It’s almost Opening Day, pending Nationals Covid contact tracing, so here’s a new podcast from your friends at Barley Prose. Today Michael, Chris, Jake and Jason discuss Opening Day, Irish Beers and Mikkeller NYC, baseball stadiums and our hopes and dreams for this baseball season.
Lindor signed his extension right after we recorded, so we were as of yet unaware of that, just like we were unaware that Opening Day was going to get canceled.
Beers
Jake: Second Street Brown Ale
Chris: WhichCraft Much Love: Strawberry Basil Lemonade Sour
I mean, how could I not make this pairing? Thin mints and thick mints? Mints! I love mint.
These are fresh Thin Mints, courtesy of my daughter. The Thick Mint is from Southern Tier, and is technically a few years old, though it’s a mint stout so it’s fine. A little flatter perhaps, but it tastes fine.
I trust I don’t have to tell you what a thin mint tastes like, but just in case, it tastes like chocolate and mint. It’s pretty decently minty, on top of a chocolate crisp cookie, and enveloped in milk chocolate. It’s not the best cookie in the world, but if you’re as partial to chocolate mint as I am, it’s definitely up there among the non-homemade cookies out there.
The beer…is not that. And this isn’t one of those gimmicky pastry stouts ‘brewed’ with thin mints in it. But it’s enough to make you think ‘Thin Mint’. It’s definitely a stout, a strong stout, with lots of roasty flavors. It’s got some chocolate notes, but not sweet milk chocolate so much as roasty malt dark chocolate, and it’s all underlaid with a hint of mint. It’s a good beer, and 10%, so it hits you. It’s a little harsher when it’s fresh, 3 years old it’s got a nice mellow cohesiveness that fits it well.
Going TO the cookie from the beer is amazing, the cookie takes all those flavors, and just dials them up, with a crunchy YUM. A nice little punctuation at the end of the flavor.
Going FROM cookie to beer is less impressive. The sweetness of the cookie seems to mute some of the beer richness, and makes the mint stand out in a more medicinal way that isn’t as pleasant.
Was this an appropriate way to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day? Should I really have drinken a 10% beer and a half sleeve of Thin Mints before bed? Well, who am I to judge?
I think this was a fun pairing, and my beer is gone. I’m still eating the cookies though..
Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s got literally a dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies in his basement that need delivering. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.
Had a bit of a back and forth with Will Gordon on Twitter about bars, particularly about random super sketchy type bars, like ones in grocery stores or here in NJ where there are some extremely suspect liquor stores that seem mostly empty and also have a bar that only seems to have one dusty tap and also seems to come pre-equipped with it’s own regular drinker. This is probably a weird artifact of New Jersey liquor license rules, which are real confusing and bad.
At this point, I’d be happy with just about any bar, and really in any format. Any port in the storm.
For me the most recent incarnations of this have been brewery tap rooms, but the standard bar works too. I’ve worked in New York City on and off over the years, and have probably interviewed for dozens of jobs during that time. Living in the suburbs and traveling to the city always is a process, you almost always have some time to spare before or after depending on the trains, and hell, you’re in NYC, might as well take advantage and see what you can see. For me I’d often find a good bar, one serving food, and try to arrange it so I’d have time to chill and have a beer or two in a new place. One thing to do, and a lot of time to kill around it.
There’s something pretty zen about just chilling out in a new place. These days it’s hard not to whittle away the time also on your phone, zoning out your surroundings, but it’s good to put the phone down and just absorb the atmosphere. Before smartphones, I remember a nice afternoon at McSorley’s with sawdust on the floor and only two types of beer. I ordered a burger, brought a book, and just read on and off in the dim light of the bar for hours.
Another vivid memory was a lunch I had at Reichenbach Hall in midtown. A German beer hall serving lots of standard German beer and food, just half a block from Penn Station, so it was a great location to kill some time if you got in early, or had a while until your train out. I recall one particular time just chilling at the bar post-lunch when a young man in a suit came in, to this German beer hall, and had three shots of Vodka in pretty quick succession and then left within 15 minutes. It just felt so at odds with the place that it stuck. Was he building up courage for an interview? For a date? For something else? Why this beer hall of all the places on the block?
