Big Brad's Birthday

Last night, Skot, Big Brad, Kriddy, and I (later joined by Paddy) went to the Blind Pig Co. for some alcoholic beverages in celebration of Big Brad's 51st Birthday Bash.

Brad and Skot started their evenings off with tulips of Samichlaus '08 (at least the bartender said it was '08). I went with a Duchesse De Bourgogne. The Duchesse was better than I remember. It was a lot sweeter than I thought, and did have a drying red wine feel to it.

My next beer was the Flensburger Weizen. This one was ok. It didn't quite have the fruity banana flavor to it that I had hoped, but it was still passable. While I was drinking this, Skot went with the Brugse Zot. That beer had LOTS of floculation, probably too much. I saw him stir up the bottle at the end of his pour, but he claims he didn't. So, I think it's party his fault for the cottage cheese consistency he got out of the beer.

Next, Skot and I split a bottle of Altenmunster Maibock. This one was ok too, not that great, and hardly memorable. At some point Kriddy showed up and got a glass of Founders Breakfast Stout. It's not a bad go-to beer, when you don't know what else to have. Nothing looks too appealing... fine, I'll have a b'fast stout. Wouldn't you possibly kill to have that kind of let down?

Brad then got a sampler platter of all the beers he hadn't had yet. There were 7 glasses in front of him, so I'll see if I can find them all.

Atwater Voodoo Vator, came out being very smokey.

Unibroue Maudite, for being a belgian strong ale, it had better hefeweizen qualities than the weizen that I had earlier.

Delerium Noel, surprisingly good, considering my pure hatred for the DT, and DNoc.

Two Brothers Northwind, seemed way to smokey. Wasn't bad, just had a lot of smoke in it.

While Brad was drinking these, Skot and I started to split a bottle of the White Winter Sweet Mead. Brad demanded we get him a glass, so we did. As it was a mead, it did have the appearance, and some of paint thinner. But, it was one of the most deliciously sweet paint thinners you'll ever huff.

While drinking that, we headed back and played some cutthroat cricket. I somehow managed to win the first game, and then when we abandoned the second game, I think Brad was in the lead.

The beer following the mead for me was Samichlaus. Either this years seemed better to me, and had fruity undertones that were rather delicious, or the mead was still coating my tongue. It was WAY better and more drinkable than the last time I had it. I'll need to try it again, to see if it's as good as it seemed yesterday.

Paddy showed up during darts, and he walked in with a Duchesse. Kriddy finished her Bfuzz, and went with an O'fallon Smoked Porter. This one had lots of bacon in the flavor. More than she expected. She really liked the Pappy van Winkle barrel aged version, but doesn't like the plain, as much. The aged, is just soooo much smoother. Skot then switched to a Scaldis Noel. I don't know if I tried any of it, or remember the profile. Brad was given a Founders Backwoods Bastard from the bartender for his birthday.

We closed out at Blind Pig, and went searching for food. We settled on (as though settling is a bad thing) Guido's. I, of course, went with the prime rib sammich with onion rings, Kridz got a grilled cheese with bacon and fries, Paddy left (I think) as he ate at the house before leaving, Skot and Brad split some chicken nachos and chicken wings. I drank a Sierran Nevada Pale, Brad and Skot both had Dark horse Skotty Karate's, and Kriddy had a North Coast Red Seal.

It had started to rain, or, I guess ICE when we left the Pig, and conditions were getting bad quickly, so Kridz and I closed out and headed home around 9. From Guidos, to my place, to Kridz, it's 12.3 miles. With the conditions last night, we made it in 45 minutes, and the ass end of her truck only tried to put us in the ditch like 3 times.

So, if you see Big Brad, tell him happy birthday, and let's hope he can make it to 52.