Hi There!

I realize it's been a while, but what with winter weather, the unwillingness of my neighbors to drink wild and unusual beers, and lack of hours at work with which to waste money (not to mention Obama's bang-up job on keeping gas prices down-)

...it has been since January 23rd since I've got to add a cap, and longer since I've posted on caps I already had (I'm sure that's Obama's fault too).  But today, all of that changes.  Well, the lack of money and the high gas prices haven't, but the weather and the willingness of neighbors to drink have, so here we go!

First up, here are the two newbies that Scrappy and I found this morning.

The first is from Leinkugels- a Leinie's Summer Shandy.  Now a Shandy is a fruit flavor/beer mix, and Leinkugel describes this as their "take on a traditional German Radler".  A radler is a 50/50 or 60/40 mix of beer and "German lemonade" which is more along the concept of Sprite or 7-Up.  Next to it is a Michelob Ultra "pomegranate raspberry".  This is one of three MU flavored beers.  The MU site calls it a "light pilsener infused with fruit flavor and aroma."  One reviewer called it, " A decent beer that is barely beer enough to not be a wine cooler. "  Which one is right?  Well, after the fact I thought about getting a page snapshot, but since I can't seem to find the sign out button, I'll have to describe:  when I went to get on the MU site, it had the standard blanks to fill in to make sure you were of age.  The first blank had a shadow "DD" in it and a caption of "Month" below it; the second had the shadow "MM" in it and the caption "Day" beneath it.  Hmmm...

Okay, we left off so long ago on board #16, so let's move on to board #17.





Top left is your standard Bud tall twist.  The large gentleman next door is a Mickey's ML "Big Mouth" cap.  Next is a fifth variation on the Little Kings cap.  Little Kings was brewed by Schoenglings, who bought out Hudepohl, who were then gobbled up by Samuel Adams, but by 2004 it had went the Pabst route, being brewed on contract by several regional breweries.  The next is the blue twin of that first Bud tall twist.  Following that is an old-style Olympia cap.  Next up is the original (to me) Bud Light cap, followed by a fairly rare red Strohs.  Then comes a Molson Golden, followed by a blank gold cap that came off a German beer called Kessel.  Then comes a Michelob Light twist off.  Row three has another red Strohs, followed by a Raffo, which is a European-style pale lager from Italy.  Then comes a Wolfbrau from Germany, and a ring pull from South Pacific, which claims to be the dominant beer in Papua New Guinea.  Then a Labatts 50 twist off, and the last line of board 17 leads off with a Asahi Draft, which is the founding beer of a company that holds 40% of the Japanese market.  It is a pale lager that I am told goes well with ramen noodle dishes.  Next a pair of old timers, a Busch and a Hamms, followed by a Michelob Classic Dark.  Finally, we have a Hacker-Pschorr Munchen from Munich (duh).  This brewery has been around since the 1400s and still going strong.

Board 18 leads off with an Augsburger.  This brand started out with the Monarch brewery in Wisconsin, and then like most little brewers passed up the chain, starting with Potosi in 1967, ending up going from Strohs to Stevens Point Brewery in 2003.  Pabst bought the brand and had Stevens Point produce it afterwards, but apparently it is now out of circulation.  Next is another Mickey's Big Mouth, allegedly "pilfer-proof".  Never met my nephew, I'm guessing.  Then come identical Strohs, one a tall twist and one a regular crown, differing from the one on the last board because the logo is an outline rather than filled in.  Then comes a misprint Miller tall twist (they seemed to be good at that) with the top blank and the logo on the side.  Leading off row #2 is a Sagres, yet another pale lager from Portugal brewed by an underling of Heineken.  Then, after a Lowenbrau twist-off, we have a Cristal, "the preference of Cuba".  A Bud Light tall twist is next, followed  by a Haffenreffer Private Stock, formerly a Falstaff brand now brewed by Miller.  This is a Malt Liquor which, I can attest to, tastes crappy the first sip and you don't notice the taste thereafter.  6.8% will do that for you.

Row three leads off with a plain jane Michelob, followed by a twist Labatts Blue and a Modelo of a slightly different hue than the other I have.   Next, another Bud variation, followed by a plain jane Miller Genuine Draft.  Row four has an Old Milwaukee tall twist that I remember finding on an empty bottle somewhere along the highways and byways.  A crown twist off OM is next, followed by a Michelob Dry, yet another Strohs variation, and a Michelob Light with a cleaner look that the one on the last board.

Okay, enough for now.