CU Bars in the News; Speak Easy at Seven Saints

Speak Easy at Seven Saints

Ten minutes and 50 seconds of Andy Borbely at channel 3, WCIA.

Andy shows how to make some champagne cocktails with sparkling wine (champagne).

Andy isn't the tallest guy out there... Kalee Dionne must be TINY?!?!?!

FYI, the dimple at the bottom of the bottle is known as the punt.

CU Beer Weekend Jan. 1

New Year's Eve info can be found here.

Radio Maria

1. Ename Belgian Trippel $6
2.
3. Two Brothers Red Eye Coffee Porter $5
4. Port High Tide IPA $5
5. Dark Horse Scotty Karate $4
6. Arcadia Nut Brown $4
7. Avery The Czar Imperial Stout $4
8. Victory Prima Pils $5
9. Scaldis Noel Bush Ambree $6
10.Kulmbacher Eisbock $5
11.Green Flash Imperial IPA $5
12.Green Flash Hop Head Red $5
13.Unibroue La Terrible $6.5
14.Victory Hop Devil IPA $4
15.Victory Golden Monkey $5
16.Left Hand Milk Stout $4
17.Southern Tier Oat $6
18.Goose Island Bourbon County Stout $7
19.Petrus Blonde $6.5
20.Arcadia ESB $4
21.Capital Autumnal Fire $4
22.Original Sin Hard Cider $4
23.Unibroue Ephemere $5
24.Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock $5
25.Coney Island Albino Python $6
26.Berliner Weissbier $5

Tap 2 is missing.

Friday: Happy Hour 4:30 - 5:30. DJ at 10, $3 Smirnoff drinks
Saturday: $3 Bacardi and $6 Bacardi Mojitos, Salsa Night at 10.
Sunday: $2 wells, $1.25 beer (no PBR this week)
Monday: 25% off bottles of wine
Tuesday: 1/2 price wine by the glass
Wednesday: $1 off all beers on draft. Open-Mic Night hosted by Jared Roberts starting at 10pm
Thursday: $1 off house specialty cocktails

Blind Pig

Wychwood Hobgoblin England, Premium Bitter, 5.2% abv
Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper San Marcos, CA, Imp. Stout, 10% abv
Ridgeway Lump of Coal England, Foreign Stout, 8% abv
Founders Imperial Stout Grand Rapids, Michigan, Imperial Stout, 10% abv
Sprecher Black Bavarian Glendale, Wisconsin, Schwarzbier, 5.86% abv
Unibroue La Terrible Canada, Belgian Strong Ale, 10.5%
Two Brothers Heavy Handed Warrenville, Illinois, India Pale Ale, 6.7% abv
New Holland Dragon’s Milk Holland, Michigan, Stout, 9% abv
Fullers London Pride England, Premium Bitter, 4.7% abv
Delirium Noël Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 10% abv
Blue Moon Golden, Colorado, Belgian White, 5.4% abv
Krusovice Imperial 12° Bohemian Pilsener, Czech Republic, 5% abv
Stella Artois Belgium, Pale Lager, 5.2% abv
Pabst Blue Ribbon San Antonio, Texas, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Rogue Mogul Madness Newport, Oregon, American Strong Ale, 6.25%
Southern Tier Old Man Winter Lakewood, NY, American Strong Ale, 8% abv
Victory Moonglow Downington, Pennsylvania, Weizen Bock, 8.7%
Lagunitas IPA Petaluma, California, India Pale Ale, 5.7% abv
Anchor Christmas San Francisco, California, Spice Ale, 5.5% abv
Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.3% abv
Lindemans Framboise Belgium, Lambic, 2.5% abv
Kapittel Watou Blond Belgium, Belgian Ale, 6.5% abv
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout England, Stout, 5.2%
Guinness Dublin, Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

Cask:
New Holland Mad hatter

The Brewery (Piglet)

Blind Pig Snow Shovel IPA
Pauwel Kwak Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 8% abv
Veltins Pilsener Germany, Classic German Pilsener, 4.8% abv
Avery Old Jubilation Boulder, Colorado, English Strong Ale, 8% abv
Scaldis Noël Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 12% abv
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout Chicago, Illinois, Imperial Stout, 13% abv
Ayinger Bräu-Weiss Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.1% abv
Heilemans Old Style Woodridge, Illinois, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Dogfish Head 60 Minute Milton, Delaware, India Pale Ale, 6% abv
Ridgeway Santa’s Butt Winter Porter England, Porter, 6% abv
Guinness Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

Sunday: 7-9 Trivia

Crane Alley

North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsener 4.4%
Moylan's Spiced Christmas Lager 6.0%
Morland's Old Speckled Hen 5.2%
Bell's Christmas Ale 5.8%
Three Floyds Pride & Joy 5.0%
He'brew Origin Pomegranate Ale 8.0%
Avery The Czar Imperial Stout 11.7%
Erdinger Hefe Weizen 5.3%
Guinness 4.2%
Great Divide Hibernation 8.7%
Chimay Trappist Tripel 8.0%
Ridgeway Santa's Butt Winter Porter 6.0%
Pabst Blue Ribbon 4.7%
Left Hand Fade To Black Export Stout 8.5%
Ridgeway Bad Elf 6.0%
Dark Horse Crooked Tree Ipa 6.0%

coming soon:

Two Brothers Prairie Path Golden Ale 4.9%
Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper Imperial Stout
Mendocino Red Tail Ale
Lost Abbey 10 Commandments 9.0%
Left Hand Milk Stout (Nitro)
Dogfish Head 60 Min IPA 6.0%
Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter
Three Floyds Gumballhead Wheat Ale 5.0%

Seven Saints

Wed: Whiskey Wednesday (theme hasn't been published yet, probably Bourbon + Rye)
Thurs: Beer Class (theme also not published) 9:30 $10


Cowboy Monkey

Nothing on the calendar...

Highdive

Tuesday:Alma AfroBeat Ensemble, $5; 9pm

Canopy Club

Nothing on the calendar...

Other Events:

Champaign Urbana Beer Club

Tuesday, Jan 5, Happy Hour at Mike N' Molly's.

'No Refusal' DUI program in effect over New Year's in Macon Co.

'No Refusal' DUI program in effect over New Year's in Macon Co.

DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE IN MACON COUNTY!!!

This weekend over New Year's if you drink and drive, you won't be able to refuse testing.

The Macon County State's Attorney's Office calls it the "No Refusal" DUI program. Prosecutors, nurses, a judge, and police will be working over the weekend to speed up the process of getting evidence on DUI suspects as soon as possible. If you refuse to voluntarily take a breathalyzer, warrants will be issued right away to force urine or blood testing.

How is this even legal?

Have a designated driver. Don't have a designated not as drunk.

Hmmm, if you refuse the breathalyzer, can you just pee all over the cops, or pull out a knife and throw some of your own blood on them?

The Nanny State In Action: or you aren't smart enough to make your own decisions

Texting while driving, smoking target of '10 laws

Dear citizen;

You can't make good decisions, therefore the state is making them for you. No, not The State, although you probably don't want them making decisions for you either.

Here's some new laws.

You can not text while driving in Illinois.

On Jan. 1, it becomes illegal for motorists to send text messages while driving and to talk on cell phones while driving through a highway construction zone or school zone.

Oh, this is nice.

Gov. Pat Quinn will sign an amendment to the Illinois Vehicle Code that prohibits writing, sending or receiving text messages while driving, said the governor's spokeswoman, Marlena Jentz. The bill does make texting exceptions for drivers who pull over to text or shift their car into park or neutral to message while stopped in traffic.

So, make sure your car is in park if you are texting while stuck in traffic. Is sitting at a stop light "stuck in traffic"?

Here's some other new laws (from the yahoo article)

You cannot smoke in bars and restaurants in North Carolina.

Ah, I remember when Champaign/Urbana first passed that law (before the rest of Illinois did) and Rock's had on their sign, "OK non-smokers, where you at?" Because, remember non-smokers had complained that they didn't like going to all those smokey bars. So when the law was passed, a lot of smokers stayed home, but the non-smokers never came...

I wonder if there's a link between state's budget shortfalls and the reduction in people who smoke? All these states seem to be running out of money, meanwhile, people stop smoking and paying taxes on cigarettes... coincidence? When do more people who normally don't smoke, smoke? (when they are drinking).

Massachusetts says you can't watch dog racing anymore.

Texas says you teens can't go tanning without an adult.

Nevada and Louisiana say you can't buy a "novelty" lighter.

All of this because you can't make your own decisions.

Unless you are gay, then in Wisconsin you can receive health insurance benefits, and in New Hampshire you can get married.


How you managed to get out of bed this morning and get to work without killing yourself is beyond my comprehension.

CU Bars in the News; Have You Made Plans for the New Year?

From WICD, ABC 15.

Have You Made Plans for the New Year?

Footage inside Radio Maria, interview with Jacob Daugherty, Brad making a drink.

A down economy is not affecting Radio Maria.
Manager Jacob Daugherty is expecting an even bigger crowd than last year.

"We're actually higher on pre-sales this year than when we were last year for both the tasting menu New Years Eve at this time of the year," said Daugherty.

Both of these establishments offer packages that include dinner, drinks, and live entertainment.

"It looks like a very promising crowd so far and I think it should be a good time," said Daugherty.

Champaign Urbana New Years Eve's

A list of bars/places with New Years Eve celebrations.

