Perfect Pint Party

Our "Perfect Pint Party" was last night and we had a great time! Usually it is Alex who is still in the shower when guests are arriving, so I made him shower early to avoid this...that resulted in me being in the shower! Thankfully we have great friends who helped Alex put the finishing touches on the food. We were rather ambitious with our menu - and after everything was devoured we definitely felt like it was worth all the effort!

We had cornbread muffins (with jalapenos, cheddar, & beer in the mix), fruit kabobs, blue cheese & honey bruschetta, pigs in a blanket, outrageous chocolate cookies, spicy hummus & vegetables, a rum bundt cake, and a potato wedge bar (with chives, sour cream, tomatoes, and bacon). Not to mention a delicious cheese ball brought by a friend! We were afraid we'd be eating leftovers for weeks - but everything was dessimated with the exception of a few muffins and some cake!

If you're looking to add a few new beers to your repetoire, here are the ones that were brought for the contest in order of highest votes to least votes. We had two categories so you'll see (D) next to the dark beers.

1. Rogues Hazelnut Brown Nectar
2. Rare Vos Ommegang
3. Celebrator Doppelbock (D)
4. Arcadia Ales, Scotch Ale (D)
5. Blue Moon
6. Leinkugel's Sunset Wheat
7. Abbey New Belgium (D)
8. Hoeggaarder
9. Old Speckled Hen
10. Rolling Rock Light
11. Frambroise Lambic

The top prize for light beer was the Kerners - they got a Duvel glass & Duvel beer. The top prize for dark beer was the Burlisons - they won a Ommegang glass & Ommegang beer. The worst prize went to Nate & Ginger - they won the six pack of Blatz tab top beer that is from the 1980's (we won this six pack for worst wine in December)! In their defense, I really like Frambroise (it is raspberry flavored Belgian beer)!

Several funny comments occured while everyone was tasting the Old Speckled Hen. One person commented that it smelled like skunk (it did a bit) - but it actually tasted pretty good! The person who brought it later comment after looking at his ballot once the results were revealed that he gave his own beer a "1" the lowest score! Ah...we can relate since we routinely rate our wines at the Kirk's wine tasting party a "2" even when we think we've got a "Real Winner!"