The Bitch is Back

The title of this post refers both to the beer I'm discussing and how long it's been since I've contributed to the site (it is also unintentionally my second Elton John reference in as many posts). I had Raging Bitch by Flying Dog for the first time when visiting my mom down in Washington, D.C. My mom, being the awesome lady that she is, bought a six pack for me to drink at my leisure throughout the weekend. She told me in the week leading up to the visit that she bought "some type of dog beer" that two gay strangers recommended at her grocery store. I confess that when she told me this, I assumed the beer would be light and ineffectual. How wrong I was.

You know the movie Crash, where every racist person is confronted with something that challenges his or her beliefs? Raging Bitch was my Crash moment, except replace deep seeded racism with being somewhat unsure about two gay strangers' taste in beer. My situation would make for a much better movie.

Big thumbs up to Flying Dog though, a brewery I've been on the fence about in the past. Raging Bitch is one hell of a beer. For how high the alcohol content is (8.3%), its surprisingly smooth. It is not however an ideal session beer for a Saturday afternoon spent talking with your mom about grad school. Shit gets way more real than it needs to.

Life lesson? Try more beers suggested by homosexual couples your mom meets in supermarkets. Also, Crash is terrible.

Rodenbachman-Turner Overdrive

Lately, I've been a junky for the funky.  Sour beers got something special that daddy need, yet as a reasonable man, I find it hard to justify regularly dropping $40 on a bottle of Cantillon or Drie Fonteinen.  I've found the reasonably priced Rodenbach a great alternative to give me that tart taste I'm after.  While it isn't really the same as a Cantillon (Rodenbach is a Flanders Red ale or Acid ale, much more vinegar-like than the Cantillons, which are lambics, and thus much funkier), it still scratches a similar itch.  That nice little pucker I get from each sip is like a wink from a babe that gets you through the day.  It takes care of business without breaking the bank.

I've always imagined Gaston from Beauty and the Beast enjoying a couple of tankards of acid ale trying to get up the courage to head up to the castle, and take care of business with the beast.  The oak tannins and sour cherry tartness would most definitely get him in shape to sling barbs at the Beast, and convince Belle that it was time to bed.

So, give it a shot. You won't regret the choice - unlike Gaston, who I assume, as he plummeted to his death from the Beast's castle, thought, "I wish I had just stayed in town and laid those three babes!"

-Erich