Today’s tasting involves a local brew, originally contracted for the Vortex in Atlanta:

Laughing Skull comes to us by way of the Red Brick Brewery, established in 1993, and holds the same design that can be found at the Vortex, either in downtown Atlanta or at the other location in Little Five Points. The Vortex has an interesting history, founded in 1992 by two brothers who were running the downtown bar location 24/7, and their approach that “all people should be nice to each other” compelled the brothers to start kicking rude customers out of the bar, often physically. The Little Five Points location opened in 1996, days before the start of the 1996 Olympics, and featured a 20-foot facade of the famous Laughing Skull that adorns the can:

The midtown location also has the Laughing Skull Comedy Lounge, which it hails as the smallest comedy club in thw world (can’t confirm, that’s just some of the marketing that goes along with it).

Anyway, there’s a beer here. The people at beermonthclub.com describe Laughing Skull as follows:

Instead of a Bohemian pilsner, the beer is now an amber ale, and it picked up a Gold Medal in that category at the 2011 U.S. Open Beer Championship. Expect a great balance of spicy, peppery hops and floral aromatics. Citrus, spice and grains are prominent—this reminds us of the old school, high quality microbrew that led the craft-brewing charge of the ‘90s. Look for some crackery notes, much like toasted saltines. These also come through in the flavor profile, with deeply toasted malts. Complex maltiness is complemented by plentiful citrus and pleasingly spicy, peppery nips from the hops. It finishes only mildly bitter with a long lasting fade of grassy hops and toasted caramel malts. Overall, this is nicely hopped, expertly balanced, just plain good beer. Great with medium cheddar cheese, it’s even better with some mesquite smoked grilled chicken.

There you have it, if you have cheddar cheese and chicken, you’re in for a treat. Please note, that doesn’t mean Cheese-Whiz and canned chicken, it would seem we’re talking some serious gourmet shit here, to quote the eloquent Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction.

Pairs nicely with:

• Gourmet shit
• Comedy
• No kids (don’t they all?)
• Really good hamburgers, seriously the Vortex makes a real good one, one of the best in Atlanta
• Nice people