Every game of Cards Against Humanity requires a great brew by your side. I had seen Left Hand Brewing's Milk Stout Nitro on the shelves over the last month or two and was always intrigued. Nitro seems to be the new buzz word when it comes to beer, so when my friend picked up a six-pack, I was happy to pour one for myself and see just why.

The first thing to note is the deep black color of the beer. It's like a black hole - no light escapes this elixir. Just about one finger of head formed with my pour, and the pillowy whipped cream appearance was stunning. It reminded me of the whipped topping on a cuppa, all frothy and smooth.

The smell was very strong toasted aromas. The first taste was very strong with molasses and coffee. It was a very smooth finish with a slight bitter hoppiness. As it warmed, the rich dark chocolate flavors began to come out to play. The beer started to taste like a hoppy mocha, combining my two favorite things: coffee and beer. It was carbonated with excellence; smooth and silky going down.

I'd love to get my hands on the non-nitro version and conduct a side by side. I would be very interested in the differences in overall flavor, texture and carbonation. I may just have to conduct this little experiment.

I was very happy with this beer, overall. I would recommend it to any stout lovers. The rich roasted aromas with the smooth light sweetness made it a perfect beer for a cold summer day playing cards with friends.

Did I mention that Left Hand has recipes to use this beer in on their website? How do Nitro Oreo Cupcakes sound do you? I wouldn't be surprised if these magically show up in my kitchen some time soon...

Beer: Milk Stout Nitro
Style: Sweet Stout
Brewery: Left Hand Brewing Co.
ABV: 6%
Served from: Bottle
Rating: 4/5 - This beer hit all the high notes.

Last night we had folks over for the UFC Pay-Per-View. As with any good party, we had to break out some of the great beers to go with the wild fights. Carl, being the meat magician that he is, smoked and steamed a giant brisket all day long. What goes better with a smoked meat than a good smoky beer?

The first sniffs out of the glass are heavy with smoke. You get that burning wood aroma, like being around a meat smoker. The color was a dark brown that was moderately translucent. A thin tan head capped this beer off and dissipated quickly.

I have never really found a smoked beer that I am hog-wild over. Mostly, I think they taste like liquid Slim Jim's. I found this bottle at a store on clearance and knew well enough to just buy it without asking. I was pleasantly surprised.

The first taste is filled with that woody smoke from the aroma. As it washes over the pallet, the more complex flavors begin to shine. First was that meaty jerky flavor. Next came a warm boozy wooden taste. As it warmed and I continued to drink, the nuance began to become more noticeable. The bottle claims a fig, raisin and plum taste. They weren't kidding. There was a very earthy date and fig taste with the mild sweetness of raisins, mostly on the finish.

I was happy with this beer, though it is one I only wanted a bit of and not often. I would love to see this in smaller bottles so that I didn't feel like I wasted so much of something that had such a complex tone to it, overall. It was sippable, not drinkable. Smoke was a beer I will keep an eye out for in the future. As for the rest of the bottle? It just got used to make some beef jerky. Yep, I said it. Stay tuned for that post next week. Never let a good beer go to waste.

Beer: Smoke
Style: Baltic Porter
Brewery: Surly Brewing
ABV: 9.5%
Served from: Bomber
Rating: 4.5/5

It’s just about that time of year where folks will head out to the wine stores to gather up the finest in Thanksgiving appropriate wines to share around the dinner table. This year, I’ve switched gears completely and I will be offering up a variety of craft beers to go with our turkey and taters.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is very strange for me. I used to spend hours at the store, talking to wine professionals about the planned foods and what wines would be best… And this year, I take to the internet to find out if any of the million beers. Here are a few of the articles I’ve found!

GQ has a say, apparently. They would like all the classy men out there to know the best pairings for the man trying to impress his loved ones. On this list, I've got Rogue Ales Pumpkin Patch. It's definitely a contender for my family's celebration.

Serious Eats offers a guide to Thanksgiving beer pairings as well. They even include a little bit for dessert pairings. I do have a few barley wine beers, so they may be making a showing as well!

CraftBeer.Com has a pretty great list that divides their pairing suggestions out by beer style. I have surprisingly few on this list. However, there is a beer called Ninja Vs. Unicorn. I am fairly certain I would give my left arm to try one of those out. Also, all of this talk of Cigar City Brewing... I feel like I am severely missing out. A cucumber infused beer?! REALLY? Why have I not had this?

Last but not least, WineMag has a little piece on beers. Do I trust a wine site with my beer lists? Well, they rated a beer I have as their top choice, so maybe. I sometimes think of wine people like the Sharks and the Jets. There be turf wars up in here, yo. However... I guess the basic idea of pairings is universal between the Jets and the Sharks territory. Maybe we can just street fight dance our differences out.

Well there you have it. A quick little piece on Thanksgiving beer pairings where I tell you nothing but let others do the talking for me. I hope you've got a good list going for your own celebration! What will you be bringing to the table?
 

Welcome to Monday, friends. I can say with certain authority that it is definitely a Monday.

All Monday-ness of today aside, it was a beer-filled weekend for this zombie.

That’s right! I ventured out into Minneapolis with three great friends for the country’s largest (and first) Zombie Pub Crawl. This ain’t no freshman pub crawl. This is a balls to the walls crawl, filled with 30,000 of your best zombie friends. Sublime played a main stage show. So did A Flock of Seagulls (and many other local acts, including Solid Gold and an array of local hip-hop). I happened to miss both of these, but nevertheless, a great time was had. There was even a ferris wheel offering free rides to zombies all night long in the family-friendly Quarantine Zone.

We started our night out at the Republic – home to the sour/wild beer festival we had attended the previous weekend. Along with our  quick appetizer, we had our first round. My selection was Sweet Yamma Jamma. This is your non-traditional “pumpkin” beer, which was actually made with yams and pumpkin spices such as clove and all spice. I’m a big fan of the seasonal pumpkin beer, and this blew most out of the water in my opinion. It was spicy and sweet without being over-brazenly PUMPKIN flavored. It tasted like a crisp fall afternoon, and I am already on the lookout for a six pack or two for Thanksgiving this year. It was yammy gold!

Moving on to Town Hall, a local bar that brew much of their own beer, we tried our hand  at August Schell’s BRAIN BELT. It should be made clear that it really is just Grain Belt in a fancy, zombie-covered can… But if you ask me, this just made it all the more special. What is to be said about Brain Belt? It’s your classic anyone-will-like-this beer that you can bring to any frat party or garage beer-pong game. Easy enough to drink with enough flavor to not be that watery urine beer. We had to have one to say we did.

I also sampled Duchesse De Bourgogne by Brouwerij Verhaeghe in Belgium – a sour beer on tap at Town Hall that poured a deep, deep burgundy. The beer itself was named after Mary of Burgundy and was quite the tasty Flanders style Red Ale. It was quite heady and fragrant, reminding me of the smell of a good, rich cherry Cavendish. That dark Bing cherry flavor was very prominent, and the tobacco-like flavor hit lightly at the finish of the beer. I really enjoyed this one, and I might have drank it far too fast. It was cool and smooth and just what this zombie needed.

Moving on to Maxwell’s, I ordered up a Hop Dish by Lift Bridge Brewing in Stillwater, understanding this may mean certain death for me. Little known fact about Kat: as much as I love beer, I have a bit of a hop allergy akin to hay fever. Thankfully it isn’t the itchy, rashy kind of allergy, so I just pain through it in the name of good beer. This beer was exactly as advertised. HOP FORWARD doesn’t even begin to touch it. It was brewed with SEVEN (count them, SEVEN!) different kinds of hops to give it that crazy hoppy flavor. Strangely enough, there was a sweet taste of something like fresh King’s Hawaiian Rolls at the finish. It was like a punch in the mouth… followed by kiss on the cheek. I’m picky about my IPAs, and this one gets a great rating from me.

We zombie walked our way over to Grumpy’s where I ordered up another Minnesota beer – Surly Hell. My first taste of Surly Hell was at the Saint Paul Summer Beerfest two or three years ago, and I’ve loved this one ever since. It is a lager style beer, unfiltered and incredibly drinkable. I’ve never had Hell (which is named for being a very light in color beer – “hell” in German means “light”) on tap before, and this was a pleasant surprise. It was heady and yeasty, reminding me of fresh homemade breads with a very mild and palatable finish. I always forget just how much I like this beer when I’m out on a beer run.

I ended my night at the Eagle bar, dancing like a drunk zombie. Probably because I was a drunk zombie. Some things are easy to explain. I had a Leinenkugel’s Original on tap. Nothing special. Another easy beer to tote to the cabin and enjoy while floating in the water, brewed by our Wisconsin neighbors in Chippewa Falls.

To end the evening, as if it weren’t great enough, we found ourselves a Michonne. Fitting that the Zombie Pub Crawl was the day before the Walking Dead Season 4 Premiere! 

It was a great night, although it would have been nice to have more people actually playing the role of zombie, rather than just walking around like people dressed up like zombies. A few years back, most people actually lumbered along in that telltale ‘zombie shuffle’ grunting and groaning for brains. Ah, those were the days…