Back to safer ground...

Beer Name: Stone Arrogant Bastard (#193)

Style: Strong Ale

Country: USA

Size: 22 oz bottle

ABV: 7.2

From the book:

Arrogant Bastard Ale is a deep amber color, medium to full-bodied with a lush, floral hop nose. Rich, sweet caramel malt and fig fruit notes are melded with dark, roasted, grainy elements to make a well-balanced and very drinkable beer.

Well, after the disastrous detour I felt it was time to head back to safer ground and wash that horrid taste out of my mouth. Right on the front of this bottle it states, "You're Not Worthy" and on the back it encourages you to stick to golden beers with huge marketing campaigns behind them. I knew I was in for a treat here. Almost night and day with my previous two entries,I found Arrogant Bastard to be a flavorful, mellow beer that I enjoyed.

7/10

Adventure 2: Electric Boogaloo

Beer Name: 3 Fonteinen Oude Gueze (#84)

Style: Gueze

Country: Belgium

Size: 12.7 oz bottle

ABV: 6.0

From the book:

Gueze is a blend of young and old lambics and then aged again for two or three more years to produce a dry, earthy, fruity and intensely sour style of lambic. 3 Fonteinen is one of the last remaining traditional gueze blenders in Belgium, using only 100% spontaneously fermented lambic beer, aged in oak casks. Its proprietor is Armand Debelder. Armand's skill and passion are displayed with each bottle of 3 Fonteinen, they are rare and are some of the best beers that Belgium has to offer.

Elsewhere in the book, where it is talking about the super limited beers on this year's tour it mentions that they received the last 2 pallets of this beer. Ever. Due to a temperature problem in the warehouse, Armand Debelder is no longer making this beer. Knowing that, how could I not try this soon to be extinct brew?

This beer comes in what looks like a champagne bottle, and is corked and foil wrapped in a similar matter. Fizzy from the pop of the cork, I knew this would be an interesting one. From my very first sip I knew I was drinking something special in my life. I was consuming the absolute worst beer I have ever had (and hopefully ever will have). As the rules state, I had to drink the entire thing, no exceptions. This beer is exceptionally sour and dry, which made it near impossibly for me to drink more than a small amount at a time. To me, this was like a very dry champagne mixed with a crappy wheat beer (like Blue Moon). Needless to say I won't be getting another one of these. It is unfortunate for others that the brewer is no longer producing this, but keep the remaining bottles away from me!

1/10 (the scale goes no lower...)

Adventure Part One

Beer Name: Ayinger Weizen-Bock (#6)

Style: Weizenbock (Wheat Bock)

Country: Germany

Size: 16.9 oz bottle

ABV: 7.1

From the book:

The weizen-bock style is relatively uncommon, even in Bavaria. This special style is a wheat beer that is purposely brewed to be as strong as a bock beer with corresponding fuller body and enhanced flavors. Ayinger Weizen-Bock is a unique pale ("helles") version of a Weizen Bock. Made from a grist of 60% wheat and 40% barley malt, Weizen-Bock gains a deep complexity from a blend of specialty malts and from decoction mashing. It is seasoned with Hallertau Tradition hops and fermented with the classic Ayinger weizen top-fermenting yeast. This bottle conditioned beer has a classic Bavarian weizen beer aroma, suggesting spice and cloves, with a smooth body that drinks fairly full with flavors turned up to balance the beer's strength. In the finish this classic beer's fruity yeast melds with warmth and suggestions of tropical fruit, cloves and banana.

So, I decided to take my first step out of my comfort zone, test the waters if you will. As the book mentions, a clove flavor is definitely present in this beer, a dominant flavor even. At first it was rather off-putting, but as I kept drinking I warmed up to it a bit more, an alright beer, definitely not the worst beer I have ever had, but I would not get it again.

4/10

Glass Of The Month, eh?

