#bootlegger's

Okay my friends. Let’s see if we can get back into this.

I’ll try again with the individual beer posts… Soon.

As you can see, I have about a month’s worth of beers to catch up on and I am starting to forget the names of some of the ones I’ve tried. I’ll get this post out of the way and try the “however many I had in an evening” post method. As you can see or will find out, this is quite a long post. Have a sit down. Open a bottle of beer. Pour yourself a glass of wine. Grab that cup of coffee. Basically get cozy because I get rambly and storytellery... OR go down to the TLDR, skip all of my mediocre writing, and take a look at what I've been drinking. 

Most of these we’re had at the beer bar I mentioned in my last post. They rotate their menu so I get to try a bunch of craft brews that I wouldn’t get to normally. I’m gonna try to get all of those out of the way first. I’ll go at these in no particluar order.

I’ve had a drink of Shipyard Bourbon Barrel Double Scottish Ale which the bartender told my had a lot of “heat” because of the high alcohol content (11.6%). I guess that’s a term I should be more familiar with at this point. It makes sense. The more alcohol I have, the warmer my body tends to feel. You end up tasting how much alcohol is in it and you can almost feel your body getting warmer as you drink it. I approve. Anyway, it was a pretty “hot” drink and I believe it was my second of the night so I was feeling pretty nice after. I can’t remember which movie I saw after. I think it was Percy Jackson. I’ve been to these Tuesday drink-and-a-movie nights so many times that it’s hard for me to keep track of when I did what. I remember the bourbon barrel flavor. It seems to be an indicator of my higher alcohol drinks. I can’t think of a barrel aged beer I’ve had that was low in the ABV. Now, keep in mind that this wasn’t a stout. It was a hefty Scottish ale. If you want alcohol up in your business but don’t like the taste of stout (at which point I’d question your sanity because stouts are delicious) this might pique your interests. In my mind, it fits nicely between a porter/stout and a dark lager/bock.

More along the lines of stouts, i got to try Dogfish Head’s Chicory Stout. I read the taste of Mexican hot chocolate was a flavor that was good, but nothing spectacular. I have to admit, I couldn’t tell the difference between a regular chocolate stout and this one. Maybe my taste buds aren’t doing to well. Maybe I haven’t had Mexican hot chocolate recently enough. Either way, I’m not going to say I disliked it. I did enjoy it. It just didn’t seem to bring anything new to the table. I should get some good dark chocolate for the next time I go. I’d like to have some nice flavor pairings.

Oh and in case I didn’t make this clear, until I say otherwise, I’m going to talk about the pub’s beers. After I’m done with these, I’ll move on to ones that I’ve had in other places. So assume I got these from one place. This is my wonderland.

A standard that they have and one of my hands down favorites is Old Rasputin on nitro. I posted about an age and a half ago a picture of their Old Rasputin in a North Coast pint glass. It was such a beautiful thing to behold. It might be the nitro tap, but ever time I get it on draft it’s thicker and creamier. The head on that thing is solid and I have to wait and just watch it go down a bit before I start to drink it. I’ve tried to drink it before the head is gone and I just get a faceful of foam. I’ll be sad if that one goes away.

Speaking of nitro taps, Deschutes Obsidian Stout on nitro was also pretty good. Not quite up there with Old Rasputin, but good. I might have covered this one already, so I’ll just talk about my memories for it. This was a drink that I got last week. I finally managed to strike up a conversation with some other patrons! YAY! Granted, I didn’t say all that much. But it was good. There were two of them. One was a girl who worked at the coffee shop in town and was probably a few years older than I am. The other was her “Hippie friend” who was a regular at said coffee shop. He had long (shoulder length?) grey-white hair and Billy Connolly-esque facial hair. In fact in my mind he is going to look very similar to Billy Connolly. How’s that? Good? Good. Anyway, it was cool to talk with some random people over a couple beers.

The Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero Stout was one that was recommended to me by another bartender that works at the pub. She sold me, I bought it, and about two weeks later I saw that they put it on tap. Good choices in my opinion. Once again, it was supposed to taste like Mexican chocolate, but I only noticed the standard cocoa flavor. Another tasty beer and a little under twice as much alcohol per pint… so, nice. This was the most recent one I got on tap, and the bartender got a huge food item from the pub’s big brother restaurant next door which she shared with the few people there. It was a foot long hot dog wrapped in bacon wrapped in a chimichanga. It was pretty much all you could want for beer munchies. Now this girl is about my size. Tiny. And she dug into it like a champ. When I left there was about two or three inches left, but she looked like she was going to finish it. I think they should have food recommendations for next door in case they are needing something to yum on. if they advertised that thing to drunk people, they’d make a killing. Even just nachos, which they sell and I’ve heard are amazing, would be so profitable. Great. Now I’m hungry.

Another tasty ale I got to have was Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head Life and Limb 2. Apparently it was a compilation beer that they've made before or something of that nature. I'm not entirely sure what to classify it as. A dark ale? Dark strong ale? I think that’s it. So, yeah. It was yet another dark beer that I gravitated towards. There’s not really much more to say on this one. It's been so long since I’ve had it I can’t remember anything that stood out about it. I’m sure there was something. I’d get it again for sure. This was probably one of those nights I was in for one quick drink... that’s probably it.

Ooooh. The Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout! That was one that I was looking foreword to getting my hands on all summer. I did some research into Sierra Nevada brewing and that was a new beer that they were advertising. I was hoping to get a four pack somewhere but getting one on tap was just as nice... if not better. Let me know if you see this one around. And include where it is you found it. I would NOT mind having more by any means.

