Summer of Cider

Sadly, along with my diagnosis of Celiac Disease came the death of The Summer of Beer. Sniff.

 

Luckily, I have found that I LOVE hard ciders and am making my way through the shelves at the liquor store, since that's the only place to buy them in our bass-ackwards state.

 

 Welcome beautiful nights on the back patio!

 

Angry Orchard Elderflower is AMAZING. So nice and fruity and so smooth. Love!

 



But Woodchuck Summer has claimed my top spot in The Summer of Cider. This has a hint of blueberry and is so tasty. Even my neighbor who is not a big fan of fruity drinks liked this one.

 



 

But DO NOT try Woodchuck Spring...... I am not a fan. I though the "touch of maple and brown sugar" sounded fabulous, but not so much. In fact, just thinking of it gives me a bad taste in my mouth. Plus? It is not at all appropriate for Spring..... much more so Fall! Maybe I will like it then! 

 

Any suggestions for me?

Jack Daniel's Honey

Has anyone tried Jack Daniel's Honey yet? I saw a recipe mixing it with lemonade and it looks like it might just quench my thirst......

Summer of Beer 2011

The Summer of Beer has long been a topic around here, and it's time to revisit it.

Because I need to tell you something NOT to buy.

Sadly, MGD 64 Lemonade is just not good. In fact, it's very non-beer, and not nearly lemonade-y enough, if that makes sense. I suggest picking up Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy instead, and even though it has 130 calories, it's 130 calories of good...... In fact, I believe I'll be asking Mr. Sasha to stop by the liquor store and get me some today.



Anything new I need to try for Summer of Beer 2011?

Top 2 Tuesday: Drinks!

Thought I'd join in on Top 2 Tuesday at The Undomestic Momma.... because I need a drink today! (But isn't it just Monday??????)

1. I have a ice-cold can of full-sugar Coke every.single.morning. Can't live without it! It's my coffee!

2. My alcoholic drink of choice for years has been Mike's Light Hard Lemonade or Cranberry Lemonade. 98 calories of pure bliss! (note that it was hard as hell to find that information out!)

Last fall, I started having trouble finding it, and a beer delivery guy at Target told me it was discontinued..... which led to my devastation and also to this:

Note that the Shiner box and the one next to it are full of Mike's Light.... you just can't see it!

But guess what? They really just reformulated it..... now it's spelled "Lite" (stupid spelling!) and has 109 (Lemonade) and 119 calories (Cranberry Lemonade).

I'm super glad it's still around, but I might not have stocked up for Y2K if I had know this tid-bit of info! Well, maybe I still would have..... having that stash in my garage is quite a conversation starter. :-)

This Just Can't Wait Until Thirsty Thursday

I know it's only the beginnig of May, but I'm putting out the announcement that it's officially "The Summer of Beer 2010". Are you ready?

My good friend Gina came over Saturday night with a drink recommended by the cashier at the liquor store and as she says, "It's delightful!".

Mixing equal parts of Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss and Summer Shandy (a lemonade beer) makes a Pink Lemonade that's very refreshing and summery.

Do you know of any other beer combos I need to try this summer?

Thirsty Thursday: 4-29-10

Hair Bows & Guitar Picks is hosting Thirsty Thursday today, and I of course am joining in.

If any of you locals happen to be traveling to neighboring states anytime soon, will you pick up some Wild Blue for me? It's not sold in lovely state with crazy beer laws, and I've got a hankering for it..... I think I have one lonely bottle left that some good friends brought me recently and then I'll be fresh out.

It's just about time for the Summer of Beer of you know.

In the Great State of Missouri

They have Dana's BBQ (BBQ nachos that are to die for! Hi Holly- you'd love them!), Silver Dollar City, and Mike Light Hard Lemonade!!!!!

We don't have that in our state. States with a 3.2 law don't get much cool stuff. We do have the Light Cranberry Lemonade, but I'd love the plain light also. Tonight I have polished off a few along with some smores that we made outside our condo rental. Yum-O.

Seeing as how the Summer of Beer is upon us, I guess I'll just have to stock up on the Mike's Light before we head home Monday.......

New Beer Find!

Look what I spied at Target! Mike's Hard Raspberry Lemonade! How good does that look?

Anyone tried it? I love the Cranberry you know.

Ah, the 2009 Summer of Beer is upon us.....

Today At the Pool

we listened to this.



Kid Rock "All Summer Long"

Totally a beer drinkin' song.

Since I'm in a state with better beer than my home state, I spent $42 on beer last night. Don't you judge me. Most of it will be going home with me tomorrow and I'll even share with Mr. Sasha.

Hell yeah to The Summer of Beer.

Beer, Pie, and Gellato

All of these three things I have overindulged in over the past few days.

We'll be back in town tomorrow night and I'll try to check in.

Cheers! (drink some beer!)

Hoping to Get to Try

MGD 64.

Only 64 calories! That means I can drink more and still stay within my WW points, which I am totally going to start counting again when we get back from CO.

Hope they have it at the brewery today. Looks like it rolls out nationwide in October.

Boring Conference + Brewery Tour = Saved Trip

Mr. Sasha and I are headed to Colorado today. I've got a super-exciting (not) conference to attend Mon-Wed.

In an attempt to salvage the trip, we will (of course) be touring the Coors Brewery in Golden. Now, we have done this before while on our 1st anniv trip in 2000. It was then that I first tasted (and became a big fan of) Blue Moon.

Also, after this tour, Mr. Sasha and I were pulled aside and chosen to be Official Beer Tasters. This involved going into a special room and tasting samples of various beer and giving our opinion. We were chosen because of the amount of beer that we reported we drank weekly. Embarrassing, but super-fun.

