El Segundo Brewing Company: Steve Austin’s Broken Skull IPA

El Segundo Brewing Company: Steve Austin's Broken Skull IPA

Hops: Citra, Cascade, Chinook

ABV: 6.7%

IBU: 39

Availability: Year-round

@untappd says: 3.91/5

If you want me to open up a bottle of whoop-ass all over my Windowsill today, give me a “Hell Yeah!”

If you were a pro wrestling fan during the late 1990s, you remember the great “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The “Texas Rattlesnake” was one of the best all-around performers in the history of the business. Since his retirement, the six-time WWE Champion has kept himself busy with some acting, some reality tv and a couple of podcasts, but it’s only fitting that the man who made crushing “Steveweisers” in the middle of the ring famous, would one day go on to release a beer with his name on it.

Austin paired up with California’s El Segundo Brewing Company a few years ago to release today’s beer, Steve Austin’s Broken Skull IPA. Austin loves himself a good IPA, and he wouldn’t release one under his name if he wasn’t sure it would whoop your ass and give you the two-finger salute when it was finished. These days, Austin 3:16 also says “I just got you drunk!” And that’s the bottom line, cuz Beers on Windowsills said so!

Check this one out on Instagram, right now!

Prairie Artisan Ales: Prairie Weisse

Prairie Artisan Ales: Prairie Weisse

ABV: 3.9%

IBU: 15

Availability: Year-round

@untappd says: 3.81/5

The Windowsill got a little more sour today.

When I was a kid, I loved Super Lemons, Warheads, Sour Patch Kids… Just name a sour candy, and I was all about it. I think that’s why I have such an affinity for sour beers now that I am an adult of sorts. I just like that tingly feeling I get in my jaw when I taste sour things. The Prairie Weisse definitely gave me that lemony-sour trigger I seem to crave.

This is the second beer from Oklahoma’s Prairie Artisan Ales to grace my windowsill and, as with the BOMB!, Prairie did a really good job in its interpretation of an otherwise “normal” beer type. It’s light, refreshing and tingly, but well-balanced and not overwhelming. I think I still prefer the hoppy bitterness of an IPA, but if you’re into sour beers, and companies that really take pride in bringing a unique perspective to making quality brews, you should definitely try the Prairie Weisse, and really anything Prairie Artisan Ales puts out. If anything, pick up some of their beers just so you can take a gander at their cool label art.

Check this one out on Instagram. Like, follow and comment!

Chatting with Laura Dierks (Probably) from Interboro Spirits & Ales

images of beer – Interboro Spirits and Ales' Super Bad double IPA

As an up-and-coming beer connoisseur, blogger and Instagrammer, one of the things I some day wish to accomplish is to have relationships with breweries all over the country. I’ve joked with my wife that I would consider this entire endeavor a success if some day just one brewery sends me a free beer to drink, photograph and write about. While I’m not quite there yet, I did have a really pleasant experience with one of the breweries whose beer I put on the windowsill, and I think it makes for a pretty good story.

Here’s what went down. The other night, I photographed and reviewed today’s windowsill inhabitant, the Super Bad–a double IPA from Brooklyn’s Interboro Spirits & Ales. As part of my writeup, I did a brief tongue-in-cheek anti-hipster rant related to the beer’s chosen home base of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is basically hipster central in New York City. Continue reading “Chatting with Laura Dierks (Probably) from Interboro Spirits & Ales”

Magic Hat Brewing Company: Electric Peel

Magic Hat Brewing Company: Electric Peel

Hops: Apollo, Centennial, Chinook

Malts: Pale, Carapils

ABV: 6.0%

IBU: 65

Availability: Year-round

@untappd says: 3.4/5

Sometimes, even my Windowsill swings and misses.

Let me first say that Magic Hat Brewing Company is an excellent brewery. Since 1994, the Vermont-based brewery has been making really good, very eclectic beers and, as they say, putting a performance into every bottle. Their beers are bold, experimental and mostly delicious. Unfortunately, the Electric Peel Grapefruit IPA was a miss for me. I think the issue is that I always think I’m going to like grapefruit, so I always buy it, but I never actually enjoy it.

Whether it’s in a beer, or the actual fruit itself, it always leaves me disappointed. The bitterness of the Electric Peel’s grapefruit, mixed with the bitterness of its hops, was just not my cup of tea. I know the next one I try from Magic Hat will be a hit, but I can’t recommend this one.

Check this one out on Instagram, now!

Interboro Spirits and Ales: Super Bad

Interboro Spirits and Ales: Super Bad

ABV: 9.0%

IBU: 60

Availability: Rotating

@untappd says: 4.11/5

Brooklyn’s in the house, and on the window sill!

There’s a lot of stuff I don’t like about Brooklyn. Mostly, it’s all the trendy hipster nonsense. Interboro Spirits & Ales, which opened in 2016, is in the middle of hipster central in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and they aren’t shying away from that. Their brewery is carved out in an old woodworking factory. The decor in their tap room is “rustic.” Hell, they even have a live-in cat named Bingo. You know what else the good people at Interboro don’t shy away from? Making tremendous beer.

I picked this baby up the day it was released, not knowing anything about it. I asked the guy at @beertable for a really good hazy IPA, and he motioned to the Super Bad, which had been delivered just hours before. Wowsers, was this beer good. All the flavors–a little grapefruit, orange, mango and caramel–all shine through, but still give way to the nice bitter finish that the hops bring when you sip it. Did I mention Interboro is also a distillery? That’s for another instagram account to talk about, though. Go get the Super Bad, and anything else this place puts out, today. I’d even go to Brooklyn myself to get it.

Check out my informal chat with Laura Dierks of Interboro, and check this post on Instagram, here!

What’s the Big Deal About Nitro Beers, Anyway?

Image of beers–Modern Times Beer's Black House Nitro Stout

I don’t know if you have noticed, but the world is suddenly all about Nitro. No, I’m not referring to the movement honoring former American Gladiators for their contributions to the world of battering laypeople with oversized q-tips that I hope to one day start. I’m talking about nitrogen gas, the biggest trend in brewing today.

So what’s the big deal with Nitro beer, and why is it suddenly everywhere?

First of all, we need to establish one thing. Using nitrogen to carbonate beer instead of CO2 is not a new thing. I know you might be seeing a lot of craft nitro brews emerging in the last year, and even some from the big time beer companies, but there’s one brewery that has been using nitrogen to make their delicious beers for over 50 years.

Continue reading “What’s the Big Deal About Nitro Beers, Anyway?”