Seven Saints: 8pm; Free
Speakeasy at the Saints
Roaring 20's dress optional, but encouraged

Radio Maria: (2 things)
New Year's Eve '09 Tasting, $50, $65, $85 (based on wine selections)
Salsa Celebration, 10pm; $7

Blind Pig: 3pm -2am; free
New Years Eve Party
Champagne toast at midnight

Blind Pig Brewery: 3pm -2am; free
New Years Eve Party
Champagne toast at midnight

Highdive: 9pm; $20
The Party of the Year
DJ Delaney, DJ Tugs

Cowboy Monkey: 9pm; $10
Dubstep Massacre
DJ Belly, Wildcard, LEGTWO, Lincoln Jones

Soma: 9pm; $30
Lounge and Luke
DJ Delaney, DJ Relentless

Mike 'N Molly's: 9pm; $5
Mike 'N Molly's NYE
Take Care, Golden Quality, The Curses, Dottie and the Rail

Bentley's Pub: 9pm
The Delta Kings

Boltini: 9pm; $40, $50, $55, $60 (in advance at bar)
djMertz; Cool.Miles.Holt

Canopy Club: 8pm; $5
New Years Eve 2009 with Pianoman

It'll Do 2
DJ Hollywood

Po Boys: 9pm
New Year's Eve Masquerade Party at Po' Boys!

Memphis on Main: 9pm
New Year's Eve Bash! Featuring: Schizer

Firehaus: sold out

Fubar: 9pm; $25



If you plan on attending any of the events that have cover charges, I recommend you contact the bar. There are other things you can do. If you just want to drink a lot of different beers, let me know, and I can get you in to the party I'm going to (it'll just be friends, but after 5 beers, everyone's a friend).

Here's some other possibly non-alcohol events...

Watseka Theater: 6pm; $50
New Years Eve GALA

Refinery: 9pm; $55
New Years Eve Gala

New Light Baptist Church (Rantoul); 1030
Watch Night Service

Pontiac (downtown Pontiac); 6pm $10
Pontiac First Night - Mural Magic

First Night celebrations are predominately alcohol free. They are usually gatherings of local community culture, featuring music, dance, comedy, art, and fireworks. (I was in several first night productions in Pontiac back when I was younger).

Alcohol in the Local News

From Channel 3, WCIA.

IL Breathalyzer Law Working

Tuesday, Dec 29, 2009 @09:46am CST

(Rockford) -- In the first year, more than six-thousand people have had to install Breathalyzer devices in their car for driving drunk.
The state says 61-hundred first-time offenders have been required to install the devices in their cars since the law started at the beginning of the year.
The devices require drivers to blow into it before the car can be started.
Drivers also have to test periodically while they are driving.
Program director Susan McKinney says the goal is to keep first-time offenders from driving drunk again.
Critics of the program say it is too costly and that leads to people driving illegally, but McKinney says she's had offenders give positive feedback for the new program.

Why aren't these devices installed on every car?

I think insurance companies should offer a discount to people who voluntarily install one on their vehicles.

Holiday Safety Briefing

Back in my former life in the army, I was assigned several additional duties. One of them was as the Safety NCO for my company. This involved many things, like making sure buildings had fire extinguishers, making sure there were evacuation routes, and a butt load of other things.

One of those other things was to give safety briefings before each long holiday.

Friends, here's your safety briefing.

1. Don't drink and drive. Know your limits. Know how alcohol affects you.

2. Wear your seat belt.

3. If you are driving a long way, DO NOT let your gas tank get below 1/4 a tank. With holiday closings, you can't guarantee that the next exit 20 miles down the road has gas.

4. Check your tire pressure. Check your tire tread. Make sure your headlights work. Make sure the rest of your lights work.

5. Put an extra blanket in your car. Ensure that there are gloves, a good hat, and a jacket in your car. Put a powerbar, or other energy bar in your vehicle. Put a candle in your car. Make sure you have a flashlight (your cellphone doesn't count). Make sure your cellphone is charged.

6. Allow plenty of time to get to your destination, don't excessively speed. (you are probably going to speed, don't go more than 10-15 over the speed limit)

There are other things you can do, but these are things you should be aware of.

You may be the greatest driver in the world, never had an accident, never spun out, never drove more than 10 mph over the speed limit, never got behind the wheel when you had a drop of alcohol... but the worst driver is out there, so be prepared for him/her.

Hope you have happy holidays (I'm not EXCLUDING anyone, I'm INCLUDING everyone by saying happy holidays) be safe, and we'll have a beer together soon.

Luvsya
V

God needs a haircut

I just finished reading Ezekiel 5. In it, God makes Ezekiel shave off his hair and beard.

Ezekiel 5

¹ And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

That sounds nice. God wants Ezekiel to shave his head and cut off his beard. No big deal.

²Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.

Ok, this is getting weird. Burn a third; smite a third with a knife; throw a third in the air.

⁸Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.

⁹And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.

Ok, what Ezekiel did to his hair is representative of what God was going to do to Jerusalem. 1/3 of it will be burned (destroyed during the Babylonian Siege) 1/3 will be killed by the sword (trying to escape the siege). 1/3 will be blown to the wind (taken into captivity). None will be left.

¹²A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

Like I just said.

How does this fit in with what we know about God as a gardener? It's the exact same guy. He even does the exact same thing.

God wakes up one day and says that he hates his hair and his beard. What does he do? Does he go to a barber and get a shave and a haircut (2 bits)? Does he take out some scissors and just try to get rid of the clumpy parts? Does he take a shower and try to style it? Nope, not the God of the old testament. The same guy who plows under his whole garden because he let it get overrun with weeds.

This guy doesn't even take care of his hair. He doesn't shampoo it daily. He doesn't wet, lather, rinse, repeat. No, he wakes up one day and is angry at the hair for not looking the way he wants, even though he hasn't done any grooming.

So what does he do?

He takes a razor and shaves off his head.

But that's not enough.

The hair that he shaved off he has to ridicule a bit more before he lets it go.

God doesn't realize that the hair that's going to grow back is the same hair as before. He didn't remove the hair roots, he just got rid of the hair. Unless he got laser surgery, it'd be the same hair. It's up to him to trim it, dye it, comb it, style it.

I don't know anyone who has nice hair that they've never done anything too.

Do you?

CU Bars Christmas Hours/closings

Here's what's open: (the ones in Red are confirmed)

Crane Alley

Christmas Eve: 5pm to close
Christmas: 5pm to close

7 Saints

Christmas Eve: regular hours
Christmas: 5 pm to close (no kitchen)

Radio Maria

Christmas Eve: Closed
Christmas: Opening at 9 pm (no happy hour)
Boxing Day: No Brunch, opening at 5pm

Cowboy Monkey

Christmas Eve: closed
Christmas: closed

Highdive

Christmas Eve: closed
Christmas: closed

Blind Pig

Thursday, December 24th 3pm-2am
Friday, December 25th 8pm-2am
Thursday, December 31st 3pm-2am
Friday, January 1st 3pm-2am

Mike N' Molly's

Christmas Eve: 8pm
Christmas: 8pm
Dec. 26: 8pm

Canopy Club

no events listed, so probably closed

Blotini

unknown

Jupiters

Christmas Eve: regular hours
Christmas: open in evening/late

Jupiters at the Crossing

Christmas Eve: regular hours
Christmas: open in evening/late

Billy Barooz

Christmas Eve: closed
Christmas: closed

Esquire

unknown

Guidos

unknown; probably open


So, when you get tired of your family on Christmas Day, if you want to go to Downtown Champaign and have a good beer, 7 Saints is the place to go. Andy will be behind the bar. If you want pizza, go to Jupiters. If you are in Urbana, Crane Alley is the place to go. If you want to drink some beer and take the kids to play, go to Jupiters at the Crossing.

If any of the above is incorrect, or changes, or if you see a sign on a bar somewhere, let me know.

*edit; Radio Maria Information*
*edit; Blind Pig info*
*edit; added Mike 'N Mollys info*

On the left is the feedgit widget, it shows where people came from. This made me happy...

Decatur, Illinois arrived from google.com on "Vbg-log: CU Bars Christmas Hours/closings" by searching for champaign bars open christmas eve.

That means what I'm doing is worthwhile, at least one person used it. Sadly, it wasn't me, as I tried to go to Crane Alley at noon, and I didn't look to see that they don't open until 5. I knew that, I'm just a dumbass.

CU Bars in the News; JT Walkers

JT Walkers in Mahomet was featured on Channel 3 (WCIA) on Thursday.

JT Walkers on WCIA

I haven't been there, but I've heard good things about them.

Mahomet used to be dry, but it's not anymore.

The beer list looks pretty good (for a small town). The taps could use some work (11 taps), but there is listed Bell's seasonal, Leinenkugel seasonal, and Sam Adams seasonal.

Bottles include Most of the Big Sky line; Leinenkugels, New Belgiums, Bell's (4 Bell's) and some Schlafly's. Goose Island Matilda is also on the menu, as is Lindeman's Framboise.

I've heard good things about the food. I'll be checking this place out sometime in the near future.

Greatest Letter to the Editor, EVER

EVER!!!

Someone in the Champaign Urbana area gets it.

Entitled

Just put God's truth in the paper

(full letter)

Dan Miner makes a strong point against your articles promoting evolution. Any fool can tell you the earth was created in six days, 6,000 years ago. Any other statement is just the opinion of some pointy-headed intellectual observing nature and drawing testable conclusions about natural processes that supposedly formed our world.

I want to go on to protest your articles about so-called "space flight." Any fool can tell you that a rocket fired higher than 10 miles would collide with the celestial spheres turning the stars and planets above our heads. And don't get me started about potential injury to the turtle that carries the platter of the earth on its back. Space flight is a proven hoax filmed by George Lucas.

The News-Gazette should henceforth report only God's truth and leave the zany fiction to professionals.

JOHN HOUSER

Farmer City

Here's the Dan Miner thing.

Let's rid schools of fantasy religion

Children should not read The News-Gazette when articles promoting the religion of evolution appear, as happened on Nov. 12. The article was filled with fraud and deception. It claimed that the fossil found would help fill a gap in the knowledge of evolution, where in reality nothing is known about evolution except that it has never occurred.

It cannot be an intermediate link, as no intermediate link could live, since such a creature would have to contain intermediate parts and systems that could not function.

