Quite weekend of relaxing and cleaning over at Beer At Joe’s headquarters. It is really nice to actually do nothing for a few days and not run around trying to find this or taste that.  That doesn’t mean there wasn’t good beer involved. I cracked open a beer that has been in my fridge for a little while, the 4th beer in the Frank Zappa series of beers by  Lagunitas Brewing Company, We’re Only In It For The Money – a Belgian-style tripel, at 8.2 percent. Good beer to drink on a Sunday afternoon. Some citrus in the nose and in the taste – sweetness without being too sweet. I can definitly pick up that Belgian yeast banana taste. Good representation of the style and what a cool bottle and beer name!

Now for the rant…Later that night I went to a show at a bar a few blocks from my apt. It was a friend of friend’s band and the music was great – lively but chill – good for a Sunday night. The beer on the other hand was insipid, tasteless and flat. I do not blame the beer – Sam Adams Octoberfest on draft. I have had this beer many times in both bottle and draft and while not an amazing beer it is a good standby at bars with only ok beer lists. But this time – you could taste the dirty tap. The temperature was all off. It was pretty gross. My new idea is to start a letter grading system – like the LA health department system – but for bars. The system will not judge a bar by what beer it serves (as much as we want to) but will judge them on how the represent the beer they have. If it is bottles – then how cold are they? Draft – how are those lines? Temperature? What kind of glasses are being used for the beer? People want to know! Beer drinkers unite! Ok rant over – go enjoy some good beer at a bar that cares about you.