Rye-On-Rye = Me-Under-Table

Another reason for the recent hiati (We did decide it was hiati, and not hiatuses, right? Spellcheck is telling me different, but we all know how much I enjoy making up words and rolling with them) is that I'm constantly forgetting to take pictures of the delicious beers and food I have. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Reason #1: When I'm out drinking, I'm drinking. And that sometimes leads to being forgetful.

Reason #2: I forget what reason #2 is. I was drinking. Forgive me.

Reason #3: In order to keep motivated and keep updating this blog, going out for a good beer and a good meal can't feel like a chore, and if I go out with a mindset that every beer I drink or every morsel of food I eat has to be translated into an epic blog post (can we have a moratorium on the word epic, please?) then I'm not going to be able to enjoy said beer or food. It loses it's delicious purity if it becomes a 'job,' of sorts.

Delicious purity? Where did that come from? Super creepy, those two words together.

Yes, yes, I know, it's all just excuses. Especially reason #3. It really is just because I end up forgetting to snap pictures and then lose motivation to write about the beer. And even though I do legitimately forget, it's still just an excuse, and I need to pull my shit together. As my fifth grade art teacher used to say, "Excuses are nails used to build a house of failure," which I never really understood. I mean, you're building a house. Even if it's a house of failure, you're succeeding at building it, right?

So I guess this is the first episode of season two. How about that. Maybe I should talk about beer.

Behold, the Rye-On-Rye from Boulevard Brewing out of Kansas City, Missouri. Now, I've been to misery, err, Missouri, and I have to be honest. Didn't much care for the place. It is, however, the only state to allow it's citizens to distil their own spirits legally. Up to one hundred gallons a year, anyway. So I guess if you have to live there it has it's perks. But fuck the humidity. And the heat. People were nice though. And good beer was easy to find. Pretty much lived on Boulevard Single Wide IPA while we were out there, and found some other interesting brews. But until now, I didn't think Boulevard was that special. They have some solid brews, yes, but nothing really to write home about (which is what I call blogging, now). This Rye-On-Rye, however, is nothing but incredible. It is indeed a very special beer which, from what I understand, is extremely rare to find in any form other than a 750mL bottle. The Manito Tap House, however, managed to get a keg of this bad boy, and it is sublimely delicious on tap. It's caramel cloudiness was a bit disarming at first. Not quite what I was expecting. I don't really know what I was expecting, except that I knew it was going to be really damn good. And on that point, my expectations were exceeded. The nose was breathtaking. I found myself overwhelmed by it's barrel aged aroma. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it was I was smelling. The rye? The charred oak from the rye whiskey barrels it had been aging in? Delicious purity? Still creepy, but that's certainly an apt discriptor for this beers aroma. Then the flavors, man. The flavors. I think Boulevard can describe it better than I can:

Two kinds of malted rye provide spicy sweetness, giving way to notes of caramelized wood and the citrusy tang of Perle, Magnum, and Saphir hops before easing into a dry, lingering finish.

That's the description from their website. What can I add to that? I'm not a beer 'genius,' per se, but perhaps I can paint a picture of what this beer tastes like: Winter lingers. It's cold out. Too cold. Frost on the windows. Darkness blankets the snow covered earth. The yellow lights of snow plows strobe and jet across your ceiling and wall before fading into the fog. You close your eyes. You can feel sunshine on your face. Warmth. You open your eyes and see the dawning of spring. Flowers blooming. Vast expanses of green and blue and yellow. You can see summer in the distance, growing brighter, flooding everything with warmth and contentment. You close your eyes again and breath deep. The current of satisfaction sweeps you away.

And then you take another sip.

I feel like this post is getting dangerously close to becoming a Harley Quinn novel. 50 shades of rye, perhaps. Let it dominate you. At 12% ABV, that's an easy thing to do. And it will certainly leave you satisfied. Or craving more. Or both. Is that possible? With the Rye-On-Rye, I suspect it is.

Alright, that's enough. And just for fun, here's the picture I took of the burrito I got from the Tacos El Sol truck for some late night munching.

Yeah. I can't tell what that is either. I tried. Even though you can't see the deliciousness, I can still highly recommend the chorizo burrito, especially if you've been downtown and had a few. The truck is always parked in the pay lot on Washington between Sprague and 1st.

I'm always open to suggestions and recommendations, if you've got them. I love trying new beers and restaurants and meeting other beer enthusiasts. If you've got something in mind you'd like to see me write about, send it to spokanebeerblog@gmail.com, or through my twitter, @spokanebeerblog.

I look forward to hearing from you. Until then, you know what to do.

Please don't make me say it.

Oh, fine.

Tap that glass.