Patti F. Smith

Youth, as they say, is wasted on the young. When I was a wee lass back in 1991, a friend of mine said that she was going to something called “Lollapalooza”, featuring bands called Nine Inch Nails and Pearl Jam. Having never heard of the “Lollapalooza” or the Nine Inch Nails or the Pearl Jam, I begged off on her invitation to go with her. I also spent an inordinate amount of time debating whether that was nails like fingernails or nails like what you pounded into the wall.

 

About half a year later, I was of course kicking myself for not accompanying my friend. Perry Farrell’s festival exploded into the “alt” rock scene and tickets were both hard to come by and expensive. I was going to camp out for tickets in 1994 (that’s how it was done in those days, kids) when Nirvana was rumored to headline, but then Kurt died and I decided to skip it.

 

Nowadays, the festival surges on, but with bands I’ve never heard of. I mean, seriously? The Shins? The Weeknd (see what they did there?)? Die Antwood??!! Makes Nine Inch Nails sound downright serene.

 

Fortunately, there is something similarly named that is nearby and much less expensive and that, my friends, is Lagerpalooza! Yes, our own Wolverine Brewing Company is hosting ten nights of live music in their tap room!!

 

When the tap room first opened, explained my pal and marketing director, E.T. Crowe, they had live music almost every weekend. Then, they started having it once a month. Now, they want to see if there is an audience for more frequent live music performances and that is how we ended up with almost a dozen nights of awesome. E.T. said that the brewpub loves having local and regional stars and will be having more live music in the future, especially after they install their own sound system. There may even be an open mic night in the fall.

 

The event “named itself”, says E.T., as you can enjoy Wolverine’s award-winning lagers (and sometimes a few ales) brewed with love by brewer Oliver Roberts. The line up is impressive, to wit: 16 More Miles, Doug Horn Jazz Trio, Dragon Wagon, The Crane Wives, Moxie Strings with Fritz McGirr, Wayward Roots, The Bitter Regrets and Dirty Deville AND, JUST ADDED, a second night with Lindsey Lou & the Flatbellys (May 29^th) and a performance by the Mike Shimmin Blues Trio (May 22^nd).

 

 

You still have time to come out and catch these bands. Don’t do as I did 21 (gulp) years ago and miss out on the awesome tunes. A great time—and a great lager—will be had by all. And just think—you don’t even have to deal with Ticketmaster.

It sometimes amazes me that I get paid to do the job that I do. I love organizing and scheduling and it has that. I love working with kids and it has that. I love teaching teachers, community members and parents new ways of working with students with disabilities and God knows, it has lots of that! It’s not the perfect job, of course—that would be the $200,000 per year job where you sit on your ass, all day long, hang out with your friends and drink beer that does not make you get fat. The next best thing (other than my day job) is the job that I did this past Saturday night—a beer tasting!

My pal Tammy runs a popular business called Tammy’s Tastings. She got hired to run a beer tasting at a birthday party and, smart woman that she is, hired me to be her wingwoman. I must confess to being a little nervous before the party: what if someone asked me something I didn’t know the answer to? What if someone heckled us? What if I spilled beer all over? What if the ghost of Samuel Adams danced in, waving firecrackers at us?! What if what if what?!?!

But it was all good.  No hecklers, no spillages, no ghosts of brewers past—just some rockin’ ales. The birthday girl preferred Belgians and the party thrower preferred pale ales, so Tammy and I tried for the best of both worlds. We did a blind taste test wherein people tasted the eight samples at their leisure, followed by a “grand reveal” by us.

We started with Sam Smith’s English Pale Ale, a beer I felt best exemplified the English pale ale style. It got a lukewarm reaction from the crowd (only three self-identified as beer geeks). I found it a bit more plain than I remembered it, and had to remind myself that it is an English pale and I shouldn’t expect the bam of a, well, of a Bam.

The American Pale Ale was represented by Great Lakes Burning River. This batch seemed hoppier than usual, and so a lot of folks guessed that it was an IPA. Nevertheless, a lot of people seemed to like it.

I have to confess that I haven’t had a lot of English IPAs in my day, so I took Beer Advocate’s recommendation and got the St. Peters IPA. Wow! Am I glad that I did! This beer was my personal “find” of the night. It had almost an earthy, smoky quality to it, rounded out by those wonderful bitter hops. Quite a few people picked this as their personal favorite.

