Beer: Swingin' into Jungle Jim's

For those that aren't familiar, Jungle Jim's is a HUGE -- seriously, ridiculously huge -- grocery store, international market and liquor store all smashed into one (and there are lots of smaller sections as well, like a cigar area). Last weekend, my wife and I had to drive her brother back to Miami University in Oxford, OH. Oxford is only about 20-30 minutes from Fairfield -- a Cincinnati suburb that's home to Jungle Jim's -- so it seemed like an ideal time to make our first trip there.

From the moment you turn off the road into the parking lot, you feel like you're going to an amusement park. There's even a bus loading area, for God's sake! After making the trek in from the parking lot, I tried to make a beeline for the beer section. The olive bar beckoned, though, so I had to stop briefly before continuing to the beer, only to be sidetracked again by the cheese shop!

The beer section at Jungle Jim's is very large, but the wine section is even bigger. My wife and I decided to split up, so while she took off to check out the wine, I circled the beer area. One wall had shelves labeled for areas of the country but the vast majority of the selection is disorganized. For example, there was a shelf of selections from AleSmith on one side while clear across on the other side were stacked cases of their IPA and YuleSmith. If you go in there looking for something specific, it might take you a while to find it. The beer area also features a walk-in cooler with many beer selections, including growlers of beer from a local brewery (sorry, can't remember the name).

The shopping itself was a different process than I typical use. Given that Jungle Jim's is very far away and I don't know when I might be going back, I circled and circled, scanning all the shelves, not wanting to miss out on some hidden gem. I wanted to be particularly diligent because Jungle Jim's stocks a lot of beer that's distributed in Ohio but not in Indiana.

One thing I couldn't get a handle on was the prices; some seemed very high while others were the best prices I'd ever seen. There was Brooklyn Black Stout for just $8.99, but I knew I could easily get that back in Indy so I passed on it. Then Hopslam was priced pretty high at $15.50, and there were cases and cases of it. Good thing I'm already stocked up on Hopslam!

I easily could have gotten three times as much beer as I got, but this is what I walked out with:

AleSmith IPA
Weyerbacher Old Heathen Imperial Stout
Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale (I've had this but I love it and it was just $2.99 per 24 oz bottle!)
Brooklyn Monster Ale
Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye

I've already had the Hop Rod Rye and I can tell you that it's very, very tasty. I'll definitely be grabbing more of that on a future trip. You might not guess from the name, but it's an IPA. Highly recommended if you ever see it, as is Jungle Jim's in general! We were in a bit of a rush on this particular trip, so I hope to be able to spend a little more time checking out the rest of the store on a future trip. If you're ever in the area, Jungle Jim's is a place you really have to experience!

Beer: This 'n That

Brugge is moving up in the world! I was just playing around with World Class Beverages beer locater and I noticed that Meridian Restaurant has a keg of Brugge White. Brugge Beer, meet fine dining. I've been meaning to try out Meridian for a while and this will certainly get me there sooner.

BadaBoomz is doing a very good job keeping their online beer list up-to-date. It was recently updated on 2/1 and then again on 2/7. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot has been replaced by Dogfish Head Midas Touch Golden Elixir as the February special (I'm a little leery of that, but I may give it a whirl). I think Founder's Dirty Bastard may be a recent addition to the list, but in any case, I'll be there soon to try that out on tap. Goose Island Pere Jacques is still on tap but I bet it won't last much longer.

Jungle Jim's: looks like I'll finally be making the trip down to Cincy to hit up Jungle Jim's next weekend. Got any recommendations for beers that we can't get here in Indy? Let me know in the comments!

This n' That

Things are pretty slow in the DIG-B world but here are a couple quick tidbits:

Cosmopolitan on the Canal: site prep continues with lots of digging and a mini-crane on site.

Indiana Avenue Restaurant and Lounge: it looks like work is still going on on the inside, as several cars are parked around the building each day. They're sure being pretty secretive, though, with big plywood panels covering the doors so you can't see anything. No sign of work on the rumored second floor deck yet.

Bell's Consecrator Dopplebock: Bell's puts this limited-release beer out on Fat Tuesday each year. I used to get this with my brother when we wanted to "go big," though I probably haven't had it for two or three years. This year's batch arrived at Alabama Liquor sometime in the last week so I grabbed a 6-pack. Boy is this beer disappointing! I remember it tasting "huge" to us back in the day but now it tastes very thin to me, especially compared to some of the stuff I've been drinking. Could partly be because of my expectations, but it seems very blah. It's similar to my impression of British ales: not bad, just blah. I decided to forgive Bell's when I popped a Hopslam as my second beer of the night.

Everybody going Blu: While Best Buy isn't banishing HD-DVD from their stores, they've decided to "push" the Blu-ray format as a recommendation to customers. It might be about time for Toshiba and the HD-DVD consortium to give it up. There's no way they're going to reverse the industry's slow march to Blu-ray. UPDATE (4:15pm): Wal-Mart also just announced today that they'll stop stocking HD-DVDs by June of this year. This is SO over.

Weekend Plans: My weekend schedule got shuffled a little and was worried that I wouldn't be able to go to Jungle Jim's. Luckily, Ohio does sell alcohol on Sundays -- and liquor stores do just fine! -- so I'll be heading to Cincy then. I'll let you know what I find. Can't wait!