Crawling up from the frothy depths of an oak-aged barrel, eh!

And lo the clouds parted and the light of better beer did shine down upon the Mad Beer Man. A booming voice echoed forth unto the Mad One and didst say: "Go forth and baptize non-better beer drinkers and show them the same light that I have shown unto you."

Like the new banner? Thought it appropriate given the "theme." I have a few other surprises coming down the isle - so stay tuned. Speaking of... the votes are in and the congregates to the beer confessional have made it abundantly clear - ya freakin' hate the whole "Baptist/Baptizer" nickname. "The Mad Beer Man" it is. So say you all!

Sorry for the prolonged absence this week, but I've been insanely busy with that pesky thing known as "real life." Time for a little catch up... hold on!

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The Boulder Strong Ale Festival last weekend was nothing short of kick ass. In fact, I'm pretty sure it registered a 6.5 on the Righteously Awesome scale. There was, to borrow a phrase from Avery's Peter Archer (via John "The Beer Hermit" Morrissey's article in the Denver Post blog "Foam on the Range")... "abundantly ridiculous" amounts of beer there. And all of it was above 8% ABV. I don't need to prattle about this festival since John did such a great job. Clickety-click on the above link and give his article some link love.

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For many beer geeks the movie Strange Brew is a cult classic. It's hard to believe it was released twenty-five years ago (1983). Guess what? Bob and Doug are back! The actors behind the iconic beer swilling brothers - Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis - have signed on with Global TV to make an animated series. The 30 minute show will be set in the fictional Canadian town of Maple Lake and feature the voices of Moranis and Thomas. The two will also serve as executive producers. The series will begin airing next year.

Randy Boswell of the Canwest News Service interviewed Dave Thomas about the show. Give it a read and tell me you aren't as excited as finding a mouse in a bottle of beer!

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Fran and I hit one of our favorite restaurants (we have several here in the Springs) the other night for some after-work imbibing. The Blue Star not only rocks some great cuisine (the Beef Tenders will have you coming back for more!), but they also know how to pour the alcohol.

Aside from mixing up some mean Martinis, they have a stellar selection of whiskey, an amazing wine list (we were with a co-worker from Nashville who has a favorite from a small Napa winery - inexplicably it was ON THEIR WINE LIST!)... and an impressive array of beers.

I partook of a Belgian strong amber ale from Brasserie Caracole. While the ladies sipped their very tasty (for wine) August Briggs Zin, I sucked down two 750s of Caracole. It was fantastic. Click over to Rate Beer or Beer Advocate for the intricate details since I am not "SMRT" (as Homer Simpson would say) enough to delve into the color, body, smell, etc. and so forth.

The best part? The folks at Blue Star treat beer with as much respect as they do the wine. Our waitress brought each bottle to me to make sure it was what I ordered - as they do with wine, popped the cork and poured a sample for me to taste - just like they do with wine. KUDOS to them for bringing beer reverence into the 21st century!!

Zivjeli!