Days of the Beer, October 31

The beer for today is Einbecker Ur-Bock Dunkel.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The full name of it was the Ninety-Five These on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. This document was largley regarded as the main reason for the Protestant Reformation. Ultimately, the document was about Luther's displeasure with the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences.

Martin Luther was born November 10, 1483 and was a German monk, theologian, university professor and is considered the Father of Protestantism. Luther's theology chalenged the authority of the pope by claiming that the bible is the only infallible source of religious authority. Luther was excommunicated in 1521, at the Diet of Worms.

At the Worms Reichstag, Martin Luther said, "The best drink known to man is called Einbecker Beer."

About the beer:

Einbecker Ur-Bock dark – brewed from dark malt – is characterized by a strong, robust taste.

So, for Martin Luther's 95 Theses, which led to the Diet of Worms, where he claimed his favorite beer, have the beer that evolved from his favorite beer, Einbecker Ur-Bock Dunkel.

Days of the Beer, October 30

The beer for today is Great Divide Titan IPA.

On October 30, 1951. Harry Robinson Hamlin was born. He is best known for his portrayal of Michael Kuzak in L.A. Law. Prior to that TV show, he was known for being Perseus in the 1981 fantasy film Clash of the Titans.

Hamlin reprised his role of Perseus in the 2007 video game God of War II.

About the beer:

Titan IPA

Traditionally India Pale Ales, the hoppiest of all pales, were brewed with more alcohol and large quantities of hops in order to survive the lengthy ocean journey from the U.K. to India. Unlike our brewing forefathers, Great Divide enjoys the modern benefits of refrigeration and we don’t have any plans to ship Titan IPA to India. Instead, we brew Titan IPA for hop disciples – independent beer drinkers seeking out robust, flavorful beers characterized by their abundance of hops flavor, aroma and bitterness. As a big, aggressively hopped India Pale Ale, Titan IPA fills this bill – beginning with piney hop aromas and citrus hop flavors, and finishing with a rich, malty sweetness that is carefully balanced with crisp hop bitterness.

Titan IPA weighs in at a considerable 65 International Bittering Units (IBUs).

Alcohol by volume: 6.8%

So, for the star of Clash of the Titans, have a Titan yourself.

Days of the Beer, October 29

The beer for today is Mt. Hood Ice Axe IPA.

On October 29, 1792, Mount Hood in Oregon was named after British naval officer Alexander Arthur Hood, by Lt. William E. Broughton, who spotted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.

Mount Hood (called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe) is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc in northern Oregon. It's snow-covered peak rises 11,249 feet and is home to twelve glaciers. It is the highest mountain in Oregon. It is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt (3-7% chance in the next 30 years).

About the beer:

Ice Axe IPA is the Mt. Hood Brewing Co.'s flagship and best selling beer. Pale amber in color and aggressively hopped, Ice Axe is a mouth-filling and well balanced beer. Slight buttery overtones provided by oak-conditioning, gives it a character reminiscent of a fine wine. The mild spiciness and rich bitterness of the brewmaster's carefully selected hops shine through in the flavor and aroma. O.G. 1.060/ 5.9% abv./ East Kent Goldings, Mt.Hood, and Willamette hops/ Five different malts.

The Mt. Hood Brewery is part of the Ice Axe Grill. It began operation in January, 1991. The beer is only available on tap, at the brewpub, or at other places throughout Oregon.



You'll notice many beer related words that have been used in the first part of this narrative.

1. Mt. Hood. Mt. Hood is the name of a variety of hops. Oregon is the second largest producer of domestic (American) hops, behind Washington, and ahdead of Idaho. There are many hops varieties that originated in Oregon.

Mt. Hood is a triploid aroma-type cultivar, the 1983 result of a cross between the colchicine - induced tetraploid female Hallertau mf (USDA 21397) and the USDA 19058M, male plant. It is a half-sister to Ultra, Liberty and Crystal.

An aromatic variety derived from Hallertau with a refined, spicy aroma and clean bittering. A good choice for lagers. (alpha acid: 4.0-6.0% / beta acid: 5.0-7.5%)

2. Willamette. The Willamette River is a tributary of the Columbia River. It is 187 miles long and is entirely in northwestern Oregon.

Willamette is a triploid aroma-type hop, which originated in the mid 1970’s and is a seedling of Fuggle. It is a very popular aroma hop, contributing in 1998 to 18% of the total USA hop crop.

