Many Reasons to Give Thanks!

Being married to someone who works at a liquor store certainly has its perks. Ya know what the greatest of these is? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. That’s right, employee discount! As the cost of beer continues to rise and the size of my 401K continues to fall, it’s nice to be able to get some good beers at a discount from time to time. While the selection of fine craft beers at this simple little municipal often falls short there are a few gems that I’ve come to enjoy. For example one of my all time favorites, Surly Furious is almost always available. And, being one of those beers that pushes the limits of both hops and malt, the sticker shock can often cause paralysis. Speaking of hops, I’ve really been drinking the crap out of a perennial favorite lately. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, what a fantastic beer! Even as a seasonal, this beer is often voted among the tops in “Best IPA” category in online polls. You’ll get no arguments from this guy, and fortunately you can also find this seasonal at my wife’s store.
Of course there are many great beers out there that you can’t find at this muni so I found myself venturing out to my favorite beer store, the Four Firkins to stock up for Thanksgiving. The drive is short for me, the service always pleasant and you never have to trip over mountains of macros to find what you came for. In the evening you will often find open bottles from which to sample something new. Quite an ingenious concept if you ask me. It keeps people in the store longer and I’ve found myself more than once picking up that little something extra because of it. While it is in every store owner’s interest to make a profit, it’s obvious this store makes it a priority to spread the good word of craft beer and promote local brewers and educate us on all things beer. For the annual family Thanksgiving feast I picked up a kaleidoscope of fine beers from Alvey and the good folks at Four Firkins.
First, I cracked open Victory’s annual homage to the hop harvest “Hop Wallop”. This beer is just as it suggests; a wallop of hops that hits you right in the kisser - Kapow! At 8.5% this proved to be a good beer to kick off the annual festivus. I followed that up with some of Tyranena’s “The Devil Made Me Do It” from their highly regarded Brewers Gone Wild series. If you think the name is a mouthful, wait 'til you get the real thing in there. I should have had this thing for breakfast… Oatmeal, coffee, delish! Finally, I finished off Thanksgiving Day dinner with a bottle of Sierra Nevada’s “Chico Estate Harvest Ale”. I was not surprised to find myself enjoying this one as well. It’s very much like their Original Harvest Ale, this one also wet hopped, but this time using fresh hops grown at their brewery. I tried the Original Harvest Ale around Halloween this year and was introduced to a different hop experience than I’d ever had. Being wet hopped, I kinda expected a difference, I just didn’t know what that would be. Well, not as bitter as other hoppy beers, but a lot of hop flavor. And not citrusy but more “earthy” as they say. Seems to be an appropriate way to describe it. It was very pleasant and I look forward to trying more. The Chico Estates release was very similar and I enjoyed it just the same.
I realize it is nearly Christmas but I just had to get on and share my long overdue Thanksgiving Day experience. We have been having Thanksgiving at my parent’s house for as long as I can remember. It’s always a great time getting together with grandpa and grandma, aunts and uncles and many cousins and this year was no exception. My mother’s fantastic cooking was complimented with a solid variety of brewed adventures. In this day and age when the news always seems so full of gloom and doom we’re reminded that we all have so much to be thankful for. For when you have nothing better to do than get online and talk beer, life is certainly good indeed.

Please also visit www.lutherpublichouse.com for more fun with beer.