Beer Updates

I have lagged behind on my beer blogging (but not my beer consuming). Here's a few updates:

For St. Paddy's day (March 17) I had a pint bottle of BBC's Professer Gesser's India Pale Ale which was a Christmas present from Ashlee. I enjoyed it out on the patio as I watched some March Madness On Demand on my laptop. Pretty sweet!

I also cracked a BBC Homewrecker Double IPA pint bottle in March which was also Christmas present from Ashlee. Thanks, babe. both were great!

I now have a growler full of beer bottle caps (photo above). Now what the hell do I do with them? I tried a beer cap string of tinsel for my beer-themed Christmas tree in December, but it did not work out too well. More on this later....

I shared a six-pack of Little Hump Pale Ale - a seasonal from Highland Brewing in Asheville -with my friends, Chris and Craig, as we tailgated before the US Mens Soccer game at LP Field in Nashville in late March.

I had a 12 oz. draught of Lucky Bucket IPA at 12th Street South Taproom in downtown Nashville.

I finished a six pack of cans of Snapperhead IPA from Butternuts Brewing in New York

I had my first birthday presents from my friend, Mel, in New Zealand. A pint bottle of Green Man Brewing Strong, an organic bock from the Kiwi brewery, and a pint of Emerson's Taieri George, a spicy ale product of New Zealand. I have a couple more to try and am really looking forward to them. Thanks so much, Mel!!

I had a 12 oz. draught of Terrapin Brewing's Monk's Revenge Belgian IPA at Flying Saucer in downtown Nashville recently. It was more Belgian than IPA and I wasn't overly impressed.

I stopped by Blackstone Brewing in downtown Nashville the other day and had a 10 oz. draught of the American Pale Ale (cask-conditioned). It was very good. I followed that with a 10 oz. draught of their Nut Brown Ale which wasn't bad either. Haven't been here in a while. I always forget about this place when it comes to Nashville beer.

I had a 12 oz. draught of JuJu Ginger Beer from Left Hand Brewing (Colorado) at dinner at Rumba Restaurant in Nashville the other night. Not a big ginger beer fan (my wife loves it), but it went well with my Asian-style fish dish.

Back to BREW-a-ville

Louisville, Kentucky, is quickly becoming one of my favorite beer towns in the Southeast. Every time I make the trip 3 hours north to this city on the Ohio River, I come across more and more good quality craft beer. My trip this past weekend was no exception.

I drove up to play in a poker tournament at The Horseshoe Casino across the river in Indiana only to find out that the place was closed for a week due to recent flooding (note to self: check the casino website before heading out next time! doh!). I found another smaller casino up the river about 50 miles called Belterra which was pretty nice and had a decent daily tournament. I didn't fare too well in the tournament, but at least I got my fix.

Afterwards, I headed back down to New Albany, Indiana, a small city across the river from Louisville and stopped for lunch (and beer, of course) at the Bank Street Brewhouse of the New Albanian Brewing Company. I have been here before after discovering it during my last visit (see previous blog) to the area. I started with a half-pint of their Hoptimus IPA which I have had before and really like. They had a couple of interesting seasonals on the chalkboard so I started down the list as I munched on my lunch (pork tacos! yum! and the pork was from a local farm. cheers!). My first, and my favorite, was the Yakima, a hoppy rye ale concoction that was spot on. My luck was turning from the poker since I got the last glass of this sweet nectar before they ran out! The next seasonal I tried was the Jasmine, a sweet-tasting stout that was exceptional as well. They had another that was a Belgium-style brew that I passed on. I instead moved on to a pint of one of their flagship beers, the Elector, an imperial red ale that's pretty darn good.

