Fake Nelly Beer Ads with Brad Pitt -
very funny, very wrong and very not-PC!! But worth keeping a link to them...
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11/29 - While watching the USMNT get a must win over Iran 1 to nil to move on in the World Cup today, I enjoyed Advent Calendar Beer # 6 - the solid Furst Carl Pils from Schloss Brewing in Ellingen, Germany. 11/28 - Yesterday's Advent Calendar Beer # 5 was the decent Helles lager from Schnitzbaumer Brewery in Traunstein, Germany. |
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I had a good chip lead going into heads up tonight, but just couldn't put the other guy away and wound up chopping first and second vs. only 5 more other players on a Poker Stars home game deep-stack tournament for a profit of around $40. Not much, but I will take it since I've been running kind of bad on Global lately. |
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11/30 - I tuned into the new "Willow" series on Disney+ tonight while enjoying my Advent Calendar Beer # 7 - the sweet and delightful Graminger Deife marzen from Graminger Weissbrau in Altotting, Germay. The show was a bit slow to start with, but I loved seeing original cast members from the great movie in it, and even the character, Mad Mardigen, being mentioned who was played by the amazing Val Kilmer...could he make a cameo appearance like he did in Top Gun Maverick? Here's hoping he's well enough to do so!! Beforehand, I dropped by The Cedar Tap for BOGO Wednesday to meet up with my friends, Curtis and Kate. My "only having a couple" plan turned into four pints that included: the light and airy Pittwater Pils from Barrique Brewing here in Nashville the decent Red Lager from Yazoo Brewing up in Madison, TN the Hopslam Ale (2023) double IPA from Bell's Brewery (MI) - 2023? What is this a new car? It was awesome, but no new car smell unfortunately and finally, the not-so-bad fruited sour called 'Mosa from Southern Grist Brewing here in Nashville |
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12/1- I l kicked off December tonight with Advent Calendar Beer #8 which was the malty and sweet Zwonitzer Steinbier which is labelled a "historical beer" meaning I guess it was made from an old recipe by the Zwonitz (Germany) Brewpub. I am absolutely loving the beautiful artwork on these pint cans. This is by far the best beer advent calendar I have ever had. Thanks again, Costco! I have already put a note on next year's calendar to check and see if they have another one next year. |
12/2 - Advent Calendar Beer # 9 was the very nice Weizenbock Hell from Ladenburger Brewery in Nueler, Germany.
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12/3 - The World Cup game between the USMNT vs. The Netherlands gave no reason to open Advent Calendar beer # 10 this morning with a deflating 3-1 loss, but we also had a Christmas Party tonight which gave me a chance to crack it open plus some of the latest arrivals from this month's Beer Box order. Here's how they rolled out: the excellent Schwarze Tinte Collab Stout from the KALEA GmbH bar in Austria the extremely good session IPA called Wizard Staff from Two Brothers Brewing (IL) the awesome Nitro S'mores imperial stout from Southern Tier Brewing (NY) - it went perfect with our Solo Stove fire out on the patio! (photo above) the solid Mycenary Double IPA from Odell Brewing (CO) the nice NEIPA called Set List from Eagle Park Brewing (Milwaukee) and finally, a gift from my pal, Curtis, the immensely good Cold Mountain (2022) winter ale from Highland Brewing (Asheville) |
12/4 - Advent Calendar Beer # 11 - the solid Kurpfatbrau Kellerbier from Welde Braumanufraktur in Plankstadt, Germany
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12/5 - After a looooong snide on Global Poker, I finally won a tournament again on there today. Even though it was only a dollar progressive bounty tournament, I did get 16 knockouts, bested 84 other players, and made 2600%+ in profit! I toasted that success a little later on with Advent Calendar Beer # 12 - the decent Teisnacher 1543 Festmarzen from Etti Brau in Teisnach, Germany. |
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12/6 - I enjoyed Advent Calendar Beer # 13 while watching last week's ACC Rookie of the Week, the amazing Kyle Filipkowski, of my beloved Duke Blue Devils take on Iowa in the Jimmy V Classic in NYC on ESPN tonight. It was the very nice Kauzle Helles Lager from Kauzen Brau in Ochsenfurt, Germany. As was the Blue Devils win over a talented Hawkeye team. |
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12/7 - We headed out tonight to do some Christmas-themed barhopping, so I took Advent Calendar Beer # 14 with me in the car as a pre-festivities libation. It was the nice Erlkonig Hell (2022) lager from Landbrauerei Ludwig Erl in Geiselhoring, Germany. Places were busier than we were expecting on a Wednesday night, so we only got into the one we had a reservation at: The Miracle on Gallatin Avenue Christmas pop-up at Pearl Diver in East Nashville. The food and cocktails were great as usual, and they also had a Christmas beer on the menu: the slightly tart but quaffable Holiday Now cranberry sour from TrimTab Brewing in Birmingham, AL. |