It also falsely claimed that it could help explain how a creature could evolve. That is false because bones cannot explain how the DNA of one kind of creature could give birth to an offspring with the DNA of a different kind. No book in the world begins to explain how evolutionary changes could occur.

Evolution supporters just say, "Evolution did it," but never any explanation as to how. Evolutionism explains nothing; it is only an anti-God philosophy posing as science. We need to get the fantasy religion of evolution out of the media and schools and teach science instead.

DAN MINER

Champaign

wow, just friggin, wow

Sadly, I can't find the November 12 article.

Here's another response to Dan Miner's letter.

Don't buy ignorance posing as education

Children (and perhaps many adults) should not read The News-Gazette when anti-evolution letters by Dan Miner appear, as happened on a recent morning.

Miner writes every so often, and he never has anything new to say. What he repeatedly claims is that evolution did not occur and that it is not science. What his letters actually show is that he understands neither evolution nor science and will not make any attempt to do so since the undeniable fact of evolution fills him with fear and loathing.

Although he says we should "teach science," he is actually promoting ignorance. Readers should consider the source.

SAMUEL BESHERS

Urbana

Without purchasing a subscription to the paper, I won't be able to view the rest of his letters to the editor. But they look rather interesting.

*edit 2/8/2010* After News Gazette redid their website, no Letters to the Editor are available. In fact, searching for Dan Miner, and John Houser doesn't even give the results of these letters. /*edit*

CU Beer Weekend Dec. 18

It's a busy weekend. Lots of good beers, so please, try to drink them all.

7 Saints

The two rotating taps are currently:

Southern Tier Oat
Southern Tier Old Man Winter (it's actually the one with the Bells Winter handle)

When you order, enunciate Old, or Oat.

Wednesday: Whiskey Wed, Scotch
Thursday: No beer class, due to Christmas Eve
Friday: Bar will be open in the evening, but no kitchen

Radio Maria

Tap list as of 12/17

1. Ename Belgian Trippel $6
2. Allagash White $4
3. Two Brothers Red Eye Coffee Porter $5
4. Port High Tide IPA $5
5. Dark Horse Scotty Karate $4
6. Arcadia Nut Brown $4
7. Avery The Czar Imperial Stout $4
8. Left Hand Polestar Pilsner $4.5
9. Scaldis Bush Ambree $5
10.Kulmbacher Eisbock $5
11.Green Flash Imperial IPA $5
12.Green Flash Hop Head Red $5
13.Unibroue La Terrible $6.5
14.DogfishHead 90 Min IPA $4
15.Victory Golden Monkey $5
16.Left Hand Milk Stout $4
17.North Coast Old Rasputin $5.5
18.Goose Island Bourbon County Stout $7
19.Petrus Blonde $6.5
20.Schlafly's ESB $4
21.Capital Autumnal Fire $4
22.Capital Wild Rice $3
23.Unibroue Ephemere $5
24.Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock $5
25.Coney Island Albino Python $6
26.Berliner Weissbier $5
27.Southern Tier Hop*Sun $2.25

Friday: Happy Hour 4:30 - 5:30. Dark Horse Scotty Karate $3; Capital Wild Rice $2. DJ at 10, $3 Smirnoff drinks
Saturday: $3 Bacardi and $6 Bacardi Mojitos, Salsa Night at 10.
Sunday: $2 wells, $1.25 beer (no PBR this week)
Monday: 25% off bottles of wine
Tuesday: 1/2 price wine by the glass
Wednesday: $1 off all beers on draft.
Thursday: $1 off house specialty cocktails

Jan 17, North Coast Brewing Company beer dinner, with brewery rep Brad Fuller.

Talk to Jacob now if you want to do their New Years Eve dinner.

New Year’s Eve ’09 Tasting Menu
-$50-
-$65 with wine pairings-
-$85 with premium wine pairings-

1st Course
Roasted Chestnut Soup, with bacon, kale puree, toasted hazelnuts
2nd Course
Steamed Manilla Clams and Mussels, squid ink pasta, toasted breadcrumbs
and garlic, vanilla
3rd Course
Butter Poached Lobster, Braised Beef Shank Ravioli, Pan Roasted N.Y. Strip
with pine nuts, white truffle oil, bull’s blood beets, black garlic
4th Course
Fizzy Strawberry Shortcake, Mascarpone Cheese, Champagne Chocolate Sauce

New Years Eve Salsa Celebration begins at 10pm. $7 cover.

Blind Pig

Schlafly Christmas Ale Maplewood, Missouri, Spice Ale, 8% abv
Bells Christmas Kalamazoo, Michigan, Scotch Ale, 5.8% abv
Ridgeway Lump of Coal England, Foreign Stout, 8% abv
Founders Breakfast Stout Grand Rapids, Michigan, Imperial Stout, 8.3% abv
Schlafly Kölsch Maplewood, Missouri, Kölsch, 4.8% abv
Unibroue La Terrible Canada, Belgian Strong Ale, 10.5%
Great Divide Fresh Hop Denver, Colorado, American Pale Ale, 6.1% abv
Mahrs Bräu Christmas Bock Germany, Heller Bock, 6% abv
Fullers London Pride England, Premium Bitter, 4.7% abv
Delirium Noël Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 10% abv
Blue Moon Golden, Colorado, Belgian White, 5.4% abv
Krusovice Imperial 12° Bohemian Pilsener, Czech Republic, 5% abv
Stella Artois Belgium, Pale Lager, 5.2% abv
Pabst Blue Ribbon San Antonio, Texas, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Ridgeway Bad Elf England, English Strong Ale, 6%
Breckenridge Christmas Denver, Colorado, American Strong Ale, 7.4% abv
Victory Moonglow Downington, Pennsylvania, Weizen Bock, 8.7%
Lagunitas IPA Petaluma, California, India Pale Ale, 5.7% abv
Gouden Carolus Noël Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 10.5% abv
Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.3% abv
Lindemans Framboise Belgium, Lambic, 2.5% abv
De Ranke Père Noël Belgium, Belgian Ale, 7% abv
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout England, Stout, 5.2%
Guinness Dublin, Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

cask: Port Santa's Little Helper (it's pretty darn good)

The Brewery (Piglet)

Blind Pig Olde Smitty Winter Warmer
Blind Pig Snow Shovel IPA
Blind Pig Do-Over Oatmeal Stout
Goose Island Honkers Ale Chicago, Illinois, English Pale Ale, 5% abv
Veltins Pilsener Germany, Classic German Pilsener, 4.8% abv
Wild Goose Snow Goose Frederick, Maryland, English Strong Ale, 5.9% abv
Scaldis Noël Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 12% abv
Victory Storm King Downington, Pennsylvania, Imperial Stout, 9.1% abv
Ayinger Bräu-Weiss Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.1% abv
Heilemans Old Style Woodridge, Illinois, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Avery duganA Boulder, Colorado, Imperial IPA, 8.5% abv
Ridgeway Santa’s Butt Winter Porter England, Porter, 6% abv
Guinness Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

Sunday: 7-9 Trivia

Crane Alley

North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsener 4.4%
Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale 5.3%
Morland's Old Speckled Hen 5.2%
Gouden Carolus Noel 10.5%
Three Floyds Robert The Bruce 7.0%
He'brew Origin Pomegranate Ale 8.0%
Avery The Czar Imperial Stout 11.7%
Erdinger Hefe Weizen 5.3%
Guinness 4.2%
Rogue Double Dead Guy Ale 9.5%
Chimay Trappist Tripel 8.0%
Founder's Porter 6.5%
Pabst Blue Ribbon 4.7%
Left Hand Fade To Black Export Stout 8.5%
Flying Dog Raging Bitch Belgian IPA 8.2%
Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA 6.0%


Coming Soon

Three Floyds Pride & Joy 5.0%
Founders Imperial Stout
Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper Imperial Stout
Mendocino Red Tail Ale
Great Divide Hibernation
Anchor Christmas Ale
Moylans Christmas Ale
Ridgeway Santa's Butt Porter
Ridgeway Bad Elf Winter Ale 6.0%
Three Floyds Gumballhead Wheat Ale 5.0%

Cowboy Monkey

Friday: Delta Kings $5, 9pm
Sunday: Mike Bray Band $5, 9:30pm
Tuesday: Open Mic, 10pm, $2.50 Magic Hat; $2.50 Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat; $2.50 Bacardi drinks
Wednesday: Salsa, 10pm
Thursday: Closed for Christmas Eve (according to website)
Friday: Closed for Christmas (according to website)

New Years Eve: Dubstep Massacre $10, 9pm. Tickets in advance at the bar.

Highdive

Friday: DJ Delayney $5, 10pm
Saturday: DJ $5, 10pm; $5 Long Island, $5 Vegas Bombs, $4 Captain Morgan drinks, $4 Jose Cuervo drinks
Monday: 80's night 10pm Free
Wednesday: DJ A-Ron, $5, 10pm
Thursday: Closed for Christmas Eve, (according to website)
Friday: Closed for Christmas (according to website)

New Years Eve: $20 (in advance, price will go up after Christmas)

Canopy Club

Friday: Metal Xmas Bash, $7
Saturday: Atheory $5;
Sunday: Pizza + Pitcher and Movie, 6 pm A Christmas Story; 8 pm Scrooged; 10 pm National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

New Years Eve: New Years Eve with Pianoman $5, 8pm


That's about it:

I will try to find out if Radio Maria and Crane are open for Christmas (I'm pretty sure Crane is, not sure of Radio).

If you are looking to try a bunch of Holiday beers, go to Blind Pig and get 3 samplers, there were 11 Holiday's on tap last night, including Ridgeway Lump of Coal, which is a good stout. Blind Pig Brewery claims 3 house beers on tap, I missed the Grissette :( Skot said it was pretty good, although I probably wouldn't like the spices.

