Avalanche Early Season Paired With Captain Bucky O'Hare Carrot Cake Brown Ale

9.5 pounds 2 Row
1 pound Belgian Pils
.5 pounds Victory
.5 pounds Caramel 45
.5 pounds Pale Chocolate
.5 pounds Biscuit Malt

1 pound Lactose @10 minutes

1 oz. Willamette
1 oz. Fuggle

American Ale Wyeast 1272

1 tbl nutmeg
1 tbl allspice
1 tbl coriander
2 tbl brown sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
At Flameout

1 Vanilla Bean
8 oz. Chopped Almonds
Soaked in rum (because I'm a pirate) and added in secondary

What a crazy early season, eh? I began the start of hockey season by watching my favorite sports movie of all time, Goon.

Ignore the terrible trailer. This movie is excellent. I liked it so much I ordered and proudly wear a Ross "The Boss" Rhea jersey from a shady online store who turned out to be a super friendly Filipino man who told me my purchase would help provide his family with clean drinking water. Sooooo I'm pretty much saving the world here guys.

But I digress.

The boys in burgundy opened with the offensive juggernaut Dallas Stars who were the highest scoring team last year. I came ready to get rowdy and left surprisingly positive. 

It was an absolute artillery slugfest. If Dallas had a decent goalie I would put money on them winning the Cup. Fortunately for us, they have Niemi and Lehtonen. Who are both decent goalies, but decent goalies don't win championships (unless you are Chicago or Detroit, who won multiple cups in spite of their goaltenders.) 

The good guys finished an absolutely brutal road trip by swinging through Pittsburgh, Washington, Tampa Bay and Florida, who are all basically guaranteed to make the playoffs this year. And you know what? It actually wasn't bad. Washington made us look like a 10 and under team, but they are my Stanley Cup favorites this year and are playing pissed off at an early exit from last season. That score could have been much worse. 

The bottom line is the optimism is there. There are flashes of Bednar's new system in every game; pucks are skated out of the defensive zone almost immediately with a short nouthbound pass or a quick bounce off the boards to get it to the neutral zone. No more absurd two-zone rockets that get intercepted. 

And even though we lost by a goal to Winnipeg, I again saw flashes of potential. The 1st period looked like the good ol' boys, lost in their own zone chasing the puck down and getting pushed out of the attacking zone after a single shot. But in the 3rd period Colorado shot 20 times (!), which is more than the good ol' boys used to shoot in the entire game. And as soon as I figure out how to make gifs out of videos, I'll throw up some highlights and go in greater detail.

So, let's recap with some Good Things and Bad Things:

Good Things

-More shots

-MacKinnon and Landeskog are playing like manimals

-Rantanen is back in the lineup, and playing in the top 6

-Zadorov is looking great

-Martinsen is hitting everything in sight and is great on the forecheck

-The Power Play is approximately a billion times better than last year

-Bednar's new defensive system is starting to show, which is good for Varly. Varly is a reactive goalie and likes to see the shots so he can react (and he can flash the pad in like a quarter second.) He's not like a say....Belfour or Brodeur who are able to set up perfectly angled without seeing the puck

-The defense is also more aggressive with the puck attack and getting their sticks in the passing lanes

Bad Things

-Duchene is playing his game only every so often. He needs to play his elite game every time. He's capable of taking over the game single-handedly when he's on

-Defense is falling back on old habits and collapsing in the defensive zone

-5 on 5 Colorado is still having trouble maintaining the zone and are falling back to being one and done

-Iginla, man, I love ya but you don't belong anywhere near the top 6. The play dies every time you touch the puck. I'd like to see him on the 3rd line and power play duty

So hey, it's early. I said before that it will be a long season. A deep strategic system like Bednar's takes time to implement, especially after about a decade of a nothingburger system with an extra side of nothingsauce. 

But the potential is there, and you can see a change in the wind. Or feel. Feel a change in the wind. Whatever, I'm expecting at least a better and more structured season.

Now let's talk beer.

This is my carrot cake brown ale. Back when I first started brewing, the pumpkin beer craze was in full swing and has only gotten worse (or better, depending on how much you like pumpkin beer.) Personally I like fall for the pumpkin beers if only because it is so saturated it forces breweries to try new things. 

