Winesday Wednesday 6/10/15

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Winesday (and beersday and even cocktailsday) Wednesday! Holy cannoli do I need a drink or what. As I type this (Tuesday night) I can’t figure out what I might want to indulge in for the day, but I’m sure I’ll swing by the liquor store while I’m out..even if it’s just to browse!!

This week, I have a pretty neat beer(s) to share with you! They come from Maui Brewing Co. Tyler picked up a 6 pack of the Mana Wheat for us to try a few weeks ago, and it was delicious! Best part- it was made with pineapple juice! Such a nice, light flavor and excellent to drink in the warm weather.

From their website: An unfiltered, freshly handcrafted American-style Wheat infused with Maui Gold Pineapple. Our crisp and refreshing wheat ale is lightly hopped to allow the fruity sweetness of the pineapple to shine. The yeast stays in suspension making the ale traditionally cloudy.

This past weekend, I swung by the liquor store and found another brew from them: the Bikini Blonde Lager. It was pretty light and basic, similar to many other lagers I’ve tried. The cool factor is that it was from Hawaii!

From the website: Our filtered Munich Helles Lager brewed with floral hops and Pilsner and Munich malts. This is the closest thing to an American Lager from Maui Brewing Co., but not skimpy of flavor. Bold, smooth and refreshing!

Want to share what you’re drinking?! Make sure to tag me on social media so I can see!

PS: This is how I am at home when I drink beer (minus the random dudes). What are real clothes when you can lounge around in your pj’s?!!

Winesday Wednesday 6/3/15

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

YASSSS WINE. And all the alcohols.

Seriously, if I wasn’t breastfeeding, I would be doing some serious indulging. You know, to make up for lost time.

But turns out, I love my baby WAY MORE than I love my wine. So that’s good.

Just wanted to check in real quick to A) Let you know that Winesday Wednesday is back, so puh-leeeease send me all your boozy photos. Or tag me in them on social media so I can see them and drool over them (while a baby drools all over me. for different reasons) and B) to share with you my latest fave.

Spirit Hills Honey Winery YeeHaa! Sangria. So basically, it’s sangria made with mead. And it’s SOOOO good. Sweet like sangria, with a smooth honey finish. Mmmm, I could sip on this all day errr-day. I actually bought a bottle of their dandelion wine in August before I found out I was pregnant. Which reminds me, I think it’s still on the wine rack. Must go downstairs and check. Then promptly consume. I will let you know how that goes.

Anyways, so yeah this sangria is thebomb.com and what’s even better is that it’s local to Alberta! I love supporting local and I love supporting local alcohol producers even more. I’m hoping Tyler and I can make it down to their winery sometime soon to check everything out since it’s about an hour south of Calgary.

Speaking of summer drinking (were we speaking of summer drinking? I dunno, but that’s how I’m going to segway into my next drink): Stanley Park Sunsetter Peach Summer Ale.

To my Canadian friends- go buy it. It’s delicious. Even for those of you who aren’t beer people. It’s sweet enough that it’s not beer-y, but not too sweet to detract from the beer. You follow me? Good. Let me know what you think.

K yeah, I need the rain to stop now so that I can go sit on the patio and drink both of these.

To round out this week’s comeback post, I got the following from Michael via instagram:

He said: It’s a chocolate and coffee stout from Michigan aged in oak bourbon barrels for over a year. VERY RARE and VERY GOOD. Chocolate-y and vanilla-y and bourbon-y- just incredible.

Michael, first of all- you had me at chocolate and coffee. Second of all, now that I am also a parent, I can appreciate the toys in the background. 😉

So that’s it for this week! Please tag me in your beer/wine/cocktail photos so that I can share next week!

Winesday Wednesday

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

First, I’d like to just do some quick housekeeping:

What the heck are {} used for? I really don’t get it.
I haven’t been to Subway in ages, but with ZERO kitchen and our propane running out yesterday, I was forced to pick up some sandwiches there tonight. And again, it was a chore to get the order correct. Snap.
I am SO OVER this reno. I go to bed every night screaming in my head because I am so frustrated with the lack of kitchen and disorderliness everywhere. PS: totally grateful for Tyler doing so much about it himself though!
Work has been really crazy lately. Like INSANE crazy. I actually called a broker annoying today. Good thing he thought I was kidding and sent me an email after our phone conversation saying I made him laugh. Ha!
I am patiently waiting the day I don’t have to wear a jacket to work.
I have been playing my iPod on shuffle lately, and during today’s workout Wanted by Jessie James played. I normally skip over that song but felt obligated to listen since I had a pretty dreamy dream about her hubby last night. (insert goggly eyes here)

Now where were we?

Nothing new on this end. Except that I found the Shock Top Summer pack at our local liquor store. It was nice to have a taste of home while we were pulling wire for the kitchen. Totally not dangerous, by the way.

I fully anticipate lots of fun stuff to share next week after I spend YET ANOTHER weekend in Chicago!

Things of interest:

Science Proves the Beer Goggles are Real. Haha DUH. Case in point: my college career.
US is now world’s biggest wine market. My mom is a large contributing factor.
Classic fail, right here. Lady gives her booze receipt to the cop that pulled her over. Instead of her license. Same thing, right.
Pink Glasses wine. Yes, I need this now. Except I don’t really care for pink wine. It’s like the sugary juice box of drinks.
Ouch, moving to Canada hurts. When compared to several other countries, Canada is paying a LOT for beer.
In preparation for this weekend, I just downloaded the Chicago Craft Beer Week App. No shame.

I need this shirt:

Holy shit, I NEED this in my life: Stack Wine. What a genius idea. It would totally prompt me to go on more picnics. Except they don’t sell in Canada. Guess I’ll just have to fashion my own stackable wine.

