Beer of the Week

The beer: Conway's Irish Ale

The brewery: Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio

Description (from the website): "Named for Patrick “Pa” Conway, our founders’ grandfather and a beloved traffic cop who’d agree this smooth, full-bodied Irish Ale is just the ticket."

Would I buy it again? Irish red ales are an underrated warm-weather beer, and this is a fine example. Easy to drink, has some pleasant maltiness, and a decent but not overwhelming amount of hoppiness. Plus, it's got a higher ABV that most Irish red ales I've had, which is nice. It's not spectacular, but it's a great drinking beer. I'd definitely buy this again.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Barrel Aged Imperial Amber Lager

The brewery: Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio

Description (from the website): "Join our 35th anniversary celebration with this limited edition Imperial Amber Lager inspired by one of our original 1988 recipes, aged in Bulleit™ bourbon barrels."

Would I buy it again? You don't usually see imperial lagers. Stouts, all the time, IPAs, not as common, but definitely out there. But an imperial version of a regular old amber lager? I couldn't resist trying it out. But does it work? Yes and no, I would say. You can definitely taste the bourbon in this, and I'm not going to deny this beer tastes good. It's not an easy drinker, but I enjoyed drinking it. However, I feel like something has been lost of the original lager, which I have had before. That doesn't stop this beer from being very good, and I would drink it again, but I'm not sure how well it works as a celebration of their regular amber lager.    

Beer of the Week

The beer: Holy Moses White Ale

Brewed by: Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio

Description (from the website): "Refreshment or bust! Orange peel, coriander, and chamomile stake their claim in this unfiltered White Ale, named for our fair city's founder, Moses Cleaveland."

Would I buy it again?: Yes. It's yet another example of pairing a light, fruity sort of beer with a warm summer evening. Hard to go wrong with that formula, but this one was quite good. Just a note, this beer is unfiltered, and they really mean that. I noticed quite a lot of sediment and whatnot as I was about to pour the beer out. So if you're not a fan of that, this isn't the beer for you.

More Snow Does Not Equal a Cooler Climate

Lake-effect snow in action.

In fact, it basically means the opposite of that. The massive snowstorms that have hit the Great Lakes region have been well-publicized, and for good reason. Buffalo, New York under several feet of snow, in November? They get a lot of snow, but not that much, not this early anyway. It's also been very cold basically all over the country, and no, it's not because of the "polar vortex."

It's complicated, because weather always is; but a typhoon that was in the Pacific maintained cohesion much further north than it should be able to, because ocean waters are warmer than they should be. The jet stream is weaker than normal because the Arctic is warmer than it should be, and when the typhoon remnants smacked into it, the jet stream dipped south, bringing cold air with it. That's why it was so cold everywhere. Lake-effect snow occurs when cold air moves over an unfrozen lake, and the Great Lakes were very unfrozen. Water temperatures were about 50 degrees Fahrenheit above air temperatures, and that is a lot. This is a bad time for lake-effect snow anyway, but that temperature differential equates to prodigious snowfall totals for Buffalo. If the lakes were a bit cooler, like they should be in mid-November, the snow would not have been so bad. Still a lot, but not 7 feet.

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