Greetings! To start w/ one of my favorites - Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

Hello gentlemen, hope everyone's doing well. It's a pleasure to be a part of a blog dedicated to one of my favorite hobbies in life - drinking good beer. Today is my one day off of the week so I thought what better way to spend it than to turn on the ball game, put my feet up, and enjoy one of my favorite beers out there. So let's get to it. Samuel Smith has a variety of stouts and ales but the Oatmeal Stout is in my opinion the most enjoyable. Although it is a stout, it has more of a brown ale feel to it, going down very smooth with that Belgian hoppiness to it (although it's a product of England), with just a hint of oatmeal aftertaste. Typically, I'd put this as more of a winter beer due to it's darker appearance and somewhat heavier feel, but I could drink this beer year round. The only thing is that it usually only comes in 18-22 oz bottles with a price tag of $3 - 6 a bottle making it a bit pricey to buy more than a few. Well, this is a start to many posts (and many more beers) so gentlemen, till then...

Sierra Nevada Summerfest

This is a very good lager from Sierra Nevada. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company puts out some really good beers, so its no surprise that this one is a winner too. This beer goes down smooth. There's a crisp, clean finish with just the right amount of bitter that lingers pleasantly until your next sip.

A neighbor of mine gave me one of these at his house in the spring. This is one of his favorites. A few months later, same guy brings some Summerfest over for a happy hour at my house. It tasted good the first time. And the second.

This is one that I'll have to keep in the summer rotation. It's a great beer for hot weather.

Where's Nick?

Get Blogging, STAT! Forget about your central lines and catheters. Put 20 cc's of beer in your IV and let us know about it.

Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat

This Flying Dog is a first for me. I've seen their beers in the store for a while and always wanted to give them a try, but was afraid they were just a knock-off of the other Flying beer company. They are out of Denver, CO and Frederick, MD. Very interesting label on the beer. They have what looks like a bat on the label on the neck and a dog wagging its tongue on the main label. Also, there is a cool quote from the gonzo writer, Hunter S. Thompson: "Good people drink good beer".
Anyway, the beer is a Hefeweizen. It tastes pretty good. It has lemony tones throughout, like you would expect from a Hef. The aftertaste is only slightly bitter. Not a bad beer and at a good price. The ABV is 4.7%, which seems pretty light, but I guess it's all good considering this is a summer beer. They also list the IBU's on the bottle, 12 in this case. You don't see too many microbrews putting that number on their beers. I'd like to see more of them follow suit in that regard.
Overall, this Hef from Flying Dog was pretty decent.

Presidente

We are headed to the Caribbean this weekend for a week's vacation. Dominican Republic, to be specific. I was told that our resort stocks three kinds of beer, Presidente being the best of them. This is a pilsner style beer. I'm not too familiar with Pilsners, having only tried a few in my day. But I'll tell you one thing: if this is the best beer that will be served, we are in trouble. It could be a long week of bad beer. I'm afraid to see what the other two lesser beers will be. This beer, Presidente was pretty bland and the aftertaste was something similar to shoe leather, after it had been raked through the mud, after it had stepped in wild boar piss. Instead of Presidente, with a royal sounding name, it should have been called Gringo juice. I'll be checking out some island cocktails instead.

Smuttynose Star Island Single

I picked up a sixer of this from Total Wine recently. Jake and I tried the Smuttynose IPA a while back, which didn't get great reviews. This beer, however, is a Belgian Golden Ale. I don't know that this tasted like a true Belgian, but it was a pretty good beer nonetheless. There are citrus hints throughout and it finishes dry and crisp. A case of this beer runs approximately $32, with its ABV at 5.2%. This is a decent warm weather beer that would go down well while grilling, or would hit the spot nicely after mowing the lawn.