I have no excuses.  I have not given this blog its fair share lately and for that I apologize to all the faithful readers out there.  Life has been getting in the way of fun and fun has taken a back seat lately.  We've been house hunting, visiting my parents in York PA, and oh yea, my full time job (that has kept me busy the past three days).  Have no fear - I have drank my beers; each and every one.  Unfortunately, I have little to link them to and even fewer pictures.  Which is weird since I thought I've taken pictures of every one of my beers on my phone since the beginning.  I'm wondering if a certain little 3 year old may have anything to do with the disappearance of a few of those pictures.  So, tonight - I bring you catch up night... no not Heinz Catchup!  The procrastinators guide to 365's beer challenge.  I'll mention the good the bad and even the ugly to keep with consistency around here.  One thing I will not do is judge on quality / taste / mouth feel / color ect.  Quite frankly that part of this blog is starting to really bore me!  I'm not into that.  I feel to pretentious or something.  And quite frankly I don't think I'm that good at it.  So for a round out of this past weeks beers:

4/4/2012 Long Trail Belgian White - I bought this case a few weeks ago and have been TRYING hard to finish this.  I was sort of excited about this but terribly let down.  The beer is HIGHLY (EXTREMELY) carbonated.  It has a really strong citric bite to it.  It is a challenge for me to take each sip.  It is almost like a champagne consistency.  I still have a few left in my house and they are going down very slow.  I have a hard time throwing away any beer... but honestly, I don't know - this is one I consider dumping every day.

4/3/2012 Dogfish Head Brewery Indian Brown Ale - "A clean well hopped brown ale - brewed with caramelized sugar and hopped liberally and often".  The pour in the glass was dark brown to black color with low carbonation.  It was a bit lighter body then I expected.  It was sort of a chocolate taste with a bit of caramel and coffee hints.  It also had sort of a heavy roasted almost burnt flavor.  I downloaded the BJCP app for my iPhone and was doing some research.  I was checking the English Pale Ales.  I saw a Southern English Brown Ale that seemed to fit this bill.  It didn't totally hit the biscuit flavor.  It definitely had a bit of hop characteristics that maybe are not as typical but for a Dogfish didn't surprise.  In general, I didn't care for this beer.  I knew that Dogfish beers were not always going to be enjoyable for me so this is one of the first I've found that I didn't like.  I probably would try this again sometime but definitely will not be rushing out for more anytime soon.

4/2/2012 Southern Teir Douple IPA - This beer was a VERY STRONGLY hopped beer.  The head retention was big.  There was actually a decent caramel backing to this beer in the malt department.  It was balanced well for being a DOUBLE IPA.  In general, I really enjoyed this beer on draft.  Ordered this from Rockefellar's in Kennedy Township.  We don't make it up there enough these days.  They usually have a few good beers on draft and the food is pretty good also.  Nice local place.  I'm slowly coming back into liking a NICE good IPA and this beer sits nicely up there on the Must Drink IPAs.  If you make it to Rockefeller's be sure to get the Dry Rub Cajun Wings extra Crispy; one of my favorites.

4/1/2012 Coors Original Banquet - Thank you father in law Bill!  We drove a long way from York to Pittsburgh.  Bill is always there to have a nice cold one ready for me after a long drive.  It was nothing to write about so - I'm not going to!

3/31/2012 Spring House Brewing 7 Gates Pale Ale - This was a nice beer!  I've been waiting a long time to get this beer.  I recently read an article in Beer Advocate about these guys.  I also was a neighbor of one of the guys involved with this company.  Great look to a brewery and wonderful concert of doing local legends for their beers.  In general this was a great beer.  It had a very nice hop character with the malty goodness to back it up and balance it out.  I had bought a 6 pack of this in York while out visiting my parents.  I do not believe I actually captured a picture of this which is a bit upsetting.  Either way, it was nice beer and I think they have a great thing going.

3/30/2012 Flying Dog Snake Bite IPA - Actually, as I recall this beer was good.  It was definitely hoppy no doubt.  I recall thinking that hop heads abroad would LOVE this beer but to me - its the bad kind of hop beer.  It must be the style of hop that is not my flavor.  In general, this is the sort of hop style that steered me away from IPAs to begin with.  It is crisp and clean but just to hop flavored with out enough malt body to it.

So, I started this 4 days ago - and now I have 4 more beers to catch up on.  Obviously, this blogging thing is really catching up with me!  Its tough but I am really trying to catch up and really do a better job with.  Well, I know I still have people visiting the site and checking out Facebook.  If anyone is looking for more, different, something specifically - please request.  I recently got a new role in life that I'm TRYING out that I hope is going to work for me.  May delay the blogging a bit - but I'm going to attempt to blog at least once a week.  Those that are BETTER I'll try to blog better but who knows.  Let me know what if anything you'd like different.

