quality dried flesh

While hangin' in Ohio with the family I picked up some great jerky from Beef Jerky Unlimited. They have all kinds of good stuff. The spicy turkey is excellent. I'm usually getting the cajun and jalapeno beef as well. It's the real deal, none of that commercial pasteurized crap. It's mmmm good. I need a local hookup.

high class

In 2007 I was upgraded to 1st class while flying quite a few times. It’s a sweet perk. Once you get a taste of 1st class it is hard to go back and sit with the riff-raff. There is no waiting in line to board and a stewardess takes your coat and serves you drinks before the flight while the less fortunate file in for the next 30 minutes. There is a lot of comfy room to sit and get in and out of the aisle, we have our own bathroom the “others” are not allowed to use, and of course free food and alcohol including mixed drinks.  

Well I haven’t been flying so much this year and therefore I’m at the bottom of the list for free upgrades. But on the return trip of my last flight of the year, on the last leg, I got upgraded for the first (and only) time this year.  A comfortable seat and a few bloody marys always helps the trip pass by. And it wasn't even a Delta flight. This was a Northwest flight but with the merger I now get privileges on NW as well.

Need to start racking up the miles in ’09. Wouldn’t want to lose my gold status at Hilton either which results in quality customer service including free food and beer.

x-mas 2008

Another year another Christmas in P-burg. I’ll miss Jazz but the new dog brings some new energy. My Mom’s brother came over for dinner as usual and we learned more about our ancestors who he has traced back to the 1300’s in Germany. My Mom's family is from the Stuttgart area, the state of Wurttemburg. Before that lineage came over to the US they were wine farmers.

We ate at Granite City Food & Brewery on Friday evening. A manager stopped by the table and I asked him who the brewer was. It happened to be him. I asked how long he had been brewing and he said 6 months and that he knew nothing about home brewing. In other words he is following a recipe and directions. My brother and I had the bock and it was typical and not bad. I did find some fine craft brew at Andersons earlier in the day.

On Friday night Ben had people over. It was nice to see the crew again. We swilled and BBQed. Entertainment was provided by a minivan missing Ben’s driveway by about 100 feet and getting stuck in his extremely muddy field. We all passed out there and holy crap I’ve never heard such loud snoring in my life.

Today is 60 degrees and all the snow and ice is gone. Time for some left over Honey Baked Ham.

pics and video

my Uncle on Google

So after x-mass dinner we were sitting around plugging addresses in Google Maps for fun. Isn’t that what every family does x-mass evening? It so happens Google captured my Uncle out working on my Grandfather’s old house.  

a new Saluki joins the family

Well she is not really a pup. She is about 5 years old. The owner passed away and she found her way to my Mom through her Saluki connections. My Mom was looking for another second dog after her original saluki of 15 years, Jazz, passed away. Sheriah, the new one, is a skittish little fellow. She doesn’t allow you to come towards her, she has to come to you. And she won’t go up or down stairs. She just arrived last Sunday from Texas so hopefully she will get more comfortable over time. My Mom is trying to change her name and confuse her more but she hasn't decided what she likes. We have been trying to get pics of the two of them together all week. I also found some pics of her on Flickr at the animal shelter last year where she stayed after her owner died.

Jazz

1993-2008

Sheriah

Sheriah & Quest pics

UPDATE: Apparently the dog's name is now Ciara.

mmmm smokey

Mark Thompson of Star Hill brought up the last keg ever of the GABF silver medal winning Smoke Out. They said at the Winter Holidaze Extravaganzee it would be tapped last week but that didn't happen until Friday. Yesterday Kirby and I went to try it out at RFD.

Liquid smoke yo. It was pretty good though, it wasn't overwhelming. It was a heller bock. The smell and aftertaste gave you the sense that you were at a camp fire. Definitely unique. I could have had more than one. Apparently I'll never have another though as it was a one time special brew.

RFD had quite the good selection of craft drafts and seasonals this month.  

yummy microbial lambics

After our usual breakfast ful Kirby and I stopped by a small little wine store on the corner of 18th and U today and I smiled. They had some fine brews out among the wine. Including a bottle of Duvel that was the biggest bottle of beer I had ever seen in my life. I think it was 5 liters. Other than the 5 liter bottle they had a bunch of 750 ml bottles about. I was happy to see they had a good selection of Allagash. I picked up a bottle of Odyssey for my beer stock because I don’t usually see that one as much as the other two Allagash barrel aged beers. Hopefully it will be another place to replenish my Victoria and Victor supply along with the Wine Specialist.  