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12/8 - I "worked remote" this afternoon with stops at Yazoo Brewing up in Madison where I had their decadent Goo Goo Ale, their English brown ale collaborated with the folks who make Goo Goo Clusters here in Nashville. My next stop was over in Hendersonville at Blossom Thai and Cellar Door Craft Cavern (I've missed this place!) where I had their awesome beef jerky appetizer and a frosty pint of the excellent double IPA from 3 Floyds Brewing (IN) called Permanent Funeral. After work was done, I headed to the nearby Regal Theaters at the Streets of Indian Lake to catch the new Steven Spielberg semi-autobiography called The Fabelmans. I liked it. I wouldn't say I loved it. When I got home, I snapped open Advent Calendar Beer #15: the decent Tannen Hell lager from Hohenthanner Schlossbrauerei in Hohenthann, Germany. |
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| 12/9 - Well look who's been checking in their craft beer for a decade now!! For the record, I am averaging 471 beers a year, or 1.3 beers a day! Salute!! To continue the adventure, I enjoyed Advent Calendar Beer # 16 tonight: the |
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I also got another $1 Progressive Bounty Tournament win today on Global. This time it was vs. 66 other players with 8 knockouts and an 1800%+ profit. And then backed that up with a 2nd place finish vs. 81 others in another $1 PBT for 1100%+ in profit a little later. These are really helping the ol' dwindling poker bankroll. |
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12/10 - We were on the road to Cincy today for a wedding. We were one a short timeclock with our big South America trip coming up, so I didn't even have a chance to check out a local brewery unfortunately. I was able to take Advent Calendar Beer # 17 with me while Ashlee drove. Cheers, Ohio! It was was a HELL of a good beer. No, that's the name, HELL. and it was pretty damn good. It was the Helles lager from Flotzinger Brau in Rosenheim, Germany. |
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12/11 - I don't understand UNTAPPD's counting system cuz I have had way more than 50 German beers in the now 4,400 unique beers checked in on their app. Anywho, we were back on the road coming back from Cincy today and thanks to the fridge in our room I was able to keep Advent Calendar Beer # 18 cold for the drive home. It was the solid Dortmunder lager called Alpenstoff from the Burgerbrau in Bad Reichenhall, Germany. |
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I banged out another tournament win on Global tonight when we got home defeating 47 others in a $5 Crazy Pineapple Bounty Tournament giving me $68+ in profit along with seven knockouts. |
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12/12 - Advent Calendar Beer # 19 tonight was the outstanding Hoamat Weissbier hefeweizen from Privatbrauerei M.C. Wienlinger in Teisendorf, Germany. I only had a small $1 Crazy Poker Tournament win on Global to toast with it, but 900% profit is 900% profit, baby. Cheers! 12/13 - Advent Calendar Beer # 20 is the coolest can art of the group so far (see photo above). It was the very nice Turmweisse Hefeweizen from Weissbierbrauer Kuchlbauer in Abensberg, Germany. |
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12/14 - My December Beer Box arrived today, and it looks like a good mix of new-to-me beers. There are a couple repeats, but ones I either haven't had in a while or not in a can. These babies will have to wait to be consumed until after the first of the year. More on those later. |
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Well, the advertised Cedar Tap Mug Club Christmas Party was either a huge bust tonight or more likely never came to fruition, but I did enjoy my time with my beer pal, Curtis, and I notched three more new-to-me brews in my UNTAPPD belt. First up was the excellent double IPA from Living Waters Brewing here in Nashville called Onsen. I followed that with the interesting (sweet hay) tasting pilsner also from Living Waters called Wainui. I finished with the quite Belgian-tasting American Ale from Gratis Brewing, a new Nashville microbrewery started by Vandy and Chicago Bears QB, Jay Cutler. (photo above courtesy of Facebook). Hopefully they won't get "sacked" too soon. I got home and cracked open Advent Calender Beer # 21 - the decent Marie Hausbrendal Helles lager from Schwarzbrau in Zusmarshausen, Germany. |
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12/15 - I was there tonight for opening night of the long-awaited Avatar sequel The Way of Water in IMAX 3D with my pal, Toney, tonight at the Regal Theaters at Opry Mills. The film was outstanding.! Even better than the original! When I got home, I cracked open Advent Calendar Beer # 22 - the very nice Tradition festbier from Herrnbrau Microbrewery in Ingolstadt, Germany. Earlier today, I enjoyed a Celebration Fresh Hop IPA from Sierra Nevada Brewing (CA) over at the ML Rose Beer and Burger Bar location in Mt. Juliet while doing a little work in the afternoon from my mobile office. |
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12/16 - I won a small $1 NLCP tournament tonight vs just 14 other players, but a 500% profit ain't too shabby. To celebrate I cracked open Advent Calendar Beer # 23 - the excellent Perfenzauber pale ale from Privatbrauerei H. Egerer in Grosskollnbach, Germany. |
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12/17 - Salute to the fallen solider. You were an awesome early Advent Calendar. As I was packing for South America tonight, I finished off the Advent Calendar with Beer # 24 - the crisp, clean and delightful Bambule Pils (Export Version) from UberQuell Brauwerkstatten in Hamburg, Germany. Well done, Costco! I hope to see another one there next year! |
