So, I thought I would enlighten any of you that may be beer drinkers and are unaware of the best beer in the world -- Bell's Two Hearted Ale. Take a peak at that link and review some of their other wonderful brews straight out of Comstock, Michigan. Bell's brings the Comstock lode (pun intended) to brewing good beer.
Two hearted ale is a wonderful balance of drinkability and hop presence. Bell's often uses Hemingway-esque to describe this brew, and despite my not quite being able to find a clear definition in my mind of what that means, it seems about as good as I could come up with as a critic. Tap. Please. Thank you.
Showing posts with label Beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beer. Show all posts
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Spring Training Vacation...
It has been nearly a month, and if I'm ever going to post on our jaunt to South Florida I must get to it. We travelled by bus to O'Hare, and then flew to West Palm Beach via Philadelphia (pretty direct flight, huh?). Our trip went without any significant issues and we were able to make it to the Bed and Breakfast (Tropical Gardens B&B) we stayed at by 7:30 PM on Saturday. We were greeted by the proprietor's Steve and Evie, who live on-site. This is a wonderful plus to any B&B in my opinion. Steve offered us a drink and gave us the tour of the grounds. There are only four rooms for rent, so it quickly felt like we would get all the attention we wanted. Steve was very pleasant to talk to and the free reign of the bar and fridge were a great touch. We had delivery salad and subs prior to settling in for the evening.
Sunday morning the weather beautiful when we finally got ourselves out of bed from our pool side cottage for breakfast at 9:00 AM. Steve offered a fresh fruit bowl for our first course of breakfast and it was wonderful to have the full flavor of an orange for the first time in many months. Steve cooked a Brie and asparagus omelet for the entree, which was succulently rich and very filling. We then drove to Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter to catch the 1:00 start of the Cardinals vs. the Braves. We had good seats, which there aren't many bad ones in the park, but the Cards did fall 3-2. The highlight of the game for me was catching a foul ball from a Brave reserve. After the game, we walked around the stadium village and I found a nice cigar shop. Being late afternoon, we had to make out to find a sports bar to watch the Badgers play for the Big Ten title against Illinois.
On Sunday evening we decided to head to downtown West Palm Beach to check out City Place and find a place to get some dessert. This area is quite nice, be it that a lot of stores were closed after 6PM on Sunday. We ended up eating at a City Cellar, a wine bar that carried half bottles of Ken Wright pinot. We decided on the Shea's and enjoyed it with a flat bread pizza, while seated on the mezzanine of the City Place Plaza.
Monday brought another huge breakfast featuring biscuits and gravy with southern scrambled eggs. Steve, once again, delivered on his promise of a huge breakfast. After getting to the game early to see if we could get Berm seats (we couldn't), we got to watch the Braves in batting practice. It is quite impressive the physical size and strength differences between the players on the field. Some, Teixeira and Jones for example, really do look like men amongst boys standing and hitting beside the twenty-two year olds. Following the Cards victory (Reyes looked good), we headed to the coast to at least say we went to the beach when in Florida. The beach was nice, though the wind made it a bit chilly. It was fun to go out on the pier and watch the Sunshine State's surfers, which is to say watch some people sit on surfboards in the water waiting on a half wave to scoot on for a couple of seconds. We ended up in the pool and ordering in Chinese, so we could watch Dancing With the Stars (an addiction).
Tuesday began with a Sweet Potato pancake breakfast followed by check out. We spent the early afternoon at City Place again, and enjoyed some window shopping at the stores. Of particular note, we found a "European" coach for $15K -- which to me should come with a flight to Europe. We returned to the airport to be greeted with the probability of a delay due to President Bush flying into PBI. I got to see Air Force One landing, which was admittedly pretty cool. This delay ended up not being that big of a deal, since we were delayed a lot in Charlotte anyway. The wife showed me her way of spending time in an airport is to walk around the whole thing... and to think I thought I would get off with no working out. Once we finally arrived in Chicago, I raced to the baggage claim and she tried to hold the last bus back to Madison. This attempt failed and our luggage came out about 10 minutes after the last bus out of town (it came out first, I might add). After futile attempts at one-way car rental and the sticker shock moment of my life at the Airport Hilton ($450 + taxes for one night), we finally took a cab to a hotel.
