This weekend I had a bomber each of Chimay Ale (red) and Ska Brewing Company (CO)'s Decadent Imperial IPA. The Chimay was great as expected and it was a nice break from IPA hop overload I've been experiencing lately. As far as flavorful beers go its hard to get much better than Chimay's complex flavors and malty texture. The Decadent Imperial IPA on the other hand wasn't so great. I get the idea that the brewer kept adding hops just for kicks and lost track of time based on the 10% ABV. If there were some bold flavors to support the bitterness it could have been a great beer, but alas all I could taste was alcohol near the end of the glass. Its quite a shame that the beer tasted quite good when served around 40 degrees but I have a hard time getting through 22oz of bitter imperial IPA before it warms and exposes the ethanol. On Sunday night I finished the weekend's beer tourism with a visit to a brewpub in Fort Worth called The Covey...
The Covey review in Fort Worth, TX
We stumbled upon this Restaurant and Brewery simply by driving in the area. It looks very upscale and reminded me of the Upstream based on the fixtures outside so I wasn't surprised to see the white table cloths in the restaurant and pub area. We opted to sit in the bar to watch the Cowboys (they lost) and browsed the menu of Texas exotic game offerings while drinking some great brews. Pheasant Quesadillas, anyone? I started with the Smokestack Stout seasonal and it was amazing except for one problem: It, and the 3 other beers at our table were all served without a lick of head. How does a brewery charging $5 per glass get the pour so wrong? Oh well, this was the one and only strike against the place and we really enjoyed our visit. Our server checked up on us often and was very nice and knowledgable. She touted the Buffalo, Antelope, and Kangaroo trio of wild game but Mackenzie and I resisted the nearly overwhelming temptation. Instead we had chips with salsa, cheese, and guacamole, French Onion soup, and the Southwestern Stuffed Avocado. The soup was served with bread chips and was very rich with flavor and the avocado luckily was served without any kangaroo.
The Covey was expensive compared to every other brewpub I've visited. I consider the Upstream in Omaha to be too pricey but we nearly doubled the typical tab. My growler with bottle rental totaled at $23 - that's $5.75 per pint in my own home. Entrees were all $20+ but most of them featured cute, fluffy animals that I really had no interest in eating. I just wanted the beer, man. I also didn't like how each of their beers were priced differently ($3.50 to $7 if I recall correctly). All told Mackenzie and I paid nearly $100 after tip for a split entree, appetizer, soup, salad, 3 beers, and a growler. I probably won't be spending $17 to refill the thing.
NU versus Texas
I have to keep this brief because its getting late but I'm not upset with the referees or Nebraska's performance. I think the Big 12 referees caught Texas with as many undeserved yards as they caught us and they did it in just as bad of a position. Texas' kick return on the 1 yard line was clearly fumbled and we had a solid chance at giving them a safety but their receivers are just too clutch. Come to think of it those receivers won the entire game for them and I wonder what Zac Lee would look like if he had a similar arsenal. NU has some repeat offenders for stupid penalties (looking at you Asante) and it made a difference in the game. The horse collar tackle can't be considered unexpected given this guy's history but I'm not sure about the kick out of bounds. Every place kicker will kick a ball out of bounds once in a while, this one just happened at the absolute worst possible time. No doubt the air inside Cowboys Stadium has different characteristics than Memorial Stadium. I'm upset at the pass interference calls we took but I believe they were forced because we were simply outplayed in a couple of one-on-one situations. The outstanding play of our front four made up for the pass defense by not giving McCoy a chance to think on his feet.
Nebraska and Arizona should be a great bowl game but I'm upset that I won't see NU in Dallas again. The Big 12 championship were $150 each for corner seats on the fourth deck (although the view of the television would have been great!) We have been under-ranked since our loss to Iowa state but we have regained some resolve. I'm worried about Cody Green given his poor performance in the very high pressure snaps he's taken. On one hand I want a quarterback who works as well as Alex Henerey under pressure but I need to be more forgiving of a red shirt who has only played in difficult situations. Maybe he'll get over it before next year.