It was a mild afternoon for early March in southern Indiana and sitting at the pub's bar with the garage-doors up (it's a converted distribution warehouse - photo below) was very relaxing. The bartender was kind enough to turn off the University of Kentucky basketball game (which was a blow-out) and allowed me to watch my beloved Duke Blue Devils battle against Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament Semi-Finals. The game was tight and I couldn't leave without seeing the end so I decided on another beer. They had another of their flagship "Four Core" beers, Beak's Best, in cask-condition on tap and I decided to give it a whirl after a recommendation from a fellow bar patron. It was very good (maybe not the be-all, end-all this guy thought it was), but not bad. While I really admire the cask-condition style of making beer, I can't say it's my favorite. The absence of carbonation and the room temperature-to-cool serving status don't bother me and are supposed to enhance the flavor of the beer, but I just don't taste it. It's decent and drinkable, but I do see what all the fuss is about really. Duke pulled out the win to move on to the finals and I closed out my tab and moved on to my hotel room back across the river in Louisville. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The next day I drove back up to Belterra and played again in the daily tournament at 11 AM. I lasted longer than I had the day before, but was knocked out by the time it got down to two tables. I decided to stop on the way home for lunch back in Louisville at Cumberland Brews. I had tried to go to this place the day before, but there was a St. Paddy's Day/Irish festival going on in the neighborhood and parking was not to be found anywhere close. I was a little leery of the place because I had read reviews that it was basically a smokey little hole in the wall bar that brewed a few beers. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet (except this blog, of course). The place couldn't have been more pleasant. It's a small but rather roomy multi-level establishment with a nice selection of beers to choose from and ample-enough seating at the bars, tables, couches, etc. upstairs and down. I started with a half-pint of their Amarillo IPA which was decent. I ordered some cheese fries for lunch (they were fantastic by the way!) and moved on to a pint of their pale ale which was my favorite so far of theirs. Kentucky was in the SEC finals and the place only had two TVs upstairs where I was at and I didn't have the nerve to ask them to switch to ACC finals going on at the same time in which Duke was playing their arch rival, North Carolina. I was able to follow the score on the crawl at the bottom of the screen and saw the Blue Devils were pretty much laying the wood to the Tar Heels. Sweet! I finished lunch and my beer and got the check since I had to drive home that was about all I needed to have on this visit. Back downstairs the crowded bar had thinned out a bit and what do I spy in the corner? - A small TV with the Duke game on! I take a seat at the bar to see the last few minutes of the game. I ordered a half-pint of the Slewfoot amber ale and watched my Dukies take down the trophy. The amber ale wasn't too bad either.

Yet another great place for craft beer in Louisville...that makes 5 decent places in the area when you count Bluegrass Brewing (the most well-known in the area), Browning's over by the baseball stadium, BJ's (a very decent chain restaurant/brewery) and New Albanian across the river. It's hard to ask for more than that from a city this size I guess. Thanks, Brewaville, I will see you again soon!

When Irish Eyes Are Brewing...

My wife and I took a road trip this past weekend with some of the in-laws down to the Florida Panhandle. This area is not my favorite area in the world to visit, and the early-March weather as predicted was not very conducive to hanging out at the albeit-lovely beaches there, but we made the best of it.

One of the biggest surprises was actually the beer I found being brewed at an Irish pub of all places? McGuire's Irish Pub has nothing on tap (not even Guinness!) except for a half a dozen of their own microbrews. I wasn't expecting much more than a few "gimmick" beers when I researched the area for microbrews and only found this place, but was surprised at the quality and the selection available. While the ladies went shopping one afternoon, my brother-in-law, Andy, who I have finally converted to "real beer" and I sought out this place for lunch. It's located on the far west end of the town of Destin.

I started, of course, with their IPA which was the seasonal brew on the menu and what they referred to as an "Irish Pale Ale." The name is not only clever but also fairly appropriate because it was far from an "India Pale Ale" in that it wasn't very hoppy in taste or aroma, or cloudy in appearance. It was a rather clear, golden-colored pale ale with a decent body and taste.

I moved on to their Irish Stout next which was excellent and definitely my favorite. These guys definitely know how to do dark beer. Andy had their Porter which I got a sip of and thought it was well-made also. I finished my lunch visit with their Irish Red Ale which I thought was OK reminding me a lot of the mass-produced Killian's.


Besides brewing their own beer, McGuire's is a unique Irish pub and a unique place overall for a couple of other reasons. First, they have over 900,000 dollar bills hanging from the ceilings and over the bar (photo above) with messages from visitors from all over the world. Man, talk about a great retirement fund! Second, besides the standard Irish fare, they are also a world-class steak house. Our whole group came back for dinner the next night to try the steaks out (which were fantastic, by the way) and besides another stout I was also able to try their Wild Irish Raspberry Wheat during dinner. It was pretty good despite this style of beer not being my favorite. The only beer of theirs I didn't try was their light Old Fashioned Ale which looked way too much like Miller Lite to me and was probably made for just such a palette.

