Category: beer

Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

In preparation for Tina’s NYE Party, I needed to buy some beverages for the evening. Though I could have gone with one of my stand-bys such as Newcastle or Killian’s, I decided to do some research on great beers.

I went no farther than RateBeer.com, a fabulously extensive site of beer ratings. Specifically, I checked their Top Accessbile Beers list. In contrast to a literal Top Beers list, the beers listed among their Top Accessible Beers need to have a certain minimum of reviews — in other words, they may not be micro-micro brews, but beers you’d actually have a chance of finding.

I copy-n-pasted the list into my Palm Vx and made my way to Central Market. I’ll be honest — accessible or otherwise — I hadn’t even heard of any of the beers in the top 10. Nonetheless, one of my goals was to find a top-10 beer for the evening.

Central Market actually had an even better selection than I remembered. They had Fullers (both Fullers London Porter and Fullers ESB), Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout, and Duvel. However, my eyes widened when I discovered that they had Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock.

Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock is no ordinary beer — it’s rated #1 on the list. According to RateBeer, it’s in the 99.6th percentile of beers and was priced as such ($14 per 6-pack). Some excerpts from the reviews:

Excellent brew. Very complex flavoring, with layers revealing themselves long after you've taken a swig. Medium body, not too dark, and very tasty (a little sweet, malty with some molasses and fruitiness) without overwhelming the palate. Very easy drinking, this is an absolute classic and is a must-have for my friends and family now at ANY celebration. […]

The aroma permeates the nose with raisins, vanilla, roastiness, coffee, chocolate and numerous other small things come to mind. The Celebrator pours a beautiful dark dark brown with slight hints of dark ruby seen in the light...and it head was minimal at most, though mildly creamy for the first sip or two. The carbonation is the true key here and Ayinger has captured the magic of little bubbles tickling the tongue in just the right manner. The taste is of major roastiness...coffee and mocha are apparent, but definitely something fruity and lambic like...extremely complex and thats why im digging it so much as i drink and write this. It has a nice acidic, dry ending with those subtle hops doing their part leaving a sweet malty aftertone and an extremely happy palate. […]

Dark,dark,mahogany with a creamy, pillowy head. Strong, rich, aromas of raisins, german malts, fruit. Silky,somewhat spritzy mouthfeel. Perfect carbonation. Fruity,sweet,toastiness in the mouth. Such a subtle hop/smokey finish. Vinous, smoke also appear in the aroma, after breathing. Dark fruit flavors and strong malt take over the mouth and some strong malt presence in the finish develops as well. For the strength and richness this go down easy as can be. The best doppelbock I have had. […]

At the party, I made sure to pour the Celebrator into a mug so that I could fully appreciate its color — which turned out to closely resemble coffee. There was a nice fluffy head to to it, but the beverage itself was amazing. It had a somewhat malty flavor and strong presence, while not one to overpower the palette. It remained very drinkable, and I could have sipped it all evening (which I did, in this case).

Considering its price, I probably won’t be buying Celebrator Doppelbock in the near future. However, I would consider it among my Top 5 favorite beers and I won’t hesitate in buying some for another special occasion.

PS Sorry Tina, I just had to write about this one ;). (at the party, she had been kidding me about writing a blog entry on the Celebrator Doppelbock)

Slashdot Meetup – September

Ashley Bischoff5 Comments

Last night, I went to the Slashdot Meetup for Dallas. It was held at the Dave & Buster’s just down Walnut Hill (not the one near Walnut Hill and 75).

The plan, from e-mail discussions with people from the last Slashdot Meetup was to meet at Dave & Buster’s, but then to go somewhere (cheaper) from there.

It was scheduled to start at 7pm, and I actually got there around 7:07pm (oops). I was concerned that maybe the group had left for the new-restaurant without me, but they hadn’t. Oddly enough, instead of the about-ten people from last time, there were just three people this time around (myself included).

We waited in the entrance-area just in case there were any more late-comers. By around 7:30pm, I suggested that we head-out to the new-restaurant. For some reason, one guy (Dave, I think his name was) was reluctant to do so. I believe his words were “I’d be real hesitant to leave, in case anyone were to still show up”.

Firstly, I thought it was a bit odd that he thought more people may be showing up, even though it was 7:30pm at that point. Secondly, though, I thought it was especially odd that he used the phrasing “real hesitant” instead of the more straight-forward “I would prefer…”.

The three of us had no interest in the arcades, but agreed that some food would be good. So, we found a table for ourselves. Chad (the non-Dave guy of the three) had some chicken nuggets before coming to the Meetup, so he just ordered a Bass. As it turned out, Dave and I also ordered a Bass each.

For food, Dave ordered a Double-Double Cheesburger-Cheeseburger (or something equally cheesily named) which was described as having two beef patties and a slice of American cheese on each. I ordered their Cheese Buster Burger — esentially the single-patty version of Dave’s order. As written in the menu, it included American cheese, which I generally despise (I consider American cheese to be the Microsoft of cheeses).

