Drink-a-Pint

Starting this November, Leinenkugel will add Fireside Nut Brown to its portfolio of specialty craft beers. The new seasonal beer “harkens to a time when multiple generations of the Leinenkugel family would gather with friends and enjoy a special brew crafted especially for the holiday time of year.”

According to Leinenkugel: “While the star of this holiday seasonal is the roasted malt character, the well-balanced flavor and brilliant amber tones give Leinenkugel’s Fireside Nut Brown a comforting approachability that you don’t experience in traditional English-style nut browns.  English two-row malts give this lager a maple aroma and pronounced chocolate, caramel and hazelnut top notes that dance around the palate before finishing gracefully.”

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Same great taste, but newer packaging that’ll make it… uhh… err… look better?

After testing the rebranded beer in 45 Outback Steakhouse restaurants, MillerCoors saw double-digit sales increases and are now rolling out the new oil cans and 12-packs to retail outlets this month with kegs to follow in September.

Personally, I’m going to stick to my tried and true blue oil can. For some reason, everytime a beer I like puts out (or renames themselves as) a “premium” line, it just never tastes better and I always end up back where I started.

Did you know that Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey starred in one of the worst “horror” films ever made back in 1994? Neither did I, until I cracked open a Sam Adams “Beers of Summer” sampler pack last night.

The night started out like any other. My wife and I had just put our seven month-old daughter Hannah to bed. The tiki torches on the deck were lit. She had a bottle of wine chilling that I knew she was going to hate and I was deciding between Samuel Adams Pale Ale and Hefeweizen.

I’m a big fan of the Sam Adams sampler packs, even though this one had Boston Lager and Light in the mix. My rule of thumb is that sampler packs should only have unique styles and flavors in them. If I wanted the Lager and Light, I’d buy them and be done with it. But, I’m all about variety, and the rest of the selection drew me to this 12-pack. Summer Ale, Pale Ale, Hefeweizen and Cherry Wheat. That’s a good combo.

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been remiss in my beer-blogging duties the past couple weeks, but my co-worker Rhonda is trying her best to remedy that. The other day, I walked into my office to find a “royal sampler” of beer waiting for me. Or, as some others would call it, a bag of beer that her husband bought, didn’t like and was actually considering throwing out before she decided to donate them to a worthy cause three doors down.

Of course, hand-me-down beer is usually a mixed bag, but this time I was in luck. In addition to a few types of Troegs that I’ll be trying in a few days, there were a couple bottles of a Belgian blonde ale I had never heard of from Leffe.

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I’m an insane pumpkin devotee. As Fall draws nearer, I sometimes find myself yearning for a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, a pumpkin pie ice cream sundae, some pumpkin bread or a dozen yummy Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice Donuts… ahhhh, pumpkin spice season… Some people talk about packing on a couple pounds during the holidays. For me, the weight-gain season spans September, October, November, December and possibly even into January depending on what tasty pumpkin foods and drinks are still lingering. (I even started a Squidoo page dedicated to pumpkin spice a few months ago, but never really finshed the thing…)

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