I wonder what the Prohibitionists of yesteryear would have thought about the idea of a

The Big Daddy Ale is clearly meant to be drunk in a dimly lit kitchen at dusk

The Original Craft Beer Club, wherein you could have alcoholic brews delivered to your home. They probably wouldn’t have been too crazy about the concept.

This Beer of the Month Club Review features a brewery that goes by the name of “Speakeasy” and calls San Francisco – aka Butchertown – home. Their flagships are the Big Daddy IPA and the Prohibition Ale, both of which arrived in threes in April’s 12-pack. Speakeasy has also recently diversified its line to include two new beers by the name of Prohibition-era dames: Scarlett Red Rye and Tallulah Extra Pale Ale. Based on the names and packaging alone, I want to visit to find out if Speakeasy’s building is dimly lit and features art deco style furniture, with a soft jazz rift strumming in the background.

Joe, Star Wars & the Prohibition Ale

The Prohibition Ale is an American-style ale. It’s reddish shade echoes the flashy red label, which evoked the dramatic lines and colors of Sin City, the beautiful crime thriller based on a graphic novel. The Ale is only lightly bitter and even a little sweet, with notes of citrus and other interesting flavors. For me, it went down quickly and perfectly with a dinner of homemade pork dumplings and rice.

The Big Daddy IPA directly poses the question “Who’s Your Daddy?” at the top of its label, beneath an image of dark eyes. I’m sure the Speakeasy Brewery would be dismayed to learn that my “daddy” is not a beer drinker!

This IPA gets right down to business with a sharp, bitter flavor designed for lovers of strong, unadulterated hops. No sweetness here. I can drink some mild IPAs without grimacing, but the Big Daddy is definitely not one of them.

That said, these were both great spring beers – light, complex, refreshing. They also made

Who’s Your Daddy? This Beer’s Too Legit To Quit

great compliments to a Cinco De Mayo spread of fish tacos, taco ring (a circular dish comprised of taco fillings stuffed inside a baked circle of pastry dough!) and queso fundido (I used Bud, not wanting to waste one of these beers on melted cheese…).

Reflecting on the great combination of the Speakeasy Ales and Mexican cuisine gave me an idea: what if I construct a meal around at least one of the beers I get from every the Original Craft Beer Club selection? I will derive inspiration from the name, the label, the taste and the color and then devise a dinner that harmonizes with it. Stay tuned…

It’s not too late to up the ante on your summer by joining The Original Craft Beer Club. Design your late summer suppers around a novel microbrew from another part of America, too!

Moms like beer, too, you know! Give her a Beer of the Month Club membership this year as an extra special gift.

Gourmet Monthly Clubs is offering special Mother’s Day coupons!

• $15 off all prepaid orders of 6 months or longer. Enter Code MDAY15.
• $25 off all prepaid 12 month orders. Enter Code MDAY25.

»Visit the Website

I’ve never been to Missouri, but now I can say I’ve tasted their beer, thanks to the Clubs of America Great American Beer Club!

Take a tasty visit to Crown Country, Missouri!

I liked the Gunslinger Double IPA right off the bat because “Gunslinger”, a zippy song by the late Bo Diddley, happens to be one of my favorites.

I’ve got a story I really want to tell, About Bo Diddley at the O-K Corral. Now, Bo Diddley didn’t stand no mess, He wore a gun on his hip and a rose on his chest,

Bo Diddley’s a gunslinger…

I was hoping the beer would be equally jaunty — and it was — but the double-dose of IPA bitterness put a slight grimace on my face after each sip. Needless to say, my boyfriend happily took one for the team and drank the remaining 2 Gunslinger IPAs.

According to him, the Gunslinger is a flavorful, intense IPA with a perfect balance of hops and bitterness. He enthusiastically noted that the Gunslinger was the perfect accompaniment to his dinner of grilled steak, roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts!

I found the Big Bison Ale to be a little (or a lot) more my speed. Big Bison is a good way to

Big Bison Ale & big mountain scenery go hand-in-hand!

describe the beer. It has a full, bold flavor with an addictive, mild sweetness. It’s definitely malty-licious. It was the perfect pre-dinner/cooking sipper to tide me over until our pizzas were baked. The Big Bison Ale would be a great liquid substitute for dessert or excellent with dessert (e.g. a creme brulee or scoop of ice cream). Of course, it would also be fun to drink with a nice, juicy bison burger.

