Hair Band Friday - 12/12/25

1.  "Eyes of a Stranger" by Queensrÿche

2.  "Feels Like Love" by Danger Danger

3.  "Too Cool For School" by Roxx Gang

4.  "What Keeps Me Loving You" by XYZ

5.  "Autoblast" by Black 'N Blue

6.  "Hard Times" by Tora Tora

7.  "Kamikaze" by Vandenberg

8.  "Stick to Your Guns" by Dokken

9.  "Can't Get Loose" by Sammy Hagar

10.  "Over and Out" by Britny Fox

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Cigar City Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

The next beer in the advent calendar is from what I think of as Florida's premier craft brewery, Cigar City.  Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale is pretty much just like it sounds -- a roasty, malty brown ale with notes of raisin, cinnamon, vanilla.  It's a very solid offering, and at only 5.5%, it's not to heavy either.  All in all, a delightful winter beer.

Name:  Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale

Brewery:  Cigar City Brewing

Location:  Tampa, FL

ABV:  5.5%

IBU:  25

Good for drinking if:  You want to watch a football game featuring a team from the same city as the brewery of the beer your drinking, and you want your beer to taste like a cookie.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Maplewood Xmas Ale

Beer #8 in the advent calendar was a welcome sight, or taste if you will.  Maplewood is one of my favorite local breweries, this one is their Xmas Ale, which I think was just released this year.  A dark and roasty ale with holiday spices, this is what a winter beer should taste like.

Name:  Xmas Ale

Brewery:  Maplewood Brewing Company

Location:  Elk Grove Village, IL

ABV:  6.5%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You need the perfect winter beer to help you cope with the fact that your oldest spawn is of driving age.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4.25

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Mikerphone Ode To My Family

I'm still a few behind, but tonight I had Ode To My Family by suburban Mikerphone, which generally does good stuff.  Their Smells Like Bean Spirit coffee stout line is a favorite of mine.  Billed as a "Berliner-style weisse ale with cranberry, cinnamon & orange peel," Ode To My Family is expectedly a little tart.  I'm not a huge fan of Berliner weisses, as I generally don't like sour beers, but this one was pretty good.  I don't mind when the sourness or tartness comes from a flavor that's supposed to be sour or tart, and here, the cranberry flavor doesn't offend me because of that.

Name:  Ode To My Family

Brewery:  Mikerphone Brewing

Location:  Elk Grove Village, IL

ABV:  6.3%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You need a red beer while you're watching your Hoosiers rain down a barrage of threes on Penn State.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.75

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: The Next Four Beers

As tends to happen in December, I've got too much shit going on, so I get behind on my beer advent calendar.  I had to return some video tapes last Wednesday and Thursday, so I managed to muscle down three beers Friday night.  Then I had stuff going on Saturday night and last night, so I'm behind again.  But I'll try my damnedest to catch up over the next few nights.  Meanwhile, here are beers 3 to 6.

Beer #3 was from Rockford-area brewery Pig Minds.  It was called Piggy Pudding, and it was billed as a winter amber ale with figs, orange peel, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  These all sound like things that make for the perfect winter ale, but something was off.  It was a little sweet, but not in a good way -- almost like sometimes when you get a draft beer at a bar and you can tell the lines aren't clean because it has a weird taste to it.  Maybe I had a bad batch.  I'll definitely have to try it again.

Name:  Piggy Pudding

Brewery:  Pig Minds Brewing Company

Location:  Machesney Park, IL

ABV:  5.8%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You're sitting on your couch watching a college football championship game between two teams for which you have no rooting interest, other than the possibility that one of them winning may mean that Notre Dame doesn't make the College Football Playoff.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.75

I followed Piggy Pudding up with Ski House from Allagash, which is the first non-Illinois beer in the advent calendar.  Allagash is one of those breweries that can do no wrong in my book.  Obviously, Allagash White has carved itself out as the premier white ale made in America.  Ski House is a slightly stronger white ale (at a solid 7.5%, as opposed to 5.2% for their standard White), with some ginger and citrus to give it a wintery feel.  It was pretty enjoyable.

Name:  Ski House

Brewery:  Allagash Brewing Company

Location:  Portland, ME

ABV:  7.5%

IBU:  15

Good for drinking if:  You're sitting on your couch watching a college football championship game between two teams for which you have no rooting interest, especially since there was not the possibility of either team knocking Notre Dame out of the College Football Playoff.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4

Beer #5 was from one of my favorite local breweries, Dovetail.  They specialize in European-style beers, and their selection was their Winter Hopfenlager.  Their standard Hopfenlager is a more-hoppier-than-normal German-style lager.  For the winter version, they added some malt.  It still had three "C" hops -- Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook -- so I wasn't a huge fan, but I liked it better than the regular Hofpenlager.