Anyway

In an effort to be a unique snowflake I chose to brew my own take on the fall spice craze and threw together a carrot cake recipe. The first 4 years were....not great. They ranged from offensively malty to hilariously overspiced to just plain mediocre and forgettable, which I think is one of the greatest insults to a beer. 

So try number 5 turned out.....

AWESOME

It's malty with a hint of spice and sweetness. The lactose gives it a creamy, foamy finish. The spice isn't overpowering or too subtle. It's nice and balanced if I do say so myself. And I do. I do say so myself. 

It's fall, it's window opening and patio drinkin' weather, hockey is back. What a great time of year. I'll pair it with a great spiced beer. 

GABF 2016

Let's start with how I felt for GABF 2016:

Yep.

Just like last year, there were far too many beers for me to keep track of, so I'll give a rundown on what drunk J managed to snap a picture of.

Sidebar.

I have a major fascination with the design of beer labels. In another life I'm a successful beer graphic designer, probably living in one of those tiny houses or vans converted into an apartment that seem to be all the rage nowadays.

So that being said, I did my best to capture some of the cooler labels and designs. Let's start local with Mockery Brewing.

I'm a sucker for flintlock pistols, what with my pirate obsession and all. And you add hops and barley in the mix? I'm yours. I tried their Redcoat Session IPA, because it was 5% and I needed to pace myself. I love me a good session IPA, and this was no different.

Next up was Lakefront, with their Brandy Barrel Imperial Pumpkin.

Now, I know pumpkin is played out, but bear with me. Every year in September, breweries big and small start rolling out their pumpkin selection (too early!) with great fanfare. And then there's Lakefront. They just sort of appear on the shelves one day with no huge marquis or sign. And I'm telling you it's the best pumpkin beer on the market. It's spicy and malty and just....well it's just the best. And the Imperial version is the

Oh yes I did.

Tin Man Brewing from Indiana, you're up next.

So anybody that knows me knows that I am terrified of the impending AI revolution, and subsequent robot wars. But I love me some robots in media. I loved watching giant robots punch giant aliens in Pacific Rim, I love shooting giant robots in MechWarrior Online, and I love watching Achilles fight Russia for the Alaska Territory in Robot Jox. As a result, I'm loving this label. It's simple, it's industrial, and it tells me their story. Seriously check out their website. I want a full poster of their Overlord.

I wanted to include MacLeod Brewing from California

because of one of my favorite Avs players, Cody McLeod.

Plus I told the rep I liked the name and he said I was the first person all day to pronounce it correctly. Sooooo we're pretty much best friends now.

I had to include my favorite hometown heroes, Great Divide.

With Yeti picture. I'm pretty sure we cut in line for that photo because some ladies yelled at us. Sorry ladies! I genuinely didn't know there was a line.

I tried their new Velvet Yeti, which is my favorite beer, Yeti, on nitro. And oh man. Just, oh man. Perfect.

Flix Brewhouse has these awesome movie-themed posters and beers:

I'm digging the logo for Illinois brewery Metal Monkey:

Florida-based Barrel of Monks was kind enough to pose for a wicked pic:

Oh, wait. I get it. Barrel of Monks. Like monkeys. But monks.

And I absolutely love Coppertail Brewing's logo here:

Seriously click the link. The whole thing is like that music video for Tonight by Smashing Pumpkins. 

Had to get a picture with the Modus Mandarina can naturally:

I see you Steve.

To wrap up, I ask a question. Do you remember the 90's pop band Hanson? Yeah, those guys. I know you know it.

Anyway, THEY BREW BEER NOW. Behold! Hanson Brothers Beer!

Seriously, check this out:

Hahahahahahahahaha

Wait, get out of the way, Marks.

Can you guess the name of their beer? I bet you can. Go on, take a guess. Did you guess this?

Blurry picture aside, it's called Mmmhops can you even believe it? Amazing.

So I saved these two for last, because they were far and away the best beers I tried. Where do I even beg...wait, no. I'm just so excited. Okay, deep breath.

Let's start with Mantra from Tennessee.

Yeah, TN. I know, right?

You see that beer listed as Goo Goo Gish? It's apparently based on a cookie, and I can't even describe how it tastes, but I'll try. It tastes like a chocolate cookie with caramel and toffee crumbles. That's it, that's the beer. I don't know how they do it. But there it is. If it ever emerges in the Denver market, I'm not joking when I say I'm going to buy up every bottle I see, if only to share it with the world.