Kirby picked up some Lindemans Framboise and Pecheresse for gifts and it got me looking at the Lindemans website. I forgot lambics are brewed using open-air fermentation. Usually brewers spend lots of time and money keeping all impurities out of their beer so when it is sealed for fermenting bad things don't happen. This is the opposite, from the site…

...lambic's signature event, unique in all of beer making: the pumping of the hot wort into open, shallow cooling vessels (also called a tun) in the attic of the brewery. The brewer throws open vented windows, turns on fans and leaves the liquid overnight to cool and be inoculated by the yeast and other microbial flora, of the surrounding air. This exposure to the air is called pitching. The local conditions are of fundamental importance in pitching. Not only does spontaneous fermentation of wort takes place consistently only in a small area around Brussels, but it does so only from October until April, when outside temperatures remain under 15°C. Some seemingly minute conditions that could affect the balance of microbial flora and the growth rate of the microorganisms would also affect the fermentation sequence and, therefore, the final product.

To brew a spontaneous fermented Lambic, no yeast is artificial added to the wort, but the wort is exposed to the open air. The result of this method is that wild yeast cells, which are always in the open air in the environment of Brussels, come into the wort and start on a natural, spontaneous way the fermentation. This is the reason this method is called "spontaneous fermentation".

The picture above is from the original Lindemans brewery which they stopped using in 1991 when they moved in to the new one next door.  

Can’t wait to enjoy those microbes again.

avalanche kills skier at Snowbird

Official announcement from Snowbird:

An avalanche occurred Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort on High Baldy, hike-to terrain on the east side of the resort.

A female skier from Salt Lake City was recovered from the debris at 1:18 p.m. and was transported to University Hospital via Air Med in critical condition.

Following an exhaustive search of the area using seven avalanche dogs, probes and avalanche beacons, the search has been called off.

A witness reported the avalanche at 12:24 p.m. using a cell phone. The terrain opened at 9:30 a.m.

Snowbird has received 9 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours, 13 inches in the last 48 hours and 93 inches season-to-date.

Agencies assisting in the rescue effort include: Snowbird Ski Patrol, Salt Lake County Search and Rescue, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and Unified Fire Station 13, as well as avalanche dog teams from numerous Utah resorts.

The 27 year old woman from SLC died at the hospital.

Kevin, Lewis, and I skied there last season. It's a great resort. We were even on that peak but I don't think we were near the avalanche site. Apparently it is the first in-bounds avalanche death at Snowbird since 1977. Unfortunately they had just opened that section of the park that day. They do a very good job with avalanche control in that area. They keep the road going through that canyon to all the resorts closed in the mornings until avalanche control has taken place. And we saw quite a few craters from avalanche control cannons. In fact, this picture I took shows a blast mark just past the skier on the exact same peak (but different area) that the avalanche took place yesterday.

Salt Lake Tribune article

work holiday party and not The Infamous Stringdusters

I thought I had a great night lined up. After a lax Friday at work Kirby and I were going to hit the open bar and good food at my work holiday party. The plan was to get out of there before too late and head to the State Theatre not far away to see The Infamous Stringdusters get down. I saw them open for the Seldom Scene years ago and have been waiting for them to come back ever since.  

The ISG company party was not bad. It was at Clyde's in Tyson's Corner just like last year. It started at 6:00 and we were to sit for dinner at 8:00. Lewis was having back issues and never came in to town. Andrea's furnace broke and she called making excuses while we were driving there. Sonny was sick and decided not to show. So I was a bit worried about who Kirby and I were going to enjoy hangin' with. Justin came with us and his wife was waiting when we arrived. Rodyna was there with an asian-french friend and they hit it off with Kirby. Josh showed up at the end of dinner and Laundrew walked in at the end as well. It wasn't bad but I wish everyone would have been there to liven things up a bit.

