone and needed to be punched out of it's misery.

I actually quite like this beer so it was a pleasant surprise.  Besides reminding me of the german place on 86th street that I used to frequent, it also always reminds me of Emma and her parents who always had a six pack of this in the fridge.  They are the only people I know who kept hoegaarden on hand.  I can understand why though, it's really light and summery, actually a perfect charleston beer.

I need to tally up how many beers I have had and how many I have left.  I always think I'm further through the list than I am.  It's because these foreign beers have such high alcohol contents and I'm such a lightweight.

I know what you're thinking Jon, 'you are so white'.

another one down

My sleep schedule has been all out of whack the past few days thanks to some unscheduled late night adventures so I've basically been sleeping for a few hours at a time then being up for a few hours and then back to sleep.  I'm pretty much on the same cycle as kitty at this point.

The other day I woke up at like 4 in the afternoon and was extremely hungry.  I also hadn't been out in the daylight at all yet so I decided to walk down to Shakespeare's and knock a few more beers off my list.

As I've mentioned, n the menu they list the beers with their alcohol content, so today was one of those days that I just scanned for the biggest number I could find that I hadn't already had yet.  St. Peter's Cream Stout was what I ended up with and oh was it delicious.  I especially liked the bottle, partly because it was about a glass and a half's worth of beer, but also because it looked like something a pirate would be drinking out of.  One of the bartender's said it was the kind of bottle you'd want in your hand during a bar brawl.

Speaking of the bartenders, this was the first time that I actually managed to befriend the girls behind the bar and I couldn't have been more pleased.  I was the most excited about the beautiful asian girl, mostly so the next time Jon comes to visit I can show him that there are other types of people in Sarasota besides white people.  Also because she had amazing hair.

I ended up ordering a stella after my st. pete's mostly because I still had food to finish, to be honest I was already feeling quite loopy from the pirate beer.  It was fine anyways as just as I was getting ready to go the bar was picking up and the girls were moving on to more lucrative patrons anyways.  I got two stamps on my card, I got what I came for, the rest was all a bonus.

9x2

I was perusing the list trying to decide what I might want when I decided that all I really wanted was something with a high alcohol content, so I picked La Fin Du Monde which boasted a 9% alcohol content.  It was delicious and from Canada so it provided for me ask what it was all aboot repeatedly, which pleased me.

I chose the second beer entirely based on the name.

It was the special bottle of the day so it didn't have the alcohol content listed on the menu or on the chalkboard.  I figured, with a name like Lagunitas The Hairy Eyeball how could I go wrong.

Well turns out it was also a 9% alcohol content brew so by the time I finished this I was pretty gone.  If I had it all to do over again I might have chosen differently, just because both of these beers were very good, but I don't think I was prepared to get that loaded of off two drinks.  I was glad that I got the hairy eyeball while it was the special though, especially when I saw their catch phrase at the bottom:

For some reason this made me think of Meghan.

After my boozy sunday evening I ended up coming home and watching like 4 straight hours of true crime shows on one of those trashy stations like the ID channel.  It was glorious.  I guess I have no complaints really, maybe these two beers are a winning combination for me.

another one down

Actually I had two different beers but the other one was a draft so I didn't feel obligated to take a picture of it.

I don't know about this delirium nocturnum.  It tasted ok, not the greatest tasting beer I've ever had, and I guess it got me a little more loopy than your average beer, but that also could have been a placebo affect.  I mean, I could get hammered off non alcoholic beer if I didn't realize that it was non alcoholic.

The other beer I got was a special draft, the anderson valley summer ale.  I think that's what it was called.  I know I kept thinking it was the john anderson summer ale for a long time because I was thinking about our highschool ballroom dance instructor.  Of course thinking about him always makes me think of Ms. Slowinski who was way more fantastic than any of us gave her credit for at the time.

So here's to you Ms. Slowinski, every time I hear, "chain of fools" I think of you.

Anyways, the summer ale was actually really delicious.  It tasted like cream soda!  I highly recommend if you find yourself at a bar that serves it.

Hmm I feel like I should have a sign off for these posts.

So until next time, happy drinking.

beers around the world

As I mentioned before Scott and I have entered a "beers from around the world" competition at the local pub.  It's 80 beers and when you finish they put your picture up on a wall.  I'm very excited.

The first time we went I had a guinness and a black and tan.  This time I had a blue moon because we had been talking about it earlier, then decided to just start picking randomly from the numbers I had left between 1 and 80.  I first chose 60 which was the stone levitation.  It was good, I think maybe having it right after a blue moon made me think they tasted very similar and I wouldn't have if I had just had it fresh, but regardless I liked it.  I also liked the bottle, it commands respect.

The next beer I had was magic hat:

I'm sure you've seen or had magic hat before, I took a picture of it more so I would remember that I had it.  At this point I was pretty wasted.  I actually had never had magic hat before, it was ok.  It tasted kind of like fruity pebbles to me.  I might order it again.  I am not sure what made me pick it, I don't remember what number it was.  On the front of the cards is the logo of the bar which has Shakespeare's picture in the center.  I think I might have chosen whichever number would punch out his smug mug.  Take that Shakespeare, now where's your soliloquy?

Hmmm doesn't have the same affect as, "now where's barbara walters"

Anyways, I look forward to updating you all as I make progress on my way around the world with sweet lady beer.

Also, I'd like to go ahead and get this out of the way now so I never have to think of it again.  Every time I leave this bar we walk past the hair salon next door which features this as their logo:

And every time I see it I think that it's a woman wrapped up in seaweed.  She looks kind of like the girl in casino royale who they find wrapped up in the hammock.  I don't care for it and I just had to get that off my chest.