Pacifico celebrates Fifth de Mayo

To commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French Forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, Rush Street in Culver City isn't the most Mexican of places, but they do have drink specials and everywhere else is a packed with drunk idiots.

I arrive early and so I saddle up to the bar. Disappointed they didn't have Model Especial, I settled on a Pacifico Lager. Then something that's never happened to me in Los Angeles occurred; two women bought me a drink. Scratch that - two older women with Scandinavian accents bought me a vodka based drink that was served in a martini glass. How did I know they were Scandinavian? Because I'm a cultured individual. To quote Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 'I have class coming out of my ass.'

So a woman bought me a drink and I'm thinking, Walker you must look really, rediculously good looking today. I mean, duh, thanks for the newsflash Brian Williams. We start conversing, and at one point I let them know I'm meeting other people. I discover that the blonde's name is Marlin, and I'm primed to make all sorts of clever fishing puns when she offers to buy drinks for the girls I'm meeting. Que? You want to buy drinks for girls too? Suddenly I'm not feeling so full of myself.

Guess what does the lovely woman named after a fish with a spear like snout or bill do for a living? She works for Absolut Vodka in Sweden. She then tells me all about the drink she bought for me, especially the vodka. When Tiffany and Jenny arrive, we do more Absolut Citron shots and then the Swedes down their martini drinks and bounce before everyone can get properly acquainted.

Looking back, this foreign lady got me liquored up, pimped out her business, and then bounced. Why can't I meet more women like that? She was, as they say, one in a million. HA.

One of the weird/awkward/fun moments of the evening came with the shot, in which Marlin and her friend serenaded us in a Scandinavian toast that was akin to The League's "Shiva" song...

...only it lasted longer than necessary and was in a foreign language, so we Tiffany, Jenny and I were left standing around uncomfortably as these Swedes raged on clapping and yelling a Swedish cheer during a Mexican holiday party. Totes funny.

If you haven't had Pacifico, chances are you were born in a hut on Nova Scotia. This beer isn't as pervasive as Dos Equis or Corona, but it's close. In the hierarchy beer, my personal opinion is that Corona is the Mexican Lager equivalent to Coors or Budweiser, Dos Equis is a little bit classier, and then Pacifico is a step above that. But they're little steps above each other, like steps built for little people, or leprechauns as the Boston Equality Group (BEG) calls them. In the realm of lagers south of the border, my personal favorite is either a Pacifico or a Modelo (negro or especial). If you in fact haven't had one, drink a Pacifico next time it's hot and sunny...and refrain from telling people you were born in a hut. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Hair of the Dog Adam is an Old Ale meant for Don Draper

I'm watching the Lakers game, but it's starting to annoy me because each time Lamar Odom scores, I know that somewhere Rancor known as Kloe is clapping and I strongly dislike her, to put it mildly. For many reasons, but most strongly because I pass this billboard every morning on my commute, and it's just too much at 8am.

Gross

People who are famous for no reason+Reality Show+Annoying People+Shirtless shooting guards for basketball team I don't like = everything I hate about this billboard which I see everyday. But it is beer like today's and shows like Mad Men which help me forget these horrible images.

Old Ale is a style of beer which I've read about but never had the privilege to sample. It's a high alcohol beer with a complex full malt body. David is on a flight to Aspen tonight so I'm having this one solo.

 

The Hair of the Dog Adam has 10% alcohol and is made with an organic pilsner malt and Northwest Hops. Pilsner is an incredibly light and thin grain, and I'm excited to try such a dark beer created using a pilsner base malt. My tongue is no wizard, so I read the label to discover what flavors to expect - chocolate, smoke, leather and figs. That's a hell of a complex profile! I'm stoked now, even though I'm traditionally skeptical of tasting claims made by labels, thanks to my inability to taste what is promoted on a wine label.

But sweet Betty Draper! This brew is complex. They weren't lying to me. I will now admit, these guys are straight shooters, like boy scouts at a urinal. You really taste each flavor advertised and they're all delicious. I've never chewed leather but it's about damn time I've started. Apparently I'm missing out. It's rare to find a beer that's not a barleywine with this complexity. Hair of the Dog Adam is an inspired beer and at $4.50 from Whole Foods, worth every penny. THE ROCK rating.

Don Draper is the shit. Even watching him drink himself to death in the third episode of the first season is inspiring. How can he do that? Recently, I've felt twinges of irritation about essentially forcing myself to drink everyday and the amount of blog entries posted have suffered because of it. But on evenings like tonight, feels damn good to prop your feet up and have a cold one whilst enjoy some 60's schadenfreude. Cheers Donald Draper.

