Bacon Pringles!!

So here's the other new Walmart exclusive flavor, and it sounds epicly delicious. I have to say they could've done a lot better with the can design. I mean, a weird grill pan and some tongs with a chip magically floating over the top... sounds like a dream I had once. Anyway, with high hopes I open the can and am met with a pleasing aroma of bacon bits. Not necessarily bacon, per se, but bacon bits.

Precisely. That's exactly what these smell like... and taste like, too. Which isn't bad by any means. Actually, the more I eat these the more I think they are pretty good. The only downside is that after eating them, you will continue to taste them for hours. These chips have a serious aftertaste... I guess it takes a lot of bacon flavoring to get them to taste good. But good they are, and definitely worth a try. Oh, and speaking of potato based snacks, does anybody remember these?

Oh man, I ate these things like crazy when I was younger. I could do a whole post on junk food I loved when I was younger that isn't made anymore. Maybe I will.

Spaten Dunkel

Ah, another dunkel. I'm not sure I've had one of these I didn't like. Spaten's dunkel is quite good with the taste I'd expect in a dunkel, though less bitter than the Warsteiner and with a somewhat higher ABV of 5.2%. And yes, on the bottle it's still classified as a malt liquor, so it's a big win in my book. Muy delicioso and I'd definitely drink it again.

Yuengling Summer Wheat

Woohoo! Time for summer beers, even though it's still spring. Yuengling makes some damn fine beer and I always like to try their seasonal offerings, of which their bock is my favorite, and it's not easy to find around here. This one is a wheat beer to boot, so I'm expecting it to be pretty good.
If you get this beer, and it is very cold, do yourself a favor and let it warm up for about ten minutes before attempting to drink it or it will be devoid of any flavor whatsoever. If you do have the patience to wait for this sexy beast to come to fruition, then you'll be rewarded with a pretty tasty wheat beer, which tastes like it would be great on a hot day. It's also on the cheap side, my sixer was $6.99 at my local package store. Definitely worth a try.

Sriracha Pringles!

I've been a fan of Sriracha sauce for a long time. I don't know what's caused the sudden boom in its popularity as it's suddenly showing up everydamnwhere. Wait, you didn't know? Check this shit out:

Sriracha flavored vodka. Yes, this is a thing.

Why not be a sexy Sriracha bottle for Halloween?

And for Christmas, why the hell not? By the way, these candy canes are made by the same people that make all those weird bacon products, like bacon croutons and bacon flavored shake n' bake for chicken. Yeah, that's a thing, too.

So anyway, my usual application of Sriracha was to put it on Chinese food or ramen noodles. It's pleasantly hot, though I don't think it's as hot as the proverbial flamethrower it's meant to represent, but I've been told that I have a high tolerance for spicy food. If you're a Sriracha fan, then don't miss these chips. I think they're sold exclusively at Walmart, but I'm not sure. They taste just like the sauce, only in Pringle form and go great with a beer or three.

Blue Moon Valencia Grove Amber

I haven't had any Blue Moon beer in a while, though I've thought for the most part it's pretty good, and they have a cool variety of seasonal beers that are interesting to try, my girlfriend's favorite being the agave nectar beer they put out in the summertime. This is a spring seasonal, and as promised in the name it contains a whole lotta orange peel with roasted malts and other delicious sounding stuff. I like the bottle design and the smell of this beer as I poured it was fantastic.
It tastes ok. There's definitely a strong citrus/orange taste which is not bad, but there's also not much else at all. It wasn't particularly refreshing or smooth, so I would give it an overall review of "not bad." My girlfriend liked this one a lot more than I did, maybe because it has kind of a sweet taste since I tend to prefer somewhat bitter tasting beer to sweet beer. Worth a try, I think this one tastes different to everyone.

Crabbie's Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer

I love ginger ale, ginger beer, and many other things ginger, so when I saw alcoholic ginger beer I had a George Takei style "oh myyy" moment and decided I needed to try this. It's made in Scotland and from what I can tell is at least sort of a big deal over there, you can check out their website for more info on them.
I think it's effing delicious, and even has a decent ABV of 4.8%. The bottle recommends pouring it over ice and adding a lemon or lime wedge, but I didn't have any handy. It tastes great without as long as it's good and cold. I don't know how common this stuff is stateside, but there's three other flavors of this I'd like to try since this one was so good. Any ideas on where to get it in Alabama?

