TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

I started writing this a couple of weeks ago and put it away because I couldn’t figure out the review format I wanted to use for beer. Then That Raider’s Fan went and made TBG Drinks to go with his TBG Eats series and now I look like a copycat. Then I realized I was in the process of writing a wrestling news aggregator expressly ripping off Fark’s format and I felt better about my copycat-edness. For more information on the rating categories, click here.

Moo Thunder Stout
Brewed By: Butternuts Beer & Ale
Brewed In: Garrattsville, NY
Type: Stout
ABV: 5.0%

What They Say: This stout beer pays tribute to the Butternuts Brewery’s former life as a dairy farm, thus the sexy cow on the can. It’s a lighter, more drinkable version of the Stout breed than its heavy, boorish and smelly European sisters. Not too strong, not too viscous (oooh…viscous…creepy). Unlike a true bovine it has a malty, roasty aroma and a dry finish but no tail or teats, and leaves no unsightly cow pies laying around the yard for you to step in.

Website: Butternuts brewery has one of those supremely annoying sites that think it’s cute to have animation and music on a flash app. Two no-nos here. 1) Your website should never auto-play music by default because people visit websites at work. 2) Never have links that move. Their news link is a blimp that floats across the top of the screen. You have to click on the moving blimp to get news. There’s a reason the marquee tag fell out of favor: because it was stupid. It took me forever to find their location on their website and I eventually only found it because I went to their MySpace page.

Why I Picked It: I had heard good things about the Porkslap Pale Ale and was in the mood for a stout for football. It was on the shelf at Whole Foods so I went with it.

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Presentation (5): Butternuts uses cans, silly names, and cartoon animals to differentiate themselves from other microbreweries. The can thing probably isn’t a bad idea since there are only so many ways to package up beer into brown, glass bottles. The can will certainly get a person to at least pick up the six-pack to see what they’re doing. The cartoon characters will also hook young drinkers. Joe Camel approves. 5.

Originality (5): Like I mentioned earlier, the can is an original presentation in the world of microbrews. Odd how that works. In most circles, folks look down their noses at the macrobrewed, canned beers. Put a microbrew in one and it suddenly becomes original. Funny how that works. That said, there’s nothing to differentiate this stout from any other stout. 3.

Body (10): The claim on the can that it’s a less viscous Guinness is about the best way to describe it. It’s a light stout, if you can picture that. It has every bit the flavor of a stout without making you feel like you’ve eaten a full loaf of bread after three. I guess you can call it a Diet Stout.10.

Taste (10): Standard, run of the mill stout. There are no fancy flavors here to differentiate it from, say Guinness or Bare Knuckle. The only thing I can find to remind myself of a diary farm is the cow on the can. But, to note, I’m a big fan of stouts so I like the taste of this. 7

Efficiency (10): I drank six of these watching football over about four hours and really didn’t notice a difference between beer one and beer six. If you’re drinking to drink something, this is probably good for you. If you’re drinking to watch your team lose a football game, find something 1) stronger or 2) you can either drink faster. 4

Versatility (10): The ABV% and the relative low loafofbreadedness in this beer makes it useful for lots of different things. If you didn’t mind drinking a stout quickly, you could use it for a Beirut-beer. The relatively low alcohol content and tastiness makes it a good poker night beer. Possibly the highest versatility for a non-macrobrew in history. 8

Final Grade: 37 (of 50) - really good beer.