Hot Springs and Wildflowers

The Beer: Deschutes Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale in my mug at $1.25 a bottle. (Thank you, Boise Co-op).

The Perfect Pairing: Egg salad sandwiches on toasted potato bread with alfalfa sprouts, provolone, and sliced tomato. This one was Adie's idea - after I got back from the gym, the whole house smelled like a hot springs. Then Adie tried to cover it up with one of those essential oil burners...so it smelled like wildflowers mixed with a hot springs.

The Brew Itself: Good stuff. A hint of citrus at the start and a bitter back-end that wasn't too piney.

The Verdict: "12 ounces of yes," says I. "The taste in your mouth after a cigarette," says she.

One Fight, Two Power Plays, and a Lot of Bad Music

I Am: Widmer Hefeweizen, with lemon wedge, in a plastic cup at $7 a pint. (Note to future self: Don't buy beer at Steelheads games).

Drink Me With: A hockey game along the fiancé, friends, and two burritos from one of the game vendors. The tickets were gratis through my new workplace so it kinda-sorta offset the small fortune we paid for beer and dinner. But the seats were center ice, Idaho beat Victoria 5-1, and we didn't get hit by a puck.

You Think I Am: A Northwest classic. The Widmer brothers are supposedly responsible for making Hefeweizen a fairly standard beer in the States. And that's not a bad thing - it's cloudy, thick, a little sweet and a fitting beer to start and end the night with.

I Taste Like: A sweet-n-yeasty beer, sans any bitter finishing hops or maltiness.

Green Eggs and Beer

Presenting: New Belgium Ranger India Pale Ale at $1.25 a bottle in my PBR pint glass.

Best Tolerated With: A homemade, bastardized version of huevos rancheros. Brown 4 small flour tortillas in a skillet and stack 'em in a warm oven. Fry up some diced, red bell pepper and 1/2 cup of corn with a little oil, garlic, salt, cilantro, and Tapatio. Then scramble 3 eggs with either salsa verde or fire-roasted green chiles. Last, pile all the ingredients evenly on the tortillas, top with shredded cojita or cheddar cheese, and throw them back in the oven until nice and melty. Garnish with fresh salsa, sour cream, more Tapatio, etc.

First & Last Impressions: Unripe and underdone. I'm an unabashed hop-head but this IPA feels incredibly unbalanced, as if the brewmaster added a half-pound of Cascade hops two weeks after the boil. It gives the impression of a very green, undeveloped beer.

Tastes a Lot Like: Cascade hops with a side of Fat Tire.

(And a pic of dinner)

Hump Day is for Barleywines

Presenting: Sierra Nevada Barleywine Style Bigfoot Ale in my personalized mug with iPhoto's vignette function set against a backdrop of Vampire Weekend's "Contra" lyric sheet. [I needed something in the background for my first beer pic]

Best Enjoyed: Alone, while watching reruns of "The Office" and launching a blog. Adie came home feeling a little under the weather so I scrapped my huevos rancheros dinner idea and started this little endeavor while she went down for a nap.

The Verdict: I've had this before, so I'm cheating a bit. Sierra Nevada very rarely makes a bad beer and their Bigfoot seasonal barleywine is no exception. And while I don't normally enjoy barleywines, which are typically super-sweet, Bigfoot does a nice job of balancing the sugary with the bitter.

Tastes Like: Any good American amber with a half-tablespoon of brown sugar mixed in.