I feel like this is something that my mom would put on her front porch:

I like these reasons:

When they pout mimosas, I totally judge OJ to Champs ratio

See you next week!

Winesday Wednesday

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

It’s here again! Winesday Wednesday. Hooray, this is me dancing about it

Short post this week, sorry! (I really just want to nap)

Cool new beer to share! So Big Rock Brewery is one of my favorite local breweries and they came out with an Alchemist’s Edition called Freyla’s Field. It’s a mead braggot, aka: 1/2 mead, 1/2 beer. The flavor wasn’t too different- at least for what I was expecting. It was a good, crisp beer though and had some interesting lingering flavors.

We also picked up a case of their Swinger Pack- one of which included:

Another good Summer drinking beer!

Keith sent over the following beauty, writing: Here’s an oldie from 2008! It’s a Meglioli Pinot Grigio. There are only a few left. I was trying to put it up against the light to show the amazing deep amber colour it has. It tastes like liquid gold. I somehow don’t think it will last much longer…

That looks delicious! And it makes me anxious to be able to drink the pinot grigio we made 🙂

For your entertainment:

Eight Ways to Tell if Your Have a Drinking Problem– I’m not going to personally comment on these.
Read This if You Have a Rescue Dog!– How cool is this- a vineyard is having a competition to raise funds for rescue pets. The winning submission gets their pup’s face on a wine label! I really need to sit down and type up a blurb about my beloved Layla!
Powdered Alcohol is About to be a Thing– Best part? It’s called Palcohol. And duh people will obviously snort it. Dummies.

See ya next week! (If YOU have something to share, email me to be included in a future post!)

Winesday Wednesday

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Winesday Wednesday, folks!! Man, these weeks sure do fly by–I feel like I’m always posting alcohol (well, because I AM).

This week, I am gonna share most of the drinks I had while in Chicago. Most all my bevies had me all:

Actually, pretty much all alcohol has that effect on me. Minus the super duper hoppy IPAs. Even then, I’m a sport and will drink it.

OK—here we go!

Fridays beers at the airport: Shock Top and Goose Island’s Green Line Pale Ale

You know, just your standard drink-in-the-airport beers. Helped pass the time. And relax me.

I ordered the Lakeshore when we went to the Signature Lounge. It was a really great drink to have for happy hour- especially when I had jest met up with friends and had an excellent view of the city from 96 stories up! The Lakeshare consisted of Belvedere vodka, sparkling wine and raspberry liqueur. Yum!

Margaritas were had with dinner. It’s pictured in the last post.I really love margaritas. Like, the real ones- not the ones with that yucky sour mix. I could drink them all the days. When our kitchen is done, I’m gonna have a party and make everyone a margie (or 2 or 3 or…)

Ole!

Then there was the terribly strong martini from the piano bar….

And rounding out the evening with a Revolution Brewery Bottoms Up Wit. Delish!

The 3 beers I chose to sample during our bike tour on saturday were:

Three Floyd’s Gumballhead- wheat ale with a tiny bit of citrus. I REALLY liked this one, but majority of the people in our group thought different. Weirdos.
Lagunitas PILS- on the hoppy side, but dang was it super refreshing as a bike-tour stop!
Bell’s Oberon Ale– another summery beer! Wheat ale that was a bit spicy and fruity and delicious all in one! PS: the sample for this one was entirely too small!

Dinner that night was accompanied by a delicious red: Estancia Reserve Meritage. It was PERFECT with our steak dinners. Plus, I’m pretty sure I can drink it on it’s own. I loved this wine!

We also managed to down another bottle. The second was Ramsay Cabernet Sauvignon. This was another good drinking wine that we enjoyed all too easily with conversation at the bar.

Noms.

Some of my other choices for the weekend were more Revolution beers and Goose Island beers- the places we went to had mostly IPA selections, which some times isn’t as appealing to me. Womp.

Ok, so that’s all the cool crap I’ve got to share! I hope maybe this helps for some suggestions 🙂

Michael shared some new stuff, too! He wrote:

So I went to Philadelphia again for the weekend and had some delicious brews and eats. Before going there, however, I had a strong IPA by Maui brewing company called Big Swell. Lots of hop flavor on this one. Good stuff for a Hawaiian made beer. In Philadelphia, my wife and I went to this restaurant with her former college roommate called Sbraga ownedand operated by the Top Chef. I had a Hof Dormaal there with my meal and it was fantastic. It is a strong Belgian blonde ale with hints of banana, clove, and other spices throughout that went perfectly with all of my tasting dishes. We then left and went to Nodding Head brew pub. I got a “Just Annuder Stout” which I wasn’t too impressed with but still decent enough to drink the whole pint. It was more dark chocolate/coffee flavor than I expected but with the addition of lactose sugar (not dissolvable by beer yeast), it was more than tolerable and had a creamy finish. The interesting thing about this brew pub is it is one of the smallest in Pennsylvania, yielding only 7 barrels of beer per year. Helps keep costs and alcohol taxes down I guess! I took a pic of their brewery equipment which I will include with this. What you see is exactly how much equipment they have.

I’m not a big-time lover of stouts, but there are a select few that I really like. I try to avoid getting them at restaurant or bars just in case they ruin a meal! Thanks, Michael!

For your entertainment:

Woman With No Pants Steals Two Boxes of Franzia. Sounds like my nightly college routine.
Easter themed cocktails. Let’s be honest. We’re all too lazy to buy and make this stuff. Prosecco and wine it is!

When I look at myself in the error after I’ve done my makeup (drunk):