Colorado makes great beer.  There I said it!  It seems I haven't met a beer I have not liked from Colorado!  And beers from Great Divide do not disappoint.  I thought I would give my taste buds a TRUE shock to their system after the crazy economy week I've had!  Some people have asked why I was dedicated to drinking economy all week.  Or why drink economy at all.  Its simple.  This is a beer journey!  I am not going to discount any beer because of taste/cost/color/origin.  NO!  That is not what I'm here to do.  I remember days a of yore where Malt Liquor like Mickey's Wide Mouth Bottles gave me the best night of my life (usually followed by one of the largest hang overs but still).  I remember nights where a $12-15 dollar bottle of 12 oz golden goodness sang to me.  Every beer has a story.  Every beer has a history.  And every beer has a place.  Yes, I had some low beer this week.  And no, I didn't really like many of them at all.  None of them were complex.  Most of them actually did not smell pleasing at all.  But, they were all beer and deserve a spot in my 365 journey.  I hope to get back on top of my game with blogging here as I know the past few weeks have been slow.

With beers like this "Old Ruffian" Barley Wine-Style Ale, I have so much to talk about.  In searching for a definition on Barley Wines I came across THIS LINK.  Now, I did very little homework here.  The guy could be total smoke and mirrors but what I read was interesting stuff.  Barley Wine really is a "RANDOM" style of beer.  Heavily hopped high alcohol beers can be classified as Barley Wines... but do not need to be.  Seems like barley wines and old ales are similar.  As I'm not totally familiar with "old ales" I'll need to add that to my to do list of 2012.  I've had some old ales I believe but just have little education on them.  Guess I have some light reading to do in the next few weeks - anyone have good info on this please let me know.

Anyway, as for this Old Ruffian, this is right up my alley of beers needed after a 'economy week'.  It is bold, it is hoppy, it is malty, and it is smooth.  Some people have said that 'barley wines' that I've drank taste similar to cough syrup.  And they may be somewhat accurate.  There are some "similar" qualities between cough syrup and these beers.  This probably sounds bad but it isn't far from the truth.  It has a very thick taste in your mouth.  It is syrupy and hangs around in your mouth long after you swallow the beer.  The carbonation is extremely low so it is a bit creamy or (again) syrupy in texture because there is little carbonation to make it fizzle and fuzz!  It has a cherry brown color in the glass and is maybe a little hazy to see through.  The hops power through (maybe this needs to be aged a bit longer next time) this beverage and make it bitty and a bit bitter.  I know some barley wine recipes (one or two I've brewed at home even) call for using raisins in the brew to kick up the sugar content (in an effort to kick alcohol content).  I can't tell if it is the hops or a large amount of raisins used - but I get a huge mouth full or sugary raisin in every sip.  The caramel barley shines in the background and works on evening out this beer.  This is probably where it starts to break away from the "cough syrup".  It has to much beerness to it!  You heard it here first - Beerness!  haha - so, do not let the cough syrup description shy you away.  Its greatness in a glass.  Its complex and something that deserves several sips with a lot of thought provoking analysis behind it before you judge this beer.  Please do enjoy.

These beers are generally brewed to be "aged".  And this beer was brewed on Jan 3 2012.  So, that is only 2 months ago.  This is a young brew.  I should have "thought about that" when buying it.  But is it to young to be drank?  I'm sure this is another arguable topic.  I say, drink now, drink later, and drink much later!  And see what you think.  Personally, this is a little to raisiny and bitter for me now.  But I think that is a matter of timing.  I hope that we sell our house soon and I can get my new house and work on a basement to be able to age beers a bit better.  Because if I had that - I'd probably go out and buy a few more of these to sit and grow old.  I'm saying this is worth having in the cellar.  Go out now and find it... buy it... and WAIT... WAIT... WAIT...

So, yes, we got some really cool information about our daughter this week.  And then you don't hear from me?  My bad, really!  I came down with a pretty bad case of something that really had me feeling like crap!  I'm still not over it but feeling slightly better today.  Lets hope this is the END of my 5 week on again off again sickness.  A 'friend' of mine said a 'good blogger' would tough through the sickness and still write.  Ha, he's probably right.  But I good blogger would be making a few pennies from their site which I haven't begun to think about yet.  So, this is provided free of charge for your reading enjoyment - so, if I'm a day or to late, I guess you just get what you pay for!  HAHA.

So, because of the news Wednesdays we decided to go out and have a meal at The Pine.  This place has great beer!  We've wanted to try it a few times and just never got around to it.  Well, their Wednesday special was '$2.50 craft brew night' - this should get you thinking to check it out if you haven't.  Honestly, I've been a little freaked out about dates on beers lately. This Great Divide - Hibernation ale showed a bottled date of Oct 17 2008 that had me nervous!  Either the $2.50 price was a steal OR I was getting ripped off drinking something they found in their basement that had been there for years.  Well, in this case it turned out to be the first case.  This was a truly fantastic beer.  This had all the heavy malty quality that I love in beer.  The hop profile was so interesting.  It created like a sweet or almost hidden fruity (maybe banana) quality to it that really made this beer an excellent choice.  The silky smooth texture on my tongue made the beer feel like it belonged there all along.  This beer pours a dark black color into the glass with a nice dirty yellow/brown head.  At 8.7% alcohol this is not a beer to joke around with - after a nice day out in the cold 2 or 3 of these would be perfect by a fire to warm you up!

I did not have this beer with the "recommended" food pairing the bottle/site says of "Roomano, an aged hard Dutch cow’s milk cheese, grilled beef tenderloin, apple crisp with ginger ice cream."  But this went great with the AWESOME fish sandwich I did order at the Pine.  The beer and the restaurant was a great way to come together as a family and enjoy some of the news we got.  So to share,  we received got preliminary scores of an IQ test of our oldest daughter.  She scored a 136 over all which I'm learning is fairly high.  Oddly, my house has been much calmer over the last 2 weeks.  I'm thinking she was maybe acting out because she was not getting the attention her sister was and was bored of the school work she was doing.  That said, we've been giving her more attention and time and things have been much calmer lately.  Hopefully we can keep this going as it has been really nice not yelling all the time.