Our American IPA had to be Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA. I got to give a spiel about the 75, 90 and 120 minute IPAs and I think I impressed a few souls, if I do say so myself.

Next up, we featured our Belgium beers: Duval, Delirium Tremens and the Franco-Belgian beer from our own Jolly Pumpkin, Oro de Calabaza. I have actually never had the first two beers, as I am not a huge Belgian fan. I was very fond of the “pink elephant” beer—nice and strong, but easy drinking. Reactions were decidedly mixed on the two “true” Belgian beers…some folks immediately recognized that they were not fans and others were just the opposite.

The biggest surprise for me was the strong, mostly negative, reaction to the Jolly Pumpkin. One of the categories on their informal score sheets was “Blech”; I was completely floored by the number of people who said that they thought the beer was even worse than that. People in the crowd were similarly floored when I announced all of the awards that Jolly Pumpkin generally and that beer specifically had won. Perhaps it is an acquired taste?

Our final beer was our “wild card” and it was met with a strong reaction of mostly positive reviews. It is one of my favorite beers and comes from a lovely brewery in Grand Rapids. Its label has an old man on it and it is 6.6% ABV. If you guessed Red’s Rye, then you are correct, my child. A lot of people said that this was their favorite beer of the night.

The whole experience was awesome for me, especially when I heard people at their tables talking about the beer. I heard words like “banana”, “earthy”, “balanced”, “bitter”, “nose”, “head” and all sorts of words that I would not expect from a non-beer geek group. It truly made my heart soar like a hawk, as my creepy 10^th grade Social Studies teacher used to say.

If you need someone to cater your party or do a wine/beer tasting, I highly recommend Tammy. Who knows? Maybe I will show up, too! 🙂

What is the size of the Connect Four board? What was the name of Norah Jones’ Grammy winning album? What is the most populated city that ends in the word “Falls”? What, huh? Who asks these kinds of questions?? Who DOES THIS??

The answer, my friends, is the folks who play Great Lakes Trivia at the Corner Brewery on Wednesday evenings. There is trivia at a lot of places around town, but this is the one that I go to, and therefore I am in a position to tell you all about it!

First though, a time to pontificate. I have this theory that the reason that trivia (especially bar trivia) has become so popular as of late is because we are swamped with the easy acquisition of knowledge. Let me tell you a story. Back in college (the early-to-mid 90s for me), my friend and I heard the song “Life In a Northern Town” on the radio. We became obsessed trying to remember the name of the band who sang it. We both worked at the campus radio station and so we asked around, but no one remembered. We even paid a visit to a Harmony House but couldn’t find the cassette or CD. Finally, about six months after the initial conversation, one of us heard it on the radio again or had an epiphany or something and remembered that it was, in fact, the Dream Academy who performed that most masterful song. Today, you would need only to type in “Life In a Northern Town” into any search engine and your question would be answered almost immediately. (Hell, you could probably just type in “Life In a Nor”…and it would fill it in for you). You would have your answer, but you would not have a story some 20 years later about the quest to learn the name of a one hit wonder band.

Bar trivia does not allow such easy answers; you have to work (i.e. think) about your response. And there is the fun! Sure, I could have Googled “Norah Jones Grammy” on my Android, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, my team and I talked about it and tried to recall songs from the album and even tried to sing one…but couldn’t come up with the answer. Later, when we had to write down the name of Brett Butler’s sitcom, I immediately remembered “Grace Under Fire” and jotted it down. And still later, when we had to come up with the answer of which sitcom said farewell to a character when he left the show to teach English in Africa, it was fun to watch my two teammates talk it out until they both came up with the answer at almost the same time.

You don’t have to be a genius or savant or trivia geek to have fun at this. Our team (the Corn Fritters, if you were wondering) loses plenty of times (although, ahem, we did come in second during both games this week) but we always have lots of fun. The awesomeness happens on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. in the lounge area of the bar. A friendly, cool DJ reads the questions, gives you 2 ½ minutes to answer the questions and then reads the answer! Meantime, you think and think and think and drink and drink and drink! (I just made that up; masterful!)

So come on out! Who knows, maybe in 2032 you will be writing for this blog and telling everyone about the time it took you six months to remember the name of the group that wrote a song about life in a northern town….

Well Lord love a duck! I am so behind on my posting!  This actually happened weeks ago….