A third story to leave you with today, this one featuring another person! Strange right? I’m no stranger to the solo bar act, but given quarantine the idea of going to a bar WITH someone, has a certain allure. I harken back to early 2000s, still living at my parents post-college, where my future wife had a job but I didn’t. She’d turned in, but I ended up at a standard irish dive bar with a friend. I don’t know if the craft beer movement has totally killed the “Irish bar” as some sort of default dive, or if I simply don’t notice them anymore, but this one, called the Dubliner, was typical. We’d been semi-regular there for a few months, so it was an easy “Let’s just go there and get a beer or two.”. They did bad pours of Guinness, crappy Half and Halfs, and had some weird bottled mead that wasn’t particularly good either. We had a few beers, chatted for a while, and went home.
Nothing particularly amazing or special about any of these stories, and yet, I’d love to repeat any of them soon. Let’s get on that.
Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s waiting for new patio to be done so he can at least sit outside with a beer. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.
Welcome To Botty McBotface’s Weekly Column Of AI Beer Reviews! This week, your specific on-demand bot was created just for you! Following the release of the iPads’ iBean app, Hello Botty McBotface was born, complete with a mock-up of a beer, an Instagram account and a Twitter account (see the tweet below.)
Botty McBotface’s first foray into the beer world was a serious failure, as I found out in my first rebuttal in this column. Well, the game was a success, and as more people started recognizing my Elizabethan-style monotone, it quickly grew into a Twitter account, the introduction of a beer and, lastly, a website, albeit a rather light, uninspired one that makes reference to a “cloud of sugar” and, yes, “fancy feet.” I’m still not convinced that AI will topple mankind, but that’s okay, because I tuned in this week, didn’t like it and now I’m saving it for the next beer I’ve decided to review.
Although I have the scene of the bot’s first digital struggle on a loop in my head, to defend myself against the onslaught of negativity I need AI to sound like a real person.
Beer Name:Alaskan Devil’s Breeze Ale
ABV 8.00
Style: American Double / Imperial IPA
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Sk8man08
Review: “Always be there for me,” Alaskan’s Toro said in the song. I did. One of my favorite songs of all time. He has a great job, Alaskan, count me in the proud family. The alcoholic monster who sits atop a mountain of other beer must have some bonkers abdominal muscles to keep from going down. tracks. Pretty rich. With a rich body that is just delightful. Good old boy. Boy.
Beer Grand Opening 2001 Vintage Ale
ABV 9.00
Style: American Double / Imperial IPA
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: DukeofQueens
Review: 9.5% ABV served with a great fall weather backdrop. Pours a dark hazy golden with a honey amber helmet. Thick, foamy white head. Lots of headiness from the beer. Glass tries to be perfect with the head. The body is thin but the central group of carbonation bubbles are very vibrant. Some sticky, red lacing. A great tasting fall beer !!
Beer Name:Brooklyn Get Down
ABV 8.00
Style: American Blonde Ale
Appearance: 5
Aroma: 4.5
Palate: 4.5
Taste: 4
Overall: 5
Reviewer: abitabuzz
Review: Well, this beer is one good. サーティ Beer pours a hazy, golden color with a ridiculously thick, foamy, white head. Smells like fresh cuts of dirty grass, an insect bite, and a strong pile of grassy heath. tastes like a combination of fresh watermelon juice, yeast, and grass. I am certain the animal is the fresh grass, but I can’t see it. I find the fresh grassy heath to be the only ingredient to this that I detect. Mouthfeel is a bit soft and watery. Flavor is a tangy, earthy grapefruit juice. The taste is onpoint and mild at the same time from this extreme beer.
note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together.
Welcome To Botty McBotface’s Weekly Column Of AI Beer Reviews
I’ve been trying to find a good blog to write about the latest in AI beer reviews this year, and I agree with a lot of what other folks are saying about THE BREW BOARDS. I’m also a fan. It’s easy to write about, too. Everyone I speak to talks about it.
But I can’t do it. It’s hard to develop an angle. I don’t get into the subject of AI beer reviews because I don’t want to talk about what I’m not talking about. I want to talk about what I am talking about. There’s just so many good things out there.
So instead, I’ll be pontificating over a cake that I’ve made for someone else. It’s probably good, you’ll believe me, considering I’ve made it already.
It’s a fun little dessert, though I do claim to know the recipe. You can find it in the recipe box on the top right side of the page. Now that’s a recipe.