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12/8 - It's bad enough we had to fly north to Toronto today to board a connecting flight to go south to Buenos Aires for a cruise around the bottom of South America over the next couple weeks, but when we got there, we were met with delay after delay and finally a flight cancellation at about two in the morning. Not weather-related, not mechanical issues, just a bone-head airline called Air Canada. You guys suck!! I did at least have a few decent (yet vastly overpriced) regional craft beers during the long hours of waiting there in the International Terminal. First up was very good IPA called Mad Tom (more like MAD ROB) from Muskoka Brewing over in Bainbridge, Ontario. Next was the decent session IPA called Detour (that name seems appropriate for these circumstances we find ourselves in) also from Muskoka Brewing. |
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We had dinner at a nice little Asian place in the International Terminal called Lee's Kitchen where I had a Pearson Express IPA from Henderson Brewing here in Toronto with my meal. But based on the glass it was served in, just what is a UPA? Evidently, this flagship beer of theirs used to be called the Union Pearson Ale, but they got tired of being asked what style of beer a UPA was. Ah, nothing more annoying than beer nerds. I closed out this horrible night out on a poor beer note as well with an order of the fairly vile Rickard's Red Irish red ale from Molson Coors Canada. What mass-produced dreck. |
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| 12/19 - OK, let's try this shit again. We were back at the airport again tonight trying to make the same overnight flight to Sao Paolo that was cancelled last night with a connection to Buenos Aires. With our unexpected nearly 48 hours in Toronto, I was able to earn this badge on UNTAPPD with a check-in of the decent Mill Street Brewery IPA, a macro-brewery here in Toronto. I got it a bar in the International Terminal called the Rock Squeeze to go and drained it as we finally boarded a flight headed for South America!! |
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Air Dumbada's flight to Sao Paolo was delayed (of course) so we missed our original connection and had to hitch a ride on Ethiopia Airlines - who knew Ethiopia had an airline...much less one that would be operating in South America?? During the layover in Sao Paolo, I was able to have a Brazilian microbrew, the Cervejaria Eisenbahn Pilsen pilsner. The brewery is located in Santa Catarina, Brazil, and the beer was decent. And I give a lot of credit to Ethiopian Airlines - the plane was nice, the food was good, there were a ton of happy Argentina fans on board heading home from Qatar after their national soccer team just won The World Cup and they even had a complimentary Ethiopian beer available! The Cold Gold lager from the Habesha Macrobrewery in Bole, Ethiopia, was actually pretty good. Thanks for getting us to where we needed to be Ethiopian Air...cheers!! |
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2/20 - Well, we finally got to Buenos Aires only to hear we missed a helluva party the night before with Argentina's World Cup win and the national team arriving in town via a parade. At least we had own little party on the plane ride in! |
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2/21 - Well, as usual, the cruise ship was pretty void of any good craft beer, so I settled in with my drink of choice when we have a booze package aboard - the always great White Russian! We were happy to get on out of Buenos Aires and its brown harbor water...yuck! And despite the fact that our luggage is still lost...we really hate you Air Canada! |
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2/22 - Welcome to Uruguay! Our shore excursion today included a microbrewery stop which I was excited about but before that we stopped at a cool little open market in downtown Montevideo where I found this canned craft beer in a little supermarket there called Ta-Ta (I kid you not) and you could drink it while walking around the market. The Zillertal IPA from FNC S.A. macrobrewery here in Montevideo and under the InBev umbrella was decent and I enjoyed the freedom of drinking it on the go. |
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Besides the beer, my best find at the open market was these awesome crystallized sulfur rock specimens. Uruguay is teeming with minerals and semi-precious stones evidently. I was really drawn to the bright yellow color and bought the triangular-shaped one, and it looks great in our den along with our other couple of cool rock specimens. |
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On to the microbrewery!!! How is this not the best cruise ship shore excursion ever!! And it really was. We had a great guide who was funny and informative and saved the best for last. Welcome to Mist/Matute Brewing. Yeah, it's confusing. They have a sign and stickers that say "Matute" but the glasses and shirts read "Mist." Beats me, but their beer was very good! We were given four tasters in a flight series, and I added a pint as well, and they went as follows: a flight taster of their very nice Lager a flight taster of their solid Scottish ale a flight taster of their excellent Hoppy Mosaic pale ale - my favorite of the taster bunch a flight taster of their rather mild NEIPA called Eko and finished with a pint of their very good IPA C4 |
