St. Pauli Girl

German Pilsner
4.9% ABV

Why? - I always take at least 10 minutes when looking for a beer wherever I go, weighing value and taste. This time I was at the local grocery store (Publix) and saw a 12-pack of St. Pauli Girl for $9.99 Not a bad deal, and I haven't had it in a while so I picked it up.

Look - Very clear, bright yellow/gold, similar to Miller Lite as far as the liquid is concerned. The head was a tad thicker than I expected, which is good, but still a little "fizzy" looking. The head took a couple minutes to dissipate, which seems about average. Does that even matter? I don't know, bear with me. 6/10

Smell - This gal has a neat little sniff to her, kind of bitter and sweet if that makes sense. Reminds me of Heineken, but not as skunky, I like it. 7/10

Mouth Party - Not a whole lot of taste initially, which is unfortunate because I was hoping for a bit of bitterness, but maybe I slugged it down too quickly, a bad habit from college that I need to break. The ending is where the flavor comes in, the nice bitterness that I was looking for, and a flavor I had a hard time describing. I decided on "buttery saltine crackers"....pretty good and definitely something I could have a few of, and not be sick of it. 7/10

Perno's Score: 5.6 (80% weighted on taste) + 1.05 (15% nose) + .3 (5% eyes) = 6.95 / 10

About This Blog

I'm just a regular guy that enjoys talking about and drinking good beer. I've even started brewing my own beer and hope to inspire others to do the same, as it's a great hobby to have. I'm by no means a beer snob...if I'm at a party and my friend throws me a Miller Lite, then it's going down my gullet as long as it's cold.

I put this blog together in hopes of inspiring the standard Bud/Miller drinkers out there to try something different with an open mind. I love Blue Moon (which, by the way is a MillerCoors product) and I actually think a Miller Lite is a great beer to go with a bag of peanuts at a ball game. At the same time I love trying to find new beers with new flavors in hopes of finding my new favorite beer.

Feel free to comment, or email me with any thoughts or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

Ratings Explanation: I'm using a weighted scale, taking appearance (5%), smell (15%), and taste (80%) into consideration. I think we can all agree taste is the most important aspect of any beer, and smell is part of the way we taste things, so I used 95% of the weight on those two items. For me appearance is a small part of the total enjoyment equation so I put it in there.

I guess my main goals are selfish - to document as many of my beers as possible so that I can get a better understanding of what kind of beers I enjoy...and let's be honest -- any breweries out there that want to send me a sample of your product, please do! Just email me by clicking on the "About Me" section, you'll find a link in there somewhere.

Thanks for stopping by - cheers!

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

Imperial/Double IPA
8% ABV

Why? - I've tried a few different Lagunitas (pronounced LAH-goo-NEE-tus) products like Hairy Eyeball, Brown Shugga (a personal favorite), Pils, etc...and really enjoyed them all. I'm also a hophead so I figured there's nothing wrong with getting a little "Stoopid" with hops. So when I saw this guy at my local store I picked it up plus I always need more 22 oz bottles to bottle my homebrews anyways.

Look - A pretty strong gold color with a nice thick head, and the foam stuck around for a while which is always fun. 9/10

Smell - My first sniff was that of citrusy hops (surprise!), grapefruit was my first thought...but after that the citrusy smell went away, replaced by a dark chocolate smell. I'd expect this from a porter or stout with dark malts, but it surprised me from this Imperial IPA, so that was a little odd. 6.75/10

Mouth Party - The initial hop bitterness was strong, just as I expected, lots of bubbles, the mouth was loving it. Then as a few minutes went by and I had a few more sips, that dark chocolate came around again! This time it brought some raspberry along with it. While it didn't taste bad, it wasn't what I expected. Does that deserve a lower score? Hmmm... 6.5/10

Perno's Score: 5.2 (80% weighted on taste) + 1.01 (15% nose) + .45 (5% eyes) = 6.7 / 10