The final great thing about McGuire's are the prices. The draught house beers are only $3.50 a pint and the huge steaks (I had a 14 oz. New York Strip) they offer are extremely reasonable in price (all under $30 including the filet minon) considering that you also get warm, fresh soda bread, a large salad and a huge side (my baked potato was bigger than my hand!). But the best value by far is their bowls of delicious Senate bean soup for 18 cents...yep, 18 cents! Same price since 1977. By the way, the price of Senate bean soup in the actual Senate cafeteria is now $2.97.

ODDS & ENDS:

Here's a few other new-to-me beers I had while on this trip...

Dog Bite High Gravity Lager from Genessee Brewing out of Rochester, NY, in a pint can while driving through LA (lower Alabama). Just for clarity, my wife was driving. It was actually very good and very potent! It is considered a "malt liquor" which adds to hilarity of the whole situation.

Banks Caribbean Lager - I had a bottle of this yuck at a little pizza place where we ate dinner at the first night in Florida. It was pretty much gross, but the pizza was good at least. I moved on to a Sweetwater 420 from there to get back in the good graces of my taste buds.

As I mentioned before, this area of the Emerald Coast is not particularly chock full of microbreweries. In my research I found three different places that were around for some time but did not survive and are now closed...hence the name, "Redneck Riviera"....good craft beer is definitely not sought out here by the regular vacationing crowd. It also took some hunting to find a decent beer store in the area which we finally did at a place called "Wine World" [insert shrug of shoulders here]. OK? Whatever....

Here's what I got in a variety six-pack there:

Sweet Water Happy Ending - - a seasonal, silver-medal winning imperial stout from one of my favorite brewers in Atlanta that I have been wanting to try for a long time. It was extremely good. I got two of these and gave one to Andy in trade for a Terrapin India Brown Ale that he bought.

Long John Ale - Red Brick Brewing in Atlanta - not real good in my opinion but as I have said many times, I just don't jive with many Belgian-style brews.

Pine Belt Pale Ale - Southern Star Brewing - Conroe, Texas (near Houston) - Pint can - I have heard about these can-only guys out of the Lone Star state and been wanting to try their wares. This was the first of three of their brews that I got. It had a rather odd taste, not a bad taste, just oddly different with an aggressive mix of malt and hops. The IBU is 45 which ranks it rather bitter.

Buried Hatchet Stout - Southern Star Brewing - 12 oz. can - Really nice flavor and body. Better than Oskar Blues Ten Fidy canned stout in my opinion. Quite enjoyable. I actually split half of this with Andy in exchange for some of of his pint bottle of Choc Beer's Signature Series Smoked Porter from Kreb's Brewing out of Oklahoma. This beer exploded with taste and vigor and was extremely strong. Definitely a brew you want to sip on for a while. This brewery has a rich history according to their website and definitely needs to be investigated further.

Bombshell Blonde Ale - Southern Star Brewing - 12 oz. can - A really good blonde ale which is not one of my favorite styles of beer. An easy start and finish taste. A few of these would be great on a hot, sunny day.

What's been going on....

Here's a few quick updates from my world of beer over the last couple months:

I finished "the wall" of beer at WOW Wingery in Mt. Juliet along with my friend, Nate. We each drank 45 different beers over a course of 3 or 4 months and are anxiously awaiting our pictures to go up on the wall of fame there. We are happy to report we never had to resort to drinking any domestic Bud or Miller swill thanks to WOW's decent rotation of good beer selections. Some "new to me" beers that I had on my way to 45 included Lion Stout from Sri Lanka, Magic Hat's Winter Howl (draught), Victory's Weizen Bock, Rogue's Mocha Porter, North Coast's Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, Abita Strawberry, and # 45 itself: Abita 's Abbey Ale (pint bottle - photo above).

I had a surprisingly good Indian lager recently at one of my wife's favorite ethnic restaurants, Bombay Palace, in Nashville. It was a pint bottle of Flying Horse and went great with the excellent spicy food.

My friend Nate who I mentioned above has gotten into home brewing himself and shared with with me one of his first creations, Nate's Black IPA. It's a bottled stout with extra hoppiness (which I love). It was very good with a nice finish and much better than many beers I have paid good money for. Thanks, Nate, for sharing and good luck with your future brewing because you are off to a great start!

