Full Sail - Wreck the Halls

Check it out - Full Sails winter seasonal on tap now at Falconburgh's here in D-town. It reminded me of Avery's Maharaja IPA (also on tap), but it qualified for the $2 special where Avery didn't. I also sampled the Sierra Nevada / Dogfish Head collaboration brew, "Life & Limb". It was a huge beer at 10.2%, and not bad, and though a pint might be overbearing, I would recommend trying it.

The website has this to say about it, "Life & Limb is a 10% ABV strong beer that defies style characteristics—brewed with pure maple syrup from the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts and estate barley grown on the Grossman “farm” at the brewery in Chico. The beer is alive with yeast—a blend of both breweries’ house strains—bottle conditioned for added complexity and shelf life, and naturally carbonated with birch syrup fresh from Alaska; it is the first beer we know of ever to use birch syrup in the brew. If stored under good conditions, this rich, full-bodied beer should age well for years. Life & Limb will be available in 24-oz. bottles and limited draft starting this November."

I also had the chance to sample the 2009 Barleywine on tap over at Carver's. This years batch is strong, and well balanced. I will be grabbing two - one for now, and one for a vertical tasting next winter.

Vinyl Back in a big way!

The New York Times reported today that sales of vinyl records are the highest in 2009 that they have been since 1991. To wit, "Sales of vinyl albums have been climbing steadily for several years, tromping on the notion that the rebound was just a fad. Through late November, more than 2.1 million vinyl records had been sold in 2009, an increase of more than 35 percent in a year". And Amen to that. The weakly written and confused article seems baffled by this resurgance of the greatest mass-marketable recording media of all time. Simply put, the sound from high quality vinyl on decent equipment is unequaled. Mp3 and iPods are great, but for a true listening experience, dim the lights, pour a glass of red, set the needle on the platter, and loose yourself in the sound.

Coors Winterfest - Like Extra Gold, but in a bottle

"Choice Hops" - That's the pitch on the bottle. To fully release the "Choice Hops" from the beer, the label recommends pouring into a glass with at least a 2 inch head. I drank the first one out of the bottle, and half way through, I was hoping that pouring this piss into a glass might help. I poured and drank the second bottle in this manner. Let's just say that the "Choice Hops", now being fully released from the beer, did not help much. Coors Winterfest, a shitty seasonal from your friends in Golden, CO. Ho Ho!

Warrior IPA

A while back, I brewed a batch of single hop IPA's, the first two with Simcoe hops, and then a batch using only the terribly bitter warrior hop. I had tasted the Warrior IPA from Lefthand Brewing back when we lived in Strongmont, and thought it was good. The beer finished out, and I drank most of it, but I didn't really love it. The Simcoe IPA had a much nicer flavor over all, and was much more floral and piney in the nose. To it's credit, I failed to dry hop the warrior batch (what in the hell was I thinking??) Anyway, about a month ago I grabbed a bomber of the Warrior proper from the boys in Longmont. To my surprise, it was very similar to the beer I had brewed, with much better hop aroma. Thinking about this, I deceded to post the recipe here. It's not really a clone, but the flavor was close. I would recommend dry hopping with something like cascade to brighten up the top end.

Single Hop IPA I (Warrior)
American IPA


Type: All Grain
Date: 4/23/2009
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Bear Run Brewery
Asst Brewer: Jah Ras Tafar I

Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: My Rig
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00
Taste Notes: Solid hop bitter, should have dry hopped. Good beer.

