I’m sitting in a Panera Bread just outside of Chicago typing this because my Grandmother doesn’t have wireless. I packed my laptop for this weekend thinking I’d be able to use it, forgetting that some people haven’t joined us in the wireless age. The good news is she does have a high definition television. I’m sitting in a Panera because this weekend in Michigan, my mom's sister was throwing my sister a bridal shower. Julie couldn't attend because of work so I got to drive my mom halfway across the country. We left Virginia after 2 days of 90+ degree weather so I thought shorts would be appropriate, until we entered Ohio when we hit a freezing rain storm which quickly turned into snow. We drove in and out of snow for about 90 minutes. People at the rest areas were looking at me weird thinking, why is this guy in shorts. I was looking at them weird...because they were from Ohio. By 5pm we made it to my older brother's house just outside of South Bend, Indiana. South Bend is home to the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, although lately I think they would lose a fight to their mothers. I jokingly tweeted this week that I hoped to see Jimmy Clausen so I could have my turn at punching him in the face; however he was not in town.
Now since I feel that I need to write about something manly to make up for writing this post in Panera I'm going to write about Guy's Night. Friday night at my brother's house is Guys Night. I'm going to go into more detail about guy’s night to balance out the fact that I am writing this at Panera Bread, but hey when you need free Wi-Fi it’s the first place I think of going. So back to Guys Night. My brother, Keith, started by frying some wings for us to eat, man they were good. Then we went down to the basement where Keith has set up a smoking corner and cut into our first cigars of the night and poured a few drinks. Now the smoking lounge is pretty sweet, Keith set his house up to have negative energy so that the air inside would blow outside and put in a fan in the basement to suck out all of the smoke. I was surprised by how well it worked when the next morning the house didn’t have that stale smell of smoke in it. My brother and his friend Tim are really into Cuban cigars lately, so that’s all we smoked. I know the first time I had a Cuban it laid me out. I was a little worried about how these were going to affect me, plus add in the fact my brother and me both had a beer and a glass of bourbon in front of us at all times of the night. No little brother wants to get punked out by his older brother, I had to hang or I'd never hear the end of it. We smoked through two cigars before the fourth guy, Chuck showed up and we decided to play some poker. Poker didn’t go so well for me, I lost $10. But during poker I had another 3 Cuban cigars; I had 5 different makes of Cubans, all with a different taste. Normally if I have a couple of the cigars you can buy more easily in the States I'm feeling rough the next day. The Cubans were smoother and didn’t hang around the next day, I liked that. Needless to say, it was a fun night. I'm not sure of all the beer I had that night, but I know we cracked a bottle of Dark Lord's Ale from Three Floyd's Brewing Company; I'm going by there after I finish this. I also had their Robert the Bruce, which is Scottish ale, both are really good.
Today in Chicago its opening day for the Chicago Cubs, which also brings back memories of going to Wrigley Field and watching the Cubs play as a child. I’ve always wanted to return to Wrigley Field as an adult of legal drinking age so I could fully enjoy the experience, I’d love to watch a game from the bleachers.
Well I am off to the Brewery; I need to get me some Robert the Bruce Ale. Maybe they'll have a tasting and I can write about that later.
I finished this post on Monday, but I ran out of time and Panera cut my internet connection. So I did make it to Three Floyd’s Brewing Company. I sat down at the bar and was greeted by a very friendly bartender named Dave. I told him that my brother had instructed me to go to this place and drink some beer. Dave started my out with their flagship beer, Alpha King, it was one of the better pale ales I’ve drank, but I’m not a fan. I followed that with Pride and Joy, it’s an American Style Ale, and I thought this was a little better then the Alpha King. I followed that by the Dreadnaught Ale, which was my favorite of the three ales I drank. I bought two bombers of this beer. Dave also gave me a sample of a Barrel Aged Popskull, which is a beer that Three Floyd’s worked with Dogfish head to create. The Popskull was barrel aged in Woodford Reserve Oak Barrels for a year. This beer smelled and tasted of bourbon and it was smooth. I tried to buy some of this, but you can only drink this beer there. It is worth the trip, it was the best beer I sampled. However if you don’t want to drive to Munster, IN, you can drive to one of the Dogfish Head pubs and they may also have some left. I also sampled another barrel aged beer called Alpha Clause; they brew this during the holidays. Dave finished me off with a Baltic Porter called Topless Wych. It had a very chocolaty taste to it, a lot like a breakfast stout does. I bought a growler of this beer. Anyways Three Floyd’s is worth the trip, it is located in Munster, IN off of Calumet Ave, when you see the Munster Water Tower, drive towards it.
Oh and anyone looking for a good time at a brewery, later this month Three Floyd's will be hosting Dark Lord's Day, when they will release there Dark Lord beer, which is a Russian Style Imperial Stout. I have it on good authority its there best yet. It should be around 15%abv. Its also been voted the #1 beer in the world for 2010. Suck on that Sexual Chocolate (Foothills Brewery).
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