Where My Ladies At?

Light a candle. Draw a bath. Listen to Lay, Lady, Lay on repeat. This Friday Favorite is like champagne/wine mixed with beer. Go buy Soft Parade by Short’s Brewing and have some “you time.” I know it sounds creepy, but bear with me. My dad thinks this beer isn't “beery” enough, but I love it, and so will you. 

Lately, I've been clogging up my blog with hoppy IPA’s or dark, rich, porters. It’s great that I love them but I need to branch out. I have an infinite amount of room in my heart for various  types of beers because I'm single—let's not bring it up again. It’s time to slow it down and class it up. 

Soft Parade is a great mix of both worlds. The fruit isn't artificial tasting—which often happens in blueberry or cherry beers. Instead, it incorporates an odd combination of blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries into a high gravity ale. In case you’re like me and don’t know what a high gravity beer is: it pretty much means that the final alcohol content or gravity is higher. Soft Parade clocks in at 9% ABV. The only problem is: you can’t taste the high level of alcohol. After one of these mamas, I’m feeling it without realizing that it is highly alcoholic. I love that level of bang for your buck—am I right?

My roommate Gabi took this. She's pretty talented. 

So, I poured it into a tulip-ish glass and it looked like blush wine, ruby pink in hue, slightly bubbly with barely any head. You can immediately smell the fruits of the forest. By then you'll want to take a drink. It tastes like sleeping in late on the weekends and watching “Gilmore Girls” until noon. It tastes like every Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks romance movie ever made. If those details aren't descriptive enough, or you’re a man that needs more convincing—I’ll tell you the real sensory details. It’s immediately sweet but there is a significant taste of rye beer—which makes it worthwhile. The fruit flavor isn't overwhelming but the beer finishes like champagne: crisp and sweet. It’s almost like a wine cooler without the guilt of actually buying and enjoying a wine cooler.

Please don’t think you have to be a lady to drink this. This is not a feminine beverage. I am not sexist and I am not adhering to gender stereotypes, I am simply saying I like this beer, I’m a girl and other girls and guys should try it too. This is 2013, let’s start acting like it.