Going to Chocolate—er, Copper Canyon: A Chocolate Beerposium with Beer Todd

I like to think that I defy gender stereotypes in many ways. For example, I do not enjoy shopping, I own about five pairs of shoes, and I think I drive pretty badass. I also am not a huge fan of chocolate. I will eat it if it is around, but I don’t buy it myself and rarely find myself craving it. Boyfriend Ken, on the other hand, loves the stuff. So when I heard about a chocolate beer tasting—a Beerposium—at Copper Canyon, I knew we had to go.

The head brewer at the Canyon is my friend, Todd Parker (a.k.a. Beer Todd; I actually had to stop and think about his last name there for a second) and he puts on one helluva show. Beer Todd had 17 beers waiting for us, neatly broken up into categories of chocolate ale, chocolate & coffee beer and chocolate mole. Here are my top five picks:

Atwater’s Decadent Delight: Far and away, my favorite beer of the tasting. Boyfriend Ken frowned when he saw the name of the beer and suddenly I saw him pecking away at his Smart Phone. A moment later, he confirmed that decadent is actually a negative term, meaning “being in a state of decline or decay”. (Later, my own research proved this to be true; I am not sure how we got to the point of using the term as a positive, although I am sure someone somewhere earned a degree for writing about this topic. The same degree that I earned by slogging through 100 hours of 800 level law courses, but hey whatever, Doctor Decadent). This beer was neither in decline nor in decay and was all awesome. It literally smells like hot chocolate! Like what your mom would make you after you got home from school on a cold day hot chocolate. The taste was like being kissed by chocolate. Note that I am leaving this description vague so that you are forced to try it yourself!

Southern Tier’s Choklat:  Previously, I had only had the Crème Brulee beer that Southern Tier makes, and I was hella impressed by that. (Are the kids still saying hella? No? Oh, well.). This beer was made with Belgian chocolate, which may very well be what made this beer so delicious. It is heavy and thick, with a fairly high ABV (11%). It is sweet, with a faint alcohol finish. Kind of like drinking a chocolate bar, with a beer finish.

Arcadia’s Cocoa Loco: Arcadia made this beer with both chocolate and cocoa nibs and I credit the nibs with giving it an extra special taste. The beer has a nice molasses flavor and a sweet, chocolate taste. I could also pick up a slight lactic taste, which just added to the enjoyment of the beer.

Harpoon’s Chocolate Stout: This beer was brewed with only chocolate malt, and very little (if any) actual chocolate added to it. I therefore was skeptical as to what it would taste like. Imagine my delight when I found the beer to be delicious—nice balance of roasted malt and chocolate notes. There was also a touch of hops in the finish. The texture was a little thinner than I would like, but this did not take away from my enjoyment of the beer.

Copper Canyon’s Shillelagh Stout:  This oatmeal stout has chocolate added to it, for an extra special bonus! Beer Todd says it is a “Todd Stout”, which the internet tells me is a stout that is too strong for an oatmeal, too weak for an imperial and too sweet for a foreign export. Given this yummy beer, I vote for a new category called “Todd Stout” to be added to the BJCP guidelines, pronto.

Despite not being a huge chocolate fan, I really enjoyed the tasting. As I mentioned, Beer Todd puts on a great show and for only $20, it was more than worth it. The next Beerposium is coming up on May 5 and will feature the Beers of Summer. Something tells me that a certain Summerzest beer might be on tap for that….

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a “breakfast” person. My earliest class in college was 11:00a.m. I about died when I was given a schedule in law school (my first “career”, if you will) and the first class was at 8:30. I really didn’t like real life, which came with an 8:00 a.m. starting time. Now as a teacher, I find starting times even earlier than 8:00 and that just makes me sad. No one should have to function before about noon, in my opinion. When I take over the world, not only will everyone have summers off, but nothing important will start before 11:30 or so. It will be a wonderful world, I assure you.

            Given that, I am grateful for the invention of “brunch”. On weekends, you’re lucky if I roll out of bed by 10, let alone think about making breakfast for myself or Boyfriend Ken. “Breakfast time” is just too early for me to contemplate. “Brunch time”, on the other hand, is perfect. It can start before noon, sure, but it can easily roll into 2 or 3 o’clock. One of my favorite things about living in Ann Arbor is the access to many great brunch options. Another one of my favorite things is living not terribly far from the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti. Imagine then, how delighted I was when I heard that the Corner was having brunch on (most) Sundays in April! It’s like when the peanut butter found its way into the chocolate, only with beer.

