seasonal beer update

well, i finally began seeing schlafly winter ESB on store shelves here in the last couple of weeks--first at wine center (snatched up the two shelved 6 packs), then at the brown derby central (campus) location. this year's batch is good as ever, and i'll be buying a lot more of it before february hits. if you don't already have a particular beer picked out for your afternoon, and you see schlafly winter ESB on the shelf, i would highly, strongly, passionately, encourage you to pick that up.

when i was at the central derb, i also spotted two seasonals from NBB that had slipped my mind completely: frambozen (raspberry brown ale) and 2 below (ESB!).

i picked up the 2 below out of love for ESB style ales (and allegiance to New Belgium), and i do enjoy it, but the thing that limits it compared to schlafly's ESB is it has that one NBB note pervading it, that 'fat tire' note that has started to end up in all their beers. I love fat tire! but not in my ESB; though its still just fine, it gets a minus for tasting like everything else NBB is making.

part of my christmas schwag haul this year was a sampler box of beer from arcadia ales; the lineup within consists of their amber ale, starboard stout, IPA, and "angler's ale", a british-style pale. so far its been pretty good drinking although i do suspect the box was a little less than fresh, but what can you do? right now the IPA is my favorite, with a neat fruity finish (i think i even tasted a pear note?). i read a review that complained of lack of head on the stout, so i poured mine with extra agitation in mind... which was a bad idea as this particular bottle produced a TON of head. very satisfying outside of my blunder though, with a great stout smell in particular.

haven't tried this year's batch of the previously mentioned NBB frambozen, but i read elsewhere in the blogosphere that its on the dry side this year, as opposed to the sweet side. i never thought this frambozen was very sweet, but it seems like if a fruit beer tastes anything at all like that fruit (outside of a puckering bitterness), that it gets bashed all over the place by people who won't accept it as real beer. i thought that schlafly's raspberry hefeweisen was excellently balanced, but ive heard people bash it for being too sweet. oh well.

we're on the eve of a great supposed drinker's holiday, new years, and i'd like to say that, as a veteran drinker and established hermit, i don't do shit for new years. i usually go to sleep extra early. but all the same, good luck with your plans this evening. prost!

beer inventory

represented, in some quantity, in my fridge at this moment:
-genesse cream ale
-boddington's pub ale
-st. peters cream stout
-schlafly oatmeal stout

still on the lookout for schlafy winter ESB. i actually saw a schlafly page yesterday that listed their ESB as being produced in OCTOBER instead of november, and placed it out ahead of other seasonals by schlafly that ive seen by now. so, thats VERY worrisome. ratebeer has entries being posted from the beginning of november, so it HAS to be out somewhere. the clerk i talked to at the central location for brown derby tried to say that its too early to look for the ESB. anymore, derb' employees sort of piss me off (drews coo tho).

my girlfriend went to the wine center back in october looking for a beer glass to buy for my birthday, and some bitch clerk she asked about it apparently said "well this is the WINE center". which is snobby shit to begin with but is inexcusable when you're working for somewhere that also has a great BEER selection and BEER GLASSES FOR SALE.

but i digress.

cleanup/december beer choices

cosmic reboot!

i wanted to clean up the site, so the former content of http://bossapplesauce.blogspot.com has been moved to http://oldbossapplesauce.blogspot.com.

in lieu of a better post today, you'll have to content yourself with the new links section (spotlighting mainly comics/art interests) and a brief mention of what i've been drinking as of late.

i say this every other week but i'll say it again: the liquor warehouse, in bolivar missouri (the generally not too impressive area that i hail from), has a great beer selection at both locations. infact they had bell's expedition stout @ the larger store when i was there last week. if you haven't tried bells expedition stout, just know that it is pure liquid satisfaction for an admirer of stout. liquor warehouse consistently carries beers that you don't deserve to find in such a small town. its awesome.

so what am i drinking recently? genesse cream ale, tillburgs dutch brown ale, schlafly dry-hopped apa, and schlafly oatmeal stout. if you went to the wine center looking for those, you'd be shit out of luck on 3 of the 4. liquor warehouse? has them all. thanks liquor warehouse.