Beer of the Week: Milwaukee's Best Ice

Beer score: 2.2

Company: Molson Coors
ABV: 5.9
IBU: NA

Has a very thick, foamy, fizzy head when poured, along with a light golden color. Smells cheap and weak with a touch of sourness.

Tastes like a beer, sort of. More than anything, it tastes like salty fizz with tons of carbonation.

Run while you still can.

But in fairness, there are worse beers. Not many that are worse, but some. At least this is fairly cheap and can get you drunk.

Books read in 2023: No. 7 -- The Bridge of San Luis Rey

by Thornton Wilder

Started: March 8

Finished: March 15

Notes: Wilder is possibly better remembered today as a playwright, but he was also a novelist and won the Pulitzer more than once. I've not read him before, but this book has been on my radar for a while now and is apparently something of a morally philosophical book, so I'm hoping to find it of interest.

Mini review: This was an interesting read but not what I expected. In the late 18th Century in Peru, five people fall their deaths when a rope bridge they are traversing falls apart. A priest witnesses this and decides to write about those five in order to try and make sense of his faith. Not adventurous reading, nor exactly fun, but still interesting philosophically and from a literary point of view.

Beer of the Week: Kozel Premium Lager

Beer score: 8.4

Company: Kozel
ABV: 4.8
IBU: 25

Has a smooth caramel flavor that isn't overly strong, but not too weak, either.

Not the best-tasting beer in the world, but pretty darn good. Pretty smooth and very wet. Has a creamy texture as it goes down that is a bit confusing because you expect this beer to be fizzy due to its taste.

Beer snobs will find this an interesting and different treat. Just when I thought I'd tasted it all ...

Books read in 2023: No. 6 -- Vox Machina Origins: Series I and II Collection

from Critical Role

Started: March 8

Finished: March 11

Notes: If you aren't familiar with Critical Role or Vox Machina, then you probably don't play Dungeons & Dragons, or at least you're likely not one of the younger, newer players of D&D. Critical Role is a tabletop roleplaying group (in real life) and their fictional adventuring party is Vox Machina. They are quite popular online, especially at video sites like YouTube, and there's even a television animated show. I don't watch Critical Role myself, but I have seen the animated series and found it fun, which lead me to this book when I saw it in a library recently. This particular is a graphic novel collection of the early days of Vox Machina, how the characters met each others, etc. Much of my reading of late has been interesting but not exactly fun, so I'm looking forward to this.

Mini review: This one was a lot of fun with a lot of cool art. This book contains several tales of how the members of Vox Machina came to know one another, and detailed are a number of their early adventures together. Any D&D fan should enjoy this.

Books read in 2023: No. 5 -- The Book of Joel

published by Zondervan

Started: March 7
Finished: March 7

Notes: If I'm ever going to finish reading this Bible, I need to get to it. This being one of the shorter books, I thought I'd slip it in between my other readings.

Mini review: Early in this book are warnings of tragedies to come, but most of the rest of the book are warnings to nations other than Judah and Israel. There's not much context here, so it's difficult to pinpoint a period of when these prophecies and warnings would be important, but in my opinion the latter part of this book seemed to about the Second Temple Period or at least the post-exile, but there really isn't enough information to say for sure.

Books read in 2023: No. 4 -- Little Men

by Louis May Alcott

Started: Jan. 31

Finished: March 7

Notes: Nearly a decade ago I read Little Women for the first time and quite loved the book, so when I ran across a copy of the sequel in a used book store, I just knew I had to snag it and give it a read.

Mini review: I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as Little Women. I believe my main problem here was that there really wasn't a continual plot, but that this is really a collection of cute and quaint events that happen among children in a school during one summer. There's some mild humor here, and that I appreciated, and it was nice to return to some of the characters from Little Women, though they are adults here, but overall I felt this one was something of a slog.

Beer of the Week: The Bruery Trade Winds Tripel

Beer score: 5.0

Company: The Bruery
ABV: 8.1
IBU: 25

In all fairness, this is a quality brew. But I just didn't care for the flavor, thus the relatively low beer score on my part.

That being said, there are probably plenty of beer snobs who would love this beer.

I have to admit, this is one of the more unique tasting beers I've tried. It's a Belgian-style ale but it's brewed with Thai basil and rice, which is enough to make this an unusual beer and worth trying.

When I poured it into a glass, it had a nice, light blonde color and quite the foamy head.

The scent is quite strong, and I could really smell the basil along with some floral elements.

There's not a lot of alcohol flavor here, which isn't a bad thing, though there is an overabundance of bitterness which is where this drink went bad for me. There's also a wheat flavor, some citrus, notes, and you can taste the rice.

Again, this is actually a good quality beer, but it's just not my thing.