Happy Hour at Monsterland

*watching Heinekin commercial*

Daniel Craig... WHY? Did Skyfall really need that advertising revenue? Was Eon Productions really that hard up for cash because of the recession?!

Ugh, not my problem, and not my first or fourth choice of beer. Anyway. Beer Blogger here, and if there's one thing I have a soft spot for, it's local craft brews. Arizona has a LOT of local brews, so I could easily dedicate a good couple months to reviewing them all, roadtripping statewide on my free time. Which actually isn't a bad idea...but I digress. What I'm really getting at is that Monsterland has a delightfully diverse display of brews from around Arizona on tap.

But what's Monsterland? It's a Halloween-themed restaurant located on Main Street in Mesa, originally opened in 2011 as a haunted house but was converted the following spring into a theme restaurant open year-round. It's a popular spot for the spooky decor, the animatronic beasties that activate without warning, and the wait staff often dressing up in costume like they're about to go trick or treating. The food's decent, but pricier than it's really worth during regular hours, but between the hours of 3pm to 6pm Wednesday thru Friday, the appetizers are $2 cheaper and the beers a dollar off.

And that's where I come in! My sistah-from-another-mistah (and movie co-reviewer) Kat was in town, and while searching Main Street for suitable craft-y souveniers we stopped in for lunch. Thus did the beer taps flow with the following brews.

SanTan Count Hopula - Seasonal IPA. Daaaaark, a deep red with a thick head. It had an intense hoppiness, and it was nearly as rich as a stout in flavor if not in thickness. I tasted some chocolate undertones, but that might be the malt coming through. If you like IPAs then by all means give it a try, it's got a lot to offer. But honestly, the strength of the hop might put off the casual drinker. Still, clever name.

SanTan Hefeweizen Wheat - This has a spiced, perfumey bouquet, it's a cloudy orange with thick head. It's very good, with a banana citris flavor that does not even require the usual lemon garnish. It's a veritable bouquet for the senses, you can taste everything right away. It's a surprise for the average beer drinker interested in trying something new, and I definitely recommend giving it a try. Unless you don't like bananas.

Sonoran Victorian IPA - I like that name. For an IPA, this has a rather light hoppy flavor. Golden amber in color with a light frothy head, it's really a good starter for this type of beer. I'd almost say it's double hopped from the flavor, but without the higher alcohol content. It's a nice casual beer, easy on the palette but with more than enough character to merit another pint. (Really wish I could show you a picture of it, but I didn't take any and couldn't find one that I was positive would permit its use here.)

Stay tuned, I'll be posting next about several seasonals that Kat and I tried...and THIS time there'll be pictures I don't have to pull from the web!
Photo Credits: Monsterland Interior, Source: The New Times, Author: Bella.
 SanTan Count Hopula and Heifeweizen Wheat, Source: SanTan Brewing Company.

Oktoberfest at Tempe Town Lake

Oh, Oktoberfest.

This past weekend, Tempe Town Lake was host to the Budweiser Oktoberfest, a three-day event with live music, rides, carnival and German food, and more beer than you could possibly drink in one sitting. A few people tried, and thankfully they had friends to carry them out when they failed. Several thousand people were in attendance, and quite a few dressed like German barmaidens, pulling off the look oh so very well! Me, I wasn't going for anything so ambitious as getting plowed, just the opportunity to taste some beers I'd be hard pressed to find any other occasion without plane tickets, passports, or a TARDIS.

(It always comes back to a fucking TARDIS, doesn't it...)

I rode the light rail into Tempe because I sure as Heidegger didn't want to risk driving after sampling whatever beers struck my fancy. The BBF would aid me in narrowing my selections from the near hundred different beers on tap, and checking off the harder to find brews makes the decision easy.

The various biergarden tents they had set up accepted drink coupons, which could only be purchased by cash. VISA fails me once again. However, aside from the many generic ATMs conveniently near the coupon tables, there were drink specials during certain hours of the day to balance out the cash/credit inconvenience. My interest was in a beer flight of 8 German beers for purchasing my tickets between 1pm and 3pm, but as luck would have it I got there just too late. Instead, the purchase table attendent, a sympathetic motherly type with curly brown hair, gave me extra tickets to make up for the trouble.

And thanks to that becurled woman's generosity, I was able to savor the following brews.

Warsteiner Premium Verum - A German Pilsner. Generally my palette for pilsners isn't well refined, they taste alike to me. This Pilsner, though, was crisp, dry, and best of all, a little more hoppy than I expected. It's light bodied, but not too light. One more German, checked off the BBF. Yeah, I liked it.

Estrella Damm - Spanish lager, I thought it was light on taste, inoffensive to the palette but not exceptional. The BBF says that it's an easy drinking pale lager with a touch of hops but I couldn't detect that. My impression was that it was like a thicker, stronger Budweiser. Might try it again, if only to pick up on those hops it supposedly has.