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
11.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Colorado (2.9 SRM) Grain 75.86 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.90 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 6.90 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.45 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.45 %
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 25.5 IBU
2.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (45 min) Hops 23.4 IBU
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (10 min) Hops 18.5 IBU
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 3.45 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Safale Yeast #S-05) [Starter 50 ml] Yeast-Ale
1 tsp 5.2 stabilizer in Mash & sparge H20



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.063 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.86 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.96 %
Bitterness: 67.4 IBU Calories: 253 cal/pint
Est Color: 9.7 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 14.00 lb
Sparge Water: 0.00 gal
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Mash PH: 5.2 PH

Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 17.50 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F
20 min Sparge Add 18.00 qt of water at 187.8 F 170.0 F


Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar
Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

Rockin Time, pt. 3

Our buddy Dan took this picture of the acoustic set on Sunday. ~*Viva la Rock*~

FOAM Pilsner, Indio, and pure unadulterated ROCK N' ROLL!

I'm not even sure where to begin on this one. Sonically, this was truly a formidable experience. Phish is, in all respects, playing at the absolute top of their game. Oh to be a college kid with nothing but time to go and see these guys play (or to be prince caspian with hooves instead of feet...) The cover of the Stones album, "Exile on Main Street", was fantastic. They took those muddy sounding tracks from the back side of the second platter and rocked them like I've never heard before. "Just Wanna See His Face" kicked soooo much ass. "Let this feeling, relax your mind".... and Shazaaam! Wow.
The ferocity of the rock had my mind looking about like this late on Saturday (is this guy real or a muppet)? The crowd was pretty wild. A bunch of frat boys with no context other than the other Phish show they saw in July (you know - they guy with the t-shirt on from the new album... no style. Bunch of fat boys too. Whatever, they were there rockin). It was kind of funny, and kind of weird. I felt old. I also had the only Tie-Dye on... What the hell's up with that? We ended up talking to this guy for a bit. He had the best perspective on the whole thing when he said, "Man, that Hendrix album kicked my ass, man!"




In celebration of the happy occasion, Sierra Nevada brewed up a special batch of beer, the FOAM pilsner. Being a play on the title of a song, FOAM was clever. That said, FOAM Pilsner conjured thoughts of the bad old days of cases of Huber Pilsner returnable bottles for $8.99 + $1.35 deposit. I believe the lable bragged of being "fully Kreusened". Ahh - technique to give you that extra crisp edge. The beer was average. The Sierra Summerfest was worlds better.

Vikes spank the Pac, Season of Destiny Rolls on strong.

In what can only be described as a glorious Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field, the Vikes systematically broke down the pack, and then handed them their asses in front of the slovenly, half-drunk hometown crowd. Surly would be a step up for these people.


One need only look to the infrequent and fleeting glimpses of the crowd (lovely lady on the left) that Fox dared to pump over the live feed to know this: the hapless pack is witless and failing. Their season is doomed to mediocrity. Know this mantra, pack fan, and start chanting now - "Next Year.... Next Year".

Never Forget - Sarah Palin

Presidential? Really. Horeseshit. I see signs near trailer parks in New Mexico that say Palin 2012. Good thing she has the non-voting meth vote.

An ode to Green Chile

It's a magic time of year when the word starts to go 'round that the Green Chile harvest is in. I happened to be rolling through Aztec, NM a month ago, and was happy to see a fella with a trailer full of Chiles by the side of the road. He was up from Limitar, NM which is just north of Socorro. He was very proud of the Chile's he had grown, and had samples of the roasted version out for tasting. He didn't need to convince me. As it turns out, his Chile is just short of the nuclear-hot designation, which is just about perfect in my book. Now for the ode:

"Oh fabulous chile, how I love thee. You fill my food with flavor and burn my mouth so happily."

There you go - pure poetry.

Steely Dan gets wacked, Thriller still standing

OK - Can you believe that this happens the day after I post how amped I am for Steely Dan. What a bunch of pricks ;-). Truth - 'Thriller' would funking kill me. I'd rather the whole crowd fart at he same time and pump the sound through the PA. I really don't think thriller will get the nod, but who knows. 'Yes' is still standing strong as is some Bowie, Zappa, and Black Sabbath. Boston's still in there, and that might make me puke a little bit into my mouth before I got over it and rocked.

But what about the Viking Helmet? Certainly it is an omen, a harbinger of the Vikings 'Season of Destiny'.