Monday, December 29, 2008

Lots of Beer, Not so much biking.

Lots of Good Beer had lately, while at the Big Hunt on Saturday Night I got to try the following brews:

allagash Black - Nice belgian/stout'ish mutant with large notes of coffee. I thought it was pretty good, it was on draft in a nice chalice type glass. Not much head. Sweet.

Victory Hop Wallop - Yah this was a nice hoppy Victory brew that was hoppy on the nose and on the tongue with a nice balance. A bit of maltiness and for how high the alcohol content was not very noticable. Drinkable as hell.

New Holland Cabin Fever Brown - Not bad mild brown, not much nuttiness but a nice level of malt and other stuff, only had a sip of the wife's.

note - STAY THE HELL AWAY from the home brands at the hunt, wife had a Hefe style and it was SKUNK'd. Either the lines were gross on that puppy or the keg was dead Jim.

Also noted that Kramer books has some real nice beers in the cafe, headed back there soon for sure!

Today would have been a nice nice day for a bike ride but I am at home TCB and such. I am hoping to hit the gym again starting this week. It's been A LONG time.

Anyone got good plans for New Year?

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Beers Tried this Week

St.Bernardus Triple - Wow. Nice
St.Bernardus ABT - Wow but not as nice.
Rouge Nitro Stout - Smooth and Tasty. Not as strong as Old Rasputin, but very tasty on draft.
Anchor Brewing Anniversary/Winter - Nice the alcohol was abit much at first but was a super nice balance of malt and hops.
Hop Devil - Mid Hop Beer - Tasty.
Stone - Smoked Porter - Tasty with Fish and chips. Very mild smoke, nice malt/sweetness.

Damn and for some reason I'm supposed to ride Wakefield in the bloody cold tonight!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Beer Glorious Beer

Ahhh. My friend beer.

Today I picked up a 4 pack of Fordham's Doublebock. Very nice and malty. Nice flavor, good body. My keyboard even drank a bit...

Also finally got my 6 pack of Full Moon. But thats gotta wait for a trial till at least tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm going to hit the Whole Foods in Fairfax circle and enjoy some beer, and fried foods. Nice

Tonight I've also managed to kill 2/3'rds of a bottle of NICE Malbec wine.

Bodega Tamari 2006 Malbec Reserva from Agentina. NIce body, good hints of tannin and a bit of spice. Smooth. It was actually a gift from a friend of the wife and we enjoyed a bit with dinner and now I'm almost done with the bottle. hehehhe.

Hard to believe but back before I moved to CA we used to often kill 2-3 bottles of wine a week. I still enjoy nice wine but not very regularly.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Rosy Evening.

Beautiful sky last night on the drive over to Rosaryville, wish I could have taken a nice photo, but alas that requires a camera I suppose. D'oh!

Rode at Rosary with a bunch of folks last night, Paul led the 2nd group out. Definetely wasn't a casual pace as even at the back of the pack I averaged out at 8.7 mph. As a 2nd day I felt sluggish and tired after we did the inner loop. We did the ride in counter clockwise. And we did the inner loop in a reverse figure 8, and it worked real good, though the cut back up that hill was a real MF!

We hung out in the parking lot till about 9 shooting the shit. Right as I was leaving the park a very light misting rain started to fall. Sweet timing.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Space Beer

Sapporo brews beer made from Malt grown in Space.

Oops my bad, dunno why I put Hops originally. Thanks Steve.

Sapporo Space Beer

Article from Sept 2001 on brewing in space

I've asked my NASA employed wife about this, but so far she's mum on the topic.

Maybe they are trying to distill liquor.

Monday, December 08, 2008

The Pancake

The title says it all. Thats been today.

Got to stay inbed later than the wife who had to leave at 7:15 this morning, stayed in till 8:30. Nice.

Played on the computer till 10.
Caught up on Chuck, Naruto, Kitchen Nightmares, and Dirty Jobs on DVR - FYI - Dirty Jobs has a GREAT bit on HOP Harvesting. Go watch it! Now!!!!
Made Pancakes with chocolate chips while watching above TV.
Decided to go for ride at Cabin John even though it was a brisk 36'ish though sunny with wind.
Got ready, fixed front tire (Flat?), Fixed Pump (loose fittings).
Rode at 2:00 till 4'ish. Stick on 2nd section mauled my damn rear derailleur. GRrrr. Took dumb fall near park on Tuckerman due to gully hidden by leaves. Cramped up super bad on one of the last climbs and bailed out before normal democracy road exit.
Got home and had pancake leftover, PB Sandwhich with Whey Protein Powder.

Feel like a frickin pancake yet I'm pondering riding tommorow yet again out at Rosaryville.

God I love biking.

Also celebrated the end of prohibition with Bells Winter White Ale last night, might try one of my own chimay's tonight...maybe.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Rain Rain Go Away!

Thursday's Wakefield Night Ride went off with only a little rain at the beginning, but by 7:30'ish light sprinkles wasn't quite full out rain. So by 8pm we were all off and done, and looking for ways to stay dry and warm up.

Success!

Recent Beer's Tried:
Bells Winter White Ale - Nice, white ale. Mix of Belgian and Hefe yeast made this an interesting brew. Out of the bottle not as much yeast taste but I didn't swirl really either, their was a very impressive yeast layer below. Nice hints of citrus. Was a bit on the warm side at tasting, a bit cooler might have made it better or in a pint. 5 More to go for future experimentation.

Flying Bison IPA - Nice IPA.

Joel's Porter - Nice and smooth.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Falling of the Face of the World

It's been a slow month for the bike really. Between weather, trailwork, and light maintenance issues with the Midget. God, its really been 2 weeks since I've ridden. UGH. Oh yah don't forget Turkey Day.

I may finally take myself on a pilgrimage to Fredrick perhaps Monday if it isn't super rainy this weekend. I want to ride more. But between work and life. Maybe next week I can hit the Rosaryville Night Ride.

I guess I should go prep for tommorow even though the rain chance for tomorrow is near 50%, but who knows we might dodge the rain bullet. Gotta be positive.

I do feel like I'm getting better at doing my own adjustments. I did reset the entire rear-d. And I think it's better adjusted now than it was. On a funny note while adjusting the thing last night in the man cave, I turned off the heat at the master switch and forgot to turn it back on. It was 55 in my house this morning. I could only laugh at my very cold self this morning.


Had some good beers lately though, including Delerium Tremens, a DFH Black and Tan (Chicory and 90), and a winter seasonal I don't remember out at Whole Foods fairfax. I also picked up a Delerium Noel to try sometime soon.

Also I must pimp Old Dominion's Baltic Porter as a great winter dark beer. Lagered and with a nice malty sweatness and just on the edge of am imperial/stout perhaps. Gonna pick up a 12 tommorow if I do go down to Wakefield.

Also gotta give props to Hormel's new Turkey Chili. Tastes just as good as the original if not better and A BUNCH lighter, 190x3 per serving vx like 270x9. Not bad for a whole can even with 2 servings.

Damn this laptops dieing again, the charging port is severally F'd Up.