Wurstfest; Where It's Socially Acceptable to Drink A Pitcher of Beer

Not only is it acceptable, it's encouraged!

Wurstfest is one of my favorite time's of the year. There's German food (delicious), German people (gotta love 'em), and beer everywhere. I know what you're thinking "But I thought you hated beer?" You're right! It's the title of this blog! That doesn't mean I hate the concept of it. Wurstfest is fun in that people go strictly to have a good time and drink a ton of beer and dance and listen to yodelers, the only time yodelers are cool is during Wurstfest.

A group of friends and I traveled to New Braunfels to enjoy Wurstfest. We lined up, bought drink tickets, and lined up yet again to get some beer. You could easily order a pitcher of bud light or budweiser but please have some self-respect. Love yourself. You have options.

As a non-fan of beer I was elected to be a designated driver so I decided to stick to one beer for the night. My heart was set on the Texas Honey Cider but when I reached the booth I was dismayed to find out they had just ran out. Disheartened I decided to go for a cup of Angry Orchard cider, it wasn't even a seasonal ale. My boyfriend got a pitcher of Shiner Oktoberfest as well as a cup of Chocolate Peanut Butter stout and another friend went with a pitcher of Oatmeal Stout.

The Oktoberfest on it's own wasn't that bad, I'm still getting used to the flavor of the hops and I really do think I'm getting more accustomed to it. Dissapointed that I was drinking a regular cider at a beer festival I decided to mix that two and was surprised at how delicious they were together. The Oktoberfest added the hoppy element to the otherwise plainly sweet cider and made for a more complex beverage. Now I know that if I decide to drink more beer I'm going to stick to shandy's.

The chocolate peanut butter stout and the oatmeal stout were different stories. Wow. Gross. NO! The chocolate peanut butter stout smelled wonderful, almost like a tootsie roll, but the taste was absolutely awful. It was extremely bitter and the peanut butter aftertaste lingered far too long. The oatmeal stout was just dark, heavy, and bitter. If you like dark beers definitely give them a try but otherwise....stay far, far away.

All in all Wurstfest was a ton a fun and I highly recommend that other's go at least once. It can get expensive though so be prepared to spend about $60 in total, counting entrance fee and parking.

Not Your Father's Potpourri

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year so naturally I go all out. A friend of mine was throwing a party to celebrate and as an adult we get to have beer!

I threw on a costume (my boyfriend and I were assassins of the night, ninjas!) and brought a pack of the seasonal Woodchuck cider. Once at the party I felt a little foolish after I saw not many had dressed up but that's what the beer is for. There was mostly domestic beers such as Shiner, Dos Equis, and......actually that was about it. Until I noticed Not Your Father's Root Beer. NYFRB is a new beer that has taken people by storm, you can find it at most HEB's and people have fallen in love.

True to it's name NYFRB tastes exactly like root beer!

In all honesty I don't even like root beer but it still pretty awesome that there's beer available that tastes exactly like root beer.

Next I had the cider I brought, Still looking for a beer I enjoy I usually end up sticking with ciders and Woodchuck has got to be my favorite brand of ciders.

Mmmmm....just thinking about it has me wanting more. The Fall Harvest claims to taste like apple pie but it honestly tastes and smells like potpourri which actually isn't bad. I know it sounds bad, nobody really wants to eat dried plants, but trust me the cider is delicious and has a great after taste. Don't go expecting apple pie though.

Punk To The Core

It's fall which can only mean one thing....

Pumpkin. Pumpkin everywhere, as far as the eye can see. As a society we love to celebrate seasonal fruits and vegetables but I think we go overboard with pumpkin. The list of pumpkin seasonal beers is long and varied but I decided to go with the ever popular Punkin Ale by Dogfish head.

Dogfish Head is a brewing Based in Delaware that is loved by many and is noted for their XX-Minute ale. Their Punkin Ale is known to be absolutely loved by many and tends to sell out shortly after being stocked, some stores go as far as limiting how many cases a customer can purchase.

My brother is an aficionado for Dogfish Head so I got a 6-pack of the Punkin Ale for his birthday. Of course I took one for myself because that's what siblings are for!

The Punkin ale is a brown ale with flavored with pumpkin (obviously) and a hint of brown sugar. I tasted neither. As far as the IBU scale goes this is about in the middle at a rating of 28. I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin brews as is, I'm not even a fan of the Pumpkin cider offered by Woodchuck. But, this is a wildly popular beer so if you see it and you like pumpkin definitely give it a shot.

Raspberry Sour and Trivia Night

The Flying Saucer is a God-send to beer lovers. Visitors can go and taste a variety of beers under a single roof, have some snacks, and enjoy a night of trivia. I went to the Flying Saucer for a friends birthday after dinner at Hofbrau, another halfway decent place for beer.

