The First New IBN

Having finally caught up with all of our past IBNs, it is now time to blog about our most recent IBN. I have to admit that I did not realize that I was caught up until I sat down today to write the next blog. I thought there were two more to go but I stand corrected and am pleased to bring you the results of the first IBN taking place during the Summer of 2009. I am a little upset with myself for my blogging. It has been two weeks since the first IBN of the season and I am just now writing about it. I am also dissappointed in the fact that we have had only one IBN thus far. However, now that the Founding Father has returned from our nation's capital and the other members of IBN has settled into summer mode, we can begin our weekly ritual and start finding all the hidden beer treasures the world has to offer. It brings me great pleasure to present to you our most recent findings:

1. Quilmes -Argentina 7.31

• - Whoa!
• - "It's a party in my mouth and everyone is invited" -Knight of IBN
• - This was both light and refreshing to drink.

2. Imperial -Costa Rica 6.65

• - A great beer to drink when it has warmed.
• - Definitely something you would order at a bar.
• - A slight nutty flavor.
• - This beer was the epitome of okay.

3. Cristal -Peru 6.56

• - Leaves a tingling feeling on your tongue.
• - Very highly carbonated.
• - Not alot of flavor to it.

4. Goldstar -Israel 6.13

• - Very full bodied.
• - Not that this makes sense but it was too kosher (You can feel the rabbi's blessing)
• - Slight fruitiness in its aftertaste.

5. Gosser -Austria 4.74

• - A dry beer that follows the green bottle rule.
• - Bad aftertaste.
• - Seemed to be flat and was too filling.

6. Karlovacko -Croatia 4.11

• - Immediately terrible.
• - It became easier to stomach as we drank it.

Ths night was a success in the sense that we achieved the initial goal of IBN; We had a beer from six new countries that we have never had before. The count is now up to 31 countries through 19 IBNs. I hope that we can up that number at the 20th IBN. A notable quote for the night contributed by Max is: "My top three concerns in life are money, sex, and transportation; in that order." -Obviously Max, being the laziest of our group feels the need that he must always have a quick and easy way of getting from A to B. Cheers!

Back to the Beginning

I failed in my quest to finish updating all the old IBNs before the new ones began. There are four more IBNs that needed updating before we held the first IBN of this summer last Tuesday. However it is necessary for me to complete the final posts before sharing the infinite knowledge that was gained at the first IBN of 2009. Here are the results from one of our earlier IBNs first:

1. Bass -England 8.48

• - It was full of flavor.
• - Definitely a beer you would enjoy while you are eating.
• - A lighter version of Guinness but still not a beer you can drink all night.

2. Yuengling -America 7.68

• - It was full of flavor
• - Not to thick and again only 3 beer maximum on the night.

3. Spaten -Germany

• - A better version of Becks.
• - Not very malted.
• - A beer you would only drink once and never again.

4. Pilsner Urquell -Czech Republic 4.31

• - A very poor aftertaste accompanies this beer.
• - A terrible scented beer that you would not want twice.

5. Becks -Germany 4.19

• - A very bad smalling beer with a bad aftertaste.
• - Not smooth at all.

6. Sapporo -Japan

• - A one time drink.
• - Very thick.

Bass became our leading favorite. Almost all beers were based off what we remember from Bass. However as you have seen from previous posts, there became a new favorite and as we IBN drinkers view it, a new pinnacle that no beer as been able to overcome. That pinnacle is Tona. Now for a special IBN. It was the first IBN and of course is held very dear to our hearts. It was just the Founding Father and Kevin. We have not regretted a single moment since. And now without much further ado, I present the first IBN:

1. Brahma -Brazil 8.14

• - A smooth beer with no real aftertaste.
• - A beer that you will enjoy from the first sip until the last.
• - You can drink this all night and want to drink on multiple occasions.

2. Foster's -Australia

• - You can drink this beer all night.
• - A very "beery" lager.
• - No bite whatsoever.
• - Australian for Great.

3. Molson Canadian -Canada 7.17

• - A very consistent light lager.
• - A very slight bite.

4. Stella Artois -Belgium 6.29

• - First few sips and last few sips are weak and have too much of a lager flavor.
• - The middle is very light and smooth.
• - Definitely not an all night beer.
• - Has alot of bite.

5. Hoegaarden -Belgium 5.86

• - Needs an orange.
• - Easy to drink very quickly

6. Grolsch -Holland 4.49

• - A one time drink.
• - Not very smooth.
• - A heavy beer with a big bite.
• - Like having a bad meal out of a bottle.

After having our first beer, which was Grolsch, were became, no surprisingly, less excited about IBN but we have not at all let any bad beer discourage us from keeping up this great weekly tradition. We learned quickly that there are good beers and bad beers out there. We made a pact that no matter what it tastes like, we must finish every beer. That pact has taught us to appreciate those great beers out there even more. Cheers

Almost Caught Up

As I turn through the notebook where every IBN is recorded and I see that I am almost back to the front of the book after so many times of turning backwards, I can not help but to get excited. Let alone the fact that we will be resuming new IBNs in one week's time. There is so little that I can say about these remaining IBNs since they took place almost two years ago that all I can only give you the results:

1. Murphy's -Ireland 8.24

• - A burnt aftertaste.
• - A creamy beer that is easy to drink.