Adlerkonig Bavarian Lager

Ah, swingtop bottles. How I love your joyous champagne-like popping and ability to be resealed. For the longest time I thought only Grolsch came in a swingtop bottle but I've since seen a few that also have the swingtop magic. Here's one that I had never seen before, Alderkonig. It also has a very cool label, the old man with his eagle? looks like something out of a sweet beer ad. It pours a satisfying darkish lager color with barely any head and smells somewhat fruity. It tastes pretty good, meaning it's good but I've definitely had better. I'd almost call this a wannabe Weissbier because of the color and taste. Worth a try, but not one of my favorites.

New Belgium Fat Tire

So this stuff has been popping up everywhere around here recently, though it's been around for a little while. I figured it was worth a try so I got a variety pack of a few different kinds of beer that they make. The first one is Fat Tire, their flagship beer, an amber ale, which i tend to enjoy quite a bit. Let me tell you, this is one smooth beer with a capital smooth. I can drink this just as easily as drinking water. It has a good flavor, too, and I'd drink this again anytime. Definitely one to try if you've never had it before.

Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier

Ah, another Weihenstephaner beer. While this one definitely does not live up to its name of being crystal clear (as it says in small print on the bottle) it is extremely tasty and extremely refreshing. It has a very clean finish and tastes similar to the Schneider Weisse Tap 7 Original. This is easily one of my favorite beers, period, for these reasons. So good.

Steinlager - New Zealand's Finest Lager!

Picked this one up because it seemed unique as I've never had any beer from New Zealand, I guess the closest thing I've had would be Australian beer? And also because it was a 750ml bottle for $3.99.
It is one of the most plain beers with as few special qualities I've ever had without being outright bad. It's very drinkable, with a generic "beer" taste, similar to something like Miller High Life or Milwaukee's Best. I'd drink it for free but I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Goodass Food #2

What?? A post that's actually about chicken wings???
Yep. Or more specifically a place to get some delicious ones. On picturesque Lorna Rd. in Hoover, Alabama there is a little wing joint called Wing It! The wings are damn good, and so are the Cajun ranch fries. They also have burgers and a variety of other stuff but I've only ever gotten wings. I go here about once a week or so and it's always great, and not too bad on the wallet, either. I usually get a 10 piece combo with fries and a drink and it's about $9 and really, really, delicious. I want some now just thinking about them.
Here's a link to their Urbanspoon page. Check them out if you're in town.

Wernesgrüner Pils

Yep, first post in a while.
Yep, it's that beer from Aldi.
I like shopping at Aldi, as I like to get a good deal on stuff I buy to use day to day. I'll wait in line a few minutes longer if it means saving some cash. I've seen this beer there every time I go and I've meant to try it out for a while, so I finally picked up a sixer for $5.99. According to Wikipedia, it's brewed by the people who make Bitburger, a very popular German beer, which I've also never tried but plan to.
Okay, so it's cheap, it's got a cool name, is it any good?
It's not bad. Not great, but not bad. It's very bitter, so if you like bitter tasting pilsners you'd probably like this one. My girlfriend agrees with me that it tastes somewhat like PBR, and I'd put it in the same category as PBR for sure. Cheap beer, readily available, doesn't taste awful, 4.9% ABV. If I was reviewing this as a super great German pilsner I wouldn't think it was good at all. If I was reviewing it as a cheap, easy to drink beer then it gets a significantly better grade. German PBR, worth a try for $1 a beer.

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

Hey, I know what I like. There's other authors I like, too, I promise. I found this at my school library and decided to give it a read since it's fairly short (a little over 200 pages) and figure I could squeeze that in somewhere. It still took me over a month to find the time to finish it. In a way I like being busy and having a lot to do. I don't think I've said the words "I'm bored" in maybe a year. I do miss having time to read books and watch movies as often as I used to, but I have to get edumicated so I can edumicate others, right? Right.
So Timequake is a semi autobiographical, semi truth, semi fictional story. It can be hard to discern what is true and what isn't in this book. It's a collection of small stories thrown together as many of Vonnegut's books are, and the especially short chapters make it easy for people like me to pick it up and read a couple of chapters and put it back down until next time. I'm not going to spoil any of the story, especially since it's kind of short, but suffice to say that there's an event that occurs called a timequake. Everyone and everything in the world is suddenly catapulted ten years back in time and must relive everything that they went through up until the point where the timequake occurred. Without free will. Meaning that even though someone knows they are going to do something awful, like say marry the wrong person, they can't think differently, or express anything differently, etc. It's an instant replay, good, bad, life, death and everything else. I enjoyed the hell out of this book.

