Epic Family Beer Tasting

John August 10, 2010

beer

I come from a small family and the family I do have is spread out around the country. My brother in town for the Summer which represents one of the longest stretches of time my immediate family has been together in the last 6 years. He’s heading back home to North Carolina next week so the family decided to get together over quality beer and good food. Hardik at The Wine Seller hooked us up with some pretty fantastic beers and it was one hell of a night.

We tried to get a variety of different beers from a variety of places. Not as many American micro brews as I would have liked, but we put together a pretty nice selection. The “quality” choices included the following.

St. Pauli Girl
Fuller’s ESB
Founders Devil Dancer
Kell’s Irish Style Lager
Jolly Pumpkin B.S. Bam Hoppy Farmhouse Ale
Chimay Premiere
Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Brew
Brooklyn Local 2
Delirium Tremens
Fuller’s London Pride

We didn’t just get good beer though. We had to mix in some “run of the mill”, and in some cases awful, choices as well. It was nice to be able to compare the good beers to absolute shit. Really makes you appreciate your beer a little more.

Miller Genuine Draft
Budweiser
Heineken
Corona
Molson Canadian
Fosters

After five hours of drinking great beer, eating good food(including my world famous queso) we met to discuss our thoughts on the beer. My memory is a bit hazy, but random thoughts include…

Founders Devil Danceris the best IPA I have ever had. Think about the most bitterness you could pack into an IPA and this is what you would get. This isn’t just a beer, but more of an experience. The first sip is intense but it mellows out after a while. I would have trouble drinking more than one of these due to the intense flavor. Incredible beer and easily the beer of the night.
Jolly Pumpkin’s Hoppy Farmhouse Ale is one of the most interesting beers I’ve had in a while. Very earthy farmhouse flavor, but very drinkable.
I hadn’t had Delirium in a while and I’m confused as to why. To me, the stuff is very similar to champagne. Delicious and very carbonated.
Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Brewwas delicious. If you can get your hands on some, I would highly recommend it.
Miller Genuine Draft is AWFUL. Just in case you didn’t already know that.
While it’s not great, Budweiser resists the “complete shit” label and does an admiral job standing up to the higher quality beers. I’m not saying Budweiser is a top choice for me, but when it comes to mass produced American beer, I feel like Budweiser is one of the better ones.

In closing, I just want to throw this out there… When you Google “Delirium Tremens”, the following comes up from Google Health:

Delirium tremens is a severe form of alcohol withdrawal that involves

sudden and severe mental or neurological changes. Symptoms most

commonly occur within 72 hours after the last drink

Poutine Burger at Grange Kitchen & Bar

John August 9, 2010

Ann Arbor, Food Reviews

ann arbor, burger, cheese, poutine

Weeks ago, I wrote about Poutine and how much I loved it. It was a simple, yet glorious post and it called out one of the most delicious piles of slop I have ever eaten in my entire life. Recently, I was catching up on my reading over at my other home on the web, AnnArbor.com, and I came across Jessica Webster’s article on the best burgers in Ann Arbor.

What I saw almost made me shoot projectile tears at the monitor. That almost sounds like some sort of EMO kid thing. I feel a little weird now.

A time ago, Grange Kitchen & Bar decided they would begin serving a Poutine Burger.

Yes, a Poutine Burger. A Burger topped with Poutine. Poutine resting on a burger patty. Poutine. Burger. Just for the record that’s a grilled grass-fed burger, aged cheddar, French Fries and creamy cheese curds in a duck confit gravy.

Feast your eyes on this beauty:

Apparently they’re not currently serving this beautiful creation, which brought the projectile tears back out but for a whole new emotion, so I will not be able to try it anytime soon. Please, Grange Kitchen & Bar. Bring it back.

update:

Grange left me a comment informing me that as long as Poutine is on the menu, this burger is available. Time to wipe off my computer screen.

Check out their website. Really interesting concept and menu. I’ll be visiting this place very soon.

Grange Kitchen & Bar
118 W. Liberty
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
http://www.grangekitchenandbar.com

Making Dinner for Your Vampire Boyfriend!!!

admin August 5, 2010

Funny, Randoms

food, Funny, recipes, vampires

Ok, so first I promised my cousin Jeremy that I would say this is written by me, Penelope, and not him. Happy? Like anyone would confuse me for one of Jeremy’s boring “I’m cool because I’m angry” stuff about cupcakes or Bud Light Golden Wheat, which BTW is not as good as BL Lime I had at my friend Madison’s 16^th bday. He told me he would pay me $50 if I fed his cats and wrote a post for this food website while he is on vacation so here I am. So what should I write about?

So I thought, what is the one thing that everyone wants, irregardless of whoever you are, or like whatever you believe in and all that stuff? That’s easy, forgetting your normal life and your gossip queen friends and all their lame drama and hooking up with your super hot and sensitive vampire boyfriend! Ok, my BF isn’t a vampire, but it would be totally cool if he was. My real boyfriend sometimes doesn’t call me for days sometimes because he’s playing Call of Duty or Madden football or some other geek thing like that. If he were a vampire, he would appreciate me more. So then I would cook for him! Now I’m lucky if I can get him to take me to Taco Bell.

Ok, but this is writing and stuff so lets pretend he is a vampire and totally hot and in love with me. But what I would cook? I’ve made cookies a couple times and I made mac and cheese once. Do vampires even taste stuff? If I had a vampire BF we would usually just lay around in the woods and look longingly at each other. I know that the whole “Vampires can’t eat garlic” stuff isn’t true, but why risk it and besides I don’t want him to have yucky breath when he tells me he is willing to sacrifice everything for me.

So what does every guy like, even if it’s a regular guy or a 112 year old vampire trapped in some hot guy’s body? Steak, and bloody too! When I eat steak which is like hardly ever because my Mom and Dad are on this dumb “don’t eat it if it didn’t grow in the earth” diet (where do cows come from, duh!), I hate it when it is all dry and burned. So I’ll make him a steak and cook it rare. I think a vampire would like that!

But first I need an appetizer like mozzarella sticks or the asian lettuce wraps they have at Chili’s. If your going to cuddle up with a vampire, always remember that they are cold blooded. Ewwwww! So for appetizer, give him soup! Make him and his body warm, and maybe he won’t be so clammy when it is time to get close!

So soup for an appetizer and steak for the main course, but what about dessert? Nothing says I love you and think you are cute more than a cupcake! I’m going to decorate them in red, and I totally found these joke valentine hearts that say “bite me” and I’m going to put them on the cupcakes too. I’m sure he will tell me he thinks I am really funny after he sees that.

I don’t have recipes or anything but I’m sure you can look stuff up online and find it yourself. Anyway that was kind of fun. If I have time I might do another one of these. I hoped everyone liked it!! Bye!

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