I comes in a very blue bottle and smells like a regular old Bud Light, Miller Lite, etc.  (If you don’t know what I’m talking about you aren’t missing anything.)  The only difference I noticed so far, was that the bottle said 6% (higher ABV the Bud and less calories, I can drink and be thin!).  I was worried, a “light” beer that is relatively higher in alcohol. My brain tried to stop me, “This is going to be horrible” it said.  This wasn’t going to be stopped.

I took the first sip, and I was surprised.  It tasted just like regular Bud Light.  They managed to put more alcohol and keep the same taste. Impressive.  I don’t know how they did it, but I was determined to find something in the taste that distinguished Bud Light Platinum from regular Bud Light.  Then it hit me…the aftertaste…very metallic.  Maybe that’s where they got the idea for “platinum”.  Either way, this turned out as I expected:

If you like Bud Light and want a little extra kick or no longer think Bud Ice is cool, this beer is for you.

If you like beer with taste, then don’t bother.

-Pyzocha

I only put 'New Year's Resolution' in the title, so I could use this pic.

During the first week of the new year, J Street’s founder, Tonzi, contacted some of our drinking buddies and me with a challenge: Drink a new beer for every day in the year. (Originally, it was 365 beers until Tonzi updated our tracking system to note the days in the month and realized it was a leap year…) Naturally, I was in and want to invite any of our readers to join us on our epic journey through the beer-iverse.

The rules are simple:

1. You must not have ever had the beer before. The challenge is not to have 366 different beers in 2012 but to have 366 NEW beers in the new year. It might not be easy at times, which is why it’s a challenge.
2. Homebrews do not count. Tonzi and I discussed this by decided against counting homebrews. To ensure the challenge’s integrity, we are using the Untappd app as a basis for deciding whether a beer counts. Last night though, I hit a snag when having a beer brewed by 901 (Cap Brewing); however, the beer was verified by a fellow challengee and allowed.
3. Drink a beer, not taste a beer. Some beers grow on the drinking as the go-down (particularly strong ones), so anything less than 4 oz does not count. Yes, Savor, brewery samples, and beer fests/events, such as our Annual Beer Hunt, could well be the equivalent of hitting the motherlode.

Of course, these are just our general rules; you are free to tweak them or make your own. For instance, I have made a side deal with fellow J Street-er, X, that I won’t drink a Shiner Bock until my number of beers for the year matches the number of days, i.e. we are 20 days into the year, and I have had 25 new beers, so I could drink a Shiner. Thankfully, I have a couple of months to build up a headstart into the 2012 football season…

Whether you join in the challenge or not, I would highly recommend downloading the Untappd app and befriending me (Shintern1909). It’s a great way to track beers that people are drinking, know which bars those beers are currently available, and get quick beer reviews. Information available here: www.untappd.com

If you are up for the challenge, let us know in the comments. Depending on the amount of participation, I may discuss with Tonzi about ways to facilitate everyone’s progress through the interwebs. Right now, we’re just using the honor system and a shared Google Doc spreadsheet.

Happy (belated) New Year, and here’s to exploring!

– Shintern1909

P.S. Hopefully this will help lead to more postings on Brew Review Wednesdays, but I am not going to promise reviews of each beer…

North Coast Le Merle, Belgian Saison, 750ml @ 7.9%.

I picked up this big bottle at Whole Foods in Clarendon ($8) because Squirrel had excitedly texted me a photo of it one night and raved about its amazing qualities.

Well, upon further review during a recent holiday, she recanted, and I confirmed. Squirrel succumbed to the equivalent of beer-googles for the tongue. It happens to all of us; it gets close to the end of the night, you order that one last beer that you’ve been wanting to try and just saw be put on tap or in the cooler, it’s the most amazing thing in the world, you tell your friends (hell, you even order it for them the next time y’all go out), and… it’s blah. To be honest, I wouldn’t have tried this, but I (1) heard some good things about it and (2) trust North Coast Brewery based on Old Rasputin, Acme, Scrimshaw, and Red Seal. The beers coming out of Fort Bragg, CA are definitely worth trying; however, Le Merle’s description had one word that made me worry about buying a big bottle of it: Saison. I’m just not a big fan of that style.

Enough rambling, on to the review:

Color: Cloudy golden yellow with a thick white head and a good amount of carbonation

Aroma: Seems to be all over the place. At the same time it smelt sweet, I would also get a little sour. In terms of fruit, I got a little citrus & apple.

Taste: From my notes, “Sour fizz. Nothing spectacular, nothing terrible but definitely not on of my preferred styles.” Sorry, I can’t be more specific, but it really seemed overly sour/tangy for a saison, and I wanted to finish it off quickly.

Body: A thick, fizzy body

Overall, it appears to be a carbonated/fizzy, not so balanced, or great, saison, and I wasn’t the only one who thought that. Squirrel took a couple of drinks before turning to me and apologizing for recommending the beer. Late night beer remorse happens, just make sure it doesn’t stop the beer adventure.

MEH!

– Shintern1909

P.S. Perhaps Squirrel was playing a joke on me like some of us did to the other writers with Shiner’s Ruby Red-craptastic summer beer…

Today, I woke up to a glorious email stating that for $45 I could receive $95 at Schneiders; finally, I have a reason to try that scotch that was always just a little out of my comfort (re: budget) zone. Not only that, but I can also get a nice bottle of wine which is always handy for impressing that someone special (aka Squirrel, who, thankfully, also has a taste for Scotch).

Anyways, go here before Sunday (might be Monday, but at this point, my mind is fuzzy): http://www.kgbdeals.com/washington-dc?utm_source=wtd

In the mean time, any suggestions for things to try? Leave ‘em in the comments.

