Beverage of the Week - Life & Limb Sierra/Dogfish Collaboration

What's brought the BoW back after a few months hiatus? A 9 out of 9 perfect score, that's what. Find and buy this one ASAP. You're welcome.

Life & Limb is a completely unique collaboration between Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. It's a match made in heaven - Sierra specializes in eminently drinkable, balanced ales and have proven master collaborators of late (check out the Anniversary series), while no one does crazy experimentation like Dogfish does it. First released in '09, they've done another extremely limited run and I got my hands on an early-release bottle Friday. So what's in the bottle? It starts with hops grown at Sierra, yeast from both brewer's private strains, and Massachusetts maple syrup. Brew that and add Alaskan birch syrup to ferment in some more carbonation and you have an exquisitely balanced, entirely unique 10% ABV bottle of bliss.

Despite the extreme sugars this starts with, nothing overpowers here. The color is light molasses with a thin head, and you can only pick up the maple syrup on the nose if you pay close attention. There's a light roast coffee and some toffee notes there as well. On the palate it all blends beautifully - hints of chocolate and coffee smoothed with maple - so only the best notes stand out. Despite the high alchohol content this is wonderfully smooth; there's a little booziness on the nose but nothing in the taste to distract from all the flavors. The only thing comparable is Founder's Black Biscuit, another amazing limited run that gets aged in maple syrup casks.  Don't miss this one - production is very limited, expect even the best beer shops to only get a case or two at most, and that will disappear in a few days tops.

Beverage of the Week - New Mexico Breweries

The modern world is a wonderfully small place - Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam and even Rouge can be found most anywhere in the country nowadays. In fact, if you sit stationary enough it's quite easy to think that all there is to be had is everywhere at your fingertips....

Ah, but everywhere you trek out far enough there's another brewery you can't find down the trail. Right before I left Indiana I was growing enamoured with People's and Sun King, which I'm willing to guarantee no one outside the state has ever heard of. New Mexico has offered me a whole new bounty of local, privileged appreciation. This week's BoW is both homage and enticement in case anyone want's to visit...

I. La Cumbre Brewing Co.

It's gotta tell you something when a brewery in an out-of-the-way, industrial neck of town fills every seat on a Tuesday night. This is a place that consistently has 1-2 of their beers on cask and specializes in high-alcohol, high flavor beers. Not for the weak at heart, but certainly aimed at my heart. The recent Three-Legged Dog IPA was a 10%+ monster, with a surprisingly mellow hop flavor. My standard is the Malpais Stout, which is drier than most with burnt chocolate notes, really sitting somewhere between a stout and a Baltic porter in my opinion - it sounds rough, but it's amazingly well balanced. As a bonus, they don't serve food so they can stay dog-friendly. I've taken Chester there a couple times now.

II. Marble Brewing Co.

Located a short hike off the strip downtown, Marble is by far the most consistent brewery in town, if not the most interesting. Their IPA is quite nice - the hop-forward without being overwhelming, the sort of IPA you can dig into several glasses of. They have an Irish style strong red that shows up occasionally and is probably their most interesting offering. I hear the white ale is nice as well, but I'm not a white/wheat guy so no commentary from me. Bottom line is this is not the best brewery in town, but it's pretty good and by far the most widely available (right now, they're the only ones bottling for outside sales). It's my local Sierra Nevada equivalent - always tasty and usually an option when faced with a sea of Macrobrewed Pisswiser.

III. Chama River Brewing Co.

Hands down my favorite brewery in town. Their Sleeping Dog Stout is excellent - a nice balance of dark chocolate and rich coffee, but with the bitter notes smoothed out and light bodied enough that I was actually glad when they stopped the 22oz mugs - I'd almost make it through two before Courtney polished off a 16oz pint. Best of all, they have 3-4 rotating taps with seasonals that are often excellent and always interesting. They had a kick-ass Bourbon aged stout last winter, and recently did a very nice Marzen (which you don't see microbrews doing too often). Top that off with an excellent, top-class dinner menu at the main location, and a dig-able, dog-friendly microbar downtown.

