Hofbrauhaus is a last destination for a day or night of beer drinking.  It’s not that it is open late or anything, it’s that HB is often times the last place you’ll remember.  Even those of us who steer away from shots are not immune to deep blackouts.  Sticking to beer can be a challenge in and of itself with the shot glasses fixed to snow skis forcing multiple participants to keep pace with their generous shot drinking friends.

If you manage to avoid the booze you’re far from out of the woods.  The large steins (very large steins) will set you back about $12 a pop and the second one often sounds like just as good of an idea as the third.  We used to enjoy the dark sweet Dunkel until we saw Stongbock with it’s 8-something-percent ABV throwing down the gauntlet at the bottom of the beer list.  The hell of it is that in addition to it’s strength, the strongbock is the best tasting beer we’ve had at HB so we just can’t pass it up.

In addition to the large and strong beers, there has always been a great environment at both of the Hofbrauhaus locations we’ve visited.  The long picnic tables breed a very social environment and (depending on the time and location) the polka music will put a smile on anyone’s face.

We may not have made it to Munich yet, but until we can get there we’ll continue enjoying HB beer and pretzels here in the states…  One, two, chug!

We’re a little late on this one, but if you haven’t seen it already, Sam Adams has released a glass last year to help release all of the aromas in their beer. Apparently there is a wealth of untapped aroma that most of us have never experienced inside of this beer. At least that’s what we think they are trying to tell us.

Click here to read more about the mysterious new glass.

We’re having a hard time understanding this video because of all the constant cuts, or perhaps it’s because its in Japanese. Either way, we want some of this blue beer now. We’ll also take one of the red and green ones they produce. Abashiri is a brewery out of Japan and they make lots of weird beers. According to our source,  they have a scallop beer and and a beer that is mixed with milk called Bilk. We hear that they even have a beer that tastes like Godzilla’s undercarriage, we’re guessing it tastes something like Dragons Milk. The blue brew, Okhotsk Blue Draft, is made using water melted from icebergs that float each year onto Hokkaido beaches from the chilly Sea of Okhotsk. Anyway, check out the video and let us know what you think.

[Tipped by Luke]

Believe it or not kiddos, all the delicious craft brews we enjoy in America today haven’t been around for too long. There are dark days in America’s past where good-intentioned tight-wads across the country fought to have liquor banned across the board. That’s right, they aimed to combat drinking by eliminating licenses to manufacture, distribute, or sell alcoholic beverages. You may be wondering, “How on earth were people to make bar bets, gain the courage to ask out hot waitresses, or sing Piano Man loudly at frat parties?” I’ll tell you what, it wasn’t easy. Just mentioning Billy Joel would fetch hard-eyed stares from neighbors or passers-by… actually, not much has changed in that regard.

Truthfully though, Prohibition, and the years leading up to it, was an ugly time in American history rife with political and religious factions on both sides of the “dry” movement. Since the early days of our country, there have been groups who believed that abuse of alcohol was influenced by the devil and the inability for one to regulate his or her consumption was a sin. If the individual couldn’t control himself, then others should do it for him. Support for the Temperance movement (misnamed as it supported total abstinence from alcohol rather than responsible use) increased in the mid 1800’s and grew further in the early 1900’s when saloons really started getting out of hand.

Due to the competitive nature of the brewing industry, breweries were forced to open more and more saloons in order to turn a profit. With an over abundance of saloons, they resorted to offering side-vices such as gambling and prostitution to bring in clientele. You can imagine it didn’t take long before wives and mothers everywhere were organizing in order to pull their husbands and sons away from the brothels and bars. Groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League started marching into saloons and harassing patrons and owners alike. Of course, they weren’t alone.

Many African-Americans workers supported the “dry” movement as they believed it would benefit the working class. Many church groups held that loose morals would be firmed up if alcohol were made illegal. Tea and soda distributors believed their products would receive a large sales boost if the main competition were eliminated. And of course there were those who fought for Prohibition based on goals that look less lofty these days. Some folks believed if America were a sober nation, hard-drinking immigrants from Ireland and Germany, who were considered an unwelcome element by many people, wouldn’t be as prone to come to America. All in all, things were looking pretty grim for our Great-Grand Alcoholics.

As support for the dry movement grew, counties and states began banning the manufacture, distribution, and sale of intoxicating beverages. Kansas was the first in 1881 but others weren’t far from following. By the early 1900’s, major political players fell strongly on the side of Prohibition. Congress was more than 2-1 in favor of banning the booze. Finally, after decades of fighting to take away the rights of their fellow Americans, in December of 1917 a resolution calling for an Amendment to the Constitution was called for. Despite Woodrow Wilson’s veto of the amendment, on January 16, 1919 thirty-six of the forty-eight states voted to ratify the 18th amendment. One year later, Prohibition took effect.

Next we’ll talk about the effects of Prohibition on the country, crime, the brewing industry and yes, we’ll even go into the birth of Nascar. Ugh.

It might be because we received this beer for free that we thought it was delicious but Deschutes Brewery’s Twilight Ale left us salivating for more. In fact, as gross as it sounds, we salivated so much that it filled our empty bottle back up and we were fooled into thinking it was a brand new bottle.

Deschutes is based out of central Oregon and is named after the Deschutes River. They’ve been brewing since 1988. Twilight Ale is one of their seasonal beers (June-September). They describe it on their website as “…a lighter, but full flavored ale with a balanced malt profile and a harmonious blend of four hops. A final dry hopping of bold Amarillos creates the distinctive finishing touch. Twilight is best enjoyed when chilled and consumed outdoors.” We did not drink ours outdoors, we could hardly wait for it to get completely cool in the refrigerator.