Name:  Winter Hopfenlager

Brewery:  Dovetail Brewery

Location:  Chicago, IL

ABV:  5.1%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You're sitting on your couch watching a college football championship game between two teams for which you have no rooting interest, since whoever wins is all but guaranteed to make the College Football Playoff.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.75

Thankfully, Beer #6 was more along the lines of a traditional winter beer, but with a twist.  I happened to be at Midwest Coast yesterday, but I didn't have this one.  Winter Garden is described as a "chocolate rye porter."  Porter is probably my favorite style of beer.  This one was interesting.  The rye gives it a bitterness to offset the chocolate malt.  It's not sweet at all, and I'd probably describe it as "blunt," if that makes any sense -- certainly more on the side of a robust porter than a sweet porter.

Name:  Winter Garden

Brewery:  Midwest Coast Brewing Company

Location:  Chicago, IL

ABV:  7.8%

IBU:  50

Good for drinking if:  You're still celebrating the fact that your alma mater -- which, prior to the beginning of the season, was the losingest program in Division 1 football history -- beat a team they hadn't beaten in 37 years, beat the #1-ranked team for the first time in program history, clinched their first Big Ten title since LBJ was president, clinched their first outright Big Ten title since Truman was president, and are now ranked #1 for the first time ever.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4

Hair Band Friday - 12/5/25

1.  "Body Talk" by Kix

2.  "Sometimes at Night" by Gorky Park

3.  "Piece of the Rock" by King Kobra

4.  "Get in Touch" by FireHouse

5.  "The Bottom Line" by David Lee Roth

6.  "Price You Gotta Pay" by Mr. Big

7.  "Eyes of a Stranger" by Y&T

8.  "Rock An' Roll Angels" by Whitesnake

9.  "Stick to Your Guns" by Bon Jovi

10.  "Baby's On Fire" by Sammy Hagar

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Church Street Rudolph's Red

Beer #2 is from suburban Itasca's Church Street, and it was brewed in collaboration with the proprietor of this lovely advent calendar, Beer on the Wall.  I assume that means it was made especially for the advent calendar, particularly because I was only the 8th person on Untappd to ever check it in.  Anywho, this one's a red ale called Rudolph's Red, and it's pretty damn good -- malty, caramelly, and not too heavy at 5.3%.  Not enough breweries make red ales anymore, which is too bad because it's really a great style of beer.  Hopefully Church Street keeps making it.

Name:  Rudolph's Red

Brewery:  Church Street Brewing Company

Location:  Itasca, IL

ABV:  5.3%

IBU:  37

Good for drinking if:  You need a nice malty beer after once again shuttling children to and from sports practices.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4.25

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Roaring Table Jubilation

December certainly snuck up on us, didn't it?  Seems like just four days ago, I was drinking Underberg in a vain attempt to settle my engorged stomach after eating way too much turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, shrimp, cheese, cured meats, crackers, olives, and pie.  And now I have to start drinking a beer every night until Santa comes to visit.

Like last several years, I will once again be engaging in a 24-day weight-gaining enterprise I call It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer -- a daily look at a different beers throughout December.  I once again bought bought my beer advent calendar from local beer shop Beer on the Wall.  I'll also once again take this opportunity to express my disappointment that Costco once again didn't have its German beer advent calendar, which I also usually buy just to have unique German beers throughout the year.  But here's a shot of this year's calendar.  It's noticeably shorter than the last few years, which leads me to believe it's all cans -- but I dare not peek! Disregard the bunched up rug in the background.  My brain-injured dog likes to spite pee in our house when we have the gall to leave him alone for more than two minutes, so what you're seeing is a hopefully clean, but wet, portion of the rug propped up to dry.  It truly is the little things that drive you insane.

The advent calendar began this evening with a selection from north suburban Lake Zurich's Roaring Table.  The beer is called Jubilation, and the can touts it as a "Winter India Pale Ale."  It features five varieties of hops that all start with "c."  We have Cascade, Cashmere, Centennial, Chinook, and Columbus hops.  I'd love to tell you what any of that means, but you know damn well I don't like hoppy beers.  And this one is hoppy.  I suppose the "winter" portion of it comes from the fact that it's a little bit darker than the normal IPA.  While I'm not a fan, at least I was able to drink it out of the commemorative Beer On the Wall glass that came with the calendar.

Name:  Jubilation

Brewery:  Roaring Table Brewing Company

Location:  Lake Zurich, IL

ABV:  6.8%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You feel like drinking a pine tree.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.5