Beverage of the Week - Redbreast 12-Year Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey

For my birthday this year, my wife and my parents finally came to there senses and just bought me whiskey. It's the no-fail option. Ironically, though, they bought me the same whiskey. Now, I've always had a lukewarm relationship with Irish whiskey. The older Jameson's are nice, but I've never really ran into an Irish I'd go out of my way for. Irish whiskey always seems to be aiming for unassuming - and that's not me.

But I've been really, really pleasantly surprised by Redbreast.

First, some background. Irish whiskey is a pretty loose term - unlike Scotch or Bourbon, basically any grain can be used and any aging method is fine, so long as it's aged three years and Irish born and bred.* Redbreast is a "pure pot still" whiskey, meaning there's no grain mixed in (unlike all other Irish whiskey but Green Spot).. There's likely blending of different ages and maturations, though, making this more akin to a vatted malt than a single malt. Irish whiskey (Redbreast included) is also almost always triple distilled, where Scotch is only generally only distilled twice. This in part accounts for the smoothness of Irish whiskey and the greater complexity of Scotch - there are more fermentation products sneaking in that bottle of Lagvulin than the Bushmill's.

Back to the bottle at hand. The nose has light pepper, honey, and caramelized milk. The palate has prominent sherry, cake, a little lemony toffee, and just a dash of pepper. On the whole very mild, very smooth, but with some real depth and complexity - unlike pretty much any other Irish but Middleton and some of Bushmill's older bottles. There's a little oiliness as well, and it's a nice touch - it draws out the finish, without being overbearing like younger Laphroig can be (if you aren't accustomed to it). The bottom line - this is smooth, easy-drinking whiskey with enough depth to still interest the connoisseur.

If you like whiskey, you'll really enjoy this. But if you like Jameson, Bushmill's, or even Canadian Whisky, you'll love this stuff. 7.5 out of 9.

Beverage of the Week - Segura Vidas Brut Reserva Cava

Maybe you got a promotion at work. Maybe you rocked finals. Maybe you just got engaged. Maybe you woke up this morning and said, damn, I'm pretty awesome and it'd just be overkill to look for a reason to celebrate (I usually do). Regardless, nothing says par-tay like champagne. Champagne, of course, is a name limited to a bunch of overpriced bubbly from one little area in France (and, of course, Miller High Life). But in the vernacular  it refers to any sparkling white wine, such as this excellent, inexpensive Cava.

Very dry on the finish, this is heavy on the tart apple and bright citrus, but no one would describe it as sweet. Acidity is generally what I look for in a sparkling, and this just pops right off your tongue as soon as it hits it. Back in my bartending days I had plenty of Cristal, Dom, Veuve and the like - they're great, and maybe I lack the palate for champagne, but I honestly think they're only slightly better than this.  It's the sort of champagne you can really savor a glass of, or down a bottle of - and at under $10 a bottle, there's no shame in either strategy.

Fragments and Reflections

The earth we inhabit is an error, an incompetent parody. 

Mirrors and paternity are abominable because they multiply and affirm it.

- J. L. Borges

Beverage of the Week: Marquis Philips Shiraz 2008

Any drink interacts with us in three basic ways - the eyes, the nose, the mouth. I've got my preferences and expectations for every kind of drink, but with red wine it's as follows:

1) I want to be able to hold it up and use it as a New Mexico sunshade.
2) I love catching fruit on the nose, but only squashed underneath something heavier and more complex - leather, cigar smoke, spices. It ought to smell like it's been sitting in the Masterpiece Theater study my wife claims I want.
3) I love fruity, dry wines - and that's not a contradiction. Big berries with low acidity, again smashed in-between deeper notes. The fruit shouldn't linger, but I should know it's there.

So, it's probably no surprise that Syrah tends to be a go-to wine for me. There's a lot of variety in the varietal (yuck yuck), but for big-thick-dry-fruit it's as safe a bet as any. The Australian product, which they insist on calling Shiraz just to get under my anal-retentive skin*, has become hugely popular in the last decade - mostly because they make plenty of mid-priced ones that you might call dumbed-down...or let's say, "more accessible." Marquis Philips, however, is a great example of what a simple Syrah/Shiraz ought to be - it ticks off everything on the list above. And while it's far from the deepest wine you'll ever have, it's something I could drink every damn night with satisfaction and without boredom.

