• TYPE: IPA
• BREWERY: Wild Range Brewing Company
• LOCATION: Rochester, NY
• CONTAINER: 12 oz Bottle
• COST: $6.99 / six-pack from ALDI
• ABV: 6.9%
• RATING: 3 Swigs
• REVIEWED BY: David

I was picking up a few things from ALDI and checked what they had on the beer shelves.  On this particular day, they were sporting an IPA from Wild Range Brewing Company.  I did a quick Google search and the ratings were so-so,  varying from two to four and a half stars…. not much help.  But at $6.99 for a six pack, what could go wrong? I will admit, I judged a book by it’s cover… The label graphics had me from the get-go.  So when I got home, I popped them into my beer & wine fridge and went about my day… editing the next great American SciFi novel… the next thing I knew, the sun was setting and a full moon was rising over the silhouettes of the palmetto palms that stood like racks of black combs against the sky….. where was I?  Oh yeah…… so i grabbed a one of the Wild Range IPAs and settled onto the couch in the lanai and took my first swig, taking in the bitterness of bursting hops and rich taste that lasted all the way through to an empty bottle.  I knew I was going back to ALDI for more, but in the mean time, grabbed another coldy from the fridge.  As I chilled out in the lanai and the Earth turned,  the lunar rays transformed my surroundings into a moonscape of grayness where beyond my yard and out onto the golf course, the mound of the second green looked like a diorama of the Apollo 11 landing site with its stiff flag standing in place.  Fascinated, I hopped up but a little too quickly and catapulted forward onto the dew soaked lawn.  Hoping no one saw that, I got up and felt agile and light, my feet lifting off the ground, my hair seeming to float in delay as I glided back to Earth.   This was incredible!  I started in a slow trot, building up speed and leap upwards covering several meters.  Wow!  This is so bizarre!  This time I got up some real speed and headed toward the lake, pushing off the bank until airborne, at least until the moon ducked behind a cloud and I dropped like a stone into the water below.  I was in shock, standing in waist deep water at the edge of my pool and realized I must have sleep-walked into it.  My wife hearing the commotion, got up from her show, probably Judge Judy, and ran into the lanai to see me standing in the shallow end of the pool, fully dressed, with a bottle in hand.  No words were spoken at she gave her best McKayla Maroney and returned to the  couch …..  That 6.9% ABV will catch up to you…. yikes!

THEIR STORY:

Don’t you DARE MISS IT! Mr Wolfe and his semi-trained carnivores will be at the fire pit.  At midnight.  (And then there are a lot of different versions, in multiple languages, defining hops that I am not going to attempt here.)

Once Wild, Always Wild