Friday, February 5, 2010

A Plethora of Potent Potables

After a dry spell, some welcome new beers have hit the shelves. It's about time. I thought I was going to have to resort to reviewing Olive Garden's beer selection.

Big Sky's latest is Bobo's Robust Porter. I'm guessing that Bobo is the inbred looking 4-legger depicted on the label. Where I'm from, Bobos are cheap K-Mart brand shoes. As in, "Yo, your mom make you wear those bobos because that's all she can afford?". Classy kids we were, and things have only gotten classier on my end, huh? Bobo's Robust Porter is 6.2% ABV, with a coffeeish taste ala Pipeline Porter from Kona, though not as pronounced. $7.99per sixer.

Red Hook has got a new Spring offering, this one in the Nut Brown style and dubbed Mud Slinger. With a name like that, I'd expect it to be released during Fall elections. I don't know much about the beer. Never been super excited about that style of beer, honestly. 5.2% ABV, also $7.99 a six-pack, and should be available everywhere.

Hop Henge, the largest IPA Deschutes Brewing offers, is back for another year. 95 IBUs, 8.75% ABV. Deschutes uses over three pounds of Centennial and Cascade hops per barrel, but for some reason uses crystal malt in the brew, and I don't love that in a DIPA. I do like the beer, and the $6.99 price tag is more than fair for a limited release like this one. I have only seen it at Jubilation so far, but it usually makes its way to the other liquor stores.

A pricier, though much rarer beer in these parts, is Raven's Eye Imperial Stout. This is the first beer to make it to New Mexico from Eel River Brewing out of Fortuna, California. Raven's Eye retails for $9.99 per 22 oz. at Jubilation and is 9.5% ABV. I haven't tried it yet, haven't had much from Eel River, really. I tried their organic IPA a couple of years ago, and was not blown away. Will Raven's Eye be better, or will you say, "Nevermore!", Damn, that was lame. That's the best I could come up with? I'm such a hack. My only excuse is that, at the moment, I am face with an overabundance of sobriety, which inhibits the creative process. I'll try to avoid this condition in the very near future.

3 comments:

The Bikeworks Crew said...

Are you from PA? I've met one other person who refers to crappy sneakers as "Bobo's", he's from near Philly.
His Bobos were recently a pair of big bright white Wilsons from Big 5 clearance shelf.

ABQbeergeek said...

You got it! Philly proud, my friend. Damn, Wilsons! I don't even need to see them to classify them as bobos!

Bill Aimonetti said...

EEL River may be some of the worst beer available in NM