It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

It was a dark and stormy night.  Actually that's how I expected this night to be after heavy snowfall for the first half of the day here in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.  Instead, the afternoon was quite nice and the sun even  made an appearance.  My wife had the driveway shoveled.  Actually she was still shoveling the last little bit as I came home from work.  You know, that bit at the end of the driveway where the snow plows always dump mounds of hardened snow onto your freshly shoveled driveway.  I volunteered to finish the rest but she insisted on completing the job.  As a reward for a job well done, I went inside and ordered a pizza.  Not only did I order the pizza, I went back out into the night to retrieve the pizza.  On the way to pick up the pizza I stopped at the Sly Fox in Phoenixville for a beer as time permitted.  I had a Pikeland Pils which went down so quickly and smoothly that I decided to have a Pughtown Porter.  I enjoyed this porter quite a bit but it was time to get the pizza and head on home.

Well after dinner and once the kids were settled in for the night I made a run to the grocery store.  On the way to the grocery store I stopped in at Ron's Original Bar and Grille in Exton.  I knew they had Pliny The Elder from Russian River on tap and I couldn't help myself.  The Pliny was awesome as usual.  I followed this with a Lagunitas IPA.  I expected to be disappointed after that Pliny but a funny thing happened.  I actually enjoyed that Lagunitas.  That's not to say that I think Lagunitas is a bad beer.  Quite the contrary.  But any beer would have a hard time following Pliny The Elder. 

After all of that hop goodiness, I was ready to leave but then I thought, "Why not follow that up with a nice malty barleywine"?  I ordered a Czar from Avery but was told it had just kicked.  I spontaneously ordered an Old Ruffian from Great Divide Brewing Company.  Now this is a really good barleywine.  Despite the malty goodness the hops somehow managed to come through.  Well done.  Off to the grocery store and finally home for the night.