Schneider Weisse Tap 6 Aventinus

I'm really loving all the different Schneider Weisse beers I've had and Aventinus is no different. It's a wheat doppelbock which to me just sounds delicious since I love wheat beers. There's also the 8.2% wallop this beer is packing, and it doesn't TASTE like many other 8% beers I've had since it's so smooth.
It definitely has some fruit in it, I wanna say bananas and maybe grapes? It's also semi wheaty but not as much as the Brooklyner I had a few weeks ago. I also like the not quite Newcastle dark brown color of this beer and the spices that are there but not overpowering, and are a nice compliment for this beer more than its character in itself. I love this beer and I'd drink it again anytime, and for me that says a lot since I don't usually like the taste of higher ABV beers.

Battle of the Ambers, Arcade Edition!

I've never had either one of these beers before, or if I have I don't remember. I like amber lagers, Yuengling being one of my favorites. I've seen this Third Shift stuff around for a little while, and I picked up this Point Amber in a sixer the other day so why not put them to the test?

Here's the pour. You'll probably notice the Point beer is a little darker, but what are the other differences?
Well, Third Shift is made by Coors despite being tagged on the bottle "Band of Brewers," is 5.3% ABV and is extremely carbonated. Conversely, the Point beer is not as carbonated, is made by the Stevens Point Brewery in Wisconsin, and is 4.7% ABV. The Point beer also costs more (duh).
The taste is very similar between the two. I had my girlfriend blind taste test them and she came to the same conclusions I did about these.
They both taste somewhat similar to Yuengling to me, my girlfriend says they taste somewhat like Magic Hat 9.
The Point beer tastes a little smoother and has a better overall feel.
I don't usually like super carbonated beer, so I personally like the Point beer better, despite the somewhat lower ABV. So what's the verdict?
Point is the winner in this case, though personally I'll stick to my $10 Yuengling twelve pack over either one of these any day.

Beers I've had before: Franziskaner Weissbier

The title is just a disclosure. I've drank Franziskaner many many times before and it's one of my favorite beers. For a long time you could only get it in bars here but it's recently become available in bottles which made me very happy indeed.
What makes it so good, you ask? It's smooth as glass, with a somewhat milkshake-esque feel and a taste of wheat and oranges that is so satisfying I could drink this stuff all day. I know it's hard to tell from the picture but it pours a kind of hazy orange color and the head goes away very quickly... I think it has a near perfect level of carbonation as well. I think I'm just gonna go have another.

Chipotle Cheddar Pringles!

Whenever they come out with a new flavor I just about always have to try it. These are very good and seem to taste better when you're drinking a beer with them. But then again, doesn't everything? Cheesy but not too cheesy, spicy but not overly spicy. Kinda taste like pepper jack cheese. Definitely worth a try.

Kronenbourg 1664

I've never had French beer before, but I imagine a European country with such great food and wine and cheese and Eiffel Towers would make pretty good beer. Kronenbourg is France's #1 selling beer and ranks somewhere around #2 or #3 in the UK. I gotta say I really like the bottle and logo. It just looks so... European.
Anyway, this beer has a almost pilsner-ish taste that is very crisp. I'd call this one an excellent hot day beer, but other than that it's kind of average to me. Not bad by any means, I like it better than Budweiser for sure. Has a similar taste and finish to Pilsner Urquell and Czechvar.

By the way, I have to give props to my girlfriend for coming up with the awesome idea to use some kind of background when I take my pictures. Thanks, baby!

Midterms...

I've got two midterms tomorrow and another one on Friday. I'm trying to study but I feel like I have ADD and just can't focus on it. Hopefully all will go ok.
My school like a lot of other schools recently started requiring students to either get vaccinated (or prove you already have been) for a lot of diseases, kind of like when you were in elementary school. I had to freaking get re-vaccinated with TWO MMR shots, a TDAP shot, and I had to have a blood test done to prove I've had the chicken pox. Fucking chicken pox! I also had to have a TB test which I understand, but the others are a little ridiculous. I'm not in school to become a doctor or nurse. I feel like it's a conspiracy to suck more money out of students. I sincerely doubt all the great medical minds at UAB are fearing a horrible diphtheria outbreak.

Stiegl Pils

Stiegl has been brewing beer in Austria since 1492 and they have a wide variety of different German style beers. This one is just "beer," or pilsner. When I first had a taste of Stiegl my tongue was physically assaulted by extreme bitterness, which gets a little less slap-in-the-face-ish the more you drink it, but is still very strong. There's not much else in the way of flavor or smell or anything that stands out about this beer to me. It still has that crisp pilsner feel that I would expect, but I'm just not sure about the taste. Maybe it's just me?
Oh and by the way, the bottle says Salzburger....

Am I doing it right?