It's currant black - you feel like you could make Rorsch blots with it. It's a silly preference, but I like having something in my glass that looks like it has some weight to it. The nose is big, ripe blueberries, black cherries and currant, with a hint of leather and grass - a little fruitier than I like, but the palate makes up for it. Up front it tastes like you've bit right into all those wild berries, but it quickly dries out - smoky, spicey, then gone. Yum.

Oh, and the critter on the bottle is called a "Roogle" - you may have seen other products from the winery under that name. Get it while you can - I've heard rumors they won't be making any more after the 2008 is gone.

Beverage of the Week: Alaskan Smoked Porter

Given the stupid cold, snowy weather here in New Mexico today, a tribute to one of my all-time favorite beers seems appropriate. Yes, it's undoubtedly tropical here compared to what's knocking on the doors of my friends back east - but trust me, nothing will take the edge off a frigid snowy night (or my incessant whining about the weather) like an Alaskan Smoked Porter.

ASP is a vintage beer, meaning they brew a batch yearly (on Nov 1), date it appropriately, and it will age quite nicely for 5 years or so. Back in New Albany, Richo's kept a small stock going back a few years on their menu with prices appropriately increasing to make sure a few bottles would linger forward from year to year. I still remember the first time I ponied up the 10 or so for a recent bottle - a damn lot of money back when ramen was the nutritional alternative to not eating. The first smoked beer I tried, it's still the standard I judge them by - smoke and musk on the finish, but not overpowering the rich chocolate and barley malt up front....just complimenting, accentuating it. In the past decade smoked beer has become more commonplace, but many just overpower everything with smoked malt until it tastes like a glass of bacon (not that a glass of bacon is all bad, mind you). The longer ASP ages, the more complexities you'll find in it - if you can put off drinking it for that long. I picked up an '09 a couple months back intending to shelve it until '13, but temptation got the better of me last weekend....

I've loved this beer for nearly a decade, way back when I first discovered the joys of porter, but I've only recently gotten to know more about the company behind it and their other products. Alaskan Brewing Company was started by an intrepid Alaskan transplant couple in the 80's, who obviously had way more constitution for snow and bone-cold than I ever will. Back east I'd never seen anything but the smoked porter, but in New Mexico and Colorado others aren't too hard to come by, and while their stout wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, I must say their pale ale is quite pleasant and unique. And who can't love a brewery whose mission is dedicated not only to improving craft beer, but the local economy as well? Well done.

Beverage(s) of the Week: Double IPAs

The Sparrow has a bunch of double/imperial IPA's on tap this week, and they're doing flights. Yeah, I love everything about the concept of beer flights. Anyway, this meant I got to sample five different beers - which isn't as easy as it sounds, you know - and three of them I'll review today: Sun King's Amarillo the Princess Warrior (wtf?), Bell's HopSlam, and Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA. Double India Pale Ales (DIPAs) are essentially high-alcohol IPAs, often with expanded hopiness (thought these are milder in that respect). Sometimes they're called Imperial IPAs, after Imperial stouts, which have a similar philosophy.

Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA: By now, this could be considered a classic. While DH's stuff disappoints me as often as it excites me, I always respect their creativity and risk taking. You could almost call this boring by their standards, but being continually hopped AND dry hopped, it was certainly and innovator in its day. Not to mention it's a hop-focused beer that actually tries (and succeeds) in balancing that bite, unlike a certain Indiana DIPA which was also in last week's flight. This was actually the first time I'd tried this on tap, and i have to say it's much improved fresh off as opposed to bottled. Light bodied, golden amber in color with citrus notes forward, balancing out the hoppy floral notes. There's a surprising bready maltiness here, but nothing overwhelms and it finishes with a lovely mild bitter hoppy bite. Eminently drinkable - just remember it's 9.0% ABV. 8/9 on tap (7.5/9 bottled).

Bell's HopSlam: Wow. Again, first time I've had this on tap, and while I've always enjoyed this beer, this was impressive. Strawberry. Slightly overripe strawberries. On the nose and the palate - I shit you not. And it's damn smooth over the hops. It's a darker amber, positively lovely all around. It's hard to believe that this is 10% ABV, but I'm going to keep it in mind as I could down several of these in a sitting if I let myself forget what the next morning might feel like....I give it an 8.5/9, maybe even higher...I need to try this again when I haven't been sucking down a bunch of high gravity beers, heh.

