Food Blog

Sadly the 365 beer page has gone away It was great idea which became popular, but the creator understandably couldn’t handle the flood of drunks heading his way. He probably should have cut off new drinkers by the first few days of January.

In any case, I’m still resolving to continue on my quest to find as many different on-tap beers as possible this year. A few people have expressed an interest in joining this quest, including a bartender who exclaimed “My life has meaning again!” So, if you’ve started on this quest, keep on keeping track, and I might set something up where a few select others can share their progress.

In the meantime here’s a beer…

5) Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale. I ordered and drank this beer without the slightest idea it was an Anheuser-Busch product. As I drank it I was saying to myself “how could any self-respecting brewer spend the effort and expense on this style and release this?” Not that it was bad, just not very refined, way off balance and tasting more like it was flavored, rather than crafted. My answer came when I later looked it up and realized it wasn’t a self-respecting brewer. The style involves taking a strong beer with the ability to age, and storing it real bourbon barrels, to take on the naunces of bourbon and oak. Goose Island has a few great examples of this.

This beer has a sweet caramel vanilla nose with almost no head, just a thin ring around the glass. The flavor is sweet, cloying but drinkable, with vanilla extract and caramel, ending with a burnt caramel finish. Faint hints of bourbon, but more of fake bourbon flavor that might be concocted in a flavor factory, not like real, complex single cask craft bourbons. 6%ABV. Not bad, but not worth wasting “all-imported hops”, “toasted bourbon oak casks” and “madagascar vanilla beans” on if you’re not going to create an over-the-top beer.

If you’re an adventurous beer drinker, it’s worth giving this a try, because it’s interesting attempt by AB, just not interesting enough to have a second one.

AB has produced a few other reserves aged in casks – Michelob Celebrate and Brew Masters’ Private reserve, both at higher ABVs. I had seen these in a liquor store somewhere, but they seemed rather expensive to me at the time.

The Bar was Bar Louie, in Evanston. If you’re unfamilar with this chain, it’s a fairly decent restaurant/bar that I’d compare to a more urban, hip, Applebee’s. Okay, not that bad. I’ve been a fan of their wings since I tried them in their first location near my office on Chicago Ave. They’ve always had a good on-tap list, although they do tend to stay reasonably mainstream with the larger macros. There was a time when they were a little more expensive than most taps in Evanston, but it seems everyone else has caught up. I’ll be back for a few of their more uncommon taps to watch them change seasonaly. I noticed they have Goose Island Christmas and a Paulaner which I’ve put on my to-do list.