Beer Name: McAuslan Stout (#193)

Style: Oatmeal Stout

Country: Canada

Size: 16 oz draft, January Glass Of The Month

ABV: 5.0

From the book:

This oatmeal stout brewed by McAuslan Brewery in Canada is a World Beer Championship platinum medal winning beer. Black in the glass with a thick off-tan foam, coffee, espresso and chocolate are the dominant aromas. Coffee flavors are noted from start to finish with a slight hops presence that gets pushed around by the big roasted character of this beer.

This is a beer from last week still, I am lazy I guess. I didn't plan on having 3 dark beers in a row, but this was the glass of the month, and I am drinking all of those during the tour, so I didn't want to risk not getting the glass. As the book says, this has a very dominant coffee flavor that I enjoyed. This brewery must know what oatmeal stout is all aboot! (had too, sorry!)

7/10

From Russia With Love!

Beer Name: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (#133)

Style: Russian Imperial Stout

Country: USA

Size: 10 oz draft

ABV: 10.0

From the book:

Three mashes are used to brew each batch of this Russian Imperial Stout from Brooklyn Brewery. It's because of this that they achieve the deep dark chocolate flavor found in this beer. Full bodied and slick in texture, Black Chocolate Stout smells like chocolate, espresso beans and prunes. It has a nice warming feeling due to the 10% ABV. A faint herbal hops flavor can be found around all the chocolate and roasted flavors.

This was my first time trying a Russian Imperial Stout, and it was pretty outstanding. Nice and dark and quite smooth. This would be the perfect beer to help take the Northeastern Ohio chill off at the end of a long day.

9/10

Hometown Pride

Beer Name: Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (#165)

Style: Robust Porter

Country: USA

Size: 16 oz draft

ABV: 5.8

From the book:

Named after the famous sunken ship in Lake Superior, this is a fine representation of the Porter style. Complex, roasty aroma with a bitter sweet, chocolate-coffee taste and a bold hop presence. 2007 Great American Beer Festival Silver medal winner for Robust Porter category.

This is the first of twelve Great Lakes Brewery seasonal drafts. Great Lakes makes some fantastic beers that rank among my favorite (Nosferatu, Christmas Ale) and least favorite (Grassroots Ale, Independence Ale). I tend to enjoy the darker brews more than the lighter, and this one is no exception. Nice and dark, but not as thick as a Guinness, I enjoyed it very much.

8/10

Beer The First

Beer Name: Abita Restoration Pale Ale (#1)

Style: American Pale Ale

Country: USA

Size: 12 oz bottle

ABV: 5.0

From the book:

Abita brews their Restoration Pale Ale using Cara Pils, Crystal, Pale and Lager malts, hopped and dry hopped with Cascade and fermented with California ale yeast. There is just enough bitterness to make this beer balanced and very easy to drink.

Due to a lack of creativity at the time, I decided to start my tour with beer #1 on the list. I have had Abita Lager and Abita Amber (and maybe Abita Red?) in the past and I enjoyed them. I also enjoyed this variety of Abita.

6/10

A Brief Introduction...

I finally decided to take the plunge and sign up for the Winking Lizard's World Tour Of Beers. So, this begins my journey of 100 tasty (and not so tasty) beers from all over the world. With over 200 available on draft and bottled, there will be a lot of variety.

I have set some ground rules to enhance my adventure:

1. Any beer ordered must be completely consumed...no matter how bad it could be.

2. At least one beer from each country must be chosen.

3. Beer styles known to be disliked must be tried from time to time (for me this is most Belgian beers and White Ales).

4. All 12 Beers Of The Month must be consumed (provided they are all part of the tour).

5. All Great Lakes Brewery Seasonal Drafts must be consumed.

6. No beers that have been sampled prior to the tour may be consumed (unless one of the previous rules supersedes this).

I guess you could consider this my online log of the tour, complete with crappy cell phone pictures. I am mostly doing this to add to the fun as I doubt anyone will actually read it :)

Here is the website for the Winking Lizard: http://www.winkinglizard.com/data/content/beer_tour.asp