No Post-Paddy's Depression, Please

Everyone out there recovered from St. Patrick's Day? I'm sure some of you are vowing to never wear green again, but c'mon- it's time to start drinking again. New beers are out there, just waiting to be brought to a good home. Personally, it's not the beer that makes me queasy after the holiday, it's the corned beef that my shitty crock pot decided to somehow boil for hours while on the Low setting. How does that happen? Now I've got a ton of disgusting corned beef and cabbage that is going to sit in the fridge until it turns green. But onto to the new beers. First, we have another New Belgium release: Hoppy Bock. More like a description than a beer name if you ask me. It's the first release in New Belgium's Hop Kitchen series. So now they have a Hop Kitchen series, an Lips of Faith series, and a "What I Won't Buy From New Belgium" series: Abbey, Fat Tire, and Trippel. This Hoppy Bock is a Maibock style beer that is hopped with Fuggles, Hallertau, and Perle hops and is 6.9% ABV.

Another entry into the White IPA category, Wasatch's Ghostrider blends the Belgian style with the American IPA. Some of the breweries attempting this style make more of a wheat beer with hops, but this one strives for more of a Witbier IPA. Do the styles need to be mixed? I dunno. Deschutes Chain Breaker is selling pretty well, so Deschutes can fill their pockets and laugh at me while I question the White IPA style. I'll shut up.

Yes, it's a Full Sail beer. But don't click away just yet! There's bourbon in these Hood River parts- Four Roses, Jim Beam, and Maker's Mark, to be more precise. Imperial Stout was aged in barrels from all of those distilleries for a year to create this 9.6% ABV beer. The Black Gold name seems to have been dropped from the beer, so now it is just known as Imperial Stout. Not as descriptive as Hoppy Bock, but you all know what an Imperial Stout is supposed to taste like. For $12.99 a 22 oz. bottle, hopefully Full Sail does as well. I'm willing to give any bourbon barrel-aged beer a shot. Found all of these beers at the Kelly Liquors on Wyoming. Hey, who wants to do a Car Bomb???