So What's In My Fridge? (EBRS-WO)
Dec 13 '00
When PALWalrus invited me to join him and other esteemed members of the Epinions Beer Review Society to a Write-Off, I'm sure he had no idea of my notorious write-off reputation of being perpetually late. See, I'm slightly tardy to this affair... ok, more like severely late. Only by a week and half or so. Yeah, some things came up. Sorry guys! Anyway PAL had a novel idea of sharing what us beer lovers have in our refrigerators and, man, what an eye opening experience this was (for me anyway!).
So what's my favorite beer style? Bah! You know already...
But "what's in my fridge" is the real question!
After hearing other members of the Epinions Brew Crew extol the virtues of having a Dedicated Beer Fridge and drawing my own deer-in-the-headlights gaze upon opening my fridge to take stock of what lie within, I've decided that this is concept I must undertake. For my poor refrigerator no longer has room to store food items except for the vast array of condiments and salad dressings. Never mind the package of Oscar Meyer Bologna™ and half stack of Kraft Velveeta™ slices. My fridge has become the sole property of sleestakk's greens (he eats a lot of greens) and beer.
I guess I never paid much attention to my friends who would come over and smirk upon opening the refrigerator door. And the snarky comments like, "do you have any beer on hand?" or "do you like to drink beer?" seemed to pass right over my head. But when I perused through my cold chamber, taking inventory shelf by shelf, it dawned on me what a freak I must be. Yeah, sure, there's a lot of bottled beer in there plus a gallon jug each of water and skim milk, but why do I have five opened jars of salsa? Thankfully preparing for this write-off led to the much needed jettison of rotten fruit and stale food. And this appliance was ripe for a cleaning.
So what about all that damn beer?!
Well let me just say before I step up to the plate that my fridge has a few other alcohol related products such as a remaining 1/2 gallon of Jose Cuervo™ Margarita Mix, a 2 quart container of Tropicana™ Orange Juice (w/the pulp!), 1 quart of Egg Nog ('tis the season!), 4 cans of Asahi Super Dry (ew!) I'm still waiting for someone else to drink, a bottle of Doc Otis' Hard Lemon malt beverage (a mystery!), and 10 cans of Bud Light™ to appease my friends when they happen to stop by. Now onto the good stuff...
The Ole Standby(s)
Since I always feel the need to have something on hand I can rely on and trust, I keep a few beers for general drinking-without-thinking enjoyment. I use these for times when friends are over and just want to hang or I just need something to wash down my frozen pizza. In this group I have the mellowness of Guinness Draught and Beamish Irish Stout Draught (both in 14.9 oz cans of course); there isn't much to say about the reliability of those two, as they are consistent performers.
If you read my recent Goose Island Oatmeal Stout review then you already know I keep a few bottles on hand as my "go-to". Not much beats its hearty creaminess in my book. And when my mood isn't favoring a dark stout, I keep a few pint bottles of Sprecher Brown Pub Ale and Sprecher Pale Lager around, solid non-stouts brewed 80 miles north of me. Lastly there are my pint bottles of George Killian's Irish Red. Since discovering that one in college, it's been another anytime brew in my collection and a rather good one at that.
The Special Occasion(s)
In one area, I keep a host of bottles for that special occasion. What special occasion? I dunno. Any that warrants a special brew outside of my old reliables. Could be a birthday or anniversary. Might be the premiere of my favorite television show or the Super Bowl. Or the celebration of a new season (when is winter over?) or the day Income Shares are announced... er, that's not a special occasion. At least not for me anyways.
For these times I keep 500ml bottles of Young's Oatmeal Stout and Old Nick Barley Wine. Both are rich and satisfying and serve well infrequently. Otherwise I could easily get sick of both. My dessert stouts include Bell's Special Double Cream Stout and Cherry Stout. Talk about thick and sweet! You can forget about the slice of pie when sinking a bottle of those. Finally there's that spicy 500ml of Hacker-Pschorr Dunkel Weisse for that all out break-open-a-bottle-and-dance moment (doesn't happen often).