I'm getting jealous just writing about it, so let's continue on to Insight Brewing from Minneapolis.

The Wild hockey club has made left me predisposed to hate everything from Minnesota, but I girded my loins and tried these guys because their setup was wicked:

Yeah, just some weird beat-up chest.

And oh my goodness, look at these labels:

Their whole website is this crazy troll/pirate/viking/mythology theme. It's just perfect, and the beer was a crazy surprise because I'd never heard of them before. Absolutely delicious.

Until next time GABF, it's been weird.

Hockey Countdown with Homebrew Citrus IPA

Patrick Roy Abandons Ship

or

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before

Lafitte Citrus IPA

8 pounds American 2 Row

4 pounds Maris Otter

1 pound Crystal 75

5 ounces Citra Hops

1 ounce Warrior Hops

San Diego Super Yeast

Jean Lafitte was a successful pirate and smuggler operating out of New Orleans. The Governor Claiborne, at one point, covered the port in posters offering 500 dollars for the capture or death of Lafitte.

Lafitte, in return, covered the port in posters offering 1000 dollars for the capture of Governor Claiborne.

Let's start with the beer today. 

No place like foam

Yikes, that's a lot of foam. 

So here's the deal on this one. It tastes amazing. The warrior hops come through right away with a ferocious bitterness, followed by a smoothing pineappley and tropical peach flavor. As you can hopefully see the color is a beautiful gold, and the foam, though angry, is light and airy and lacey. 

But man, what happened with that foam? I tried super charging it at 40 psi for 24 hours, then dropped it down to 10 psi for serving. And this is what happened. Believe it or not, this is way better than it was. At first pour it was 90% foam and a tiny sliver of delicious beer. 

I lowered the pressure, popped the cap and let it dissipate, angled the beer line and coiled it so it flows only up and there are still bubbles in my lines. Everything I've read says the co2 is escaping from the beer, and I've tried every solution. Soap and water have revealed no leaks.

So I'm at a loss. But you know what, there's a delicious beer in all that delicious foam. The base is there, I just need to tweak it. I'm good at that. Changing things on the fly. Adapting and using what I'm good at and just steering it in a different direction. 

Moving on. (This will be pretty gif-heavy, so if you are on dial-up, I apologize. Also, how is the year 1996? That Independence Day movie looks pretty neat.)

What in the world happened, Patty? 

Reminiscent of when St. Patrick got lit up in Montreal and vowed to never play for Montreal again, Roy once again took a hike when the going got tough. Here's the thing; the man is a legend, arguably the greatest goalie of all time. His ego and fiery temper and cockiness and unreal talent made him a champion four times over. And when he first arrived back in Colorado to helm the team, those qualities took him to the Jack Adams trophy. 

He was fiery. He was passionate. He was aggressive. The players, on multiple occasions, said they loved playing for him. He came in with a decade of minor league coaching, so it wasn't like they just called him up on the couch. He came in with a plan. 

And then Minnesota figured out how to stop the speedy underdog juggernaut that was the Avalanche. Colorado won the Western Conference that year with an obscenely aggressive forecheck and was backed by an outrageous performance by Varlamov in net. But the Wild figured out that the slightest bit of pressure on our defensemen would collapse the entire thing. The rest of the league took notice, and the rest was ugly history. Colorado's defensive weaknesses were exposed, and the team was never the same. 

I mean, just look at this:

Here we have Holden beating Vancouver to the puck behind the net and yet still losing the puck. Barrie covers literally nobody in front of the net, and the rest of the team collapses in the slot allowing Hansen to slide right in behind Barrie to receive the pass from behind the net surrounded by five Colorado players and score. 

This was essentially a 5 on 2 short handed goal. 

Exactly.

Let's try another:

Comeau forechecks two Minny players on their breakout, which is fine in itself except he completely removes himself from the play. For some bizarre reason, there is nobody covering the Wild player on our own blue line, allowing a huge and completely ridiculous stretch pass across the entire ice. For some reason, all four of the remaining Avs converge on that one player, suddenly I guess realizing the puck is in their zone, allowing number 10 to slip by completely untouched for a babysoft goal. 

Looks about right.

One more? One more.

Washington starts with two entering the zone followed by a pretty decent drop pass and shot. Nothing terrible there. The rebound goes into the corner and back to the top where there are exactly zero Colorado sweaters. Everybody wearing burgundy and blue inexplicably chase the puck and crash their own net, leaving two Washington players all by their lonesome on our point. 

