The Lost Abbey-Lost & Found Ale

This is the first Lost Abbey that I have gotten my hands on and it's damn good. Lost & Found is a Dubbel that is brewed with raisins. As you can see in the pic it pours a chocolate brownish color. It has a big raisin malty taste. There are some hints of cinnamon and brown sugar there too. It weighs in at 7.5% and is quite drinkable. I can't wait to try the rest of their lineup.

New House New Brews

Well I have officially moved into the new house. One of the first things I did after getting semi situated was to start a few new batches. I did two in one day. the first is a mild ale and the second is a big double IPA. I did both at once because the IPA is going to take 3-4 months before it's going to be ready. While I was brewing the second batch of the day, my new washer and dryer were delivered. The delivery guys asked what I was making, so I told me beer of course. They looked at me quite confused. I think they thought and still think I was making meth. Oh well, the mild will be ready in a month or so.

Palmer Place

I've been going to this place for years. It's always the same thing. A good burger and the frustrating confusion of actually trying to order a good beer. The web site says they have 225 beers. There's no F#$%ing way. I usually have to pick three different beers to order, because they will only have one of them if I'm lucky. Its not like I'm ordering some weird limited release Belgian either. Just something local and good. Also the servers have no idea what there serving. I asked for a Northwind the last time I was there and of coarse they were out so the server brought back a taster of and IPA??? I'm done with this place until the beer garden opens up. Maybe i should just give up on Palmer's all together. Irish Times has a better beer garden anyways. Sorry everyone this rant is long over due.

Sand Creek Brewing-Cranberry Special Ale

This one surprised me a bit. It's a descent brew. There's a strong tartness up front that faded to a sweet fruity flavor. You can relay taste the cranberry's in the aftertaste. The website says that it's brewed with real Wisconsin cranberry's, but I though they made it with the canned stuff. It has a definite artificial fruit flavor. That said I did enjoy it. Just too sweet for my pallet and teeth. I should have had some of this for Thanksgiving dinner. It would have gone great with the turkey.

Allagash-White

This is a fantastic beer. It's an American take on a Belgian white. Pours cloudy with a good amount of head. Smells of coriander and citrus. It tastes great and is less filling. The citrus, clove and banana flavors meld together very well. I can drink a lot of these. Most of the time I'm drawn to Whites in the summer, but it sounded like a good reminder of what reasonable weather was when we bought the 4 pk. It had been in the -teens for the last few days in Chicago.

Granite City Food & Brewery

I went out to grab dinner and a few beers with my sister and girlfriend. It was too late in the evening to make the trek out to 3 Floyd's so we decided to give Granite City a try. I had been there before and it was not that memorable. They had 5 different beers on tap. Alex and I ordered the sampler. There was a light lager (MGD), a bock, a stout, an IPA, a scotch ale, and a mix of light lager and bock. None of the beers were that impressive. Alex and I had a buffalo burger with our beer sampler. Both of the burgers were overcooked. Buffalo has such little fat in it that a med well burger gets real tough on the outside. We asked for med. I will say our server was excellent though. I don't think there will be a next time for me with this place. It reminds me of a watered down yuppie version of Rock Bottom. At least the company and conversation for dinner was good.

Happy X-Mass and Merry Holidays