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.

One thing about this challenge that is becoming more and more obvious is if I do not drink beers side by side as a challenge it is "hard" to determine what I like/not like about it.  For example, last nights Troegs HopBack Amber Ale vs tonight's Dale's Pales Ale.  I remember drinking last night's beer and not enjoying it.  It was to hoppy.  But tonight, Oskar Blue Dale's Pale Ale is much much nicer.  It is sweet and malty and caramel.  It has a hoppy flavor to it but is so balanced that I don't really mind the difference in the two.  If I look at this beer it doesn't look quite as red.  This is a little more brown/yellow with a hint of red.  It is nice and mellow.  It is not light at all, but is more medium bodied with a hint of spice.  In my opinion this is a nice Pale Ale.  Dale must know Pale Ale for sure.  As to me this is what it should taste, but last night's beer was way to hoppy and I'm not sure how to compare the two.  I may have to have a Dales and a HopBack side by side.  But then I think . o O ( HopBack doesn't call itself a Pale Ale - so should I compare the two?  and maybe I should not ) O o. but they seem so similar.  Oh the complexity of just a little bit of grains, hops, water, and yeast.

So, Yea - this is a can of beer.  My old man is visiting from York this weekend.  He was a Miller Lite man.  That is all he drank.  And yes, when I started drinking "new beers" and craft brews ( which UNOFFICIALLY started probably back when I was 18, 19 or 20 - I do not condone underage drinking in any way that is why my face book page is restricted to 21 +)... my new "craft" beers back in 95 & 96 were/is considered "HIGH TEST" in his words.  I always laughed because to me, sure the high alcohol was a quicker means to the "drunk" 'but it tasted better also.  It was more to it then the light beers and "stuff" he always had in the house.  He wasn't the only one.  Hell, I knew nobody back then that I was hanging out with that was really enjoying good/different beers.  Everyone had their ONE beer and that is what they drank.  But I was always enjoying different flavors/styles/seasons of beers even back since the beginning.  I even remember my first taste of Dales Pale Ale came from Bocktown Beer and Grill from Robinson, PA.  It was a newer BEER bar close to my house that opened a few years back (roughly 2009 or so I believe).  The resident 'beer guy' suggested I try it - when I asked him about why a "can of beer" would be as expensive as some of the counter parts that I was familiar with.  I took a few home and fell in love.  It was greatness. 

Even this weekend, my dad looked at me as I opened a can of Oskar Blue's and said "is that a beer?"  To him, I am constantly opening his eyes to the varieties and styles of beers out there.  He usually hates every beer I let him try but he tries most of them as a nice gesture of appreciation.  I may be wrong but I think he was sort of confused by the CAN of beer that he was not familiar with.  In general, CANS of beer are very recognizable - Coors, Miller, Bud, American, ect.  This was a "colorful can".  I read an article recently that a company out of Colorado is starting a Canning Beer Business.  I think this is genius - my hat goes off to them and I hop they can make this work.  In googling for that article about the company out of Colorado I ran across THIS ARTICLE that is really interesting about the first canning of beer.  In general, I think the idea behind can's is "affordability".  I'm not sure that changes today.  The problem is people have this "affordability" directly related to "taste" and that simply isn't reality.  Canned beer can be and should be good.  If it is a can and it isn't good.  Leave it alone. 

Enjoy canned beer!  I know I am right now.

Tonight's writing is coming to from "Get'r'done'R'Us".  So much happening at 365 through today and this weekend I didn't want this day to get away from me.  My 9-5 job is getting in the way of my 5-9 job.  Who am I kidding?  My 9-5 job is more like - 24/7 on and off depending on the day/week/month/ect.  And this week and next is one of the heavy weeks.  So, lots of preparation going on there I can't do much preparing here.  Until I find a way to make a living drinking/making beer I'll have to settle for the paycheck I get from my grown-up job.  Even with out that, I got some daddy day care work going on, dinner cooking, and I'm getting a bit tired.  Dinner tonight is one of our favorites - quinoe cakes with poached eggs.  Recipe compliments of annie-eats.com.

Anyway, not much time left.  So this is going to be quick.  Bottom line - the beer nice.  It pours a nice golden almost redish tint.  It has a hazy unfiltered look to it that I always love in a bottled beer.  I'm probably drinking it a few degrees colder then it should be but refreshing none the less.  When you take a whiff of this one you get a hint of the hops used in the beer but I don't get a lot more for it.  The taste is a little light for a pale ale.  It is refreshing and crisp for sure.  It has sort of a orange / grapefruit citrusness to it.  I like this beer because it doesn't SCREAM hops but you can tell their presence is accounted for.  The malty sweetness does support this beer nicely.   It is a medium body drinker which makes it nice to have 2 or 3 of these with no problem.

