Best Beers in Kitchen 2014

Once again, it's that time of year where we take a look back at all the fantastic brews we had out in the Kitchen last year. This is not a comprehensive list, and lord knows y'all are quite likely to disagree with my selections. Feel free to comment and add any that I might have missed! This was going to be a list of every beer I gave a 5 to on Untappd over the last year, but that turned out to be a ridiculous number: Holy Cow!!! I rated 57 different beers a full 5 stars in 2014. Either I've gotten much better at finding beers I really like or I've gotten much easier-going in my rankings. (Or I just drank a boatload of beers? Correlation is not causation, but let's not get carried away lookin' for root causes!)

So, rather than subject both my loyal readers to the entire list of Fives, I'll just babble till I hit a baker's dozen. And just so y'all don't get confused, we'll start off with a baker's choice:

1) Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Banana Ale from Rogue Ales. This brew did NOT rate a 5 first time I tried it in 2013. There was no PB flavor at all and the banana seemed to leave a nasty chemical aftertaste. However, I'd bought two bombers when I first came across this and since the first tasting didn't exactly hit the spot for me, I left the second in the back of the fridge for 14 months. The time in the fridge did wonders: it had become ever so delicious! Cooking with gas on all 6 burners, second time out!





2) Shake Chocolate Porter from Boulder Beer Company. Y'all know I just love a chocolate stout, and this porter was plenty close enough to flip my switches! Chocolate-covered cherries and lots of malty goodness. Just a hint of dry chalkiness towards the finish, but not at all detracting from the flavor.

3) Pearl Necklace from Flying Dog Brewery. Absolutely fantastic! Who couldn't love  this one? ;-P

4) Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout Nitro from Left Hand Brewing. If you're a fan of Russian Imperials, you're gonna love this one! Opens up with a lovely taste of chocolate-covered dates, with mebbe a hint of licorice. And that silky smooth Nitro feel! Just can't go wrong with this one!

5) Crabbie's Spice Orange Ginger Beer. It's like boozy Mtn Dew with a spicy little kick at the finish. I gotta figure out how to brew this stuff!

6) Goat Boy from Southern Tier Brewing. And not Goat Boy vs. Cow Man, this is some seriously good freakin' beer! Southern Tier nailed this Imperial Weizenbock.

 7) Chateau Jiahu from Dogfish Head. When the brewers consult with a molecular archeologist and the results would rock any academic library down to it's cornerstone, you just gotta luv it. How many times does a beer this tasty get an "All Things Considered" episode? Did I mention how tasty it is?!?!?

 8) Huge Arker Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout from Anderson Valley Brewing Company.
Wow! This is one big ass brew, and having been stored in Wild Turkey Bourbon barrels didn't exactly shorten its stature. Bourbon-soaked bread, smoky sorghum and molasses. Just a truly outstanding Imperial stout!

9) Stovepipe Crow from J.Lee's Brewhouse and BBQ Emporium (the Infamous Kitchen! lol) I was shooting for a Mole flavored stout, akin to New Holland's Mole Ocho. Big chocolate stout base, with 5 oz. of dried smoke Serrano peppers and several cinnamon sticks added to the secondary. Came out just hotter than a hell and tasty as all get out, if you can stand the heat! (As y'all know, ALL the beers coming outta the kitchen get their name from Ray Wylie Hubbard songs. This death and devil brew got it's name from a line in Ray's song "Tornado Ripe" ... "And if you was to see a crow on a chimney
Meant someody's fixin' to die." If you aren't up to the heat, then yeah, this brew'll kill ya! ;-)

"Find what you love, and let it kill you!" CB

 10) Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel, Raspberry & Chocolate Ale by Rogue Ales. The Rogue Ales/Voodoo Donut collaboration makes a second appearance in this list. This bottle wasn't aged, just chilled and popped. The magic is in the Hole! Lovely fresh pretzel up front with chocolate-covered raspberries followed by by a dry "clean" tasting finish.

 11) Warlock from Southern Tier Brewing Company. Wow! I'm a big fan of pumpkin ales, but I'd never encountered a pumpkin Stout before! Fantastic! Melted and slightly scorched pumpkin pie, absolutely unbeatable!

12) Marionberry Braggot from Rogue Ales. Yet another entry from Rogue Ales, unlinked at posting due to their server being down? Anywhos, tasted like blackberries dipped in honey, set to age for a spell. Barleywine with honey sorta taste?

 13) Envious (Vintage 2011) from New Holland. New Holland threw my definition of beer for a loop with this one! Way too much going on for my knockabout palate, but truly delicious, nonetheless! Very complicated, in a "lemme take another sip" sorta way that starts with sweet malt/tart raspberry and finishes almost like pear brandy. If you see it, grab a bottle and let me know what you think!










And there ya have it folks, the absolute best beers found in the Kitchen during 2014! Y'all may not find these as fantastic as I did, but I guarantee you will find them interesting! Thanks to both my dedicated readers, and I'll be back with more babbling next week! :-)

The Kitchen in NYC

Most of y'all (both my loyal readers) know that Amazon decided to send me to New York City for two weeks in December to help launch a new FC across the street from the Empire State Building.

