Sunday, April 23, 2006

Candy store

I found myself on the East Side of Milwaukee yesterday sitting inside the Nomad tavern. Nothing too weird about that except I don't like the East Side. Too many people thinking they are more important than they really are. I find them to be annoying.

Yet I was enjoying the company of friends in this bar. They had spent some time at the Lakefront Brewery before going to the Nomad. I passed on those festivities- no I was not feeling ill- and met up with them at this bar. The Nomad has a nice selection of beers on tap as well as a cooler stocked up with bottles from around the world. I had the kid in a candystore feeling inside me. This felt like the makings of a good day.

I started with the Lakefront Riverwest. Not bad. But I had my eye on some else. Seeing that they had a couple of more hours invested already, I had to play catch up. So I went for the long ball. I saw the Spaten Optimator tap and drooled a little. High alcohol with great taste. A hard combo to match. Spaten describes the Optimator as:
Spaten Optimator The classic German dark beer, bottom fermented 'Doppel Bock'. Flavor profile: Full bodied with a deep dark color and rich roasted malt flavor. Original gravity: 18, 2 % Alcohol content: 7,2 % Available as 12 oz. 12-pack, 12 oz. 6-pack, 16.9 oz. single bottle and 30 liter keg.


Try it. You'll like it. I sure did. But I had to check out the other beers they had. I couldn't settle for just one. My eyes told me tongue I needed to try the Trocadero White Bier, another Lakefront product. It was a drop from the dark beer I had enjoyed. I needed to get back in the zone.

So I turned to look at what was in the cooler. There I saw it. I had to try it. Skull Splitter Ale. A nice full bodied ale that had a smooth flavor and went down good. Plus, it has a fun name to say. Skull Splitter.

As tempted as I was to get another Skull Splitter, someone bought me a Paulener Weiss instead. Tasty in its own right. Somehow I feel like I was being forced to drink a rainbow of beers. I had amber, white, orange, and back. Thus when I got a Smithwicks, I wasn't too sure how that would fit into the rainbow. Didn't matter too much. I was busy focusing on the drink.

I could go in to how I went to get another round and everybody left while I was at the bar but that would be a sob story you don't want to hear. Screw them anyways. I had to go to C's house for some cards. Along the way I stopped at the liquor store to get more beer. I had an idea of what I wanted. The Leinenkugel Summer Wheat was out and I had heard some good things about it. Some not so good as well. So as I stood in front of the cooler, I was about to grab a six pack of the Leinie's but saw the Capital Brewery had a wheat as well. A smaller batch should mean a better bear. But the Island Wheat would turn to be a disappointment. Not as full bodied as I expected it to be. It didn't have much flavor to it.

I also grabbed a 4 pack of the New Glarus Cherry Stoudt. I had high hopes for this brew but was not happy with it. The cherry flavor was excellent but I don't think it went well with the stoudt. This been was pretty complicated. Part of me liked it, part of me didn't. It reminded me of another cherry beer, the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Sam Adams wasn't that good as it lacked the cherriness it needed.

So I tried mixing the cherry stoudt with the wheat beer to see if their was a happy middle. Not a good idea. Taking too beers that sounded good together didn't work at all. But I drank it anyways. The wheat beer didn't change the stoudt at all. Actually, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking when I mixed these.

So Saturday ended up being a nice beer day. Tried many different brews from around the globe. Maybe I will try it again today.

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