I felt the same way.

I could keep going all day. But I won't because I'm making myself furious.

Enter Jared Bednar. Former coach of the AHL Cleveland Monsters and brand new coach for the Colorado Avalanche. 

"Who is Bednar?" you inquire, handing me a beer.

"I'm glad you asked", I reply. I probably refuse the beer at first out of politeness, but we both know I'll take it after one round of "Oh, you don't need to buy me a beer for my amateur hockey analysis."

Bednar took a fairly decent but ultimately nothing special and huge underdog Monsters team and led them to a 15-2 postseason to win the Calder Cup. He is strict, aggressive, and analytical. He preaches structured breakouts followed by an aggressive and creative attack with speed. 

Hmm, so literally exactly what our core of players is capable of. After two years of watching Roy's Avalanche I still don't know his coaching plan. In one press conference and exactly one youtube video, I know exactly what Bednar plans to do. I mean, here:

Break it down. Cleveland starts their breakout by streaking behind the net and drawing the defender towards the puck. A Monster teammate circles around, giving the puck carrier an extra out, but he doesn't need it because he immediately sends the puck up ice to the center. But instead of just dumping it in the zone, thereby giving up possession (coughHoldencoughGuenin), the original defender speeds through and takes another short pass to gain the zone. 12 enters the zone, giving another open option followed by 16. 8 is speeding through, though, forcing the defense back on their heels. 16 and 12 are still open, giving two options if needed, but 8 jams it in.

Here they give up possession, which I would normally dislike, but instead of peeling off and retreating to the blue line he attacks and breaks through to retrieve the puck. And since he draws the entire other team to him, 16 and 12 are still open to receive the puck. 

The other team had no time to set up, no time to react. They were on their heels the entire time. And it wasn't accomplished by chipping it up the boards or dumping it in. 

I couldn't find a gif of Bednar, so please accept Jean Claude Van Damme in the classic film, Sudden Death.

"But aren't you just cherrypicking those breakouts?" you ask as I finish my beer. 

"Of course I am," I reply. "I'm just a guy who loves hockey. Next round's on me, Julia Stiles."

I have a feeling that this will be a rough first year under a new coach. Adapting to a completely new system (or just suddenly going from no system to....a system) is not easy, especially at this point in the offseason. But man, we have some good players with speed and talent. Imagine them with the right structure. 

So let's take a lesson from beer. My IPA came out...interesting. The base, or core if you will, was there. I am confident in my skills to adapt and change, so I will try the recipe again but just tweak it a bit. I'm not so set in my ways that I'll just do the exact same thing. I like what I see and taste, but it's not perfect. So I'm going to adapt. And change for the better. And not just slam my glass to the ground and take my keg and go home. 

Metaphor.

Also I don't know why the font changes halfway through and I can't seem to fix it. So, there it is.

Update: I have fixed the font problem.

Part Six of the Salty Dog Trilogy: Flogging Molly

Flogging Molly

or

We find ourselves in the same old mess, singing drunken lullabies

Let's just get that song out of the way, because if you know me at all, you know that is my jam. 

So Flogging Molly, the big show, the finale, the captains on the deck. I, of course, pair them with.....

Guinness. 

Yup. 

That Guinness. 

Before you leave in a huff, just look at this:

Tell me that doesn't look delicious. Aside from the fact that Guinness literally flowed like water on the ship, I have always had a soft spot for the stuff. I love the way it looks, I love the way it tastes. I love the brewery tour in Dublin. It was my first nitro. Fact of the matter is, no matter how mainstream or huge or popular or unpopular or whatever Guinness is or becomes, I will always enjoy it. It's an old faithful. 

Kind of like Flogging Molly. 

I first saw them at the Ogden theater, which if you have ever been there, you know is a small venue for a seven piece celtic punk band. And now they play Red Rocks and headline cruise ships and play on late night talk shows. It doesn't matter how mainstream or big they get. I'll never forget the first song I heard from them:

I was hooked after the banjo intro. I saw them on my honeymoon in a small little pub venue in Dublin. It's kind of our thing. 

