Suds's beer week in review: February 4-February 10

This week of potential beer fun was ruined by snow! (Missed a Super Bowl party due to snow [though 30 ounces of BA stouts over lunch may've contributed to our no-go decision], cut short Thursday night due to more snow and stayed in Friday night due to still more snow)

Total beers tasted: 20 (shared a few with a bud on Thursday night) 

• Best beer: Prop '17. I'm a superfan! Just agreed to trade a bunch of bottles for another bottle, in fact. The banana finish is losing some of its banana flavor and just presenting as a nice sweetness to close out the upfront burst of cinnamon.
• Second-best beer: Pliney the Elder. I was bummed not to make it to Russian River for the Pliney the Younger release last weekend (couldn't justify dropping a grand to chase a tick), but was happy that a bud brought me some PtE back. It's still a beautifully balanced beer, though I think all the NEIPAs I drink these days made it seem like it should be named Piney the Elder. (See what I did there?)
• Third-best beer: Trademark Dispute Orange Label Coconut. The beer that was once Nooner 10 and is now Greatest Hits Coconut has held up well more than a year after release. Cycle BA stouts are totally in my wheelhouse and I can't wait to drink all five of the Greatest Hits together this weekend! 
• Fourth-best beer: Double Barrel VSOD. BA Rev is good Rev. This is among the best of the Winter 2017-2018 cans. Still partial to Cafe Deth, I suspect.
• Fifth-best beer: Cryo Citra. Citra Ninja helped put Pipeworks on the map, and this brand-new remix of it takes me back to those Halycon days of exciting new beer discoveries in my own backyard.

Beer bummers

• Madagascar '18, I am not really feeling you. Have you changed or is it me? Were you always so thin, was your finish always so milky? Did a bud really favorably compare you to Vanilla Rye just three years ago? SMGDH
• King Sue. Way too much cat pee in the December batch!
• Fresh IIPA V10 (Fresh by 02.27.18). I've had a dozen or so of the beers in Hubbard's Cave's "Fresh by" series, and this is the second time I've opened an oxidized bottle that looks like a coma patient's urine and tastes almost as bad. Up your game, Hubbard's Cave!

Breweries visited: None. (I know, right? Was supposed to hit a pair on Friday.)

Beer read of the week: This. Though the final three rounds were sort of silly, the first four are something I want to do with my beer buds some time soon-ish.

Other beer read of the week: This here. Dammit people, grow up!

Tastiest thing tasted: Totally drawing a blank. Nothing all that inspiring. Maybe the Pad Thai from Sushi House? It was a different, "wet" take on the classic dish, and I swear they threw like three eggs in there on top of a crazy amount of tofu. But they didn't give us any chili paste to go with it, dammit!

Best stroke of luck: Winning the "lottery" that was the Henna batch 3 presale. Tix sold out in less than a second. For a non-BA stout. Can't wait to try it on draft and then share a bottle that night next Saturday!

That's all for now. 

Suds's beer week in review: January 28-February 3

Total beers tasted: 22 (shared a number of bottles with some buds on Wednesday night) (also got silly Friday night with five different 12-ounce cans of Marz NEIPAs I had in the fridge that needed to be drank sooner or later)

• Best beer: Central Waters XX. Great creamy mouthfeel, fantastically fudgy chocolate and barrel notes. IMO it may well be the best anniversary stout they've done since 16.
• Second-best beer: Smooth Whopperator from Mikerphone. Ridiculously thick malted chocolate milk stout. Loved my little pour; hated not being able to stay for more but I do not enjoy traffic and I would've been in the thick of it if I had.
• Third-best beer: Mango Smoothie Resist from The Brewing Projekt. This may have been the best milkshake-style IPA I've ever had. Not that I've had many, since I don't trade for East Coast stuff and the local ones I've had have been rather meh.

Breweries visited: Half Acre, Mikerphone and Energy City

• Notes on Half Acre: I was there Tuesday, when they were rolling out the new food menu. I'd somehow never eaten at the OG Lincoln Avenue spot (true fact: if HA had been around ca. 2000-2002, it would've been barely a block from my apartment). I opted for the brisket burrito, which came with chimichurri  potatoes. Both the main dish and the side were delicious; likely the second best thing I ate all week.
• Notes on Mikerphone: It's always great to hit Mikerphone and tick their latest brews. I was there the week before but just to grab bottles because the tap room line was really long for the Vanillanoize release. The bar on this Thursday was full up so I was forced to sit with strangers and interact with them and stuff.  ;)   Also had an employee tease about something cool that is coming up but I can't for the life of me guess what it is but I already plan to be there on the day he mentioned. 
• Notes on Energy City: I've heard good things about Energy City's beers. They release once a month AFAIK, and it looks like they do bombers of NEIPAs, stouts, porters, etc. Today was a release day so I headed over there after we got out early from some volunteer work we try to do one Saturday morning a month over at the Northern Illinois Food Bank. After about 10 minutes of waiting I was barely inside the door, but the vibe seemed pretty cool. Basically on their release days the brewer talks about the beers and hands out samples to people who are waiting to buy bottles. Once I found out that the NEIPA had kicked I decided not to leave my wife waiting in the car any longer and we had to meet friends for lunch, so I bailed. But I hope to actually buy from them some time in the future and chat with the brewer!

Tastiest thing tasted: Chicken and Waffles at NWB 

Best stroke of luck: Winning the TG Assassin lottery. It's literally the first beer event lottery I've won since an Upland Sour release lottery like four years ago. The release is also going to be a fascinating experience, I think.

Other future-forward beer stuff: I bought two tickets for KBS Week, so I'll be getting a double allocation during a single-day up-and-back in early March. I have already pledged a number of bottles to friends and will likely trade a bunch of it if it's as meh as last year's batch was. I failed to get a ticket for Spiteful's upcoming event (they sold out in a minute and I literally forgot about it until five minutes into the sale), so let's not even talk about that right now.