Are you a Lone Ranger? You probably like beer
A recent study by professors at the University of Texas at San Antonio found that people who tend to be rugged individualists are more likely to be beer consumers. A recent study by The Thirsty Beagle found that there’s a good chance I am a rugged individualist.
Setting it straight
Got a friendly e-mail the other day from Neal Stewart, the Prime Minister of Marketing (I’m not making that up) from Flying Dog Brewery, in response to my Beer Championship Series. I had a beer called Flying Dog Tire Biter in the bracket, and Neal pointed out that the name is slightly inaccurate. Turns out the good people at Flying Dog did indeed call the beer Tire Biter at first, but too many people mistook the name for Tire “Bitter.” So they dropped the “r” and the beer is now called Flying Dog Tire Bite. You’ll see that accurately portrayed on the latest updated version of the Beer Championship Series bracket (see post one down). The Thirsty Beagle tucks his tail between his legs and offers an apology.
Beer Championship Series update
Hope everyone is having/had a nice Thanksgiving. Thought I’d check in to post the results from day 3 of voting in the Beer Championship Series. Here’s how things came out:
Oklahoma Region: Belle’s IPA over Pietro Piegari; and Miner Mishap over Power Plant Porter Stout.
International Region: Dos Equis over Tsing Tao; and Sapporo over Molson Canadian.
USA Region: Shiner Bock over Michelob; and Blue Moon over Boulevard Wheat.
Europe Region: Hoegaarden over Harp; and Guinness over Franziskaner Hefeweizen.
Here’s what the bracket looks like with half of the opening-round match-ups complete. Come back Monday to vote on the next set of match-ups. (Some people complained the JPG image of the bracket was too small to see, so I’ve attached a PDF this time.)
Cheers!
Beer can turkey recipe
BLOGGER’S NOTE: If you’re looking for the Beer Championship Series bracket, visit the next post down. Thanks! Now, on to your regularly scheduled blog post.
Happy day before Thanksgiving, everyone. Still haven’t figured out how you’ll prepare your bird for the big feast tomorrow? I found this recipe for beer can turkey at www.eatturkey.com (surely that’s the place to go for Thanksgiving recipes, right?) and thought I’d pass it along. There are several similar recipes on the Web. I found them by typing “beer and turkey recipe” in the search field. Drop me a note if you happen to try one out and let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear how it turns out.
VOTE! Day 3 of the Beer Championship Series
Many thanks to all who voted yesterday in the BCS. Here are the results:
Oklahoma Region: Marshall IPA over Copperhead Amber Ale
International Region: Fosters over Pacifico
USA Region: Flying Dog Tire Biter over Anchor Fog Horn
Europe Region: Chimay over Beck’s.
The updated bracket can be seen at right. We’ve been voting on four match-ups a day, but since we’ve got the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, we’re going to throw down eight match-ups today, take the long weekend off and resume voting on Monday.
Here are the Day 3 contests:
Oklahoma Region: Pietro Piegari (Krebs) vs. Belle’s India Pale Ale (Belle Isle); and Miner Mishap (Krebs) vs. Power Plant Porter Stout (Belle Isle).
International Region: Dos Equis (Mexico) vs. Tsing Tao (China); and Sapporo (Japan) vs. Molson Canadian.
USA Region: Michelob (St. Louis) vs. Shiner Bock (Texas); and Blue Moon (Colorado) vs. Boulevard Wheat (Kansas City).
Europe Region: Harp (Ireland) vs. Hoegaarden (Belgium); and Franziskaner Hefeweizen (Germany) vs. Guinness (Ireland).
Same as before, votes will be accepted in the comments section or by e-mail at thethirstybeagle@yahoo.com. And a slight amendment to the rules set out at the start: Voting will now close at 10 p.m. CST.
I hope to get up a few non-BCS posts over the holiday weekend, so check in for some beer news while you’re letting your turkey digest, and then stop by Monday for more voting.
Cheers!
Thunder update, beer news
Woe is the Oklahoma City Thunder. The coach is gone. The wins never showed up. The fans have booed. Not exactly the
honeymoon people here in OKC were expecting, especially after the Hornets made near-serious runs at the playoffs in two straight years. But fear not fans, there is a sliver of light at the end of the dark, dark tunnel. Despite the fact the team is 1-13 and on pace for no more than six wins this year, and despite the fact the team is second-to-last in the NBA in scoring, ESPN basketball stat guru John Hollinger gives the team a 23 percent chance to win the draft lottery. That’s nearly one-in-four odds, folks. Not too shabby!
In beer news, I was scanning some Web sites the other day and noticed on the Choc Beer Web site that in addition to their stable of five beers — 1919, Miner Mishap, Waving Wheat, Pietro Piegari and Basement Batch — a new beer called Last Laugh is “coming soon.” That’s all the detail I have at the moment, but I’m looking forward to seeing what the new brew is.
Just a reminder, don’t forget to vote in The Thirsty Beagle Beer Championship Series (see post below) to determine Oklahoma’s favorite beer. We had a serious upset on the first day of competition when Bud Light took down Sam Adams Boston Lager. Are there more upsets in store? Your votes will tell the story.
