Last weekend, I discovered that Earthfare has a decent selection of beers I hadn’t previously found elsewhere. I picked up a Fort Collins Brewery chocolate stout and a Left Hand Brewing Company milk stout (Gabe, I won’t let your derision keep me from trying these!). It turned out that Dave came over on Saturday or Sunday, and he stopped at Leaf and Ale on the way over to pick up a few more stouts (they’ll let you mix and match) to round out a full-on tasting party. (Incidentally, here I’ve been hankering for a year or two for a place to get beers not available at Ye Olde Kroger, and it turns out that Leaf and Ale, which I thought was way down in Fountain City or somewhere, is within about three miles of my own front door.) I jotted down the list of beers we tried, but I’ve misplaced the list and forgotten the names. One of them stands out to me still because it tasted like it was brewed with red wine in it, and that was a little gross (sort of the way brandy is gross because it tastes like whiskey and wine; don’t get me wrong — I like red wine, but these combinations just don’t do it for me — it’s sort of like pouring orange juice over your cereal; speaking of breakfast, it occurs to me that among my favorite beers these days are a milk stout and an oatmeal porter: if I could find a bacon brew or an egg lager, I’d have a pretty well-rounded breakfast beer trio). By far (and I believe by consensus), the best of the beers we had was the Fort Collins chocolate stout, with the Left Hand milk stout probably a respectable second. It looks life Leaf and Ale’s got a number of other stouts I haven’t tried (though not even they seem to carry the Rogue Shakespeare and Chocolate stouts). Once I get those under my belt, I don’t know what I’ll try next. Pale ales have never been my favorite (then again, I used to have trouble stomaching a stout), so maybe I’ll explore them next.

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the Knoxville Brewer’s Jam and mentioned in particular the Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery’s milk stout, a type of beer I hadn’t tried before and found pleasing. I had never seen this beer (or any milk stout) around town (not that I’m really a mover or shaker in Knoxville beer circles) and figured I’d next have a bottle of it at next year’s Brewer’s Jam. I recently went to Three Rivers Market (otherwise known as the Food Coop) to stock up on inexpensive spices and honey, and when I checked their beer selection, they had at least two milk stouts, of which one was the Duck-Rabbit (the other was from Left Hand Brewing) and a number of other beers that will be new to me when I try them. So if you’re in the Knoxville area and want take-home beer that’s not Bud or Coors, be sure to swing by the Food Coop to sample their selection. At a glance, it looked like the beers were priced about the same, and this makes me wonder if one could build a mixed six-pack. Next time I’m there, I’ll be sure to ask.