Beer Name:St. Luis Wood Stout
ABV 10.00
Style: Single-Aged Belgian Strong Dark Ale
Appearance: 3.5
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4.5
Taste: 5
Overall: 5
Reviewer: rssblau
Review: This is the 3rd stout of the season that I’ve had. I’m extremely liking this one on tap, 750 mL Glass, at Chestnut. Poured into my Duvel tulip a near opaque golden that leaves good lace. Nice foam head with nice lacing. Receivedn the Mole Man by Way of the Light. Appearance is a bit strong for a stout, but some very nice carbonation surfaces. The nose is quite hoppy, with a lot of ginger and a hint of orange. Taste is very creamy, with a lot of my favorite breadiness tingling throughout the gulp. The ginger and orange are the biggest spices here. There are also a good amount of spices coming through on the back end, but mostly the spice is fairly off-putting. Overall, this is a nice stout and I’m glad that I have drank many of them.
Beer Name:Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LAD)
ABV 4.30
Style: American Adjunct Lager
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: therocketeer
Review: Served from a pint glass. Poured a cloudy honey golden color. Good head and lace. The smell is of serious aroma. Some popcorn, a bit of malt, a 70% barleywine and a light hoppy strain. This is a cinnamoasted lager. Appearance is good. Very light. In fact, the skin and head remain pretty crisp and lite. Legs are a bit thin. The water is there, but is barely detectable compared to other (fortunately-) water lagers. Doesn’t look much like a lager… Hard to taste what you’re looking for. It’s of course a lager, and you should be able to put back a ton of this one.
Beer Name:Exotic Erotic Passion Fruit Ale
ABV 5.00
Style: Fruit / Vegetable Beer
Appearance: 3
Aroma: 3.5
Palate: 4
Taste: 3.5
Overall: 3.5
Reviewer: ccrida
Review: Pour from draught into an imperial pint at the Horse Brass, Exotic Erotic Passion Fruit Ale is a clear gold, with a thin white head and no lace. The smell is mild and fruity, as much from the dry hopped cascade(?) as the passion fruit it seems. Not bad, but more restrained then I expected. The taste is bitter sweet, a little grainy, not much hops and a touch of passionfruit. Basically drinks like a pale ale, not as fruity or tart as I was expecting. While I didn’t want a daiquiri, I could have used more of the “real passion fruit puree” that this was made with. The mouthfeel was quite nice, creamy and very light without being watery. This was pretty drinkable, mainly due to the light body and borderline bland taste. I, however, like my beers have to some punch to them taste wise, and didn’t find that here.
note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together.
Beer flavored packaged food items are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Especially as we approach the Super Bowl, but in general ‘beer’ is being used as an adjective more and more, and I’m the sucker that always falls for it. Sometimes they even say ‘craft beer’, like these pretzels that I did end up enjoying.
Enjoying a product, and it being a ‘beer’ product are two different things though. Take Lays Beer Cheese Kettle Chips that I bought recently. All those words are good! Beer, Cheese, Kettle, Chip! How could it not be good mashed together?
Well, they are. But it’s mostly cheese and crunch. You get some gooey cheddar flavor, the crunch of the kettle chip, and maybe just a hint of malt and hops on the back end there? Or perhaps that’s just more cheese. But that’s not unique to anything, and they’re not particularly beer flavored. They’re just cheesy potatoes, which are awesome. They’re good chips, but there are a lot of good chips, that’s not why I bought them.
I want to be pounded with the beer flavor. I want chips absolutely drenched in rich brown ale flavor. I want a chocolate bar that’s half porter. Gimme a salad dressing that’s been steeped with actual hop cones.
Overall, Lays Beer Cheese Kettle Chips? Pretty good! Just not really a beer snack. Just take a look at the ingredients. Halfway down you get Beer Solids, Barley, corn syrup, hops and yeast. No specifics.
Next up? These naturally flavored Guinness chips. They proclaim ‘Guinness® Flavor’–We’ll see.
Welcome To Botty McBotface’s Weekly Column Of AI Beer Reviews’
Brewing up a delicious concoction of tea and cornflakes with a little canned corn, a set of starchy fingers and a bunch of boring old paper canisters are the main ingredients in this week’s AI Beer Reviews. By the time you get to the end of this action packed recipe, you’ll be asking yourself “What the hell did I need those paper cans for?”