As a belated Christmas present to myself, I got a variety six-pack from my local fav beer store, The Mount Juliet Beer Company, that included the following:

- O'Fallon Hemp Hop Rye out of Missouri - very nice

- Blue Heron Pale Ale out of New York - excellent

- Tilburg's Dutch Brown Ale from the Netherlands - smooth and clean

- Point Brewing's Burly Brown Ale - Wisconsin - two thumbs up

- Jackmans APA from Left Hand Brewing out of Colorado - decent

- Stoudt's Scarlet Lady Ale ESB out of Pennsylvania - not too shabby

Speaking of Christmas, I am halfway through four huge pints of beer that my lovely wife, Ashlee, got for me at a store in Louisville, KY, that we visited in November. I recently had the Punk IPA from Brew Dog Brewing out of Scotland at a dinner party which had excellent hoppy flavor and finish. I also had the Rye 75 IPA from Bluegrass Brewing in Louisville. It too was tremendously hoppy and I loved every drop of it. I have two more IPA styles from BBC to go. Thanks so much, honey!!

Other random beer encounters include:

A draught glass of Monk in A Trunk Belgian-Style Organic Amber Ale from Inlet Brewing in Jupiter, Florida, at Havana Hideout Restaurant in Lake Worth, Florida.

A draught glass of Bosco's Hopgod in celebration of National Hop Day on Feb. 26. It was pretty good but not near as hoppy as I was expecting.

I also bought a couple of new canned beers from Butternut Brewing in New York while shopping at Green Life Grocery in Chattanooga recently. I have had the Porkslap Pale Ale which was excellent. I have not opened the Moo Thunder Stout yet, but actually already had a sip of it when my wife unknowingly ordered a can of it at The Flying Saucer in Nashville recently. It's a great stout and I am glad to see it available in Nashville since Chattanooga and Music City have not always been on the same beer distribution list.

Finally, while on a long weekend trip to Miami recently to see my beloved Duke University Blue Devils play basketball vs. the Miami Hurricanes, my wife and I visited Titanic Brewing and Restaurant next to the U of M campus. We went for the beer (which was tasty) but also loved the food. Definitely a place to visit again if we get the opportunity. Beer-wise: I tried their White Star IPA (of course) which was decent albeit not super-hoppy. I enjoyed my second-choice even more which was a seasonal: the Dry Hopped Pale Ale. This was a crisp tasting beer with a nice hop flavor and finish. I had a sip of their Boiler Room Nut Brown Ale as well which my wife ordered and was pleased with. I thought it was decent as well.

EuropBEERan

My wife and I took a quick week-long trip to Europe after Christmas visiting England, Portugal and Barcelona, Spain. I was able to a sample a good amount of new-to-me beer during the trip especially in England where in the couple of days we were there we were able to visit four different pubs - three in London and one in the small village of Lacock.

In London we went to three different pubs: The Lyceum Tavern and The Wellington in the theatre district near our hotel, and The Stanhope Arms in the Gloucester Road district.
The three pubs that I visited in London had a good selection of draught beer to choose from including some great cask ales. Two of them were loyal to national brands (Samuel Smith Brewing in Yorkshire for The Lyceum and Fuller Brewing of London for The Stanhope). There are also "free houses" in England which serve a variety of different brews from competing breweries. The Wellington is a free house.

I had the cask-conditioned Old Brewery Pale Ale at The Lyceum. It was good and quite inexpensive. We spent more time at The Wellington the first night we were there and I had four of their offerings that were on tap. They were White Shield IPA (considered a microbrewery but under the Coors-Molson umbrella), Vicious IPA (an American wheat IPA that I was skeptical about but was actually really good), Sharp's Christmas Ale (a nice seasonal brew) and Sharp's Doom Bar Ale (a popular bitter from Sharp's brewing on the west coast of England). My wife also discovered a bottled alcoholic ginger beer called Crabbie's from Scotland that she really liked. I tried it and thought it was OK, but ginger beer has never been my thing. Interestingly, it is served with a glass of ice which is surprising since most beer in Europe isn't served or advertised as "ice cold" at all and you usually have to ask for ice in colas, water, etc. if you want it.

