Voodoo Ranger Juice Force IPA

 9.5 % alcohol

A lot of orange. The alcohol is dominate.

Tastes ok,   I passed out a six pack and even these young kids said, "Woo, packs a punch."

I had two and that was plenty.  No headache the next day, so not bad!

We got this at Lucky's, they had a room of cold beer, which is a nice feature.  It was about $11 for a six pack.  But what was scary was a lot of four (4!) packs were going for $15 and more.  What is that all about?  Granted they were not 12 ounce beers, but still $2.50 per beer?  Perhaps I'm getting old.   

Rumor is the banks crash tomorrow and we'll be eating squirrels and liking it.  With saving gone, I guess we will walk to North Carolina and live on the 18 acre farm...

Elysian Altered Contact Tart IPA

Looks like another 6.5% alcohol from Elysian.

I like these with the citrus flavors, which seem to hang in there beyond a swallow or two. 

Nothing heavy in this one, though it tastes a bit thicker than some of the other Elysian beers.  Of course you are not getting sipping beers at this low alcohol level.  

Worth a try.

Maui Wowie

 This is a local beer, brewed in Livermore.  Altamont Brewery, I believe.

Alcohol is 6.5%.

Not sure what the IBU are, but not too tart.

Not a lot of citrus at first, but remarkably it never descends into a sour taste.  The near citrus flavor seems to just hang near by, but never becoming dominant.  Very strange, actually.

Tastes pretty good and worth a try.  I liked it.

Boatswain Double IPA

 Today's IPA is Boatswain Double IPA Twin Screw Steamer, Boatswain is the brand and I got this at Trader Joe's.

Before we get to the beer, let's talk about price.  I'm old and I can remember that a 12 pack of Stroh's (fire brewed) was about $6 a twelve pack.  Now that might not have been the best of beers, but the price was right and seemed reasonable for my income level and all.  

We skip ahead to the present where we can find four packs of beers for $13!  What is that all about?  Clearly there are forces for evil in the universe.  

Now I've got more money, but still balk at the prices of some of these craft beers.

Twin Screw Steamer...

8.4% alcohol.

No citrus.

About $5 a six pack.

One of the things I've not liked about IPAs is the intense sour taste of the beer.  And this one has a lot of that.  Imagine the taste in your mouth post throw up, it's a lot like that to me.

Now the amount of alcohol makes up for this a bit.  I like the thickness of this beer -- and I think that is mainly due to the alcoholic content of beers.

But for the price this is good.  Though I would prefer more citrus and less sourness, which seems to linger post-drinking.

To Go Where No One Went Before - IPAs! Elysian Contact Haze IPA

 Greetings beer fans.  I'm ashamed to state that I've started to like IPAs.  So we are going to have some posts about those.  (Renee says that liking IPAs is a sign of maturity.  Hmm, maybe.)

I bought a 12 pack of Elysian IPAs and it's the variety pack.  I thought about getting the blog going again about 90% of the way through the 12 pack, so there won't be posts about most of those.

Up today is the Elysian Contact Haze,

6% Alcohol

Nice hints of citrus.

Not too bitter.

All around a reasonable drink without any of the sour taste I associate with IPAs.  But as I drink it, the citrus seems to drop into the background.  I don't see wanting to drink two of these.  I suspect the low alcohol level also makes it taste a bit thin.

So, maybe a nice hot day drink.   It won't cloud the head with the lack of alcohol and the first flavor tones seem to recede with each mouthful.  A bit disappointing is my conclusion.

Legunitas Cappuccino Stout

Lots of hard words to spell in that title.

It's been a while since I've had a big bottle to myself and it feels...  a bit unnecessary as my father used to say.

The stout is rich and thick.  The alcohol is 9.3% and I can feel all of them.  IBU is 29.5.

All in all if you like the thick and powerful with hints of sweetness, this is a good one.

Ginger Beer

I've always liked the burn of ginger.  Ginger Chew candies are pretty good and Reed's Ginger Beer is pretty good.

But the beer is non-alcoholic, which is ok, but they want $1 a bottle for basically soda pop.

Then I ran across an blog post about how to make your own ginger beer.  Phil, golf buddy, has been making it too and tipped me off to inexpensive ginger at Costco.

It's a pretty simple recipe:

Grind a couple of ginger roots in a food processor.

Dump that with two cups of white (brown is an option) sugar and some cream of tarter in a sauce pan.
The blogger mentions that he likes to add red and black pepper in the mix for more spice.

Bring it to a boil, with some stirring, then let it cool and steep.

Filter the material to remove most of the pulp.  I used a hand held strainer, the blog post used cheese cloth, but we didn't have any.  That allowed a fair amount of pulp into the syrup. 

I bottled it and put it into the fridge.

I use about an inch of the syrup and fill the rest of a glass with soda water.  There is a nice burn to the drink, it has a touch of sweetness and all in all, pretty good.

I've not looked into fermenting it.  But it could be done.

Might be better for  summer weather, but if you like the flavor, give it a whirl.