A beautiful bounty

Spring brings new life...and food food! I am super excited about exercising, earring good, and enjoying the season!!

Honey Brown-A Beer Review

Hello, hello hello my readers. I am back with another beverage review! As you all know I brew mead. Mead is a wine where the main ingredient is honey. So when I cam across a beer that is made with honey you know ya boy had to scoop this one up. Its called "Honey Brown" and it is a lager. 

I was excited to try this one. I have been toying with the idea of making a beer with honey and really wanted to taste a commercial example. I was buzzing with anticipation on the way home.Get it? Buzzing? Because of honey? Bee's?.........I'll see myself out...


I cracked this open and took a whiff. It had an ok smell. Nothing really note worthy. I mean it was not bland nor really flavorful smelling. Just kind of in the middle. Anywho I poured up a glass and in my rush forgot to take a pic so here is one I found.  I found it to be a shade lighter than that pictures below shows. Though you can see the kind of head you will get on it.

This photo shows the color much better. 

Being really excited I took a swig......................................and was met with utter disappointment. It may because I was expecting more, but this beer could have been so much more. The flavor was just not there. I tasted the usual grain and malts of a lager with only the tinniest hint of a honey flavor. Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying its a bad beer. However I am not saying its a good beer either. I feel like it is an ok beer. For the makers of this beer to call it extra rich is either an inside joke or just a bad lie. It is the opposite of rich. It is quite weak feeling in your mouth. It is almost as if someone took a decent lager, dropped some budlight into it and bottled it. I just wish it had more flavor. Especially considering it was made with honey. I was really hoping more for some dry honey notes to come through.

I score this beer a 3/5 would not buy again. Maybe this was the world's way of telling me I need to get on with making beer..........................................


Adios folks!

A Beer Review-Chocolate Stout

Sup yall, I'm back with another beer review! I can feel the surprise feeling you have as the title is sinking in. I'm reviewing a beer that is not an ale. *GASP* While ale's remain my go to beer of choice, a recent work trip has shown me the way of the stout. Well while I was in my local international farmers market I was browsing their extensive beer selection when I came across this.

Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout is the name of this beer. It caught my eye the last time I was in the store and had picked up a peach lambic. I was there picking up some spices for a chili and decided to go ahead and give it a try.

Normally as soon as I get home, I am popping the tab for a pour, however this was a single bottle and I had chili to make. 4 hours later when the chili was done I sat down at the table and poured me a glass. I was so tired after cooking the chili [I underestimated the time it took and started at like 7pm] I forgot to take a pic, but here is one I found that is accurate. 

Notice all that foam? Yea this is a rather foamy beer. It took me a minute or two to pour a glass.

The first thing you notice when smelling this beer is the chocolate nose. It smells of chocolate strong, though not in a bad hershey syrup kind of way. More like deep earthy chocolate. Again I am no beer snob as some of you might have realized, so no fancy terms here, but I can say that this beer is very smooth. It spreads that malty thickness up front with just a little bit of bitter and washes down with a strong chocolatey finish.

ELI5: It's a good beer. 

If you need a more professional [see snobby] version of that here is a review of it on beer advocate.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/113/86189/

I was happy to see it scored a 93. I would agreed with that score. I like this beer. My only issues were described perfectly by one review on there. 

Creamy smooth yet with an undesired sharpness.

It had this twang to it that counteracted the perceived smoothness of the chocolate. 

Other than that I would still recommend this beer to anyone. I would especially recommend it as a first time stout drinker. It was good enough even The Wife, ok'd it. Good for sure!

Till next time.................

Miller Fortune I Can't Believe It........

Some of you may have seen this new beer pop up on shelfs. Miller fortune. If you are like me you most likely passed right by it without giving it a second thought because it is Miller brand. We know Miller mostly for Miller Lite, Miller High Life, aka shitty beer. (though lesser known for brand Blue Moon which is honestly pretty good) However I received a text from someone who had picked up a case. This text came from a reliable source and it heavily suggested I go and try it right away. Admittedly I was skeptical but I know sir Phlip shares similar tastes to mine so the next time I was in Kroger I decided to pick up a six pack. 

The first thing I noticed that the package was attractive as were the bottles. I also noticed it was surrounded by its piss water brethren. This did not make me any more hopeful. None the less I picked it up for $6.99 with my Kroger card and was on my way. Most of the time when I try a new beer I go straight home pop the tab and start to swig. Not this time. I put two bottles in the fridge and went to work out forgetting about them. 