Vote now: Day 2 of the Beer Championship Series
Thanks to everyone who voted in Day 1 of The Thirsty Beagle Beer Championship Series.
Advancing in yesterday’s matches were:
-Oklahoma Region: Choc 1919 over Belle’s Blond Light Pale Ale
-International Region: Cooper’s Lager over Corona
-USA Region: Bud Light over Sam Adams Boston Lager
-Europe Region: Heinekenover Pilsner Urquell
A quick commentary: I wasn’t surprised to see Choc win, but Bud Light over Sam Adams Boston Lager? That one leaves The Thirsty Beagle scratching his head. Anyway, you can click on the bracket image to the right to see the updated bracket. Now on to today’s match-ups:
-Oklahoma Region: Marshall IPA (Tulsa) vs. Copperhead Amber Ale (Bricktown Brewery)
-International Region: Fosters (Australia) vs. Pacifico (Mexico)
-USA Region: Anchor Fog Horn (San Fran.) vs. Flying Dog Tire Biter (Maryland)
-Europe Region: Chimay Red Ale (Belgium) vs. Beck’s (Germany)
Remember: You can cast your votes in the comments section or by e-mailing your choices to thethirstybeagle@yahoo.com. Keep the votes coming. Cheers!
Another voting option
Votes for The Thirsty Beagle Beer Championship Series (see post below) will also be accepted by e-mail. You can send your votes to thethirstybeagle@yahoo.com.
Cheers!
Vote now! The Thirsty Beagle Beer Championship Series
UPDATE: To vote on the current day’s match-ups, go to the main blog page.
As promised, it’s time for The Thirsty Beagle Beer Championship Series: a 64-team, bracket-style playoff to determine Oklahoma’s favorite beer. Before I unveil the bracket, here are a few of the ground rules:
-The bracket is split into four regions: The Oklahoma Region, the International Region, the Europe Region and the USA Region. As you might expect, the beers in each region are derived from that region.
-Each day I’ll announce match-ups from each region up for voting. Voting will start at 6 a.m. and end at midnight.
-Beers in the Oklahoma Region come from the Bricktown Brewery, the Belle Isle Brewery, Choc Brewery and Marshall Brewery in Tulsa. If I missed an established Oklahoma brewery out there, apologies and I’ll add you in next time around.
-If The Thirsty Beagle has one early bracket remorse feeling, it has to do with the generally commercial nature of a fair amount of the beers in the bracket. There are just so many fine craft breweries in this country, and hundreds of varieties from Europe, that I tried to stick to beers people could readily find here in Oklahoma and/or beers people are fairly familiar with in these parts.
-You don’t have to necessarily have tried all the beers to cast your vote. Just write your selections in the comments section.
With all that out of the way, here is the Bracket.
And we’ll let the voting start today!
The first round of match-ups are:
-Oklahoma Region: Choc 1919 (Krebs) vs. Belle’s Blond Pale Ale (Belle Isle)
-International Region: Cooper’s Lager (Australia) vs. Corona (Mexico)
-USA Region: Sam Adams Boston Lager (Boston) vs. Bud Light (St. Louis)
-Europe Region: Heineken (Holland) vs. Pilsner Urquell (Czech)
Review: Sam Adams Chocolate Bock
Today’s review is the seasonal brew Sam Adams Chocolate Bock.
What they say: The dark, handcrafted lager is brewed with notes of Grand Cru Sauvage chocolate from Swiss chocolatier Felchlin. The dark chocolate is derived from rare, wild cacao beans found in a rainforest in Bolivia. The beer is dark, decadent… with a big, malty character, complex full-body taste and velvety finish.
What The Thirsty Beagle says: This was a tough review for me because I really had high expectations for this beer. In the end, I came away with mixed feelings. Off the top, the lead-up to drinking this beer is nice. You’ve got the big bottle — 750 ml — with the embossed silver label. It all gives you the feeling you’re not sitting down for the same old thing. The beer pours smoothly and finishes with a nice, frothy head. The aroma is certainly intriguing; you can sense the maltiness and immediately know this is a dark chocolate beer. The beer also looks rich with a dark brown-to-black hue. Chocolate Bock feels very smooth in the mouth; not syrupy or thick and heavy like a stout of the same appearance might. As far as taste goes, if you’re not familiar with chocolate beers, you’ll find this will take a few sips to get used to. For me, I’m a big fan of the character of the hops in a beer, and that was hard for me to find here. On the front of the tongue, the beer had a very subtle malty chocolate taste; on the back of the tongue and lingering to the finish was the taste of a strong and slightly bitter dark chocolate. Sam Adams suggests this beer can be paired with any number of holiday food staples, including turkey, pork and chicken. I happened to have it with a steak, and I can’t help but wonder if my food choice was not best for the beer. They also suggest matching it with rich, chocolaty desserts, and I suspect it may just work there. Overall, there was just something about this beer that I found hard to put my finger on, other than to say that perhaps this ultimately was not for me.
Score: 2-1/2 out of 5 beagles.
