aiki_brewer

Don't be too jealous - it's really about the only thing I'm good at, and also, beer snobs can be insufferable... Also, I consider myself more of a beer dilettante than a specialist. A beer blog would be very dull - a few hours of excitement on brewing day, and then 3-5 weeks of watching CO2 bubble, slowly, out of the fermenter - plip... plip... plip...

The beer was outstanding. It's actually been conditioning for about a month and a half (it was supposed to be ready for GC when the, ahem, project was finished), and the extra time has allowed it to develop. It now has some complex, subtle fruit undertones that it didn't have after the basic fermentation was done. GC's hardly worthy of it... You know what they say - comedy is tragedy that happens to somebody else... With apologies to those who aren't interested (but hey, we had an extended discussion of names for burnt rice, like the twenty-five Inuit words for snow...) - the sword is for iaido, the art of killing from the draw. Very traditional, practiced mainly as solo forms. (Kendo is more like modern fencing, practiced with pads and bamboo "swords.") Aikido is primarily "open-hand," but we occasionally practice weapon take-aways, including sword disarming techniques. Having trained with a sword, all I can say is, "yeah, right..."

'Fraid not. "Eye-key." After practice, I am frequently achy, though in nine years (knock on wood) no breakies... Don't tell GC, but it's not a real sword - no edge, just for practice. Not that I couldn't get one on short notice... Besides, the aikido would be more effective - pop limbs from sockets like disassembling a roast chicken, without leaving a mark! What do you know, GC got his butt to the job right early this morning, but not before I left, so we had a little chat, and confidence is up again. That may be the worst part, the roller-coaster inconsistency. That, and hiring a surfer to do work for very detail-oriented people...

She's called me in to play the heavy - that thunderous sound you hear is me cracking my knuckles in preparation for pulling the ring on that can of whoop-ass...

Only evil. Sweet, delicious evil... That's JGarner53 herself, about age 5, I think. She's just as cute today, though a bit less blond...

He has a name, you know. And even a EG log-in! He just hasn't checked it since he was bizzy watching the beer forums 2 years ago...

I'd figure that Red Hook ESB would be a pretty good choice - 5.77% ABV, easy to drink, and probably well-priced (and easy to get). Not very exciting, I know, but, hey, it doesn't sound like these are people into exciting beer. It's a good craft (yes, I know they haven't qualified as a microbrewery in years) "wedge" or "beginner" beer. Or, you could go with their Winterhook seasonal, 6.11% ABV and with a little more character.

Stouts, particularly modern stouts, don't have to be molasses. Pub stouts like Guinness and Murphy's are often referred to as "session" stouts, because they're not so heavy and therefore you can keep drinking them throughout the night. To some extent, I think that the idea that stouts are heavy (or especially strong) beers is a psychological one, partially from the fact that they're dark and opaque, and partially from the fact that most commerical beers in America are so light and weak. Is Duck Rabbit (I'm reminded of the Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Rabbit Duck; I can't remember if it's the one with "Wabbit season... Duck season!" or "Well I say he DOES have to shoot me now... SO SHOOT ME NOW! (blam!) You're DITHPICABLE!") local to Greensboro? I've had imported milk stout (Mackeson's XXX), and made my own, but haven't ever seen any from the local microbreweries and pubs here in the SF Bay area.

has fat tire started distributing outside colorado? ← It's definitely in California (or at least the SF Bay area).

Any chance, after Tuesday, that we can get our Good Friends Up North to annex California? I promise we'll bring all of our breweries (Anchor, Sierra, Speakeasy, Stone, Anderson Valley, Bear Republic, Bison, Buffalo Bill's, Firestone Walker, Lagunitas, Lost Coast, Mad River, Mendocino, Moylan's, North Coast, Pete's, Sudwerk, and St. Stan's, to name a few) with us! (And maybe Pyramid and Rogue, too, if we can get WA and OR to come with us.)

I'm afraid the only appropriate response to that is this cross-post from the "Worst Beer Ever tasted" forum (thanks, JetLag!) "When I lived in Mexico City all my Mexican coworkers called Corona pepe de raton, rat's piss!" Of course, I'll admit that I enjoyed one of those myself last night, after a fiece 1.5 hour martial arts workout; I probably would've gacked on Ommegang or Chimay...

There's been XPmas stuff in Walgreen's alongside Halloween stuff (makes for an interesting juxtaposition) since Labor Day. Used to be that Thanksgiving was front line, then it fell back to Halloween. If Labor Day falls, there'll be no stopping XPmas's inexorable march towards Independence Day and its ultimate goal of 6 months of XPmas Of course, Full Sail Wassail and Anchor Christmas year-round wouldn't be such a bad thing (Way to get back on topic, eh?)

If you get Pyramid beers out there, they make a Kolsh called Curveball, though they only sell it from May to July (it's their baseball season seasonal).

Bison Brewing's (of Berkeley, CA) Chocolate Stout, about 4 years ago at the SF International Beer Festival. Imagine taking a skunky ale and stirring a big heaping spoonful of Nestle Quick into it. I had to spit my free sample out into a nearby garbage can, and the lingering affects ruined the next several tastings.

Um, wouldn't that be a Black and Very Dark Brown? I'll defer to the English bartender, though I've always heard either Guinness and Bass (mmmm, nationalist rivalry in a pint glass) or Guinness and Harp (though mixing ale and lager offends my zymurgian sensibilities). I've even once had Guinness and Sierra Nevada Pale ale served as a Black and Tan, but I wouldn't recommend it!