Saturday Night Blue Collar Brew Review

For this week's brew review I headed back to FSL (Four Seasons Liquors) to relish over the myriad selection of brewskis that they had to offer. I had a few moments to spend there and came to a realization. I checked out the shelves of warm premiums beers. There were more selections and varieties than "The Ol' Beer Store" (TOBS). I checked out the coolers. Lotsa beers that the rest of America drinks. All cold. Then I had time to notice: the beers here were slightly more expensive than at TOBS. In my case, they had the beer that I wanted to try this week, but it was a little more out of pocket than what I was expecting to pay. I got a buck back from my tenner for a sixpack. You can do the math. I already did.

Be that as whatever, I chose a brand of beer that a friend at work has deemed, "The best beer I've ever tasted." This week's brew review will be on Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Lager. I, me, us, we will be the judge of that.

The top is popped and now for the thrust. I jammed my nose down the neck of the bottle and inhaled deeply. The aroma is very faint, a slight beery scent. That's surprising. Now for the first pull from the bottle. Wham! The taste explodes in my mouth, with a wet malty flavor that is very prominent. At first, I'm thinking this is equivalent to the taste you get after you've chewed some fresh coffee grounds. Somewhat bitter, but not enough to call off the show. It's not unpleasant at all, just, well, surprising in its richness. I know that the taste will mellow out after the pour and my taste buds will get accustomed to their new resident surroundings.


Into the mug it goes and the head comes up nice and frothy. There are micro-bubbles but not as many as previous beers. Not a lot of cling-ons, either The sides of the mug have hardly any bubbles. The color of the brew is a medium shade of brown, kind of like weak coffee and the head dissipated to a thin film in a short while. I took a swig from the mug and although the overall beer taste has settled down, the dark caramel flavor remained at the forefront, albeit subdued. Not overbearing.

All in all, this a good beer to try from time to time. Its startlingly different taste is a good taste bud exerciser and a true enjoyment from start to finish. I will say, however, that the taste of this beer is not for everyone. After my wife expressed her all-encompassing opinion, she rinsed out her mouth and popped a mint. But that's her. I'm now a believer that as men, we should all educate our taste buds on the different styles and types of beer available. The good and the bad, the skunks and the sweeties and the beers of all colors and bubble sizes.

The SixPackTech ratings for Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Lager are:

Taste: 8.2 - darkness of taste; not ready for the surprise.
Smoothness: 8.5 - after the bronc is tamed, it's a nice ride.
Drinkability: 8.2 - takes more than one to convince your taste buds it's real.
Wife's all-encompassing opinion: "Oh! It's bitter!"
Bang for the buck: 7 - shell out that extra buck.

No post? What gives?

So it's about 2:00 PM (1400 hrs. to you Military/Police/Air Traffic Control personnel), and I'm doing my regular internet rounds. E-mail, local news, and of course, SixPackTech. Except there are no new posts, which is weird, since there are usually 5 new ones by now. Strange, but I figured the Old Man was either in the middle of adding material at that very moment, or saving it all for one mass posting.

So I went to work and had nary another thought on the matter. But as fate would have it, my boss asked me a Mac question I couldn't answer. So I promptly thought of the best Mac mind I knew and phoned the Old Man at the 'ole warehouse. He not only answered the question with multiple solutions to the problem (winning me valuable brownie points in return), but mentioned how his household internet took a dump and the provider would be out to service it "sometime."

I took it as my personal responsibility to offer an explanation to the faithful readers as to why there was inexplicably no new material. But I also decided to seize the opportunity to get back on the saddle and end my no-post hiatus. There was no good reason for it, just a combination of laziness and and unrealistic standard of perfection I wish to include in my posts.

So in the interim, I submit for you a video of my dog. Maybe I'll set it up on YouTube someday, but you get a sneak peek, I guess. Perhaps it's not a great post, and definitely not what I consider a "high quality" submission. But cut me some slack. It's 1 AM and I just got home from work. I'm scroungin' here! At least it's a video.

No Huskies were harmed in the making of this video. in fact, they were fed.