A variation on English Fuggle hops grown in Oregon and Washington. Willamette has a fragrant spicy woody aroma. An excellent American aromatic hops for ales
and lagers. (alpha acid: 4.0-6.0% / beta acid: 3.5-4.5%)

3. Cascade.

Cascade is an aroma-type cultivar which originated as the first commercial hop from the USDA-ARS breeding program. It was bred in 1956 but not released for cultivation until 1972. It reached its peak in 1975 when it produced 13.3% of the total American crop. It was obtained by crossing an English Fuggle with a male plant, which originated from the Russian variety Serebrianka with a Fuggle male plant.

A very popular U.S. variety, with a moderate bitterness level and fragrant, flowery aroma. Cascade is often used in highly hopped West Coast ales that have a citrus-floral hop character. (alpha acid: 4.5-6.0% / beta acid: 5.0-7.0% )

4. Wyeast. Wyeast Laboratories produce yeast that is used in brewing. Wyeast Laboratories is located in Odell, Oregon.

*hops information taken from Beer Advocate*

Radio Maria Beer Special

Tonight, October 29, Radio Maria, will be having a beer special $3 pints of Capital Autumnal Fire.

It's going to be coming off to make way for another beer, but I don't remember what that one was. Jakob was flagging us down to tell us this information as we were leaving Esquire from playing a little pool.

(On a side note) I'm very disappointed in Esquire's beer selection now. They used to have some good stuff, but it just seemed very bland. The taps were uninteresting, the bottles weren't that exciting either. Heck, I didn't even see Stroh's in the bottle selection anymore.

I had a Hacker Pschoor, Kriddy had a Dead Guy, Paddy had a Founders Reds Rye (the most interesting tap), Kai had Fat Tire. Nothing too outstanding in the place. Their food is pretty good, the Asian Dumplings are GREAT, the steak sammich is ok, but without a good variety of beer, what's the point?

Days of the Beer, October 28

The beer for today is Budweiser (Czechvar).

On October 28, 1918, Czechoslovakia was granted independence from Austria-Hungary.

At the time, it consisted of the present-day territories of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. The territory included some of the most industrialized regions of the former Austria-Hungary. It was a democratic republic before World War II, but there were ethnic problems with the dissatisfaction of the German and Slovak ethnic groups, as the Czechs held political and economic dominance.

In 1939, Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and divided it into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and also the Slovak State.

After World War II, the pre-war borders were reestablished, and all people who took German or Hungarian citizenship during the war were forced out (the Hungarians were later allowed to stay, but the Germans were exported). In 1948, the Communists seized power. In 1989, the country became democratic again, around the same time as the fall of communism.

In 1992, Czechoslovakia was dissolved by parliament, and it's territories became the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993.

As to the beer:

The original Budweiser Bier (Budweiser Bürgerbräu) was founded in 1795, in Budweis Bohemia. Anheuser-Busch started using the Budweiser brand in 1876, and registered it two years later. A new company, Budvar, was established in 1895 by Czech brewers, which led to the Budweiser trademark dispute. Negotiations between the three companies, led to AB only being able to use the name Budweiser in North America. This also caused the Budvar to be sold in the US and Canada as Czechvar.

Czechvar is the special name (editor's note: for North America) of the world famous beer produced by the renowned brewery in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. Benefitting from over 700 years of brewing experience of the South Bohemian region, Czech is the golden original, acknowledged by many connoisseurs as one of the best lagers in the world.

So, for the founding of Czechoslovakia, have a Czechvar.

Budvar/Czechvar has been distributed in the US by Anheuser-Busch since January 2007, so it seems part of the hatchet has been buried.

Rumor has it, that if you go to the brewery for a tour, they don't like Americans very much, especially if you mention Anheuser-Busch; but if you say you like their beer better, they are much more accomodating.

For more information, you can pick up a copy of Budweiser Budvar Budejovicky; Budvar 1895-1995. I believe I have a copy of this book on my shelf somewhere. I've also got a six pack of the beer, that I should drink really soon.

Easterly trip

In case you didn't know, Kriddy and I took last week off and headed out east (if you read any of the twitter messages, you probably figured it out). You'll note, I didn't miss any days of the beer, I had prepared them all to be published on their day, I didn't sit down at a computer each day in a hotel somewhere and plug them out.

