birthday brew and tunes

How would I like to celebrate my birthday? Fine brew and music of course.

Teri was kind of enough to volunteer to join me on my fun. We headed to ChurchKey late afternoon to start off on some fine cask ales. We walked in at 3:45 and just barely found a seat. The place just started opening at 4:00. I had three good beers. The first was the Stone/Brewdog Bashah. It's a black belgian double IPA. I'm down with the black lagers and ales these days. I've had it before, and now have it in my fridge, but felt the need to order it on this occasion. Next I had an old english ale on cask but I liked Teri's cask IPA better. I forget exactly what both of those beers were. The last one I had was a weizenbock and it was pretty good.

After some dinner we hit the State Theatre for the North Mississippi Allstars. The place was completely packed. I was searched again at the door like last time. The front man was 80% of the band. They were solid but nothing exciting. The bass player didn't seem to break from the standard bass line. He sang for a song or two. We hung down in front most of the show.

Strong Ale Tasting II

After being postponed by a blizzard the second of two strong ale tastings finally took place. And a fine tasting it was. They lined up another good list. Teri and I were up for another high alcohol percentage night. A few more people showed up this time.

The night's lineup...

Brewery	Beer	Percentage
District Chop House	Belgian Triple	10.4%
Johannssons	Winter Saison IED	8.2%
Outer Banks Brewing	Sledgehammer & Tongs	~14-15%
Ruddy Duck	Robust Porter	-7%
Johannssons	Harry Hood Porter	7.5%
Tupper's	Hop Pocket	?
Flying Dog	Raging Bitch	8.3%
Cap City - Shirlington	IPA	8%
Oliver's Brewery	Hot Monkey Love	~10%
Flying Dog	Dog Schwarz	?
Sweetwater Tavern	Barrel Aged High Desert Imperial Stout	?
Cap City - Capitol Hill	Barleywine	10%

The first beer was an American hopped Belgian Triple from District Chop House. They used a "Belgian ale yeast". It was dry hopped and aged two weeks. I liked it better than Stone's Cali-Belgique. It went from 23 to 3.2 plato and is about 35 IBU.

Johannssons Winter Saison IED had a good story. Because of the snow they lost electricity and a few casks blew up in the process. This one made it to the Brickskeller in one piece.

Outer Banks Brewing brought an American Belgian ice beer. As they say:

This powerhouse behemoth starts out as a Belgian/American Strong ale, and is the (un-spiced) base from out Seasonal 'Santa's Little Sledgehammer'. After the Holidays, we put away what's left over and freeze it (& remove the ice) to further concentrate the alcohol and flavors. This Strong Ale is smooth, creamy, and complex with a heard of steel.

It was definitely smooth and drinkable for the alcohol. That could have been trouble. The website says 11% but the brewer told us about 14-15%

Ruddy Duck's Robust Porter was next. The brewer, Johnathan, said his first brew job was at Bardo's. This was a slightly smoky unfiltered porter. It went from 16.8 to 3.5 degrees Plato.

Johannssons Harry Hood Porter was pretty good. The brewer said he had a lot of freedom and was able to brew this beer named after a Phish song. You couldn't taste any of the 7.5% alcohol.

Tupper's Hop Pocket was next. Bob Tupper, the host, served at the first strong ale tasting as well. This was his second batch. Dry hopped with whole flowers. Six weeks of aging. It was pretty good but will have trouble competing with the plethora of hop beers on the market today. Even with the extensive and expensive brewing process.

While waiting for the first episode of the strong ale tasting a few weeks ago I had a Raging Bitch. This turned out to be a beer on the tasting list tonight. It's a pretty good beer. An American Belgian IPA. It was dry hopped, more hoppy than the District Chop House Triple. They stole the hoegaarden yeast but it doesn't taste too yeasty. Lots of aroma and flavor. 60 IBU and 16 to 3.2 degrees Plato. A fine brew.

Cap City Shirlington brought another dry hopped IPA. It too was aromic and so far had the best fresh hop taste. All that hop nose and the group agreed it was well balanced.

Oliver's Brewery, currently the Pratt Street Ale House), brought Hot Monkey Love. The recipe changes each year and this is very sweet with honey added. It was brewed in April and conditioned until October.

Flying Dog also brought their Dog Schwarz. My notes are starting to get illegible as usual late in the strong ale tasting night but it appears there is a story behind the ingredients or style. It had a very smoked peat taste.