The Clubs of America Great American Beer Club has done it again — provided me with two distinct and exciting entry points to a delicious brewery in a far-away land (hey, I’ve never been to Missouri!).

The one downside, I must add, is that it’s harder for me to settle for less exciting beers now. I walk into a liquor store and it’s the same usual suspects — the big domestic and international brews, the same, old (delicious but now predictable) Colorado microbrewery selections, etc….Expanded horizons are apparently more difficult to satisfy. If you’re stuck in a beer rut, joining the Great American Beer Club is the way to go!

If you like birdwatching and beer, you’re bound to fall head over heels for the Mendoncino Brewing Company, whose Legend Collection is featured in the Clubs of America Great American Beer Club selection this month. You can drink refreshing beers while gazing at the exquisite avian illustrations on the labels.

Cheers to the Mendocino Brewing Company

My Great American Beer Club shipment came just in the knick of time this week. I’d been on the road for over a week visiting family in DC and Steamboat Springs for work. I stumbled in the door – tired, relieved to finally be home – and was greeted by a 12-pack of beer, 6 of which hailed from California. I also happened to have company in town last weekend and it’s always nice to have the novelty of microbrews from around the country stocked in the fridge to offer guests. How else would you manage to stumble upon such a diverse, unique beer selection besides belonging to the Great American Beer Club?

The flagship Red Tail Ale is a strong red — a deep caramel in color. It’s on the heavier and darker side on the spectrum of amber ales, making it a good choice to savor over conversation or cards. The Red Tail Ale is the kind of beer that motivates you to bring it to the perfect temperature before drinking, slowly pour into a chilled pint glass and enjoy (rather than just chug straight from the fridge, right out of the bottle).

Obviously, a beer’s label doesn’t affect it’s taste — unless imagined — but it’s certainly nice to have a beautiful piece of artwork to glance at while drinking. The images reminded me of the intricate scientific illustrations from the Aubodon’s Birds of America coffee table book. What a great complement to a tasty ale!

The Blue Heron Pale Ale has a light flavor designed for easy drinking. It has a brisk, lightly-hoppy taste that would go well with a hearty pulled pork sandwich, topped with coleslaw.

If you don’t have a pet eagerly awaiting your arrival when you come home from a trip or work, why not enlist a 12-pack of beer from Great American Beer Club to be your “greeting committee”? Not only that, but belonging to a Great American Beer Club is guaranteed to impress your friends with your adventurous, wide-ranging taste!

One of the great things about the Clubs of America Great American Beer Club is that it sheds light on another part of the country through the lens of beer. Whereas I typically default to large-scale domestic or local Colorado brews, I’ll happily break with habit when beers from California and New York arrive on my doorstep. This month, at least for the duration of a drink, the Great American Beer Club has transported me to the beautiful Adirondacks community of Lake Placid.

Lake Placid: home to monstrous lake creatures and perfect lakeside brews

Lake Placid Craft Brewery immediately brought to mind previews from the action-packed ‘90s thriller Lake Placid, starring a man-eating crocodile. Drinking Lake Placid beer didn’t provide a rival adrenaline rush, but it was a relaxing, delicious experience.

Lake Placid Craft Brewery’s motto is: Real Town. Real Beer. Lake Placid is indeed a real town (not just a movie set) and their featured beers – the Ubu Ale and the Barkeater Amber Ale – are definitely real and tasty.

I’m not sure what Ubu means, but it’s a fun one to say!

Ubu is one of Lake Placid’s signatures. I’m not sure of the origin of the name, but I do like that it’s name is a palindrome (a word which reads the same forward and backward). It was at the perfect level of bitterness – very drinkable even without a salty foil, but not too discrete. The Ubu has a dark, almost ominous red hue. Apparently, Bill Clinton ordered it by the growler to drink at the White House.

You don’t have to be a tree hugger or a porcupine to enjoy the seasonal Barkeater Amber Ale. It has a very pure, almost spring-watery refreshing feel that finishes with a bitter buzz. It’s lighter in color and would be pleasant on a picnic with a sandwich on tangy sourdough.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but these beers evoked the feeling of being

Perfect for washing down some bark or food!

lakeside and mountainside, with some fragrant pine trees nearby. The Great American Beer Club doesn’t just broaden your beer horizons, it broadens your geographical horizons. Join the club to start taking mini vacations from the comfort of your own home!

If I’m ever in Lake Placid, I’ll track down the brewery, plop down in one of the red wood iconic chairs featured on the label  and sip on an Ubu, while watching for crocodiles.

