nein, Paul, nine ahead.

I have a standing meeting every Monday at Stuff Yer Face with a few friends from Middlesex County. Nearbyish to our group of people, good beer menu, and we're good friends with the bartenders there. Subsequently, I'll probably have something to say here about beer late on Mondays/sometime on Tuesdays. Unless, of course, this meeting changes next semester... this is the last week of classes for Fall 2009...

ANYWAY. Paul is right, I spent a long weekend in chilly Minnesota. I spent it on a dry, Norwegian Lutheran college campus, giving Paul a short opportunity to do a little catching up. I had one beer during an outing that was a Minnesota brew, but it turned out to be a repeat! Summit Extra Pale Ale. (My uncle gave me one on Thanksgiving. In his words, "A good pale ale is worth it." He's right, but pale ales still aren't my favorite. This one was tolerable though-- I didn't not enjoy it either time.) However, I have a few new ones to report nonetheless.

Before I do, I feel I need to explain the current score. I did come back from 16 behind to 12 ahead in about a week's time. However, I did so pretty responsibly. First of all, that week was both my birthday and Thanksgiving. Lots of time to relax and enjoy a few drinks with family and friends. Second, I did not drink any single brew more than once in that week, and didn't drink anything I'd ever had before, either. Third, 11 of those are from my epic journey across Canada that just never made it over to my official beer list. It would be 12 brews but no one ever caught the name of the one beer we had at the hostel in Banff. It was really gross anyway. So, my surge is not totally bogus or alcoholic.

So, the new two:

Ballantine Ale. In my notes, I wrote "ale." That about sums it up. My dude brought me a can from a six pack he bought after seeing various Ballantine paraphenalia at my friends Cheryl and Gurzo's house... the full circle here is that these are the people I go out with on Monday nights!

Troegs' Mad Elf. Cheryl said it well, "It's like a Hoegaarden that got sassy!" (which Gurzo and I interpreted as "more yeast flavor").

My Monday night people (which also includes Jeremy, lest he feel left out, and very rarely includes Matt, who I know will whine if I don't mention him, but he'll also whine that I said he whines, or something) are talking about meeting at Stuffie's on Wednesday, because Man vs. Food is apparently in New Brunswick that night. I'll report back then if I make it out and/or try anything new. In the meantime, the score is now 156-147.