Beers of the week
(meaning beers I feel like talking about this week not the most amazing beers)

Backlash-Declaration
I semi-dread Belgian IPAs. My first few threw in Belgian yeast to make up for the fact the IPA part was kind of crap. Thankfully, Declaration wasn't made by a douche out for a quick buck from the "BELGIANS IST KRIEG" school of beer geekery. Here, the yeast and hops engage in a fun little dance on the palate that's positively delightful. As a bonus, you really need to roll the 22s around to stir up the yeast so around the third consecutive you can start singing a variant of that old polka about rolling a barrel and having a barrel of fun.
8/10

Wormtown-Sweet Tats
Coffee has been attempting to piss me off most of my life. It gets stale, gross and sneaks into the iced tea container in the fridge at my parent's house. The members of its cult sneer at me for making a nice cuppa. Dunkin Donuts opts to run Punkin Chunkin themed commercials the year my annual Birthday weekend event gets cancelled. However, I also like Wormtown's bottle art and burn candles in my shrine to the lords of tea. So I opted to give Sweet Tats a try. All I could taste in here was alcohol and coffee. Turns out that my old nemesis isn't completely terrible with a hint of booze. That said, fuck you coffee.
5/10

Hill Farmstead-Edward
Wow. Simply . . . wow. I tend to dig my beers balanced and this S. O. B. was so hoppy it kinda hurt. However, it was one of those "good hurt" deals. Fresh liquid hops? Magic hop juice? Edward... I dub you Sir Edward of Hoppy Awesome Sauce.
10/10

Pioneer-Path of the Unknown
Something I always dug about Pioneer was their "salt of the earth" vibe. Their beers are always awesome and draw you in through flavor, not goofy names or art. So when I saw they had  something that sounded like a bad melodic Death Metal song, the dread rose within. It turned out to be more discovering a $20.00 bill in your old coat pocket than reaching for your wallet and being sucked into an abyss of torment and made to kneel at the throne of Azeroth. This is one delightful, balanced, strong brown ale.
8/10

Founders-Imperial Stout
Looks like motor oil; tastes like malty heaven. MMMMM FOUNDERS!
8/10

Ridgeway Brewing-Seriously Bad Elf
Maybe it's the English major in me, but the name of this beer pisses me off more than its general mediocrity. "Seriously" implies it's noteworthy in some way. This thing is so lackluster I almost took a nap in the middle. Makes me wish they actually did market towards children like some liquor commissions have claimed in the past so import could be banned.
2/10

Gouden Carolus-Noel
Let me preface this by stating I am aware that there's an umlaut over the "o" in "Noel." Truth be told, that might be my favorite accent ever. Thing is this beer is so vile it's not worthy of such fine, upstanding punctuation. Alcoholic licorice is vile in all forms.
1/10