So, life has been catching up with me - and this website not "saving nicely for me" is frustrating.  So I had a couple things on here about things - but I'm just going to get right to the beers cause I lost all that on a non-save event.  UGH.  Anyway - so here goes:

3/26/12 - Breckenridge Brewery - Pandoras Bock.  I love this style of beer.  I did a little poking and found this site Madison Dining that talks about Bocks being Lent beers.  I wish I could get to the link to show you more - maybe you can.  Looked like it was going to be a nice read.  Anyway, this is a Jan-March Beer.  I always love this season of beer.  It is right up my alley - and always a refreshing change from all the dark stouts and porters that came from Christmas.  This beers are crisp and a bit spicey.  They are fully of thick malty goodness in the glass.  There was light head retention in the glass.  I really really enjoyed this beer.  I love the brewery in general and the style of beer so there is no surprise I would love this beer.  I hope to get a few more of these before the season is completely out (as it already may be gone).  I didn't really notice anything to revealing about the smell but I'm never great with this anyway.  In general - I love Bock Beers and I think if you've never tried one - GO OUT NOW AND TRY IT!  Don't wait till next year... find one and drink one and fall in love like I have!

3/25/12 - Samuel Adams - Irish Red.  This beer poured a nice dark red pour in the glass.  A nice aggressive pour left a pillowy dirty white 2 finger head on top of this beer.  The malt stuck around and clung to the sides of the glass the whole way down the drink.  In general this was a nice beer.  It gave out nice caramel notes.  It had a nice light spicy note to it that I believe came from the hops in the glass.  It had a nice silky texture to the drink as comes with these styles of beers.  This beer was the day after a large drink so I drank this a little later in the evening and enjoyed it slowly.  It was probably just a bit warmer then it needed to be but all told was a nice beer.  As I've found with Sam Adams in general - I have found it hard to say anything bad about their beers.  They make a great beer for every style.  They may not always make the best of the best nor do they often make the most exciting.  But they do make a great quality beer to sit around and drink.  Thank you for a consistent quality in your beer Sam.

3/24/12 - Troegs Brewery - Troegenator DoupleBock Beer.  At 8.2% alcohol this beer brings A LOT to the table.  The definition as per German Beer Institute Site states a DoppelBock as:
Definition:  Doppelbock (literally "double bock") is a stronger and usually darker version of the Bavarian Bockbier. It is exceptionally malty, with very little bitterness. Standard Doppelbocks may have as much as 7% alcohol by volume. In the strongest versions (around 10 to 13%), you can actually taste the alcohol.
So, it is no surprise this is right up my avenue.  There is not a great head retention on this beer.  But the flavor and the malts SHINE through.  The bitterness levels are low and the beer is smooth.  I do get some nice malty notes of smell from the glass (maybe even some hints of cherry).  In general this is a great beer.  I had to cheat and drink this beer once again tonight as the beer from the picture from Saturday is later in the evening after several others and well, lets just say I knew my notes would not be great.  As I said, my best friend was in from out of town and we received a surprise visit from another one of my friends that lives close by.  All 3 of us had some GREAT catch up time Saturday night.  Good times.

3/23/12 - Flying Dog Ales - Road Dog Porter.  This was a great beer.  This beer ways in at a nice 6.0% alcohol.  I didn't save great notes from this Friday night - so going by memory.  I remember I liked this beer.  It was a nice roasty malt flavor.  I don't remember to dark and burnt of a flavor but a nice medium roast.  I remember the head retention stayed with the glass nicely and it drank smooth.  I think the one thing I remember for a porter it was a very light beer in texture.  This lightness really made this a drinkable beer.  Made it nice and enjoyable.  A friend of mine recommended this one and though it was good - it wasn't one of my favorites.  Again, I'm not really a porter or dark stout type drinker so this shouldn't surprise.  All told it was a nice drinkable beer.  And the beer was enjoyed as the kickoff to a great weekend with my best man/best friend/buddy from high school.  It was a good time, Friday night was even another Wine Cupcake making session for my wife and a friend of hers.  So the lightness of this beer when really well with the winey goodness of her cupcakes.  Text me if you want her recipes and/or more information on those cupcakes.