Last Sunday, I went and got a rental car from Budget, we got a Chevrolet Cobalt sport, which was a kinda nice car, reminded me a lot of one of my old chevy cavaliers. On Sunday evening I packed up my bags and headed to Kriddy's around 9 or so. We left sometime on Monday morning, heading east.

Our first stop was in Columbus Ohio at Barley's Ale House No. 1. I got the pierogies and Kriddy got the mac and cheese. My first beer was a raspberry wheat, I followed that up with their cask ESB. The bartendress had stepped out and the head brewer was watching the counter for her. At some point a guy comes in and orders a beer, and starts talking about how he likes one of the beers, and how he really doesn't like one of their beers, and he's talking to the brewer about it. We were kind of flabbergasted that he would just start talking about it like that to him.

We jumped back in the car and headed east on Interstate 70. We got to Interstate 79 and headed south, then jumped on 68 east. That hooked back up to 70 and we followed that some more. It was really wierd for me driving on 70 towards Baltimore/DC. I used to live on Fort Meade, Maryland, every other time I had driven toward there, I knew exactly where I was going, what was on the other end, where my place was, this time, it was like... well, what do we want to do, where do we want to stay?

Monday night, we pulled off at Hagerstown, Maryland, and found a hotel. The place was relatively empty. We went down to the restauarant and I got a Reuben and Kriddy got the cheese stix (when she doesn't know what she wants off the menu, she gets cheese stix). I perused their beer selection, and noticed they had Chimay Red. So I got that. It was presented ice cold. It was so cold, it hurt my teeth to drink. They didn't offer a glass, so I had to ask for one. So, I had an ice cold Chimay in a frosted pilsner glass. What a tragedy. I held the glass until my hands felt frozen, to warm it up a little, but it stayed unpleasantly cold the entire time. I followed that up with a beer from Frederick (right down the street) from Brewers Alley. It was their pilsner, it was pretty good, and quite floral. The bartendress was rather impressed that it was from right down the street in Frederick and that they actually brew their own beer.

We then retired to our room. Got up on Tuesday and headed towards DC. After driving around the Mall for a bit, we found a place that had parking for $20 for all day, so stopped there, it was just outside the Art Museum, so we went in there, didn't see any art, but did walk through the gift shop. We walked down to the Museum of Natural History, and walked through that. Saw the dinosaurs, the gems and the rocks. I was thinking that the U.S. could sell all the stuff in there and pay off the debt, kinda like in Americathon (but not quite).

We left there and walked past the closed-for-renovations Museum of American History, you know, the cool one, with the fonz's jacket. We then walked past the Washington Monument, saw the Whitehouse, then went and saw the WW2 Memorial, Korean Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Vietnam Memorial. Then we walked back to our car.

We attempted to go to the Brickskeller for a beer, but couldn't find a place to park. So we drove off to my old stomping grounds by Fort Meade. We drove past the first bar where I played APA pool, which was kinda cool, man, that was 10+ years ago. Then we got on a road and headed towards Annapolis.

As we drove around, we looked in the GPS for brewpubs, and it pointed us to Heroes Pub. This was a nice little place, that had 48 taps. As we were on the eastern seaboard, I ordered the fish sammich. Kriddy went with chicken strips. I had a Brewers Art Resurrection. Followed that up with a Blue Point Hoptical Illusion, next was a Fordham Tavern Ale, and finally a "natty boh" or National Bohemian. Natty Boh is apparently the local Old Style, style beer, it's from G.Heileman, so it pretty much is Old Style.

We left and found a hotel in Annapolis. Woke up the next morning, and went by the state capital building. Then drove up to Baltimore. We drove past the football and baseball stadiums, then went to Fells Point.

Fells point is the cool/hip section of Balmer. We walked around for a bit, and then went into Max's on Broadway. Max's has an awesome beer selection. It's got like 100 taps and like 200 bottles, I kept a menu. I started with a Legacy Euphoria, Kriddy got their Fat Boy Lager. I then asked for a Brewdog Paradox (something) that they didn't have, and settled for a 009. This went pretty good with my mushroom swiss burger. I also had an Oscar Blues Ten Fidy.

We left there and drove around for a bit, hoping my old boss would call back, but he didn't :(

We went to the Laurel Mall, to kill some time and maybe get a cheap souviner, which has changed SIGNIFICANTLY since I lived there. It seemed 75% of the stores were closed, and it was a lot darker than I remember. We left there and went to the nice mall in Columbia. This one was still nice. It was next door to the place where I had gotten my Microsoft certification, 9 years ago.