It was a Friday night so naturally the Saucer was packed. Trivia Night is not something I usually attend and the time we just happened to stumble upon it but it ended up being pretty fun. It came to order and after a few minutes with the menu I decided on a raspberry sour.

A sour beer is exactly what it is, a sour beer. The type of sour beers available usually fall under lambics, gueuze, and flanders red ale.

I paired my beer with an appropriate dessert, a chocolate raspberry lava cake topped with vanilla ice cream. It was delicious! The sour beer paired surprisingly well with the sweet chocolate and smooth vanilla flavor. The pink color of the beer was to die for, absolutely gorgeous.

Definitely a hit with me, 10/10 would recommend. Sour beers are delicious!

Modern Times in San Diego

One of my favorite times of the year is late July when I go on vacation to San Diego. My main destination is Comic-con International but I always end up staying a few days after just to enjoy the city. San Diego is such a dream, the weather is mild, the scenery is beautiful and the food is delicious. I'm a native to New York so I feel a bit bad about being so enamored with San Diego but the west coast calls to me every year.

During my latest trip in July I picked up a local beer, Modern Times. 

I don't necessarily read about beers much, this beer was a suggestion from my brother. I bought a four-pack at an Italian market but didn't drink it until I got home about a week later. Incidentally, I ended up breaking a law. You're not supposed to transport beer across state lines. We'd driven to San Diego so we crossed through New Mexico and Arizona. Luckily no one was the wiser so....let's keep this between you and me.

An 18-hour drive can wear anyone out so after resting and unpacking I decided to give this beer a try. This was all the way back in July, why am I still talking about this beer? Well, to be completely honest I still have a can in my fridge. At the time I was excited, the can stated it had citrusy notes, I love citrus! I poured out a glass and discovered a beautiful orange color that looked very appetizing, The beer definitely smelled citrusy. I took a sip and I have never been so confused with a flavor profile before.

My first sip was a mess. I tasted cigarette, mind you I don't even smoke, but I also tasted the orange. Another sip and I only tasted the orange. "Okay," I thought to myself, "this isn't so bad." I continued to drink my beer, I didn't pair it with anything, I was just having a beer at home, the third sip and the cigarette flavor had returned. Back and forth between sips I could taste orange and cigarettes. I'd heard about people drinking complex beers but I didn't fully understand what that meant until I tried Modern Times.

To be honest I'm still not sure if I like Modern Times, it definitely had a nice after taste but the cigarette part was bizarre. I know that isn't the advertised flavor but it honestly tasted like what a cigarette smells like.

This has been the most complex beer I've tried to date, most beers are very upfront with their flavor profile. They either stay bitter, dark, sweet, or sour. This one was a trip and I do recommend it if not the for the flavor but for the experience of having such a complex beer.

The Ram's Bite

I like to think of myself as a new adult. Currently I am 22 but I still live at home with my mother, while I can't afford to move out I do otherwise support myself thanks to a small retail job. I digress, part of being a new adult means I get to go out and conduct myself in an adult manner. That means it's now up to me to make sure I'm visiting my doctor, that my health insurance is available, my prescriptions are filled, I maintain my car, I go grocery shopping, I maybe even consider stock options.

One of my favorite activities as an adult is having dinner parties. After I ask my mom (lol) if I can host I begin to plan. Cooking has been one of my favorite things to do for a long time. I remember as a kid when we were first able to afford basic cable I'd channel surf those 90+ channels, one day I happened to stumble across Iron Chef. This wasn't the Americanized version that is popular today, this was the original Japanese version that was dubbed with cheesy voices and an obvious dub-lag. I fell in love. The ingredients were new to me, I saw sea urchin for the first time. The chefs would cook these incredible, sometimes bizarre dishes and I was just enamored. I'd never seen anything like it before. While my family has never been shy about food, I just wasn't exposed to Japanese cuisine like this before. Yeah, I couldn't taste the food or let alone smell it but just seeing it was so new.

Iron Chef led to me watching a ton of cooking shows, my favorite being Good Eats where I learned about the science behind food. This led to me having a fascination with food that has continued onto my adult life, I love cooking and have cooked dishes from around the world.

I decided to keep it simple and prepare a dinner of steak, potatoes au gratin, a salad, and some strawberry shortcake for dessert. Paired with all of this was Wicked Ram IPA by Shiner. IPA stands for India Pale Ale, a category of beer within pale ales which just means that they are brewed using pale malts which means these beers are hoppy.

I didn't realize my mistake until it was too late. IPAs are bitter, they're about as bitter as they come and honestly I still have a long way to go before I can get accustomed to drinking IPAs. The beer had a nice light yellow color but the hoppiness of the Wicked Ram was unforgiving. The bitterness bit like a bullet and it took quite a few bites of potatoes to get the flavor out of my mouth.

Unfortunately I was not a fan but I think that was mostly due to the fact that my palette hasn't gotten used to the bitterness of beer yet.