rough day? fancy beers to the rescue

Today was a bit rough. As it sometimes happens in retail, people all showed up at once, then no one was in the store for a long time. This went on all day; I rarely had just one person in the shop, but usually had 3-4 that all arrived at nearly the same time, and that's never a fun time. It started pretty much from opening the doors onward. Three people were in needing different things in the first 15 mins, two of them needing to get set up on our trainers, which can take a while. Anyhoo, somewhere in that process I pinched a finger in something and took a good chunk out of it. It was deep enough/a big enough piece missing that it quickly soaked through a single bandaid. It's on my left index finger so, while it doesn't hurt much, it's super annoying doing anything with two bandaids on a single finger. When I got home, I cracked open a couple fancy beers and promptly enjoyed the hell out of them. Enough petty bitching, on to the beers:

Three Floyd's Broo Doo Harvest Ale.

Wow. I can't believe I drank a beer with a wish troll on the label, but I'm really glad I did. This fall seasonal is wet hopped, which means the hops aren't dried before being added to the beer. In this case they claim 24 hours or so from harvest to wort. This technique enhances the aromatic qualities of the hop and impart a certain "fresh" characteristic. According the their website, this brew has 80 IBUs, which isn't surprising given the incredibly citrusy nose to the beer, but depsite the large-ish IBU count, it is smooth and entirely not bitter. The smell is the biggest attraction here, full of citrus, pine, floral notes, and more citrus. They don't say exactly which hops are involved but I'd be surprised if Cascades and Citras, weren't involved. There's enough malt to balance the potent hop dose, but not enough to muddy up the complex flavors involved. A++++ would drink again. Next up is a beer that is finally available in the US, and one all my globe trotting friends insisted I had to try:

Guinness Foreign Extra

A different version/style of their regular stout. It has finally gotten out of the UK and into my grocery store. It is different, richer, deeper, just a bit more flavorful. Certainly not going to be drinking this all the time, but it's a nice change. If you like Guinness, or darker beers in general, give it a shot. Decidedly not on par with something like Shakespeare Stout from Rogue, but it is an new option in the vein of "regular" Guinness, and that's a-okay.