Sun King Amarillo the Princess Warrior: Sun King is an up-and-comer out of Indianapolis, and they apparently take craft brewing seriously. This is the second of their beers I've tried, the first being a black IPA which was quite refreshing and unique. This one is named for the Amarillo and Warrior hops involved. Of the three, this is likely the most approachable (though all are mellow for DIPAs). The body is medium to light, hops are forward but not overwhelming, the citrus gives way to more floral notes, and neither malt or hoppy bitterness is overwhelming. Reminds me a lot of Two Hearted, actually, but there's more depth here (and more alcohol, at 9%). 7.5/9, but I probably need to spend some more time getting to know this one, without four other DIPAs clouding my palate.

Beverage of the Week: Founders Black Biscuit

I think I've found a brewing company that loves dark beer as much as I do. I've got all these tingly-inside feelings. I could just titter away like a schoolgirl.

Founders Black Biscuit starts with an imperial stout, which in itself is excellent (though I still prefer Gonzo, myself). That lovely little stout then goes to live in oak barrels, and though there's no horse's-mouth info on Founders' website, the story I've been able to put together is as follows: these barrels start life aging bourbon, travel up to Michigan to create another lovely Founder's beer (Kentucky Breakfast Stout), then they head to New England to age maple syrup for a while, and THEN they come back to age Black Biscuit in the old gypsum caves under Grand Rapids. Tres cool.

This is a pitch-dark, night sky of beer with a burnt-toffee head. The nose tells the tale of those well-traveled barrels, but the best part is everything is underplayed - just hints of maple, bourbon and earthy oak, all calmly mingling. My one complaint about most bourbon stouts - KBS included - is the bourbon is way too thick and coarse on the nose. This doesn't fall into that trap; everything is mild enough to let more delicate notes come through. The palate is very similar, and a love the way the hint of maple ties the dark chocolate, coffee, and bourbon notes together....this is a beer where you can think through all the interesting notes, but ultimately they cohere into one hell of a good beer. Easily an 8.5 out of 9.

Just one thing left to do - I have to find that maple syrup.

Deprograming

Lately Courtney has been listening to an ambient/experimental station while drifting off at night, and I'm becoming rather enamoured with it myself. Theremins and odd synthesizer shifts, birds or car horns, there's a mix of the digital and the natural with no obvious logic. It's an ebb and a swell, a fall and a crash without reason. I can't find the pattern, and it soothes me.

Pattern is the operative word here. I can't really say for sure why this stuff has caught my midnight ear, but I think the lack of a (discernible) pattern is important. Lately I've gotten bored with music. Period. Literature, too - I pick up a book, I read ten pages, and my mind is somewhere else. I think the ease I've been finding from all this semi-random noise is connected; I think the pattern has grown predictable.

Music is, classically speaking, artsy math. Don't get me wrong - I love music, I love math. Like most art, it's a pattern that predicates meaning from its predictability. There's a system, a theory underlying any art - not the same theory, mind you, but infinite theories. That's the real secret to why some people "get" Picasso, Modest Mouse, the Residents, Joyce, or bathroom wall graffiti. There's a master logic, a pattern-system that underlies each one. The more one becomes familiar with the pattern-system beneath any given piece of art, the more familiar it becomes, the more it evokes meaning. That comfortable sense of what comes next, of things fitting comfortably into a prefabricated world view - that is the essence of "meaning." The new is nearly always a logical extension of the old.

And that's where this ambient/noise stuff comes in. I can't find the pattern. It's probably there, mind you, but drifting off at night to something with no predictions seems to take apart all my preconceptions of what should come next. The older I get, the more I seem to seek out standardization for my moments - a pattern for the day, the week, the year. It's that pattern that makes sense of it all, that gives it meaning. But a century of great thought has been devoted to westernizing the ancient eastern notion that no, there is no real pattern, there is no real meaning. There is only a naive desire to invent such notions.

The last couple of years I've felt like every time I grab a guitar each note has already been predicted, every time I lift a pen I'm just transcribing something . And now I sense that drifting off at night to something without a pattern deconstructs the day, undermining my expectations and leaving room for calm surprise. i sense a space growing where something new might happen. Very nice.