We aren’t sure if we can find Deschutes locally because we haven’t looked yet. We hope to try more varieties in the future. If Twilight Ale is a beer that they only keep around for part of the year, then we would love to try the ones that are always in stock!

image via nickycakes.com

Undoubtedly many of you are on facebook.  We are.  Our top five favorite beers were pretty obscure and pretentious.   That’s just how we roll.  It’s not that we only drink the fancy stuff (just look at our MMCD posts), it’s just that our favorites happen to be on a higher shelf than our everyday fare.  The Facebook masses spoke and listed quite an unsavory beer at the top of the heap.  According to PRNewswire Corona is the #1 beer as ranked by the Facebook users.  Shame on you Facebook masses.  Corona is palatable with the addition of a lime, but without the fruit there is a strong skunky taste and a generaly poor flavor.  We’re not really big beer snobs (see two posts down) but Corona at #1? Really?

[via Beeraholix at http://twitter.com/Beeraholix ]

Danny - I fell victim to the infamous Bell’s and Wells special last night at the Harlem Shakes/Passion Pit show.  I also had a few Bud Lights at a street festival (I know but options were few and I hate Shock Top).

Jeff - I have been missing in action for a while. I apologize. Life has been busy but I have still been drinking. How else would I cope with that? Over the past few weeks I’ve drank the rest of the Rusty Nugget Ale that we brewed a few months ago. I also received a few bottles of the seasonal Twilight Ale from Deschutes Brewery in Oregon. I hope to write them up in a few days. Needless to say, the beer did not leave a bad taste in my mouth like I am sure Twilight the movie did for viewers. Last night I downed about four beers before seeing The Hangover. That was a fantastic movie and made me want to take another trip to Vegas.

Justin - There have indeed been busy days for the Rough Draft staff. With moves, job interviews, graduations, and, well…beer. I finally got a chance to try about ten Guinness 250 and must say I side with the people crying for the company to continue production past the October cut-off. I love this stuff and hope to continue drinking it. I also tried the Deschutes Twilight and was incredibly pleased with it. Sure, I’m biased, it was sent free to my doorstep. But this is a quality brew that I’d be more than happy to pay for. And if that’s not a ringing endorsement from someone generally referred to as “stingy”, well then I don’t know what is.

Classy beers get classy pictures... and vice versa.

Beer enthusiasm often has humble beginnings.  Many of us start our lives in beer prior to the celebrations of our twenty-first birthdays.  It is not uncommon to get a running start to the legal starting line beginning in our late teens, hitting twenty one with a full tolerance and an impressive backlog of hop laden adventures.

In the interest of self reflection and full disclosure we decided to step back into the dark days of our own beer drinking and analyze how we gained the fine palettes we now celebrate.  We did not recognize the fact that this experiment would put us on such an unfortunate hiatus.  Read on if you can stomach our rediscovery of Natural Ice.

A personal reflection…

I was known in my collegiate days for my love and tolerance of the Natty Ice.  At a time when I could not have set foot inside the beer stores that I now embrace and peruse like a wide eyed child, I knew that a mere eleven US dollars could garner me a case of (what I thought was) a very strong beer.  My room was the Natusphere and was wallpapered as such.  I even used the box bottoms to create a rather aesthetically pleasing trim.  Those were the salad days.  My beer runners knew my order as the liquor store no doubt knew theirs.  It was a simpler time.

A break from tradition…

Buying beer for myself was an eye opener.  The difference between $11 and $15 dollars seemingly melted away when faced with the wide variety of options I was presented.  It may not have made the news in our small burg, but the day I showed up with Old Scratch at a gathering of friends and swore off the Natty was a milestone those present surely have not forgotten.

Rediscovery…

It was with blurred memories and a lack of necessary trepidation that I decided to retrace my footsteps.  A friend, two thirty packs of Natural Ice and two free nights would prove a more than adequate set up for rediscovery of a beer that should have stayed a drunken skeleton in my basement closet.  Natural Ice is thick and stinky.  As stated by my partner in this experiment, Natural Ice has a “sweet taste of sheet metal”.  The higher ABV seems to result from addition of Everclear to Natural Light.  

I used to defend Natural Ice.  I’d say that it really isn’t that bad in comparison to its peers.  I was wrong though.  It is bad.  Even if it tasted like the finest beer of Germany, it would not be worth the aftermath.  Waking in agony, I called for a priest.  When exorcism failed I asked for a small prayer as I was surely not going to make it through the day.  Natural Ice is capable of dealing the hangovers that keep you fro feeling right for a few days.  Is it really worth feeling like shit for a day and a half for a night you can’t remember?  No, at least not very often.  

[Thanks Mark and Jessica]

Justin – I’m exhausted. After a weekend of driving, lifting heavy objects up three flights of stairs, drinking beers all over Chicago and getting ribbed for my choices in personal body art, I need a nap. And I just woke up. It still amazes me that relaxing with your friends can be so tiring. I tried Ska Brewing’s Nefarious Ten Pin Imperial Porter over the weekend and was exceedingly pleased. I also had a Bell ’s Two-Hearted, my weight in PBR, a Rusty Nugget or two, a giant Dunkel at the Haufbrau Haus, and numerous other brews. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go drink more water and maybe eat a salad. That’ll counteract everything I put myself through over the past four days, right?

Danny - Though I had many more, the big stand outs for me were Dunkels and the superior Strong Bock during a couple trips to the Haufbrau Haus and the Decadent IPA from Ska Brewing. I also threw back some Delirium during the Cavs game.