5 Men and a baby

Upon our return from the mountains of western NC we found all but one original founding father on a friday night with not much to do but of course, sample beers. J. Wilder and Fred took it upon themselves to install a new dining room light for Wilders wife. Being accomplished home improvement gurus, the lads decided that installing a new light during the fading hours of the day would be easy and quick. Lets just say that the scene looked like 2 monkeys and a football........you get the idea. After an hour and a half of f-bombs, and looks of WTF are we doing this for on a Friday night instead of drinking good beers, we decided to head off to Snake's place for a meeting. Snakes son in law and brand new baby daughter were there to join us as we started off the night with SOUTHERN TIER BIG RED (9%) . This is an Imperial Red Ale and generally Southern Tier produces a mediocre beer that is packaged in a bottle that is plastered with faux-pulitzer prize winning chit chat about the aromas of Hallertau hops or the complex caramel malts used to make their swill. Another disappointment, as this beer rated a so-so based on no discernible flavors that stood out. Drinkable yes, but why pay 6 bucks for this when there are so many better choices available. Next up, WILLIAMSBURG ALE WORKS TAVERN ALE (5.6%) an American Brown Ale that delivered a slightly smokey taste that got better as u sipped more. More SO-SO than Good, but on the cusp of being a decent beer. We love supporting local brewers, and Williamsburg Ale Works is better than average. On to a NC local brewer, THE DUCK RABBIT PORTER (5.7%). The self proclaimed "Dark beer specialist" (says who?), this was a true disappointment in a bottle. The BC4M declared them to be the"Mediocre to crappy beer specialists". Thick dark flavors that left no senses on the palate, this was easily the worst porter this group had ever had. Another NC beer, MOTHER EARTH BREWING ENDLESS RIVER (4.9%) which is a Kolsch style beer (German style for clear, hoppy and top fermenting). As tax paying citizens, the BC4M members generally frown on excessive greenpeace, tree hugging, snail darter loving, granola bark eaters smacking us over the head with their "Peace, Love, Dope" politics, but if they make a good beer, we will sure as fuck drink it. By the name of this place, surely you can guess that the boys that work here are 420 friendly. A drinkable beer with a slight tang at the end, it rated a SO-SO. A trip to their website showed a montage of the hippie paradise where they make this stuff,"2 green thumbs up" according to their mantra, while Fred (the resident grumpy young man) said, "2 middle fingers up, to this sucky beer". On to a very good brewery, one who makes good to great beers on a consistent basis, STONE SUBLIMELY SELF-RIGHTEOUS ALE (8.7%) Brewed originally as their 11th anniversary ale in 2007, this was rated a GOOD as it was quoted to be "a magnificent hoppy elixir, a truly great lager" Smooth, easy drinking and hoppy, what a combo. Next was part deux of SKA BREWING MODUS HOPERANDI (6.8%). As you may recall from the Smokey Mountain Beerfest, some of the wives said we were too drunk to adequately rate some beers, so we brought some back for the other members to try. 10pm and Snake both said GOOD, "as true an IPA as we had ever had even as we read their left coast relax and get toked tree hugging nonsense on the can" This was the last beer of the night as we all played the role of 10pm and left earlier than usual. Dont fret dear followers, another glorious night of beer sampling and humor will be here soon