Centenario Pilsener 100

Continuing into Latin America we have Centenario Pilsener 100 from El Salvador. A Salvadoran pilsner? Cool. It's an extremely easy to drink beer with some of that crisp taste I would expect from a beer called a pilsner. Clean finish, good taste. Seems like it would be a really good summer beer, like something you'd grab after doing some yardwork or something outside. I'd definitely drink it again.

Cerveza de los Muertos Pay the Ferryman Porter

Ah, Mexican beer. How I love thee. And my girlfriend is a big fan of dark beers like porters and stouts, so I got her this one to try. Los Muertos Brewing is a brewpub in Mexico with a variety of different beers to choose from. I really like the Dia de los Muertos motif of the bottles! So how is the beer?
We agree that the beer has a very strong coffee taste (and aftertaste). Other than that it's a pretty standard tasting porter, maybe a little strong tasting for a 5% ABV beer. It's definitely not bad, and I'd drink it again, but it doesn't really stand out from the crowd, though it is cool to have some craft beer from Mexico.

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

When I saw that Weihenstephan calls itself the world's oldest brewery, I had to do a little research. Weihenstephan brewery can trace their roots back to at least the year 1040 when their brewery was first licensed, and maybe even until the year 768 according to some other documents at the abbey where the brewery is located. I tasted this beer and I immediately saw why.
It's quite possibly the best beer of this style I've ever had, and by that I mean a German wheat beer. It has a very crisp taste with some smooth fruit undertones and is just... really good. Can't go wrong with this one!!

Leffe Blonde

Thought I'd try something a little different and give this Belgian blonde a whirl. Looks and smells pretty standard... so how is it?
There's a couple of good things about this beer those being the 6% ABV and the almost velvet smooth texture that is almost like drinking a milkshake. Other than that it's pretty average. It's not bad by any means but I probably wouldn't seek it out, partially because it has a somewhat sweet taste that I'm not sure if I like or not, partially because there's just a lot of better beers out there that are this same style.

Hazy Magi

We went to the Mellow Mushroom not long ago and my girlfriend ordered a drink called a Hazy Magi. Half Magic Hat 9 and half Abita Purple Haze. I like both of these beers on their own and together we agree that these two mixed together is damn good. Give it a shot!

Schneider Weisse Tap 5 Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfenweisse

Let me start off this review by saying a couple things. I love wheat beers. I love strong tasting beers.
This particular beer is like a punch in the face followed by a tactical nuclear strike on your taste buds. This is a thick bodied beer that definitely lives up to its name, with a very hoppy, wheaty taste with some fruit flavors and almost like... bread? taste also.
Turns out this beer is a collaboration between the brewmasters of the Schneider Weissbier Brewery and the Brooklyn Brewery to create a pale wheat doppelbock ale. The result is an 8.2% ABV ale that drinks like a meal. I literally experienced this beer a part at a time, feeling the initial shock of the hops, then once I got used to that I was able to savor the fruits and breads, kind of like eating a box of muffins. This is a beer you definitely need to take your time and enjoy as it seems to get better with every taste. Honestly at first I thought this was just too strong tasting, but as it went on I liked it more and more. This beer is really something else and definitely worth a try.
And don't give me crap about my stove not being clean, I do a lot of cooking.

Beer Time: Ayinger Bräu Weisse

Here's another Hefeweisen, one of my favorite beer styles. Ayinger is named for the Aying brewery which coincidentally is located in Aying, Germany. It has a very earthy smell and feel, and is very smooth. I was able to detect some fruit in there somewhere but it's not overpowering, which to me is a good thing. I wanna say oranges and... banana? Maybe I'm wrong but I could swear I taste a slight nanner taste in there somewhere. This is a damn good Hefeweisen. Just as good as Tap#7 if not better. Definitely one to try if you like this style of beer. Wish I had another one!

Don't Buy these Headlights

I put these headlights in my car about three months ago because I wanted to see better at night. One of them went out last week. The other one went out yesterday. I realize that they aren't made to last as long as traditional halogen headlight bulbs, but three months? Ridiculous. After the AutoZone I bought them at told me there was nothing they could do about it, not only did I buy new lights at Pep Boys, I made sure to buy Philips brand lights just so I wouldn't buy another Sylvania product. They really are substantially brighter than regular bulbs but for the extra money I expected to get at least a year or so out of them. Never again.

