Project Venus

I meant to post this yesterday and didn't, so let's pretend that it's still International Women's Day (thanks, Google, for letting me know) since the highlight of this post is Cambridge Brewing Company's Project Venus, a strong Belgian trippel brewed with orange blossom honey and saffron (!) that also happens to be the first and only known major collaboration in which all the brewers were women. The end result was bold, complex and spicy. Well done, ladies. It's not very often that my feminist ideals cross paths with my love of beer, so I was doubly pleased with this beer.

Picture not mine.
It's from the internet.

I've had a lot of really good beers since my last post, and one really bad. Getting the bad out of the way early, the low point of the week (and year for that matter) was Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat, which I mostly choked down just so I could complain about how awful it is. And because we'd run out of better beer, namely Tuckerman's Pale Ale. This beer tastes overwhelmingly of Fruity Pebbles. I guess some people love that about it. Those people don't actually like beer.

Fortunately, February ended with an especially good run of IPAs. Highlights included an after work trip to the People's Republic for Lagunitas IPA and Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, two great beers that showcase just how different IPAs can be. There is no better style of beer, in my most humble opinion. Then Williams Brothers Joker was on cask at Deep Ellum, and cask conditioning always makes everything better, especially ales.

March kicked off with a rough week of work but a strong late week run of beers. (Gee, think the two might be related?) Post work beverages for the week included Wednesday night's Sam Adams Noble Pils, brewed with all four noble hops, and Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout, which was very drinkable for 8% but was missing... something. Thursday I bought a six pack of Great Divide Belgica, and Friday brought a trip to Plough and Stars, a few PBR tall boys, and an Ithaca Ground Break. My notes: "I could drink A LOT of this." That's always good.

Hoppy Feet!

Saturday night Aaron and I decided to put our own spin on throwing a beer dinner, but instead of spending time laboring over a menu, cooking, or doing anything other than drinking beer, we just paired all the beers with the most obscenely unhealthy macaroni and cheese recipe I could find. (Highly recommended, by the way.) Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye showcased an impressive blend of rye, hops, and citrus flavors and Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet was one of the better black IPAs I've ever had. Unfortunately, Clown Shoes Brown Angel was disappointing on a number of levels. The beer itself fell flat, and the bottle's art bordered somewhere between tacky and racist.

In other news, someone was reading my beer list when I went in to update it today. I've arrived!

Beers Down: 95
Beers To Go: 269