My Name Is...My Name Is...My Name Is...

From Mr. Furious, who got it from a Mr. Furious regular Toast, a quick-and-harmless meme:

1. Witness Protection Program Name (mother’s & father’s middle names): "Richard Lucille"

2. NASCAR Name (first name of your mother’s dad, father’s dad): "Eugene Leonard"

3. Star Wars Name (the first 2 letters of your last name, first 4 letters of your first name): "Sm-Noa"

4. Detective Name (favorite color, favorite animal): "Blue Bear"

5. Soap Opera Name (middle name, city where you live): "Alexander DeWitt"

6. Superhero Name (2nd favorite color, favorite alcoholic drink, optionally add "THE" to the beginning): "The Green Beer"

7. Fly Name (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name): "Nosm"

8. Gangsta Name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): "Mint Chocolate (times two) Chip"

9. Rock Star Name (current pet’s name, current street name): "Spike Hardtke"

10. Porn Name (1st pet, street you grew up on): "Oliver Raby"

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Bob's Best: The five things I am most thankful for this holiday

Wives that put up with us
Let’s face it, most guys marry “up”. With all of our scratching, farting, burping and other mannerisms that show we have no manners at all, we are lucky to get a date, let a lone avoid a divorce.

The Big-three automakers…
…and the 4 million workers and retirees that they employ. Along with all the dependable cars my family has purchased from them over my lifetime.

A job and health care
9.3% of us in Michigan are looking for a paying gig. I will not complain about mine. Thank goodness mine even provides healthcare.

Michigan beer
According to the Michigan Beer Guide there are at least 88 Michigan breweries. You could likely drink nothing but Michigan beer all year round and never drink the same beer twice.

Family and friends
No explanation needed.

What are you thankful for this holiday season?

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Thanksgiving

Gluttony.

Continuing what is essentially a daily tradition here at Around the Keg, we are happy to endorse and rejoice in a day known for over-eating, over-drinking, long naps and football. Again, what's really different than any other day? Well, on Thanksgiving, it's encouraged and expected whereas any other day we practice the above activities, we are yelled-at for being things like "no-good" or "lazy" or "bad parents."

Thanksgiving for Mr. and Mrs. Smitty involves getting to the parents' house and pawning-off the children immediately on the grandparents and other extended family members, under the auspices of "gee you must really want to see them sicne you don't always get a chance to." We then immediately dive into the heaps of appetizers already spread around, and it's all downhill from there.

Things the contributors to ATK are thankful for:

1. Malted barley
2. Hops
3. Yeast
4. Water
5. Brown Bottles
6. Beer glasses (not goggles)
7. Craft Breweries

Things that Smitty is thankful for:

1. Beer fridges
2. Bottle openers
3. Camera phones
4. Egyptian cotton sheets
5. Founders Brewing Company
6. How I Met Your Mother
7. Barney Stinson
8. W.A. Mozart
9. Baby Einstein
10. Wrinkle-proof suits
11. Family, friends, yadda-yadda
12. XM Comedy stations
13. Charlie Papazian
14. ATK's fine list of contributors
15. ATK's fine "regular" readers

My thanks to all of you. Have a great Thanskgiving, and I'll be back here in a few days. I will think fondly on you and your families every time I hoist a Founders Harvest Ale with every bite of turkey.

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About as Michigan as Michigan beer can be!

Want to save Michigan's economy? Buy Bell's Christmas Ale!!


Ok... So perhaps buying Bell's Christmas Ale isn't going to save our slowly sinking state, but what we've got here is a beer brewed by a Michigan brewery, using 100% Michigan grown barley, Pacific Northwest and Michigan hops, and of course Michigan water and Bell's house yeast.* Bell's calls this a Scotch Ale on the label, but this is not like what we think of when we think typical Scotch Ale, a la Dirty Bastard or Arcadia Scotch Ale. What I think we've got here is closer to a 60 Shilling Scottish Ale, being somewhat low in alcohol (5.4% ABV in this case) and not as sweet and heavy. (Honestly, I don't know much about the "lower" styles of Scottish Ale, perhaps Smitty can chime in with some more info?)

The brew pours honey-gold to amber with a medium sized light toffee colored chunky head. It leaves a little lacing in my mug and a thin film sticks around all the way down. I get spicy hops on the nose... no hint of malt that I can smell but my sniffer has been a bit off of late. Juicy-bitter hop notes up front blend into dry, toasty malt with just a hint of toffee. As it warms it gets a bit sweeter, but still falls on the side of dry and bitter. Body is not as heavy as I expected, and this beer goes down EASY.

Not at all what I was expecting from a beer that says "malt driven scotch ale" on the label, but a good tasting very satisfying beer. Honestly if you had given me this brew blind I would've pegged it as an APA. It doesn't have the color, body, and sweet maltiness that I expect of scotch ales. My normal experience with scotch ales in very low to no bitterness, thick body resulting from LONG boils (two hours, sometimes more), and nice dark red colors... but again I've only had the Scotch Ales that would be classified as Wee Heavies or 80-shilling ales (and I'm not even sure if 80-Shilling Ales is right...), so perhaps this is on style for a 60-shilling ale. Regardless, it's good, just don't get this expecting heavy and sweet, or high ABV.

*So my only questions for Bell's... Where is the Maltster? Where do the raw materials come from and the manufacturing happen for the bottles, labels, caps and six-pack carriers? We're getting close to a 100% Michigan beer here, and I would love to find out that a lot of the packaging is Michigan based too!

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Hypocrisy of the Hill, Part II.

A good read.

The Detroit Free Press, column by Mitch Albom: If I had the floor at the auto rescue talks.

Albom:

"Besides, let's be honest. When it comes to blowing budgets, being grossly inefficient and wallowing in debt, who's better than Congress?

So who are you to lecture anyone on how to run a business?”

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Definitely Not Hermaphroditic

Thanks to ATK favorite George at I'm Not One To Blog But, we have been introduced to the Gender Analyzer. Plug-in your blog, and grab the results.

For what it's worth, Around the Keg is:

We think http://www.aroundthekeg.blogspot.com is written by a man (85%).

85% probable that ATK is written by a man. So, that begs the question: which of you who regularly post here are responsible for the 15% female? Or is it really just a combination of all of us getting in touch with our feminine sides?

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Video of the Week (But Not Every Week) #12

FINALLY! Someone who can imitate Obama. I don't know who this guy is, but he's way better than anyone on SNL.

"Debate Prep."



"After the Debate"

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