Beer blogging

(Making up for lost time with a rare "double-post"!)

Talking with an old friend the other day, I mentioned that I had started blogging, and the first thing she said was, "Oh, a beer blog, right?"

Heh. Back in the day, I was pretty darned predictable. Of course, I have a hard time using the word "anime" in day-to-day conversations with normal people, so I could only admit that it was mostly about "those darn Japanese cartoons" these days -- though I really really try to do other movie reviews and whatnot.

That said, to prepare for my holiday, I made a long-neglected visit to a little store in the inner Rochester suburbs called "Beers of the World". An old haunt of mine.

Now that the microbrew craze has levelled out, it's pretty easy to get really decent beer at the local supermarket. Back in the day, though, there was really only one place you could go to buy a 6-pack (or case) of something other than the usual watered-down rice-adjunct mass-produced American (and the somewhat better & more preffered Canadian) brews, and that was "Beers of the World".

The guy that owned the shop tended to leave the product out on the shelf for far longer than it should be there, so often times you risked getting something a little skunky or otherwise off-flavored. But in order to get a hold of the latest Sam Adams or Catamount or Brooklyn offerings, let alone Guinness, Sam Smiths or Pilsner Urquell, that's where you had to go. And go, I did.

And when brewpubs started opening around town, I was a regular fixture at those establishments as well. And my housemates and I dabbled with homebrewing for a while. So, as my old friend's comment is evident of, I developed quite a reputation as a beer snob. (Heh. Is there anything I'm not a snob about??)

At any rate, I've picked up a sampling of brewskis that I had tried a while back at another bar that specializes in microbrews (and has nearly 100 on tap!), and right now, at sunset, with a nice Montecristo #4 to puff on, I'm drinking one of them.

And it's fan-tastic

"Weyerbacher Hops Infusion", made in Pennsylvania. Emblazoned on the label: "7 types of hops". Yum. I love hops. The hoppier and more bitter the beer, the happier I am. Yum. Yum. Yum.

At any rate, it's not quite as "hoppy" as another beer I grabbed -- "Victory Hop Devil" (which lives up to it's name!) -- but this blend is sublime. Well-balanced, soothing, and laid-back for a hoppy beer. Perfect for a warm sultry sunset with a smoke by the lake.

Maybe I should beer-blog more often. *Grin*