We left there and found a liquor store, and I got a 4 pack of Oskar Blues Ten Fidy (yeah, it's a Colorado beer, but we don't get it in Illinois, so I got some), also picked up a 6 pack of Troegs Trogenator, and I think their Hopback Amber.

Kriddy wanted BW, so we pulled that up on the GPS and headed north to Carrolton. There was a football game or something that had just ended, so the place was packed. I don't know why, but it seemed everyone there was staring at me. I had a hat on, so no mohawk, but still everyone looked at me like I had a penis growing out of my forehead. It was wierd. They had Sam Adams Octoberfest, so I got two of those. We left and found a hotel. I took in one of each of the beers, but we only made it through the Hopback. It's good, and is still ok in hotel plastic cups.

As we were driving toward BW, I saw signs that said Gettysburg was only 20 miles or so away, so that settled our plans for Thursday.

Woke up and headed north to Gettysburg. The visitor center was packed, so we drove around and saw signs for Auto Tour. So we followed that. It's amazing how many people died there. When you stop to consider everything that went on, in the heat of July, watching everyone die, that it only happened 145 years ago.

We stopped looked at monuments, took some pictures, pondered what happened, then got in the car and drove some more. Right at the end of the auto tour, is a brewpub. The Appalachian Brewing Company, is based out of Harrisburg, but has a pub in Gettysburg, in sight of the battlefield. We went there after we went to the Gettysburg Civil War Museum. This place is also the Gettysburg Gift Center. It's not really a museum (to me), it's a $5.50 wax museum. It's really friggin creepy. Try to think of the creepiest place you've been, then add just a dose of creepy to it. It's really creepy. At the end, an animated wax figure of Lincoln gives the Gettysburg Address.

So, we left and went to the brewpub. They didn't have all their beers, as it seems, the brewmaster has recently quit. So if you are a brewmaster and want to work in a place that's probably haunted, go to Gettysburg. We had all their beers except for the cask pale. They were good, nothing too exceptional, but all perfectly acceptable beers. It'd be nice to have that brewpub locally.

We left there and headed east again, towards Wilmington Delaware, as we had plans on Friday to go to breweries. As we got closer to Philadelphia, we started to get tired, so we looked for a hotel. We found one that was right next to a hooters, and a bar that had 50 taps and 100 bottles. We went in to the hotel for a room, but it was too much, so we went back down the street to get a hotel. Two miles saved us $40. We checked in, moved in our bags, and then headed down to Arbys for evening meal. Left there and went to Firewaters Bar (the one next to hooters).

I started with an O'reilly's Stout (like a Guinness, sadly), then switched to a Sierra Nevada Chico Estate Harvest Ale, on draft. I think that was it for the beer there, as it was getting late, and we were both kinda tired. If I lived around Concord Pennsylvania, this would be one of my favorite bars. Lots of beer, that wasn't too expensive, and (for when I do) smoking inside. They also had mixed drinks (Jack and coke) for $2.50, so it'd be my neighbor Eric's favorite bar too.

We headed back to the hotel, and woke up Friday and headed to Delaware. Our first stop was at Iron Hill Brewery in Wilmington Delaware. We shared the sampler platter, of 10 of their beers. Kriddy wasn't too enthused about the menu, so she ate my rolls that came with my bowl of seafood bisque, that was awesome!!!

We got two of their bottles to go. And then headed south to Milton. Milton is the home of the Dogfish Head Brewery. We took the tour, got to see their facilty, which is very nice. To the right you'll see a picture of their Palo Santo fermentation tank. During each tour we went on, they seem to always ask some of the same questions... 1. What are the 4 ingredients used in making beer? 2. Is anyone a homebrewer?

At the end of the DFH tour, you get four samples of beer that they have selected for the day. Our four were, (1) 60 minute (2) Punkin (3) Pangea (4) Theobrama. I asked the guy behind the counter if I could try their Shelter Pale, and he was nice enough to let me try that. I got a new beer bag, a hat and a shirt, Kriddy also got a shirt. We finished up the tour (the guy in the picture in the cream-ish shirt seemed to have gotten drunk on the 4 samples, as did some of the girls who also took the tour... geez, it was at the most 8 oz of beer), and headed to Rehobeth Beach, to go to the Dogfish Head Brewpub.

