So this week, I will try and mix it up a bit.  Since for some of us it feels like spring already, I will try to draw some attention to the second coming of Glibertarians Beer it Forward.  After discussing it with its owner, the gentleman known around here as Nephilium, I decided to turn this into a bit of a contest.  The details of which I will explain later.

This is my review of Grand Canyon Brewery Shaggy Bock.

Williams, AZ is not particularly well known.  Most people drive around it, but for a long time they had to drive through it.  Like many towns in the area there is a cheap draw for tourism but this one isn’t as flimsy or as popular as a town a couple hours to the east.

Roll Tide

Route 66 is actually a collection of highways that was renamed as a single highway in 1926. It began in Chicago to the east and ended in Los Angeles to the west and routed through 8 states in total.  It is romanticized in American culture by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath as the mother road, a show in the 60’s, and a song first sung by Nat King Cole.  Today it is mostly merged with other active highways, notably Interstates-55, 44, 40, 15, 10.  There are a number of towns that lay claim to the highway, such as Winslow, and others like Flagstaff maintain it as part of their municipal roadways.  It is for this reason I can technically scratch off riding a motorcycle down Route 66 off my bucket list, because it runs through Flagstaff.  Another fun fact, there is a restaurant in Flagstaff called the Dog Haus, that claims the entire scene on the corner in Winslow occurred there when it was a Wienerschnitzel.  “Flagstaff” just didn’t roll off the tongue like “Winslow.”  That is their claim, not mine.  If you choose to investigate this yourself, I suggest ordering the chilli dog, they’re pretty damn good.

Where does Williams fall into this?  On June 27, 1985 Williams, AZ was the last locality to officially decommission Route 66 as a highway.  Being first gets you in the history books, but sometimes there is some honor in being last.   Williams is also the starting point of the longest portion of the highway that is still drivable.  Williams didn’t die like other towns because of another attraction:  The Grand Canyon Railroad.

Here you can avoid driving north to the Canyon and avoid what really is a boring drive once you get past the San Francisco Peaks.  It routes north through the mountains and gives you a more scenic ride to the park.  They also convert the train to a Polar Express theme around Christmas and steam up towards a “North Pole,”. They’ll even give your kids a bell as a souvenir.

This isn’t a straightforward bock.  It is light like all lagers and has a smooth malty character.  The twist is this one contains the byproduct of one of our favorite inventions: the woodchipper.  They call it a “flavor bomb” but it’s a bunch of wood chips secured in a bag.  This gives the beer a similar effect to barrel aging without the added expense of storing it in a barrel.  It is quite enjoyable variety in a style that sometimes gets overlooked; Shiner Bock aside.  Grand Canyon Brewery Shaggy Bock: 4.0/5.

Here’s where the contest comes in.  This is a limited release from a local brand that doesn’t have much of a footprint outside AZ. Which makes it perfect for the Glibertarian Beer it Forward coming up this spring.  I have purchased a second bottle and stored it appropriately next to the boiler.  Hopefully, I don’t need to turn it on in the next few weeks.  In an attempt to generate interest for this next BIF, I will be sending this to the Glib member whose name I will be randomly assigned.  So if you think you want this, sign up!  This has the added benefit of at least one of you knowing that I’m not crazy.  Well, at least within a respectable spectrum of crazy.