Beverage of the Week: Henry McKenna 10 Year Single Barrel

Before I dig into this week's bourbon: last night an amazing, happy event occured. I walked into the Sparrow and what should greet my eyes but "New Albanian 15B Porter" on the chalkboard. Oh, happy day.

Anyway, sticking with the notion that the BoW should have relatively wide availability, this week we have Henry McKenna's single barrel offering. This is another excellent, affordable offering from Heaven Hill Distilleries, makers of my all-time favorite value whiskey, Evan William's Single Barrel. This is also very nice stuff at a reasonable price (~$30), but I chose it as much to talk about marketing as the whiskey itself.

For starters, this whiskey makes a big fuss about being "bottled in bond." Legally, this means it is 1) the product of a single distillery, 2) the product of one distillation season, and 3) bottled at 100 proof. As you can imagine, aside from the 100 proof bit (which is mostly irrelevant), every single barrel whiskey on the market could be called "bottled in bond," as could the majority of small batch whiskeys, and quite a few regular-old age dated products. HK makes it sound like this status is the holy grail of whiskey, however, and I think this is an excellent example of how aggressive and misleading advertising is getting as the premium whiskey market swells with new products. Another interesting thing about this product - the billing leads you to believe this is a sort of Irish bourbon recipe, an idea furthered by the attractive green packaging. I have never heard of any Irish whiskey made from corn, and tasting-wise this has about as much in common with Irish whiskey as Captain Morgan. I enjoyed this whiskey quite a bit, but caveat emptor nonetheless.

Back to the tasting. I really enjoy the nose on this - for a higher proof whiskey, you can really get into it without catching any of that alcohol sear in your nostrils. There's the a maple-forward note, and a hint of dark chocolate down there too. The mouth feel is great, with a thickness that reminds me of Booker's. The palate is nice as well, though it is definitely less complex than say a Van Winkle, or Evan Williams Single Barrel, for that matter. It's very focused on sweetness, with toffee, honey, and vanilla predominating. The alcohol comes out more on the palate than the nose, though, so I wouldn't hesitate to bring it down a bit with some water. All in all, a 7/9 - a great everyday bourbon. My favorite thing is that it is just good enough to really enjoy but not so good I'm tempted to hoard it back (hence the near-empty bottle).

Oh, and this was from barrel #358.

Deadline

I have 15 minutes to write this post. What to talk about?

I'm slowly wiring my life, creating electronic shortcuts to simultaneously introduce new levels of distance between myself and my end actions while ironically unifying those end-actions into synthetic, complex outputs. Maybe that's just a really complicated way of saying I'm hooked on universal remote controls and wifi-beaming radio/TV/literature, but I think it is an interesting phenomenon. Some days, 80% of my life is experience through a screen - not just watching TV, but reading journals, connecting with friends, etc. And this has become so second nature, that I've started constantly seeking out ways to simplify this simplification, to compress as many activities into one screen, to compact as many outputs into one interface as possible.

If I was a text, I'd be a web page, a mash up, a portal somewhere(s) else. But I certainly wouldn't be any singular snowflake. I'm not sure what I think about this. What do you think about this?

Fluid Economics

From the art car show in Louisville last summer.

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

A few nights ago I was at the bar (imagine!) with good friends, having a good conversation over good beer. As the night wound down, one of them got the mistaken impression that I had some interesting ideas and chastised me for not doing more to get said ideas out of a small circle of friends and into the world. The gist of it was I should be writing more (i.e., at all), and since I returned that serve by chastising him about something he really needs to do...well, here I am, giving this blog thing another whirl. So, I thought I'd start -- again -- by discussing why I've developed a sort of apathy/aversion to writing. After all, it wasn't so many years ago that the focal point of my goals and aspirations was to be a bloody writer.

Funny, that.

