A Paradox, well maybe more of a conundrum

After work, stopped by the Corkscrew to see if they got in the O'fallon's Smoke whiskey aged, they didn't have it on display, so I guess they didn't have it. But I picked up a 4 pack of Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA and a bottle of something else that I didn't write down. Do'h!

Got home and put the bottle of whatever it was into the fridge, and put the Dark Horses (the ones with the green wax) into the box in the spare bedroom, you know, the box that has some Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout... and some other things. It's a very nice box.

Well, while I was at the Corkscrew the girl who runs/owns it says that Mike and Molly's
has Founders Breakfast Stout on draft, so that changes my plans around a little for the evening.

I get home and shower to get the little hairs off (I get a haircut every Tuesday) and get dressed and have my beer for the evening at home, whilst watching Creation in the 21st Century with Dr. Carl Baugh, on TBN. I missed the title of the show last night, so I wasn't sure when to drink. (He says the title of the show over and over and over, and I've turned it into a little drinking game.)

My beer of choice last night was Brew Dog Paradox Islay Batch 009 (which is apparently the Ardbeg version). I drank it in my Ommegang tenth anniversary glass. As you can see, it had good carbonation and made a pretty good head. Kriddy thought it looked red, but I thought it quite black. There was hardly any smell to this, which was odd.

The taste was huge on smoke. Almost nothing else (which was odd that there was so little smell). It was nearly like beef jerky, smoked salmon or hickory smoked bacon in flavor. Really really powerful smoke flavor. In a beer this black, you'd expect to come across some classic stout flavors like coffee, chocolate, vanilla but none of those were present. It was definitely smoke.

It wasn't syrupy thick like Dark Lord (but then what is) it had small carbonation bubbles that lasted the whole drink. It had the consistency on the tongue a little thicker than a soda, and kind of reminded me of Dr. Pepper (not that I drink Dr. Pepper a lot).

As I was drinking it, I thought it would go great with a steak, or bbq, or a BLT. It definitely wasn't a desert beer. It would go horribly with chocolate or coffee. But with a main course that was cooked over an open flame, it would be outstanding. (Chipper Dave, as bad as it would be to waste it, this would be almost perfect for cooking brats in).

After finishing that, went to Hooters for Tuesday Night Trivia. Trivia was canceled due to not enough people there, so I had one beer, (I think the Boulevard Pale) and ate. They have some new "southwestern" menu items. The southwest eggrolls are outstanding. The quesadilla with the southwesty stuff is also really good.

After eating we went to Seven Saints to drop off four bottles of Dark Lord for Andy, the manager. While there, we asked what the Dark Horse was on tap, Chibuisi at first thought it was an IPA, but poured a little glass and it came out black. So he checked down at the keg and said it was a smoked porter. So Kriddy and I each had one of those. As we were drinking it, we talked him into putting a drop (or two) of Pappy Van Winkle 23 into our glasses, to give it a slight bourbon barrel aged hint (like the O'fallon smoked whiskey aged). It was barely there, but almost noticeable.

While inside, Noah from the Champaign Urbana Beer Club stopped in to find out when Whiskey Wednesday was ending and it would become bourbon. 7S has all their whiskey half off on Wednesday. Chibuisi said it would be switching in like 3 weeks. Noah then said great because he had a friend who wanted the Pappy Van Winkle 23 year old. It's normally $30 a glass. So the drop or two that we put in our beer was about a dollar's worth. Noah mentioned that it was the Beer Club's Happy Hour Tuesday and they were all next door at Mike and Molly's. He at first joked that they had drank all the Breakfast stout, but then relented and said there was some left.

So we closed out and went next door. Kriddy and I both ordered the Breakfast Stout. It seemed a little smokier than I remember, but it was still outstanding. While drinking that, I went to the jukebox. Played some PIG, Ministry and Revco. The music seemed to be a hit, so someone offered to buy me a shot. As I don't do shots, the guy relented and bought me a beer (more on that in a moment.) As I drink two beers in the time the GF drinks one, I got a second beer to drink while she was finishing her Bfast stout. I went with Brigand. It was a belgian strong pale. Pretty good in flavor. The bottle was the same shape as Duvel/Piraat/gulden drak. The main flavor note that I remember from it was it had a hint of hotdog water flavor (which comes from the coriander).

Finished off the evening by playing some Front 242, Combichrist and more Ministry and Revco. The beer I went with as bought for me was... Mickey's. Man, I hadn't had one of those in AAAGGGES. Not since, um, like 91? Drinking it reminded me of sucking the water out of a can of mushrooms. Not that I don't like mushroom water, I don't necessarily like it in my beer.

So the flavors that I got last night from beer was; bacon, beef jerky, hotdog water, mushroom water, coffee, smoke, chocolate, and maybe a little honey. That's a flavor EXPLOSION, in anyone's mouth.

After all that, how can anyone say they don't like the taste of beer?

V