My week schedule is looking like this:

Friday: Happy Hour at Radio, then off to Ty and Lindz
Saturday: BBCAmerica at 4:30 until I overdose on Doctor Who (The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, Waters of Mars)
Sunday: Baby shower for Frank and Dana; gathering at Suzie's
Monday: dinner with Evan at Monicals, attempt to drink all the beer at Blind Pig (probably)
Tuesday: open
Wednesday: purchase steaks
Thursday: get annoyed
Friday: grill steaks, go to Seven Saints to keep Andy company

New Years Eve is still supposed to be drinking at Steve and Ann's; although that may have changed, but I'm not sure. If it's moved to Kridz, then you, reading this, are invited.

CU Bars in the News; Champaign Bar Crackdown

Champaign Bar Crackdown, from wcfn49news.

Dave Benton: Bar owners in Champaign getting pressured to do more to stop underage drinking.

They could soon face new fines for serving underaged drinkers.

Before now the underaged person was ticketed.

The city attorneys met with bar owners this week to talk go over the rules once again.

The mayor is frustratrated with bars that repeatedly serve underage people.

Bar managers say it's tough to do, especially when you transition from a restaurant to a watering hole.

Jacob Doherty, bar manager: There's a little awkward situation of walking up to people who have been there during dinner service to ask them for ID.

Dave: The city is trying to work everything out with its attorneys to see how it'd penalize bars and how much they'd pay.

Right now they're leaning towards a sliding scale, with harsher penalties for more violations.

Who's Jacob Doherty? Oh, they mean Jacob Daugherty, the manager of Radio Maria. (When I went to Army Journalism School, I would have failed for misspelling someone's name, or was it just 25 points off? Either way, you start with a 75, lose anymore and you fail.)

At least Jacob isn't as angry as he was about the parking garage thing.

(I couldn't find the video of this)

V

Champaign bars in the news, 21 Bar Age by Default

This is an old blog, but it's a good one, especially considering that they are now going to be enforcing it.

Illini Pundit.com 21 Bar Age By Default.

Some highlights

In an odd twist, the State of Illinois is actually enforcing a local ordinance that provides the Illinois Liquor Control Commission (ILCC) justification to enforce vague and ambiguous guidelines to close a local bar down when they "negligently allow" underage drinking. The local ordinance in question is Section 5-44 Section B.

further

It is too early to speculate on any political agenda, but this new heavy-handed approach by the ILCC will certainly result in a voluntary enforcement of a 21 bar age. It is an unaffordable financial risk and the only way to prevent violation of section 5-44 Section B is to prevent underage patrons in your bar. According to Larson, "personally I would rather have all the bars go 21 than live under the current policy.

and

Since the State of Illinois is enforcing local code, it appears the power to address the situation will be in the hands of the City of Champaign. It doesn't seem to be a question of "can they", but instead a question of "will they" repeal the ordinance.

The ordinance is to allow under 21 into bars.

You'll note some of the comments...

This separation of entrance from consumption age is the root cause of the problem. Having it in place requires more unenforceable laws, greater infringement of human rights and wastes vast amounts of public resources (one might add; provides justification for some of our public servants). The solution is exceedingly simple. Lower both the drinking and entrance age to 19 or keep both at 21 years of age.

Lower either the drinking age, or raise the entrance age.

As I got further into the comments I was getting the sense that the commenters didn't believe that Champaign would actually enforce the rule and close any bars.

You'll note these comments were in May.

Joe's Brewery was closed for seven days. C.O. Daniel's was ordered to raise their entrance age to 21 until Aug. 23, 2010.

Welcome to the nanny state.

The Old Testament God, as a Gardener

There's a church on the outskirts of Urbana on High Cross Road, across from the Apple Dumpling (apparently the Apostolic church) and on their sign recently, it said something like

God is Good
All the time

Which got me thinking; because I had just finished the book of Jeremiah in my Bible in a Year study. I thought, have these people even read Jeremiah? God is good all the time? He talks about doing evil to his people (Jeremiah 42:10). You'll note that in that verse god talks about planting, and not plucking. God has compared himself several times in the bible as a gardener, or a vintner. (He did it in Isaiah)

So, lets look at everything, in the Old Testament, as though that god is a gardener and the people are plants. .

In Genesis, he plants a garden (a real garden), Eden. For some reason, he plants a poison tree in the middle. Then he makes some plants (people). For some reason, he leaves his plants for a bit, and while he's gone, they manage to corrupt themselves. Except plants on their own don't really go corrupt. So, at this point, the gardener had the opportunity to start over, all he had lost were 2 plants. Instead, he allowed them to keep growing.

Did he do any weeding to his garden? Did he water it? Did he make sure his plants were getting enough sunlight? Did he even check to see if those plants would grow in that climate? The answer to at least three of those questions is no. He allowed weeds to grow. He didn't water it. He didn't give it enough light.

He then steps away and leaves his garden for a while.

When he comes back and looks again, his garden is covered in weeds, his plants are being choked out. What would a normal gardener do at this point? Back when I had a garden, I spent most of the weekend pulling weeds. Getting my garden back to the point where I could find my plants again. At this point, the god of the bible took out his tiller and plowed under the entire garden. He didn't selectively plow it. He didn't put any weed-b-gone on it, he plowed it under. (Noah's flood).

As a gardener, I learned from my mistake of letting my garden get overrun with weeds. After I got my field clean, I then spent a little bit of time each day pulling out weeds, watering my plants and fertilizing them.

At this point, god decided that he wasn't even going to take care of the whole garden, he chose one plant to take care of and he decided that would be his favorite, and be the only one he'd raise.

Things went well for a while, but then the god of the bible then decided he wasn't going to water his plant, and he gave it away to a friend. (Egyptian period) After a while he took his plant back from his friend, and he made a huge production about doing that. In the meantime, the plant grew a whole lot. As he was taking his plant back, he did some pruning. He also plucked out a couple of dead leaves. He even managed to pull out a few weeds. This was pretty much the point where he was a good gardener.

Then he put his plant back in his garden. Before he replanted it, he managed to clear out most of the weeds. He put down some fertilizer. He made the soil good. For a while he kind of took care of the plant. Then, as usual, he stopped taking care of the small things. One small weed grew up. Then another, then another, then another. He forgot to water it, he forgot to weed it. He was just waiting for his plants to produce fruit. Some of the plants grew strong. Some didn't grow as well. Soon the good plants were being overrun by weeds. After about a month of not checking on his garden, he goes and looks again.

He's amazed at all the weeds that are there. He doesn't see how he can salvage any of his plants.

So what does he do?

He hires a lawn company to come in and plow up his garden. He has them save a few plants, but most of them he has plowed under. (Babylonian exile). After the garden is completely plowed, he has the other guy plant a couple back in. This time he promises he'll take better care of the garden. He also expects the plants to do their part. Except, plants don't have any control over their growth.

His garden is over run with weeds again. and again. and again.

He promises the plants that one day, he'll completely do away with the weeds. When that day comes, everything will be great.

If you are going to look at the past history of god as a gardener, you'll see that he's really not that good at it.

Someday he promises he'll make a good garden with no weeds. But based on his track record, do you really think he'll be a good gardener in the future?

Champaign bars in the news, Dangerous Roads

From Oct 8, 2009; Channel 3; Dangerous Roads

In this interview, Jacob Daugherty from Radio Maria complains about the city of Champaign's plans to tow cars parked on the streets overnight.

Jacob believes that forcing people to get their cars off the streets will cause more people who have drank too much to get behind the wheel.

Champaign bars in the news

Champaign taking on bar owners over underage drinking

Some highlights...

Champaign plans to issue city citations to bars where minors are frequently found in possession of alcohol.

So, if you are a bar where minors go, you can expect to possibly get fined.

Mayor Jerry Schweighart, who is also the city's liquor commissioner, said the city is working to establish a format in which liquor-license holders, after a certain number of minors have been ticketed, will also face city penalties.

The article doesn't say how many tickets will cause the bar to receive a fine.

Penalties could be up to a 30-day suspension, fines or a combination, Schweighart said. City attorneys are working on the details, and no date to begin the new procedures has yet been determined, he said.

The article then goes on to talk about a "Fall Barscramble". Almost promoting it, as opposed to talking about the actual story. It spends 7 paragraphs talking about the barscramble.

The article then goes to talk about how bars get penalized for underaged drinking.

This seems to be an example of how most of the townies hate students. The article is clearly aimed at making bars look bad. (It also is trying to demonize underage drinking). If the city has a problem with all the underage drinking, then they should put that fine money to use and create a place where underage people would want to go. Until there is a viable alternative to the campus bars, then people underage will go to the campus bars. Unless it's strictly enforced that no one under 21 can enter a bar, there will be underage drinking at bars.

When there's greater enforcement at the bars, people who want to drink will then go to other less supervised places (parties). I'd assume binge drinking at bars is less of a problem than at kegger parties; I know it is from my experience.

Also, underage clubs have a stigma attached to them. That stigma will have to be removed before it will be an acceptable place for people under 21 to go.

I find it also interesting, that most of the bars that are the problem, are in Campus. Do I know what bars are in campus? No. Why don't I know what bars are in campus? Because I don't go to campus. Why don't I go to campus? Because I don't want to be the creepy old man at the campus bar. Am I the only person who feels that way? Probably not.

So what does that mean? That means that, most likely, no other townies (over college age) go to the campus bars. The people complaining about underage drinking at campus bars, are only the politicians. Locals aren't going to Kam's on Friday nights and being offended by all those 19 year old's drinking. It's the mayor of Champaign who doesn't like it. Does he go to Kam's on Friday night to have a beer, and to enjoy himself? Or if he does go there, is it to see how many underage drinkers there are?

My solution? Do I have one?

Until Champaign provides a viable alternative to campus bars, (that doesn't have the stigma attached to it of under 21 clubs) there will be an issue of underage drinking.

