Odell Green Coyote Tomatillo Sour

I'm bringing back the Beer'd Baron because I'm bored and I miss writing about beer.

Figured I'd start with something interesting... Odell Green Coyote Tomatillo Sour.

Wait...not that one.

THAT'S THE ONE!

Sours are HUGE right now. Last beer festival I went to was teeming with them. I personally love a good sour and I welcome the new sour REVOLUTION.

I had to try this Green Coyote. I've had sours made with just about every fruit imaginable but tomatillo? That's unique... THAT'S A TINY GREEN TOMATO LOOKING THING!

I popped it open and poured it. A hazy yellow beer with a decent head filled the glass. The smell... Was skunky...not a great start. Anything that reminds me of a Corona is not going to fare well. I love the Fast and Furious series but I never want to have a beer with those guys because all they drink is Corona. I'm thinking the Fast and Furious Franchise takes place in an alternate universe where Corona is the only beer. It's really the only thing that makes sense.

The taste... Its not bad. It tastes sour, but there really isn't any specifically discerning flavor otherwise. A little tang, maybe a drop of lemon? The description mentions kiwi but I'm not tasting it. Cucumber is in there a tiny bit if I really strain my taste buds but I'd hate to pull one.

Green Coyote is coming in at 5.1 on the drinkenscale. It's a lighter beer that you can drink all day if you like the flavor. It would probably be a fine beer after working up a sweat outside.

This is a tricky one. I don't feel strongly one way or the other about this beer. Would I buy it again? Not at full price but if there was discounted 6 pack or something I'd grab it. I don't feel like I wasted my time drinking it nor was there a party in my mouth.

Now for a new section of Beer'd Baron articles

THE MY WIFE HATES BEER SO I'M MAKING HER DRINK BEER AND GIVE ME A QUOTE SECTION:

AKA: TMWHBSIMHDBAGMAQS

"It's sour. It tastes like an old Lemonhead candy that was left in a car and then sprayed by a skunk."

Thats high praise right there.

If you see one in the wild during a beer hunt, grab it, you might really like it. It's not a bad beer, just didn't make my tastie buds dance.

It's good to be back.

Cheers, chummer.

Oskar Blues Death By Coconut

It took me awhile to find this beer. It eluded me. I was worried that I was never going to find it, then one day, while at the beer store, I found a lone can sitting on a shelf marked for $3. Not cheap, but not super pricy either. I had to have it though. I'd been longing for it ever since I first heard they were making it. Coconut is one of my go to flavors with anything, and the idea of a good stout blended with coconut sounded like heaven in my mouth...and I was pretty close to being right.

It poured a nice brown, with a lot of effervescence. I could have easily fooled someone into thinking it was root beer based on the appearance. The smell was stout-y (NEW WORD) with a hint of coconuttiness (ANOTHER NEW WORD).

Oskar Blues has never made a beer that I don't like. Old Chub on nitro is quite possibly the finest beer ever canned. Death by Coconut is an excellent stout....it just wasn't COCONUTTY enough for me. I wanted more coconut. It's not called, Injured by Coconut...it's called DEATH BY COCONUT. I expected to be blasted in the face with coconut flavor and that didn't happen. Now, there was a lot of coconut, don't get me wrong. Most people will probably drink this and think, "man...that's a good amount of coconuttiness" and they would be right. I just wanted MORE. I WANTED CHUNKS OF COCONUT FLOATING IN MY BEER! Ok...maybe not that much. Still, this is the best coconut beer I've had. If you like beer, you like stouts, and you like coconuts then you really should be drinking this right now. I don't care if you're delivering a baby! Do it while drinking a beer! It calms the nerves!

Fruitin' It Up With Stevens Point

Bought a 12 pack mixer of fruit beers from Stevens Point a while back and figured I should write them up on here...since that's what I do.

 Mango Lager

 Tart Cherry Lager

Watermelon Mojito

NOT PICTURED

Lime Lager

Part of the reason why it has taken me so long to write about these is because their really isn't a whole lot to say. All of them weigh in pretty light on the Drinkenscale with a 4.2 and none of them are exceptional.

If I'm picking a favorite here it was the Mango Lager but only slightly. It had a mango flavor(I would hope it did...) and the beer itself was ok. 

The beer on all four of these was the same with just different fruit tastes so the differences in them were the fruit flavors themselves. Give me this lager without the fruit and I'll tell you it is ok. With the fruit it was at least somewhat interesting.

The Watermelon Mojito was my least favorite but again, it's a small margin from first to last here. I just don't really like the flavor of mojitos and that is what I tasted instead of watermelon.

Cherry tart had a slight cherry flavor, but after drinking far, far, far superior cherry beers in the past I just can't give this beer a good review.

I forgot to take a picture of the Lime Lager which kind of fits with the beer because it was pretty forgettable. Better than Bud Light Lime (I assume because I've never had Bud Light Lime...I'm not a sadist) but still...just a boring lager with a lime-ish flavor.

You can do worse that these beers, but you can also do a lot better. If you're drinking with some friends who don't really like beer, and might like a fruity drink a little more, this MIGHT work but probably not. Because it is still pretty beer-y and not particularly fruity, I'm not sure who would really LOVE any of these beers. I guess the FRUIT BEER AFICIANADO maybe...I don't think those exist though.

What's The Only Thing Better Than One Woman?

Two Women...