Kirby and I boogied to the State Theater before 10:00 to catch the Stringdusters. They throw down real raw bluegrass and I was looking forward to the ho-down. I had thought I had planned things perfectly yet again as we walked in right after the first band and before the presumed headliner. Unfortunately, little did I know that it was a double bill evening and apparently the bands choose who was going to play first. So after we sat down with a drink on came Old School Freight Train. The Stringdusters had played from 9 to 10:30. Bitch!

Old School Freight Train was ok but not what I was hoping to see. The best part of the night was spending time with Kirby after she was in NYC for a week. I'll wait another year or two and catch the Infamous Stringdusters next time they come around.

Winter Holidaze Extravaganzee

Yesterday I attended the annual Brickskeller Holiday Extravaganzee. This is pretty popular with both the tasters and the brewers. They had a full line up of 13 beers to taste with the brewer on hand to discuss each one.  These were all local brewers as opposed to the all-star event last spring.  And the beers averaged about 7% or 8% so as usual things got more interesting as the evening went on. I don’t seem to recall going to bed last night.  List o beers:

• White Marsh – Winter Solstice
  
• Vintage 50 - Wee Heavy
  
• Brewer’s Art – Coup de Boule Grand Crue 2008
  
• Brewer’s Alley – Three Kings Spiced Ale
  
• Legend – Belgian Triple
  
• Flying Dog – Snow Goose
  
• Flying Dog – Dog Schwarze
  
• Franklins – IPA2
  
• Franklins – Imperial Stout
  
• Sweetwater Tavern - Happy Trails Spiced Ale
  
• Sweetwater Tavern – unfiltered Holiday Bock
  
• Johannsens – Black Forest Stout
  
• Star Hill – The Gift

Mark Thompson of Star Hill, the evangelist, was pretty funny. Apparently he is known to be entertaining. I don’t remember his beer much but I may go to RFD tonight to taste the last ever keg of the award winning Smoke Out.

I learned that Sweetwater Tavern is three independent operations that try to brew the same beers. The Holiday Bock was still about 3 weeks away from being tapped and will be served filtered.

The young brewer from Johannsens had a pretty funny story about having to decide between the shitter or the beer when he was brewing the Black Forest Stout.

The Winter Solstice had cocoa nibs and some crazy strain of vanilla in it. It was definitely unique and not bad. I think this was the brewer who was a baker for his day job which is an interesting combination.

It was a good sample of different winter beers. I need to take notes next time.

commute via segway

On my way home from the office today I spied a segway commuter. The guy was decked out with a helmet, flashing taillight, and headlight. At first I chuckled but then he sprinted off at a very fast pace. 

I want one for my take-out runs.

Timberline, the Mountain State Brewing Co, & the Jack Frost ho-down

My coworker Laundrew invited me out with some folks from the Mid-Atlantic Snowboarding Meet-up group who were going to Timberline over the weekend. It was the earliest opening in awhile for the resorts in WV. Unfortunately those that were open only had about one run going all the way from the top to the bottom. I did hear Snowshoe opened up a few more this last weekend though.

Dave of Monument Snowboards had us staying at the Tallyho Mountain Lodge.  The 9 of us pretty much filled the place. It doesn't even have a street address. It is listed as the "southside of SR-32". The key characteristic to this modest little establishment is that it happens to be located about 200 feet from the Mountain State Brewing Company. It is a self-described hippy bar that brews their own fine beer and Dave knows some folks there. It was a cool place with a back party room, fire place, wood burning stove, ping pong table, WVU cornhole board, and a stage with stone masonry to match the fireplace and bar. Laundrew and I opened the place around 6:00 and awhile later some people started straggling in. The place was jumping with a DJ by the time we left around midnight. Lots of cool guys and drunk hippy chicks in the mix. And a lot of talk of this local annual Jack Frost Festival thingy that is apparently a party not to be missed.

Most of us met at the bar but the whole group was all together the next morning for the first time at breakfast. The Tallyho was a bit slow to say the least in serving. We weren't in that big of a hurry being that it was cold and icy conditions on the slopes. The temperature turned out to be OK but they only had one run open that thankfully went all the way from the top. Beginners could jump off at the half way point and catch the bottom part of the trail which was less steep. There was an inch or two of decent snow in a few places but a lot of ice and crusty stuff. Having just one run didn't make for the most exciting snowboard experience but the group had a decent time overall.