Hop City Barking Squirrel - A Canadian lager, dark orange, and tasted a more than a little hoppy. I'd say it's more like a weak IPA as well as a strong lager, which is a good thing. Fact is, I thought I tasted a subtlest hint of apples, which is weird because according to Hop City Brewing Co's website there isn't any apple in this. Huh. Olfactory hallucinations aside, I really liked this lager, and would enthusiastically recommend and order again.

Firestone Union Jack - American double dry hopped IPA out of CA. The hoppy taste is much more subtle in these double hopped IPAs, so you can taste more flavors all around. The Firestone Walker Brewery claims that this has grapefruit citris-iness, I could detect a citrisy character but I thought it was lemon or orange. The overall taste is mild, but alcohol-wise it's strooooong (7.5% alcohol by volume). I'm a sucker for IPAs, especially double- and triple-hopped, so this is one I'd recommend as well.

All told, it was three hits and a miss beer-wise. But it was Oktoberfest, brauts and beers and cute girls in poofy short skirts with knee socks, it's all a hit! And besides, any day that ends with a cold beer is a good day.

Photo credits:Warsteiner Premium Verum, source: Wikicommons, author: LeeKeoma. 
Estrella Damm, source: Wikicommons, author: Erik Cleves Kristensen. 
Hop City Barking Squirrel, source: Hop City Brewing Co. 
Firestone Union Jack, source: Seattle Beer News.

Worldwide Beers! Pilsner Urquell and Mythos

This past Friday night I was at church, drinking. No, seriously. WAIT COME BACK.
 

Actually, it was a Greek Orthodox church for a cultural festival. A buddy at Lost Leaf had told me about it, as I had been looking for something...anything...that would get me a long way away from home that particular night (long story). Lots of yummy Greek food, they had the best gyro, and these little donut things, loukoumades, that are covered in honey and filled with cheese and joy, omigod you guys. There were also cash bars serving beer and wine, and there were a lot of wine bottles floating around. They had this lager on ice called Mythos (love the name), a Greek import.

I can best describe it as like Budweiser if they actually cared about making a good product. It's your basic lager, nothing unique about it, but very well made. Its taste is crisp yet inoffensive, and it's light bodied. A good beer to relax with company.

In my pursuit of "slaying the dragon" at the George & Dragon, that's how they call filling out their beer flight for a t-shirt, the bartender Jana suggested I try Pilsner Urquell, a Czech beer they had on tap which was also on the Big Beer Flight list. I'm always down for what's on tap. I had tried this before in the bottle but it was a couple years prior so I'd forgotten everything about it.

Mmm. It tasted like sourdough bread, which I quite like. Otherwise light on the palette, and there was a hint of cloves in the aftertaste which I really liked. Now the BBF book describes it as "blend of Moravian malt and aromatic Saaz hops," which is probably where the sourdough taste comes from. It also says "the aroma is dominated by a floral, spicy hop character," but I didn't pick up on that. It's a quality pilsner that stands out because of that unique flavor.

And there you have it. Mythos wasn't in the BBF, but it was still a good night, good times, and good drinks. Pilsner can be found anywhere, and both are worth trying. I'm your Beer Blogger, and it's beer o'clock somewhere.

Photo credits- Mythos Beer, source: Wikipedia Commons, original author Shadster.
Pilsner Urquell, source: Wikipedia Commons, original author Gent Thaçi.

The Big Beer Flight: Beers Of The World

Hi there, I'm your Beer Blogger, and have you ever wanted to try all the beers? ALL the beers? I know I have!

So last year, my friend Katie bought for my birthday a book, Beers of the World: Over 350 Classic Beers, Lagers, Ales, and Porters, by David Kenning. As books go on one of my favorite subjects, it's a pretty good read. It gives brewery history, regional information, taste review, even pairing suggestions. It's not comprehensive, and one of the biggest sections is devoted to American beers, but it's a good introduction to beers worldwide and brewing traditions.  And it's got purty pictures.  But it's not a review I'm writing here.

Lots of bars and ale houses have a beer flight, a checklist of their beers where completing the flight will earn you a prize, like a t-shirt. Restaurant chains like "Old Chicago" have them, and smaller establishments like my local pub "George and Dragon" have them. That's a lot of beers, and they can only be redeemed at the restaurant or pub that originates the list, and more and more they come with mobile phone apps that let you track your beers. That's not gonna work for me. Y'see, my phone isn't compatible with those apps, and besides, it's too easy!

So here's the plan. I'm using this book as my own personal beer flight. I'm going to taste every beer listed in this book, domestic and foreign! The easy part is comparing beer menus and store inventories to the index in the back of the book for sampling. The hard part will be those beers that require a passport. AWESOME!!!

To start, I've gone through the beer menu at Lost Leaf, this local pub in downtown Phoenix with a diverse menu that's always changing. There's several Belgian, Czech, and German beers in the fridge, not to mention a huge list of national beers. Oh, there's also British, Canadian and even a Lithuanian brew but they weren't in the book. More to come on the Lost Leaf menu, later.

But next, will be sampling the German brews at Oktoberfest this month! Let's see how many of them are in the book, and how they taste.

That's it for now, I'm your Beer Blogger, and it's beer o'clock somewhere.