Working my way through the Beer tour of the Southwest

While i still mourn the lack of availability of some of my favorites, like Yuengling and Three Floyds, trying new beer around here has been a very good time. At least for my taste buds.

artzberger.com

This past weekend, I stopped a local shop to pick up some beer for a graduation party. When picking out beer in a store, i'll be honest. I'm a pretty lazy shopper. The number of beers is usually overwhelming, and i'm never quite sure where to go. The simplistic red cans of this beer from the Santa Fe Brewing Company caught my eye. Double plus good on the Irish Red, usually a potable beer even at its mildest. As soon as I had the cans off the shelf my roommate praised my choice. Although, i'm not sure how good her recommendation was, considering her lack of preferences. 

Anyways, I was happy. Even without pouring them, straight from the cans they were robust, malty and good. Not overly hearty, but still fairly rich. Mmmmm.... I only managed three, and at a low ABV of 4.5, it was a nice relaxing evening. I would definitely recommend these. They are a suitably good pick at about 8.50 for the 6 pack. 

Next up: some back blogging and my quest to collect brewing bottles :).

Sometimes you pick up and move to Colorado

What have you done in the last 30 days? I packed up the majority of my belongings and moved. To Colorado. 

What does that mean for the blog? Different regional awesome microbrews. Many more, and much more often. On my way out here I stopped in the middle of nowhere Kansas, I believe, to make a quick exchange with a friend driving back from the Grand Canyon. I gave him back his book on JAVA programming, and he  passed me a very, very warm american pilsner from the Grand Canyon Brewing company and a souvenir magnet from his trip. At least he knows me and knew that beer is my souvenir of choice. I packed it with me and drank it one evening while i was staying at the Amazing hostel in Durango, Co. It wasn't anything too special, but not bad for a light pilsner. 

Later on in the week when I had gotten a bit more settled, i picked up a 6 pack of the locally brewed Steam Engine Steam Ale, an amber lager. While nothing truly exceptional i thought it had a decent amount of flavor for an amber lager. I also like that it comes in cans, however, they are somewhat pressurized and I didn't manage to open even one out of the 6 without getting beer everywhere....

Finally, I picked up a bottle of wine this week. Unfortunately i haven't found any good cheap wine stores yet, but I haven't been doing much looking either. Anyways, This RACHA wine, imported from argentina was pretty good. This malbec while not super complex or fancy pant, wasn't too bad for about 10 dollars where i purchased it. I'd rate it 3.5/5 for flavor, and 3/5 for value. I've got to get bargain hunting.

Well cheers! And if you make it to the area, lets grab a local beer!

Spring Break and and Ode to Yuengling

This past spring break was one of the most hectic I can remember. I'm not even in school anymore, so this shouldn't be happening. There is always an excuse to have a good time and mine came in the form of a job interview in Georgia. In order to get to this job interview I decided it would be a great idea to hop in my car and scoot down from Massachusetts to Georgia for a long weekend. A very long weekend. Georgia, apparently, is rather far from Massachusetts.

Ideal Beer Drinking Location

To make a long story about a long drive a lot shorter, I'll just give you the high points. Yuengling beer is quite awesome.

After some of the chaos had died down i picked up a 12 pack of their most delicious lager to drink at the spring break cabin in Bryson City, NC where i ended up. Beer was followed by another 12 pack of their black and tan, and another 12 pack of lager. No i was not drinking alone, sharing is more fun. My weekend just turned into a few days in a hammock with some cold (some of the time) beer shared with some awesome people.

For those of you who have never heard of this brand. You should. Or you just might live outside of their limited but growing distribution area. Check out their website :D Mmmmm Beer!

They are really old company with some really good products! If you want a cheap beer that you can actually consider tasty, this beer is for you. I rank it about Old Style and PBR. Its my "i want to buy in bulk without sacrificing taste" beer. To put it in prospective, my beer chugging friends wont even consider this for any game that involves rapidly consuming a 30 rack. It is reserved for drinking slowly, preferably around a campfire, after a long and awesome day. Its a 5/5 or value and a 4/5 for flavor (this is an incredibly drinkable beer, 4/5 is great!).

Cheers!