Ol’ George #19: Tick It To Ride

 Ol’ George #19: Tick It To Ride

Notes on # 19:

1: This strip needed a beer geek character and I decided it should be me. Balonious Funk is a play on my BeerAdvocate.com username FeloniousMonk. When I came up with it in 2002, I thought I was so very clever, unaware that the joke had been made many times before. 

2.  And now we have our very first continuity. The beer called Ferval’s Finest in #18 is the same that Irma served George in #11, 2 months ago. It’s been on tap all this time and hasn’t gotten any better.

Maybe Balonious heard how awful it is. He doesn’t care. 

Obolon Extra Kyivske Lager Beer

 Obolon Extra Kyivske Lager Beer.

12% ABV, Obolon Brewery, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Drinking a Ukrainian beer, for obvious reasons. Not expecting it to be good, but that’s not the point. 

Clear and lightly clouded, bright golden hue, fine, lace leaving, ivory head. 

In the nose: smells like malt liquor! Grainy, corny, overly sweet. Vegetal. I’m anticipating a ton of booze. 

In the mouth: interesting. I’m gonna say “interesting.” The opposite of crisp. Not at all clean. A sweet, mushy mix of malt, some hops and a buttload of booze. 

But, if you just want a buzz, maybe it’s enough. I’m just drinking this to cheers Zelenskyy and Ukraine.

«Obolon Extra Strong» is a lager beer with a mild malt flavor combined with moderate hop bitterness and light wine tones. The peculiarity of the recipe is that the high alcohol content is achieved through the fermentation of high-gravity wort.

Half Acre Drip Castles West Coast Style India Pale Ale

 Half Acre Drip Castles West Coast Style Double India Pale Ale.

8% ABV, Half Acre Brewing, Chicago, IL.

Clear, bright golden hue, slim ivory head.

In the nose: citrus and pine, with a pinch of the tropical.

In the mouth: nice bit of bitterness up front, clean and dry. Medium bodied, with a mild, hoppy finish. Bitterness increases as alcohol strength rises. This doesn’t quite go the distance the way I’d like it to, but it does the trick. 

Drip Castle features Krush, a newly developed hop, paired with classic Chinook to claim fresh territory within the West Coast DIPA realm. Ultra clear on the pour, Drip Castle has a warm boozy note balanced by assertive bitterness and an extremely dry finish. Krush provides raspberry pie blended with the resin and pine from Chinook that hits under-appreciated flavor receptors. This holiday season, spend some time in the Castle.