The Tasters Choice(s)
The remaining bottles in my fridge are mainly for tasting purposes although I have been known to partake from any one of these when I'm running low on my Standby brews. Here I have a range of Wild Onion Brewing Company styles I picked up on sale in October (this is a local Chicago area brewer). These include their Paddy Pale Ale, Pumpkin Ale, Jack Stout and Blackberry Wheat. The same goes for my November selection from Avery Brewing Company's portfolio. I have several bottles of their Out of Bounds Stout, Red Point Ale, IPA, and Ellie's Brown Ale.
I also have some remaining bottles from Denver's Breckenridge Brewery including the Avalanche Ale and Oatmeal Stout (both I've already reviewed). And I have their Mountain Wheat Ale, which I haven't tried yet. In the back corner I see North Coast Brewing Company's Scrimshaw Pilsner and Red Seal Ale. Frankly, I'm in no rush to pop the cap on those. Pilsner just makes me shiver.
My Midwestern tasting assembly includes a couple of choice styles from Bent River Brewing Company in my hometown of Moline, IL. These would be their Oatmeal Stout and American Style Wheat. Both I've had and highly recommend (if you can find it outside of Moline) but haven't taken any notes on either. Another brand I have plenty of that hails from Wisconsin is New Glarus Brewing Co. Right now I have their malty Celtic Stout and smooth Spotted Cow Ale; both are excellent but I still need to make some notes on each. Oh yeah, I have a couple more of Bell's (from Kalamazoo): Third Coast Beer and Home Grown Ale.
When I was in New Mexico over the Thanksgiving holiday visiting my brother (thank him for my stout passion), I was fortunate enough to take in many of the local brews and packed a few for the trip back to the Windy City (more like Snowy City right now). Straight from my suitcase to the fridge are Anasazi Wheat Ale and Oatmeal Stout from the Cabezon Brewing Company (esta cerveza de malto es magnífica!).
I only managed to fit one style from the Santa Fe Brewing Company for the return and that would be their Nut Brown Ale. I also brought back three styles from New Belgium Brewing Co. (Colorado brewer but I haven't seen it around Chicago); these are Fat Tire Amber Ale (I drank way too many of those in Albuquerque), Saison Belgian Farmhouse Ale, and 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale (now that is some tasty stuff!). Sadly I missed grabbing any Rio Grande Brewing Company beers.
Random tasting bottles taking up space on the top shelf include Goose Island Hex Nut Brown Ale (heard good things about that one), Sierra Nevada Stout (can ya believe I still haven't tried this??), Rogue's Shakespeare Stout and Dead Guy Ale, Moorhouse's Black Cat "Real Lancashire Ale", Berghoff Raspberry Wheat, and a leftover bottle of Hempen Ale.
Closing The Door
When I said this little event was an eye opening experience, I wasn't kidding! I was surprised to find that I have so many styles and brands on hand and have so much tasting left to do. And outside of my refrigerator I have four broken six packs of things still waiting to be chilled. Sometimes life ain't all that bad but it's no wonder I live out of a soup can. I marvel at the notion of a Dedicated Beer Fridge. And since I also need a place to store my perishable goods, I should look into obtaining that DBF sooner than later. What a dilemma. Hrmph.
So there you go. Hopefully you've learned a little about my fridge and me. And maybe I've given a few tasting ideas for some boss brands and supercool styles out there. Anyway, here's a short list of URLs to get ya started if you're so inclined:
http://www.cabezonbrewing.com/
http://www.riograndebrewing.com/
http://www.newbelgium.com/
http://www.gooseisland.com/
http://www.daylight.com/~jj/sfbc/
http://www.wildonionbrewery.com/
http://www.ncoast-brewing.com/
http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/
http://www.bellsbeer.com/
http://www.youngs.co.uk/
http://www.breckbrew.com/
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the other members of the Brew Crew participating in this Write-Off. They are Teykaerts, fuche_bu, Bruguru, JMARJANCIK, PeterLRuden (Peter drinks beer too? Who knew?), 4-1-1, PALWalrus, BeerLover, and andaryl. Please be sure to stop by and see what bottled favorites they keep stowed away and learn more about that dang Dedicated Beer Fridge I need so desperately. Well at least there's no questioning what my favorite style is. Cheers!
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Epinions.com ID:
sleestakk
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Member: Jay Stakk
Location: Chicago
Reviews written: 186
Trusted by: 331 members
About Me:
reactivated!
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