My initiation into the Beer of the Month Club all started with a mysterious cardboard box on my porch awaiting my return from work. I was pleasantly reminded that the package didn’t contain the book I recently ordered or a motley assembly of unwanted gifts from relatives, but a 12-pack of beer from two American microbreweries!

Sipping a beer after work is the perfect way to unwind and put the stressors of the day in perspective. There’s something about sipping a beer delivered to you from a brewery you’ve never tried before that takes that experience up a notch. Not only is it relaxing and gratifying, it’s exciting and thought-provoking. This month, Sea Dog Brewing supplied 6 of the beers in the selection.

The Sea Dog IPA is the kind of easygoing liquid company you’d want on a sunny, breezy

Despite the hops pictured on the label, this beer is more bitter than hoppy.

afternoon following a day spent in the great outdoors. It’s a refreshing and mellow enough India Pale Ale that it could get along with nearly any palate. Besides a wheat beer, an IPA is usually the last brew I would choose. To my surprise, I enjoyed the Sea Dog so thoroughly that I drank another right afterward and found it to be the perfect complement to a handful of pretzel sticks and a game of cribbage.

This English Style Ale has a beautiful penny-esque hue and almost demands to be enjoyed alongside a plate of gourmet fish and chips – I’ll be seeking this beer out for that purpose in the near future…

Sea Dog Brewery’s other pick this month for the Beer of the Month Club delivery is its Hazelnut Porter. In the same way that the IPA is an easygoing beer, the Porter is also

Try it with a Filet Mignon and some steak frites for a hearty, delectable meal!

devoid of any alienating qualities, making it a great choice for a rookie beer connoisseur or picky palate. It has a well-rounded profile of robust Porter flavors, smoky coffee notes and nutty overtones – although I couldn’t detect anything uniquely hazelnut.

This Beer of the Month Club feature would be distinctly delicious with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream – a Hazelnut Porter float!

I drank both of these beers beside a dog that very much

Barney the dog is the namesake for the brewery and featured on the beers’ labels. Uinta is more a snow dog than a sea dog but they bear a striking resemblance!

resembles the namesake for the Sea Dog Brewery, based in Portland, Maine. Each beer label features Barney, a beaming white Great Pyrenees, donning a yellow rain hat, presumably to keep the fur on his head dry out at sea.

You may have missed the opportunity to join Beer of the Month Club in time for St. Patrick’s Day – when most Americans will be enjoying tall Guinness draughts and car bombs! – you can still join Beer of the Month Club now and celebrate spring with the delivery of a unique 12-pack right to your door.

Starting at the end of February, we will be featuring regular Beer of the Month Club Reviews. We’ll show you exactly what we received each month, what we liked and didn’t like about each of the beers, and other fun tidbits about Beer of the Month Clubs.

This month will feature the Beer Club from Clubs of America.

Stay tuned as we feature Beer of the Month Club Reviews twice every month.

»Read all Beer of the Month Club Reviews

The following breweries and beers were included in the February Beer of the Month Club from The Craft Beer Club:

Madison River Brewing Company – MT
Located in one of the world’s hottest travel destinations for fly fishers, Madison River Brewing Company serves up Belgrade, Montana’s most celebrated brews.
Featured Beers:

• Salmon Fly Honey Rye
• Hopper Pale Ale

Sweetwater Brewing Company – GA
Named the Small Brewery of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, Sweetwater Brewing Company is Atlanta’s headiest brewery and an easy favorite among locals.
Featured Beers:

• Exodus Porter
• Sweetwater IPA

Listed below are Gourmet Monthly Clubs Beer of the Month Club selections for February. They offer 4 different Beer Clubs: the Original Microbrewed Beer Club, The International Beer of the Month Club, the Combination Beer Club, and the Rare Beer Club.

Gourmet Monthly Clubs

Great Valentine’s Day Specials from Gourmet Monthly Clubs:

• Get $5 off any Beer of the Month Club purchase. Enter Code VDAY5
• $15 off prepaid 6 month Beer of the Month Club gift. Enter Code VDAY15
• $25 off prepaid 12 month Beer of the Month Club gift. Enter Code VDAY25

Valentine’s Specials expire on 2/15/2013

Click here to visit their website…

Craft Beer Club

$10 off The Craft Beer Club
Use this exclusive coupon code to save $10 when ordering a prepaid Craft Beer Club Valentine’s Day gift for $100 or more (3 month minimum).

Place your order online and enter promo code “BAMC10″ to save $10.