I asked our waitress whether I could get a different cheese, and she confirmed that I could get jack, swiss, blue cheese, and a few others. I elected for the blue cheese (especially as it was crumbled blue cheese). I asked whether the burger came with fries and, sure enough, it did. I’m trying to reduce (though not eliminate) my carb intake, so I asked whether I could substitute the fries for something else; but all the alternatives were high-carb items as well (rice, baked potato, and so on). So, I just stuck with the fries with the compromise that I’d eat about half of them.

Our food arrived shortly, and my blue cheese was conveniently on-the-side in a small aluminum shot-sized cup. From there, I proceeded to dump all of it onto the patty, along with the tomato slice that was also on the side. With a dollop of ketchup, my burger was compete.

I wish I could say that it was a great burger, but it actually wasn’t. Unlike an ideal burger with loosely packed ground-beef, this burger was very dense. It was almost as if the chef-droid in the kitchen had been flattening and compressing my burger with his spatula at every opportunity. On top of that, the burger wasn’t all that hot either. A good burger should just be on the cusp of burning one’s mouth, but this one was merely extra-warm.

Don’t get me wrong — the burger was tasty enough such that I would accept it if someone were to buy one for me. However, I don’t think I’d order one again from Dave & Buster’s.

Top Macro Beers

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Through searching for more information on Michelob Ultra, I came across this page of the Best Macro Beers. That’s right — not the usual battle-of-the-micro-brews, but Macro Beers this time.

Not too surprisingly, Michelob Ultra isn’t anywhere on the list (though a few other Michelob brews are, which would explain the search-engine hit). In fact RateBeer’s reviews of Michelob Ultra are less than complimentary:

This was horrid. [&hellip]

would be good to drink while walking on a treadmill or at a health club […]

If you were to take 2.9 carbs worth of Michelob light [&hellip] then added 11 ounces of water, you would have Michelob ultra.

In addition to the Top Macro Beers list, RateBeer has several other useful top-lists:

  • Top Accessible Beers: This is different from the Top Macro category — Top Macro is based on brewery-size, while Top Accessible is based on the general availability of the beer.
  • Top American Beers: This list might be good to check out of curiosity’s sake, but good for little else. After all, why limit one’s self to only American beers?

Of the three (Top Macro, Top Accessible, and Top American), I think the most useful for everyday use would be Top Accessible. And, as is no surprise to me, Samuel Adams appears several times in that list :).

Low-carb Beer

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

From a Slashdot article is mention of a new low-carb beer from Anheuser-Busch: Michelob Ultra:

Michelob Ultra is a smooth, refreshing lager with 96 calories, 4.1 percent alcohol by volume and 2.9 grams of carbohydrates per 12-oz. serving. The brand began test marketing in December in Denver, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., and Ft. Myers, Naples and Punta Gorda, Fla.

The press release goes on to say that “The brand will roll out nationally in September”. Being that Michelob Ultra is from Anheuser-Busch, I don’t have my hopes up ;). But, I’d be willing to try it once.

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event – September

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

The DFWBlogs Cocktail Event for August was held at the Tipperary Inn on Live Oak St. It’s an Irish-style pub, and the interior bars were even made in Dublin and shipped over (!).

Being that it was a Wednesday evening, it wasn’t very crowded — which I thought was a good thing. With fewer people, it’s easiler to have conversations with other people. Still, the sound still easily reflected off the many flat surfaces such as all the polished wood. But, that was only a minor issue (especially comapred to sitting next to the large glass windows at The Hurricane Grill).

I ordered a bacon-cheddar burger and a Kelly’s Cider. The burger had a good amount of meat to it, probably 1/3 lb or more. Pleasantly, it also had that char-taste that comes from a properly flame-grilled burger (mmm). The burger was $8. And, it was very good. But, was it $8-good? I don’t know about that. Maybe $7-good ;).

The fries were “very warm” but not quite “hot”. And, they were crispy-style fries with almost a crunch to the outer skin. I don’t see that fry-style much these days, and it was a nice change of pace.

Before I ordered the burger, I selected my drink. When I asked our waitress what they had on tap, she rattled off an impressively long list of beverages. I heard “Newcastle” among them — definitely one of my favorites — but my ears perked up at the mention of “cider”. I didn’t even hear what brand of cider it was, but I knew that it was one that I hadn’t previously tried.

It turns out that the cider was Kelly’s Irish Hard Cider (an Irish brand, no surprise there). As I write this, I’m having difficulty putting into words the delicousness of Kelly’s Cider… It was full of distinct apple flavor, but not oversweetened, so it remained very dry and crisp. It was fantastically delicious and highly refreshing.

Though Savanna Dry (only available in South Africa, as far as I know) is still officially my favorite cider, Kelly’s now takes the crown as my favorite-cider-actually-available-in-North-America.