Friday, June 20, 2008

Days of the Beer, June 20

The beer for today is Central Waters Satin Solstice Imperial Stout.

Today is the solstice. In the northern hemisphere it is the longest day of the year; in the southern, it's the shortest (dealing with daylight... duh, every DAY is 24 hours long).

If you were above the arctic circle today, you could sit out and watch the sun dip down towards the horizon, but never quite disappear. Conversely, if you were on Antarctica, you wouldn't even see the sun today.

When I lived in Alaska from 92-95 I lived in Anchorage. I arrived there in early June, I got off the plane at 10 p.m. but thought it was 10 a.m. because it was daytime there. I had thought I set my clock wrong. It was really odd going to bars at 9 at night and the sun was up, staying in the bar until it closed at 3, and the sun still being up (it went down for a couple minutes while I was inside).

The beer for today is from Central Waters. Their website describes it as:

SATIN SOLSTICE IMPERIAL STOUT
This smooth, creamy stout and a crackling fireplace are the perfect answer to a wintery evening in Wisconsin. The rich coffee flavor compliments the "warm, fuzzy feeling" you get from the abundant alcohol. Enjoy in moderation.
Moderation is going to be the name of my bar!

I first had this beer at the Champaign Urbana Beer Club March meeting. It was caramel-ly, with strong vanilla tones. It was delicious. I (accidentally) picked up a 6-pack of it when we were in Wisconsin on May 9 traveling around to different breweries/pubs. Yeah, it may not be a "summer" beer, but live a little, drink a stout on the longest summer day.

Why drink a stout (let alone an Imperial Stout) in the summer? Well, a cold stout seems to hold it's temperature better than a wheat. So if you are gonna sip on a beer for an hour, sip on syrup, it'll stay colder longer.

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