Sweetwater Tavern's High Desert Imperial Stout was next. This was aged for two and a half years in oak barrels. It had that aged syrup taste. Kinda funky. It was brewed with huge amounts of hops and dry hopped but you couldn't taste it. They used Old Dominion barrels.

The last beer was Cap City Capitol Hill's Barleywine. This beer went through two weeks of fermentation and 2 months of something (might have been feeling the alcohol at this point). There are only 5 kegs left. It was pretty easy drinking. At least after 11 other high alcohol beers.

late Valentine's present

I got yet another Valentine's present today. I don't deserve it as I was a bad boyfriend this year. Teri got me two bombers of 2008 Double Bastard Ale and two glasses to drink it in.

Cheers!

Snowshoe II

Of course I planned a snowboarding trip on Presidents Day weekend and my old high school friends plan a trip for the following weekend. Brett, Karnes, Wismer, and McCoy decided to go on a quick one-day two-night trip to Snowshoe. So Teri and I joined them and hit Snowshoe for the second weekend in a row. Again we left late because of my Friday afternoon meeting. I think I got out of there around 7:30 and this time we still had yet to pack. Thankfully I hadn't unpacked from the last weekend.

After Teri packed at her place we were on our way at some late hour again. We didn't have any snow to worry about this time. Google Navigation worked on my phone for many hours in the mountains without cell coverage. We got in after 2am. We had a bigger room than last time with ski in/out but no indoor garage.

The trails were groomed unlike the previous weekend. We met up with the crew at 10:00am and immediately went to the Soaring Eagle lift because the lines at Ballhooter were insanely long. Brett was pretty good but the rest of the crew were lacking experience. I never even saw McCoy and Wismer ski the whole day. Bowlus, Karnes, Teri, and I hit the glades for a break and some fun in the powder. We tried to meet back up at 1:00 for lunch but that didn't work. We got beer and munchies at the store instead and hung out in our room for a few drinks.

We decided to check out the Powder Ridge left to see if we could find Wismer and McCoy. The lines over there were still too long to tolerate. Teri and I tried to head back over to the Soaring Eagle lift but ran out of time. After dinner we tried to meet up for night skiing at Silver Creek at 6:30 but we were all late. The lines were long there as well. It was nuts how long the lines were even compared to the previous holiday weekend. We did meet up with Chris, Brett, and McCoy and had a beer. We missed them getting off the lift and after 1.5 more runs we headed back to the room to pass out.

We slept in and I had dry conditions and daylight to help enjoy the mountain roads on the way home for the first time during both trips.

The Americans beat the Canadians in hockey! USA for the gold!

GPS tracking data

Check out the elevation change by time (as opposed to distance) and you can see as I went up slopes, bombed the mountain, and also took less steep runs across the mountain from one lift to another.

pics and video

Tegan & Sara

One of Teri's favorite bands, Tegan and Sara, played at the Warner Theater and Teri got tickets early on. She had seen them play a few songs before but this was her first time seeing them play a real show. It was a pretty mixed crowd. There were two opening bands that were fashionable pop.

Tegan and Sara are twins that play guitar and some keyboards. They have a pretty cool vocal mix and some catchy songs. It was an entertaining show. It wasn't formula pop; they obviously wrote all their stuff and the band was pretty good. The place was full by the time the opening bands finished. I was surprised about the lack of line at the bar the whole night. I guess their fans don't drink like hippies.

Snowshoe I

Last season after buying a board I promised myself I'd go snowboarding more often. I didn't do very well last season only hitting Timberline twice and this season hasn't started off well. Thankfully Teri forced me to plan a trip to Snowshoe over Presidents Day (Valentine's Day) weekend. Unfortunately I have a late Friday afternoon meeting with my client on Fridays. And of course the meeting started late this Friday and went on till after 7:00. Teri and I were mostly ready to go; we grabbed a bite to eat and took off.

The trip there wasn't too bad. The roads were almost completely clear from the previous snow storm. Lots of high snow on the passes. We saw some deer going in and up on the mountain. We arrived after 2am. I didn't know about the central check-in and we fumbled around for a bit. We did enjoy indoor parking though and squeezed in to the last spot. After a relaxing beer we passed out hard.