The options are either:

Lowering the drinking age.

Creating a place for 18-20 year olds to go.

Or, stopping the punishment of people for breaking a bad law.

Until any of those happen, there will still be a problem of underage drinking in Champaign.

Why was Stage 2 in Peoria successful? Because people under 21 couldn't get into bars.

How multiple modern religions disprove time travel

WHAAAA?

Well, as I was driving home last night, I thought, if I had a time machine, I'd go back in time and kill all the people who started "religions". (Then I wondered if Abraham actually existed... and Moses...) So my plan for having a time machine was to go back and kill Abraham (who started Judaism) if that didn't work, then kill Moses (since he was the guy who wrote down all the stuff). Then kill Mohammad (am I now going to be a target of a fatwah?). Of course killing Abraham should end all the Abrahamic religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But just to be safe, work backwards...

I thought how many issues today would be solved by a lack of religion? There wouldn't be Islamic terrorists. There wouldn't be the religious right who likes to concern themselves with the worlds bedrooms. There wouldn't be zionists who want to rebuild the temple. Maybe the earth would be better?

Most religions have one thing in common. It can be summed up in Christianity by the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:19-20

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Islam probably has something similar, where the people are commanded to go out and convert the rest of the world. The reason bad things happen is because people aren't fulfilling the commission and god is angry.

One of the greatest aspects of multiple religions, is in knowing that you are right, and everyone else is going to burn in hell.

So, how do multiple religions disprove time travel? By the fact that they are still here. No zealot in the future has commandeered a time machine and gone back to "fix" a historical mistake (other wrong religions).

How many Christians today would get in a time machine and go back and witness the birth of Jesus? How many would go and watch the resurrection? How many would watch the crucifixion? If that were possible, the heavenly host that sang to the shepherds would actually be time travelers and not angels. (If time travel were possible, I'd hope that some time traveler would go back and actually make some historical evidence for all that happened; can't you bury a scroll or maybe have some record, perhaps have some non-debunked stuff in Josephus account...)

How many muslims would go back in time to spend time with Muhammad?

How many Jews would go back to be with David, Moses... the prophets?

Just going to these events is one thing that most followers would want to do if there was a time machine.

BUT, a zealot/fanatic/terrorist would take it one step further. Some christian would get in a time machine and kill Judas. Someone would kill Pilate. Someone would do something to prevent Jesus from being crucified.

Someone would do something to ensure that Islam is the only religion being practiced. Someone would do the same to ensure that Judaism is the only one. If time travel were possible, this would happen. Heck people think if there were time machines they would kill Hitler.

But we are where we are, because there are no time machines.

The flaws of modern religion prove that time travel won't ever happen.

I think the seeds of this were put in my head on Sunday when I was watching a thing on Stonehenge, and they were saying that they thought Stonehenge was for religious rites to communicate with the dead. At the end of the show, they said something like the only way to know for sure would be to get into a time machine and go watch.

Which made me think, that if there were time travel, then Stonehenge wasn't there to talk to the dead, but it's actually there to talk to the future.

Enough rambling.

CU Beer Weekend Dec. 11

This week is going to be a pretty good one for beer. Champaign Urbana, prepare to get your drink on. If you follow my twitter feed (or facebook) you already know that Founders Backwoods Bastard has arrived in town (along with Founders Imperial Stout). Yesterday I went to Sunsinger and picked up a four pack, I believe it cost $12.99. I didn't see the imperial stout. The BB was in the cooler, and not on the shelf. Also, Capital Eisphyre is available there, and is on the shelf. All those beers should be stocked at Friar Tucks and Picadilly by the time you read this. Backwoods Bastard won't last long at the stores.

Hopefully, by next Friday, I'll have a list of the December 25 openings.

7 Saints

The two rotating taps are currently:

Southern Tier Oat
Southern Tier Old Man Winter (it's actually the one with the Bells Winter handle)

7S has (I believe) a case of both Backwoods Bastard and Imperial Stout. It hasn't been priced yet (as of Thursday night) but it should be for this weekend.

Wednesday: Whiskey Wednesday, this week, Bourbon + Rye
Thursday: Beer Class, 9:30 $10; holiday/ winter beers.


Radio Maria

Jacob is out of town driving through the United States, so the beer list hasn't been updated online since 11/29. Also there isn't an email about the specials, so I don't know what tonight's happy hour special is. We'll assume the rest of the weekly schedule stays the same.

Friday: Happy Hour 4:30 - 5:30. DJ at 10, $3 Smirnoff drinks
Saturday: $3 Bacardi and $6 Bacardi Mojitos, Salsa Night at 10.
Sunday: $2 wells, $1.25 beer (no PBR this week)
Monday: 25% off bottles of wine
Tuesday: 1/2 price wine by the glass
Wednesday: $1 off all beers on draft.
Thursday: $1 off house specialty cocktails

Jan 17, North Coast Brewing Company beer dinner, with brewery rep Brad Fuller.

Blind Pig

Left Hand Warrior IPA; Longmont, Colorado, India Pale Ale, 6.8% abv
Left Hand Fade To Black; Longmont, Colorado, Foreign Stout, 8% abv
Rouge Hazelnut Brown Nectar; Newport, Oregon, Brown Ale, 6.22% abv
Avery The Czar; Boulder, Colorado, Imperial Stout, 10.77% abv
Schlafly Kölsch; Maplewood, Missouri, Kölsch, 4.8% abv
Unibroue La Terrible; Canada, Belgian Strong Ale, 10.5%
Green Flash West Coast IPA; Vista, California, India Pale Ale, 7.3% abv
Mahrs Bräu Christmas Bock; Germany, Heller Bock, 6% abv
Fullers London Pride; England, Premium Bitter, 4.7% abv
Delirium Noël; Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 10% abv
Blue Moon; Golden, Colorado, Belgian White, 5.4% abv
Krusovice Imperial 12°; Bohemian Pilsener, Czech Republic, 5% abv
Stella Artois; Belgium, Pale Lager, 5.2% abv
Pabst Blue Ribbon; San Antonio, Texas, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Ridgeway Bad Elf; England, English Strong Ale, 6%
Two Brothers Red Eye Porter; Warrenville, Illinois, Imperial Porter, 9.2% abv
Summit Horizon Red Ale; St. Paul, Minnesota, Amber Ale, 5.7%
Lagunitas IPA; Petaluma, California, India Pale Ale, 5.7% abv
Gouden Carolus Noël; Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 10.5% abv
Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen; Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.3% abv
Lindemans Framboise; Belgium, Lambic, 2.5% abv
De Ranke Père Noël; Belgium, Belgian Ale, 7% abv
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout; England, Stout, 5.2%
Guinness; Dublin, Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

Arcadia Angler's Ale is on cask.

You could easily do a holiday beer sampler at the Pig with Mahrs Brau, Delirium Noel, Ridgeway Bad Elf, Gouden Carolus, De Ranke Pere Noel.

The Brewery (the Piglet)

Blind Pig Oatmeal Stout
Blind Pig Grisette
Goose Island Honkers Ale Chicago, Illinois, English Pale Ale, 5% abv
Veltins Pilsener Germany, Classic German Pilsener, 4.8% abv
Wild Goose Snow Goose Frederick, Maryland, English Strong Ale, 5.9% abv
Slaapmutske Christmas Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 7.4% abv
Victory Storm King Downington, Pennsylvania, Imperial Stout, 9.1% abv
Ayinger Bräu-Weiss Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.1% abv
Heilemans Old Style Woodridge, Illinois, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Avery duganA Boulder, Colorado, Imperial IPA, 8.5% abv
Dark Horse Scotty Karate Marshall, Michigan, Scotch Ale, 9.75% abv
Guinness Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

There isn't a list of the coming soon house beers. The Grisette should be a saison style / french farmhouse beer, if my guess is correct.

Sunday: 7-9 Trivia


Crane Alley

North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsener 4.4%
Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale 5.3%
Belhaven Wee Heavy Scottish Ale 6.5%
Lost Abbey Ten Commandments 9.0%
Three Floyds Robert The Bruce 7.0%
He'brew Origin Pomegranate Ale 8.0%
Avery The Czar Imperial Stout 11.7%
Schneider Weiss 5.6%
Guinness 4.2%
Rogue Double Dead Guy Ale 9.5%
Chimay Trappist Tripel 8.0%
Founder's Porter 6.5%
Pabst Blue Ribbon 4.7%
Left Hand Fade To Black Export Stout 8.5%
Flying Dog Raging Bitch Belgian IPA 8.2%
Great Divide Fresh Hop 6.1%


Coming Soon

Old Speckled Hen
Three Floyds Pride & Joy 5.0%
Founders Imperial Stout
Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper Imperial Stout
Mendocino Red Tail Ale
Green Flash IPA 7.0%
Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA
Erdinger Octoberfest Weizen 5.6%
Gulden Draak 10.5%
Great Divide Hibernation
Anchor Christmas Ale
Moylans Christmas Ale
Ridgeway Santa's Butt Porter
Ridgeway Bad Elf Winter Ale 6.0%
Three Floyds Gumballhead Wheat Ale 5.0%

This weekend's food specials:

CHIMAY CHEESE PLATE - Chimay Classic, Chimay A La Bier, and Chimay Vieux served with apples, grapes, and baguette

CHUTNEY BURGER - Housemade 8oz burger with apple-jalapeno chutney, applewood smoked bacon, and fontina cheese

ROTINI PASTA - Rotini pasta with chicken, bacon, mushrooms, spinach, and maranara

Cowboy Monkey

Friday: Love Me Nots, $5 10pm
Saturday: Vanattica, $5, 9:30 (Withnail 10pm, Steeleater 11pm, Vanattica at midnight)
Tuesday: Open Mic, 10pm, $2.50 Magic Hat; $2.50 Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat; $2.50 Bacardi drinks
Wednesday: Salsa, 10pm
Thursday: Live Karaoke Band, $5 10pm
Friday: Delta Kings, $5 9pm

Highdive

Friday: DJ Delayney $5, 10pm
Saturday: DJ $5, 10pm; $5 Long Island, $5 Vegas Bombs, $4 Captain Morgan drinks, $4 Jose Cuervo drinks
Monday: 80's night 10pm Free
Tuesday: Open Mic Session, 10pm $5
Wednesday: DJ A-Ron, $5, 10pm

Canopy Club

Friday: Fall Semester Showdown, $7, 8pm
Saturday: Desafinado, 6:30pm; Fall Semester Showdown, $7
Sunday: Pizza + Pitcher and Movie, 6 pm The Darjeeling Limited; 8 pm Rushmore; 10 pm The Hangover
Monday: Jobu, no cover, $1 beers and well
Tuesday: Trivia Diner: Live Game Show/The Piano Man
Wednesday: Physical Challenge: A Dance Party Getdown
Thursday: Bob and Pricilla and friends, $7
Friday: Metal Xmas Bash 2009, $7

Hooters

On tap:
Michelob Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale
Sam Adams Winter Lager


Other events:

Champaign Urbana Beer Club

Wednesday; Dec 16, at Crane Alley, 6:30 pm. December theme is Anniversary or Holiday Beers.