On a day-trip excursion out from London to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and the city of Bath, we stopped for lunch at The George Inn pub in the medieval village of Lacock. The George is a beautiful old pub and was loyal to Wadworth Brewing. a regional southern England brewery started back in 1875. I was able to order a pint of their famous 6X Cask Ale with lunch. It was delicious with my fish and chips.

We we got back to London we were dropped off in the Gloucester Road district and we happened upon the Stanhope Arms for dinner. They had a strong collection of cask ales on tap as well and I had three more of from under the Fuller Brewing umbrella. I saved the names of them on our international cell phone, but have yet to retrieve them (dead battery). When I do, I will update this blog entry. BLOG UPDATE (1/17/11): The international cell phone is alive again, and the names of the three beers I had here were: Fullers Spitfire (a bitter), John Smith's Extra Cold (i.e. Extra Smooth) is a bitter as well, and Timothy Taylor's Landlord Pale Ale. Obviously, if I couldn't remember the names, they must not have been too great, but actually they were all good for the most part and I would definitely remember if I didn't like one of them.

The best thing about the beer in England was that it was, surprisngly to me, VERY GOOD...I was very skeptical since many "English" brands sold here in the U.S. are definitely not my favorites, but perhaps it's like Australia where they send Foster's over here because it's awful and keep the good beer for themselves? Either way, I can't wait to come back and check out more pubs and more English beer on tap!

Moving on to Lisbon, Portugal and Barcelona, Spain, was a great experience and each city/country is beautiful and vibrant in its own way. However, beer is not the biggest forte in Iberia. In fact, "cervaza" is "cervaza", pretty much wherever you go. Light, fairly tasteless beer with weak color and body. Now, I enjoy a good cervaza on a hot day in say, the Caribbean, and while the winter temps were mild in Portugal and Spain, it was far from hot. Lisbon's main beer was Super Bock, which is a deceptive name since it was neither "super" nor a "bock" which I associate with a much stronger lager. I guess "So-So Cerveza" doesn't having the selling punch. I had another bottled beer on a pub crawl we did, but didn't catch the name of it, but trust me, it was a cervaza and it could have been Super Bock for all I know. The photo above was taken in a club during our pub crawl and you can see your choices are limited no matter how many taps they present to you.

Again, things did not improve in Barcelona, although I did see a few more names of beer including Estrelle Damm which is pretty good and you can get it here. It's always fun to order "another Damm beer." The only one I partook of in Barcelona was San Miguel and as you can see in the photo above that my wife took, they serve 'em big in Barcelona. It reminds me of a quote from my high school chum, Kim, who once said at an Atlanta Braves game..."Baseball is kind of boring, but at least they serve really big beers!!"

Epilogue: I was able to have another great English beer at Heathrow Airport on the way home during a layover coming back from Barcelona. It was Stone Cold Ale from Lymestone Brewing. a new, small, independent brewery located in Staffordshire. It didn't go real well with my Asian dish I ordered (my fault), but it was a great beer nonetheless.

The Science of Beer

My wife and I attended the 2nd annual "The Science of Beer" event at the Nashville Adventure Science Center tonight. It was a pretty neat little event that I just happened to hear about a few weeks ago. But evidently a lot of people heard about it because it was sold out with no tickets at the door available when we arrived about 15 minutes after it started. Good thing I had pre-ordered our tickets.

I decided to buy the $20 admission tickets for three reasons: Number One - there was going to beer there...hello...Number Two: I don't have to work tomorrow, and Number Three - we attended a wine-tasting event at this place a while back and really liked the layout for such an occasion. The NASC is a large, multi-level, hands-on science center for kids of all ages that sits on a hill near the Civil War's Fort Negley overlooking downtown. It has a lot of open space to set up tasting booths and for attendees to mingle. Plus, most of the science exhibits are open and can be even more fun to experience with a little buzz going!

The beers available weren't anything to get too excited about, but not bad. It was all bottle-poured samples, but it was at least mostly respectable American micro-brews. It was co-sponsored by Lipman Distributing, so, of course, their products were what was bing presented. It was also sponsored by Nashville's own Yazoo Brewing and it was a bit disappointing that they didn't have draught samples of their wares. There were tasting stations set up by beer category: stouts, porters, IPAs, wheats, pilsners and ales. The lines were a little long due to a limited number of pourers and a lot of lollygaggers tasting their samples while in the way of others trying to get a taste as well. The "science" part was a little lame with a few information booths set up, a beer Jeopardy room, a scavenger hunt and a silent auction on a few interesting items. Overall, it was OK, but probably not something worth attending every year. It was good to see it sold out and that much enthusiasm for good beer in Nashville. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since the Music City Beer Festival sells out fast each summer as well.

