Goose Island's Demolition, a pretty good golden ale, clean, smooth, easy drinking, with a fine Belgian style carbonation. Nothing amazing to say about it, but I've really been digging Goose Island's Belgian Style stuff recently, so I gave it a shot and was not disappointed.
Goose Island's Fleur, a Belgian ale made with hibiscus blossoms. This beer is super interesting, smooth, flowery(duh) but not overpoweringly so. There's a sweet but not cloying floral note especially in the finish that builds and lingers as you work through the bottle. Highly recommended if you have even the faintest thought that it sounds good. I'd have to do a side by side or back to back comparison to see if I like this better than Matilda, but it's close.
Shiner Smokehaus, beer made with smoked mesquite. ZOMG this beer tastes like bbq, but in the best possible way. Smokey, not as dark as you'd think, and pairs super great with just about any meat. Not terribly complex, but that's okay, it is still interesting and very very good. Pick some up for your Labor Day grilling needs.
McChouffe Brown ale, a Belgian take on a Scottish ale. Not a bad beer, a pretty straight up Scottish ale, but with the very fine Belgian carbonation which gives it a different mouthfeel that one would expect. I thought there should/could be more malt in it, and maybe some other flavors, but it was an okay beer. My biggest complaint is how much I paid for this thing, $18 at the Red Monk. I understand it's a bar, and this is a large quantity of hard to find imported beer, but it wasn't that great. I've paid that much, in that bar, and thought it was a bargain. I would not bother with this again, both myself and the friend who I shared it with were underwhelmed.Now on to something that's just about as near and dear to me as fancy beers: bicycles. This is the start/brain vomit/opening tirade of a bigger write up I'm working on for WeBikeEugene, Seager's excellent bike commuting oriented site for Eugene, Oregon. Without further ado, here goes: Ankeny's bike parking sucks. It's not a surprise to anyone who rides a bike to just about any business. Some have a couple staple/inverted U type racks, most have nothing. Sure there's little bike theft to worry about, but having basically nowhere to lock up doesn't exactly encourage cycling. The closest grocery store to me is Hy-Vee, it's also my preferred store, so that's a bonus, and it isn't terribly hard to get to via bicycle, a little in town MUP and neighborhood streets.
Here is their terrible excuse for a bike rack :
Seriously Hy-Vee? I'm not even sure how to use that. Plus that catering van is there most of the time. The kitchen manager is one of our better customers and he agrees that it sucks, but the higher ups don't see a good place for a rack, nor a good reason to install one. He also enlightened me as to the van, seems it has to stay there so it's out of the way for car traffic and isn't taking up parking close to the store. Again, not his call, but his boss's. It's very weird to me that a company that puts on a giant triathlon, encourages employees to live healthier lifestyles, including incentives for bike commuting (at least during bike to work week), would have some of the shoddiest bike parking ever. In fact, I rarely even both using it, I generally lock my front wheel to my frame and lean the bike on the side of the building. My bike would vanish in many other towns, but in Ankeny it hasn't been a problem.In a longer/more complete versionI'll talk about what Eugene does right, what Ankeny does right, what else can be done and why, plus more photos, and maybe some actual counts of racks/bike parking from other popular area businesses.
Yay!
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