Sharks, Smokeaters, and some IPA

On Thursday night, Mark and I headed down to SmokeEaters for $1 tenders and IPA night.  The Sharks also happened to be on so we got to watch the game with our drinks and food.  Mark has been to SmokeEaters in Cupertino but I have never been.  It's an order at the counter kind of place.  We picked how many tenders we wanted (3 each) and then picked our sauce spiciness.  I went with traditional while Mark stepped it up to atomic.  When the food came, I was surprised how big the tenders were.  3 was plenty for me.  The traditional had a good spicy flavor and I could have handled Mark's atomic but I'm glad I got the traditional so I could enjoy the beer more without my mouth being on fire the whole night. 

On the beer side, Mark started with the Pranqster Golden Ale from North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg and I went went with the Green Flash Le Freak Belgain style IPA brewed in San Diego.  We choose these because neither of us had tried them before.  I sipped mine and said "That's the kind of IPA I like," while Mark sipped his and said "That's the kind of IPA I don't."  Le Freak has a good balance of hops and bitterness of a traditional IPA mixed with the sweeter flavors of a Belgain.  It also rocks a 9.2% ABV.  I would buy the Le Freak again.  The Pranqster lacked the balance of hops/bitterness to Belgain sweetness and leaned too heavily on the Belgain side.  I offered to trade with Mark since it's a flavor I would like more than him but he said it's still a beer and he'd drink it.  Way to take one for the team, honey. :)

At this point, the Sharks game was very high scoring and the Sharks kept trading the lead with the Lightning so we ordered up another beer to stay until the end.  This time, Mark went with the tried and true Sculpin while I took advantage of Pliny the Elder being on tap and ordered that.  We both enjoyed our second choices and I've reviewed them on here before so not too much else to say.  We did not enjoy the outcome of the Sharks game as they lost in overtime.  Oh well, I'll still take that point out of it. 

Another successful Beer Week event.  We have one more on tap for this weekend before our budget runs out.