Dogfish Head Raison D’etre

Sweet and savoury!!!

Beer : Raison D’etre

Brewery : Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Brewed In : Delaware, United States

Style : Belgian Strong Dark Ale

ABV : 8%

Price : $4 roughly, although I honestly cannot recall exactly how much I paid for this.

Notes : Rotating.  Available in bottles, tap or growlers.

Story : One of my return trips to Edmonton where I spent a little too much cash on beers I grabbed a couple of bottles of these tasty treats.

Appearance : Dark, dark amber with a red hue, you can see the bubbles rising, almost like a bottle of Coke.  Not much head, and it dispersed pretty quickly.

Smell : A slightly feint smell of cinnamon, with raisin and grapes.

Taste : The raisin is there but not as strong as the apple, grapes and banana.  It has a little bit of spice in the finish.

Mouthfeel : A medium body that coats the tongue and stays there for a good long time, leaving the taste linger for a good minute.

Drinkability :  A tasty beverage that could be consumed during the cold winter nights or the hot summer days.  Really wish I did not have to drive to Alberta to pick up some of these. Although it is a sweeter beer so I am not sure how much I could drink of these.  They also could be deadly with an 8% ABV that you do not notice while drinking the beer.

The Great Burger Hunt - The Beachcomer

Where I sat on a patio and ate a burger!

Last Friday was gorgeous I think I would have felt sad if I did not take advantage of the nice weather. So text messages were sent out, tweets tweeted, and my Facebook status was updated inquiring on who would join me at The Forks to have a few drinks on the patio. While it was not a large crew who showed up at the Forks, Christopher and Josh joined me at The Beachcomber for some beverages in the sun.

Naturally I ordered myself a burger to review, although the diverse menu really had me considering other options. Christopher and Josh did the same.

I ordered myself a Mushroom and Swiss burger. It sounded so delicious.  I was getting hungry as the food took a while since it was so busy. By the time the food arrived I was starving for my.... Bacon Cheeseburger?

Yes the waiter misheard or the cooks screwed up; one of the two.

PHOTO TAKEN BY CHRISTOPHER GIBSON

But I wasn't planning on sending it back as I cannot say no to bacon!  It just looked so delicious. And well, mistakes happen. I've made them myself many times when I worked in the food industry.

This burger was topped with lettuce, tomato, cheese, bacon and the usual condiments. Aside from a few brown spots on the edge of the lettuce the veggies were superb. Whoever put on the relish must love the stuff though as the burger was lathered in far too much of it. The burger itself was quite seasoned but still good.  The fries were excellent!  I've been on a streak of having good fries everywhere and hope this trend continues of fries that have a nice seasoning and are crispy.

Well I'm sold on coming back here for more drinks and food. Whether I try another burger or not is another story as the rest of the food looks and sounds yummy.

Price Value : 3/5

Menu Selection : 5/5

Burger Taste : 3/5

Fries Taste : 5/5

Overall : 4/5

Some Q & A?

On Internet Boyfriends!!!!

Ryan and Joey were wonderful enough to let me back on their podcast Internet Boyfriends !  This time as the Question Master, or Quiz Master, or something like that.  I ask the questions fans submitted in Part One .  But on Part Two they let me ask all the questions!!!!  (insert evil laugh)

Check em out!!!!!

Part One
Part Two

Or subscribe in iTunes here !!!

Weekend of Awesome

Lots of awesome!

Guess I should start this off by saying I have got a new job and received my first cheque from it on Friday to start off this past weekend!  Yes I finally escaped the office life (again).  This time I am working for a roofing company doing some work around the yard and driving around the city.  So far I love it.  Pay is much better and I have way less stress, so that equals a happy Colin .

Friday got even better after I got paid as I spent the night with Daniella drinking some multicultural beers, eating some pierogi pizza from BP’s and finally sat down to watch Catfish !  Now I can finally listen to the Nabe Society episode where I hope Rich and George say good things about the movie.

I can say it was a very weird movie.  Not sure if it is one I would recommend because I can see a lot of people (including my friends) not enjoying it.  Although I did enjoy the way it was shot and made but I can see why others may not.  This movie creeped me out pretty good too!  Makes me rethink meeting all those internet friends…. Hahahaha.  Not at all actually since I have met too many solid folks through the magic of Twitter.

Saturday was another good day as Adrian and Kevin woke me wanting to go for brunch.  Of course I could not say no, even with little sleep, I pulled my clothes on and went to Cora’s for brunch.  The plate was very full and delicious.  I was so full I almost didn’t finish my bacon!  Key word there… almost.  Somehow on the way home we came up with the idea to have a barbeque before going to sing karaoke at the pub.

So we hunted down some nice steaks and made some marinade for them with a bottle of Trois Pistoles, garlic, cloves, brown sugar, and more garlic.  While the steaks sat in the delicious marinade I went and played basketball with Brett and Kelvin .  Sure the sun has kicked my ass the past few weeks but a little sunscreen and I was good to go!!!

Eventually I was drained and needed a shower, plus a beer.  So home I went to clean myself up and crack a beer or two (or three) with Adrian and Kevin while we cooked our steaks on the barbeque.  Tweet at Adrian or Kevin if you want to know how tasty the steaks were.

After our food digested we walked down to the Fox and Hounds to meet up with some more friends.  We planned to sing some karaoke.  Typical me, I sung my usual Oasis and Bush but tried Eminem (probably a mistake), and Kevin and I did our epic duet of "Tiny Dancer" (it is a karaoke ritual).

Sunday I caught up on sleep before playing more basketball.  Then I checked out my friend Brent’s open house, which he did a good job of flipping.  Daniella also came over for a little bit and watched Seinfeld’s stand up, possibly as a primer for the show in September.  My night ended with some beer and watched Jason Kidd and Disco Dirk win the NBA Finals!  To say it was a good weekend would be an understatement!!!!!

Samuel Adams Noble Pils

Grab some while you can!!!

Beer : Noble Pils

Brewery : Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams)

Brewed In : USA

Style : Czech Pilsener

ABV : 4.8%

Price : $2.14 (or some such number like that)

Notes : Spring release.  Find it on tap some places and even growlers but most will find the bottles.

Story : I am not very familiar with the Samuel Adams beers.  Really I have heard very mixed things about them.  Figured we needed to get acquainted.  Hello Mr. Beer, nice to meet you, now I will drink you.  Or some such exchange…it is late…leave me alone!!

Appearance : A white lacey head about two fingers deep.  Clear yellowish gold with a a few bubbles rising to the surface.

Smell : Citrus hops is the prominent smell with a bit of earthiness to it.

Taste : My pallet is a little wrecked as I have been consuming coffee all day long, trying to write this damn Politics paper (or I was when I wrote this) so take the taste with a grain of salt because I still taste coffee which I am pretty sure is not in this beer!!!!  I can taste a honey aspect to this beer though, which is the first thing I picked up on after the citrusy hops.  It finishes with a bit of a malt and cracker flavour.

Mouthfeel : This beer is crisp and clean but is fairly carbonated.  It is quite refreshing though.

Drinkability : I could see myself drinking this again.  Probably a good beer to bring to a party as it is not too expensive, the ABV is not very high so you could drink a few, and if someone snagged a bottle when I was not looking I would not be too worried.