After I came back from getting my swoll on and cooking I decided to have one with dinner. I popped the tab and took a sniff. To my surprise it smelled good, like an actual beer. Not yellowish brown water that happens to have a slight beer flavor. I took a sip and.........

This beer is fantastic! It is smooth, crisp. If you like blue moon or yuengling you will like this beer. Now if you are a beer snob who can tell the difference between the different kinds of hops used to brew a certain beer then keep walking. The rest of us beer drinkers who just like a good beer will be pleased. I googled it and apparently it is supposed to be bourbon flavored.  My pallet is not that distinguished, though Phlip did mention he detected a bourbon flavor. Under $8 this could be considered a cheap beer by some which would  make it a 5/5 for cheap eats reviews. 

I cannot stress enough GO GET THIS NOW!

Cheap Eats, A Wine Review

Greetings to all my readers who have been waited with baited breath for my glorious return! (What? I can dream)

I return with a review about wine. Wine that is cheap. I can hear buttholes clenching already. Fear not my lovelies, tis not what you think.

I was at a farmers market that is right by my job that has a ton of everything, produce, meats, bread, cheeses beer and wine. The wine section is so large they break it up by country, then type. Zomg.

I was prepping for a date night with the missus and we were having steak, so of course I had to have a wine, red to be exact. For those of you who are looking at your screen in confusion, wine is often paired with food.  Below is a handy chart I stole borrowed to show you.

Now we all know that for us non wine folk choosing red wine is like a guy going into the store to buy tampons for his lady (or a lady going to buy oil for a guy), lots of options with little to no real clue as to what is good and what is not. Thankfully for you all, I get to be the guinea pig.

I don't know a lot about wine, but I do know that American wine seems to fall flat compared to its French and Italian counter parts. So I went to the French and Italian sections to check out the reds to see what they were all about. I would love to say that I went though a rigours decision process to choose my wine.

I totally didn't. Almost all the french red was like $15 and up, the Italian started at like $6. So I went with Italian. Again with the butthole clenching, relax those sphincters, I did not choose the $6 wine. I went with a nice $10 bottom that had an intersting look to it and a label that gave it a 92 rating while mentioning it goes great with steak.

So I had this with a steak I made using my famous technique.

With full confidence I can say, we have a winner in this one. I am not going to attempt to use wine tasting words. This wine being a red is tannic but not overly so. It has a smooth flavor that flows over your tongue and goes down easy. I preferred it at a temp that is in the 60's. Colder than room temp but not yet chilled and for $10 it really is a good bargain 5/5 for sure.

Go try a bottle if you can find it.

Agree/Disagree with me? Leave me a comment, thank me, school me, teach me etc. its all good. 

Beer Review- A Peach Lambic

Greetings All my Loyal readers! I'm so sorry I have been gone so long. I cannot imagine what you two have been doing whilst I was away. I could make up a story about how I have been so busy getting a new job and making new plans, but honestly I have just been lazy. So for that I apologize, here is a cat pic to make up for it.

Now that we are friends again let's get to the reason why you are here. A beer review.

You are probably sitting there asking yourself, Lambic, what in curse word is that? Well per wiki

Unlike conventional ales and lagers, which are fermented by carefully cultivated strains of brewer's yeasts, lambic beer is produced by spontaneous fermentation: it is exposed to the wild yeasts and bacteria that are said to be native to the Zenne valley, in which Brussels lies. It is this unusual process which gives the beer its distinctive flavor: dry, vinous, and cidery, usually with a sour aftertaste.

This beer like the above box mentioned on a label how it was exposed to wild yeast instead of using cultivated yeast. However this beer was sweet. Quite sweet actually. It was very effervescent  with a nice head on it. It had an ok body, was not too flat, yet not too full either. This beer had a lot of peach flavor with a sweetness that was almost cloying. The Wife loved it. I found it drinkable but really found myself wishing it was a bit less sweet, it had next to no sour after taste. As far as alcohol content goes there is no label that tells you (likely due to the wild yeast) so most likely it can vary. This one was fairly light on the alcohol. 

I honestly would not recommend it for a beer drinker but would definitely say buy it for your girl or guy if they do not like beer but like sweet drinks. 

My obsession

Finally the semi annual bath and Body Works sale is here! I had a chance to load up on all the perfume, lotion, shower gel and candles that I need to last me for another 6 months. Not to mention, a few gifts for others. Victoria's Secret is next! I need to get in there before all the good sales are gone. I am so excited. Shopping is divine!!