            Boyfriend Ken, our friend Andrew and I rolled in about 11 last Sunday, to be greeted by a happy, festive atmosphere. Despite the early hour (yes, 11:00 a.m. on a Sunday is early, friends; don’t let the corporate media tell you otherwise), people were in a great mood. This mood was possibly enhanced by the menu, which was quite extensive. I won’t rehash the entire thing, as you can see it yourself on their Facebook page, but I will tell you about my meal. The beer mimosa was delicious. I was a little hesitant about mixing juice and beer, but the combination was great. I’m not sure what base beer was used, but it worked. Might have had two of those. Since I’m trying to avoid added sugar, I opted for the huevos rancheros, which means “eggs, country-style” in Spanish. Believe it or not, I have never had this dish before and this was a great introduction. The eggs were mixed with salsa. I love Corner salsa, as it has lots of cilantro. (My friend Matt, who was also at brunch, tastes soap when he eats cilantro and that makes me so sad. Cilantro rocks!). There was also feta cheese involved, and some basil. Instead of a using a fork, I instead scooped up the eggs with the flour tortillas, dipped the whole shebang into sour cream and there you go. My side dish was potatoes, which I dotted with butter and enjoyed. Yum!

            But wait! There’s more! Remember what I said about reducing added sugar blah blah blah whatever whatever whatever? Yeah, well, that went out the window when it came time for dessert, which is included in the meal. You get a little shot glass of shortcake with graham crackers and whipped cream plus a choice of fillings. I chose the banana and was thrilled! It was like a little taste of banana cream pie.

            I should mention my friend Rene, who not only owns the place, but also teaches yoga at 8:45a.m. Seriously? People are up that early?! Apparently so and bless her for being up and teaching. I know what it’s like to have to teach at such an ungodly hour of the day (cue world’s smallest violin). She is awesome.

            The Corner will be hosting brunch again on April 29^th (they are closed on the 22^nd for a staff outing), from 10:00 until 2:00. The price for a drink, main dish, side dish and dessert is $15.99 and well worth it, in my opinion. So sleep late, roll out of bed and roll into the Corner for some early deliciousness! And remember, you can always go home and take a nap!

Today’s mug is in the shape of a cocktail glass, amigos. On occasion, I indulge in craft cocktails, which are becoming quite the thang ‘round these parts. At the forefront of this cocktail revolution is my friend, Tammy Coxen, who offers monthly cocktail tasting classes at the Raven’s Club.   

 

The last class saw us making pink drinks, in honor of Valentine’s Day. My personal favorites were the Sazerac and the Jack Rose. If you have not had a cocktail made with rye, you are missing out! I had never thought much about rye until I started taking the cocktail classes; now I seek it out all the time.

 

The Sazerac has 3 ounces of rye, ½ ounce of simple syrup, 5 dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters (which is what gives the drink its pink color) and an absinthe rinse. The result is a refreshing drink that is also rather complex, given the absinthe rinse. I know that absinthe simultaneously delights and terrifies people. Delights because people think “oh hell yeah! Wormwood visions!” and terrifies because “Oh my God, seriously, wormwood visions!?!?!” Well, fortunately (or not), most absinthe doesn’t produce the results that you think it will. In fact, I have read (on the Internet, so it must be true) that it wasn’t the absinthe that gave people the visions but rather the copious amounts of absinthe that people consumed that did the trick. Whatever the case may be, the anise flavor mixes well with the rye and bitters.

 

The Jack Rose is made with 2 ounces of apple brandy, ½ ounce lemon juice, ½ ounce grenadine and 1 dash of orange bitters. This is very different from the Sazerac, obviously, but just as delicious. We used a homemade grenadine (with was Pom Wonderful cooked down into a thick syrup), which made all the difference when compared to store bought grenadine, which was packed with corn syrup and the like.

 

Craft cocktails are getting easier and easier to find. From the Sugar House in Detroit to our own Ravens Club, 327 Braun Court and the newly opened The Last Word, you can find creative bartenders making some excellent beverages. Or, if you are a hands-on person like me, sign up for a cocktail making class.

 

Beer people should branch out, in my opinion. It is great to taste new drinks made with the same love and care as craft beer. Now, if Tammy would just have a beer and cocktails class….!

