Dammit, I just gave money to Budweiser

So I was craving some pumpkin beer – yes, this time of year, I actually start wanting some, and I don't care if you think I'm a freak – and I decided to be brave and try something other than Buffalo Bill's. So after considering the five (!) different varieties available at HEB – man, everybody is getting in on this fad – I settled on something called Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale. Only after I got home did I discover, much to my disgust, the words "Anheuser-Busch, Inc." on the bottle.

Now, despite the impression I give off, I'm not completely anti-corporate. If big companies put out a product I like or need at a price that's reasonable, then fine, I'll buy it. (Frankly, I've always thought Starbucks-bashers were a little irrational. Starbucks makes good coffee.) But the point is, there are plenty of small brewers who are making pumpkin beer as good or better as anything A-B is going to put out, and in that case, I'd just as soon give the little guy my money. Anheuser-Busch isn't as desperate for me to buy that six-back as the dedicated small breweres are. (Which is why I'll still go to Quack's or Little City instead of Starbucks
if the option is available.) So now I'm really wishing I had paid more attention. I probably could have just taken it back for a refund. But I decided to suck up my snobbishness and give it a try.

And of course, it was quite mediocre. Oh well, lesson learned.

What is your favorite beer?

I know people are looking at my blog, but not many people post responses. I want to get some discussion going. So I'm going to ask a real simple question: What's your favorite beer? Now, I realize that for a beer snob, that's a complex question; so, you can break it down to as many different styles as you like.

I'll get us started. My faves, which are always subject to change at any minute:

IPA: Dogfish Head 60 Minute
stout: Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
Belgian-style: New Belgium's Trippel
regular pale ale: Sierra Nevada or Boulevard
Black lager: 1554
Pilsner: I'm going to cheat and say Shiner Kolsch. Yes, I know a kolsch is technically not a pilsner, but it's close enough for me.
light beer: Skinny Dip, without question, because it doesn't taste like light beer.
Christmas beer: Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale. (Actually, this might be my favorite beer overall.)
Fruit beer: Aprihop
Oktoberfest beer: Shiner 96 – too bad this wonderful Marzen was a limited edition and is now gone forever. (Please bring it back, Shiner!)

I might add more later, but I have to get to work. Feel free to offer up your own suggestions and/or ridicule mine.

Beer drinkers of the world unite

I love Sitemeter (www.sitemeter.com), which I mentioned a few posts ago, because it lets me know where my readers are. I'm not entirely sure how they all found me, or why they looked at my site or what they thought of it, but I've had not only readers from across America but the world as well. My foreign readers so far: several from Canada, and one each from Mexico City, a suburb of London, France, Germany, Denmark, the Phillipines, and most surprisingly, Beijing!

Welcome in whatever language you speak.

Mighty Fine Beer From Mags' Denver Trip

M'Lady went up to Denver to visit our friends the Wesleys recently, and I'm long overdue in thanking her for the good beer she brought back for me. She returned bearing several pint-plus bottles from Rock Bottom Brewery, which is apparently some sort of chain, but beer like this could give chains a good name. Among their beers that she brought back: The Copper Ale (which I don't see listed here) didn't move me, but the Molly's Titanic Brown Ale was quite impressive, especially since brown ales are usually well down on my list of favorite styles (i.e., I've never been as knocked out by Newcastle as most people). It had a nice sweetness to it, not something I usually think of in Brit-style ales. She also brought back their 16th St. Wheat, which I'm unqualified to comment on since I'm just not a wheat guy – I'll leave that to her. But by far the best was the Falcon Pale Ale – excellent. I'd put it right in there with Sierra Nevada or Boulevard for hitting that just-perfect balance of hoppiness versus still being accessible enough that anyone can drink it (as opposed to the stronger IPAs that only us hop-heads can tolerate). (EDIT: Actually, I just drank another bottle and it's pretty damn hoppy. Maybe I should retract that previous statement.)

Apparently, each location has its own unique brews. Perhaps Mr. Canfield and Mr. Morris could scout out the one in Portland?

I won't go so far as to clamor for one of these in Austin – we already have North by Northwest, so we're set for slightly upscale brewpub/restaurants – but I'll definitely try to visit if I'm in one of their cities.

Black is the new black

Everybody is jumping on this new "black lager" bandwagon now. I just spotted this over at HEB. Haven't tried it yet, but hope to as soon as my next paycheck comes. I've used up my beer allowance, especially after buying that pricey Dogfish Head pumpkin beer.

Another Pumpkin beer

You just knew Dogfish Head would have to get into the act. And you just knew I'd have to try it. I swear, if the brewmaster of Dogfish Head decided to pee in a bottle and put a label on it, I'd have to at least give it a taste.

Thankfully, he did a little better than that. Instead, much like the Buffalo Bill guys (see a few posts below), they've made Punkin Ale, "a full-bodied brown ale brewed with real pumpkin brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon & nutmeg." I was honestly a little bit wary – I mean really, how many pumpkin beers do we need? – but you know, I actually like this quite a bit better than the Buffalo Bill stuff. The flavor is more subtle – I'm not sure I'd guess it had pumpkin if you didn't tell me – and it's quite sweet. In both respects, it is very much like Dogfish Head's Aprihop ale. Whereas Buffalo Bill is fun for the novelty but doesn't hold up to more than just one or samplings a year, this is a beer I could drink just about any time and consider it a real treat. Even if you've tried pumpkin beer and thought you didn't like it, you may want to give this one a shot.

People are looking for Shiner 97

Being a stats geek, I couldn't resist putting a visit counter/traffic monitor on my blog. Sitemeter provides fascinating stats on who is visiting and how they're finding me. It's especially neat when I get foreign hits — I've gotten several visits from Canada, and one each from France, Mexico City, and the Phillipines.

Lately, Shiner 97 has really caused my activity to spike up. I guess I'm one of the few people to mention yet, and people are obviously hunting for it — of my last 20 visits, 13 were from people Googling "Shiner 97." And they're probably thirsty (pun intended) for that info because Shiner still has no information about it on their own website! Amazing. Somebody in marketing needs to get on the ball.