Mine:
Bourbon – Black Maple Hill (~$50)
Flavored Bourbon (good starting off point for some) – Leopold Bros New York Apple Whiskey
Scotch – Laphroaig (just about anything by them but look for the quarter cask)
Vodka – Cold River Vodka (potato) or Hanger 1
Tequila, rum – not much experience with beyond college days; I’m neither classy enough for high-end stuff nor trashy enough to return to the things that gave me awful hangovers, which includes all rums.

– Shintern1909

Now that the holidays are finishing up it’s time to spend that gift money.

What better way to spend that money than to spend it on beer! Hooray beer!  On Tuesday,  January 10, 2012 RFD will be hosting a beer event featuring a five course beer dinner featuring Bell’s Brewery.  What’s a beer dinner you ask? Well each course will be paired with a particular beer from Bell’s.  Now onto the details:

Doors will open at 6pm for some light appetizers and your favorite Bell’s beers, followed by five courses and pairings starting at 7pm!

The Five Courses:

1. Beef & Oatmeal Stout Stew
2. Mixed Greens & Raspberry Ale Vinaigrette Salad
3. Manchego Hopsoulution Ale Mac & Cheese
4. Golden Rye Ale Pork Tenderloin
5. Black Note Stout Brownie

Now that sounds delicious  - especially the brownie.

Tickets are required and only $60 per person (which includes tax and gratuity).

Go to lovethebeer.com/events.html to reserve your spot.

-Pyzocha

I kicked Christmas day off at 9:15 am with a delicious Maui Brewing Co Bikini Blonde Lager. If you can find it, drink it.

– shintern

-Pyzocha

Apologies for not having an actual picture, just pretend it was poured in a Shiner Bock glass with my fridge and the Longhorn magnet in the background... Marzen, 5.8% ABV, 12 oz Bottle

I’m back, b*tches! Many, many things have happened since our little pause in posting, including the start of football, most of summer and just about all of Autumn – hell, even Thanksgiving has almost passed, and OccupyEverything; however, something’s never change such as the fact our economy is yet again on the verge of collapse thanks to the refusal of Elephants and Donkeys to compromise…

Thankfully, it appears that J Street writers have awaken from a beer-induced slumber/haze and are back to bloggin. Frankly, it’s been entirely too freakin’ long since I posted anything here; I almost forgot what we were doing and how we reviewed beer, but Pyzocha reminded me that I had this left over. So apologies for the delay (so much so that while it was available in the District, it’s not anymore), but here is my review of… Shiner Oktoberfest (seems fitting and a nice way to ease back into the show…)

The beer pours a nice bubbly off white head with orange/brown/bronze color and lots of visible bubbles. It doesn’t seem anything special, but sometimes that’s ok or preferred to something smelling awful…

The beer gives off a nice smell of mild malt sweetness, which makes me think of a sweet lager/pilsner.

As for the taste, it’s about what I’d expect – nothing special, although there is a slight sweetness as it is swallowed with hints of Shiner Bock.

The beer has a medium to light body with good carbonation but not quite that clean of a clearance.

On the grand scheme of things, this is not a terrible Shiner Seasonal/non-Bock beer (re: Shiner Summer). In fact, it’s pretty drinkable and seems to go with the season. That said, there are better Autumn/Oktoberfest beers around, but this one is definitely one of the more sessionable ones, so I wouldn’t put ‘meh’ and will go with ‘Good.’

– Shintern1909 (back in the saddle!)

This week’s Big Bottle: Upland Infinite Wisdom

Recently Boardwalk went out to visit her alma mater, Indiana University  (Boardwalk’s note: Go Hoosiers!).  While there, she saw her friends, took advantage of cheap beer prices, and stopped into Upland Brewing Co. for a tour that she never got around to taking while studying in B-town.  The brewery is located not far from campus.  While out there, she was kind enough to pick up a bottle of Infinite Wisdom for me.

This Tripel comes in at a solid 9% (yeehaw!) and pours with a typical light yellow color.  There was little head and the aroma was slightly yeasty but not much else (maybe a little citrus).  The first sip hits you up front with sweetness followed by carbonation across the tongue and finishing with a balancing bitterness with metallic notes.  Each sip after the first melds into a well-balanced smooth experience.  For 9% this beer goes down very smoothly…so be careful.  Boardwalk managed to get drunk enough off this her senior year that she could not manage to finish her paper on Russia’s foreign policy regarding Ukraine.  (Boardwalk’s note: Not my finest moment…)

If you can get your hands on this beer, it would be wise to buy it.

-Pyzocha

]]> http://jstreetbeer.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/3xb-upland-infinite-wisdom/feed/ 0 pyzocha 3xb Washington-20111116-00014 iu 3-drinkit http://jstreetbeer.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/the-gift/ http://jstreetbeer.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/the-gift/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:28:15 +0000 pyzocha http://jstreetbeer.wordpress.com/?p=4387 ]]> As you know, Tonzi moved to Chicago (that’s their flag to the left) and without our leader the rest of us have slacked on posting new content.  All of us here at J Street would like to apologize for our…well…laziness.  We will be making a concerted effort to get back into the swing of things with more reviews.  I know we’ve all been drinking and have plenty of ideas for new posts.

First, we would like to thank Tonzi for everything he’s done for the blog.  He started it and pushed to to try and write about new beer.  More importantly we would like to thank him for his loyal friendship.  He is immensely missed.  Second, as a small token of our gratitude for all that he’s done for us, I put together a gift.

This gift is, of course, beer:

I’ll be sending it his way sometime this week:  Heavy Seas Loose Cannon, Founder’s Backwoods Bastard and Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA; the unlabeled bottles are homebrew, a Honey APA, Russian Imperial Stout and a Cider-like beverage.

Enjoy Tonzi! We miss you!

-Pyzocha