 

Okay and so it wasn’t all craft cocktails these past few weeks…I got to enjoy after batch of Fat Elvis beer made by my friend, George Hotelling. In my opinion, this is one of those genius recipes you will only find in the minds of talented craft brewers. Fat Elvis was made at Liberty Street Brewing Company in Plymouth and went on tap last Monday. Can you guess what it’s made of? Yes! Peanut butter and bananas go into the mash, which lend a lovely peanutty banana-ey taste to the porter. All you need to do is shoot out a few televisions, rap on the phone with the Colonel and fart around Graceland and you are all set to live like the King.

We are the Great Beer State. With brewpubs opening to packed houses and awesome movies like this, it should come as no surprise that we are seeing an increase in beer festivals. This winter alone, you have your choice of festivals in Grand Rapids, Jackson or Westborn Market’s 3rd Annual Beer Fest.

This Saturday, January 28, will see the Royal Oak Music Theater transformed into a big ol’ beer fest featuring over 80 beers from around the state, nation and planet. Over ten new beers will have their own malt-tastic “debutante coming out” party at the fest. What I think is extra cool about this fest is that it benefits Camp Casey, which is a horseback riding campe for kids with cancer. Seriously, could it BE any more win-win??

Speaking of win, check out some of the brewpubs that will be in attendance: Arbor Brewing, Arcadia, New Holland, Brewery Vivant and Dark Horse. !!!! In addition to the beers, there will be local vendors including Chuck & Dave’s Salsa, which will feature beer-inspired food samples. More win!

So what precipitated this event? Well, straight from the horse’s mouth (i.e. Jason Dristan – Beer Fest Co-Founder), “We recognized Metro Detroit did not have a true Beer Fest during the Winter and wanted to fill that void.  This is the third year we have scheduled it the weekend between the NFL Championships and the Super Bowl.  It is the perfect answer to cure the ‘winter blues’.”  Yes, yes it is!

The event starts at 8pm and goes until midnight. The ceremonial keg tapping will be at 9pm and feature representatives from Camp Casey, Westborn Market and the city of Royal Oak. They will tap a special Michigan Brewing Company Winter Cask Ale.
Tickets are $35 in advance or $40 at the door. You will get 25 beer samples, you will help out a great cause and you will satisfy your palate. Did someone say something about WIN…?

Here are some picture of last year’s festival. Because these pictures are awesome, you should by now know that they were most certainly not taken by me! (Thanks to Dana from On the Rocks Detroit!)

Two hours to get in on opening day? Lines around the block? Completely full even days after the opening? Wow! This place had better be good!

I am talking, of course, about the newest brewpub in Michigan: the Witch’s Hat Brewpub in South Lyon. Witch’s Hat opened for business on December 26 with, as mentioned above, crowds and lines and long waits to get in. Before we even talk about how good the place is–and it IS good–I want to mention how awesome this spectacular opening is for the state of Michigan and the state of craft beer. Other than midnight releases of Harry Potter, when is the last time you’ve heard of anything like this?! It was like an, err, “mash” mob (if you will allow me to rip off that term) descended upon the new brewpub and worked it.

Boyfriend Ken and I tried to go a few days after the grand opening and found it full up. (This ended up being okay as we went to Lake Street Tavern, which had good food and a nice selection of craft beer). I finally made it out again last Saturday and it the place was still jam packed! If not for a reservation for my Meet Up group, I couldn’t have gotten in.

So, is it worth the wait? In a word, yes.

The space: Yep, it’s cozy. There’s a little fireplace, darkly colored furniture, a short bar with the requisite stools and of course tables and chairs. Ryan, one of the owners, took our Meet Up group to the back, where the magic happens. A LOT of magic happens in a small space! Magic like….

The beers: There were eight beers on tap on Saturday and I got to sample 5 of them: After Christmas Ale, 1908, Ed’s Brown, American Pale and Train Hopper. My personal favorites were the After Christmas and 1908. The After Christmas is an excellent winter ale with many of the usual winter spices (allspice, cinnamon and ginger) but also with a lovely taste of honey. The 1908 is a smoked wheat beer and absolutely delicious! Malty, well balanced and not too smoky…wonderful! All of the beers were quite good though, so you should have no problem finding a favorite.

The service: The service was impeccable. Our waitress took our orders on little slips of paper and knew our names right away. Glasses were never empty very long and the waitstaff seemed genuinely happy to be there (rare these days). Ryan could not have been nicer and even shared a pepperoni roll with a slightly tipsy, very hungry beer blogger.

