Block party flop

Kudos to the City of Chandler for attempting to have a random Saturday ROCK THE BLOCK in Downtown Chandler, but man, to the random attendee...it appeared to be a pathetic attempt at throwing a party.  It was advertised as having a 15,000 SF kids play area and "beer gardens".  We never did find the kids play area, unless you were counting the area where the cheap carnival rides and mechanical bull were located ... which doesn't translate to "kids play area" in my book.  We did find ONE beer truck with 5 different kinds of beer (Coors Light, Blue Moon, Miller Light, SanTan Epicenter), each selling for $5 in a plastic cup. Really?  You've gotta be kidding me --- the SanTan brewery is 50 steps in the other direction!!!

So...rather than pay $5 for beer in a plastic cup and be confined to a fenced off area in a parking lot with no sources of entertainment for adults OR kids, we wondered over to the brewery.  Unlike many people, The Husband and I both are not huge fans of SanTan Brewing Company's beers.  We both really want to like them because it's the only brewery near our house, but we are almost always disappointed with their beers.  Don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that they're BAD because they aren't bad by any means.  They're just not as good as I want them to be.

Lucky for us, SanTan had a good selection of non-SanTan beers on tap, including the Smidy Stout from Oskar Blues.  The description on the SanTan menu read: 

If you're going to write the description yourself for all to see -- you should take a second to make sure you spell the name of the beer and the name of the brewery correctly...or at least consistently.

 A stout made with a lager yeast?  The Husband's decided to try it and see what this is all about...

Smidy Stout (4.8% ABV)
Oskar Blues
Colorado, USA

Recommendations:  I'm had no idea you could make a stout with a lager yeast, but this tastes great. Clearly I have a lot to learn for my home brewing to evolve to great levels.  This was a fantastic choice for a chilly fall afternoon sitting on the patio watching the storm clouds roll in.

Score: 3.75 out of 5 pint glasses on the unofficial Suburban Suds pint glass rating system