A Small Celebration

A few weeks back, we sold some furniture on Craigslist and to celebrate, I bought myself a few bottles of Lagunitas. It had been a while since I had these two particular beers and I was looking forward to having them again. I started with Hop Stoopid and loved the sweet hopiness of this beer. Wilco Tango Foxtrot was next and it was still rich and malty. Delicious.

I've noticed my tastes have been slightly changing here recently and some beers that once tasted good don't wet my whistle like they once did. These two brews are an exception at least and I thoroughly enjoyed them again.

DPA and Billy's Chillies, Plus Some Crafts

Great Divide Brewery: DPA

This bottle came as a gift from my brother. He liked it and thought I would too since I'm liking the IPA style more and more. Unfortunately, I was tired when I drank it, so my notes weren't the best and it's been long enough ago that it's not sticking with me. That's what I get for not typing this up right away.

Anyways, Great Divide's DPA had a nice mellow amount of hops with a good malty taste. It was smooth for an IPA based style which was a nice pleasant surprise. I also liked the fact that it had a little bit of a woody taste to it. A taste of the Rockies I guess... ;)

Overall, I enjoyed drinking it, but I don't think it's something I would necessarily go back for intentionally. Great Divide has some other brews that I like more.

The final bottle was one of two that I had completely forgotten about. I thought my fridge was empty, but turned out I had one bottle of Billy's Chillies and one bottle of Mother's Winter Grind tucked into the back corner behind the English muffins. Sneaky little bottles hiding like that.

Billy's Chillies

Billy's Chillies was a bottle that I was interested in yet scared me at the same time. I had a bad experience with a pepper beer before, so I was already a little leery. I was told it was a much different experience than the last pepper beer. So, I popped the top and poured me a glass. I immediately noticed the strong pepper smell, but it wasn't overly offensive. I also quickly realized that it had a large than average head which sneaked up on me, or should I say, sneaked up and over on me. A few paper towels later and I was ready for my first sip.

I didn't really care for the peppers they used. It had a little bit of an odd taste to me. At the same time, the beer was smooth despite the bite from the peppers. In fact, the heat was a good level without being over the top.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this bottle. As it warmed, the flavor lost its appeal and started to not settle well. But, I gave it a chance at least. Looks like I need to stay away from pepper beers.

I don't know if I'm just crazy, or if I spent too much time playing Fallout 3, but I've been saving every bottle cap for months now and my collection is getting quite large. I have a velvet bag from a bottle of Crown Royale that's getting full. What do I do with these caps? Magnets!

Bottle Cap Magnets

These are easy to make and inexpensive too. I just take a little bit of cardboard out of the recycling, cut some circles out of it and use hot glue to glue the cardboard to the back. I then stick a magnet to the cardboard and voila, magnet. I would have more in the photo above, but I ran out of magnets. This was a great, and very easy, craft project to do with my girls. I let them pick out the caps they wanted first. Then I hot glued the cardboard to the back. Finally, I let them stick the magnets to the cardboard once the glue had cooled and they got to stick them up on the fridge.

These also make good gifts for your fellow beer drinkers. Their wives will love it...

On another note, I picked up a 6-pack of Samuel Adam's Octoberfest last night. First bottle, which was unchilled, was pretty good. I'll write something up after I've had a chilled one.