One nice note about this beer was the reason it was brewed - the bottle states:  "This ale was created after back-to-back hurricanes devastated Louisiana.  With your help the Abita Brewing Company raised over $550,000 for hurricane relief."  I love it when beer does good for the community.  I hear by state if/when I ever get involved in the brew industry it will be in an attempt to help the community that it is served in.  That is a great reason to brew beer.  Thanks for listening.  Have a good night.

_I'm a little upset as I had just finished a great article for you all to enjoy and as I was trying to finalize the post I lost it all.  I don't know how, I don't know where, it just got wiped out!  DAMN YOU TECHNOLOGY!

So, I'll try to recreate as best as I remember.  I'm sure the second time around will not be quite as good:

Tonight's beer is a special presentation, buy one get one!  Its a story of time.  Last night I wrote about beers being brewed to age.  Yes, certain style beers are meant to be brewed and aged before drank.  I have never been very successful with aging beers; I like them to much and end up drinking them before they get to be more then a few days old.  The only beer I've successfully aged myself is a few years of home brews a friend of mine and I were brewing a few years back.  Sadly, that was a about 3 years ago and all my barley wine home brews are gone (barley wines are a favorite of mine and for another time - but if you are not sure they are most definitely a beer).  I am lucky enough to have a few good friends out there.  Of those good friends a few are beer friends, and one particular friend C.D. affectionately known as Nik to me was routing around his basement and found a version of beer from '09.  I happened to have an '11 in stock just waiting to be drank so I happily accepted.  I'm not sure of his beer "storage" area but I assume he stored it as appropriately as possible and the aging process was not wrecked with spikes in temperatures and sunlight.

So, enough of the garbage talk, lets get to the beer.  The beer I'm drinking tonight is a GREAT LAKES BREWERY Burning River APA.  It is 6% alcohol beer so nothing light about this.  On first impression, I notice nothing noticeably different between these two beers years.  The bottles are identical from the purple ribbon around the top, the wording on the bottle that talks of this beers history of the burning river in Ohio, to the label and picture of Cleveland and the fire coming from the river.  These bottles have not changed at all.  Once I poured the two beers into identical tasting glasses I immediately start to notice the difference.  The aroma from one is most definitely a stronger hoppy note, where the other is a bit more tame and sweet maltiness.  You can definitely smell a difference of age between the two.  The older '09 definitely hits you in the nose saying the malts have prevailed and will win the battle of this beer if given just enough time.  The second most obvious difference to me was the color.  The younger more immature '11 pup was a more bright yellow clear tint with a TON of gushing bubbly carbonation flowing through the beer as if there was an air filter in the bottom of the glass continuously flowing.  The '09 on the other hand, shows a more refined age, and shows a much more handsome brown'sh yellow... almost amber but not quite.  The carbonation shows in the glass but it is hidden by the darker tint of the beer.  The head on the two beers were even different.  On the '11, there was a thin covering of white head that sat on top of the beer as if the 'pretty boy beer' was going for some sort of 5'oclock shadow.  Where the more mature '11 has a very small almost none existent film across the top of the beer; almost as if it thinks being clean is a more professional look.

More important then anything - do they taste different?  As a matter of fact they do!  The younger '11 Burning River definitely screams of HOPS.  It is bitey and spicey.  You get the tingle of the hops on your tongue and the acidic oils of the hoppy goodness screaming through every sip.  The malts really never seem to show up till just before you swallow the beer.  They add a hint of sweetness in the finish that tells you, if you keep this beer around long enough you'll get a much more balanced and more centered brew.  All told it is a very nice and balanced malt to hop ratio with the balance a little in favor of the hops for sure.  It is definitely light and crisp and refreshing on the tongue.  Almost sort of a thin quality to it that would make it incredible for a hot summer evening get together by a camp fire.

