Well then.

Allow me to extend my condolences to Mr. West Coast and the rest of the citizens of San Francisco after a hard-fought loss in yesterday's NFC Championship game. We were both rooting for a 49ers victory, since it would certainly have been fun to yell at each other from coast to coast.

Love it.

I was rooting for a 49ers victory because of what happens now: the unmistakable merry-go-round that will become the ESPN, NFL Network, Boston Globe, and New York Daily News as they all try to stretch a three-year-old football game into two weeks of anticipatory coverage. David Tyree. Remember him? The guy who said he'd give up that catch and the Giants 2008 Superbowl win to keep marriage in New York between a man and a woman? He's back and he's going to be ALL OVER YOUR TV. As my buddy wrote on his blog two days ago: "You know what’s annoying? Hearing Boston and LA fans discuss the NBA Finals of 2008 and 2010. This would be even more annoying."

So as a Boston native, I was really hoping to avoid (for Winter anyway) the whole New York vs. Boston hatefest. Hating on the Yankees is fun in Boston, but what's even more fun across America is hating on both of these cities for hating on each other. Sort of a modern-day crane and clam. Anyway, I hate the Giants.

Aaah... The New Jersey Turnpike...

Here's a beer that's a little topical. We've done a few posts on Flying Fish Brewery before, each of them on their Exit Series of beers that celebrate New Jersey. Exit 16, their Wild Rice Double IPA, is named after the grains that used to cover the wet marshes of the Meadowlands, near the Giants' home stadium.

Like scum on a New Jersey waterway.

This was incredibly hoppy (duh, it's a double IPA), but I was unprepared for how dry the beer was going to be too. Usually a beer will have some malt sweetness as a base against which the hops can work. Not this one.

I will concede that this is a very nice-looking pour.

I got a really nice light yellow pour with a lot of sticky lacing that was not dissimilar from the sort of greasy foam one finds in the Hackensack river up here. The nose was the traditional citrus fruit salad (orange, lemon, grapefruit) with some brighter floral notes and intense pine resins. On the palate, bone dry, with incredible bitterness as well. I wasn't really able to taste any sweetness in the beer - the bitter hops just hit and hit hard. I also wasn't able to detect any wild rice, though one of the things I dislike about wild rice is its bitter aftertaste, so maybe it was there all along.

Maybe the only reason to brew big bottles is to have a label

big enough for your essay-long descriptions.

This is an unmistakably American double IPA - punchy, intense, and wildly unbalanced. It's not my favorite thing to drink, but if I can find another bottle of this limited release, I might bring it to a Superbowl party.

Draft

I like a good draft beer. It tastes fresh, clean, full of carbonation and life. It's delicious stuff, when it's done well. But unless you live by an amazing beer bar, there's just no way to get an amazing variety of beers the same way one can with a bottled selection.

Last night was my Fantasy Football draft, and already, I have awoken to severe buyer's remorse. It's amazing how a good solid week of planning, of making sure the numbers are solid, the rankings are there, etc. can all go straight down the toilet on the back of some very minor tweaks. Like finding out I draft 9th of 10, or discovering that because the draft order reverses itself, that there are 16 picks between my 2nd and 3rd round pick. So I did the only thing I knew to do. Crack open a beer.

The best part of the draft. Before anything has happened.

I've covered Samuel Smith brewery before on these pages, and I'm a fan. I tried their Imperial Stout, which was a delicious 7.0% abv. Their website says to serve with Espresso, Stilton and walnuts, cheesecake, steak au poivre, caviar, or coffee trifle with roasted almonds. I enjoyed mine with panic and a side of why the hell did I just draft that player?!?

It pours a fantastic opaque black with a wonderfully creamy tan head. The aroma is promising, like I'm maybe going to be OK this year instead of drafting a useless Tony Effing Gonzalez. First sip, I get wonderful molasses and coffee flavors. I settle in and wait for my draft turn. Foster, Peterson, and Vick drafted - nothing I couldn't explain or deal with, though I was disappointed. Ended up with Darren McFadden. OK, ok...

Lacing on the glass is fantastic.