We ate dinner at Hellbender Burrito which was quite tasty. Along with the food they had good beer and music. Even the ladies had to check out the X-Files display in the men's room. And we heard more about this Jack Frost ho-down at the White Grass cross-country ski resort. Apparently a 60-something yr old guy owns the place and opens it up each year for this huge party. Lots of food and beer and people come from out of state. All the locals were talking about it and said that nothing else would be going on in town (not that there is anything in town for anything to happen at). So after freshening up we went off in search of this annual celebration.

We found out what the party was all about when we arrived around 10:00. A pickup with a plow was trying to pull some hippy van out of the snow as we searched for a parking space. After a successful extraction the pickup driver burst from the cab hootin' and hollerin' about how awesome that pull was and how much of a good time we were all having. Needless to say we made every attempt not to get stuck. We walked up to a big fire, a barn with a band, a shed with a string jam, and a kitchen/store crowded with food, merchandise, and people partying. We found the beer in the back and they were openly serving Mountain State Brewing Company Oatmeal Stout and Amber Ale. An interesting and friendly party.

We settled in with some beer and took in the scene. It was all locals including a ton of young hippies from the resorts. We had a few beers inside the kitchen/store. I hadn't tried the Amber Ale the previous night and it was quite good. Unfortunately they ran out of both after a few cups. I then moseyed in to the shed to get down to the string jam among the tools. There were about 8 people pickin' and 15 people dancing in this shed that would fit 10 comfortably. True to the rumors we had heard earlier, a full gallon jug of white lightening was being passed 'round the shed with everyone taking a swig. And that was not all that was being passed around. Some excited young fellow decided to hang from the rafters and swing to the music quite enthusiastically. A little too enthusiastically; the beam he was holding on to let go. He fell to the ground on top of the band and they didn't miss a beat. It was definitely a good ol' classic mountain culture experience. My great great grandfather would have felt right at home.

Back in the kitchen/store we popped open some wine after someone said "drink it; we've been drinking all day!". There was still food to munch on as well. The females from the previous night were even more drunk and amusing. Had our group been a little younger I'm sure a lot more interaction would have taken place; such mature moral men I associate with. We boogied from the party before it got too late being that we were considerably less intoxicated than everyone else and had plans for the next day.

On Sunday Laundrew's Jetta got stuck in the Tallyho parking lot. We all pushed him out and headed to breakfast somewhere other than the Tallyho Restaurant. We were excited to hit the slopes after getting 4-6 inches the night before. Unfortunately they only opened up one more run and it was a green one. The day was much colder with the wind even though the sun was trying to shine. The snow was a bit better but not as good as we all had hoped. There were probably 20 other people on the mountain that day. We put in a half day and enjoyed the little fresh snow that there was. 

Passing by Canaan Valley, Seneca Rocks, Smoke Hole Caverns, and everything else I visited on vacation as a kid brought back memories of hanging in WV in the summer with the family. Memories such as my brother convincing me to jump on a ski lift half way up the mountain so when they shut it down they had no idea we were stranded 80 ft in the air near the top.  And when my sister and I got attacked by bats on a pond while fishing before almost walking in to a bear in pitch dark near the shore. Good memories.

Even though it wasn't the best snowboarding it was a fun trip. We are planning for the near future.

pics and videos

down with the Eighteenth Amendment!

Today is the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment and allowing states to set their own laws accordingly.

Not to be confused with the repeal of the prohibition of 3.2 beer.

Raise a pint!

planning the first snowboarding trip

I'm heading to Timberline this weekend to surf the slopes. The WV resorts got over 40" of snow in November. I'm going with a friend from work and I think the owner of this local snowboard company is organizing the trip. It looks to be a good time if the conditions hold up. Unfortunately it appears it will be near single digit wind chills but I've got my new jacket so I'm ready.

I'm planning a Vermont trip in the end of January with the same guy. Ideally I'd hit the Rockies as well this year. I'm trying to plan here.

need gift ideas?

Have you been stressing about what to get me for x-mas???  Fret no more!  An up-to-date x-mas list is posted online for you to access 24/7 for your shopping pleasure.  No more worrying about what to spend that $100 on!  No more sleepless nights trying to decide how to impress me!  Simply purchase one of these gifts with my shipping address and feel good about yourself today!

Kevin's x-mas list