Friends, it's a happy time when a Sam Adams mix pack comes out. As you all know, darker, winter beers are this Captain's favorite, but summer/spring beers are wondrous too. The most recent mixed 12er I picked up has 2 of each of the following: Boston Lager, Sam Light, Blackberry Wit (finally!), Hefewiezen, Summer Ale and Pale Ale.

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New year, new beers! We're back and much the same as ever, beervolk! New Year's Eve was an extravaganza of wonderful beers and I shall try to get to many of them in time. But I begin 2009 with a review of a good old brew from Yuengling. As I was on the east coast, finally my longing thirst for said brewery was slaked. Today we discuss their Lord Chesterfield Ale. Or rather I dogmatically drone; you read receptively.

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Friends, once again the illustrious team brew team of yours truly and Sergeant Stout teamed up 3 weeks back and brewed up a storm. Or rather two batches of beer. Then last weekend we bottled them... and something wonderful happened... both of our beers... while flat, tepid and not even done with their development (2 weeks minimum of course but I think these babies will be shining come February or so) both beers tasted amazing. I'll get more into it when we give the bottle-conditioned beers a taste (which I may do prematurely this weekend...), but here's a primer: The Sarge brewed what I guess I'll call a Holiday Ale if I must classify it. The beer is spicy, rich and bursting with a crisp tartness supplied by copius additions of fresh and dried cranberries. A lovely amber hue. My beer is a Scotch Ale and, if I may be so bold, manages to both cleave faithfully to its style while boasting notes of honey, spice and a secret hobo twist I'll never reveal. Oh... OK... the secret ingredient is... is... RIGHT BEHIND YOU! AAUUGH!!!!! GLAUAWAUGH!!!!! *Except that "you" means "me."

  I'll start as I usually do when discussing a beer brewed by a macro-brewery---I had my reservations, I prefer to support smaller breweries, I didn't expect much, etc etc. Well... this is a good beer.

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There has been a lot of hoopla about this Budweiser / ImBev business recently, huh? Yeah. Great. As this Captain has said before, I care little for who owns Bud. Or any huge brewery, really. Keep Sam Adams and Yuengling and certain others under the same ownership, I implore you, but for the mega fellahs? Meh. I do find it amusing though, that this new pseudo-craft offering arrogantly titled "American Ale" hit the shelves at about the same time as the ownership of the brewery jumped across the pond to Belgium (a country that knows its beer, at least).

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I'm still not sure how Trader Joe's sells so much good beer for less than $6 a six pack ($5.99 in this case but still, dammit!) but they do, and it leads me to try a lot of relatively obscure brews I otherwise would never have found.

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This entry could well be called "reviews" rather than the singular, but I chose to focus on one beer out of many (like certain American mottoes. Awwww yeah) to really review. Why it's: So Brigadier Bock and I gathered around the table with the following braus:

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Have we truly overlooked this amazing beer to date? My gawd, man! It's a damn fine brew. One of the finest widely available, I'll venture. A few words on history and classification, a few on the brew, and then I'm going to weep softly for a while. Just 'cuz.

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Afternoon, beervolk. Just a simple, straightforward review of a simple, straightforward beer today. None of my usual odd, byzantine ramblings about obscure, wacked-out beers. You may notice that I recently passed ONE HUNDRED POSTS in the venerable Hall of Beers. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it* or anything. I'm a humble, beer-loving servant, beer reader. So I'll just carry on. But props, yo. Props.

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Mornin, beervolk. Last night, for my first shot at this beer, I had a healthy 22 ounce dose. And 22 ounces is the way to roll with Moylan Celts Golden Ale. It is indeed, as it proclaims right on its label, in fact, a "session beer." Now I know, I know... you may be saying: "Captain! ALL beers are session beers, no!?" Well, yes. Ish. I wouldn't sit down to a "session" with a Flemish sour ale or a Belgian Kasteel, but yes, when it comes to members of the Fleet, most beers are session beers. So instead think of the brau* like this: I went for a bike ride, and when I got home, within 2 minutes I was slurping this ale from a frosty mug and, goodness, I was refreshed. But also not robbed of taste!

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