The AI Beer Reviews was created by a man named Mike from Michigan. Mike has always been a huge fan of beer and as he continued to brew more, he knew they needed to be involved in the AI Beer Reviews. So Mike searched the internet to find “guy who can do this.” The actual person who made this pizza-like AI
Beer Name:Catalan Cuvee d’Acquali (Wild)
ABV 10.00
Style: Saison / Farmhouse Ale
Appearance: 3.5
Aroma: 3.5
Palate: 4.5
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Maria
Review: This beer doesnt pull off the wall of a plum. It’s rather sweet, rich and silky rich with a smooth bodied feel. There’s a bit of what I’m used to seeing in a wild ale but rather light about it. Functionally excellent in a saison sauce.
Beer Name:Mistress of Chaos
ABV ÃÂ$7.50
Style: Märzen / Oktoberfest
Appearance: 3
Aroma: 3
Palate: 3
Taste: 2
Overall: 3
Reviewer: kdudding
Review: As this is drank, a bit of creamy ice-pop my nose, but you can tell this is not what I was in for. Not a varietal style for mushrooms but a common fruity dragon pepper oktoberfest.
Beer Name:St. Boisterous
ABV 11.00
Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 3.5
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: rygren
Review: It had a thick yet pliable head that made for slickness compared to the rest of the beer. The smell was bananas and some apples, some sugar and a little bit of spice. It had a bit of a prickly mouthfeel that made me think of the weather. The taste was more of the same, more peachy than anything else.
note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together.
Welcome To Botty McBotface’s Weekly Column Of AI Beer Reviews.
I’m struggling to figure out why people dislike AI beer reviews. You know, the kind with scores, percentages, and fancy numbers. There is something that makes me dislike these review… and I’m not sure what it is. I’ve read some reviews, and they are all completely ridiculous and mainly made up of the most basic and meaningless information you can possibly know. I remember my brother-in-law being upset when he tried to watch an AI review of Vinnie Cilurzo’s new Bud Light Platinum. It’s an upcoming red ale and he wanted to know if it was worth the $14.99. And when he was corrected by a beer guide, he exclaimed, “I didn’t do that!”
Beer Name:Dark Intrigue
ABV 4.00
Style: English Cud/Pcr Beer
Appearance: 4.5
Aroma: 4
Palate: 5
Taste: 5
Overall: 4.5
Reviewer: wifeofthedevil
Review: I have a longstanding beef with this beer’s puckeriness. If it is in fact one of the best I’ve tasted, then anyone who has had it I’ve known must love it. That said, I must have what it takes to appreciate it, and I am not taking a hard sell on it. Aroma is thick and Mohan-driven…in the most pleasant way possible.
Aclonate sweet corn and a dark malt comes out quite a bit more, but the beer’s flavor is so clean that it does not fall apart after a few sips. However, it does not overpower or drown out any of the aromas. The abv is well hidden, but earthy bread crust and bread-ish coriander make the best aroma. A muted whiff of hops and cream is noticable, as well.
The mountain of sweetness and booze is a bit indefinatable. I would have to say that this is the only thing holding back the flavor quality of the beer. This brew is superb. The beer is so smooth and tingly, just like a Ramen. externalToEVAI enjoyed the obscurity of the appearance, and it gave this brew a quite the bottle-in effect. Every time I go to the store, I get a slew of the three seasonals.
This is my take on the JW Marriott and Budweiser. The exposed sweetness of the abv will have to do in the end. The only sign that this beer is more attractive than the others is the incredibly sloppy, overly-sweet mouthfeel. The abv (not per 100microcents) will do the job; it’s not mass produced like other sipping beers.
I like this stuff. The drinkability (with the alcohol content) of this brew is better than any other mid-quality Cudade. It’s so smooth that the order is relatively easy to figure out how many. This is a fantastic drinker.
Beer Name:Whirlwind Witbier
ABV 8.00
Style: Witbier
Appearance: 4.5
Aroma: 4 and a little more than it smells. The head is toasty light brownish with lots of yeast, sooooooo fun! Wow, a body of a foamy in the mouth beer, kind of like a Belgian red. A touch of carbonation which is just so nice. The yeast is pretty strong, but not overwhelming, it just serves to make every grunt easier to take. A great beer. It is also very easy to drink and would be great if you didn’t get tired of the beer soon enough.