M Looking for F for FFM

Oh New Glarus...you've never failed me and this is no exception. German Pilsner so really subtle in flavor but damn delicious. Clocks in at a 5.0 on the Drinkenscale, a really light, easy, drinkable beer. 

The name of this beer is because it is a collaboration of two breweries led by women: New Glarus and Weyermann Malting. Never had anything else by Weyermann but New Glarus is 100% class and always amazing.

This is a perfect beer for a good day drinking session. I've said it before on here but pilsners are not easy to do because you can't just load up on the flavor to hide the flaws. A good pilsner has to be damn near perfect and Two Women is right up there.

Liquid Distilled Happiness in a Bottle. New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red

The beer so classy it has to be photographed on the stairs!

This are really two sides to this particular beverage. On one hand, it might be the greatest thing I've ever put in my mouth. Just pure liquid deliciousness. On the other hand, it really doesn't possess any of the traits of a beer so I can't call it the greatest beer ever but I can call it ridiculously tasty and amazing.

Very low, only a 4.0 on the drinkenscale, so it's definitely not going to get you drunk unless you drink a whole lot of it. You might want to after the first sip though. 

WAIT! Before you sip, you should smell! This stuff smells like a cherry blasted heaven has been forcibly shoved into my nose hole. I never want to stop smelling it...but I had to...so I could drink it.

There is one flavor that stands out more than anything...CHERRY. This is a cherry drink with hope and malt and other beer stuff. The other beer stuff must lend to the flavor but it does it in the background because the only thing that really stands out is the cherry. However, it is not cloyingly sweet or overly sour. The other ingredients are damn near impossible to pick out but they work together to create this amazing drink. Hell, even my wife liked it! and she hates beer!

As a beer blog, I should judge this as a beer...but it's hard! It doesn't have any of the qualities that beer usually possesses but it's so damn good otherwise. I'm saying this is probably the best drink ever but I could never call it the best BEER.

If you are in Wisconsin and have the opportunity to get your hands on a bottle of Wisconsin Belgian Red you better! If you don't, I'll find out!

The Chronpickles of Making Beer Pickles

Making beer pickles is something I've been thinking about doing for awhile now and today...I've finally done it.

First, let's take a look at the ingredients.

Ignore the Pepto Bismol, spaghetti, dirty dishes, medicine, and cleaning wipes...

Can't make pickles without cucumbers. Unless you're making really weird pickles.

Look at the dill! It looks DILLicious!

I decided I was going to make 4 batches, each one based off of 2 different recipes then add habanero to one of each of the recipes to kick it up a notch. The recipes weren't much different but one had me cooking the liquid and dissolving sugar into it where the other did not.

The MKE Hop Happy is what I decided to cook with. I combined the sugar, salt, beer, water, and vinegar and cooked it until the sugar dissolved. A very simple process. Then I added the dry ingredients to the jars.

Fresh dill, mustard seed, peppercorns, garlic cloves, kosher salt, and habanero for the spicy batch. The non-spicy batch was habanero free.

Bubble bubble toil and trouble...

Basically at this point I sliced cucumbers into a sort of spear-ish shape, added them to the dry ingredients and poured the liquid on top until the jars were full. 

Look at how pretty we are. Get lost in our eyes...

Then I took my other beer, which did not get cooked at all, and followed a very similar procedure: garlic, habanero(in one)salt, mustard seed, peppercorn, etc...

Terrible picture but a pretty damn good beer.

I've had the Beyond the Pale from Steven's Pointa few times and I knew it was a good hoppy beer so I'm hoping it makes good beer pickles

That was pretty much it, a really simple procedure. Took maybe 20 minutes and most of that time was cleaning up the giant mess I was making because I'm sloppy. 

As for the taste...I'll let you know after they've sat for at least 48 hours...*WINKY FACE EMOTICON*

Soon...they will be in my belly.

A Plastic 40 and a Dream

I've been meaning to grab a big ol 40oz of something cheap and review it for the blog. It's been way too long since I last updated so I figured this would be the perfect way to get back on track. I present to you...A 40OZ OF OLDE ENGLISH MALT LIQUOR!

First things, I was very disappointed in the shatter proof plastic bottle, I wanted to feel the heft of a glass bottle wrapped in brown paper in my hands. Also, I wanted that metallic sound upon opening the cap but that was taken from me by the plastic. Therefore this beer scores very low in the look and sound department.

Next, I poured some out for my homies lost in the struggle because it just seemed right to me.

You can tell I'm hardcore because I have a Dave Matthews tattoo

Then, I drank some...it wasn't the worst beer I've ever had. It definitely wasn't good, but you know, I didn't hate it. I wouldn't go out and buy another one anytime soon but I'd rather drink this than a bud light or miller ultra or bud select 55.

I started in my dining room but soon realized a 40 should be properly enjoyed on a stoop. With no stoop to be found, I settled on my deck.

Got my damn rap face on in this picture. 

Olde English 800 Malt Liquor comes in at a staggering 7.5 on the DRINKENSCALE. This is a beer designed for one purpose. To be cheap and to get you drunk. If I'm basing it entirely on it's sole purpose than this beer is a clear winner. If I factor in taste though, it loses a lot of points. Add in the disappointing plastic bottle and you're down in the bottom tier of beers. The experience though, sitting on your stoop(deck) drinking a 40 from a brown paper bag...that can't be replicated. Worth every second.