Exactly who came up with the "Champagne of beers" slogan for Miller, I don't know, but it's likely they weren't referring to the flavor as much as they were to the shape of the bottle. "Alka-Seltzer of beer" would probably be more fitting.
But I digress!
Sam Adams, a brewery that's pretty consistently good, apparently wants to take the "Champagne of beers" throne with their Infinium, a brut beer or bière brut to be painfully technical. Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like, a true champagne beer. Talk about flipping off Miller!
Sadly, what Infinium has in common with the high life is that it's not particularly good. Don't get me wrong, this is obviously a more complex, more well brewed beer than a Miller. Yet it doesn't work.
It pours like a darker golden champagne, and could fool both your eye and nose. It's sweet and grape-y smelling, and the carbonation runs like crazy. It looks like a champagne; it smells like a champagne; it almost tastes like a champagne. A champagne somebody dunked a bottle of pilsner in.
It's not a good combination. A sweet champagne with a fairly malty pilsner flavor, as well as a surprisingly boozy finish. Granted, this weighs in at 10.3% ABV, but that shouldn't be enough for it to be so pronounced. Champagne, pilsner, booze... It feels like an odd combination.
I don't have a whole lot of experience with bière brut, but surely there must be better options out there. Infinium might be worth trying for those curious about the concept -- the bottle looks nice too -- just don't expect it to be particularly good.
Well... There are worse wings out there I suppose. Mostly at boutique shops like Wing Street, but regardless.
One shouldn't expect the world from a place that serves Italian nachos -- Ciao Mambo, watch your back -- but let's be honest here. Rock City Grill should aim more for Northern Lights quality wings than Pizza Hut.
There is no heat index here; you order buffalo wings, and that's it. The sauce kind of reminds me of those frozen Foster Farms you can pick up at the grocery store. Sure, there's some flavor to it, but it's not particularly spicy at all. If anything it's salty, without any depth of note. "Dull" comes to mind.
The chicken isn't fantastic either, without any bite or crunch. Just kind of a moist texture.
Maybe these are Foster Farms premade wings, come to think of it. That would explain a thing or two.
There are two redeeming features, however: 1) They are still hot wings. Hot wings can never be all bad. Or maybe they can, but at least these are still within the hot wings category. 2) They're served with blue cheese dipping sauce. For whatever reason ranch seems to be the Northwest's dressing of choice. I'm not cool with that.
So a big fat "eh" to Rock City Grill. These wings aren't great at all.
There was a lot of crying while rolling around on the floor, dry-heaving, when Lazy Bones closed. I mean, why not? Good barbecue is a rarity around here, and we felt we were well within our right to react that way.
Now Lazy Bones' particular brand of barbecue has been resurrected at The Bulldog. The Bulldog. This is still blowing our minds. Think the Bulldog, and you think rivalries between them and Jack & Dan's, which undoubtedly were over who sucked the worst.
The Bulldog does not suck anymore. With the quality of the barbecue they have now, how could they?
Now granted, the menu is not as large as Lazy Bones', and the tofu still hasn't made its way back. Anything that is there, however, is pretty friggin' awesome. The smoked pork sandwich, for example, is exactly what it should be. Meat with a perfect bite to it, in a nice round barbecue sauce. There's nothing crazy about it, nor should there be. Just great pork.
The slaw? Again what you should want it to be. It's not drenched in the dressing, which is mainly there as a mellow flavor enhancer. Brilliant stuff. Mac & cheese? Hearty and tasty. Cheese fries? Hard to go wrong with french fries in cheddar cheese, but the actual fries here are excellent in their own right.
You know what to expect if you ever visited Lazy Bones. Just excellent barbecue. The Bulldog's tap selection might not be the greatest in town, but a handful of good brews have made their way in there.
This is a slightly disappointing limited release from Big Sky Brewing Company. It's not a bad ale, but as far as a porter goes, we had expected just a bit more from the great Missoula brewers.
It pours jet black, with minimal lacing and a fairly foamy head. A quick sniff reveals where the beer got its name from -- there's a kick of coffee (and probably cowboy) straight from the start. In other words, if you like your coffee, things are instantly promising. If you don't... Well... You probably picked up the wrong six pack at the store.
The coffee dominates the flavor too, although not as nicely as the Olde Bongwater. I don't mind the "beer in my coffee" syndrome one bit, but the coffee here just doesn't have that nice rounded DOMA flavor. That's not to say Big Sky doesn't use a good coffee -- I don't know what brewer they went with -- it's more that it doesn't meld with the beer as well as I had hoped.
It could be the issue is the mouthfeel, which is surprisingly thin and doesn't feel very porter-like.
Big Sky makes a lot of great beer, and Cowboy Coffee doesn't quite live up to that reputation. It's worth trying if you're a coffee drinker, just don't expect to be mindblown.