More sips - this beer is really rich in the mouth. It's almost akin to drinking beef broth, it's so satisfying. But it's incredibly smooth and easy to drink, so I'm not noticing the timer ticking down or the 7% abv.

Panic. I don't like to draft a QB this early in the draft, but if Vick is already drafted, and suddenly Rodgers and Peyton are as well, maybe I should jump on the QB bandwagon? This beer is going to my head, and now I only have 2 minutes to decide on my pick...

Did I really drink half a glass in the first three rounds?

Uh oh...

Tom Brady. Wait, what? Two picks later, LeSean McCoy gets drafted. I'd long ago decided to take McFadden over McCoy, but McCoy should have been picked up 2nd. I'm an idiot. Drink more beer. A lot of dark fruits coming into the fore, like plums and raisins. I'm really liking this beer.

I need to top off my glass and empty the bottle.

I wait a while. Drink more beer. Dark bitter coffee and malt sweetness are battling it out, and I'm just loving every sip. My turn again? About now is when I realize most of the good running backs and wide receivers are gone. Panic... Reggie Wayne.

What? A guy who depends on having Peyton Manning throw to him? Peyton, who's been come off the injured list? I'm insane. I pass up known quantities for the likes of Plaxico Burress; I even pick Ahmad Bradshaw. Blurgh.

I don't love my team, but I love this beer.

First order of business: dumping some of these players for good ones. Second order of business: buying more Imperial Stout. This stuff is amazing.

Beer and Sports

I like watching sports. I like watching sports and drinking beer. I like watching sports and drinking beer when the team I'm rooting for wins. And while it's sometimes a necessity, I do NOT like drinking beer in sorrow when my team loses. As such, I LOVE being from Boston. Yes, it's a disappointment when my teams lose (oh, Celtics, what happened?), but the good times are worth it. Definitely.

Watching the Bruins win earlier this month, I cracked open a Czech pilsner in honor of David Krejčí (I'm definitely not going to drink Canadian during the series, no sir), and I was immediately pleased that I had.

There are diacritical marks on this beer's name that I can't produce.

Normally, I like beers that are darker, and as you can see, Žatec is a pretty light amber at best.n But surprisingly, that's what I liked best about it - it was refreshing without blowing out my taste buds and flavorful without being cloying. It had a nice grainy flavor on the tongue, and the carbonation wasn't overpowering. I rather enjoyed drinking it with a handful (or several) of corn chips, as the saltiness really brought something out of the beer while the plain toasted flavor of the corn accentuated the beer's sweetness. I also enjoyed drinking it while watching the Bruins win the Stanley Cup, as it made me happy.

And only the week before, I had traveled to Boston on Amtrak, and one of the best things about Amtrak is getting to drink on the train. Case in point, the following photograph:

Beer makes travel better as long as one is not doing the driving.

I spent a summer in Alaska and I learned that I really enjoyed drinking during the day. The light through the train window above proves that this is definitely still the case. And I truly do enjoy drinking while I travel, and Amtrak is quite a comfortable way to get from New York to Boston, without the hassle of the airports and definitely without the sketchiness of Greyhound busses. That's the Samuel Adams Boston Lager I'm drinking there. It's not the best Sam Adams offering (hello, Summer Ale, among others), but I do enjoy it a great deal. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good as the Žatec above, but we'll give it extra marks for making my transit easier.

That weekend, I also made my first trip to Fenway Park this year. My brother managed to score amazing seats right behind the bullpen, and my girlfriend and I didn't have a row of seats in front of us, meaning that we could just get up and walk out of the stadium for beer or food whenever we wanted. Amazing.

Date night in Boston: Couple of Beers at Fenway.

We had a couple of Sam Adams Summer Ales, which I've already touted as deliciousness. But there's really something about enjoying a Fenway Frank while watching a thorough drubbing of the Oakland A's in delightful sunshine that makes that Summer Ale even more special. That nice herbal note from the grains of paradise and the outfield grass, the citrus twang against that generous smear of spicy mustard... All of these add up to a perfect outing.

I leave with this thought of Boston sports. Yes, we're smug. We're insufferable. We also won. So suck it.