I.
I believe in the unfortunate power of white noise. Back when I was doing my M.A., I noticed there were a lot of very intelligent people around me, and they were all talking. A lot. Also, I wandered into the library one day and it dawned on me - there were a lot of books there. Likewise, it turned out there were quite a few channels on TV, all producing quite a bit of programing...And meanwhile, there was this internet thing producing a positively unfathomable amount of text (not to mention garish little .gif animations). I also noticed amongst all this roar, nearly everyone - from erudite English professors and their budding acolytes, to reclusive novelists, to game show contestants - well, they were a fair bit more interested in being heard than in listening to anything. You do the metaphorical math on that one, but here are some fun numbers: According to UNESCO data, there were 178,000 books printed in the US and Britain during 2005. If those averaged 200 pages each - almost certainly a low estimate - that would be over 35 million pages, and if you read a page-per-minute constantly you could get caught up in 67.7 years.

Do I think that nothing can ever be heard amongst all that sound and fury? No, but I do think it is a strong argument that dumb luck and connections have a far greater influence on what is read/heard than the actual quality of anyone's ideas or articulation. It also makes me a bit embarrassed by how seriously I used to take myself.

II.
In terms of permanence, thinking, speaking, and writing lie on a continuum. Western society always posits permanence as a good thing, as that which we aim for. That gets problematic when you are talking about ideas, though. For ideas (and society) to progress they must be able to develop -- they must be flexible, they must be adaptable. The beauty of thought, left alone in one's relatively vacant head, is that it is infinitely mutable. The simple fact that one can forget all or part of an idea left ephemeral means that it must always be re-invented, and likewise, it will always be influenced by the present more than the past. Similarly, speaking/discussing keeps ideas ethereal, though provides a bit more fixation via multiple memories; more importantly, development is encouraged by multiple voices, each a unique incarnation of the present.

Now, the written idea is of course adaptable through a different method -- that of interpretation -- but ultimately the stuff of ideas contained in textual discourse is far more tethered to the "literal" and historical. That is, after all, the purpose of textual communication - and this sense of permanence contained in cultural texts (Das Kapital, Wealth of Nations, Barbie, the Eiffel Tower, etc.) congeals every society.

Does that mean writing should be abandoned in favor of bathroom pondering and bar chit-chat? No, but it does make the notion of putting things to paper quite sobering. A great American thinker claimed the mark of an intelligent man was the ability to change his mind*; putting today's mind to paper goes a long way toward making tomorrow's mind. Yes, my fear of commitment is that fundamental.

III.
Tyler Durden said it best: You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. Neither are our ideas. A quick look at the history of scientific discovery shows a seemingly bizarre number of simultaneous discoveries. Leibniz/Newton's discovery of calculus is likely the most famous, but a little digging will turn up tons of others, even if only one name generally makes the history books. Yes, this seems quite strange, until you accept that the ideas they are advancing are the product of a common intellectual history, and furthermore, their approach to those ideas are typically the product of common cultural history.

I deny that the prime motivator of history is individual genius. I deny it as Randian stupidity. I posit instead that the prime motivator of history is the combination of prior history, necessity, and a bit of blind chance. Yes, Einstein's ideas were groundbreaking and unique at that particular moment, but I would argue that they were more the product of intellectual history and present cultural necessity than of individual genius. That's not to say he wasn't a genius, but their was plenty of genius about at the time (the majority going unrecorded in popular history) and a different voice would have eventually been found for the same ideas. If it can happen, it must happen - eventually.

So, am I arguing that there is no point in tossing out one's ideas, as others will get around to them anyway? Of course not. But I do feel that any personal feeling of obligation and urgency for speaking out is more the product of egotism than necessity. Ultimately, there are only these possibilities for a given idea: you or someone else will speak it, and it will either be heard or ignored. I'm a Taoist, after all. Our meddling is ultimately irrelevant, if nonetheless necessary.

------

Blah, blah, blah. I also avoid writing because I can't spell for shit, and I sound a lot more intelligent when you don't see me saying alot. Anyway, there are things I like about writing, too. Like punctuation. I love punctuation. Maybe if I can stick with this blogging bit a little longer this time I'll remember what the others are.

Beverage of the....Last few months?

Yup, been a bit busy with clinics starting and all. But on the bright side, I've got plenty of reasons to drink. And my last rotation took me to Chicago where I visited Binny's liquor store for the first time. The place has a WHOLE ROOM of rare spirits, including a 20k Ardbeg....But I digress. While there, I picked up a bottle of Sazerac Rye (and after I tried it, I went back for a second).