And when we left our Official Beer Taster certificates in our rental car, Hertz was nice enough to mail them to us at home.

Need An Alcoholic Beverage for the 4th?

Then stop by your local Wal-Mart and pick up a 6 pack of Smirnoff Raw Tea (I recommend the Raspberry).

I noticed the 6 packs were priced at $3.67 last month, and I figured it was being discontinued, so I bought all they had (four 6 packs- don't you judge me!).

But Tuesday night I noticed they were still on the shelves and still at that fantastic price!

You'll love it- promise!

Beer Find: Blue Moon Honeymoon Summer Ale

Is it bad that I go down the beer aisle every time I go to the grocery store?

Don't you judge me! (tm Joy's mom)

You know I'm a beer gal and that is a product of hanging with Mr. Sasha and the football team in college. You also know I'm a Blue Moon fan and of course this is the Summer of Beer at the Sashas.

Blue Moon's Summer Ale is called Honeymoon, and it's marketed as a beer flavored with honey and orange peel. I picked up a 6 pack the other day thinking I was sure there would be a beer occasion soon.

And I was right! Mr. Sasha and I have been chaperoning a group of 10 four-year-olds (!) at VBS this week and there have been a few nights that a beer has sounded awfully good once we got home and got the kids to bed. We tried Honeymoon the other night and we both really liked it.

Looks like it's available from May-mid August. Give it a try before it's gone!

New Beverage Find

Damn, this stuff is good. Mike's Light Hard Cranberry Lemonade- 98 calories or thereabouts.

Super good on an early summer night listening to an Americana band in the park. Makes corralling the kiddos on picnic blanket not as bad as it could be.

Maybe if I had brought a few more we could have stayed longer......

I Am a Member of The Brewmaster's Club!

I bet you've been waiting on this post.

I posted a little preview about the fabulous Hospitality House at Sea World a few weeks ago. And really, fabulous doesn't do it justice. I'm all about the free, especially free beer. And especially after I've been chasing my ornery two-year-old around the park for hours on end.

Now, the first cool part is that there is a bar in the front of the Hospitality House that you can get two free beers from and enjoy them in their large comfortable facility that is scattered with beer history and memorabilia. The second cool part is that you can also sign up for their Brewmaster's Club and get to attend an educational tasting of various beers and fruit, cheese, and chocolate.

Mr. Sasha and I signed up, although we did have to sign up separately since the kiddos weren't allowed in the Brewmaster area. He went first and came back refreshed and excited for me to get to go too.

So while I was waiting for the Brewmaster thing to start, I visited the bar up front and chose Shock Top, which is Anheuser-Busch's answer to Blue Moon. If you like Blue Moon, you'll like Shock Top.

Next, they opened up the Brewmaster Club doors and invited us in. They seated us in groups of four. I was seated with a girl who had just turned 21 the week before and a mother and daughter. Could have been totally uncomfortable sitting with 3 random strangers, but they turned out to be nice so it wasn't so bad.

An employee came and handed us a big menu and asked us to select 4 beers to try, which she would bring to us along with a tray of fruit, cheese, crackers and chocolate. Fun!

First, I chose Michelob Ultra Fruit, knowing that there are three different flavors and not knowing which one I would get. I'm just wild and crazy like that.

I had tried the Raspberry Pomegranate before on a trip to Missouri and loved it. So I was pleased that they brought out Lime, a flavor I hadn't tried. It was crisp and refreshing. Fab.

Next, I tried Tilt, which is a malt beverage energy drink. It was quite tasty, although I typically don't drink energy drinks. I figure I'm already medicated enough, no sense in adding additional things in my system. I get enough caffeine in my morning Coke.

I was so excited to try Wild Blue, a fruit infused lager. I was not disappointed- it was wonderful. (And on another note, my wonderful friend Amanda just brought me a six pack because I told her how much I liked it! I don't think they sell it in my state, so I'll be rationing this out and if you come over and I don't offer you one, don't get your feelings hurt, K?)

I also chose LandShark, which I can't actually find any info on on the A-B site. After I ordered it I realized that I had already tried it at Margaritaville in Vegas (it's marketed as Jimmy Buffet's beer). On the plus side, I remembered liking it, so no loss there. It's kinda Corona-ish.

We stopped by a few convenient (convenience?) stores on the way home from Sea World but didn't see any of these for sale. I live in a crazy state with weird beer laws, so I didn't expect to be able to find these for sale at home. To my surprise, I did find LandShark and Shock Top at my local IGA!

I'm quite on a beer kick right now and think I'll christen this The Summer of Beer. Maybe that's my new motto......

Beer:30

One of the mottos in contention for NLP: RD: Motto is "Every day is a liquor convention" and of course there is WC's suggested "I need ice!".

Here in the south(west) we're stating to have some fab days mixed in with our 20 degree days. Saturday was one of those nice days and Mr. Sasha suggested we grill hamburgers. I ran to WalMart since we had none of the stuff on hand, and wandered down the beer aisle.

Ever since I'd seen the Tea Partay video last year (East is so much better than West), I've been dying to try to Smirnoff Raw Tea and this was the perfect occasion. I found the Raspberry variety and into my cart it went.
verdict: Yum! And more yum! Light and refreshing.... I downed two before I even realized it. No aftertaste. Just wonderful. I'll be buying more and can see these being a staple this summer.

I'm also a fan of the original Blue Moon, and yesterday when I was at Target at lunch I found this new version:

Blue Moon Rising Moon Spring Ale. So of course I bought this too. I don't know when I think I'm going to drink this all. Maybe you can come over for a drink this weekend.