We tried to get up early to eat and beat the line at the rental shop. I brought my snowboard but Teri was renting skis. The line was nuts but it only got worse after Teri joined it. After the long wait and a quick break we still got out on the slopes around 9:30am. The conditions were great. It was ungroomed with a good couple of inches loose snow everywhere. This is not normal for the Mid-Atlantic. Once the lines got long at the Ballhooter lift we moved on to Soaring Eagle. We ate an early lunch at Cheat Pizza and enjoyed the rest of the day at Soaring Eagle and the Western Territory. We had fun on the tree runs near the Soaring Eagle lift. Lots of deep and fresh snow in there.

We relaxed and had a beer after the lifts stopped and planned for a late dinner. That didn't work out too well. The wait was still over an hour at 9:00pm at the few restaurants. We finally went to the Foxfire Grille with a 30-40 minute wait. We ran up to the room for a quick break and drink all of about 100 feet away and when we got back we had to wait another 30 or 40 minutes before we could sit down. After that wait the food was crap and very expensive. A place to avoid in the future. That night we passed out hard again.

Sunday was another good day on the slopes. Similar to Saturday we started at the Ballhooter lift and then hit Soaring Eagle and Western Territory. We took a break in the tree run. We heard of long lift lines but were able to avoid them. The sun was out for the afternoon. We went to a fine lobster dinner at the Ember restaurant that night. The place was booked up all weekend but we were lucky and got a 6:00 seating after someone canceled. They had a special three course lobster dinner for two. It was most excellent. Especially compared to the previous night. We passed out again watching the Olympics barely making it to the bed.

They groomed the slopes on Sunday night and we were out Monday morning for first chair. Except at Snowshoe since you stay at the top of the mountain its more like first run to the first chair. The packed groomed trails were not as fun as the loose stuff the previous days but you could ripe up a fast run making wide fast turns. It didn't take too long for it to get chopped up even with a fraction of the people that Monday. We went to the Soaring Eagle lift to get some runs in before we left. It was snowing just as it had been all weekend but this was actually sticking and starting to accumulating. By the time we stopped around 11:00 there was a good fresh inch of snow from that morning. Bummer we had to take off with new snow coming down. I was starting to worry about the drive home. We ate lunch and took off for home.

We didn't have my directions so we went the route of Teri's GPS. It took us off in the opposite direction that we came. Before long we were heading straight up mountain roads in the snow. I was having trouble maintaining traction. I couldn't keep the speed up while going up hill and started to slide. Eventually we slowed enough to slide to the side of the road and we couldn't get back going again up the mountain. So we headed back down and tried one more time. I didn't even make it up as high the second time. We turned back around again and headed back past Snowshoe and drove the original way we came.

This was a little easier and I had slightly more traction. There were a few mountain passes that were close but we made it over them. The GPS was taking us in some far south direction to I-64. I wasn't complaining too much assuming that the highway was the easiest way out. About 3 miles before the road cleared I came around a corner in the hills and at the bottom I saw a guy in a huge pickup flagging me down. I was lucky to stop without hitting him. The road was downhill and a sheet of ice. He informed me of an accident around the corner and down the hill ahead. Cars started coming behind me and I'm surprised no one ran in to anyone else. A car was sandwiched at the bottom of the hill with a few other cars off the road in the snow. A semi was stuck on the hill going up the other side. As people walked from their car to the accident scene almost all of them would slip on the icy road. I was beginning to think we would be parked there all the night. Of course we were out of cell phone coverage. We did have a full tank of gas, warm clothes, and a small amount of food.

After awhile the emergency folks came. All of them. Fire, EMS, and the volunteer crew were all out. The ambulance took some folks away. Eventually the semi-truck got up the hill. And only about an hour after we stopped we were waved passed the accident scene. I was worried about getting up the other side but a plow came by and put down gravel just before we were waved by. From there on out everything was smooth sailing. A long ride but we made it. Definitely a fun weekend on the slopes.

pics from Teri

lots o snow

The media tried to call our snow storm in December a blizzard. That is when we all learned a blizzard is determined by the wind speed not the amount of snow. We really did get a good dump this time. I grabbed some alcohol from my beer stock and took off to Teri's when it started. Teri lives in Reston, VA and they got a lot more snow than Arlington:

storm report

17.8 total in Arlington plus 3.7 Tuesday, 6.8 Wednesday for 55.6 for the season

28.9 total in Reston plus 2.2 Tuesday, 6.3 Wednesday for 72 for the season

29 inches is a pretty good accumulation and the area took a few days to dig out. School and work was out for awhile. Even a week or so later the commute was triple normal because of snow covered lanes. Trees and limbs are down everywhere. The Caps managed to still get their game off and won their 14th game in a row. Cars were buried under two feet of snow and not many people have shovels. The metro ran below ground only. I can't go anywhere in the tires on my car but we got around pretty good on the unplowed roads in Teri's car. Lots of vehicles were stranded on small and major roads.