Following a night of not so great sleep in a smoking room, we awoke and grabbed the bus back to Madison. We were happy to be back home, but got the greeting from Mother Nature of a nice six inch snowstorm two days later. Overall, West Palm Beach isn't the kind of place I would visit without the Cardinals being in Spring Training there, but since they are I anticipate we will return again in the next few years. The discussion with the locals, however, always seemed to bring up crime and/or hurricanes... the latter or which means there is absolutely zero chance of ever living or time-sharing in South Florida for us.
Sunday morning the weather beautiful when we finally got ourselves out of bed from our pool side cottage for breakfast at 9:00 AM. Steve offered a fresh fruit bowl for our first course of breakfast and it was wonderful to have the full flavor of an orange for the first time in many months. Steve cooked a Brie and asparagus omelet for the entree, which was succulently rich and very filling. We then drove to Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter to catch the 1:00 start of the Cardinals vs. the Braves. We had good seats, which there aren't many bad ones in the park, but the Cards did fall 3-2. The highlight of the game for me was catching a foul ball from a Brave reserve. After the game, we walked around the stadium village and I found a nice cigar shop. Being late afternoon, we had to make out to find a sports bar to watch the Badgers play for the Big Ten title against Illinois.
On Sunday evening we decided to head to downtown West Palm Beach to check out City Place and find a place to get some dessert. This area is quite nice, be it that a lot of stores were closed after 6PM on Sunday. We ended up eating at a City Cellar, a wine bar that carried half bottles of Ken Wright pinot. We decided on the Shea's and enjoyed it with a flat bread pizza, while seated on the mezzanine of the City Place Plaza.
Monday brought another huge breakfast featuring biscuits and gravy with southern scrambled eggs. Steve, once again, delivered on his promise of a huge breakfast. After getting to the game early to see if we could get Berm seats (we couldn't), we got to watch the Braves in batting practice. It is quite impressive the physical size and strength differences between the players on the field. Some, Teixeira and Jones for example, really do look like men amongst boys standing and hitting beside the twenty-two year olds. Following the Cards victory (Reyes looked good), we headed to the coast to at least say we went to the beach when in Florida. The beach was nice, though the wind made it a bit chilly. It was fun to go out on the pier and watch the Sunshine State's surfers, which is to say watch some people sit on surfboards in the water waiting on a half wave to scoot on for a couple of seconds. We ended up in the pool and ordering in Chinese, so we could watch Dancing With the Stars (an addiction).
Tuesday began with a Sweet Potato pancake breakfast followed by check out. We spent the early afternoon at City Place again, and enjoyed some window shopping at the stores. Of particular note, we found a "European" coach for $15K -- which to me should come with a flight to Europe. We returned to the airport to be greeted with the probability of a delay due to President Bush flying into PBI. I got to see Air Force One landing, which was admittedly pretty cool. This delay ended up not being that big of a deal, since we were delayed a lot in Charlotte anyway. The wife showed me her way of spending time in an airport is to walk around the whole thing... and to think I thought I would get off with no working out. Once we finally arrived in Chicago, I raced to the baggage claim and she tried to hold the last bus back to Madison. This attempt failed and our luggage came out about 10 minutes after the last bus out of town (it came out first, I might add). After futile attempts at one-way car rental and the sticker shock moment of my life at the Airport Hilton ($450 + taxes for one night), we finally took a cab to a hotel.
Following a night of not so great sleep in a smoking room, we awoke and grabbed the bus back to Madison. We were happy to be back home, but got the greeting from Mother Nature of a nice six inch snowstorm two days later. Overall, West Palm Beach isn't the kind of place I would visit without the Cardinals being in Spring Training there, but since they are I anticipate we will return again in the next few years. The discussion with the locals, however, always seemed to bring up crime and/or hurricanes... the latter or which means there is absolutely zero chance of ever living or time-sharing in South Florida for us.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Friday Afternoon Media Brigade...
WEATHER
I swear it wasn't a depression induced bender that kept me away for the past week... It has been a blend of needing to change pace and having been a little under the weather, which given the current conditions here in Madison isn't a difficult position to be in.
