Anything interesting this weekend?

Since I last posted, I've had a Peruvian, 2 Hopslams, and a Ranger. I still like the ranger but am maybe a little less hyped up about it than I was previously. My kingdom for a nice bourbony strong ale ... oh wait, I have a case of Bastard in the basement - think some of that is about to go in the fridge to prepare for a serious US vs. Canada hockey trotching today. U-S-A!

Someone please caption this picture, and/or make it into a tshirt

Heineken and Marc Ford

I'm drinking swill but listening to the best music I've ever heard ...
And they just started rehearsing. Holy Shit.

Matacabras

New one from Dave's Brew Farm... Should make the hippie treehugers in
the audiance happy ( I'm looking at you Lewon Residents) since it's
all organic/carbon neutral/produced from the energy of ground up
rainbows. It also tastes pretty good. It's a Belgian style that is
kind of like a cross between saison and strong ale. It's just a
little too much on the yeast bomb side of being great for my taste. I
do like the buttery mouthfeel and Candi sugarosity. Nice and boosy
( or "warming" if you prefer) and also dirt cheap. I got a single for
1.49 and they had 7.00 6 packs which is a pretty good deal for an 8%
beer in my book. I'll probably give it another go, I just wish the
yeast was toned down a bit. Question for the brewers- would the
yeastyness dissapate with aging?

Currently, in my liver, far, far away............

12 oz bottle into my snifter

pretty black pour with a creamy cinnamon head that fluffs then darts to the edges of the glass and leaves a swirling galaxy floating along the surface

nose of cooking sherry, almonds, sweet malts, iced coffee, and dark chocolate

first sip reveals an unexpected sourness, along with almond bark; not as complex as the nose would suggest. Aftertaste lingers forever

prickly carbonation that jumps on the palate - slightly odd but not altogether unpleasant

having never had this beer, I'm not fully sure if this is how it should taste.

B+/A -

Flaaaaaann-derrrrssss

Your guess is as good as mine as to what this label says, but somewhere on there is the word "Flemish" which got my attention. You sour- pusses have drawn me in with your Flanders reds and so I thought I'd try this one. Pretty good stuff. I think I prefer rodenbach but this is close to something like, say... Monks cafe or something like that. It's a little less sweet and a little more sour than I would prefer, but I'm coming around to your way of seeing it with sours. I'm on the trolley.

Best new Belgium ever?

Picked this up today on the advice of Kyle, my local beermonger.
Pretty solid-very fresh taste and lots of hops without much malt- very
west coasty. It's a single not a double but still has Lots of flavor
and is boozy enough for even me. I've been trying to figure out what
it reminds me of and started thinking of golf, then remembered Caldera
which I think is this beer's long lost cousin. I'll happily give this
an A-.

Summer plans

Just putting out some feelers:

Would there be interest from any of you in staying at the Venit beach house in Delaware (near Rehobeth Beach, home of a certain Dogfish Head brewery) for a long weekend or a week sometime this summer? I'm not sure if I'll be able to get us a slot, but wanted to check with you all before I tried. It would mean either driving for 20 hours each way or flying and then renting a car, but the house would be free, so there's that.

For those of you unfamiliar with the mid-Atlantic shore, the water tends to be chilly and they're not exactly white-sand beaches, but the house is only half a block from the water and it's a private beach just for the people in the development. Sadly, only Venit family dogs are allowed. :(

Anyway, let me know if I should see what I can get, whether I'm looking for a long weekend or a week, and when during this summer would be good.

Google Buzz

Just a quick heads up...everyone should change their settings on the new Google Buzz. The default setting is that everyone on your contact list can see all of your blogger posts, so that means that even though the blog is private, your posts aren't and anyone you've ever emailed on gmail can see your blogger posts, which could quickly become awkward. I turned mine completely off, but there are some intermediate settings I think.

Two brothers smoked

This was a highly disappointing meal all around a few days ago. The
Gold Star based chili recipe was vastly inferior to Skyline and the
smoked beer was pretty gross. Strangely sweet in a bad way ... Not
the cheddar bacon flavor I like in a smoke beer. It was more like
drinking a pumpkin dunkel while standing in front of a campfire - just
kind of weird and unpleasant. Anyone else tried this one?

May the schwarz be with you

One of the only upland beers worth missing showed up here today...I
think they should rename it sex panther though

Pliny the Younger

Thank God for travel to SF for work during SF Beer Week!!!

Who Dat

Dear Dwayne,

How was the lasik?

Lost in the Darkness

LOST begins now.....so my pregame notes before we begin:


09' Mummy vintage into my go-to stout approved snifter

Dark pour with a beautiful cinnamon colored fluffy head: nice

Smells perplexing with an initial whip of powdery cocoa, currant, and a hefty dose of vegetative hops. There is a prevalent scent that I cannot wrap my senses around. It's alternately pleasantly sweet and sickening so. My beak hovers over the glass in a vain attempt to understand.

The initial taste matches the nose quite well. Sweetness is kept in check by a medley of light chocolate, currant, and a dark fruit/berry medley - plums? Leafy plantlike hops add a nice finishing shot. Served right out of the cellar at 55, this was quite appealing. As the beer warms, it becomes more muddled. Sweetness begins to overpower this beer and it's more difficult to separate the enjoyable initial layers. Borders on cloying.

Initially, on the tongue, this beer is a bit oily, but once it hits the back of the throat it's a stouty milkshake, almost chewy. Not the strongest point of this beer.

The drinkability on this beer decreases as it warms. While not overpowering, the alcohol creeps in as the bottle dwindles.

A -