The show was incredible. Shows, I mean. They played on the deck one night and on the beach the other. A pirate celtic punk band on the beach. Guinness in hand. It was surreal, I'm not sure I can even describe it. It's energetic, it's emotional, it's fun, it makes you dance. Yeah, even you. You just can't help it. It's like a pub just decided to get up and start jamming all at once. 

I'm not even going to bother really going into Guinness. You either love it or you hate it. Personally I think it's creamy and roasty and delicious and smooth. Can smooth be a flavor? Sure, why not? 

And if you haven't had a Guinness, let me know. The first round's on me. 

Part Five of the Salty Dog Trilogy: Pirate Republic Brewing

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. 

- Mark Twain

Let's go back in time. J, age ten. I rent a game from Blockbuster (which, by the way, I miss terribly. Digital and modern gaming is awesome, but there was nothing like headed to Blockbuster after school and picking out a game to play over the weekend.) It randomly happens to be this:

That's Sid Meiers' Pirates! Gold for the Sega Genesis. It's the greatest game I've ever played. You can capture ships. You can seize ports and towns. You can trade. You can woo governors' daughters. You can clash swords with enemy captains. It is amazing. I start reading every book I can about pirates. Every essay I write in school is about buccaneers and scallywags. I play every waking hour, terrorizing the seven seas. And to this day I've never beaten the game. I think you had to find your lost father? I have no idea. I was too busy buckling swashes and hunting for buried treasure. And thus a life-long love of pirates, both the educational and bleak reality and the romanticized movie and video game version. 

Pirates are kind of my thing. 

Even the real versions were amazing. 

Benjamin Hornigold, mentor and captain to Edward Teach aka Blackbeard, once captured a ship, rounded up the captive crew, stole all their hats and sailed away without harming a single person because they had all gotten drunk the night before and threw their own hats overboard.

Jean Lafitte ran a pirate and smuggling operation out of New Orleans. The governor, tired of his shenanigans, put up a bounty of 500 dollars (aka all the money in existence back then) for his capture. Lafitte, in return, put up a bounty of 1000 dollars for the capture of the governor. 

Stephen Decatur led a raid, disguised as Maltese sailors to recover a stolen ship. Once he seized the stolen vessel deep in an enemy harbor, he just lit the damned thing on fire as a huge middle finger so that nobody could use it. 

Ching Shih was a female pirate in China and pretty much ruled the ocean commanding over 300 ships and 40,000 sailors. Any disobedience was met with a swift beheading. So what did Ching Shih do? Anything she wanted because she commanded 40,000 sailors. Nobody could stop her, so China offered her amnesty, which she took. She kept her earnings (pretty much all the money in the world) and opened a gambling house. LIKE A BOSS.

I can go on, and will happily go on over a pint when prompted. 

So anyway, we were in Nassau, which was I was already excited about as Nassau was once a pirate haven. I was walking the streets that Hornigold, Stede, Rackham and Teach walked. Most of the bars and restaurants were tacky tourist stops, which was expected since Nassau depended on tourism. We hit a few museums and touristy photo locations and headed back to mainstreet where we passed a pub with a pirate flag hanging over the front door. Which wasn't out of the ordinary; there were tacky pirate souvenirs everywhere (which I loved.) I imagined they served margaritas or something, which was okay because I like margaritas. 

We walked in, because again, pirates, and there it was. A microbrewery. A pirate microbrewery. With a full brewhouse and everything. 

Pirate Republic Brewing. 

Even their beers were named after pirates;

And they were delicious. We had four. And after four beers, I get in a spendy mood. I spied with my little eye a sweet Pirate Republic metal growler. 

I had to have it. Sixty two dollars. A fine purchase, I said. "I wish you'd told me you wanted that before your beers," said the bartender. Following my confusion, she pointed to a sign that said GROWLER COMES WITH FIVE BEERS.

Yes, let's do this I said. She brought out five more beers. "Would you like them to go?" she asked. Again, reading my confusion, she followed with "There are no open container laws in Nassau." I don't think she realized what I could do with five beers. In the heat. At sea level. That's like the equivalent of one and a half Colorado beers at altitude. But still.

I was home. 

All in all, Pirate Republic gets five Skull and Crossbones out of five. See you next Salty Dog, Pirate Republic. 

