our drinking problem

I have drunk a lot this week!

first, Baumeister Cherry soda:


I liked it okay, it wasn't too sweet, but I would not drink it again, since it has an intense vanilla/cream soda side to it. It took me a really long time to finish it, as I hate vanilla, it was somewhat fakey cherry with a little real cherry in there. It is bright red!


2 Brothers Heavy Handed:

I was lucky enough to drink this from a cask. Oh boy is it tasty. Very hoppy, Bitter to the point of turning some people at the table away, but good good good.


Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald

This was a porter, and I was really in the mood for bitter IPAs this night, but it totally changed my mind. It was great. Very burnt coffee taste. Creamy, but not as filling as something like a Guiness. I will definitely have it again, and I don't drink porters that often.


Great Lakes Nosferatu:

is a stock ale, which apparently means it can last a long time. It's a red, which is one of my favorites usually, but I did not like it really. It was drinkable but it smelled REALLY bad. Like bad yeast and vinegar. The beer itself was not too sour, and it did not smell like the beer tasted. In fact, I thought this beer tasted better in the bottle, where you could not smell it. In the bottle it tasted like any average red, but it was more bitter and yeasty in the glass.


Dogfish India Brown Ale (IBA):

I was excited about trying this, as I love Dogfish, I love IPAs and I like experiments. I had heard this talked up a lot on the Craft Beer Podcast, so I was excited. Browns usually leave me cold, as I think "alright, it's not light, it should have some flavor" but it always just seems like a stronger version of pilsner. It's always lacking any hoppiness, and so I get all excited that it's going to be tasty and then nothing. Not bad, but just nothing. So the IBA should be perfect right? To me it just tasted a little better than a regular brown. Maybe I'll try it again.

Concentrated Water? Just add water to make...water?

I love this "science":
"Ordinary drinking water can't effectively hydrate because it contains many large clusters of H20 molecules that don't get inside your cells. Today's water supply has lost most of the beneficial "energetic properties" that assist cellular hydration. This is due to widespread pollution, unnatural water treatment and other man-made factors."

Hazelnut Brown Ale


Generally, I think brown ales are not flavorful enough. This was bitter and very nutty, but still brown, which I am not terribly excited about.

Founder's Red Rye

Good! Very bitter esp. for a Red! As per my tastes in beer, it was great! I had it on tap, but I have read in the bottle the yeast settles.

I had a couple of others, but both of these are over 7% so, I think a fair assessment is impossible! :)

It may appear that I only try beverages with long, long names. But this turned out well. First, Barritts is another specialty beverage that encourages its usage with alcoholic beverages. So much so, they have many recipes on their website. They also include many thoughts on the Moscow Mule which is one of my favorite drinks. Not only that, they have a blog about their beverage! Who doesn't love that!?

All of this has little to do with the beverage though. As previously stated, I love spicy ginger ale. This one is not too spicy, but more peppery than "ow my tongue." When I first tasted it I honestly tasted no pineapple. The drink was still good just not pineappley. If anything, I would say it's just sweeter than your average ginger ale. But then, 1/3 of the way through the bottle, I could distinctly taste the pineapple. It was quite good. I have some of their regular ginger ale which I hope to try soon. The back of the bottle states that the drink is "Unerstated British elegance coupled with the exotic island flavor of Bermuda." Wow, classy. As opposed to many of the untasty beverages we have all been drinking recently, this is recommended!

do not be fooled. this is not peach juice. it is peach juice DRINK. with a lot of fructose and sugar. the combo of super sugary fake drink and real peach go really poorly together. BLECH!

Apparently today is wordy beverages day. Cripple Creek Dream Lode Golden Ginger Ale doesn't exactly roll off the tongue! The full name of the company is the "Cripple Creek Cow Mountain Gold Mining Company." Shecriminy! I am all for olde timey western stylee (it's olde, so it has an extra e on the end). The weird part about it is that it is from Warrenville, IL which the last time I checked was not the wild west. Although I have noted that 'round these IL parts people are really into the wild west. Like Colorado. I find that funny.

Anyway about the beverage.The website mentions that it uses real ginger and I would say that's what characterizes this drink. It's not that sweet, and it doesn't have that much spiciness. It's more ginger in some soy-ginger sauce than ginger in a gingersnap. It almost has a dirty root type taste. That makes this sound awful, but it's not bad.

However, I would pass this up for most any other ginger ale. Perhaps it's the fact that I have brainwashed by BigSoda, but I like more pungent ginger flavor which might possibly be fake.

Earlier, Eric dissed Ol' Bob Miller's High Desert White Grape Soda.


I had a bottle myself and tried it last night. While I was saddened by the idea that it was not white grape flavored but regular grape flavored, I otherwise thought it was great. It is both "light in taste and clear in color" in the GOOD WAY.

Let me explain. I prefer sugar free soda. While I looooooove grape soda, it almost never comes in diet. So every time I get a grape soda craving, I have some and immediately I can feel a layer of sugar/corn syrup on my teeth. It sort of lessens the joy of the grape soda. This, although not diet, was not too sugary and didn't bring the teeth film. It was not cloying or too sweet but very refreshing.

And any soda that comes with alcoholic drink instructions is right by me.

We both tried this. It is the best of the Izzes, which makes it the world's tallest midget. There's still the annoying citric acid taste, but it's lesser. It's sweeter and tastes like actual fruit. And sort of like jam. In a good way. I would drink it again even. MAYBE.

black cherry fresca should be a great drink for me: I love diet, I love grapefruit sodas, and above all I love black cherry. I was excitable when Eric mentioned he had some of this for me. Perhaps it was this dramatic leadup which made it fall a little flat. Now don't get me wrong--I like this beverage. It could have just been so much more.

It's black cherry is more the flavor of "red" than cherry or black cherry. The grapefruit is unnoticeable. I did note it made me pee quicker than most sodas and it seemed more carbonated. This being said, there is also a peach version out that I can't wait to try.

I have also been nursing a bottle of 7UP Island Fruit:


I am also a big fan of juice and soda combos, but the original 7UP Plus left me cold, despite its promises to put the "Yum in Calcium." I do love the idea of "healthy" soda as well. So why have I been putting off reviewing this? Well number one, I think it's tasty but it reminds me of something and I can't tell what. First it is mangoriffic. It also has a photo of a pineapple on the container. It does have a bit of pineappley at the end. This, unlike the other 7UP Plus tastes like actual juice. I love it even though this shouldn't be my favorite of the bunch. I have cherry 7UP, but I haven't tried it yet. I expect big things.