There, I had the Lawnmower beer, and followed it up with a Piston Honda, which was a brewpub only. Kriddy ordered a pizza, and I went with the fish and chips. What arrived was two of the largest pieces of fish that I've ever seen. One piece was enough for me, so we took half the pizza and a huge ass piece of fish with us. We left and drove down to the beach, Kriddy had never seen the Atlantic, so we went there. Found a spot just off the beach and parked. Then walked down to the beach. Kriddy was afraid she wouldn't be able to see the ocean, but there were little white caps and you could easily see the entire thing was water. We walked up to the edge of the furthest back wave mark to touch the water, as a wave came in, Kriddy stayed back further than I did, and I touched the water and had to run back to her, because it came in further than all the previous little waves. We walked down the boardwalk for a bit, then walked down the area with all the shops, books, jewelry, tshirts, candy and ice cream. It's probably the same in every beach city.

We left and found a hotel in Rehobeth. Thank goodness it wasn't the summer, because we paid $99 for the room, and the price on the door was $400. Woke up Saturday, threw away our leftovers, and headed north to Pennsylvania.

Saturday's agenda was two more breweries. First stop was in Easton Pa, at Weyerbacher. Weyerbacher is one of my favorite breweries, even though their beer isn't distributed in Illinois. I normally pick up their beer when we go to North Carolina, or any place else that I see it. We got the tour, and sampled the Winter Ale. Also bought an Old Heathen shirt.

We left there and headed for Victory in Downingtown. We got there a little early and went to the bar to have a beer. I went with the cask BP Porter and Kriddy got the Bags Packed Porter... had I realized that cask BP porter was pretty much the same beer, I would have gotten something different. They were two totally different beers, but still, somewhat the same. We took the tour, found out that the restaurant manager (who gave the tour) has family in Pontiac Illinois, and then were going to sit down to eat. The menu wasn't appealing to either of us, and Kriddy wasn't feeling well, so we left, and started heading to home.

We stopped and ate on the Penna Pike at one of their pull offs, and had Burger King, I had seen their ads for the new mushroom and swiss and it looked good, but didn't live up to the commercial. Kriddy slept for most of this, and I decided we'd stop just after we left Pennsylvania and did the West Virginia stretch, and got into Ohio.

We didn't want to go too far into Ohio, as Penn State just got done beating OSU, and we didn't need to try to get a hotel near Columbus.

On Sunday, I called From the Vine to find out their hours, they open on Sunday at 1, so I figured we'd stop and have a leisurely breakfast and kill an hour, and we'd get there right at one. Kriddy was more interested in getting home, so we stopped at McD, and we figured we'd pick up some beer at another place on the way. Remember, I only got 2 bottles from Iron Hill, 2 six packs and a 4 pack. We thought about stopping in Dayton, but that's more out of the way. So I thought we'd go to some of our favorite liquor stores in Indy.

Indy liquor stores aren't open on Sunday.

So we drove home. I dropped Kriddy off and went home to do laundry.

All in all, we covered about 2,200 miles. Stopped at 7 breweries/brewpubs (2 DFH). Went to some really good beer bars, saw 41 different state licensce plates (we kept track), and saw some interesting sites.

It was busy, even though we only really had plans for Friday and Saturday.

The updated list of my beers will be on the right soon.

Days of the Beer, October 27

The beer for today is Amstel Light.

On October 27, 1275, the city of Amsterdam was founded.

Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands. The name of the city comes from Amstel Dam, a dam in the river Amstel, where the Dam Square is.

Originally, it was a small fishing village, but became an important port town during the Dutch Golden Age. The city is home to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, historic canals, the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank house, and the red-light district (prostitution) and cannabis coffee shops.

The city draws about 4.2 million tourists each year.

Amstel is a river in the Netherlands that runs through Amsterdam. It comes from Aeme Stelle which is old Dutch for "area abounding with water".


As to the beer:

A special light beer containing only 3.5% alcohol and approximately 35% fewer calories than regular lager beer. But every bit as thirst-quenching and refreshing.

The Amstel brewery is located close to the river, and is named for it. The brewery was founded on June 11, 1870. The water of the river was used for refrigeration, winter ice from the canals was cut out and kept in special double walled cellars.