You don't see much rye at your average bottle shop nowadays, but most are worth checking out when you do. Sazerac is made made at Buffalo Trace in Kentucky and bottled in Louisiana - the home of the classic sazerac cocktail which this beauty is named after. Ryes substitute spiciness for bourbon's sweetness, and this one is no slouch. It has a huge, voluptuous mouthfeel similar to Booker's but the caramel notes are drowning in pepper and caraway. Caraway is big on the nose as well. Just lovely.

BoW a-thon LIVE!: Founders Porter

Okay, so an aside - it seems all the beers I brought home are pretty high gravity. This next one's 6.5%, and it's one of the "lighter" ones. Yeah....prolly not making it through all of them tonight.

Anyway, Founders does it again. These guys from Grand Rapids, Michigan can do dark beer. Their Breakfast Stout is one of my new favorites, and apparently their porter is no slouch either. Somewhere between an oily, super heavy Baltic porter and the coffee-carmel richness of the best English porters, this is officially good stuff.

Roasted barley drowns the nose, but there's a touch of dark chocolate and malt under there as well. The palate really lines up with the nose, with sweet malty barley hint-o'-chocolaty goodness. Some might say that makes it less complex, but I really enjoy my mouth and nose having a simultaneous...well, you get the picture. 8/9, just shy of Sinebrychoff. Yum.

Word to the wise, though - I haven't been terribly impressed with Founders reds or pales and such.

BoW-a-thon LIVE!: Victory Hop Devil Ale

As often happens, I was sitting on the patio at a nearby bar downing an overgrown Bell's Two-Hearted when suddenly inspiration struck. Go to the liquor store, and grab a sixer of singles you haven't tried before. Review them. Live.

(Okay, either I'm not getting through all of them tonight, or the last reviews won't be worth reading...fair enough.)

First off, we have Hop Devil Ale from Victory Brewing Co. out of Downington, PA. The master brewers are German-trained, but you wouldn't know it by their beers - they are quintessentially American style microbrews. Even their pilsner is hoppy. But, I likes me some hops. However, while Hop Devil is an IPA it is surprisingly balanced. There's no missing the hops, but they don't overshadow the rest of the beer either. Maybe it's due to Victory using whole-flower hops. Maybe.

On the nose, Hop Devil is heady and yeasty, with a hint of fressh grass that reaffirms my commitment to IPA's as lawnmower beers. Once again, the hoppy bitterness is there but mild, and there's a lot of citrus fruit. Maybe a bit of grapefruit?

7/9 overall. Certainly nothing breathtakingly unique, but certainly tasty and refreshing.

Beverage of the Week - Water

That's right. Water.

I've been cutting back on the alcohol lately*, and when I was thinking up potential BoW's it hit me - wouldn't it be neat to just talk about water? I mean, it's THE beverage. 

For starters, it's a fundamental ingredient in every alcoholic beverage. Take whiskey, for instance. It's a well-understood fact that a large amount of the character of a given whiskey depends on the water used during fermentation, as well as the water added to most before bottling (to "cut" them down to standard alcohol content). Islay scotches, for example, get much of their peat and smoke because the island is covered in peat and salty ocean air. The streams at Lagvulin are so peated the water literally looks like strong tea. Other whiskey's pick up crisp mineral notes because the local water runs through granite beds, softening it up.

But water isn't just a condiment for my future liver condition, either. No mater how much I love a good lawnmower beer, straight water is certainly the most refreshing thing around. Research has shown that a simple glass of water leaves you more alert than a cup of coffee. Wanna make life easier on your heart and kidneys? Drink plenty of water. And I swear to you, from personal experience, ensuring you drink that eight-plus glasses everyone talks about is the simplest thing you can do to ensure instant-gratification, obvious health benefits. Most of us inadvertently stay relatively dehydrated; you will feel better if you drink more water.

Chemically speaking, water is amazing stuff. Water is pretty much the only liquid that expands when it freezes (most shrink). And it's also because of its unique molecular structure that so many solids, like salt for instance, can dissolve into it. Your blood is full of such substances, and because your blood is mostly water, they dissolve and flow wherever needed - rather than just settling like gravel in the creek bed of your veins. Likewise, the chemical ability to put things into solution is why adding a bit of water to a glass of whiskey can "open it up" and bring out flavours you might miss. Try adding a few drops at a time.

