Stuart and Bruce's Fruity Bash!

OK, that's not the real name of the beer, but the two mensches that put the hard work into this ale couldn't think of anything more serious. This was the second home brew that I've completed, and I had the utmost pleasure of making the wort, and beginning the fermentation process with Douglas. To give you sports fans some kind of time frame, we did this on the same day as the Wild Card game of the Atlanta Falcons visiting the Arizona Cardinals. While the recipe called for the beer to prime for four weeks after being bottled, I couldn't contain myself and had one after a week. It tasted OK, but I could tell that it would be much better three weeks from then. Yet this weekend while watching the Oscars with the Special Lady Friend and some of her gal pals, I couldn't resist again and cracked one open, two weeks post the original opening. The title of the beer is completely mis-leading, there is no fruit in the beer, but rather a bit of fruitiness was in order during the brew (the Circle of Purple jokes ran a muck that day). The aroma was a little weaker than expected, but still very present. I didn't get a chance to get a real look at the color of it because I drank straight from the bottle, but I'm guessing it was a cloudy amber. The taste, I felt, was fantastic. The hops stood out most with a slight bitterness that wasn't harsh, yet there was still a sweet malty undertone present. Fruity Bash left nothing hanging afterwards, and finished delectably crisp.



Beermigos Rating: Dinner with the Inlaws/Burger and Brew: This one could go either way. It had a lively bitter taste, yet finished very crisply that would allow one to further enjoy a burger with it. Yet, the alcohol content didn't seem very high, making it safe with the In laws.

Estrella Galicia

In the northwest corner, Galicia is separated from the rest of Spain by a mountain range only the most hardy of travellers may pass.  This divide, over the centuries, has helped harbour sentiments of neglect, aliention and natural superiority of Gallegos  over the other Spaniards.  Like every other autonomous region of Spain, this is evident in the continuation of a unique language, special, delicious cuisine, constant, occasionally violent protests calling for a socialist sovereign nation and by the sheer and decisive lack of any beer other than their own shining star: la estrella Galicia.

There, as in every bar during the siesta, I sat among the other men at midday with my cana and tapa, reading the newspaper and watching Rafa Nadal destroy some pithy opponent on television.  Santiago de Compostela is one of the few spanish cities that exercises still the practice of delivering a tapa (a small plate of food place on top of the beer to keep the flies out) with the purchase of every alcoholic beverage).  I looked down the bar at a thick old man hunched deep on his stool, leaning on the bar with a beer in one hand and a piece of bread in the other, wiping the foam from his face like a napkin.  Down the other side of the bar was a younger man, cigarette in hand, leaning back legs crossed, gazing carefully at the tennis match, muttering softly vamos rafa vamos rafa at every return.

"Joder!" I heard, "Joder" with the dense thump of knuckles on the table as one old man behind me, with his cigar clenched tight in his teeth, swearing, slammed down his cards on the table.  His old man friend, bursting from his three piece suit smiled and kicked back in victory before the two raised their beers together, "Salud, no pasa nada."

I took a swig and wiped my face with my bread as is the local tradition.  I took a bite of the tapa, a hearty beer stew, swigged again, finished the tapa, paid my 1.20 euro, folded the paper and stepped out into the sunny day for a nap in the park, the star of galicia settling deep in my stomach, urging me to enjoy the day without rain, without boots, without pack.

joder, i say.  galicia non se vende!

rating: burger and brew.  although not consumed with the fanfare of a burger, this estrella galicia/tapa combo is certainly the european equivalent of that cherished american meal.

Fun Fact Friday!

Ole! There's supposed to be an accent on the E, but again, don't know how to do it. This week's fun little nugget is about a feat that was accomplished today, 47 years ago. John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth in outer space in the spaceship the "Friendship 7." For such an awesome accomplishment, doing it in something called the "Friendship 7" seems slightly demeaning. Why didn't they called it the "Space Ripper 5000," or "Atmosphere Obliterater?" Yeah, yeah I know the whole Cold War thing was going on, but come on. Glenn himself was a bit of a bad ass who started out in the Marine Corp as a pilot, who eventually moved on to be an astronaut for NASA. He flew 59 combat missions in World War II serving in the South Pacific, mostly dropping bombs and taking out Anti-Aircraft guns. Glenn also served in 63 combat missions in the Korean War, where he earned the alias "Magnet Ass," for all of the Anti-Aircraft guns that went after him. He eventually moved on to NASA, and was apart of the initial astronaut program known as the Mercury Project. He eventually went into space and orbited the Earth three times in a little less than 5 hours. After his NASA career he became a US Senator for his home state of Ohio for almost 25 years. He became relevant again in 1999 when he went back into space at the ripe age of 77, making him the oldest person to leave the Earth.

Have a great weekend,

PROST!

Fun Fact Friday!

