Hair of the Dog FRED has a great personality, as I'm sure Irina Shayk does as well

I watched KICK-ASS with AJ, Nic and Tiff tonight and it was amazing! Why did it do so poorly? Anywho, I returned home and poured a Hair of the Dog 'Fred' series. Fred wasn't the owner's favorite dog or his son, the name is a tribute to legendary Fred Eckhart, Father to Aaron Eckhart (*citation needed) and it's made from organic pilsner, rye malts, and Belgian candy sugar.

Also...

HAHAHAHAHAHA, boobies

I'm hit with the distinctive smell of both the sugar and the rye. I really like the taste - a bit intense but good. It's an unexpected 'good,' like waking up in middle of night and remembering other side of the pillow is cold. I tend to not enjoy rye beers but the clean pilsner taste and sweet sugar really mellow it out. The final product is an intense but complex beer that is unlike many I've had.

Rye with the Belgian sugar and pilsner malt? That's throwing together three different European brewing styles. I can only speculate how they conceived this creation, but if it was me brewing, this is how I would've created this beer -->

--> I would've been drinking all night, four sheets to the wind, and suddenly EUREKA! A light bulb pops up hazily over my disheveled orb I call a head. "I have a wild idea for a beer, listen to this!" I proceed to tell my two drinking buddies. They look at each other perplexed, but suddenly they go wild for it. Greatest idea ever! What a humdinger! (one of my friends is from the 1930's). And we make the beer that night, absolutely tanked. Kitchen looks like a WWI No-Mans-Land battle field. In the morning, we wake up and piece the events of the night back together. My friends think that was a ridiculous idea and ridicule me for the wild beer, the awkward embraces and the oddly sexual dancing to the musical CATS ....But weeks later, we bottle the beer from that night and Booyah suckers! It's delicious! I'm calling it Fred, in honor of Fred Astaire. My friends look at each other and say, yeah okay, everything's making sense now, what with all the Broadway show-tunes and hugging. THE ROCK rating.

Red Hook Limited Release Eisbock 28 is as tasteful as Mr. Freeze

The Eisbock style of beer is made by freezing off some of the water and removing it from the beer (hence the Arnold reference above), which consequentially replaces the hop and flavor with a big alcohol presence. The Eisbock 28 has 11% alcohol.

The resulting concoction tastes like a flavorless rye home brew poured down an ice chute cut from a Greenland glacier. This style is popular in Germany, but not with me. THE ISLAND rating.

Rubicon Rosebud Special Ale Is Especially Rye

As much as I want to be one of "them good old boys drinking whiskey and rye" described in Don McLean's seminal "American Pie," I'm really just a middling mid-to late 20's man-child drinking bourbon but never rye (Bulleit Bourbon an exception). It's personal preference. To my palate, rye whiskey and beer are off-putting, like hipsters.

A lazy Tuesday night catching up with Castle

Rye can be sour and bitter, but the Rubicon Special ale mixes a wheat rye with malted barely and brewers yeast which cuts down on the sour and bitterness and brings out the rye's sweetness - though this is by no means a sweet beer, such as a Belgian. Rubicon has been good to us in the past and this ale was cheap. If you like something different try this, but I won't be having this rye anytime soon. ARMAGEDDON rating.