Snowboarding down 13th Street

pics and videos

Strong Ale Tasting I

It seems all of the good tastings are in the winter. The strong ale tasting is a good one for the winter season though. Like last year they scheduled two tastings a week apart. Not many people showed up for this supposedly favorite event this year. It has been a crowded and fun event in the past. I think the Brickskeller did a poor job of advertising it this year. Or maybe its the flood of beer events in DC. Either way it allowed Teri and I to get a decent table. I started the night with a Flying Dog Raging Bitch. It had a well publicized release this winter so I had to try it. It came in at 8.3%. It smelled fresh and hoppy. It tasted a bit full up front but came in to a nice dry hopped taste after warming.

The night's lineup...

Brewery	Beer	Percentage
Devils Backbone/Starr Hill	Kollaboration	7.8%
Rock Bottom Bethesda	Belgian Dubble	7.9%
Legend	Triple	9%
Tupper's	Hop Pocket Ale	?
St George	Imperial Stout	8.7%
Brewer's Alley	Black Frost Barleywine	~9.5%
Clipper City	Heavy Seas Below Decks Barleywine	10%
Devils Backbone	Tectonic Barleywine	10.5-11%
Dogfish Head	Immort Ale	11%

This first beer was a collaboration that included not just Devils Backbone and Starr Hill but Blacksburg Brewery as well. Jason Oliver of Devils Backbone represented the beer. They developed the recipe together. The Kollaboration is a tan double bock. You could tell it was big but it was rather mellow tasting. It had a nice slight malt taste. A "nice roast" it was described. Hopefully I'll make it down to Devils Backbone sometime soon.

Geoff Lively is another award winning brewer who had his interesting Belgian Dubble. It was made with dark Belgian candy syrup. He said the syrup allows you to have lots of alcohol without the body. It had a Belgian yeast taste stolen from La Chouffe I think. Geoff said he tries to avoid filtering at all costs.

Billy Spence of St George spoke for Legend since he picked up the beer. It looked quite light but you can taste the alcohol. It had a citrus, banana, bubble gum, taste that all came from the yeast. Billy said the beer went through four months of cellar aging.

The host Bob finally got to talk about his beer after a hiatus when the brewery he contracted out to was sold. Billy from St George said they wouldn't do it again knowing what they do know. It is a long expensive process to brew Hop Pocket Ale. It is aged 6-7 weeks like a lager. They add newly fermented beer to the older beer on a regular basis. It is dry hopped with whole hops for four weeks. Bob said the Pils and other special beers are coming as well as a complex hop beer.

Billy Spence talked about St George's Imperial Stout next. It is an English/German style made in three batches with 2200 lbs of malt each because that is all that would fit in their equipment. It was a bold black beer. It was not too chocolate or coffee tasting; it had a slight sweet smoke taste.

The Brewer's Alley Black Frost Barleywine was presented by Tom Flores and Maggie Lenz. It was an opaque British barleywine. It was brewed with a sour mash instead of hops. It was a malty beer.

Next was the Clipper City Brewery Heavy Seas Below Decks Barleywine. All the Clipper City beers are being relabeled as Heavy Seas. Not many notes on this. It had some hops at 50 IBU.

Jason Oliver brought his tectonic Barleywine. This is Jason's second barleywine. It had that slight aging syrup taste. Probably a fine complex taste if I hadn't already had seven strong ales.

The last beer was Dogfish Head's Immort Ale and the regional rep Devin was on hand to talk about the beer. This was a one year aged 2009 Immort Ale. It is a peat smoked barleywine. It was first brewed in 1996 and was the first oak aged beer in the US. It was quite oaky and smoky.

The Outer Banks Brewery didn't show up for one reason or another. There was some snow out if I remember correctly but we must have gotten home OK. :)

pics from Teri