My schedule for this week is rather full.

Friday: Radio Maria Happy Hour, possibly Blind Pig Brewery for the Grisette, Hooters for Calendar Signing.
Saturday: Hooters for Big Brad's Birthday and UFC 107, Penn vs Sanchez
Sunday: Hooters for football
Monday: free
Tuesday: free
Wednesday: pool, as we got wildcard and won last week, followed by Beer Club at Crane
Thursday: 7 Saints beer class. (it's not a cover, it's tuition and fees)

I'm a winner

No seriously, I'm a winner.

2009, has pretty much been the year of winning. For Realz.

Last Thursday, I received an email from Mountain Dew Green Label Gear. This email said:

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have been selected as a Burton Snowboard prize winner in the Green Label Gear Promotion sponsored by Mountain Dew and the Pepsi-Cola Company. Please allow 8-10 weeks for delivery of your prize via mail to the address you supplied when you registered for the promotion.

On behalf of Mountain Dew thanks for participating in the promotion and enjoy your prize!

Huzzah.

But that's not the only email I got from them this year...

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have been selected as a WeSC Headphones prize winner in the Green Label Gear Promotion sponsored by Mountain Dew and the Pepsi-Cola Company. Please allow 8-10 weeks for delivery of your prize via mail to the address you supplied when you registered for the promotion.

On behalf of Mountain Dew thanks for participating in the promotion and enjoy your prize!

I won these prizes because I drink a shit ton of Diet Mountain Dew. I mean, a lot of that stuff. It's probably an unhealthy amount. (On a side note, I believe the incredible amount of caffeine that I consume on a daily basis is what prevents me from getting headaches). If I remember correctly, the headphones have a value of $89. The snowboard has a value (according to them) of about $450.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, TELL HIM WHAT ELSE HE'S WON JOHNNY!

At the draw for the APA (pool) tournament at the beginning of the summer, I won a pool cue, valued at around $200. I guess it's a decent cue, and the case is nice.

But, it's not just me who is a winner, my luck (or win-i-osity) seems to rub off on those around me; and that benefits me as well.

At Hooters they had a raffle/drawing for the Budweiser Hoop Ball game thingy. Kinda like skeeball. It's quite fun to play when drinking. Well, Big Brad won that. He then gave it to Kridz and me, and it's in my garage. From what I remember from my research on it, it's a $450 value.

This winning doesn't have anything to do with skill. My fall softball team lost all our games. Our summer teams didn't do much better. I can't seem to make a ball at pool anymore, in either 8 or 9.

I'm sure that' I've won more things based on luck and not entirely skill. Phil won tickets to an Illinois basketball game where he had to answer a question, but being the correct caller is luck. Darci won football tickets. I went to those games with them.

Kridz won a spa thing to Rod Sickler from the radio.

I should probably play the lottery before the end of the year. At the rate I'm getting lucky, I'm due for a million or 2.

The year started off bad, when I didn't win the big tv from Hooters during the superbowl, but it's changed ever since then.

Have I won anything else? (Some people say that I was the Dark Lord Day winner)

Other free things have been some shirts, a hat, some beer, I think that's about it.

If you won something, and it benefited me this past year, and I forgot; let me know.

*Edit* December 11, I was notified by Josh from Hooters that my name was drawn for winning the "Football Fanatic Display". Not sure what it's worth, or what it is, but it's mine now. *re-edit* It's the grooler, and the bud light tent. (grooler value $125).

*Edit #2* December 13, at Kridz Home Depot christmas party, her name was drawn for the XBox 360. ($199 at Best Buy)

CU Beer Weekend Dec. 4

Winter seems close, today is cold. The 10 day outlook on Weather.com doesn't have highs above 39, with some lows in the teens. So, it's going to be cold. That calls for beer. It calls for a winter warmer, or something thick, and with a relatively high ABV so that at least you feel warm.

7 Saints

Rotating taps:

Southern Tier Old Man Winter
Rogue Yellow Snow

Wednesday: Whiskey Wednesday, this week, Irish
Thursday: Beer Class, 9pm (or 9:30) $10


Radio Maria

1. Ename Belgian Trippel $6
2. Allagash White $4
3. Two Brothers Red Eye Coffee Porter $5
4. Two Brothers Heavy Handed IPA $4
5. Dark Horse Scotty Karate $4
6. Ballast Pointe Sculpin IPA $6
7. Avery The Czar Imperial Stout $4
8. Left Hand Polestar Pilsner $4.5
9. Scaldis Bush Ambree $5
10.Kulmbacher Eisbock $5
11.Green Flash Imperial IPA $5
12.Green Flash Hop Head Red $5
13.Unibroue La Terrible $6.5
14.DogfishHead 90 MIn IPA $4
15.Three Floyd's Pride N' Joy $4
16.Guinness $4
17.North Coast Old Rasputin $5.5
18.Goose Island Bourbon County Stout $7
19.Petrus Blonde $6.5
20.Schlafly's ESB $4
21.Capital Autumnal Fire $4
22.Capital Wild Rice $3
23.Arcadia Jaw Jacker $4
24.Dark Horse Perkulator Dopplebock $5
25.Coney Island Albino Python $6
26.Kapuziner Weissbier $5
27.New Holland Golden Cap $2.25

You'll note Goose Island Bourbon County Stout '09 is on tap. I had a glass of it on Tuesday, and it's awesome.

Friday: Happy Hour 4:30 - 5:30. Arcadia Jaw Jacker $3. DJ at 10, $3 Smirnoff drinks
Saturday: $3 Bacardi and $6 Bacardi Mojitos, Salsa Night at 10.
Sunday: $2 wells, $1.25 beer (no PBR this week)
Monday: 25% off bottles of wine
Tuesday: 1/2 price wine by the glass
Wednesday: $1 off all beers on draft.
Thursday: $1 off house specialty cocktails

Jan 17, North Coast Brewing Company beer dinner, with brewery rep Brad Fuller.

Blind Pig

Left Hand Warrior IPA; Longmont, Colorado, India Pale Ale, 6.8% abv
Left Hand Fade To Black; Longmont, Colorado, Foreign Stout, 8% abv
Rouge XS Imperial Porter; Newport, OR, Imperial Porter, 8.2% abv
Avery The Czar; Boulder, Colorado, Imperial Stout, 10.77% abv
North Coast Brother Thelonious; Fort Bragg, California, Belgian Strong Ale, 9% abv
Unibroue La Terrible; Canada, Belgian Strong Ale, 10.5%
Port Brewing High Tide IPA; San Marcos, California, India Pale Ale, 6.5% abv
Flying Dog Raging Bitch; Frederick, Maryland, India Pale Ale, 8% abv
Fullers London Pride; England, Premium Bitter, 4.7% abv
Delirium Noël; Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 10% abv
Blue Moon; Golden, Colorado, Belgian White, 5.4% abv
Krusovice Imperial 12°; Bohemian Pilsener, Czech Republic, 5% abv
Stella Artois; Belgium, Pale Lager, 5.2% abv
Pabst Blue Ribbon; San Antonio, Texas, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Dark Horse Boffo Brown; Marshall, Michigan, Brown Ale, 5.5%
Two Brothers Red Eye Porter; Warrenville, Illinois, Imperial Porter, 9.2% abv
Summit Horizon Red Ale; St. Paul, Minnesota, Amber Ale, 5.7%
Lagunitas IPA; Petaluma, California, India Pale Ale, 5.7% abv
Duchesse De Bourgogne; Belgium, Sour Ale, 6.2% abv
Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen; Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.3% abv
Lindemans Framboise; Belgium, Lambic, 2.5% abv
Piraat; Belgium, Belgian Strong Ale, 10.5% abv
Left Hand Milk Stout (Nitro); Longmont, Colorado, Sweet Stout, 5.3%
Guinness; Dublin, Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

The Brewery (the Piglet)

Blind Pig Oatmeal Stout
Blind Pig Belgian Pale Ale
Goose Island Honkers Ale; Chicago, Illinois, English Pale Ale, 5% abv
Veltins Pilsener; Germany, Classic German Pilsener, 4.8% abv
Wild Goose Snow Goose; Frederick, Maryland, English Strong Ale, 5.9% abv
Two Brothers Northwind; Warrenville, Illinois, Imperial Stout, 8.5% abv
Two Brothers Heavy Handed; Warrenville, Illinois, India Pale Ale, 6.7% abv
Dark Horse Scotty Karate; Marshall, Michigan, Scotch Ale, 9.75% abv
Heileman's Old Style; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Pale Lager, 5% abv
Victory Golden Monkey; Downington, Pennsylvania, Abbey Tripel, 9.5% abv
König Ludwig Weiss; Germany, German Hefeweizen, 5.5% abv
Guinness; Ireland, Dry Stout, 4.1% abv

Get there early, last week the house beer was gone by Friday night. I've been told the Oatmeal Stout is pretty good.