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| New badge time! Thanks Mist/Matute Brewing! |
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After the tour, we were dropped off a mile or so from the ship so we could walk back through the city and do some shopping and sightseeing. In one clothing store where we actually found some stuff that fit us, they also had a small market (huh? well, ok?) where I found a beer that I could walk the streets with since our guide said it was perfectly OK to do so in Montevideo. You gotta like this little country!! The Hofjager Schwarbier from Denninghoff's, a microbrewery in Heidelberg, Germany, was tasty and smooth. |
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12/24 - I am such an idiot. After swearing I would NEVER fall for another poker tournament on a cruise ship with their shitty structures, I went and did it twice today to the tune of $180 down the toilet. They barely gave you over ten big blinds, so it was just a shove-fest from the start and my luck sucks so bad at that bullshit. Ugggh!! I might as well work for Air Canada! Stupid!! Merry Christmas, moron! |
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12/25 - Hey, hey, a Christmas Day beer! Yep, we actually had a port stop today in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. It was a pretty long drive out to and back from the Valdes Peninsula to see wild llamas called guanacos, Magellanic penguins, elephant seals and sea lions in this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Before heading back, we had a chance to grab a brew at a little store out that way and I found a pint can of the decent brut-style Andes Origen IPA Andina from Quilmes, an Argentina macro-brewery. Merry Christmas from Argentina! Cheers! |
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12/26 - Well, most of my clothes are still missing, but my hats made it in fine order! |
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12/27 - Some days are pretty awesome even without beer. We got so fortunate with the weather as we approached Cape Horn at the very bottom of South America today. The weather broke just in time for us to sail fairly smoothly all the way around it, and we even caught a glimpse of a rainbow! What a magical, magical place!! |
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12/28 - Ushuaia, Argentina is an incredibly beautiful place at the end of the world (and the beginning of everything!). And they have beer!! |
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I enjoyed a bottle of the pleasing Pilsen during a catamaran cruise out to see Tern Island in the Beagle Channel. It's made by Cape Horn Brewing here in Ushuaia. |
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The Cape Horn Pale Ale was my second choice (but the better of the two) as we also checked out the incredible southernmost lighthouse in the world (photo below) also in the Beagle Channel. Cheers to this amazing place and some pretty darn good beer!! And, yes, they claim to be the southernmost craft brewery in the world!! |
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This area was made for black and white photography!! |
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I also learned how to do to time-release long exposures with waterfalls on my iPhone on this trip! Yeah, this is just your random unnamed waterfall pouring hundreds of feet out of the Romanche Glacier. Just an everyday thing here on the amazing Beagle Channel. |
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12/29- I took stiff 45-minute walk in the wind today on the walking track of the ship with the coast of Chile far in the distance. Just me and U2's "Joshua Tree" on the Airpods! |
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Nothing much else to report today. Just another day at sea. So, let's jump back to another great shot from The Beagle Channel yesterday! |
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12/30 - Yet another ho-hum sea day, but, hey, I found a $20 beer on the ship today!! And even with my friend Brenda's advanced booze package, it still cost a brother five bucks!! Good thing it was tasty! The Orval (2022) Belgian-style Trappist pale ale from Orval Brewing in tiny Luxembourg was excellent, but a picture of the bottle isn't as pretty as another Beagle Channel pic above. Did I mention there were dozens of huge, cascading waterfalls?? |
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1/1 - Happy New Year from, well, the ship again! I found one more new-to-me beer in one of the ship's bars to toast the new year in with. It was the quite nice Leffe Blonde/Blond (2022) Abbaye de Leffe, a Belgium macro-brewery. No way I am putting a picture of a mass-produced beer on here above yet another amazing shot from the Beagle Channel! By the way, that's no filter enhancement on that glacier color either. |
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1/2 - Our flight home went pretty smooth (albeit much smoother than getting down here) and I even found a Chilean beer at the Santiago Airport called Royal Guard. Now this mass-produced pale lager from Unidas Brewing was OK, but you know a picture of it's not going to supersede one last shot of the Beagle Channel!! |
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The Year in Beer for 2022 from UNTAPPD looks like I was trending up in my consumption (and my weight...gotta do something about that), but it was a memorable year, nonetheless. See ya in 2023!! |
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