Greetings, beer lovers! Happy Friday, and once (or not) again, ‘tis chingchongchinaman as your guest FNBB blogger for tonight, with esquimaux taking another well-earned evening off FNBB duties. Given the date of this particular Friday (with a reasonably full moon out there), self the loser wondered if any beers titled after Friday the 13th existed. What came up primarily from a search of teh interwebz were a very few beers inspired by the idea of triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13. Several were older beers that have since been retired, such as Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company’s “Triskaidekaphobia 13th Anniversary Tripel Ale”, and “Triskaidekaphobia” brews from Boxing Rock Brewing. Presumably also retired, as it doesn’t show on draft at their website, was Independent Brewing Company’s “Triskaidekaphobia”.
The one hit that looks nominally still to be a current listing is from The Brewery of Broken Dreams (Hammondsport, NY), their “Triskaidekaphobia” Strong Ale, where, perhaps to state the obvious:
“It is brewed with 13 ingredients on Friday the 13th and is always released on the following Friday the 13th.”
So this wasn’t one of 3CM the loser’s better random brainwave (or maybe here, hare-brained) search ideas. So it goes. Perhaps on the more chipper side, though, I did find this post from the UK-based website “The Drinks Business” about the release today across Big Pond East of a new imperial stout titled “Dark to the Core”, a collaboration between two breweries in Sussex, Burning Sky Brewing (Firle, East Sussex) and Abyss Brewing (Lewes, Sussex), with this bit about the release date today:
‘The plan for the launch includes the beer becoming available at the Abyss taproom and a selection of excellent pubs of their choosing from Friday the 13th to kick off what the brewers have coined “the weekend of darkness”.’
Since I noticed Abyss Brewing as based in Lewes, self wondered how far the brewery is from Glyndebourne Opera House. The answer is: about 3 miles.
In keeping with self’s status as King of Losers on DK, tonight’s beer selection chez 3CM has nothing to do with triskaidekaphobia, Friday the 13th, or anything on such subjects, or indeed Glyndebourne, opera, or the UK. Instead, the selection is from Modern Brewery, their “McFly” Rye Oatmeal Stout. This was another whimsy purchase and first-time try, and perhaps falls a bit more on the “be careful with whimsy buys” side, as it’s been so long since I’ve tasted rye bread that I didn’t think as to what the combination of rye flavor with beer would taste like. Interestingly, with a sweet dessert, this beer worked rather better than with the “main course”, so it may be a question of the appropriate pairing. In of itself, it is a good stout, but maybe I’m still not a stouts guy deep down. But it’s OK: live and learn.
With that, time to turn it over to you folks. What are you imbibing tonight? Any other beer news or stories? Inquiring minds, and all that...