Part Four of the Salty Dog Trilogy: Skinny Lister

Skinny Lister

or 

Now we're all philosophers drinking down the pub again

You will like if:

Your idea of a pub is a place to meet friends, rather than get hammered

You know that cask ale doesn't mean warm, flat beer

Sometimes you just want a proper pint

You will not like if:

Your idea of a Friday night is loud pop music and a dark bar so you can't see how gross the floor is

The idea of cellar temperature doesn't work for you

You can't handle a naturally carbonated beer

So here is my new favorite band:

We first saw them open for Frank Turner and were absolutely blown away. Just listen and tell me that doesn't feel like a pub song. Wait, here, have another:

Yeah! Let's go grab a pint! Wait, finish reading first. 

There was something absolutely spectacular seeing Skinny Lister, self proclaimed Shanty Punk with their trademark jug, on the open deck with the ocean around us. And playing with Frank Turner no less.

And then there was the show on the last night in the smallest venue. It was cramped, it was dark and hot. We were all exhausted. Maybe two dozen of us, which was pretty thin. Their singer got a few beers from the bar and lamented how few people there were in attendance.

"Don't worry," said the drunk girl next to us. "Everybody's just drunk and they'll show up eventually." They came out like this:

Hahahaha look at that. It's one of those old timey one piece bathing suits you saw in old cartoons. And sure enough, the place swarmed with fans. It was the last show of the cruise, the band was jumping into the crowd and, at one point, started swinging from the rafters. It was rowdy, it was a singalong. It was an intimate experience. The band wiped tears from their eyes. It was just perfect.

It was one of the most memorable shows I've ever seen, and I'll forever look back warmly on the experience. 

I could think of no better beer to pair with these hooligans than Hogshead. Not any particular beer, just Hogshead in general. I've written about them before, so I won't go into the big thing again. It's a cozy English cask ale bar, serving traditional English pints with friends. Sometimes that's what I want.

So here's what I recommend. Head to the pub (invite me!), order a proper pint, and have this in your head:

That's just about a perfect evening.

Part Three of the Salty Dog Trilogy: The Tossers

The Tossers

or

No loot, no booze, no fun

featuring

Angry Banjo by Verboten

You will like if:

You like dry finishes

You understand 'cream ale' doesn't mean sweet

You are pleasantly surprised by unexpected beers; for example, I'd never had a dark cream ale before

You will not like if:

You aren't a fan of drinking water after every pint

You think cream ale should only be corn yellow in color

Seriously, this is a dry finish

There are only two things I like out of Chicago; the hotdogs and the music. The Tossers, though lacking in hot dogs on the cruise, brought the sound. Billed as the 'world's loudest folk band' from the Irish neighborhoods of the Windy City, I had been listening to them for years and jumped at the chance to finally see them live. And oh yes, it was folkin' wonderful.

I regret nothing.

We had wristbands for the evening shows, which meant a solid day of beers. So we get to the venue, they come out to tune their instruments, and...still tuning. Wait, he's grabbing a beer, and still tuning. After probably fifteen minutes of their frontman tuning his mandolin, the band started looking at each other shrugging. Which led to even more confusion in the audience. After probably at least seven more minutes of fiddling with his mandolin, he throws it on the ground with a loud, "Fuckit!" and picks up his banjo and starts plucking away for the first song. 

Already off to a good start. It was a great performance, and about as Irish folk punk as you could get. He had a cigarette in his mouth and most of the lyrics were a mushy slur. We couldn't tell if he was drunk already (most bands were) or if years of whiskey had left him with permanent mush-mouth in the great tradition of Shane MacGowan. 

Either way, they killed it. Song after song of Irish rebellion and traditional celtic tunes put to modern punk beats. 

I choose my beer pairings based on a few things, and they change on a case to case basis. Does the flavor match with an experience? Was I doing something awesome while drinking it? Or does the label and label art and beer name simply match up with my topic. In this case, it was the latter. Let's welcome Angry Banjo by Verboten:

A dark cream ale. Which is something I'd never had before. I'm no stranger to cream ales. Traditionally brewed with corn and finished with milk sugar for that dry, creamy coating that lingers in your mouth and usually with a bright yellow color, this was an interesting take on the style. Still creamy, still dry, and most importantly, still delicious. But with an added roastiness like lightly toasted bread and maybe just a tiny hint of coffee. None of the reviews online say much about coffee, so maybe I imagined that, but I never said I was a pro. 

Long story short, it was a fantastic take on the classic style. And I could think of no better-named beer than Angry Banjo to toast The Tossers with.