(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

We tried the Black Crown before it was released. I'm not saying that to brag -- anyone who visited Total Wine & More over the last week or so had the same chance -- but rather to point out that Anheuser-Busch is putting a lot of marketing muscle behind this beer. I mean, letting people try it before it goes on sale? They must think it's pretty good.

The representative pimping it sure was enthusiastic at least. He explained with a great deal of passion how the brewmasters at the seventeen Anheuser-Busch breweries competed to come up with the best beer. The winner -- the Black Crown -- got to hit the market.

This brought forth some questions.

First: Each of Anheuser-Busch's breweries has a brewmaster? I suppose we kind of just thought the janitor pushed a button in the morning and everything kind of ran by itself. Further more, if Black Crown was the winner, what did the other sixteen beers taste like?

Either way, the Black Crown is here, and we assume it's here to stay.

Snarkiness aside, the beer could have been worse. Were we to rate it with Untappd's dumb-ass new half-star system, we'd probably venture into the 1.5 area. We might even dig out a two, although that'd probably require us to enjoy at least a couple of these 6% ABV monsters.

The Black Crown is an amber lager with an odd flavor. Think a traditional Bud mixed with a Mack & Jack's African Amber. A really weak amber ale comes to mind, more so than a strong amber lager.

The mouthfeel... This happens to all the fancy Buds: The carbonation is just insane, to the point where you might as well chug Alka-Seltzer.

But, with all of that said... This is probably the best Bud we've ever tried. It's not good, don't get me wrong, but it's not that awful either. Had we attended a social function where Anheuser-Busch provided all the libations, we'd definitely go with the Black Crown.

That kind of social function is not in the cards, mind you, and I am unsure if we'll try Black Crown again anytime soon. Feel free to do so yourself though.

Like we mentioned on Twitter, Chairs is opening a location in the old Bulldog building. This time it will be a bit different than its previous incarnation, something reflected by the name: Chairs Coffee & Public House. In other words, instead of being solely a coffee house, the spot will also serve up a fuller food menu, as well as drinks.

From what we've heard, the menu will be pretty extensive for a pub, and they are currently considering including a dedicated paleo section. We're guessing that might be a bit over the top, but it'd be kind of cool if it worked out.

The interiors are getting a full makeover, with the drab, dark interiors of the Bulldog being tossed out.

So, with the combination of an all ages section -- which makes sense, what with the Gonzaga students and all -- and a bar, it sounds like Chairs might just have found something that could work well in the neighborhood. They are, from what we were told, shooting for a March opening, which might be somewhat optimistic as the liquor license hasn't been approved yet, but we'll see.

As for something completely different: We'll be seeing some cool musical events taking place over the next few months. The Bartlett, Fleetwood Mac, Blondfire (I know, right?!)... Yet, yesterday the event of... well, yesterday... was fifteen hours of SpoCOOL music being blasted at Central Food. It was a day worth remembering, with anything from OMD to Brigitte Bardot to Bowie pleasing Central Food's patrons.

Did you miss it? Well, fear not: We have published a slightly shorter version of the playlist on Rdio. (It was originally published on Spotify, but, let's face it, Spotify is awful, and we're doing you a favor by not linking to it.) So free up the next 14.5 hours, and enjoy a sonic journey courtesy of us. You will possibly enjoy it.

No-Li really has hit quite the stride lately, at least as far as those special beers go. I quite liked their Jet Star, an imperial IPA, and was excited to try their new imperial stout. And Wrecking Ball is by no means a bad beer. It's just not as spectacular as I had hoped it would be.

It pours a very dark color, though possibly not as black as you'd expect an imperial stout to be. The nose seems to be dominated by a somewhat faint roastiness and a sweetness from raspberries. It's nice, but perhaps more on the bland side than it should be.

The flavor, though, is not. It's straightforward, but there definitely is something going on here. A bitterness reminiscent of dark chocolate dominate, well flanked by roasted malts, just as the bottle advertises. The 9.5% ABV lingers just a little bit in the back, though this is nowhere as boozy as you might expect. Overall, a pleasant tasting beer.

Two oddities worth pointing out: First, the mouthfeel. It's creamy on the tip of the tongue, yet seems to gradually get thinner as it travels back toward the throat. I can't remember ever experiencing anything quite like that.

Second, while imperial stouts should be served fairly warm, this one seemed to shine just a little brighter when it reached a higher temperature. I did not measure how warm it was (because, let's face it, that'd be on the edge of going way too far) but I'm guessing it was on the north side of 65 degrees.

So. Wrecking Ball is not a bad beer, but I had hoped it would be just a bit more exciting. I have a feeling it could improve quite a bit with age, particularly the mouthfeel.

As it is, it's still worth giving it a shot. In fact, I feel anyone who likes big beers should try the Wrecking Ball. It's a testament to what No-Li is doing when we can have these kind of discussion about what really is a perfectly  good beer.

Oh, and just to re-itterate what I've said many times now: No-Li's labels are some of the most awesome modern beer labels I've seen. Clean, informative, and just a bit different than the same ol'.

Or opening... opened actually: As we mentioned on Twitter a few days back, Fire has opened. The pizza spot is located in the old Moxie space on 816 W Sprague. We quite enjoyed our visits to the Coeur d'Alene branch, and it's nice to see downtown getting a proper pizza place. (Are there any others downtown? We can't think of any from the top of our heads.) Opening hours are 11 am-11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays; 11 am-10 pm any other day.

Want to get your inner DJ on? Central Food-don't-add-an-s is "excepting [sic, or so we assume, unless they actually are expecting it, which would be fair enough] Spotify playlists". The playlist needs to be fifteen hours long, and suit the moods of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Central Food has the full details.

Finally, we've added a few blogs to our links section. Cultivations deals with just what it advertises: gardening. Harpsichordian is not strictly a food blog, but it has a lot of cool food stuff in there regardless. And the Keaton Violent is posting about his beard,