WSU vs. Oregon State football: Baxter’s beer of the game

Baxter is deeply sorry for the lack of a column last week. He wouldn’t never say it, but it really is my fault. I was on the road for work, and then a little fun, and the blame lies with me. Bax even took a picture and sent it to me, but too much of a good time in New Orleans prevented me from typing up the post (Baxter can’t type).

A little bit of storytime for the next few paragraphs. Indulge me.

On the topic of being on the road, what do you do when you go to a new city? It was my first time in New Orleans last week, and my one regret is I totally forgot to go grab a picture with the Steve Gleason statue outside the Superdome, despite staying much of the week right next to the Superdome. I failed.

Outside of that, I did a little sightseeing on Friday night, but most of my tourism is typically beer-centric (Surprise!). In New Orleans, I hit up Avenue Pub, one of the nation’s top craft beer bars that just happens to also be open 24 hours (this is not a good thing for a work trip). There I enjoyed some of Avenue Pub’s great bottle list, as well as some excellent local Louisiana beers from Urban South Brewery and Parish Brewing Company, among others.

On Saturday I woke up a little later than anticipated—Hand Grenades and Hurricanes on Bourbon Street will do that—which ate into some of my sightseeing plans. I had already done a bus tour to see of the top spots on Friday afternoon, so I figured I’d hit up a local brewery called Courtyard Brewing that just-so-happened to be having its second anniversary celebration.

I was instantly impressed with their Northeast-style hazy pale ale, called “69 lol” then with their “Sonic Youth in 1983” double-dry-hopped IPA, then with their imperial stouts then with their sours and barleywines. Courtyard is an excellent brewery, and I would have been happy sampling their beers and hanging out all by my lonesome for many hours. I quite like traveling on my own.

But I noticed something when checking into my beers on Untappd—an Untappd friend who I had never actually met in person was also at the brewery. Luckily, he took a picture with his face on the app, and I tracked him down to say hello. Turns out, he and his wife and their friend were extremely nice people. I ended up spending the whole day at the brewery up until my evening flight, enjoying my time with them. That’s some good sightseeing.

Thank you for indulging beer travel storytime.

Anyway, back to the beer of the game for Oregon State vs. WSU. I decided to go with one of my favorite giant stouts, which is reasonably easy to get at this point: Prairie Artisan Ales Bomb! (The exclamation point is part of the name).

I’ve been really into “adjunct” stouts recently—stouts with added flavors that don’t come from hops, malt, yeast or water. Prairie Bomb! has plenty of those, with coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and chili peppers added to the sweet 13% ABV stout base.

You can typically find Prairie Bomb! at better beer stores, and places like Total Wine and BevMo. I encourage you to try it out, and maybe split it with a friend. Prairie also makes several variants of it—Birthday Bomb! with caramel added, Pirate Bomb! aged in rum barrels, Christmas Bomb! with nutmeg and cinnamon and Bomb! aged in whiskey barrels. They are all good.

Craig’s Review: Bomb! has a strong coffee and chili pepper nose, with hints of vanilla. The flavors come together well, with a nice sweetness from the malt balanced from the bitterness of the coffee. Then the chocolate, vanilla flavors come through, with the slightest of burn on the back end.

Baxter’s Review: I’m so tired of Craig asking me “Isn’t this beer the Bomb? Get it?!” Yes, I get it. The beer is good.

Schooner’s Review: I’m really starting to like this beer stuff, but not as much as I like chasing squirrels.

That’s what will be having on Cougar Football Saturday. What will you be enjoying for the Cougs vs. Beavers?