Just when we all thought that the toxic medley known as Four Loko was out of sight and out of mind, the booze wizards at Gizmodo decided to come up with a homemade version that is perhaps worse than the original.

During the full octane version's more controversial days—when it had caffeine, guarana and taurine—BW took a firsthand look at the noxious concoction and determined that whoever was pushing for the removal of energy drink supplements from the drink may have been on to something.

Kudos Gizmodo. Despite the cautionary language in your recipe, resurrecting this beast—at the bathtub level, no less—can only end in tears.

It only happens occasionally. But when it does, it might behoove you beer connoisseurs out there to take advantage of the situation and stock up: Local brewery Sockeye is bottling some beer. Lovingly, painstakingly hand-bottling and labeling their beer just for you, and just for special batches.

Brewers from Sockeye have teamed up again with brewers from Tablerock to create an imperial Belgian-style IPA they’ve named Dubbel Trubbel. With a moniker like that, it’s probably a good thing that you can enjoy it at home where there might be less trouble to get into. After all, with an alcohol content of 9.5 percent (as opposed to lighter beers that come in around 3 or 4 percent), who knows what might happen after drinking a 22-ounce bottle of the stuff?

The Double Dagger that was bottled at the same time and released at both Sockeye and Tablerock earlier this month has sold out, but there are still bottles of the Dubbel Trubbel to be had. If you head up to Sockeye tonight, you can catch local Americana jam band Sherpa doing their thing on stage before taking your beer and heading out.

While you might lose your head playing Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, you’ll definitely lose your mind at Rock ’Em Sock ’Em, a brewer’s collaboration between Tablerock Brewpub and Sockeye Brewery.

Tablerock head brewer Bob McSherry and assistant brewer Tim Spanbauer teamed up with Sockeye head brewer Josh King and assistant brewer Lance Chavez to concoct Dubbel Trubbel, which will be unveiled tonight at both restaurants.

“Dubbel Trubbel is a double Belgian IPA,” said Spanbauer. “Basically, what we did was we used all imported Belgian malts and Belgian yeasts, but we hopped it like a Northwest-style imperial IPA.”

Tablerock and Sockeye will both be offering special 13-ounce pours of the beer for $3 from 6-9 p.m. The brewers will also be on hand to answer any questions and chat about future "collabeerations."

• Guy Hand
• A glass of hard cider at Brewforia Beer Market in Meridian.

I had the trying task of tasting hard ciders for an upcoming Boise Weekly story—once an American tradition, hard cider is making a comeback. I thought I'd pass on some of the tasting notes I scribbled down while swilling all that fermented apple juice. I've also include some of the places where you can grab a bottle or two. You're welcome.

And pick up a copy of tomorrow's Boise Weekly to find out why Idaho is ripe for a hard cider industry.

Some notes on ciders I’ve recently tasted:
•Spire, Washington “Fizzy, amber, with strong, ripe apple nose and a simple fruit flavor. A decent starter hard cider.”
•Clos Normand, France: “Caramel colored, light in flavor, with more acid. Smells of green rather than ripe apples. More complex than Spire, more tart, tannic, slightly earthy.”
•Dupont Reserve, France: “My favorite. Champagne-like, dry, slightly tannic, with just the right hint of apple and sweetness.”
•Aspall, England: “Light in color, like pale beer with a mildly tart flavor and lots of fizz.”
•Strong Bow, England: “Beer-like. Fizzy, refreshing but less complex than a French cider.”
•Sagardo Naturala Natural Basque Cider, Spain: “Slightly cloudy, golden color, dry, sour, barnyardy with barely a hint of apple. Could be great with spicy Asian, Indian food and rich Basque seafood. Some friends who tasted this hated it, calling it ‘off’ or vinegary.”

Places to purchase or quaff hard cider:
•Brewforia Beer Market: 3030 E. Overland Road #100, Meridian, 208-888-7668
•The Basque Market: 608 W. Grove St., 208-433-1208
•Boise Co-op: 888 W. Fort Street, 208-472-4500
•Red Feather Lounge: 246 N. Eighth St., 208-429-6340
•Bardenay: 610 Grove St., 208-426-0538
•The Matador: 215 North Eighth St., 208-342-9988

There's a cool wine event being held in an out-of-the-way location. A coffee shop called The Perks of Life is hosting a Sokol Blosser Tasting on Friday, November 19, from 6-8 p.m. In addition to coffee, they carry a small wine selection. Owners Heather and Aaron are wine lovers and do a good job promoting local and regional wineries. They will be featuring Meditrina (a red blend), Evolution (a white blend), Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir as a flight available for $7. They also have a variety of small plates, cheeses and pastries. Expert Joe Lebold from the winery will be on hand pouring and talking about the Sokol Blosser line-up, all great choices for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

As a wanna-be writer, I pride myself on having an above-average vocabulary. Even if I can't define a word exactly, contextual clues are usually enough to help me decipher a general intention. However, at least twice a week, an unusual term sends me scurrying for Mr. Webster for some assistance. This week is no exception.

Today I received an e-mail from Matt Gelsthorpe, who must have saved the lives of many drowning orphans during an earlier incarnation, as his enviable job in this lifetime involves selection and purchase of beer for the Boise Co-Op (I can only imagine that tasting is a prerequisite). His missive alerted me to the latest local brews news, specifically mentioning that Kevin and Jake, brewmasters at the Ram Restaurant and Brewery, would be releasing their cask-conditioned Taildragger IPA (which incidentally won a gold medal from the North American Brewers Association) for a limited engagement, starting Wednesday, Aug. 25. Matt went on to assure me that by 4 p.m., we beer-drinkers would be having a "firkin-tapping good time."

My first thought was, "What is a firkin, and why would I want to tap it?" My second thought veered toward dyslexia: "Maybe he meant Furby, and that we would pat it."

But no, he meant firkin which, like a fathom or a furlong, is an old English unit of measure and in the context of beer, it refers to a quarter of a barrel or half a kilderkin (a what? thanks a lot, Wikipedia).

Now that I know what a firkin is, I'm still most interested in a pint, and now I know where I can get that pint: the Ram, the Taildragger IPA, on Wednesday, Aug. 25 after 4 p.m.