Sunday: 7-9 Trivia

Crane Alley

North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsener 4.4%
Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale 5.3%
Belhaven Wee Heavy Scottish Ale 6.5%
Lost Abbey Red Barn Saison 6.7%
Three Floyds Robert The Bruce 7.0%
Lindemans Pomme 4.0%
Southern Tier Imperial Oatmeal Stout 11.0%
Hoegaarden Belgian Wit 5.4%
Guinness 4.2%
Rogue Cap'n Sig's India Red Ale 6.2%
Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale 5.5%
Two Brothers Red Eye Coffee Porter 9.2%
Pabst Blue Ribbon 4.7%
Left Hand Fade To Black Export Stout 8.5%
Great Divide Fresh Hop 6.1%
Avery DuganA IPA 8.5%

Coming Soon:

Schneider Weiss 5.4%
Founders Porter 6.5%
Old Speckled Hen
Chimay Tripel 8.0%
Erdinger Octoberfest Weizen 5.6%
Gulden Draak 10.5%
Great Divide Hibernation
Ridgeway Santa's Butt Porter
Ridgeway Bad Elf Winter Ale 6.0%
Three Floyds Gumballhead Wheat Ale 5.0%
Hebrew Origin Pomegranate Ale 8.0%

Monday: Chimay Beer Dinner, 7:30, tickets at Crane alley or contact Aaron@crane-alley.com
This weeks food specials:

Pork Loin-grilled pork loin over cherry risotto toasted almonds and whiskey maple syrup demi-glace

Tapenade Burger- housemade tapenade, applewood smoked bacon and feta cheese, served with fries

Creole Meatloaf- ground beef and andouille sausage with creole spiced meatloaf over spicy mashed potatoes and topped with a holy trinity sauce

Cowboy Monkey

Friday: Beat Kitchen $5, 10pm
Saturday: Snowsera, $5, 10pm
Tuesday: Open Mic, 10pm, $2.50 Magic Hat; $2.50 Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat; $2.50 Bacardi drinks
Wednesday: Salsa, 10pm
Thursday: Bluesjam, Free, 9pm

Highdive

Friday: DJ Delayney $5, 10pm
Saturday: DJ $5, 10pm; $5 Long Island, $5 Vegas Bombs, $4 Captain Morgan drinks, $4 Jose Cuervo drinks
Monday: 80's night 10pm Free
Wednesday: DJ A-Ron, $5, 10pm

Canopy Club

Friday: Laughing Prairie Dog Festival, $10 in advance, 8pm
Saturday: EOTO, $12 in Advance, 10pm
Sunday: Pizza + Pitcher and Movie, 6 pm Adventureland; 8 pm Jingle All the Way; 10 pm High Fidelity; ALSO Elmwood, $7 in advance, 7pm
Monday: Mayday Parade, $13 in advance, 6:30pm; Jobu, no cover, $1 beers and well
Tuesday: Trivia Diner: Live Game Show/The Piano Man
Wednesday: Physical Challenge: A Dance Party Getdown
Thursday: Fishing with Dynamite, $5, early; Fall Semester Showdown, $7, 10pm

other events:

Champaign Urbana Beer Club

next meeting is Wednesday Dec. 16 at Crane Alley 6:30pm. December theme is Anniversary or Holiday Beers.

My schedule is rather empty for this week.

Friday: Radio Maria Happy Hour, and probably try to get to Blind Pig Brewery for house beers
Saturday: free
Sunday: Hooters for football
Monday: free (don't think I can make the Crane Alley dinner)
Tuesday: free
Wednesday: free (unless pool team got wildcard for playoffs; then Jupiters 2)
Thursday: 7 Saints beer class

Beer Review, Bud Light Golden Wheat

So, last night I was at Jupiters and the Crossing, for pool, and I am perusing through the beer selection, and I notice Bud Light Golden Wheat. I haven't had this beer before, so I ask for one. Chris, the bartender, initially says no.

He will not give me one. He felt it almost like blasphemy to give me the beer. I explained to him that I haven't had it yet, and that it's all for just saying I've had it, and to see how it is.

He relents and gives me the beer.

If you were watching my twitter, or my facebook last night, you probably saw my review in 140 characters or less (there were 7 updates). Here's the flushed out version of that.

I poured it into a glass. This beer is probably not designed to be poured into a glass. It poured out yellow. There was initially a white head, but that went away really quickly. The picture is right after being poured, before any sips. As you can see, it went away fast. It did look like flat orange juice.

It had very little smell, even when it warmed up. There might have been some orange, but it was faint. It felt flat and thin. There was some acidic tingling to it, that I initially confused with carbonation, but it wasn't bubbles, it was acidic. The taste was orange-y. There was no hops evident, no wheat, no malt, no... nothing. It was just meh, bad orangeish. Overall, I hated drinking this. It was bad. It made absolutely no sense from a drinking perspective. There's no reason anyone should ever drink this beer, other than to say they had it. (Kind of like Bud American Ale).

What style of wheat is this even supposed to be. I can think of 3 main styles of wheat beers. 1 German Style, aka hefeweizens. This isn't a hefe. 2. Belgian Style wit. This isn't a wit, it says it's brewed with orange peel and coriander, so it might be trying to be a wit, but a Belgian wit it's not. 3. American style wheat. Those typically have a pronounced hop character (Three Floyds, Hoppin Frog). This had no hops. About the closest would be Belgian style. I guess since it's from AB, that means its an Belgian style, Belgian Wheat beer brewed in America. (Since budweiser itself is an American Style, Belgian light lager)

As I was sitting there drinking this horrible concoction, I got a text message from Smart@ss, saying that when he had it, it made him vomitously sick. This kind of scared me as Bud Select 55 gave me the shits. (oh look if you google Bud select 55 review, I'm #10, so people who search for a review of bud select 55 will see that it gave me the shits, huzzah) If crappy faux-beer products from Anheuser Busch make me and everyone I know ill, then our money won't be going to them.

Ok, one of my messages sent on twitter last night was this, as I was pondering why this beer was made...

I understand why now. this "craft" beer is so bad it will scare bud light drinkers from even trying craft beer. genius!

This beer is not designed for me. It's not designed for anyone who follows this blog. It's not designed for anyone who drinks "craft" beer. This beer is solely designed for Bud Light drinkers. It's for a small minority of Bud Light drinkers. It's for the ones who are actually thinking they might like to leave Bud Light behind and try to drink craft beer. This beer is horrible. It's GENIUS!!! They made a "craft" beer that is so bad, that people who think about switching will try this and say "No thanks, I'll stick with Bud Light!" This beer will scare people away from ever getting to something good. The worst part of it is, the deception is done by a company that they love and trust.

People who drink Bud Light, love them some Bud Light. They believe it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, the best thing since sliced WHITE BREAD. (Give them a real loaf of bread and see how they react.) They put their faith and trust into Budweiser to give them a product that they love. They believe that bud light won't let them down. (same with wonder bread). They wouldn't expect bud light to put out a product that is nothing like what a wheat beer should be.

It will go something like this. They are out drinking with a friend at a bar, they order a bud light, their friend orders a Tucher.

Bud Light Guy: Man, how can you drink that stuff?
Tucher Guy: It's awesome, how can you drink that stuff?
Bud Light: I had a wheat beer once and it was horrible, that stuff is just plain old nasty.
Tucher Guy: Well wheat beers are susceptible to light and heat damage, but I don't think I've ever had one that was just nasty. What was it?
BL: Bud Light Golden Wheat.
Tucher: Well, do you want to try this?
BL: No thank you, I don't like those kinds of beers.
Tucher: Come on, just take a sip.
BL: Shut up homo.

(Ok, so I made a generalization there that bud light drinkers are homophobic, and anyone who doesn't agree with them is obviously a homosexual; I was going to use the f-word, but decided against it).

Let's read Anheuser-Busch's press release on BL GW.

“Bud Light has the unique ability to introduce wheat beers to a broader audience of beer drinkers,” said Mike Sundet, senior director of Bud Light brands. “With the personality of Bud Light, Bud Light Golden Wheat appeals to light beer drinkers who seek a variety of flavor options from their beer.”

See, Bud Light Golden Wheat isn't for me or you; it's designed to INTRODUCE wheat beers to beer drinkers. You never get a second chance to make a first impression; this shit is the first impression that most people will get.

This horrible beverage will drive people who think that they might want to try a "craft" beer, right back into the warm fat bosom of Bud Light. She'll probably have a sammich made with white bread there too.

“Bud Light Golden Wheat is not a craft beer, but captures the refreshment of the wheat beer style while remaining consistent with Bud Light’s product attributes that beer drinkers enjoy,” Sundet said. “Our Innovations and brewing teams have worked for almost two years developing Bud Light Golden Wheat from consumer insight and perfecting it to Bud Light standards.”

Wow, they don't even claim to be a craft beer. So, since it doesn't claim to be craft, this beer is just trying to keep bud light drinkers from straying from the budweiser market share.

Brewed at Anheuser-Busch’s Baldwinsville, Cartersville and Fort Collins breweries,
Bud Light Golden Wheat contains 118 calories, 4.1 percent alcohol by volume (also available in 3.2 percent ABW) and is available in 12-ounce glass bottles, 22-ounce single-serve bottles and draught.

Why would anyone need a 22 ounce bomber of this?

Based in St. Louis, Anheuser‑Busch is the leading American brewer, holding a 49.2 percent share of U.S. beer sales.