Dogfish Head 90 Min IPA deliciously haunts the former Del's Saloon

Right around the corner from my old Brentwood apartment was a notorious Dive Bar called Del’s Saloon. There was saw dust on the floor and a U-shaped table in the bar’s center. It was also the location of a scene in Knocked Up, where Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan grab drinks and decide to go to Las Vegas:

This is a cleaned up movie version of Del’s

It was a good old fashioned shit hole and the drinks were cheap. You were guaranteed to find a ratio of 2:1 male to females and a good portion of the crowd would be 40+ and looked like they smoke 2 packs a day. Basically, the place was infested with former models (psych). Unfortunately, the place shuttered over a year ago. Fortunately, a new bar opened up with the same cheap drink special ($2 dollar Coors during happy hour, $1 off every beer) and a new décor that includes leather booths. Sadly, gone is the shitty U-shaped table. Being in a place that has class without paying for it? I’m in. David and I are meeting up with an old friend Matt D to ketchup over a round of pool and brewskies.
Fortunately for us, this beer has better taste than Coors light. I can get a Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA for $5 dollars. It’s a 9% beer and one of the best around. I can’t believe two things: That it’s this cheap, and I haven’t counted it as one my beers. Time to make it count.

Something I didn’t know, is that Dogfish head uses an English two row pale as the base malt, which I would assume is rather unusual for an American IPA. 90 minutes refers to the length of the boil and over that hour and a half the beer is continuously hopped with multiple kinds of hops. Continuous hopping is a specialty of Dogfish, Sam Caligione actually created a machine specifically designed to continually feed hops over the length of the boil.

As I taste, there is smooth citrus and herbal bite. The Dogfish Head hop bite, like Stone, is so distinct and 'well known' most craft brew drinker could pick it out of a lineup after tailgating a Bud Light fueled University of Texas football game. The alcohol is well disguised in this beer. The beer has a darker amber flavor than I expected, and it’s damn delicious. David is having multiple of these. I plan on returning back here and even though I can’t count this as one of my beers, it’s the only thing I want to be drinking. BAD BOYS rating.

Victoria Mexican Lager says goodbye to Christi!

Apparently David used to drink all the time in Rosarito during our college years, but I'm not familiar with it; more of a dirty Sol man myself.

Oh Rosarito, the land where young Pepperdine students went to lose their sense of innocence. Mexican lagers all taste the same to me; cool refreshing and cheap. I've transitioned from Corona to Dos Equis and now Tecate for my Mexican beer of choice, but if Victoria was more available, I'd drink it more often.TRANSFORMERS rating.

Walker's Homebrew Belgian IPA gloriously welcomes Bin Laden's death and Pajama Jeans

Following my first homebrew, the Christmas themed King Moonracer's Revenge, the Belgian IPA was my my second foray into homebrewing (Belgian IPA brewing day)

All those monkeys celebrating like idiots in front of the White House reminds me to never send my children to college at Georgetown

After learning the basics of homebrewing, I wanted to make the beer style I like the most. Belgian IPA's are rare in Belgium (purists detest, Le Chouffe is the exception) and Americans have made the style their own. My particular favorites are the Green Flash Le Freak and several hoppy Breury beers. They're big bodied, sweet and extra hoppy. I love me some rich food and rich beer. It was to Frankenstein my own.

At 80+ IBU it's an incredibly hoppy beer. If the alcohol was higher, it would qualify as an Belgian Double IPA. Unfortunately, I still don't have a name for it (Double Dutch Rudder wasn't exactly PG), so for right now I'm going with BIPA.

The crowning remark I received after people first tasted it, was that it didn't taste like a homebrew. Best compliment I could receive for my second beer. There's still great carbonation and lace with the pour and the hops haven't mellowed with age either. The Simcoe, Centennial and Cascade hops provide a BIG hop bite that's incredibly distinct thanks to the super hop Simcoe. It's a hop combination that's unique and I'm quite partial too. The sweet malt body is compliments of a Belgian Pale Ale recipe from the Culver City Home Brew Shop.

What I learned from this beer and what I will correct in the next batch, which will be partial-mash, is that the body of the beer isn't big enough to handle the amount of IBU's. At under 5% alcohol, the beer is simply too light. I need to beef up the body so that the ratio between the Bitterness Units (BU) and the Gravity Units (GU) is 1. In this recipe, the BU/GU is at 1.81. I'd like to give this a Rock rating, but in reality it's not quite there yet. TRANSFORMERS rating. Still, I honestly feel it could be in the top 50-75 beers I've had this year.

So not only was I able to revisit a homebrew for a beer of the day, but they caught the most notorious terrorist in the world --

BUT, I was also to watch the most ridiculous infomercial I've seen for quite some time, the Pajama Jeans.

You're welcome:

The good stuff happens after :40