SPORTS
Speaking of taking crap for being a Hoosier, I went to the Badgers-Hoosiers Matchup at the Kohl Center last week and was thoroughly embarassed... Looks like I can get revenge by watching the matchup at Indiana live at the Kohl Center on the jumbo TV's -- I doubt I will take part in this attempt by the UW Athletic Department to ease tensions with the fans over the Big Ten Network. In other news Bobby Knight retired from Texas Tech and can now can hopefully leave the public stage on which he has successfully humiliated himself out of what could have been a commendable career focused on making players better men... but alas, if that happened it was a side note because with Knight... It was always about Bobby!
LOCAL NEWS
The local news cycle has been dominated by the weather (see above) and the upcoming primary (see below), so I'm offering a wonderful little story that is sure to rouse your curiousity on a Friday afternoon at your desk.
NATIONAL NEWS
The Democratic primary season has heated up. The race in Wisconsin on the 19th is heating up. I may volunteer for my candidate, but I doubt it since it is very cold. I anticipate Obama winning this thing, but that is a complete from the gut guess. He will face the "maverick" McCain... who gets to keep apologizing to conservatives for not being a complete nut job. Oh well, the general will surely be interesting now, with a potentially disenfranchised hardline evangelical voter base being an important obstacle for Mr. McCain to overcome. Of course, the states were he will lose most of these voters won't be in play if Hillary is his opponent anyway, so if you want a hotly contested race in 30-40 states.. have the audacity to hope for an Obama upset.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
According to the NYT, Annan is seeing progress towards a political solution in a very disrupted Kenya. This is a very important issue to East African / Middle East stability, but it appears to be calming down. For those who like to trump up the "identity politics as horrible blight" on our electoral system, I would recommend keeping it all in context:
Somehow, I'm neither suprised nor saddened to see more criticism of biofuels recently. It has been reported numerous times that biofuels have a worse impact on the environment than even conventional fuels, and today's NYT has a nice article on the subject. Not suprisingly, many governments, farmers and industry lobbyists are quickly trying to debunk the findings that the environmental opportunity costs of additional land being cultivated is too high for the marginal return from the biofuel production:
LEISURE
Beer is good. I really enjoy a solid Pale Ale. I recently was able to try the Capital Brewery's (based in Middleton, Wisco) Pale Ale and came away a bit unimpressed. The hoppiness and bitterness meld well on the front side, but the finish just isn't quite right and definately not as robust as I prefer. This could have been influenced by my previous six pack (not on the same day) being the irrefutably delicious Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA. There are few beers in the world that are more enoyable than the 90 Minute, but since I'm not rich the 60 does one hell of an impersonation of an A+ beer.
I swear it wasn't a depression induced bender that kept me away for the past week... It has been a blend of needing to change pace and having been a little under the weather, which given the current conditions here in Madison isn't a difficult position to be in.
Madison is only 2.4 inches away from setting a new snowfall record, with the total for the season now at 73.8 inches, just short of the 76.1 inches that fell during the winter of 1978-79.This will definately help me when the natives tell me "you haven't seen anything yet Hoosier boy... Back in the day it used to be {fill in crazy ass story line here}."
If we don't break the record today or this weekend, the record will tumble come Monday. "It's a done deal Monday," Olson said. And, it'll give today's Madisonians something to hang their knit cap on in any discussions of bad winters. "The old-timers won't be able to say it used to be like this because it has never been like this," Olson said.
SPORTS
Speaking of taking crap for being a Hoosier, I went to the Badgers-Hoosiers Matchup at the Kohl Center last week and was thoroughly embarassed... Looks like I can get revenge by watching the matchup at Indiana live at the Kohl Center on the jumbo TV's -- I doubt I will take part in this attempt by the UW Athletic Department to ease tensions with the fans over the Big Ten Network. In other news Bobby Knight retired from Texas Tech and can now can hopefully leave the public stage on which he has successfully humiliated himself out of what could have been a commendable career focused on making players better men... but alas, if that happened it was a side note because with Knight... It was always about Bobby!
LOCAL NEWS
The local news cycle has been dominated by the weather (see above) and the upcoming primary (see below), so I'm offering a wonderful little story that is sure to rouse your curiousity on a Friday afternoon at your desk.
What would the world do without potatoes?Take that Idaho! We got all we need right here in Wisco!
The Irish found out during a famine, and it was not a pretty picture.
But the U.S. Potato Genebank in rural Wisconsin is playing a major role in preventing a repeat of that tragedy.
