Cornucopia of Beers: Hop Stoopid and More

One Woman's alter-ego, m., has been recovering from last Friday's big event called "oral exams" – no, it's not a trip to the dentist, but what the folks in the questionably quake-proof ivory towers call a "rite of passage" for PhD students. The diversionary tactics were a success.

Disaster averted, exams passed, and there have been many, many, (*gasp*) undocumented beers between then and now. 

Here's the digest version of highlights:

Friday, May 7 – Hop Stoopid and more
A cornucopia of beers prepared by loving colleagues (thank you--!!) awaited as m. stumbled down the stairs after a 3-hour oral exam. Beers of the day: Lagunitas: Hop Stoopid (8% ABV, 102 IBUs--very hoppy, goes straight to your head. Hop stoooooopid~); Northcoast Brewery: Pranqster, a Belgian style golden ale, that has the pleasant aroma of Belgian yeasts, but the audacity of a punky Californian ale (one of my favorite California beers); and Grolsch--a personal favorite of the fantastic vodka-infusion specialist/ethnomusicologist, rb--a thirst-quenching Lager that's a Dutch classic. One Woman is really blessed to have such wonderful colleagues.

Saturday, May 8 – Indian Wells: Lobotomy Bock and Groupo Modelo: Pacifico
Perfect beers for hangin' with the dogs and watching radio DJs play softball.

Photo by mch. Model: "Bowpi"

Sunday, May 9 – Dark Horse: Boffo Brown Ale; The Livery: Karhu IPA; Shawnee: Session Mild; New Jersey Garden State Stout (first release!)
Stepping off the plane at JFK, One Woman was whisked off to the 2nd Williamsburg Cask Ale Festival by This One Guy.

There's something wonderful about the warmth of the cask ales – it's beer for sipping slowly, letting the flavors dance... The Garden Stout was a nice maiden voyage of a keg: Yummy tart cocoa, light roasted coffee, a little acidic, and has that malty fresh-baked bread taste of small-batch beers. Congrats on your new release, Jersey! I'll hold the reviews of the others for another time.

Monday, May 10 – Mikkeller's Pale Ale
One Woman snuggled into a corner on the mini porch at her favorite East Village weird beer bar temple of beer, Burp Castle, with this Mikkeller's Pale Ale. See my earlier post for details on the brewery, but wow! Once again, the Mikkeller dudes do it up right. It's a translucent mahogany color, and has a lively grapefruit taste that lingers. Head is well-crafted with bubbles of different sizes, making this beer a very pretty one to admire. There's some magic in the mix of malt and bold hops--Turkish Delight? Burnt honey? Yummy. Okay, and the crazy final word on this one: it goes really well with cookies. Always ready for the unexpected, One Woman pulled out a Momofuku Milkbar Compost Cookie--excess in legendary cookie form--from her purse (what the?!) and sampled it with the beer. The cookie itself is very complex (its ingredients include butterscotch and chocolate chips, graham crumbs, pretzels, potato chips, and coffee grinds. wow.), but the butter envelops the bitter of the beer while bringing out more of its toastyness, while the coffee grains in the cookie ad another dimension to the beer--a stoutness, if you like. Then, the salt in the cookie makes all the flavors pop. Weird, yes, but cool.

nyc al fresco chez burp castle. no, it's not a chimay.

Musical Pairing: Jem and the Holograms! (theme song). The question is, who's actually cooler, Jem, or the Misfits?! Click to listen and enjoy.