All in all, this was well worth the wait! More beers are coming out all the time, so hitch up the wagon and get up to South Lyon. Cheers!

Why certain retail businesses fail and while others succeed has long intrigued me. Ann Arbor, especially, intrigues me to no end. I have gone to some wonderful places only to see them close (I still mourn Pelagos), yet it seems people will pay $30 for a piece of lettuce in other places. I mean, sure, the lettuce was pooped out by a goat wearing an organic headdress made of hemp and singing harmonies, but still, it’s a piece of $#&!^ lettuce!!!   As someone who can most definitely not afford $50 for a small plate of food, I am always on the look out for good meals for less than my hourly wage. If I can pair that food with a nice beer, all the better.

So lucky for me that I discovered Piatto Di Pasta in the southeastern part of town. Nestled in the plaza on the corner of Stone School & Ellsworth, this is an awesome Italian restaurant/take out place. A friend had recommended it and so I decided to incorporate it into my next beer pairing article. The bad news is that I had only porters in my refrigerator and, to my palate anyway, porters and Italian food don’t go that well together. Luckily, I had bought a B.Nektar Zombie Killer Cherry Cyser from Made in Michigan last week and even luckier was how well the tastes went together!

First, the food! I got two entrees, which included bread, salad (or soup) and your choice of meat, noodles and sauce. I got the penne pasta, traditional sauce and meatballs for myself and the cheese ravioli, spicy sauce and chicken for Boyfriend Ken. ZOMG—that is a clove of garlic that you see in that meatball. Yes, a clove of garlic. I ate and ate and still couldn’t finish all of the pasta (if you have ever seen my rather expansive thighs, you will know that I can eat). While waiting for Boyfriend Ken to get home, I liberated some of the ravioli from his plate. Hands down, the best I have ever eaten and in fact, I was kind of hoping he’d work late and leave all the pasta for me 🙂

See? It’s a clove of garlic! That clove is now somewhere in my stomach, awaiting further digestion.

Now the Cyser, as I said, went very well with the pasta and meat. This cider is amazing! It is basically apple cider with honey and cherries…but so much more! It’s much lighter than a mead, yet not as heavy as, say, a red wine. The honey flavor is light and adds a crispness to it, while the cherries round out the tart finish. Since Italian food is somewhat heavy, this was the perfect drink to balance it out. (A porter beer, for instance, would have just made the meal too heavy).

One of the best labels, period.

So give Piatto Di Pasta & Zombie Killer a try, individually or together. The food is locally sourced when possible and organic and the “cyser” is too…and they won’t break the bank! And no organic goats were necessary, either!

Instead of pairing food and beer this week, Boyfriend Ken & I had no choice but to pair beer and cold. (Or, in my case, sinus infection). We found ourselves desperately ill on Sunday evening and no real taste for anything except…beer. So a quick trip to Falsetta’s later and we had ourselves Atwater’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Shamans Porter and North Peak’s Dark Angel Cherry Porter. Boyfriend Ken is more of a fruit beer fan than me and I am more of a bourbon barrel aged fan than he, so it sort of worked itself out. Let’s examine one beer at a time.

Atwaters: It poured a nice dark brown hue, slightly fizzy beige head. The smell was all roasted malts and bourbon—yum! Definite bourbon taste, medium to medium heavy mouthfeel and creamy. Nice balance between bitter hops, coffee, chocolate and lightly smoked wood. I looked it up on the Googlez and found that it weighs in at 6.8% a.b.v. (I also found out that a bottle is around 200 calories; information that I didn’t need or want, but it’s there now).

North Peak’s: Poured a beautiful dark brown with slight head. The smell was roasty malts and it had a medium to medium-light mouth feel. The biggest surprise was how bitter this beer was. The bitter hops overwhelmed the other, more subtle flavors that I think were there. We did not get any cherry taste, except maybe a very light cherry finish. It is 5% a.b.v., so definitely drinkable, but not what we were expecting.

Verdict? I would choose the Atwaters, simply because the idea of being sick and drinking bourbon (well, sort of) appeals to me. Also, I simply liked the beer much, much better. Boyfriend Ken gave positive reviews for the North Peak, but it was not the cherry taste that he was expecting.

While the beer didn’t cure my sinus infection (drat!), it helped! Sort of 😉