2. Guinness -Ireland 7.74

• - Heavy but flavorful.
• - A non-toasted stout.
• - Good aftertaste.

3. Newcastle Brown Ale -England

• - Unique flavored beer.
• - Claims to be "The One and Only" and truly is.

4. Red Stripe -Jamiaca 7.08

• - Smooth and light.
• - Very flavorful.
• - A watered-down lager.

5. Magner's Cider -Ireland 5.64

• - Easy to drink
• - Very sweet and smells very deceiving.

6. Modelo -Mexico 3.27

• - Very hard to drink.
• - Extremely light and worse version of Corona.

The one interesting thing that was said this night (which I can only recall because it was recorded in the IBN book) is when Kevin claimed, "Get the f*** out [Buddha] doesn't exist." I sadly cannot remember when or in what context this outrageous claim was made but I'm sure if he had ben in the Orient, he would have offended quite a few people. I am guessing that we were in a sour mood in the two weeks when these IBNs took place because during the previous IBN, Max claimed, "I do not believe in lesbians." Sorry Max but I'm pretty sure even Kevin has a better chance at proving his claim than you do. As for the beers that we were drinking while Max made his equally ridiculous claim, here they are:

1. Tecate -Mexico 7.03

• - Flavorless but drinkable.

2. Baltika 5 -Russia 6.16

• - Easy to drink.
• - Fusion between Miller and Corona.

3. St. Pauli Girl -Germany 5.46

• - A smooth lager.

4. Steinlager -New Zealand 5.31

• - Heavy.
• - Similar to German beer in the name and the taste.

5. Peroni -Italy 4.85

• - This beer gets continually worse as you drink it.
• - Has a poor aftertaste.

6. Kronenbourg -France 4.55

• - A light lager.
• - A progressing beer that gets slightly better each sip.

This night was not great in terms of having excellent beers but we did accomplish the goal of IBN; we had beers from 6 different countries. Hopefully I will finish updating the later IBNs before the new ones begin. Cheers!

Return of the Blogging

For all you faithful followers (pretty much just Curtis), I must apologize for my for-lack-of-a-better-word lackadaisical upkeep of what is a promising blog. The IBN blog is something that should be respected and thoroughly updated. I did have technical difficulties in the past few months but none of which should have prevented me from catching up with the previous IBNs. So as not to waste any time in trying to explain my failures, I will immediately continue where I first left off in the Working Backwards series. On the following night we had a dominant showing by our neighbors to the North (and mine to the right, whom we have to thank for our number 2 beer of the night). Here we go:

1. Blue Moon -Canada 7.25 - A smooth common beer. - Without the necessary partnership of the orange, this beer lacks flavor. - Although it is a wheat beer in the Belgian style, Canada could not master the wheatiness of a beer.
2. Sleeman Light -Canada 7.07 -A wheaty light beer. - Definitely heavier than the typical light beer with more of a bite.
3. Sol -Mexico 6.91 - Mexico's Finest. - No fruit needed.
4. Harp -Ireland 5.94 - A bad cross between a Budweiser and a Guinness. - A light lager that lacked smoothness.
5. Carlsberg -Denmark 4.67* - Piss poor beer with no bite.

*We believe that the Carlsberg was past its prime but tried to rate it according to what we had experienced at other times. Unfortunately, this night only had 5 beers. It would only of had 4 if it wasn't for the Founding Father's kind Canadian neighbors. All in all it was not a night to rave about. All I can remember was that this was the first IBN after the Founding Father returned from a family vacation to Ireland. As for the IBN that preceeded the Canadian dominated IBN we decided to have a theme night. We also decided that this theme would pay tribute to the United States. We can only hope that those brewers from Massachusetts would not let us down. That's right, it was Sam Adams night and here are the results:

1. Samuel Adams Pale Ale -America 6.85 - A smooth light beer that is a very laid back easy going beer. - You can't let this beer sit too long before you drink it.
2. Samuel Adams Hefeweizen -America 6.48 - An excellent wheat beer. - It is easy too drink and not dry as expected.
3. Samuel Adams Boston Ale -America 6.38 - Weak flavor with no aftertaste. - A heavy ale.
4. Samuel Adams Brown Ale -America 6.15 - Certainly not New Castle. - A heavy ale.
5. Samuel Adams Cream Stout -America 5.85 - Certainly has the aftertaste of a stout. - True beer texture. - The name is deceiving as it is not very creamy.
6. Samuel Adams Honey Porter -America 5.40 - No honey taste. - Stout-like burn taste.

Clearly from the scores you can see that we were neither very impressed with the Bay State Brewers nor were we extremely dissappointed. Instead of linking everyone of the beers individually, I simply linked the Sam Adams in the introduction to this IBN.

Cheers!