The potato is one of the most vital crops in the world for feeding the poor, evidenced by the United Nations' declaration that 2008 is the Year of the Potato. But this versatile vegetable is susceptible to many pests, diseases, environmental stresses and quality problems.
So if the most widespread varieties were stricken with blight as deadly as the one that struck Ireland in 1845, what would the world do?
One place it would turn would be the genebank near Sturgeon Bay that has stored the genetic materials for hundreds of types of potatoes -- including the wild varieties that might save us in case of a worldwide catastrophe.
NATIONAL NEWS
The Democratic primary season has heated up. The race in Wisconsin on the 19th is heating up. I may volunteer for my candidate, but I doubt it since it is very cold. I anticipate Obama winning this thing, but that is a complete from the gut guess. He will face the "maverick" McCain... who gets to keep apologizing to conservatives for not being a complete nut job. Oh well, the general will surely be interesting now, with a potentially disenfranchised hardline evangelical voter base being an important obstacle for Mr. McCain to overcome. Of course, the states were he will lose most of these voters won't be in play if Hillary is his opponent anyway, so if you want a hotly contested race in 30-40 states.. have the audacity to hope for an Obama upset.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
According to the NYT, Annan is seeing progress towards a political solution in a very disrupted Kenya. This is a very important issue to East African / Middle East stability, but it appears to be calming down. For those who like to trump up the "identity politics as horrible blight" on our electoral system, I would recommend keeping it all in context:
The election controversy has stirred up deep-seated grievances over political, economic and land issues, pitting opposition supporters against members of the president’s ethnic group and groups perceived to support the government. Many people in Kenya tend to vote along ethnic lines, and much of the post-election bloodshed seems to have been ethnically driven, though many participants insist their motives are political.Stability has it's value and I can honestly say American identity politics seem to be more about politics generally than they are focused on gender, race or ethnicity.
Somehow, I'm neither suprised nor saddened to see more criticism of biofuels recently. It has been reported numerous times that biofuels have a worse impact on the environment than even conventional fuels, and today's NYT has a nice article on the subject. Not suprisingly, many governments, farmers and industry lobbyists are quickly trying to debunk the findings that the environmental opportunity costs of additional land being cultivated is too high for the marginal return from the biofuel production:
Industry groups, like the Renewable Fuels Association, immediately attacked the new studies as “simplistic,” failing “to put the issue into context.”I am waiting on the American people to start getting angry that their Doritos, milk and beef costs too much and realize that along with the high gas prices, ethanol is a driver in the inflationary pressure being put on all farm commodities.
“While it is important to analyze the climate change consequences of differing energy strategies, we must all remember where we are today, how world demand for liquid fuels is growing, and what the realistic alternatives are to meet those growing demands,” said Bob Dineen, the group’s director, in a statement following the Science reports’ release.
LEISURE
Beer is good. I really enjoy a solid Pale Ale. I recently was able to try the Capital Brewery's (based in Middleton, Wisco) Pale Ale and came away a bit unimpressed. The hoppiness and bitterness meld well on the front side, but the finish just isn't quite right and definately not as robust as I prefer. This could have been influenced by my previous six pack (not on the same day) being the irrefutably delicious Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA. There are few beers in the world that are more enoyable than the 90 Minute, but since I'm not rich the 60 does one hell of an impersonation of an A+ beer.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Bitter Beer Face
So hops are in short supply and it is really hitting the local brewers here in Southern Wisconsin. I have not followed up nationally, but I know I heard a piece on this on NPR in the past few weeks as well. For all of my fellow beer friends, this is definately bad news...
What does the shortage mean for local beer drinkers? Look for a jump in the price of Wisconsin-made microbrew this year, from 50 cents to $2 more per six-pack. Also affecting the price is the rising cost of bottles and grains, including malted barley, which has fermentable sugars that are turned into bubbles and alcohol. "I'm already paying over 20% more for malt and bottles," says Porter.I am fortunate enough to have enough disposable income to absorb this cost (a big reason is the significant reduction in consumption over the past few years), so it isn't as scary now as it once was. I am, however, concerned about what this will do to the types of beers that are being produced. I enjoy a variety of styles of brew, but my old faves are IPA's, APA's, and other hop monsters. With the current shortage, it is likely we will see less fun experimentation on this front in the near term.
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