Water. It's delicious. It's neat. Go have a glass on me.

* In my world, that means I'm down to about twice the normal rate.

diePod

Everyone worth knowing has one or two pop-culture obsessions. Quirks, to put it nicely. Mine are a) Ninjas and b) Zombies. This post has nothing to do with ninjas.

Sunday morning I headed out to the local Panera for coffee-flavored work. Heading to my usual table I discovered a good friend had beat me to it - I started to say hello, then noticed her plugged into the iPod. I decided to perform an experiment. Sitting down at the table behind her, I decided to see how long it would take her to detach from the iPod and notice me (or anything). But then The Wife came around the other way with our coffee, and walked right in front of her. Certainly she spotted her, and I thought no more about it - until an hour later, when Leah turned around and jerked in surprise as she noticed us for the first time.

I think you see where I'm going here.

If someone made a movie where 85% of people were plugged into some device, totally unaware of their surroundings, everyone who watched would be horrified by such a dystopian future (though you might still take the blue pill). But Steve Jobs and Co. have slowly zombified America, and everyone's more worried about the features/style/price of the new iPhone than the fact that sounds of conversation have drained from every street, waiting line, and tram station. I used to ride the bus to campus every day, and it was bloody creepy - perfect rows of filled seats, everyone looking at their shoes, wires running into their ears...I had to either stop riding or go buy a shotgun. Just in case.

Seriously, though - I don't know if their is some strange, modern desire to remove ourselves from the world around us, or if it's just apathy induced by all the semi-satisfying artificial contact we're inundated with. What I am sure of, however, is that this is not a good point in human history for impersonalization and disconnection. Darfur, Somalia, nuclear proliferation, insane dilettante dictators testing ballistic missles...not to mention the economic mess - like unemployment and thousands of nearly unemployable retirees forced back into SlaveMart as unbridled capitalism robs their savings and pensions. I suppose riding the iPod mothership to a mass exodus from personal involvement should come as no surprise....But the impetus to confront such problems is exponentially higher when confronted by a human factor like an 80 year old grandmother talking to you on her bus ride to inspect receipts at walmart, rather than data from an NPR podcast. Meanwhile, millions of people literally walk around with cotton stuffed in their ears...

Music is great. Just take the headphones off and enjoy it with someone. If for no other reason -I'm pretty sure the Ultimate Bad Thing that results from generalized civil apathy is the Zombie Apocalypse. And with only a sawed-off shotty between me and the brain-eaters, you shoe-staring iPod junkies don't want me getting confused.

Beverage of the Week - Appleton V/X Estate Rum

The best part of doing these booze reviews - it gives me a reason to go dig about and research the product at hand. I've already learned quite a bit of interesting stuff about previous beverages, and this week was doubly nice because I've a lot less background in rum than whiskeys or beer (though I did pick up some interesting historical knowledge from Tom Standage's A History of the World in Six Glasses, which I highly recommend).

In the snifter this week we have one of our household-standards, Appleton V/X Rum. Aside from stimulating me to look a bit more closely at an old favorite, I thought it would also be a good departure to review something in the bargain category - you shouldn't have any trouble finding this for $15-$18, though I'd happily pay more if necessary. Appleton V/X is a perfect example of what rum should be, and if your experience is limited to Bacardi and Captain Morgan you're missing out.

A blend of 15 rums aged between 5-10 years (hence, V/X), this Appleton takes its golden hue and vanilla-toffee notes from the oak barrels its components mature in. Tasting it neat, I swear I picked up a pleasing bit of burnt hazelnut that spiced up the more mellow flavors and sweetness, making it really interesting on the palate. The nose is mainly brown sugar and vanilla, with a touch of spice to perk things up again. And, while I'm mostly opposed to polluting good liquor with mixers, I have to say this stuff makes the best damn rum and coke or daiquiri's you are likely to find. That sweet, smooth spice really brings something out of a soda...I think the carbonation opens some flavors up in the rum, too.

For more on Appleton's offerings, and a good bit of quick history on this classic molasses afterthought that once fueled the British Navy, check out their website.