This beer is designed to keep that 49.2% market share, by saying, "Hey bud light drinkers, you see your friends drinking craft beers, well, here, try one." (Don't try one of theirs)

Why this beer was needed, is totally beyond my comprehension. AB already produces a "wheat" beer, in Michelob Shock Top. Is AB attempting to corner the market on orange-y wheat beers?

Budweiser should just stick to making Bud, and Bud Light. If they want to make better beers, they should point their drinkers to their Michelob lineup. Some of that stuff isn't too bad (I'm fond of Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale). Sadly, they've ruined their own image of Michelob by portraying it as a poor mans version of Budweiser, even though most of their stuff is superior to Buds.

I wonder, is this Shock Top light?



Save your money, don't buy or drink this beer. If you want a wheat, drink one. Don't drink this. And if you do get a hefe, don't put fruit in it.

Thanksgiving South Easterly Trip

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. For it, Kridz and I went south east. Our initial plans were to go down to Marietta Georgia and spend the week with my uncle helga, and do Thanksgiving day (proper) with the mother.

Then we thought a whole week in Georgia might be too much, so we thought about going to Asheville on Friday (or Saturday) and spending some time with Frank and Dana. Then we changed our minds again, and went to Asheville first, and headed to Atlanta area on Thanksgiving itself.

On the Sunday before we left, I stopped at Friar Tucks to pick up some things to trade with Julie from BruisinAles. She had asked for some of this years Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Three Floyds Behemoth, and Three Floyds Alpha Klaus. GIBCS and Behemoth were available at Tucks so I picked up some of that for her.

We left on Monday morning around 8:30 or so. We got to 465 in Indy around 10:45 (with the time change; maybe). Then had to get gas, so we stoped at Crown Liquors. Crown Liq is at exit 2B on 465. Take that for about 3 miles south and it's on the left. It doesn't have a huge selection, but the selection it has is outstanding. (If you go down 31 further south, you'll come to E Stop 11 road, turn left there and go down another 2 miles and on the right is Parti-pak Liquors, that store doesn't look like much, but has an OUTSTANDING beer selection, and everything is available in singles; we didn't go there this time) We weren't really shopping to get much, just hoping to pick up some more GIBCS (tucks only had the bombers) and hopefully some Alpha Klaus. The store had Alpha Klaus, horray. It also had bombers and 4 packs of GIBCS, horray. It also had Behemoth, horray. It didn't just have Behemoth, it had '09 Behemoth, sitting next to '08 Behemoth, sitting next to '07 Behemoth. All were the same price, exactly how that was possible, I have no idea. So, I got one of each of those (for Julie). I also picked up a 4pack of Bells Hell Hath No Fury, because that's awesome. I think that's about all we got there. The guy working was nice enough to give us 15% off our purchase, it was supposed to be just for bombers, but he did it for the whole thing. I'm sure we got more, I just don't remember what all else we got there.

We continued traveling to Asheville. Interstate 40 is closed just inside the North Carolina border, so we hadda take a detour. This was through some of the windy-est up and down backwoods parts of North Carolina. In Illinois, we are pampered. Seriously. The ground is flat, and pretty much all the roads go north and south, or east and west. There are a few curves, but it's pretty straight. Even the non-interstate roads are pretty straight. You can take route 150 from Danville to the Quad Cities, and you'll be stopping a lot, but it's pretty straight. This backroad route that we had to take in North Carolina, I swear we stayed on the same road, but intersected the road we were on. There's a lot of turning. There's a lot of ups and downs. There's mountains. There's valleys. There's OMG YOU ARE GOING TO FAST FOR THIS CORNER!!!! ARRRRGGGGHHH.

We made it to Asheville, without much incident (although my car is making a weird rattling noise). Got to Frank and Dana's and ate and had a beer or 2, not exactly sure what all we drank that night, the week got kind of fuzzy...

Woke up on Tuesday and ate breakfast. Killed some time, then headed to downtown to the Mellow Mushroom to eat lunch. I had a Sweetwater Motorboat, Kridz had a Wedge Pale, Frank had a Highland Cold Mountain. I had a second beer, that was the French Broad Rye Hopper. We left there and headed to Pisgah Brewery. There we met Julie and J from BruisinAles. We all got beer and went and sat at the tables and chatted about beer. Based on my twitter messages, I know that the first beer I had was their Belgian Amber. Kridz had their porter and Frank had the Nitro Stout. Because we were there with Julie and J, we got to go back and check out the works of the brewery (I'm sure they would have let us back their without them; but it didn't hurt that we were there with one of the top beer store people in the world). We talked to one of the brewers and learned some of their stuff. We finished up and headed to the next brewery.

Our next stop was Wedge Brewing Co. Wedge is pretty. Wedge is possibly how I'd like my brewery to look. While there, I had their belgian abbey ale, which was awesome. Frank and Kridz both got their DIPA. We got to go back and talk with Carl, the brewer, about some of the things he was doing, and to look at their setup. I'm pretty sure that I had another beer there, but who really knows. We packed up there and headed to the next brewery.

Our next stop was Dirty Jacks. While there, we got to talk with the brewer, John. I was drinking the DIPA, and Kridz got the ESB. Their ESB was one of the first non-bud light beers that Kridz had. From our first trip to Asheville, when we helped move Frank and Dana down. It's a good gateway beer. Back then, it was probably a lot more flavor than she was used to, now it's probably kind of tame. John was working on something special for something special (not exactly sure what it was) but he brought out some samples of a stout for us, and that was pretty darn good. We packed up there and headed to our next stop.

Next stop, the Thirsty Monk. The monk is pretty much 2 pubs, downstairs is all Belgian and belgian style, upstairs is pretty much... beer, any and all beer. When we were there, we got to sit in on a tasting of Hanssens Lambics in the basement, which I enjoyed, but Frank and Kridz didn't seem to like. At one point I said, "you have to want to like these beers" if you don't you'll never get around to appreciating them. If you don't want it, you'll hate them and just be stuck with the vinegar flavor. Then we went upstairs and got to drink some cask Ola Dubh 12 year. That was awesome too. I'm pretty sure I had a beer from downstairs, but I have no clue what it was. While we were finishing up the Ola Dubh glasses, Dana called and said she was about ready to be picked up from work. That call ended a LONG day of drinking. A LONG great day of drinking. Although I think we may have had another one or two when we got back to Frank and Dana's.

Woke up Wed, and felt a little small, not horribly hungover, but not the greatest. Dana managed to get the day off, so we ate breakfast and headed out to go do some beer exchanging with BruisinAles. We got there before they opened, so we had to figure out something else to do. We wound up going to The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa for the National Gingerbread House Display. That was... interesting. The place smelled like gingerbread, which I guess is to be expected. Some of them were nice, others were... meh. We finished up there and went to BruisinAles again. (the final haul list will be at the bottom of this post).

We left there, went back to Frank and Dana's ate dinner had a couple beers (including a Troegs Nugget Nectar from Julie and J's private stash) and watched Pelham 123. Woke up Thursday and headed towards Atlanta. Made the 200 wind-y drive in about 4 hours. Got to mom's a little bit into the packer game. Had to call mother for directions to her house from the road we exited the interstate from. She apparently doesn't know the road's name to turn on from the road we were on, which I believe is the road she works on.

Watched football, ate, played scategories, left and went to Uncle Helga's. Wanted a beer during dinner, but not so much after. Relaxed the rest of the night at Harolds. Friday went back to go work on their laptops that both had issues. Frank's display was turning off, and they needed the data from it on the other lappy. Mom's lappy wasn't printing. I managed to transfer the data without having much visibility on the monitor, and managed to get her printer working (Windows 7 security features have a tendency to lock down machines to a point where they don't work). Ate, then headed to Highland Beverage in Hiram.

Highland doesn't have the biggest selection, but they do have a decent one. This whole trip my plan was to only get beers from the south east, I pretty much succeeded, but did get a couple of Stone's and some other things.

Left there and went to Taco Mac Marietta. Other than pizza, Taco Mac is the beer place that Old Chicago wishes it was. Old Chicago has like 20 taps, Taco Mac Marietta has 50. Old Chicago claims 110 brews. Taco Mac has 402 bottles. I don't know any place locally with that number, (other than the houses of people in the beer club). While there, met my cousin, his wife and 2 daughters. That was nice. I added 4 beers (between kridz and I) to my passport club thing.

Saturday, packed up and headed back to Illinois.

That's pretty much the trip. Here's the haul...

4 pack Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
4 pack Atlanta Brewing Company Double Chocolate Oatmeal Porter
4 pack Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout (and another for Puffer)(commonly known as Wake and Bake)
2 Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada Life and Limb
3 Terrapin Gamma Ray
2 Stone Sublimely Self Righteous
2 Duck Rabbit Wee Heavy Scotch
2 Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot
Sweetwater Festive '09 #1655 (must check to see what number my '06 is)
Bruery 2 Turgle Doves
Stone Old Guardian Early '09 Release
Smuttynose Baltic Porter
Smuttynose Imperial Stout
Smuttynose Wheat Wine Ale
Weyerbacher Insanity
Hanssens Oude Kriek (from Thirsty Monk tasting)
Highland Tasgall
Sweetwater Wet Dream (dank tank)
Terrapin Side Project #6 90 Shelling
Terrapin Side Project #7 Maggies' Farmhouse Ale
Weyerbacher XIII
Weyerbacher 12
Deschutes Jubelale '08 (from Julie and J)
Highland Imperial Black Mocha
Sweetwater Big Ol' Belgian Blue Balls (dank tank)
Troegs Mad Elf (from Julie and J)
Terrapin Imperial Red Ale Big Hoppy Monster
Brewdog Paradox Smokehead #15
Brewdog Paradox Isle of Arran #16
Weyerbacher 14
Weyerbacher Quad

(the Paradox gives me numbers 1,3,5,8,10,11, 13, 15, and 16)