On Beer

I like beer.

I like beer that tastes good and has style. I'm not a big fan of domestic massed produced brews, I can't remember the last time I bought a six-pack of regular american beer. Call me a beer snob, go ahead, I'll admit it.

I recently did taste an offering from anheuser-busch called 'shock top'. It's a wheat beer with some spice and flavoring - the label claims coriander and lemon - ok, I'll bite......

It was quite good, for a domestic massed produced beer. Not anywhere near my top two wheat favorites, Pete's Wicked Summer Ale or Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat, but not a bad effort.

Actually, I'm writing this post to extol the virtues of Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter. This porter was brewed as a commemorative to Hunter S. Thompson. Not only does it taste damn good - smooth, not sweet, not peaty - but it has 9% ABV. To quote one of the most indomitable cycling bloggers in the Ether - "Oh, Shitty". A friend of mine from The Emerald Isle proclaimed "Aye, That's good!"

Hunter Thompson was a prolific writer, journalist, and all around asshole. An unabashed hater of the political right, he published a couple of books called "a generation of swine", collections of his essays which were (for the most part) published in Rolling Stone Magazine, verbally assaulting the players and movers of the reagan administration. Of course, he is most famously known for his book 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'.

His most oft published quote is "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

He was best friends with Ralph Steadman, and Steadman does all the artwork for Flying Dog as well.

This is from the flying dog weblog - dated may of this year:

"Flying Dog’s brew team had one of the best showings at the World Beer Cup, winning three awards. Gonzo Imperial Porter received Gold for American-Style Imperial Stout, Old Scratch Amber Lager had a repeat win (from 2006) of a Silver award win for American-Style Amber Lager and Wild Goose IPA, a brew we make for the Mid-Atlantic region, won Gold for English-Style IPA."

Awarded the Gold for Gonzo Imperial Porter.......

Go find some, now, but please, don't drink and drive...