Amstel was bought by Heineken in 1968, the brewery was closed in 1972, and production was moved to the main Heineken plant in Zoeterwoude.

So, have a light, thirst-quenching (read watery) Amstel Light for the city of Amsterdam, the commercial says its a Dam good beer. But don't believe everything you see on TV.

Days of the Beer, October 26

The beer for today is Pony Express Gold.

On October 26, 1861, the Pony Express officially ceased operations.

The Pony Express was the original fast mail service that had messages carried by horseback riders across the prairies, plains, deserts and mountains of the western United States. Pony Express stations were places about 10 miles apart along the route, which is about the distance a horse can go at full gallop. A rider changed to a fresh horse at each station, taking only the mail pouch with him. The pouch (or Mochila) could hold 20 pounds of mail. The horse also carried 20 pounds of other things (bible, water, knife, alerting horn, revolver) , and riders could not weigh more than 125 pounds. Riders received $100 a month.

The route went from St. Joseph Missouri, to San Francisco California.

About the beer:

Fresh lemon grass and citrus notes herald Pony Express Gold. Light, smooth and finishing cleanly, our golden beer is enhanced with soy grown in the American Heartland.

Pony Express Golden Beer is bottled both in 12oz glass bottles as well as in polyethylene terephalate (PET) trip-layer brown plastic bottles for resealability, transparency, light weight, shatter resistance, temperature retention and extended shelf life.

Pony Express Brewing Company is located in Olathe, Kansas outside of Kansas City.

So, for the last ride of the Pony Express, have a Pony Express Gold.

Days of the Beer, October 25

The beer for today is Smuttynose Brewing Co. Portsmouth Lager.

Today, the USS New Hampshire will be (is/was) commissioned. The commissioning ceremony is at 10 a.m. in Portsmouth NH.

The USS New Hampshire is a Virginia-class nuclear powered attack submarine. It is the fourth ship of the navy to be named New Hampshire.

The ship was christened on June 21, 2008 at General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn, by Cheryl McGuinness. McGuinness is the widow of a former Navy pilot, who was co-pilot of one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Originally, Smuttynose had planned to produce a special one time beer, called Granite Ghost Ale, for the occasion. However due to label bureaucracy, the beer had to be cancelled. New Hampshire is the Granite State.

The ship will be launched at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

As to the beer:

Named in honor of our hometown's 375th anniversary, Smuttynose Portsmouth Lager is a full-flavored, medium bodied continental-style beer - deep golden in color, featuring a mouth-pleasing maltiness subtly balanced with spicy imported Saaz hops. One taste of this fine lager tells you this is no ordinary beer: From its mellow, velvety body to its lingering, fresh hop finish, Portsmouth Lager is smooth, complex and satisfying.

So, for the USS New Hampshire, have a beer brewed in New Hampshire.

Days of the Beer, October 24

The beer for today is Barley Island Beastie Barrel Stout.

On October 24, 1901, Annie Edison Taylor, became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Taylor was born in 1838, and was originally a school teacher. She later became a dancing instructor, but as she grew older, she stopped having as many students. She wanted fame and fortune, so she decided she'd be the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

She used a custom made barrel for the trip, made of oak and iron and padded with a mattress. There were several delays before she actually went over, mostly because, people didn't want to help her commit suicide. On October 19, she had sent a cat over to test the barrel. The cat survived unharmed.

On October 24, 1901, the barrel was put over the side of a rowboat, and Annie climbed in. After the lid was screwed on, her friends pumped air into the barrel with a bicycle tire pump, and plugged the hole with a cork.

Current carried the barrel toward the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Rescuers reached her barrel shortly after it went over, and she was found alive and mostly uninjured, except for a small cut on her head. The trip took less than twenty minutes.

If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat... I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall.

She earned some money from it, but not the fortune she wanted.


About the beer:

Barley Island is located in Noblesville, Indiana. Beastie Barrel Stout is a newer beer that they are releasing.

On Tap: October 6, 2008 (Fall/Winter)
Off Premise: New Fall 2008 4/12 oz Bottles

Awards: 2008 GABF Bronze Medalist, Wood and Barrel Aged Category, Gold Medal 2007 Indiana State Fair - Wood Aged Style

Our Oatmeal Stout is aged in bourbon whiskey barrels from Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. 6% ABV

So, for the first person to go over in a barrel, have one of the newer barrel aged beers.