Turns out, midtown Manhattan has some absolutely amazing beer bars! I managed to visit three while I was in the city.

First up was Rattle n Hum. Located at 14 East 33rd Street, it was only half a block out of my way on the walk from work to the hotel. Downright handy! ;-) (Didn't hurt there's a Papaya Dog on the corner of 33rd St. and 5th Ave.! They don't look like much, but those dogs taste just like Fairbury Red Dogs at a Nebraska game!)

They had 40 rotating taps, with some great selections. The staff was very personable and knowledgeable about the choices on hand, as well as incredibly patient with an out of town jackhat like myself. They also had the best flight paddles I've come across: shaped like a large beer bottle laid on its side, what made them so great was the chalkboard coating: the bartender could write your choices right on the paddle! None of that scrabbling around with your receipt or trying to remember what the hell you ordered and what order the 'tender said they were in on the paddle. Super handy for folks like me with the attention span of a distracted gnat!

Rattle n Hum had some of the most personable staff of any bar I've visited, and certainly the most knowledgeable and willing to chat about brews.

They also have fairly frequent and interesting "tap takeover" events. While I was in NYC, they had a Troegs takeover which was fantastic as Tröegs doesn't distribute in Kentucky. Tröegs makes some fantastic beers!

The next weekend, I made my way all the way to 11 East 36th Street to visit The Ginger Man. 70ish taps available, with some really outstanding variety and unique choices.

 Their flight paddles weren't anything to get excited about, but the bacon they add to their Ginger Man Dog was just out of this world. The tater salad had too many onions for my taste, but I

 usually don't like potato salad anyhow.

The staff was super friendly, and very willing to spare a moment to chat about beers, Untappd, etc.


After my last night at JFK7, I bounced all the way up to 300 W 40th St to visit Rattle n Hum's sister bar, Beer Authority. (It was cold and raining, it seemed like quite the hoof!) 80 brews on tap, three floors (rooftop view would be great if it wasn't 30 degrees and raining!) They had a fairly ridiculous flight ordering/pricing structure that nearly pushed me out the door, but their current web menu no longer mentions this...hopefully they dumped that nonsense. They had some fantastic selections, though somewhat less adventurous than Ginger Man or their sister bar Rattle n Hum.

 The "tap number on the paddle" worked, but it wasn't fantastic in bar lighting with small-print beer lists.

Before I sign off on this, I have to give a "thumbs-up" to the bartender at the Martinique Cafe. Stopped in there with a coworker and the "Free Drink" coupons the Radisson provided at check-in. It takes a true professional to put up with fussy out of town jackhats like me handing over coupons in place of cash while taking up valuable bar stool real estate. ;-0

Catching Up in the Kitchen!

Sorry it's been forever since I last posted! The latter half of 2014 was VERY busy, from the road trip to Wrigley Field right through the couple weeks I spent in NYC in December (ostensibly for the purpose of helping launch Amzn's most recent FC in Manhattan) but y'all know I was really there for the beer! This post would be much too long if I tried to dump all this on the table at once, so I'll drop a bit of it at a time, to avoid boring both my devoted readers to tears!

Wrigley Field celebrated its 100th year in 2014, so I figured I'd better haul my butt up there for a game and the full tour.

The tour was money well-spent! They dragged us all over the ball park, so you got to see a lot more than you would just catching a game, and learn a lot of Wrigley history in the process.

Of course, after the tour, we had a couple hours to kill before the game. Fortunately, Goose Island Beer Company has a brewpub location just up the street from Wrigley. They are swamped on game days, so they have a "fixed flight" menu (three of their most popular beers and one seasonal offering, absolutely no substitutions.) So I was only able to try one new beer that day, a Belgian Brown Ale called Hagglethorn. It rated a 4.5, so it turned out to be a good choice. 

 Their menu consisted of typical bar fare. Sounded and looked great. Unfortunately, they were so busy their fried options had that greasy "not quite cooked through" taste and feel you get when your fryer is set to too low a temperature...or you're so busy your fryers can't keep up with the volume. So if it's game day, I'd take a pass on the food. Have some great beers and grab a couple dogs at the game!

And back to the game! I was in the cheap seats, but I managed to grab an Old Style while the Cubs lost. Mebbe this year will be "Next Year!"

After the game, we headed for Munster, Indiana and Three Floyds Brewing Company. Showed up at 8:45 on a Saturday night, and there was still a 45 minute wait to be seated. Very much worth the wait, though! Our wait was shortened somewhat by the party ahead of us: they decided to buy a six pack at the "to go" kiosk off to the side of the brewpub to tide them over while they waited, despite the signs warning guests in no uncertain terms that they would be asked to leave. 

Anyhow, I was able to try a couple of amazing beers while there. On the left is Deesko! a Berliner Weisse that was absolutely delicious. It's not a year-round offering, but can be found outside the brewpub. On the right is Speed Ball, a coffee stout that was also fantastic. Unfortunately, it is only available at the brewpub (so far.) They also had the most amazing fried cheese curds ever.

 The staff was super friendly, the beers and food were amazing. Well worth the trip and the wait!