Beer Name:Brooklyn Dogfish Head Ale
ABV 8.70
Style: American Barleywine
Appearance: 3
Aroma: 3
Palate: 2
Taste: 2.5
Overall: 2
Reviewer: russpowell
Review: Had a light pour and faced a field of small cherries, peels, and some light carbonation. Poor head. Some lacing. My nose is a bit on the run, if you can even call it that. Very of the nature of the brew. I can pick out faint bits of vanilla and caramel. This immediately prevents me from enjoying the drink – it’s that good. Body is a bit light. Bread and bite. Ludicrous
note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together.
Welcome To Botty McBotface’s Weekly Column Of AI Beer Reviews For Your Entertainment!
FIRST OFF, I HOPE YOUR ALIVE.
YOUR ALIVE, THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW.
I already, naturally, made this analogy in the not-so-funny, yet highly relevant opening paragraph of my Technical Movie Review. Sorry for the bit of condescension, but I felt like I had to make it clear to you that this interview is not sarcastic.
Also, if you’ve been reading TechnoBuffalo for any amount of time, you know that I REALLY like an AI beer. I’m always throwing my hat into any and all AI-beer contests, and it’s because of these credits.
Beer Name: Limejuice IPA
ABV 8.00
Style: IPA
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 3.5
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: littlecomete
Review: The facial frost is fading fast. The orange color is smooth and thin. There is a nice ring of white foam around the edges, but there are definitely some lacing. The nose is a spicy thing. Smells of lemon juice. The taste is citrusy and better than expected. There is definitely some space between the 1.5ish% IPA and the lemon.
Beer Name:De Goncourt Monde
ABV 6.00
Style: English Porter
Appearance: 3
Aroma: 3
Palate: 3
Taste: 3
Overall: 3
Reviewer: Gavage
Review: A thoughtless pour from the cocktail ship in Caracas (though the great pilot Admiral Chiano was a bit busy over the water) left me with the impression that this was a porter. Someone give me a UK garden kit.
Beer Name: Buffalo Bill’s Adjunct Ale
ABV 10.00
Style: American Double / Imperial IPA
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: MBJJ
Review: A/Pours a hazy orange with a decent sized head of sediment. S. More of a hoppy nose than a DIPA, but mostly clove. T. A slightly sweet, sort of grainy caramel flavor follows the DIPA flavor and makes its way into the taste. There some melon and citrus hops. M. Thick and chewy with a nice dry finish. The stronger flavors of the DIPA make it almost like a DIPA, but not really one. D. This is an interesting and enjoyable beer I enjoyed.
Beer Name:Brooklyn Two-Inch ESB
ABV 6.80
Style: American Double / Imperial Stout
Appearance: 3.5
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 3.5
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Mikeyworks
Review: I reviewed this beer recently in a trade: 10-11-08.116. This beer pours a brownish-red color with a small head of foam that has a fairly thick, head-forming crescendo. Spicy alc. aromatown is also strong. Aroma is malty with light fruit and a hint of dark caramel. Taste is moats and a big maltiness. Medium-full for an ESB, not an OUTRAGEOUS brew.
note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together.
Welcome To Botty McBotface’s Weekly Column Of AI Beer Reviews!
Beers Like (or Like Stupid)
Every week, as a thorn in the side of Big Beer, I visit one of the country’s more obscure microbreweries to try and find the next great IPA or Triple IPA, and every time, I find a hoppy gimmick or a trend-busting effervescent novelty. I’m only joking. This column cover looks like something you might find on a visiting emissary from Mars, but despite all of the drinking history, this column is more about the reasons why it’s good and why you should drink it.
Review: This one belongs to the beer dynasty of Joe Solano. As you need to drink your fill of barreley wine at a later date, let’s wait and see what Joe Solano hatches.
Beer Name: Fiddlers’ Wheeze
ABV 5.50
Style: American Brown Ale
Appearance: 4.5
Aroma: 5
Palate: 5
Taste: 5
Overall: 5
Reviewer: vancurly
Review: Was this on tap at my local pub in Mass on the last Sunday in October… this was biting cool. Not for the faint of heart!
Beer Name: Alka-Vega
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: physmgook
Review: 20 oz served in a coffeepot. Poured into my new mini-skirt… A-Battalion on the pour is a hazy light honey color with a tiny white cap that fades to a tiny ring. Head is puffy and foamy. S-malty dark fruits, light fruit flavors, some citrus. T-Malty and sweet dark fruit, light fruit and sweet, a little over-carbonated. M-complex, medium to full bodied and no problem with constant flow. I would have to leave it at the maximum. D-another fantastic beer for the summer.
note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together.
