+1

Ale Enlightenment

I like beer.

I didn't used to.

But now I consider myself somewhat of an epicure. I feel that I am a rare find, and this is peculiar. I live in a town with 5 craft breweries, and people still go non compos mentis for the soymilk tastelessness and banquet beer alcohol content of skinny dip. It makes no sense. I should be surrounded by teenagers taking secret gulps of strong golden ales from jacket pockets, and filling nalgene bottles with imperial russian stouts, but when I go to house concerts, all I see is pabst and fat tire.

Let the knife help you.

I love this beer:

It's a seasonal, which helps me understand in part the suburban fervor surrounding the aforementioned skinny dip. But that is merely supply-and-demand economics. I digress.

This hoppy little gem marries the bitter singularity of an IPA but with a sweet malt finish and an imperial thickness that is at once so curious and delicious, your tongue dons an off-pink blouse and a cardigan, gone to solve the taste mystery like Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote.

What all this means is that I get bummed out when it's not in season.

Currently, I am bummed (in the california, not british sense).

Until I found out about Lagunitas Brewing's seasonal Lucky 13 Mondo Red. I discovered it on the shelf next to my perennial favorite beer impulse buy, Lagunitas' Maximus IPA ($3.99 a bomber), which also comes Runting Knife Recommended. It's exactly the same as Extra Special Red! Okay, Odell's is a bit better, but I can't be a chooser, especially when the 22oz bomber goes for $3.99. And at an abv in the neighborhood of 8.3%, you'll only need one to start to not feel your teeth, and your friends' experimental british-invasion downtempo noise band will become that much more listenable.