Beer Time: Schneider Weisse Tap 7 Unser Original Hefeweizen

As you can tell I've been on a German beer kick recently and I've been enjoying myself quite a bit. I had seen beers made by Schneider Weisse before but had never had any so thought the Hefeweizen would be a good way to get a feel for their offerings. And damn is it good.
I'm detecting a fairly strong fruit flavor, I wanna say citrus, like oranges. Along with chocolate and a malty finish. This beer is excellent and the only concern I have right now is why did I only buy one?
The store I picked this up at had a variety of other beers made by Schneider Weisse and I'll be sure to pick up some more on my next beer run. I'd drink this one again anytime.

Beer Time: Warsteiner Dunkel

This is one of my favorite beers since I first drank it at a bar years ago. I haven't had a lot of different dunkels (dark, German style beer) but I've always liked dark beers and that got me to try this one. The flavor is kind of sweet at first immediately followed up by a somewhat bitter, coffee-caramel-almost cola-like taste. Personally I think it's great and I'd drink this sexy dark brew anytime. I was pleasantly surprised to see it for sale in bottles at my favorite beer store, where previously I'd only seen the regular Warsteiner beer for sale so it is out there, even in somewhat harder to navigate beer markets like Birmingham, which is, in its own right coming into its own recently.
Suffice to say that this a great dark beer and I drink it regularly. Damn, it's good.

Fancy Beer Time: De Dochter van de Korenaar Charbon Smoked Vanilla Stout

Put on your monocle and top hat everyone! Time for some fancy beer!

First of all, the name of this beer is a hell of a mouth full. It's brewed by De Dochter van de Korenaar in Belgium. Second of all I tend to think many beers with a higher ABV (above 6%) just flat out don't taste good and since I drink beer both for the taste AND to get drunk that is sometimes a problem.
Charbon smoked vanilla stout is a definite exception to that rule. My girlfriend picked this beer out since she loves all things vanilla and she was not disappointed. Despite being a stout almost so thick you could chew it, this beer is surprisingly easy to drink and while it does taste kind of strong it's not unpleasant by any means despite having a somewhat high ABV of 7%. The color is like any other stout with a very thick head that stays on the beer the whole time you drink it. It has a pleasant... well, smoky vanilla flavor. I tried to think of another way to describe it but that really sums it up. You definitely get what is advertised, so if you like vanilla beers this is a good choice. My girlfriend loved this beer so much I was lucky just to get a taste!

Beer Time: Spaten Munich style Lager

Ah, beer time. One of my favorite times ever. I'm feeling in a German mood so I picked up a few different kinds of German beer, some of which I've had maybe once or twice years ago but I can't remember for sure. Memory problems aside, here we go!

Spaten is a Munich based brewery which makes many different kinds of beers including Franziskaner, which I'm also a big fan of, so I decided to try their flagship lager. Cool bottle, especially since I like green beer bottles, very German sounding name and a slightly higher ABV than is common for this type of beer. In fact, upon inspecting the bottle I found this:

 

It's technically considered a malt liquor!!

Oh man, could this be any more awesome? 5.2% is a little higher than the average 4% or so for this type of beer. When I tasted it I immediately thought it tasted like a "fancy malt liquor." Those were my exact thoughts. It tastes somewhat strong, but it's not overpowering like Hurricane or anything like that. It's very smooth, but at the same time you know it at least somewhat means business. It also has a very malty flavor, which makes sense as I read somewhere that this was supposed to be Germany's answer to Czech beer. Overall I think Spaten is very good and I would definitely try it again, and I'm sure I'll be trying more varieties of it also such as the Oktoberfest.

A few notes from a former Walmart employee

I'm no longer employed with Walmart (yes, it was my decision) and just wanted to post a few funny pictures that I took there that I had forgotten about. Since they were taken while I was working they are all camera phone pics, so deal with the quality. Oh speaking of, I ordered my new digital camera today! Should be here in about a week.
Hows 'bout we start with some inspiration from Walmart's founder and extremely rich champion of low wages and poor worker treatment, Sam Walton:

First of all, I doubt this is an actual quote. I mean, I know the guy was from Arkansas but I think he'd have the good sense to check his grammar before making this poster. Can you spot the typo? It cracked me up the first time I saw it.
Second, we move on to the fast paced world of milk crates.

That's right. Prohibited by law. So Walmart was in effect saying "fuck the po-lice" by using this in their store. I'm half kidding, here. The real reason they have this warning on them is that evidently these crates cost a lot to make. I've even seen some with "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL" printed on them, which I wish very much I had a picture of. Next  is just some funny shit i saw on a box.

That is quite possibly the best company name in existence. Ever. This was on a case of canned coconut milk.
That's about it. I'm very happy to not be employed there anymore, though I will miss some of the people I worked with. And feel bad for them.