Wow, so this was a long post - I'm going to hold of posting today's beer (blogging this on 3/27/12) till at least tomorrow.  But I had an enjoyable weekend and am glad I stayed with the challenge.  I am excited about tomorrow as I am checking out the call from last Friday - again - if the news works out I'll talk more about this later.  There is a lot to be considered and discussed.  In the end if it works out and I move forward with it.  This blog will be the FIRST (well second as my wife will probably be the first ;) ahah) to know!  Thanks for listening and until the next blog!

First off, I'm going to apologize for the pictures lately.  I have to admit, I've been lazy with the new camera so I've been using all iPhone pics.  They come out bright and ugly and slightly blurry and for that I apologize.  But what are you going to do;  I'm blogging for fun right now.  If/when this site ever starts turning a profit I'll get a little more professional.  But as I look this picture is REALLY bad.  I want to change it but again, I'm lazy.  It'll have to do.

As for the beer, Flying Dog - Doggie Style.  What more can I say?  As the bottle says "everyone likes to finish their day with a little doggie style".  Ok, so that is a little crass!  But that is each of their bottles.  It seems to be their style!  I just learned tonight they are in Fredrick, MD.  Which isn't all that far away from Pittsburgh and/or my home town of York, PA.  Actually, I want to talk to my dad because I'm fairly confident I have relatives that are from that area.  My dad's cousin used to run a farm down that way if I'm not mistaken.  And if that is the case - I've hung out in that area a few times a long time ago.  As a kid, I hated some of those trips.  We had family that didn't even have plumbing as a kid.  Then my dad's cousin that was running a farm had indoor plumbing which was great.  But even better he was working a farm - so as a boy I got to go down there and check out the donkeys, feed some of the cattle, play basket ball in the barn, and all sorts of things that came with that.  Some of which scared the living shit out of me as a boy but was all GREAT memories.  Funny thing is I THINK it was Fredrick, MD - but I KNOW if it wasn't Fredrick it was damn close ;) hahah... either way - on to the beer.

On to the beer, I "think" this is a good beer.  I "think" this is a good "classic" pale ale which is what it markets on the bottle.  Honestly, this is the "pale ales" that I have grown not to like.  I believe it has to be the specific hop variety that is used because it is so strong and pungent.  The smell kicks off a strong hop smell.  And the taste is every bit of hop that you can handle.  That said, if you are a hop head - have at it!  Its sweet and tries to bring the malty goodness into it, and I guess to be fair it is there.  There is a base of a good beer - but for me and my tastes there is something stopping me from REALLY enjoying this.  Its nice and crisp and somewhat refreshing.  But it has a huge dry finish to it with the hops.  It leaves me licking my lips and panting like a dog and I guess that is what they are looking for.  Job well done Flying Dog... keep up the good work.

Thursday night I drank Flying Dog.  I did not find any thing really "special" about this beer to speak of.  It was a solid drink.  The pour as you can see left a nice head n the glass.  I couldn't find any great notes in the smell.  It smelled like any other normal lager out here.  It was a nice balanced and easy drinking beer.  I could probably sit and drink a few of these easily.  I do not find myself drinking Flying Dogs often but have decided that I like there beers.  If you see this one out there and enjoy lagers this is a good one.  One fun thing about this brewery is their labels.  Have a read while enjoying the beer.

There really wasn't anything special going on for this beer.  I was preparing myself for the big day out at the second largest St Pattrick's Day parade in the country.  My friends were coming in from out of town and we would be hanging out drinking green beer and meeting fun new friends from all over.  Thursday was a bit mellow so there really isn't much to be said about this.