Yesterday, I talked about using my battery-powered stirrer to aerate my beer in Stirrer Madness. The stirrer made it to Black Flag for Bring Your Own Mug night.

The real reason for heading to Black Flag Brewing was for DBear to pickup a crowler of Chocolate Cherry for Mrs. DBear. I think she will enjoy the ample flavors of cherry and chocolate in this terrific beer. Since it was Bring Your Own Mug night, I brought a mug from Spreewald, a region in east Germany, a gift from our Au Pair of 2001. Hannah behind the bar filled it up for me, and my frothing tool (or stirrer) brought out the flavors, aroma and produced a beautiful head.

After much cajoling, my friends allowed me to froth up their beers, as well. I experimented with John’s Gunmetal, a hazy IPA with floral and tropical aromatics. The frothing may have have been a bit too enthusiastic and actually overflowed the mug a tad. (NOTE TO SELF: count to 1 when stirring a beer, then stop immediately!) It did smell heavenly but I found the taste did not match the nose. Good but not great.

Other froths were more successful. Orange Marmalade put a very temporary head on a somewhat lifeless beer, giving this sour a lot of pizzazz. The Week In/Week Out needed no frothing but I insisted anyway. This hazy IPA, full of an amazing batch of Citra hops needed little extra zing but I found a swirl of my stirrer put this “beer of the night” over the top.

Cheers!

Warren