Day Late & A Dollar Short

These past 2 weeks have been crazy! Work, school, life, etc. Last Saturday afternoon was the January meeting, and no pictures were taken. I had so many opportunities, and I'm kicking myself for not taking any. So here's what happened: I arrived at the Rabbit's Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale and Shannon and her lovely friend Ally were already there. So was Miku, the meadery owner's ADORABLE red aussie/border collie puppy. Maria, co-owner and acting bartender, gave her first three patrons of the day a complete history and tasting of all the meads and ciders she had to offer. The meadery doesn't have all their offerings available all the time, so our tasting was limited but barely so.

Now would be a good time for me to tell you what she told us, how good the stuff tasted, where you can get it, etc, but I'm not going to do that. Frankly, I can only remember half the stuff she said because I was so blinded by how delicious everything was. Raspberry mead, pear cider, black cherry cider, Hel Saison, the list goes on. Get there yourself and try some! Here are some bottles I enjoyed at home last week:

This is Stone Brewing's Lukcy Basartd. I linked to it in a previous post so I'm not doing it again, but you should go find it if you don't know anything about this tasty morsel. I adored this beer! You will too!

My fridge has been full of beer lately, but it's mostly Franziskaner and Spaten and other not-as-special-as-other-beers beers. Except for two beers I got to try for this first time last week: Firestone Double Barrel Ale and Anchor Small Beer. My Safeway just started carrying the Firestone and I had to pick it up. I wasn't floored, but I wasn't disappointed. The Small Beer, however, was one of the most interesting beers I've had in a while.

This bitter beauty comes from sprinkling warm water over Anchor's Old Foghorn mash after the first wort has run off, thereby creating a second, lighter brew from the resulting thinner wort. At first sip it was alarming, I had expected it to taste at least a little like the Barleywines I've had before. It wasn't dark, viscous, or intensely alcoholic like most Barleywines, instead it was light in body, with effervescence like any macro pils, and a sharp, bitter taste that took a little getting used to. After a few sips, I was sold. I'll pick this up if I see it again for sure. Next week: February meeting, SF Beer Week!