LIFT A PINT FOR ST. PADDY

If you are a beer aficionado like me, you know that drinking green beer isn't the way to celebrate this beer drinking holiday. Green beer is just the crappy fizzy yellow beer with food coloring. That's no cause for celebration! Celebrate with the "most Irish" of all beers styles, the Stout.

My writing partner, fellow beer chick and dear friend - beer expert and author Hallie Beaune wrote a great article for The Rundown today for St. Patrick's day about, just that! Yummy Stouts really are the best beer to drink if you'd like to honor the Irish in all of us.

Here are the five domestic craft Stouts Hallie recommends on the Rundown with which to imbibe this fine St. Paddy's Day!

Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
A smooth, easy-drinking stout. Velvety on the tongue, with notes of mocha and a nice hop presence on the finish for balance.

North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
Like a shot of espresso or a dark, bitter bite of cacao-heavy chocolate, this brilliant stout is intense. A perfect nightcap, at 9.5% alcohol, it'll send you home singing.

Bison Organic Chocolate Stout
Brewed in Berkeley, this sustainable stout lets you be truly green on St. Patty's Day. With notes of subtle Dutch chocolate, it won't knock you over the head with saccharine Hershey bar flavors.

Alaskan Brewing Smoked Porter
Malt smoked over alder wood gives this beer a distinct flavor. Excellent when aged in a bottle (it mellows out the smokiness), so snag older vintages or store bottles in your closet for next year.

Deschutes Brewery's The Abyss
Aging in French Oak and Bourbon barrels gives this hard-to-find stout a depth worthy of its name. Savor notes of bitter chocolate, espresso, molasses and licorice before the 11% alcohol kicks in.

And make sure to check out the Rundown.

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New Beer Monday - Bananas and Chocolate

(Mondays suck. So in an effort to make them better, I am now starting "New Beer Mondays" to cheer us all up a little bit. Check back every Monday for a new beer review or subscribe to Beer Chick Feed!)

"Me me me me me ooh ooh ooh me me me!" That's the response that I normally gave whenever my Grandmother would ask "Who wants banana bread?" Fresh and hot from the oven, there's not much better in this world. So imagine my thrill when I was looking for new beers to try and I came across Wells Banana Bread Beer. This beer's been around for a while and I'd heard of it before, but when I saw it there shining in the case I found myself jumping up and down clapping saying "Me me me me me ooh ooh ooh me me me!" The beer chicks will love this one!

I thought that this beer was going to be a huge Bavarian Hefe style that uses a specific kind of yeast that produces big banana aromatics. Instead this beer actually uses Fairtrade bananas in the mash of this "liquid bread."

I also thought that this beer was going to be super malty and sweet and taste just like banana bread. It doesn't. But not in a bad way. The beer is surprisingly balanced and dry, with more of a tart and peppery finish than I was expecting. The banana comes through in the beginning of this beer in the nose and then again at the end in the exhaust. If you are a beer fan and like bananas, you will dig this brew. 5.2% ABV.

This beer is made by Wells and Young, from Bedford, UK. Its actually a pretty big brewery with several different beers. On the Young's side, they used to make a great beer that I loved called Young's Oatmeal Stout (which they stopped and that makes me cry) and now they make a beer called Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Which is... Oh, what the hell, I might as well write about this beer too!

You can pretty much take Young's Double Chocolate Stout right to the bank. It's exactly what it says it is. Rich, creamy and chocolatey. This beer is made with both the addition of chocolate malt and real dark chocolate. A lot of times I think that we Americans think that chocolate with milk chocolate and think that it all tastes sweet, but that's not really the case.

This beer is once again, pretty well balanced. Its definitely chocolatey, but its not too cloying or too sweet. You're not drinking a chocolate shake here, and the carbonation, while creamy, definitely provides a lifting off the palate.

Don't be afraid of the dark ladies, there's nothing bitter or biting about this beer. If you like chocolate, you'll be in heaven with this one. 5.2% ABV.

Written by The Beer Chick, September 29, 2008

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