(Insert Witty Title Here)

Friday afternoon, the GF and I went up to greater chicagoland to go to a wedding reception.



(Horray that worked)

Well, this one did have an open bar, but it was the usual suspects. I've been drinking a lot of not GREAT beers in the past week.

It started Tuesday with the Coronas, then Wednesday with the Old Styles, Thursday was Leinenkugel, Friday ... oh what a mess Friday was.... the highlight was Sam Adams Boston Lager (of which I have a new appreciation for) also a bud light or two, a miller light or two, it was just a bad beer night. Then after the reception ended we went back to the hotel bar, there I ordered a Birra Moretti and a La Rossa, and was given a Birra Moretti and a Peroni.

(Side note) About a year ago, when we helped drive the bride and groom to their new place in Asheville, NC, the GF only drank Bud Light. We went to a place in a mall (it seemed) called the biergarden (i think) and in there she had a Birra Moretta (i thought she had a la rossa, but she claims it was a BM) so it was about a year ago, that she had that beer, and that was her introduction to beer outside of the AMERICAN MACRO STYLE. Oddly enough the last time she had it was May 3, 2007, and now she may have had it again on May3, 2008. *how do i get one of those weird spooky whistling noises on here???*

Well, after the wedding we drove back to my sisters, and spent the night.

*Insert interesting anecdote here*

As we were driving to find the reception place, we had 5 miles down a road near Chicago, and the GF noticed I was looking out the windows of the car, just sort of looking around. To which she said something like "Stop looking for liquor stores and keep your eyes on the road". So I was like, "how'd you know i was looking for a liquor store" and she didn't really have to answer...

Ok, after waking up, we had determined we were going to go to Granite City to sample their beers. On the way we stopped at a liquor store I had seen a few times before. It had a good selection of beers I had never seen before, from locations like Lithuania and Romania; unfortunately it was all in 6 packs, so I didn't get any. I did pick up a bottle of Three Floyds Alpha Klaus, and a bottle of Oud Beersel's Gueze and Kriek.

I've recently determined that the way to appreciate a brewpub is to have one of two menu items. The Reuben sammich or the Fish and Chips.

(The reuben at Harrisons was AWESOME; the fish and chips at gordon birsch were horrible. The fish and chips at Flossmoor station are great!)

Granite City doesn't have a regular Reuben. They have a smoked turkey reuben, but not corned beef and cabbage. Granite City doesn't have "fish and chips" they have "Granite City Walleye Dinner" but it doesn't look like fish and chips.

We ordered the sampler platter and had their beers.

Northern Light Lager
Brother Benedict Bock
Duke of Wellington IPA
Broad Axe Stout
Two Pull

Apparently the two pull is a mixture of the Northern Light and a maibock (which isn't on the menu; or they have Brother Benedict listed as a Bock when it's a maibock.) I thought Brother Benedict was just a straight bock (it seemed that way) But the waitress said it was a maibock, when presenting it... eh, who knows.

None of the beers were spectacular. The Broad Axe at first seemed to be smokey and somewhat coffee-ish, but after a while that just gave way to tasting burned. The Bock wound up being my favorite out of the lineup. It went really good with the french onion soup; and also paired well with the smothered beer sammich. The GF had the three cheese ravioli, which she seemed to enjoy.

We then hadda drive back for a Cinco De Mayo party (ok, so it was a few days early). And we took the three beers with us. The Alpha Klaus was as good as ever. Afterwards went with the Gueze, which just ripped the tastebuds off my mouth and pounded my tongue with tart sour-goodness! Kriddy took a drink (i made her; so i could see the look on her face) she didn't want to, but she's a trooper. It's the same face that kids get when they eat those sour patch kid's things. It was so delicious and refreshing. Carbonation wiped off any previous flavours in my mouth and replaced it with that classic Gueuze pucker. Followed that up with the Kriek. Which wasn't nearly as sweet as I had expected. It was like a cherry version of those sour patch kids (without the sugar coating). Deep dark red, pink head. It was awesome. A nice finishing beer. (Also at 6.5% it is 2.5 stronger than lindemans, so it was totally a different drink.)

Then we went to go see Ironman because a friend wanted to see it for his birthday. The 8 p.m. theater was full, so we went into the 7:30 and watched it, probably missed the first 15-20 minutes, so other than not know why anything was going on, we enjoyed the flick). Was supposed to go to drinks after, but they went to Guido's, which isn't horrible, but we weren't in the mood for a Meet Market, so we went back and crashed.

Softball practice today, and I might be brewing tonight.

Otherwise, tis all

V