Since today is the widely feared Friday the 13th, and there's been more than enough baseball in the news with all of the steroids and players reporting to spring camp soon, I felt it was necessary to inform you readers about the most famous curse in baseball; the Billy Goat Curse. The Chicago Cubs currently hold the longest championship drought in all of American major professional sports. The Cubs won their last World Series in 1908, yes, over 100 years ago. They saw a fair amount of success through out the twenties and the thirties winning multiple pennants, but that all changed one day during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. A local pub owner, William Sianis, had bought two box seats for the game. One ticket for himself, one ticket for his pet goat Murphy. Another little tid bit, the cost of each ticket was $7.20. For box seats. Game 4. World Series. Are you kidding me? Sianis and Murphy got by the ushers at the gate, but were forcefully ejected by the owner, Phillip Wrigley, because of the objectionable smell. Naturally Sianis was offended, and when being taken out of the building he proclaimed that the Cubs would never win a pennant, or play another World Series in Wrigley field. Since then, the late Mr. Wrigley apologized to Sianis, who after a couple of years proclaimed to lift his curse. It didn't work. The Cubs organization tried bringing in Sianis' Nephew, who brought in a goat, the first time it was ever aloud, and the Cubs ended up winning their division that year. However they didn't win the pennant. In 2003 there was the infamous Bartman incident, and if you don't know what happened there, you probably didn't even read this because you couldn't care less about sports. So this weekend, give a nice toast to any of your buds that may be Cubs fans, they've gone through suffering that very few sports fans have ever known.

PROST.

The Abyss

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a trip out to Bend where the Special Lady Friend's parents live. Bend is a lovely little town, that appreciates the outdoors more than any town I've ever seen. You have multiple mountains with in driving distance (the three Sisters, Broken Top, Bachelor), there's more than enough skiing in the winter, along with endless amounts of hiking and bike trails. It is also home to one of my personal favorite breweries, Deschutes. While we were there, Whit's family and I took advantage of the free tours of the Deschutes facility, and it is top notch. They had a giant, refrigerated room where they stored all of their hops making me want to set up a cot in there so I could live in the aroma euphoria. Naturally, that didn't fly with them. Anyway, later that evening after we had celebrated Whit's birthday, her pops and I cracked open a tall boy of The Abyss, a brew that has won many awards. Watching it being poured, I could tell this was going to be a hardy stout that was going to be a damn fine desert. It came with a very thick, brown head that kept true to the thick feel of the beer. It smelled of beautiful sweetness, a mixture of malt, molasses, and licorice. The taste was primarily of licorice and left nothing hanging at the end. I can understand why this drink was difficult to find. In the end, I wanted more, but even if there had been anything left in the bottle, it was so filling I don't think I could have had any more.

Beermigos rating: Onesy. This is a well crafted beer, and really shows Deschutes mix of creativity with simplicity that is a characteristic of their beers. I was tempted to rate this as a "Pondering the meaning of life with your Beermigos," however, I'm not a big fan of black licorice so the taste wasn't quite at that level for me. However, if you do enjoy black licorice, you might disagree with my rating.

Fun Fact Friday!

I want to take a more serious angle on this week's FFF because of a tragedy that has hit home recently. A dear family friend took her own life last week and has left a wake of hurt, confusion, and frustration behind. I attended her funeral yesterday, and I truly believe that if she could have seen people's reactions to her untimely death, things would be different. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, they are wonderful people and it is a truly devastating thing that no one should go through. What I wanted to add as the Fun Fact, or in this week's case the Serious Fact, is that there are people out there that want to listen to you talk and help you. If you don't feel comfortable talking to your parents, talk to a friend. If you don't feel comfortable talking to your friends, talk to a teacher. There are many different suicide hot lines that all want to listen to you vent about what's wrong in your life, and maybe help give you some perspective. http://suicidehotlines.com/ this website has a couple of hot lines for national services that are free, and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The web site also has numbers for hot lines in each individual state through out the US. If you ever hear someone mention something about suicide, don't be afraid to tell somebody else that can get them help. If you've had thoughts of suicide yourself, there are people out there who want to listen to you and try to help you, don't be afraid. I've never had thoughts of suicide myself so I'm not going to pretend to know what it's like, but I do know how much pain it causes and that there are billions of people who would stop in an instant to talk to you.

Here are the two national hot lines:
1-800-784-2433
1-800-273-8255

PROST

Mighty Arrow New Belgium Brewery

Good afternoon beer lovers, hope everything is going well in your lives at the moment. I had the pleasure to enjoy this fine pale ale at one of my favorite spots, Rennie's Landing. The occasion was very special as well, seeing as it was the Special Lady Friend's birthday. This was a fantastic beer to celebrate her 22 years on this planet, and also a tease of the up coming spring with it's fantastic weather. The light yellow color along with the thin white head, and sweet floral smell had me excited to start downing the brew. There are some beers with the way they taste, smell, and look that just automatically put you in a good mood, and Mighty Arrow is one of them. The taste started with a strong bite of hops that dominated most of the after taste. The finish was quite sharp and quick after the sip, but had a slight taste of malty goodness. There might have been just a tweak of wheat in there, but that might be my imagination as well. All around a very pleasant beer that would be good any day of the year.

Beermigos rating: BBQ brew; this beer just made me think of sunshine while roasting up some brawts and dogs. I have a feeling this is why it made me so chipper, and really is an excellent one for spring because it's very refreshing and has substance at the same time.