Thanks for giving

Thanksgiving break went well. I ate a ton of turkey and whatnot, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, oh. my. god. So good, I must have gained like five pounds over the last few days. It was good to see my mom and sister, since I hadn't seen them in a few months. Michelle met my mother, and I met her parents, and all went well. APPARENTLY Michelle's mom Google'd me and found my blog... So basically she thinks that all I'm about is beer and women's butts. Well, that is a large part of what I'm into, but I assure you, Mrs. Harmon, I'm into much more than just that. She was even so nice as to buy be a sixer of Gray's Oatmeal Stout (an excellent Stout, if you're into that sort of thing). Shocking, to say the least. But I am NOT an alcoholic and am NOT out to corrupt your daughter. That having been said...

Beera Claus has come to the apartment in the form of a copious selection of newly purchased alcoholic beverages! I'm going to TRY to review one of these beers every other day until I'm done with the list. I picked some out based on the type of beer they were (my favorites are Stouts and Porters), and some I just picked out at random. The store I went to (Sentry's Liquor in Waukesha) had a pretty good selection (not quite the selection that Woodman's in Madison had) and some of the beers even had their beeradvocate.com rating right on the shelf, so I based some of my selections on those. Here goes in no particular order...

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
Samuel Smith Taddy Porter
D. Carnegie Stark Porter
Stepan Razin Porter
Sierra Nevada Porter
Three Floyds Alpha King Pale Ale
Fish Tale Poseidon's Imperial Stout
Rogue Mocha Porter
New Glarus Unplugged Imperial Stout
Great Divide Titan IPA
Weihenstephaner Hefe-Weissbier
Victory Prima-Pils
Dogfish Head 90-Minute Imperial IPA
Left Hand Milk Stout
Victory Golden Monkey
Shmaltz He'Brew Messiah Bold (best name EVER)
Samuel Adams Holiday Porter
Rogue XS Imperial Stout
Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Most of the aforementioned brews I got in single bottles, so if I hate them, I'm not out $8 for a sixer. Then again, if I love them, I've only got one bottle, so I'll be sad. It'll balance out, hopefully. In addition, I have some random stuff leftover from a few weeks ago, like Pilsner Urquell (an excellent pilsner, a good choice if you've always drank beast or Miller or the like and want to get into "better" beer), New Glarus Tail Wagger Barleywine (weird fruity taste, like beer mixed with Hawaiian Punch, I want to like it but I can't), and McEwans Scotch Ale (similar to the Tail Wagger but a stronger alcohol taste and a hint of hard liquor thrown in, just can't get used to it). If you'd like to trade for the Tail Wagger or McEwans (through mail, or if you're in the PVille area, in person), send me an email and we can set something up. I'm thinking of getting into the microbrew trading scene on ratebeer.com, but I'm not totally sure how you get started in that...

Anyway, that's it for now. Peace.

SOTM: Cold - Happens All The Time
MOTM: American History X (top 10 for me, the ending just blew me away the first time I saw it, and one of the few movies that made me cry)
BOTM: Pilsner Urquell (from the Czech Republic (!), an excellent Pilsner with a very crisp taste, goes well with a meaty meal like a burger or steak, or just throw one back for the hell of it. Like I said above, it's a good choice if you're looking to drink "good" beer, but isn't too drastic of a change from Miller or Bud.)