Day 210, July 29 / Budweiser

Day 210 /  July 29, 2011

Budweiser

Anheuser-Bush, St. Louis, MO

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

Isn’t it ironic…

Here I am, at an award-winning brewpub.  Surrounded by people drinking 2 Very Good beers, 2 Good beers, and 1 Passable beer.  And I’m drinking a Budweiser. 

I was warned this might happen.  I tried to avoid it.  Sweetwater only has 5 beers on tap at any given time.  I had one of them earlier this year, and I had the others Monday through Thursday.  I begged the bartenders to put something else on tap.  I asked if there was a secret keg anywhere.  They tried to talk me into a Black & Tan, but that would be beers I already had, mixed in the same glass.  I even had a backup growler of Chipotle Porter from the Sterling Sweetwater location in the car.

But the deal was, I’d be at the bar at 9pm.  My only choice was Bud.  They also had Miller Lite (had it on a hangover day) and Beck’s NA (aka Not Beer) in bottles, and that’s it.

I couldn’t convince any of my friends (or my wife) to have a Bud with me, and I can’t say I blame them.  I haven’t had a Budweiser all year – I was thinking I’d give it a Passable grade, but compared to Sweetwater’s Naked River light it was… well, Not Good.  ‘Nuff said.

So what did we prove, and what did we learn?

• The bartenders at Sweetwater are good people, even if they couldn’t find a secret beer for me.
• If you offer your friends one free beer, they will do whatever they can to expand that to more free beers.
• No, I didn’t get a free beer out of it.
• I had a taste of what it’s like to be a regular at a bar… and it was kind of fun.

Thanks to everybody who joined me at Sweetwater this week.  Actually, I should say, “You’re welcome,” for the beers.

 

I’ve got an idea for another social experiment later in the year…. Stay tuned!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	Gold Rush Ale	Wit’s End Ale	Iron Horse Black Lager	Naked River Light	Budweiser Really?
Jeff	G	G	VG	P	NG
Corey	G	P	VG
Henry		VG		G	Pass!
Kevin		G
Greg			VG	NG
Carrie			G
John			G
Mark			G
Jeremiah				P
Rosie				P	Pass!
Linda				P	Pass!
Katie					Pass!
Average Score	G	G	VG	P	NG

Day 209, July 28 / Naked River Light

Day 209 /  July 28, 2011

Naked River Light

Sweetwater Tavern  /  Falls Church, VA

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

The weakest link…

Most brewpubs don’t sell any beers other than those they brew themselves (although some brewpubs will occasionally have a “guest tap”).  In order to appeal to your Bud Light / Miller Lite drinkers, many brewpubs will brew and serve a much lighter beer for those customers. A “lawnmower beer”, if you will. 

Naked River Light is that beer at Sweetwater, a low carb golden lager.  Since there’s only 5 beers on tap at Sweetwater, and one is pretty much always taken by the Great American Restaurants Pale Ale (which I had earlier this year), Naked River was up to bat, the last one I hadn’t sampled.  More on that later…and so what’s the plan for Friday?

I actually had no pre-confirmed attendees for the 9pm meetup on Thursday, so I half-expected I’d be drinking alone.  But I was counting on Corey to continue his perfect attendance record.  I arrived at 8:50pm, and Henry and Jeremiah were already there.  We were sitting and talking, and at 8:56 Greg rushed in, walked over to the other side of the bar, looked around and didn’t see us.  So, as any good friends would do, we left him hanging there for a while.  A few minutes and text messages later, he spotted us and joined the group.  Still no Corey.

So I (reluctantly) ordered up a round of Naked Rivers.  By all opinions, it was definitely the weakest beer on the lineup, and given the choice, none of us would order it again (nor did anyone for our 2^nd round).  As light beers go, I guess it was OK, but we are not light beer drinkers.  The bartender even acknowledged that it was his/her least favorite beer there.  So we debated and formulated our scores, and we had Sarah the bartender take our picture.

At about 9:25, who walks in the door?  Corey?  Nope.  His wife, Rosie.  She had been at a work happy hour, and stopped in on her way home.  So I relaxed my 9pm rule, and bought her a Naked River.  And we had Sarah the bartender take our picture.  Again.

At about 9:50, who walks in the door?  Corey?  Nope.  My wife, Linda and my daughter, Katie.  They had gone to Wolf Trap and left early and joined us at Sweetwater.  Again, I relaxed the 9pm rule (hey, it’s my wife), and ordered a Naked River for Linda and a Shirley Temple for Katie.  This time we had Katie take the picture below of the whole crew.

So after going through all the beers on tap at Sweetwater Merrifield, I’ve got to say the GAR Pale Ale and the Iron Horse Black Lager are my favorites, both with Very Good ratings.

So what’s the plan for tonight, Friday?  I’ve drank all the beers on the board!  We were encouraging people to drink up on the Gold Rush Pale Ale, so they could swap it out with something new, but it’s not going to be kicked by tonight.  I’ve got a couple options… stay tuned…

 

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	Gold Rush Ale	Wit’s End Ale	Iron Horse Black Lager	Naked River Light
Jeff	G	G	VG	P
Corey	G	P	VG
Henry		VG		G
Kevin		G
Greg			VG	NG
Carrie			G
John			G
Mark			G
Jeremiah				P
Rosie				P
Linda				P
Average Score	G	G	VG	P

Katie gave her Shirley Temple
an "O" for "Outstanding"