Beer of the Week: Highland Brewing Trailbound Hazy Ale

Beer score: 5.9

Company: Highland Brewing
ABU: 5.8
IBU: 45

Pours a cloudy lemon color while having a nice foamy head and giving off light scents of citrus and maybe a little grass.

The taste is sturdier than this beer looks, fairly bitter when it hits the tongue, though smooth with a citrus fruitiness not unlike orange zest. That smooth bitterness lingers, but it's not overly strong.

Not a bad pale ale, but I've had better beers from Highland Brewing. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to drink one of these again, but I also wouldn't turn one down if it was handed to me.

Beer of the Week: Rogue Mocha Porter

Beer score: 5.9

Company: Rogue
ABU: 5.3
IBU: 54

This one has become difficult for me to find, especially as I had not tried it again until recently in more than a decade, but I had some luck a while back and landed some.

Pours very dark, almost black, into a clear glass, with touches of brown around the edge. Has quite the foamy head.

The smells given off are of dark and roasted chocolate.

Pretty sweet for a porter. There's some maple flavor behind all that sweetness, but there's plenty of that dark chocolate.

Heavy on the stomach. Rather unique. Not for wimps.

Books read in 2025: No. 35 -- Strange Weather

by Joe Hill

Started: August 30

Finished: Sept. 22

Notes: The couple of novels from Hill that I've read in the past were pretty good, so I'm looking forward to this collection of four novellas.

Mini review: This one took me quit a bit longer to read than I felt it should have. The four tales here are all quite excellent, written very well, but one of them, "Loaded," affected me and I had step away from it for a while. I have read plenty of horror over the decades, even darker works not necessarily related to the genre, but this story about mass shootings just hit a mark with me; it's a good story, but it's not one with a happy ending. I don't know. Maybe it's because of the number of shootings in the news of late, but usually material like this doesn't affect me in such a manner. This time it did. Ah, well. Anyway, these tales are worth reading.

Beer of the Week Blast from the Past: Oregon Original Beers

The Oregon Ale and Beer Company made this beers a couple of decades back. They were eventually bought out by the Sam Adams folks, but these beers no longer exist today. Such a shame. So many good beers have come and gone over the years.

Oregon Original Honey Ale

Beer score: 7.6

This would have been a good beer for novice beer snobs to start with because it was smooth with a good taste and texture without being too heavy. The touch of sweetness was just right, not enough to be annoying.

Oregon Original India Pale Ale

Beer score: 8.0

I often don't like IPAs because they sometimes have a slight sour aftertaste, but that wasn't the case here. This was quite easily one of the best IPAs I'd ever had. Very wet and frothy with a smooth bitterness. It got sweeter as you drank it.

Oregon Original Nut Brown Ale

Beer score: 7.9

This brew had an excellent bitter taste and went down wet and smooth. One of the best nut brown ales I've ever tasted.

Beer of the Week: Schaefer Light

Beer score: 0.8

Company: Pabst
ABU: 3.8
IBU: NA

I know it's hard to believe, but there is even less taste in this liquid than there is in the non-light version, and much more carbonation.

Yeah, it pours golden, as can be expected. There are hints of grain and corn in the smell.

I've tasted better used ashtrays.

A few different companies have brewed this monstrosity over the years, but most recently it seems to be Pabst.

Is there anything good I can say about this stuff? Sure. It's cheap. It can get you drunk But that's about it.

Perhaps the lowest ranking I've ever given a beer. I suppose I could have gone lower, but I can imagine worse.

Books read in 2025: No. 34 -- A Question of Time

by Fred Saberhagen

Started: August 23

Finished: August 30

Notes: I've read pretty much all Saberhagen's fantasy literature (at least all of which I'm aware), and I recently read one of his sci-fi novels, but he also wrote a series of novels based upon Dracula, the original novel and the character. This is my first time reading one of those.

Mini review: A girl from a wealthy family goes missing near the Grand Canyon. Investigators are called in after law enforcement proves ineffectual. Vampires are involved. Time Travel. And more strange stuff. Not exactly horror fiction, but definitely fiction of the weird variety. A nice change of pace.

Beer of the Week: Alpenglow Hazy IPA

Beer score: 6.3

Company: Mother Earth Brewing
ABU: 7.2
IBU: NA

Pours cloudy and orange with touches of gold. Has a decent head, but not the biggest I've seen (stop laughing). Gives off some citrus scents, but that's fairly faint.

In the mouth, this one is medium bodied, and there's more of that citrus. However, there's not much of the sourness I've experience in other IPAs, but there is a fair amount of bitterness that tastes something like orange rind. That bitterness lingers on the back of the tongue for a good while, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I can't call this a new favorite, and I can't even say it's the best IPA I've tasted in the last few weeks, but something about this one grows on me. Hell, maybe I'm becoming an IPA fan, but I find that difficult to fathom. Or maybe brewers are just making better IPAs.