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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!

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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”

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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!

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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!

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The Hoppy History of the India Pale Ale

Image of beers–Lawson's Finest Liquids' Sip of Sunshine IPA

When my journey into the world of craft beers began, I didn’t really know too much about the intricacies of the beer industry. Yes, I knew I liked beer, and that I preferred “good” beer, as opposed to the swill my dad’s generation somehow pushes down its gullet (and I pushed down my gullet in college), but I didn’t really know how to differentiate between beers.

As I expanded my palate, and learned about new styles of brew, I came to find a real appreciation for one kind of beer in particular: the India Pale Ale, or IPA.

So what’s an IPA, and how is it made? Continue reading “The Hoppy History of the India Pale Ale”

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The History Behind Wachusett Brewing Company’s Green Monsta IPA

Image of beers–Wachusett Brewing Company's Green Monsta IPA

Even though this beer is a little out of left field for me, it’s still cool enough to sit on my sill.

Did I ever tell you that I hate the Red Sox?

I’ve hated the Red Sox since I first learned about baseball after moving to the United States in 1987, and I will hate the Red Sox until the day I die (there will still be beers on my window sill, don’t you worry). That being said, I kinda like Fenway Park.

Sure, it’s got a bit of an awkward layout, is a dreadful pea green color and has seats that are not comfortable if you’re any larger than your average-sized seven-year old boy or girl, but it has personality. It has character. It has a certain…je ne sais quoi that almost makes it tolerable for a Yankees fan like me that the place is always full of obnoxious Red Sox fans.

Continue reading “The History Behind Wachusett Brewing Company’s Green Monsta IPA”