Magic Hat #9 Not Quite Pale Ale

For the longest time, I was put off by the odd label and name of this beer. The whole thing just didn't appeal to me. Finally, one weekend I decided to pick it up and discover what makes this beer popular. I didn't read the packaging properly and was a bit surprised with the apricot taste. I'm not a fan of apricot flavoring in beverages other than iced tea, tasting it in beer was a not terrible but not something I'd go and buy regularly. This is a pretty light beer both in taste and in color. I think this would be a good summer beer for light beer drinkers who may find great wisdom and advice printed in bottlecaps.

Wychwood Scarecrow Golden Pale Ale

I had to pick this one up just by the label, it just looks like it came out of an American comic book page. I think I may have picked it up when the Batman movie was still running and was probably drawn to it by the name Scarecrow. I haven't tried enough pale ales to really have an opinion on them. There is an organic label on this one, which made it appealing because organic brews aren't very common and I'd like to try enough to know the difference. This beer is lightly carbonated and tasted very good, crisp and sweet. Maybe it's the brewery or the organic factor, but this is a very good one and definitely worth trying.

Goose Island India Pale Ale

Being from the northeast and all, I don't know any breweries coming from Illinois but I read something about Goose Island and had to give it a shot. This one smells good, I mean I know it seems weird to smell the bottle once you open it, but if it's going to be bitter and rancid, you'll know right away before it hits your tongue. This one packs a lot of flavor into one beer, there is not a whole lot of carbonation but enough to keep it not tasting too flat, and it's certainly not a beer for folks who do not like the taste of hops. After just having one, this beer left my mouth incredibly dry, like I have eaten a bag of cottonballs. I thought I was losing my mind and continued to drink glasses upon glasses of water to try to get it evened out. I gave it a rest and days later tried it again, same result. As much as I want to like this beer, the aftereffects are not desirable and I can't imagine drinking more than one of these in one sitting because of it.

Crumbs Cappuccino Cupcake

This post does not feature a beer, but this was a treat, much like a beer. Like beer, cupcakes can be awful, too much of something, not enough of something else, and sometimes pretty amazing. Pardon my paperbag handling, things will get smushed, do not trust me to deliver any cakes, especially wedding cakes.

After having a margarita warming my belly after dinner, I walked past this bakery and knew I had to pick something up. There was something appealing about the simple slogan, "Made by hand. Baked with Love.", and how neatly arranged the cupcakes were. It was a bit difficult to choose which one, there were quite a number of flavors I wanted to try. But I like to roll the dice quick, so I went with something safe, it's pretty rare a bakery makes a mess of chocolate stuff. I got the chocolate cupcake with cappuccino frosting and chocolate chips on top. The inside was filled with some frosting as well, nice little touch, a pretty good cupcake from a bakery I've never heard of.

Southern Tier India Pale Ale

It may have been a bad idea to sample the beers at once in a sampler pack (tongue twister) but I did not love this beer. It left my mouth pretty dry and the aftertaste was a bit gritty and bitter. Most india pale ales are a hit or a miss for me depending on carbonation, the tart factor, and the aftertaste. So far, I'm going to say I liked Lagunitas India Pale Ale best out of the ones I tried last year.

For this year's spending related resolution, I'm going to resolve to buy more singles and not whole packs of beers I'm not quite sure would be any good.

Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale

The first thing that caught my eye about this beer was the label and the artistic talents of Ralph Steadman who also illustrated covers for many novels. I know I'm a sucker for thoughtful labels so I had to see what this beer tasted like. I pretty much took a gamble and bought the sixer hoping it would be average at least. This beer is pretty good, deep in color, a good weight that doesn't taste watered down. It's a good tasting ale without being too heavy on the alcohol and easy to drink more than one in a single sitting.

Budweiser American Ale

It took me a while to track one of these down, a single one that I could purchase without buying six at once. I did not have high hopes for this beer so I tried it with an open mind. I can't say it's an awful beer, because there are plenty of other ales that just don't quite do it, this is one of them. This Bud's attempt at ale crafting fell short because it lacked flavor, and the beer itself was thin and watered down. I gather this is one of those beers with a brand people trust to get into darker beers and perhaps seek out other ales after this. Bud regular and Bud Light are not awful for domestics and price, but this ale would need to be priced the same to reach people.