More Brown Than Black Collaboration IPA is the best of both worlds

There's a great story behind this collaboration from Stone, Ninkasi and Alchemist. The proceeds of the brew are going to help victims of Hurricane Irene, which is near the Alchemist brewery. Ninkasi and Stone are two of my favorite breweries so I'm excited to see how the brain trust pulls off what sounds like a unique style and brew.

This collaboration is so knew that it's not even in the Stone book which I received for Xmas. It's still somehow photo-bombed the collab. There's a lot of sediment with the pour and the aroma has more citrus zest from the hops than you might expect with such a dark roast malt. The flavor has the sweet brown sugar and biscuit-ness of a brown ale and only a tinge of roasted bitterness. There's a whole lot of hop going on but the malt body hangs in there to balance it out. The mouthful finishes dry and quick, which makes me want more. Nearly black in color, this brew has the heart of a brown ale and the bitterness of a Ronin Samurai. Sorry, I'm watching 13 Warriors on Netflix streaming now and its awesomeness is bleeding into the post. It's pretty gory and cool. Anywho, THE ROCK rating. Great beer by great breweries for a great cause, go getcha self some More Brown Than Black!

Ninkasi Oatis the Oatmeal Stout fortifies my body after a sparring session rings my bell

Spent the last hour boxing/sparring with Nick, who is teaching me the old fashioned way - WITH HIS FISTS. I've never sparred before but after 2 years of Krav Maga, it's time I learned. Apparently Nick thinks my face and brain are both beyond repair because we're not using our head gear. At least I'll have my sparkling personality to fall back on when my face looks like the Seal.

Nick's boxing background is impressive to watch, up until the point when I don't block a right hook that connects with my chin and my neck pops 5 or 6 times. Paging my chiropractor Dr. Tennenbaum. Even though I pop his nose enough for it to bleed a bit, I still feel like he put on a demonstration using me as the dummy. He was Batman and I was Robin...yes, the Chris O'Donnell Robin. Three times as bad as any other Robin.

I'm thoroughly worn out now but focused on continuing the chain of violence by watching Dexter, which I recently started and have now become obsessed with.

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

I love the color, and the coffee and roasted malt smell are stomach tickling. Unfortunately, the buck stops there. The alcohol comes on strong like a bad cologne and it's flavor isn't as good as I'd hoped. Granted, my expectations were based on my love for Ninkasi and the nostalgic affection of the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies our high school made fresh every day, served hot and gooey with a carton of milk....I just went to a happy place. ARMAGEDDON rating. 

Hey Otis, that's the same advice yo momma tells her first time customers...Ha, yeah yeah she is SUCH a hooker

Ninkasi Spring Reign can't top Steve Martin's interrogation of Tina Fey

Spent the evening listening to Tina Fey and Steve Martin converse for an hour on a huge stage, from very far away. Glad they had speakers. Tina Fey, who is out promoting her book and is preggers, so she couldn't do her usual tap dance/comedy routine, showed incredible poise and cleverness, but Steve Martin stole the show. My favorite quote from the evening came from Steve.

After their conversation, they opened the floor up to Q&A. Per usual, there were smart questions and silly questions. Halfway through the Q&A the tech crew finally brought a spotlight to bear on the questioner. Steve remarked offhand, "Oh good the spotlight is on - now we can see who's asking the stupid questions."  In a huge venue full of Los Angelens, those two were easily the two smartest people in the room tonight.

Back home, I'm pouring from one of my favorite breweries Ninkasi. I have a love affair with mason jars, one of my hopefully amusing quirks. That's right...BALLS...mason jar company. Send me your Ball Jars and I'll promote them on the interweb!

The Spring Reign is a light ale with hops and a strong citrus flavor presence. The hops are the standout performer from a a rather timid base, but the Reign will join Lagunitas Lil Sumpin Sumpin as a decent brew for the upcoming summer. ARMAGEDDON rating.

Ninkasi reNew Irish Red Ale welcomes my new King Moonracer's Revenge Coasters

Ninkasi makes a different beer every year, and this is 2011's style. It's a 5.2% Irish red ale. The ReNew has a thin malt with slight caramel and hop bitterness. It's fun but not thirst quenching by any means. ARMAGEDDON rating. 

The highlight of my day was receiving these coasters from my friend Jamie R. I made a label for my first homebrew, the Christmas Ale King Moonracer's Revenge and she had someone make the label into a coaster. They're sturdy coasters and look great! I freaking love them. I've collected a ton of coasters this year and this is by far the best looking, probably because I spent way more time on the label than people spend on a coaster, but still; it's awesome. Thanks Jamie!

Ninkasi Total Domination IPA bogarts my affection

I've had three other Ninkasi's and love'm all. I dig their company name; Ninkasi is the Sumerian Goddess of Fermentation, which is rad because Sumerians literally worshiped their beer (I could actually tell you why, thanks to reading "A History Of The World In Six Glasses"). The company motto is:

Beer is a staple of civilization. Worship the Goddess.

Love'n it! Great motto. The company has thus far excellent consistency in their brews and their Tricerahops, their double IPA, really grabbed me and I've been unable to let them out of my mind since. This is their standard IPA and guess how excited I am to drink it---

That and I got a new haircut. What up!

The color is is slightly more golden than typical American IPA's and the taste reflects a more subdued caramel profile. It's 6.7% alcohol and 65 IBU and the brew has a well balanced malt and hop combination. This would pair excellent with food and wouldn't overwhelm the palate. This has everything I look for in an easy drinking IPA. It's $4 for a 22oz bomber at BevMo. I love this company, the beer, the energy behind it and especially the motto (my nerdness is showing again). Pick this up and you won't be disappointed. THE ROCK rating.

I believe Ninkasi Believer Double Red Ale is...

Good but not great, its rich enough to sustain my interest but doesn't furrow my brows with impressiveness. It's Manna.

This would be a great beer to pair with meat. A little hops with a fairly rounded red. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Moonday Night Brings Ninkasi Tricerahops Double IPA

Don't you love to discover that a creatively named beer also tastes excellent? What's that? No?? Well I do, so F U and your mom's fat.

Finally a beer that compliments those really normal paintings on the wall

This dinosaur comes on strong with the hops and a subtle dash of malts...Dare I taste some vanilla? Well played sir. Another positive element with this Cretaceous herbivore, is that unlike a lot of DIPA's, drinkability with him is not a problem. I could drink more of this. Love that cloudy sentiment too. I like you, you taste good. THE ROCK rating.

Hey, remember that time I said F U and your mom is fat? I take back the mom is fat part, she's probably a very nice lady. F U