Today is the last day of February vacation. I know, I know – I shouldn’t complain, seeing as most jobs don’t include an occasional week-long break. Hell, these days, people are willing to take all sorts of jobs without benefits. With that being said, I’ve certainly enjoyed the time off and have wanted to make the most of these final vacation hours.

So what have I done to maximize my Friday-no-work time? Well, a major portion of this afternoon has been spent watching Raging Bull on YouTube and drinking beer.

But before we get to the beer, I feel the need to interject a bit of movie-rambling. After all, I’ve got a buzz on and OL is my zone to do so. To anyone out there that thinks The Departed is an amazing movie – you’re wrong. It’s pretty good. For a remake. But it’s not that spectacular. Yeah, I know, the use of the Boston accent is just wonderful (oh wait, no it isn’t…it’s fucking infuriating). But the bottom line is that it’s nothing more than a solid flick.

Okay, here come the arguments about how all the great awards it swept up signify its excellence. Let’s just be honest for a second; the only reason it got so many damn Academy Awards is because (historically) Scorsese got fucked over so many times. Let’s take a peak at an abridged list of Marty’s movies that won neither Best Picture nor Best Director:

Taxi Driver

Raging Bull

The Color of Money

Goodfellas

Casino

Gangs of New York

Watching Raging Bull today, I just couldn’t help but think of how overrated The Departed is. Maybe it’s because I live just outside of Boston, but I saw a lot of people lose their minds over that fucking movie. Which is unfortunate, because Scorsese is better than that. Much better

Anyways, this is the Friday Brew Review, so let’s get to the beer!

A few weeks back, I sampled a beverage by the peeps at Goose Island and was blown away. So when I spied Goose Island’s Sofie at the liquor store today, I had no qualms about purchasing a bottle. I didn’t need to read a description or ask a clerk’s opinion — my previous experience with the brewery was sufficient.

Pouring Sofie into a standard glass, I took a moment to admire its color. This beer is a light, almost pale shade of orange that is cloudier than clear. If I were an interior decorator, I’d probably use this color as for a damn sun room (do people have those anymore?). But from its appearance, Sofie seems like a drink worth tossing back in the hopes of being refreshed.

Before sipping on this bubbly destroyer of inhibitions, I checked out the Goose Island website. This is what they had to say about Sofie:

Fermented with wild yeasts and aged in wine barrels with orange peel, Sofie is a tart, dry, sparkling ale. A subtle, spicy white pepper note, a hint of citrus from the orange peel and a creamy vanilla finish make Sofie an intriguing choice for Champagne drinkers and beer drinkers who are fond of Belgian Saisons.

As I consumed Sofie, I found the citrus notes to be both overwhelming and wonderful. Drinking it in, I found myself thinking of the beer as a sort of sweet, sparkling grapefruit juice. Wait – isn’t grapefruit juice healthy? Yeah, I think it is. So if Sofie is a sort of grapefruit juice that can get you drunk…well, that’s all the better.

What I didn’t taste were any of the spicy or pepper-based flavors described above. In fact, to me Sofie is the exact opposite – a very mild and palatable beer. In my experience, this brew goes down the hatch with a smoothness that borders on downright creamy.

However, this is a creaminess that isn’t heavy or taxing. Instead, it’s a perfect texture, a liquid weighted in such a way as to be worthwhile even before factoring in flavor. When I close my eyes, I can imagine myself drinking Sofie in the warm sunshine of a Memorial Day barbeque. God damn do I hate winter.

Sofie is tart and fragrant, light and flavorful, filling and refreshing.

For its efforts: A-

And now, the trailer for Raging Bull: