parents visit

It has been a crazy month so far and this weekend and next weekend will continue the run. This weekend the parents came down for the annual visit. They hung out in Raleigh as usual leading up to the weekend. On Friday we had Jen’s engagement party at Scott’s house. A lot of Scott and Jen’s friends were there as well as Mark and Michelle. I brought over a growler of Sierra Nevada Southern Harvest Ale to share. There was food from Uncle Julio’s as well as cake. Lots of beer and food. Beth, Matt, and I crashed out at Mark and Michelle’s place that night.

Mark made an excellent breakfast on Saturday. We decided to go on a beer run and look for Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. I heard it was supposed to be released on Thursday or so. There are only 20 cases coming to Virginia (or Northern Virginia depending on who you ask). It is a very sought after beer especially since the 2010 version was dumped down the drain as seen on the Brewmasters TV show. I was hoping that Total Wine or Whole Foods may have just gotten their case that day or still had some in stock. On the trip out I made some phone calls and found out it was either sold out or not yet in stock at all locations. Those that were still getting it in were only getting one case and it would be during next week. I assumed there was no way I was going to be getting 120 Minute this year. Quite the bummer. We did pick up some fine brews for the evening though.

We also picked up a bushel of med-large live crabs. After some appetizers we opened my last bottle of Infinium to celebrate Matt’s birthday. Only a few ounces for nine people but it was still tasty. Then Scott steamed up the crabs and I ate a lot. First time in two years. After dinner we drank my two bottles of SAVOR Flowers and people seemed to enjoy it. I got a few comments that it went well with the cake. The SAVOR Flowers appeared to lose a lot of the flower taste and smell but was still present. We went back to Mark and Michelle’s again Saturday night. We played Set and I actually participated and won a round this time. We also ordered a pizza against Mark’s recommendation and it was the best pizza ever. On Sunday we lazed around a bit and waited for my parents to arrive and check out the aquarium. I was dropped off at the metro and went home to relax for a bit before dinner.

The parents, Scott, and Jen came over before dinner to check out the new TV and entertainment center. We watched a few 3D shows from On Demand. Everyone seemed to enjoy the 3rd dimension. We had dinner at Fire Works. I had a Flying Dog Pale Ale on cask and it was very delicious. I can only assume because it was so fresh. It was dry hopped but tasted wet hopped. I could have drank a few of those.

The parents left on Monday and that left one more big weekend coming up.

Phish @ Raleigh

pic by Brad Worsham

Phish played Raleigh on a Saturday night so Teri and I headed down to stay with Beth and Matt for the weekend. I got four pavilion tickets. I didn’t think too much about asking Beth if she wanted to go. I always have a great time so who wouldn’t want to go? The day of though I was a bit worried she may not get in to the tunes.

The other question was how open the lot would be to unofficial vendors and harassment from the cops. It turns out things were quite open. Being that we had four people in the car we were directed to the car pool lot. This was right between the exit from the lot and the entrance to the venue. It was perfect placement. There were a ton of vendors set up in the main lot. There was french bread pizza, grilled cheese, glass pipes, lots of different clothes, and the guy who sold me the upside down belt buckle at Merriweather. I talked to the guy and after they tried to play it off I did believe that he wasn’t aware and he offered to fix it. I didn’t want to give it up for a few weeks so he gave me his number and I told him I’m just looking for a deal in the future.

We met up with some acquaintances of Beth’s and had a few beers. It appeared it might storm but the weather just avoided the venue. We were lucky as well because we ended up having seats that were right outside the roof in the pavilion. Looking at the tickets it does say “No Roof”. It was pretty decent though and we could sorta see. The TVs above us gave a nice view. One guy was a bit of an ass and wouldn’t leave our seats at one point. We were about 10 rows from the back so it was relatively loose compared what was going on in front of us. Finally he felt that he would enjoy the show more without me standing directly in front of him and he moved. Beth and Matt seemed to enjoy the show. They played Been Caught Stealing and Good Times Bad Times which was cool. Another good show and weekend in the books.

Set list...

Set 1: Cars Trucks Buses, Peaches en Regalia, AC/DC Bag, Guyute, Possum, Halley's Comet > 46 Days, The Divided Sky, The Ballad of Curtis Loew, Run Like an Antelope

Set 2: Twist > Rift > Prince Caspian[1] > Esther, Been Caught Stealing, Piper > My Friend, My Friend[2] > Kill Devil Falls, Split Open and Melt, Golgi Apparatus, First Tube

Encore: Good Times Bad Times

[1] Unfinished.
[2] No "Myfe" ending.

Notes: This was the first show since November 22, 1992 (846 shows) to open with two instrumental songs. Been Caught Stealing was played for the first time since December 28, 1998 (298 shows). Caspian was unfinished. My Friend did not contain the "Myfe" ending.

Link to official Phish video

Phish @ Merriweather

My first run of Phish shows for the tour was a two night gig at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland. Teri and I hooked up floor tickets right in front of the stage for Saturday night. After having trouble getting rid of extra tickets last year we decided to wait and get Sunday tickets on Saturday or even Sunday before the show. I was even able to get a hotel room for the night just a few days before at some Studio Plus place after all the main hotels have been sold out for months. We had everything we needed and headed up early to party on the lot. Last year we were the first car denied access to the lot and had to go park at the mall across the street. Just as we were about to turn in to the lot this time I realized I left the tickets on my desk at home. We made a U-turn and headed back to DC traffic. Not cool. We made it back just after 6:00 and of course the lot was full. We headed to the mall with a few hundred other people. Everyone at the mall lot was partying as well. I got lots of comments on my Big Lebowski Jesus shirt. The woman at the gas station went off for five minutes about how much she liked the movie. Lots of people at the show made comments.

We got down to the floor after getting our obligatory Starr Hill beer. By the time we got down during the third song it was absolutely packed. We had no choice but to push are way in. The dude I stopped in front of wasn’t happy but I explained that this was were my seat was and allowed him in front of me. Later he was friendly with his supplies. As the show went on and we moved to the other side of the floor space opened up. At one point Teri had a handful of glow sticks that she tossed. Unfortunately she tossed my glasses along with them. So I’m standing in the middle of the pit packed with people in the dark and my glasses are on the floor somewhere. Thankfully the folks around us were very nice and helped look. I thought it was hopeless. Someone busted out their phone for a light and actually spotted them. I couldn’t believe it. I would have been blind without them.

The show rocked. The set list...

Set 1: Daniel Saw the Stone, AC/DC Bag > Ocelot, Access Me, Vultures, Wilson > Sand, Roses Are Free > Reba[1], On Your Way Down > Run Like an Antelope[2]

Set 2: Birds of a Feather > Tweezer > The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Waves > Chalk Dust Torture[3], Rock and Roll > Albuquerque > Piper > Wading in the Velvet Sea > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan > Suzy Greenberg

Encore: Show of Life > Tweezer Reprise

[1] No whistling.

[2] On Your Way Down teases from Trey.

[3] BOAF tease.

Notes: Daniel Saw The Stone was played for the first time since August 3, 2003 (137 shows). Reba did not contain the whistling ending. Antelope included an On Your Way Down tease from Trey. Chalkdust included a BOAF tease.

On Sunday we woke up at the hotel, packed up, checked out, and hit lunch at Teri's favorite Red Robin. There was a beer store and beer bar that I had heard about in Columbia so we had just enough time to relax and check them out. The beer bar is called Frisco Taphouse & Brewery. I’m pretty sure they don’t brew beer. They had a nice tap list with an electronic board that updated in real time above the bar. I liked the screen prints of beer labels and breweries around the bar. The afternoon we went there was a sort of wake going on for someone who had recently passed away and they were all celebrating his life. After having a couple nice brews we headed to the Perfect Pour to pick up some drinks for the show. This was quite the place. Tons of beer and wine. They had pretty much everything. I was impressed. Almost worth the drive all the way out there.

We got to the lot at a decent time for once. The mission was to find some good tickets up close in the pavilion. Although tickets were not as prevalent as we had expected and as there had been last year. We left the main lot to troll the far areas as people were pulling in. We found some lawn tickets for cheap so we picked them up just in case. We heard about a few pavilion seats being sold but didn’t see any ourselves. Finally we found someone who just pulled in and sold us two up close. He said they were better than his seats which made us wonder. Sure enough they were second row behind the pit. We also picked them up for face value. Perfect! Time to forget about any worries and enjoy the afternoon/evening.

On this day I was wearing my Grills Grills Grills shirt and again got a lot of comments. We also ran in to someone selling jewelry by the same guy who made the silver Grateful Dead belt buckle I got last year. The guy had a nice one that looked more intricate than the one I bought for about $325 last year. The first day I was told the price was $500. The next day he said $400. I talked to him about it and that is how I found out that it was made by the same guy I bought the previous one from. I offered $350 and he started talking about how much he put in to it and needs to get back. I forget the actual numbers but he wasn’t making too much and when people are that honest about their markup I don’t mind paying. We decided on $375. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized the buckle mechanism on the back was put on backwards so the buckle shows upside down. I have to put my belt on backwards to show the buckle correctly!

It was another great show. The set list for the second night...

Set 1: Buried Alive > Lonesome Cowboy Bill, Ha Ha Ha, Sample in a Jar > The Divided Sky, Wolfman's Brother -> Boogie On Reggae Woman > Gumbo, Halley's Comet > Bathtub Gin > Jesus Just Left Chicago, Character Zero

Set 2: Party Time, Crosseyed and Painless > Steam > Light > The Wedge, Alaska, Halfway to the Moon > Harry Hood > Backwards Down the Number Line, Loving Cup

Encore: Sanity > Makisupa Policeman[1] > First Tube

[1] With lyrics referencing blunts and bundt cake.

Notes: Lonesome Cowboy Bill was played for the first time since July 30, 2003 (141 shows). Makisupa included lyrics referencing blunts and a moist bundt cake.

This year they arrested about 35 people but almost exclusively for drugs. Usually they are pretty harsh about everything including open containers. We didn’t see as many cops as usual so they must have been mostly undercover. It was another good set of weekend shows close to home. Hope they come back again next year.

my pics

official Phish video from Saturday and Sunday

a good Sunday

Sunday turned out to be a good day. The weather was great. Teri and I had breakfast with Beth and Matt before they took off. Kirby was in town for the weekend and since I missed ful we met up at Meridian Park to chat for a bit. Lots of people there being a nice Sunday. After catching up we checked out the drum circle and then I rode to ChrurchKey for some food and drink. I had heard they might have some sweet beers left over from SAVOR week and they did not disappoint. They did a Short’s night last week and still had a bunch of their very creative beers. I sampled the Bloody Beer which did have a very bloody mary taste. Next was the Anniversary Ale which is a blood orange wheat wine beer. I also tasted the Mamas Strawberry Milk which is a strawberry ale brewed with milk sugar aged in brandy barrels. And finally their Another Caucasian Gary which definitely has a white russian flavor.

Finally on Sunday evening for the first time I was able to sit on my couch, relax, and watch my new tv. A great week.

SAVOR (Saturday)

I felt a lot better Saturday morning than Friday morning. I took advantage of the day and went on a bike ride.

Beth and Matt showed up an hour or so before SAVOR. We weren’t so lucky this time with the line. The line in back was as long as the line in front. We got in before 7:30 even though we were wrapped around the block. A squirrel seemed a bit pissed that he had a line of people on the sidewalk between him and his tree near the Building Museum. He ran down the street and took a right turn at the end of the block I believe.

On this night we went to the seminar with Ken Grossman from Sierra Nevada. He talked about brewing with the monks from Santa Maria de Ovila monastery and other some of his other crazy brews. It was pretty interesting. I don’t think any of us knew there were monasteries in the US brewing beer. The session had a cool relaxed layout. We all sat around on soft furniture (although no seat backs) and it was limited to a very small group. I noticed one or two other beer celebrities there including the head brewer from Dogfish Head who I recognized from the Brewmaster TV series. I was able to chat with him for a minute which was very cool.

After the session the food and beer seemed to go quicker than the night before. The food was mostly gone when the seminar ended at 9:00 which was a disappointment. It was still a great night with a ton of great beer and beer celebrities. Teri and I saw the same funky leopard skin high heels that I took a pic of on Friday. I was shocked that not only one person thought they were wearable but two people actually wore them to this nice event. I wanted to say something to the lady on Saturday but Beth and Teri convinced me it was not the best idea.

Sam Adams was pouring their New World Tripel from their barrel ages series. I think this beer is distributed in extremely small batches because people online are rating it but I don’t think you could find it if tried. At the end of the night when we were feeling good and everyone else at SAVOR Matt and Teri noticed a bottle sitting on the Sam Adams table that no one was paying attention to. Before we knew it they had it in Beth’s huge purse. Now I have it in my beer stock. Looking forward to opening that with Beth and Matt in a year or so. Hope no one from SAVOR reads this!

It was another fun SAVOR week. Looking forward to the fifth year in 2012.

pics from SAVOR

SAVOR (Friday)

After the Lupulin Reunuless Do last night I was hating life at work on Friday. I can’t get wasted and show up work the next day like I could 10 years ago. It took awhile to feel normal. Probably about the time I got out of work to head to SAVOR was when things started looking up.

I went all out and got tickets to both nights. Last year I don’t think I had enough time/energy to hit all the breweries in one night. So this year we were able to take our time and not get too crazy the first night. We ran a little late and showed up about 10 minutes before start time. Everyone gets there about 30 minutes early and stands in line. The line was still huge so we walked around back where there was no line and went right in. Teri and I were both hungry and that is a bad thing when you are about to do three or four hours of drinking.

Thankfully SAVOR is all about pairing food with fine beer so we made a point to eat everything in sight for the first 30 minutes. SAVOR has special seminars that you can sign up for and attend a special tasting with a brewer or panel of brewers. There was a west coast/east coast collaboration between breweries. There was one that paired local beers with local foods. There was a barrel beer session where you could taste different vintages of the same barrel aged beer. There was a beer and dessert session. All of these sessions sell out before the public tickets go on sale. Being a previous attendee I was able to get tickets to the session of my choice. For this fourth year SAVOR decided to ask two attending breweries to do a special collaboration for the event. They happened to ask the two biggest breweries Sam Adams and Dogfish Head.

Teri and I went to the session with Sam Adams owner Jim Koch and Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione talking about their collaboration called SAVOR Flowers. It was only the second collaboration for Sam Adams. The first being the Infinium which I still have a bottle of in my fridge (it’s getting old). That was quite an extraordinary collaboration. For SAVOR Flowers they messed with the one ingredient that hasn’t been messed with yet: the water. They somehow created a 1000 gallons of rose water using a distiller I believe at Dogfish Head. Then they had to ship the water, keeping it sterile, all the way to Boston to Sam Adams. As Sam of Dogfish Head says, they have some really cool tools at Sam Adams to do some really cool stuff. Sam Adams made a triple bock back in the early 90’s that was the highest alcohol beer in the world. They broke the max alcohol barrier that had existed for all of beer’s history. Since then breweries around the world have competed on brewing the highest alcohol beer. Anyway, apparently Sam Adams still uses the first barrel used to age that first batch and Jim decided to use that barrel to age SAVOR Flowers. Apparently they use barrel #1 to brew their Utopia. So along with the rose water they brewed this beer with lavender, hibiscus, and jasmine. They also used heather honey from Scotland and some lemon syrup. Finally they added Hop 369 which is a new hop never before used in a commercial beer (35 lbs to be exact). It smelled like geraniums (I think). And as you can expect the beer tasted just like flowers. I think its one of those that depends on the setting and your current palette. Later when I had it I thought it was a bit much. Looking forward to trying it again.

After the session was over we had two more hours mingling with brewers and tasting fine rare beers from all over the country. It was great to actually talk to the people who brewed the beer rather than volunteers who don’t know anything about beer. The food started getting sparse at the end of the night but most beers were still pouring. At the end of the night everyone was given their gift bottle of SAVOR Flowers. Pretty cool they gave everyone a special beer that will never be brewed again.

Tomorrow we do it again with Beth and Matt.

SAVOR pics

Lupulin Reunuless Do

photo by: http://twogirlsonefoodprocessor.com/

SAVOR isn't SAVOR if we didn’t have some version of the Lupulin Reunion the night before. I’ve attended this event each year before SAVOR and it is every good as it would appear from the list of brewers. It is quite rare that you can get the top craft beer pioneers in the world together on the stage. They each have very busy schedules (and little financial reason to attend). These are the people who live the lives every beer geek wishes they could live. They sit around and ponder how to make better beer while traveling the world representing their brewery and drinking the best brews the world has to offer. It is a tough life I’m sure.

Marc Wismer joined Teri and I. It was great to get Marc out on his first beer tasting. What a first event for him. We missed Bob Tupper this year as the moderator. Daniel Bradford from All About Beer took the helm and he did a great job of moving the event along. Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head missed the event because he was opening up his new beer bar on some rooftop in NYC. The brewers that did show up included:

• Ken Grossman - Sierra Nevada
• Tomme Arthur - Port Brewing / Lost Abbey / Pizza Port
• Kim Jordan - New Belgium
• Rob Tod - Allagash
• Bill Madden - Mad Fox
• Nick Funnell - Sweetwater Tavern VA / Great American Restaurants VA

And their beers...

• Mad Fox - Orange Whip IPA
• New Belgium - Imperial Berlinerweisse
• Sweetwater Tavern VA - Midnight Rider Black IPA
• Allagash - Little Big Beer
• Port Brewing - Mongo
• Sierra Nevada - Barrel Aged Life and Limb
• Dogfish Head - 2yr old Pangaea
• Lost Abby/Port Brewing/Pizza Port - Anniversary Ale
• Sierra Nevada - 30th Anniversary Grand Cru
• Allagash - Avancé
• New Belgium - Vreinden
• Dogfish Head - 2 yr old Immort Ale
• Mad Fox - Oaked Slobberknocker
• Great American Restaurants - Oak Aged High Desert Imperial Stout

Bill Madden started off with a local favorite and a favorite of mine and Teri’s: the Orange Whip IPA. It is a beer with all citra hops and Bill can’t brew enough to keep it in stock. He said the name came from the Blues Brothers when John Candy ordered an Orange Whip while at the concert. Bill said he has been brewing since ‘95. He helped grow four different locations for Cap City. I guess he was only at Vintage 50 for a year while Teri was working there. July 12th will be the one year anniversary of the opening of Mad Fox. Orange Whip IPA is definitely the beer of choice for my growler if it's in stock.

The next beer was an Imperial Berlinerweisse from New Belgium. Kim Jordan, the owner, was here to talk about it. Kim took New Belgium brewery from a basement home brew to the #7 brewery in the country in 20 years. This Berlinerweisse was nice, not too tart, and definitely a big imperial. They got the yeast from Berlin. Only a few breweries brew this style. Kim and her husband put sangria blackberries in their berlinerweisse while in Spain and that sounded like an excellent idea. This came in at 7.5%; hence the imperial.

The Midnight Rider Black IPA from Sweetwater Tavern VA was next. Nick Funnell was there to talk about it. It was Nick’s 25th year as a brewer. Nick is a Brit and he said it was time to leave the UK when he got complaints about his wheat beers. It was a very well balanced and malty IPA.

Rob Tod of Allagash came with two rare ones from his brewery. The Little Big Beer was brewed with the Alström Bros for a Belguim beer festival. They also made a Big Little Beer using the second runnings of the Little Big Beer. From BeerAdvocate.com:

First runnings from "Big Little Beer." Fermented with a blend of Allagash house yeast and Allagash house brettanomyces. Aged in a mix of french oak wine barrels and bourbon barrels for 2 months.

I haven’t been in the Bret mood the last few months. This beer was about 10.5%.

Tomme Arthur brought the Mongo from Port Brewing. Mongo has an interesting story. They had a rodent problem at the brewery. Lots of grains you know. So they invested in some "bio-dynamic pest control" as they called it: cats. Mongo was the first cat in their brewery litter and was the biggest. Unfortunately Mongo died after 7 or 8 months but his spirit lives on in the beer. It’s a new double IPA and a very high seller of theirs. It was one of my favorites of the night.

The Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Life and Limb was next. This was a collaboration with Dogfish Head made with maple syrup. It also had barley from the Sierra Nevada farm and aged in whiskey barrels. It had a very maple syrup taste.

The seventh beer was a two year old vintage of Dogfish Head Pangaea. The Dogfish Head guy filling in for Sam said that Sam thought up this beer while watching “The Land Before Time”. It has an ingredient from every continent. They sent some World Wide Stout (former highest alcohol beer of all time) up to the scientists in Antarctica and got back water to use to brew the beer as one of the ingredients.

Lot’s of high alcohol beers and the night is only half over.

The next beer was one of my favorites. It was the Anniversary Ale from Lost Abby or Port Brewing or Pizza Port (I forget which of Tomme’s breweries brewed this). It was a double IPA brewed with five different hops. I believe this was barrel aged. Tomme said they have 600 oak barrels and do 6-8 beers a year with their barrel program. He said you get a ton of shrinkage with barrel aged beers. A lot less beer comes out of the barrel then you put in. I liked this one because it had a fresh hop taste. It came in around 10.5% to 11%.

Sierra Nevada’s 30th Anniversary Grand Cru’s was next. I’ve had a few of these and still have a couple in my beer stock. It is a favorite of mine this year and was cheap. Read all about this one and their other anniversary ales here.

One of the beers I found most interesting and was very happy to try was the Allagash Avancé. From Allagash...

Avancé is a product of patience. Aged with strawberries for three years in bourbon barrels, this strong, sour ale has the aroma of strawberry preserves and toasted oak. The oak and berries continue their presence in flavor, and compliment the sweet, warm finish. 10.8% ABV

This was the beer I had last night. I really enjoyed. Teri not so much. Rob said wheat beers are 80% of their sales. Rob also talked about their 450 gallon cool ship used to brew open-fermentation spontaneous beers. They are careful not to call them lambics in respect for the Belgium lambics. This was how beer was brewed before heat exchange technology. I’ve yet to try one of their cool ship beers because they haven’t distributed them yet. Very much looking forward to that. All the other brewers sounded jealous of Rob’s set-up. Nothing like opening up your beer to all the bacteria and yeast floating around in the air.

The next beer from New Belgium was advertised that night as a double hop double malt Fat Tire but when I talked to Kim at SAVOR she said that was not the case. From their website...

Allagash and New Belgium are pleased to offer you our collabeeration brewed with the slightly fruity hibiscus flower, the aromatic Brettanomyces, and the flavor-boosting Lactobacillus.

The 2 year old vintage of Dogfish Head Immort Ale was next. I believe this was Dogfish Head’s first beer with maple syrup. From what I understand they had a crap ton of maple syrup at the brewhouse during a snowstorm so they decided to brew a beer with it. It is a hefty one. This comes in at 11% ABV.

Continuing with the big beers at the end of the evening we had an oaked Slobberknocker from Mad Fox next. Being a local brew from a favorite brewer Teri and I have had this one before. I believe I like this one out of the three barleywines that Bill has brewed. For some reason while drinking this beer they told the story about Sam and Tomme driving from RFD to the Brickskeller with an open 120 Minute IPA (~20% ABV). They said it was a 90 minute trip. Glad I wasn’t on my bike in DC that night.

Finally we had the Oak Aged High Desert Imperial Stout on cask from Great American Restaurants VA (Sweetwater). And as usual I have no notes on the last beer. I think we drank it all though. :)

It was another great night before SAVOR with the top craft brewers in the world hanging out, getting drunk, and having fun. Lots of good stories and good beers. Hopefully they do it again next year.

TV and entertainment center

I’ve been watching my late grandfather’s TV since he moved out of his house so many years ago I can’t remember. It was a 32” RCA tube TV and was about as deep as it was wide. It was time to invest in a new setup.

I got hung up trying to find an entertainment center for a year or two but once I found a manufacture I liked it was a done deal. BDI makes quality stuff. They have hidden vents, hidden wheels, cable management, adjustable shelves, and nice adjustable hardware. I got the TV stand as well that mounts on the back of the entertainment center and has a nice swivel feature. They aren’t far away in Chantilly, VA so the whole building and delivery process took two weeks instead of three.

Once the entertainment center was found and ordered the TV was the easy part. While exploring my entertainment center I happened to see it in the store floor with a 55” TV sitting on it. This appeared to be the perfect size. The newest bestest TVs are anywhere from $3500 to $6000. Coming from last century’s technology I don’t need the best available today. I was looking at last year’s top models at discount prices and some 2011 models that didn’t have necessarily have all the latest buzz words. LG seemed to be the company I kept coming back to. I happened to find their latest model, not available in stores yet locally, for $750 off the regular price online. I jumped on that and it was delivered the day after my entertainment center.

I took a day off work to accept delivery and set it all up. It was great to throw out my old TV stand and get some new modern furniture. The TV delivery guys actually took my old TV for themselves. I got my sweet inherited Marantz receiver hooked up to my new HD cable box and Paradigm Reference speakers. I also moved my router from my desk to my entertainment center so my TV and Sonos system could be wired. Then I ran an ethernet cable to my desk with a switch so I can plug in over there as well. I have been having an issue streaming FLAC files on my Sonos system so being wired at my entertainment center will prevent that from happening (at least at that location).

I got the whole thing put together no less than 30 minutes before the Lupulin Reunuless Do. It was Sunday night before I had spent a whole hour watching my new set up with all the SAVOR events going on. The TV has “apps” and internet access. The apps are horrible. Why would I want to use LG’s version of Twitter or YouTube? They are so hard to use compared to the actual web pages. The browser is horrible too. I’m debating whether I should get Google TV so I can have a real browser on my HDTV. I’d like to watch motorsports and other content on the internet that isn’t shown on TV. The Picasa app isn’t too bad as I can put on a slideshow of all my pictures from online. It has Netflix integration which is great. Currently I’m logged in to Teri’s account so I have access to all kinds of movies and TV shows. The TV is 3D as well. It is passive 3D and came with four glasses. Comcast On Demand has some 3D content so I’ve checked it out and it’s better than I thought it was going to be. I just read about ESPN 3D and I’d like to try that out although I’m sure it’s not worth it to me to pay for on a regular basis. I have three remotes now for my receiver, TV, and cable box but I hope to consolidate that someday. There is one for my DVD player as well but why watch DVDs when I have access to Netflix and the internet?

I was getting a delay while listening to the audio through my stereo system. My insanely awesome but 10 yr old receiver doesn’t have any HDMI inputs. It does have digital optical inputs though and I found if I go from my TV to my receiver with the digital cable there is no delay. It sounds quite good.

The details:

• LG 55” 3D 240Hz LED LCD
• Marantz SR-19 receiver
• Paradigm Reference speakers
• Sonos multi-room music system with:
• internet radio
• Pandora
• 94 GB / 18,000+ track personal music library

Rob Tod at Fire Works

Rob Tod of Allagash was at my local neighborhood beer bar for one of the many many events leading up to SAVOR. Allagash is a favorite brewery of mine. I’m sure a lot of other people are like me and discovered Allagash early in their beer geek life because Belgian beer styles are often the first beer styles people explore. Allagash has been doing wonderful stuff such as using red and white grapes as well as barrel aging. I often bring their Jim Beam barrel aged triple, Curieux, to my Friday afternoon meetings with the client.

I was going to see Rob at the Lupulin Reunuless Do on Thursday night as well as SAVOR on Friday and Saturday. So I didn’t have to go hang out with him on this night but being he is on my block it is hard to pass up. Rob was hanging out with the bartenders and beer director when Teri and I got there. We decided to sit at a table and get some dinner. Turns out they had some special Allagash beers available including their Victor and Victoria Ales which I very much enjoy. One that I had read about a while ago but haven’t heard about since was the Avancé. From the website:

Allagash Avancé is a product of patience. Aged with strawberries for three years in bourbon barrels, this strong, sour ale has the aroma of strawberry preserves and toasted oak. The oak and berries continue their presence in flavor, and compliment the sweet, warm finish. 10.8% ABV

I very much enjoyed this beer. Teri thought it was too sour but I felt it was actually very mild compared to a normal sour beer (probably because of the age). I’ll be seeking this beer out again.