Photos? I got no stinking photos for you. Mermaid Avenue is on the stereo and look at what's in front of me. Wax dip top with a hanging tail of burgundy sealing glom. A thick paper label that now challenges me to soak it off in one piece and frame it. Crows for me are auspicious. It's personal. I don't want to get into it but let's just say it came up at work today. Can't we leave it at that?

Fighting through the wax, after a bit, you get to the cap and the cap can be opened. The wiff of balsamic makes me think of the Duchesse but it might just be a shadow. It pours an oddly light aged amber orange with a thin white rim and foam. On the nose there is tang. On the orange rind side of the orange rind and teen age sneaker line of tang. But you can see the other side from here. And I like that.

Wow. Light. The body is light. More acidic than sour. Notes of blue cheese, tangerine, cherry, barley candy and... I dunno. That is quite a collection. I had a hard day. Can I be fair to this? I want a rib eye. I want French fires cooked in beef tallow. This is a beer that can cut fat. I think I really like this.

Up there? That picture? Those are the labouring classes, the grinders of Deschutes crushing and squeezing cherries to ram into this beer. They are there. Not me. Me? I am here with this bottle before me. It says best before 11/01/11. That date might be where they were going but I am facing this beer 340 days too soon. But I like it. I like it. Yes I do.