And then there was the Bootlegger’s Black Phoenix Chipotle Coffee Stout. This beer as I told a fellow beer fan was "so freaking tasty." I’m going to have to try more of the things Bootlegger’s puts out. The only other ones I’be seen at the bar are IPAs which I do not really enjoy. Maybe I’ll give theirs a try though... Maybe. It will definitely go on the list of breweries to be aware of. This one, the Bruery, Clown Shoes, Founders, Firestone, North Coast, Deschutes, New Holland, BrewDog, Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada, Anchor... God there are so many. I’m probably forgetting a few. They are all such good beer crafters.

Speaking of Anchor, I got to sample the Anchor Steam in San Francisco. I ended up going to the city for a Giants game. My cousin had an extra ticket and one of his other invitees couldn't make it so I got to go. Long story short, the Giants lost and we went to a pizza place for dinner. We grabbed a pitcher of Steam and shared it. I enjoyed it. I won't say it's my favorite, but it was a cool experience sharing a good tasting beer after a baseball game. These are wonderful new things that I am doing as an adult! I'd love to share my experiences. Sadly there are few that I know who would be able to/would want to.

Also in San Fransisco, we were able to grab some delicious sausages and head into a bar next door. I'm guessing this is an unusual thing because the guys I was with who knew the place made it out to be a unique feature. Anyway, I got a pint of Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout. Maybe it's been too long since the Dragon's Milk days, but it seems like most bourbon barrel stouts are starting to taste the same. Wait... well. No. Scratch that. I think it's just that I've been having bourbon barrel aged beers more than usual and I'm recognizing a lot of that barrel flavor in some. Because a lot of these have that distinct whiskey bourbon bite somewhere in the taste. I like it, but like the Scottish Ale they seem to share that similar warm feel. The reason I bring this up is because my sausage was spicy and the beer did little to quell the kick. There was lots of flavor as well as warmth traveling through my body. I enjoyed listening to the conversations around me. It was nice to actually share a beer and meal with people I know once again.

As for the beer I've had at home, Mission Brewery Dark Seas Russian Imperial Stout is the only other one I haven't touched on. I've bought a bunch of big bottles of dark beers (surprise surprise) that I'm saving. My collection is up to eight and two medium sized bottles. Who knows when I'll get to those, but I didn't want to load this post more than it already is so I waited on opening anything new. Just trying to finish off the ones I already have for now. BUT the Mission beer was good. Not too noteworthy and I probably won't be getting it again only because I can just as easily, if not more easily, grab a four pack of Old Rasputin or Green Flash Double Stout and go through those a bit more slowly. 

Now for the exciting section of this post. At least it's exciting to me. I went to the Northern California Renaissance Faire in Casa De Fruta a few weeks ago (September 21st and 22nd). While I was there I went into the 21+ ONLY section and sat down for a few of the shows. While I was there, a group of women sat down near me. Two of them were carrying cups of some sort of alcoholic beverage. They told the others about the drink and I was intrigued. I asked them what it was called so I could order it. They told me it was called a Pony Ride and I should ask the redheaded bartender since she was the one who came up with the drink. Now the Pony Ride consisted of Guinness, Port, and Cider and either the cider or the port (or both) were raspberry flavored. This means that the drink was fairly alcoholic and quite sweet. Before writing this I found a website that listed various beer mixed drinks and the mixture of Guinness, cider, and blackcurrant is called a Red Velvet. So replacing the blackcurrant with raspberry port would make it into a more alcoholic Red Velvet. To be quite honest, my palate was very confused with the mixture of stout and sweet, but I'd try it again for science. I'll eventually post some of the info from that website. It's got a handful of beer cocktails that are relevant to my interests. Anyway, the Pony Ride was something like a little under half Guinness, a little under half cider, then a bit of port on the top. Poured in that order and served unmixed. Give it a try if you're up for an adventure... and have a fairly well stocked bar.

This concludes my post.

I went to this establishment for the first time with my mom on Sunday of my Birthday Weekend Part 2. It is difficult to find places open on Sunday in Troy and we were lucky to stumble upon this bar/restaurant.

We sat at the bar top because I feel cool on a high stool. My mom and I were also craving an alcoholic beverage so this seat was most convenient. I ordered my first martini. It was called Skinny Mandarin. My mother had the bartender substitute the Absolut Vodka with Grey Goose. I have received infinite lectures from her on the importance of only consuming quality alcohol. After we placed our drink orders I admired a popcorn machine behind us. I asked if the popcorn was free and the bartender said to help ourselves. 

I made up a bowl of popcorn for my mom and I. It was delicious! It tasted just like movie popcorn. It was buttery and salty. Obviously they want to make you thirsty so you order more drinks. 

As I drank my martini it became progressively more difficult to get out of the high top chair and refill my popcorn bowl. The third time I went to the popcorn machine I felt like I was walking a tight rope...yes I am a lightweight. I managed to not spill any popcorn and remained cool, with the exception of my rosy cheeks. 

My mom and I also ordered sandwiches. They have veggie burgers so I had the Cowboy Burger made vegetarian. It accompanied my tipsiness perfectly. My mom and I then walked back to the hotel merrily and with food babies.

Conclusions:

I love Bootlegger's!! I highly recommend this establishment if you want a drink and yummy food. 

I recommend eating as much popcorn as you can. You can take the meal home but you cannot take the popcorn machine home.

Make sure to ask the bartender what alcohol they are putting in your drink. You will be sorry the next morning if your alcohol is not purified well enough.