Now, the '09 to me really presents as a much more refined, clean, smooth, solid beer.  The mouth feel is a little thicker and maltier.  It is sweet and sticks to your tongue and sides of your mouth more.  You still get the hoppy goodness but they are much more mellow and balanced out by a sweeter maltier body that shows that it knows how to take charge.  I would call this '09 equally balanced between hops and malts.  The carbonation seems to have calmed down a lot more and it almost presents it self in a more refined feel suchas a fine scotch or bourbon.  I think this beer at '09 is looking for a nice cigar to compliment it as you sit back relax and watch the day pass you by on some remote beach.  There is a side of me that thinks . o O ( wait, this beer almost tastes off, the smell isn't quite right, the hops are gone, it isn't really an APA any more... it is refined.  I mean I'm no professional beer taster here am I?  Maybe this beer is skunked.... what if this beer was BETTER 6 months ago and it is on its way down... maybe 10 months ago is really when I should have been enjoying this '09... ) O o . when I finally stop, and come to my senses I smack myself.  I'm no beer snob.  NO, I enjoy beer.  I enjoy some cheap beers.  And there has been some REALLY expensive beers that I have hated.  So, I come back to earth and realize why I'm doing this blog.  It is for me to find beers I LIKE.  And I LIKE this '09!  It is solid, it is mild, it is almost an oaky/woody backbone to it even though this beer surely never touched any barrels in the whole production.  Though, it got me thinking - what if Great Lakes did that; or what if they do?  I should look for that.  If this was an aged - cask conditioned Burning River... Oh my!

Anyway, thanks for listening.  I want to thank my friend C.D. for giving me the '09 to taste (and make this a two for one night).  I also want to thank my friend B.G. for re-introducing me to Pale Ales.  This particular Great Lakes is one of his favorites and I ALMOST feel guilty sitting here with out him drinking these two brews.  I'm sure he understands.  Please take a look at the photo shoot of these two beers below.  Tell me what you think, I'm trying to work on my photography skills.  The subjects as different in tasting were difficult to shoot.  The colors in the pics do not come through quite as vividly as I feel I could see in person.  But, I lend that to the '09 being a hard ass and just not cooperating as nicely as the '11 did.  Please enjoy!

OK, on seeing the name of Atwater Brewery's Detroit Pale Ale got me to thinking, what "exactly" is the difference between Indian Pale Ale (IPA) and American Pale Ale (APA).  I've got to say - I've always been a little confused to tell the difference but then again I can't seem to recall a time where I sat down with a IPA and APA to compare side by side.  So, on looking through a couple different sites, BeerAdvocate.com, About.Com (http://beer.about.com/od/ale/p/PaleAleProfile.htm) I'm still confused.  Heck there even seems to be a book written about it (that I haven't read) I found at BeerBooks.com entitled PALE ALE: History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes.  So, to the best of my knowledge it "seems" that IPA's were brewed for the DISTINCT PURPOSE of a long shipment across the ocean surface through brutal conditions (for beer at the very least).  So the beer, seems to be originated by strong bitters and/or ESB beers.  The idea of the IPA was to add a bit of alcohol and a lot of hops.  Both of these are used as tools for making the beer be able to "last" a bit longer till it is ready to be drank.  The hops are used as a preservative at types.  The Alcohol, well it is relatively common knowledge that the higher the alcohol the longer it can/needs to age.  I did see some information about the types of barrels used to store the beers during storage and what not.  To my knowledge these beers are/were setup to last 4-6 months in storage before being drank and in that amount of time you may pick up some wood characteristics but I'm thinking that it wouldn't be enough to out weight the strong flavors of this style with hops and barley.  So, with that said, I figured what is Detroit Pale Ale, then I thought well, I've heard of Double IPAs, and AIPA (not even sure I know this one), but Triple and Quadruple IPAs.  So, I guess the name and idea is probably mostly marketing, but the concept is the same, big beer, a good amount of bitter, a lot of HOP characteristics, and heavy usually some decent hits of barley if done properly.

OK, enough of the history - lets talk beer.  This Pale Ale is a fairly average pale ale in my mind.  Keep in mind, Pale Ale's are just starting to grow on me again so this could be a bit biased based on the low side a bit because of the style.  I'm not as happy with the style as I once was.  Anyway, that said, the beer pours a musty golden color.  It gives a very unfiltered look and I like that about a bottle of beer.  The head was thick on the pour but faded away by the time this beer is half way finished.  There really isn't much trace of it on the side of the glass.  I think I get a bit of a grapefruit smell coming from the glass.  Very strong fruity ester like smell that is acidic like.  The taste is not bad.  The balance seems to be tipped in favor of the hops for this beer.  I seem to be picking up a variety of the hops that the site talks that it uses from the European and Northwest American hops.  I can't exactly pick out specific hops but I definitely get a sense that more then 1 or 2 varieties of hops are being used to master this beer.  Unfortunately, to me this beer is lacking a bit of barley sweetness to it to carry all the hops that seem to be used in the beer.  If you are a hop head and you really like the taste of your hops this may be a beer for you.  For me, it will rank in the 2.5 range (which is middle of the road) because though it is a decent balance of hops and character there I just do not get the grains I personally like in a beer to carry the balance evenly.

Give it a try.  Don't let me turn you off... but definitely be ready for the huge hop almost acidic flowery citrus flavor that comes from this beer.  Cheers to Atwaters, I'm excited to move on to the others in my stock that I had purchased a few weeks back.