Sam Adams bad, Nathanson Creek good

Sam Adams Mystery Draft/Nathanson Creek Merlot
This started off as a Daily Pour and ended up as a Cheap Bastard. I started the day with getting my 3-year-old a hair cut. That went pretty good. He just watched Wonder Pets on my iPhone while the nice lady at Marcia’s Hair Salon in Griffin GA, cut his hair. I think she welcomed cutting a little kid since everyone in there was a couple birthday candles past 65 or practically bald and were there for the company. He got a really nice haircut despite the fact he was wearing his Auburn T-shirt and she was a Dawg Fan.
Then it was off to McDonald’s with Grandma in tow where, after a cheeseburger Happy Meal, Mr. Ben disappeared into a human-sized habi-trail (those things that hamsters crawl around in). It went up to the ceiling and had kid size entrances that no normal size adult could fit through should your youngster panic and start screaming. I was disappointed that three little girls went up, two of which were half Ben’s size, and came down in the tube slide. Ben chickened out and came back down the circular stairs, the way he went in. He realized I couldn’t come in after him so he stayed inside. I finally lured him out and nabbed him before he could scurry back in.
Then it was off to Noah’s Ark , an animal sanctuary about 20 miles east of Griffin near Locus Grove. There Ben got to see emus, ostriches, buffaloes, zebras, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). It was getting into the upper 80’s and sure enough, after getting deep into the park Ben wasn’t interested in walking. He wanted “pick up.” Grandma waited at the picnic tables near the car. After losing a lot of sweat carrying him for about a mile, we got back in the car and headed back to my brother’s house, where I am looking after both Ben and my 91-year-old mother. (I gave Mrs. Dan a couple of Mommy Days off to do some important work).
The little turkey feel asleep going into the driveway. Carrying him in woke him up. We tried to take a nap. I got in about 20 naps, each about 1 minute long, as he kept kicking while playing a bowling game on my iPhone. My iPhone as a phone is pretty worthless here because the AT&T signal in Spaulding County pretty much sucks. The bars around here, like their contrived commercials, look more like a woman with an “A” cup without any padding. You have to drive into town to update your email. I digress.
We found a Ruby Tuesdays 2-for-1 special coupon in what is left of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution at Marcia’s (the paper was intact. But with all the cutbacks, this ain’t the AJC I grew up with). Grandma loves Ruby Tuesdays. After being seated Ben continued watching Wonder Pets for the 20th time today on my iPhone. I ordered the “Draft of the Day.” It’s $3 and for 99 cents more you get the tall one… which I estimate to be around 24 oz. After lugging Ben around in the heat and dealing with other matters (did I mention that I set off the house alarm and had to drive back to reset it) I really wanted a nice tall cold draft. The waitress said the daily draft was a Yuengling. “Which one?” I asked. “Yuengling” she replied. “Red, Traditional or the Porter?” “I dunno” was the reply. She was off to check. She came back and said she was wrong. It was “Sam Adams.” “Which one?”, I asked. “Sam Adams”, she replied. At that point I took off to the bar to ask the bartender since the middle man didn’t know enough to ask “Boston Lager, Seasonal etc”. “Sam Adams Winter Seasonal” was the answer. Ah! a darker beer I thought. This might make up for an earlier Ruby Tuesday’s setback. I had asked if the $3.99 kids meal, which is either 4 chicken strips or 2 mini-cheeseburgers, could be purchased as 2 strips and 1 burger. “Dunno, gotta ask the manager.” No, came the response from the unseen manager. Then I asked, since the kids menu was basically all fried foods could I get Ben some carrots and grapes. After another trip to ask the manager she said he could get some grapes off the salad bar for 99 cents. He was quite happy to mix them in with the chicken strips and dunk a few in ketchup. So, back to the Daily Pour. What was delivered was a big tall glass of Sam Adams….. light colored something. It wasn’t a Winter Seasonal. I took a sip and it tasted kind of soapy. I sent it back. Its presence offended me. The food came. Mother had the Black Mountain Chicken. I had the Chicken Fresco. It was tasty. But it would have tasted better with a nice cold beer. Mother ordered the house Merlot with her meal. She had some left over and I tried it. It was very good. So, when the manager came by to pick up the 2-for-1 coupon (the waitress said that the manager had to pick it up) he asked how things were. I said the food was good but the beer sucked. He then tried to explain that the draft beer lines were downstairs and they were moving them upstairs and they where trying to finish up the Winter Seasonal and switch to the White Ale or the summer seasonal, he wasn’t sure, and there might have been water in the lines…..I asked him “what was that light colored Sam Adams that was delivered?” He said he was now confused and wasn’t sure. Well the good news is they didn’t charge me $3.99 for the one sip I had. I asked him what was the house Merlot. Nathanson Creek he replied. Ah! Green label with a lizard on it I remembered. What I didn’t remember was it tasting that good. So, we headed home. I stopped at the Piggly Wiggly to get Ben some orange juice for tomorrow’s breakfast. I walked down the wine aisle. The last time I looked at wine at a Piggly Wiggly it was Boone’s Farm, I was 50 pounds lighter and you couldn’t see my ears. There was the green lizard, on sale for $7.99 for a 1.5 liter bottle. It made this Cheap Bastard proud. Oops. It’s not a lizard but a frog. Duh!. Frogs, not lizards, would be in a creek.
When we got home and I realized I had a poop emergency on my hands. Ben had it coming out the top, and bottom of his diaper. Straight into the bathtub for that young man. Having reached almost 90 degrees today (I couldn’t confirm that with my iPhone because of the sucky AT&T signal) the upstairs was a bit hot. I was drenched in sweat, smelling of poopy diapers and ready for a calming glass of wine. Ben’s now asleep and it’s time to relax. So, what started off with a Daily Pour posting about a sucky beer at Ruby Tuesday’s, the post is a Cheap Bastard with me enjoying really cheap wine with a nice cool breeze coming through the upstairs window. If you like Merlot and don’t want to spend a lot of money you should give it a try.
From: Boston/California
Brewery: Sam Adams. Winery: Nathanson Creek.

Score: 1 Cap (Sam Adams Whatever), 3 Corks (Nathanson Creek)
Dan’s Rating System:

1 Cap/Cork: Check to see if it was bottled before 2000 (beer). Check to see if it was bottled last week (wine)
2 Caps/Corks: Not bad but you hope someone else picks up the check.
3 Caps/Corks: I think I will have another.
(I never thought I would give a Sam Adams beer a bad rating but it wasn’t their fault).