(h/t Atrios)

Chief Wiggum: “Think you can get this car home?”
Barney: “Sure thing, giant beer!”

Inspired by the beautiful weather today, and the realization that my grandfather gets more regular exercise than I do, I decided to leg it home today and forego the subway. Since I live for the most part due southeast of my office I haphazardly zig-zagged my way home through the Philly grid, obliviously bopping along behind my sun glasses and listening on my iPod. Lo and behold I found myself in front of one Philadelphia’s commerce treasures, the Foodery. Located at 10th and Pine and proclaiming it has the “Best Beer Selection in the World,” the Foodery is a little hole in the wall that has 100s of different beers in its coolers available in mixed six-packs. Now who am I to pass up some fancy beers?

Guided partially by my own finely developed palette (hah!), an appreciation for a fine label, and the help of a lovely blond woman, I picked up six beers:

Inspired by Albert, I’ll post my thoughts on the beers as I drink them. Naturally (rather, hopefully), this post will take at least a few evenings to develop.

• Dogfish Head Punkin Ale: “A full-bodied brown ale brewed with real pumpkin, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon & nutmeg.” Often I find these spiced beers a mixed bag. I appreciate the flavors and the additional alcoholic punch, but often find the added sugar overwhelming. The Dogfish Head brewers do an excellent job balancing the flavors in this brew however. The pumpkin is mild and the finish is very smooth. I like it.
• Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour Ale: Unlike the other beers, this one I’ve had before and in my recent journeys to Monk’s it’s been my favorite draught. A lot of people won’t like this ale – it’s very sour – but I totally dig it. Monk’s is a local Philly institution but they brew this beer in Belgium and import it.
• Hair of the Dog Ruth: Hair of the Dog is from Portland, Oregon and their label has a bulldog smoking a cigarette surrounded by the words Brave, Lovable, Vibrant, and Mazel. I feel like American Ales are a love ‘em or hate ‘em drink. I love the pungency and hoppiness of an APA but that turns a lot of people off. Sadly this beer doesn’t really deliver. I’d probably drink it in Portland, but I won’t drink it again here.
• He’Brew Genesis Ale: L’chaim! “Conceived in San Francisco” and “Brewed in New York,” you’d expect this beer to be flavored like Manischewitz or kreplach but instead it’s a pretty average brown ale. Reminds me a bit of Brooklyn Brown Ale actually. It’s got some flavor and with the gimmicky appeal of a guy with payas on the label who can resist?

  (UPDATE: Haha, you thought I was done!)

• Petite Vapeur Cochonne: I wish I knew more about these Belgian ales as I always almost like them. Good beer. Okay, I’ll be honest, I drank this beer three days ago and all I can tell you at this point is that I liked it.
• Hitachino Nest: Yikes. Glad I drank this beer last. It hits your tongue with a nice flavor, but then there is an overwhelming cedar flavor from the cedar casks that it is “matured” in. The smell of cedar takes me back to a lot of great memories, but tastes like shit in my mouth. No thanks.

4/6.

Democrats say they have sent a refund check back to Anheuser-Busch: “Nobody should expect us to write a check to the Republican Party,” said Lachlan McIntosh, the Democratic Party’s executive director.

The GOP said the refund was sent only after it threatened a lawsuit.