I was able to try a few new-to-me samples...at least one at each station we visited...here's how they went in a brief run-down:

Ass-Kisser Double IPA: I had heard of this one thanks to its unique name, and had been wanting to try it. It's brewed by Rahr & Sons Brewing out of Fort Worth, Texas. Unfortunately, it was an English-style IPA that I don't really care for too much. It was drinkable and a decent finish but the smell and first taste just weren't pleasing to me.

Stone Smoked Porter - excellent smokey taste and smooth finish. The Stone folks out of California are one of my favorites and always do it right .

Victory Storm King Stout - I have actually had a sip of this before from a bottle my friend, Nate, got one time when were out. It was good to have a few full swallows of this nice stout from Pennsylvania.

Red Tail Ale - I was excited to see this beer not for its taste (which was a decent Irish red ale) but for its brewer, Mendocino Brewing out of New York. They produce one of my favorite high-gravity IPAs in a bottle - the White Hawk Select - which you couldn't get in this area until now I guess....I actually bought it in Chattanooga which is under a different distributorship. And, yep, they had White Hawk at the IPA tasting station which made up for that nasty English-style one. Update: I also just bought a Blue Heron Pale Ale of theirs (unknowingly, I hadn't even looked at who the brewer was) at the Mt. Juliet Beer Company store in a variety six-pack so the distributing in Middle TN is definitely on. Haven't tried it yet, more on that later.

I also had some weird German pilsner as well that I had never had before, but failed to save the name of it. Doesn't matter much because it wasn't very good anyway. I do remember it being the bright yellow color of well....piss...sorry, that's just what it looked like. We never got to the wheats. The line was too long and neither of us are big fans anyway. Again, not a bad event. For $20 a person of which some of that went to charity you got a good variety of beer with plenty to drink, a nice full tasting glass from Yazoo to keep (I really hate those beer festivals where they give you some dinky little glass which is really good for nothing after the sampling is over) and admission to most of the science center without a bunch of brats running around in it.

When we got home I cracked open a pint bottle of Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point Brewing in San Diego (did I mention I don't have to work tomorrow!). My amazing wife, Ashlee, got me this beauty on a recent trip to California. It was excellent and easy to taste why it won a gold medal this year at The Beer Cup.

Beer Tree '10

"Oh, beer tree, oh beer tree...you're gonna make me a fat-teeee"

Well, it's the holiday season once again and the 2nd Annual Beer Tree is now up at our house. The finished product looked pretty good I thought. This year's beer selection for our holiday party were from bottom to top:

Terrapin Moo Hoo Milk Chocolate Stout - delicious! the folks in Athens, GA, score big again! And I don't mean The Bulldogs!

Brooklyn Winter Ale - this Scottish-style ale is a solid contribution from the New Yorkers

Winter Hook - With a 42 IBU, these babies are smooooth. Nice job, Washingtonians!

Harpoon Winter Warmer - I got the nutmeg flavor, but my palette doesn't pick up the cinnamon...yet. Gotta keep working on it!! This is the Boston-based brewery's flagship seasonal beer and they have a right to be proud of it. Excellent holiday beer.

BBC Bourbon Barrel Stout - Not new to me, but one of my favorites from the beloved Bluegrass Brewing in Louisville. It was a great surprise early Christmas present from my wife that I was kind enough to share with our guests...after I had one, of course...hey, it's only a four-pack!!

Other highlights on the tree was an empty can of 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA (to the right of the Harpoon carton) that my wonderful wife brought me back from California after a recent trip. A "Save Cummins Falls" bumper sticker near the top to go along with the theme of our holiday party to raise a little money for a great cause. My old beat-up beloved Harpoon IPA hat serves as the tree topper. I also put Christmas ball ornaments in the beer cartons which are hard to see in the photo above but I thought it was kind of cool and festive....ok, and maybe a little gay....not that there's anything wrong with that....

Cheers and Happy Holidays!!