Hurricane Irene

Not one week from our first major earthquake we have a hurricane. I swear I heard there was a tornado a few days ago as well. As is common it was rather nice before the storm. A change from the typical humidity. Around 10:30am on Saturday morning a line of rain hundreds of miles long hit Arlington. It didn’t really rain that hard throughout the day. Around 7:30pm I went out to Fire Works to ride the storm out at a location with food and lots of good beer. The tropical winds were supposed to hit around 8:00 or so. The winds were sustained at about 35 once it got going but it didn’t seem all that bad. The trees and rain were pounding the windows but it would lighten up on occasion. The media and internet hyped up the storm pretty good. You never know what is going to happen with Mother Nature. Everyone at the bar was enjoying themselves and people seemed to be a little more open and having more fun than normal. Some woman had a flashlight in her purse and that was being played with at the bar.

Lots of people lost power but that was about it around DC. Lewis thought he came through OK till he found 20K dollars of estimated roof damage. The river behind Robie’s house rose on Sunday quicker and higher than it has in the last 100 years or so. He had about 7 feet of water in his basement. He isn’t supposed to get power turned back on until 9/8. That is bad but not as bad as Vermont. The flooding is crazy up there.

It was an interesting week of natural disasters.

Robie's neighbor in the WSJ: Reporter’s Notebook: At Home, a Deluge

5.8 quake and aftershocks

At 1:51 in the afternoon when the earth quake hit I was sitting in my office on the 10th floor over looking the Potomac and DC (best view in the city). The quake had to different and distinct waves. The first was small in duration. I felt the building move for a few seconds. It was subtle but I definitely felt it. There was no sound and no reaction from within my office. Having never been in a quake before and not knowing what was going on I stood up and took a step towards my 10th floor window to observe what I could outside. Not the best advice during an earth quake. The second wave came just a second or two after the first and it was big and sustained. You’d think it was over and then it kept going. Up on the 10th floor there wasn’t a lot of impact. Nothing was falling over, no ceiling tiles falling or anything, just the swaying of the building. I looked around outside for some other evidence and I could see one person looking around and not exactly standing still. That verified to me it wasn’t just the building and I had just experienced my first quake. I always wanted to be in an earthquake.

Being in the mid-Atlantic no one knew what to do once the quake was over. People reacted in all sorts of ways. A few people, including Robie, dropped everything and immediately left the building. Of course they all stood outside under and between very tall office buildings. Other people (including Teri) sheltered under their desk. I figured everything was good and started checking out twitter and the USGS earthquake site. All the locals I followed on Twitter immediately confirmed that they felt the same thing. It took a bit before it showed up on USGS site (quake stats). I hung out in my office with many other coworkers wondering what to do. Apparently all over DC and Arlington there were thousands and thousands of people who emptied out on the streets. I was trying to text Robie to see what he was doing and what we should do. The feds evacuated all buildings and shut down for the day. Most other companies followed. Eventually we all went home. Of course just like when the feds let out early for snow it turned the commute to gridlock. The metro was running at 15 mph because they weren’t sure of all the tracks. Buses were completely full. As I rode home on my bike I noticed huge lines at the bus stops, empty taxi stands, and people everywhere trying unsuccessfully to hail a taxi.

I heard that people were running out of the Washington Monument for a good half hour or so. A 4 foot crack appeared at the top and it is closed indefinitely. The National Cathedral had some damage. An apartment building in Maryland with 110 units was totaled. A chandelier in Teri’s apartment lobby hit the floor. The center speaker screen on my entertainment center fell out but that is about all I noticed at my place. I popular picture online, which may have been taken by Michelle Winston’s friend, showed items all over the floor at a Fredericksburg CVS. The barbershop stayed open and I was able to get my haircut without waiting in line. The bars did the best happy hour business they have ever done.

There were over a dozen aftershocks. I felt a 4.2 aftershock but that was the only one. It was a topic of conversation for a week.

More info on the quake is here.

New Belgium Beer Dinner

Even though I wasn’t so happy with my first beer dinner at Birch & Barley I kept this second reservation to hear the New Belgium brewer and take Rachel to her first beer dinner. I wasn’t surprised to see the menu set up in the same manner with a few small dishes, then the three cheese dish main course, followed by dessert. I’m not a big fan of a cheese main course but the food is excellent and they do put a lot of thought in the pairings.

Today was the first day New Belgium beers are distributed to the DC, VA, and MD markets so this was their coming put party and long time brewer Peter Boukaert was here to talk about the company and their beers. He has been with the brewery since 1996. He is originally from Belgium and has a lot of interesting stories about brewing at New Belgium in Colorado. He definitely has a passion for beer. As he said he could talk about it all night after he has a few drinks. I can relate when he says it is a big decision for him to pick out a beer when he opens his fridge. And then decide which glass to pour it in. It was nice to chat with him for a bit when he came by our table.

The menu:

apéritif

Hoptober

Toasted Farro Salad

Grilled Cucumbers, Chilled Baby Shrimp, Malt Vinaigrette

Fat Tire

Handmade Potato Gnocchi

Salt Cod, Parsley, Pecorino

1554 Enlightened Black Ale

Prosciutto-wrapped Veal Loin

Heirloom Red Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Sage

Trippel

Pleasant Ridge Reserve

Honeyed Walnuts & Micro Arugula

Ranger IPA

Grayson

Dried Sour Cherries & Almonds

Lips of Faith: La Folie

Cave Aged Marisa

Peach Chutney & Micro Celery

Lips of Faith: Clutch

Almond Pound Cake

Nectarines, Sour Cream Ice Cream

Lips of Faith: Super Cru

digestif

Lips of Faith: Kick

I’ve had their Hoptober beer a few times and it is a favorite of mine. Peter said it has 4 malts and 5 hops.

The Fat Tire, their flagship beer of course, tasted much more malty relative to the Hoptober. This was New Belgium’s first beer.

Peter gave a bit of a story on the 1554 Enlightened Black Ale which was a favorite of mine until all these other black ales sprung up. I believe he said that he found an old 1901 book about beer in Belgium in the 1800’s and there was a recipe for a black beer. No one knew that they did a black beer in Belgium in the 1800’s. I looked it up to see if I could find when New Belgium first started brewing the beer and I found this on their web site:

Born of a flood and centuries-old Belgian text, 1554 Enlightened Black Ale uses a lager yeast strain and dark chocolaty malts to redefine what dark beer can be. In 1997, a Fort Collins flood destroyed the original recipe our researcher, Phil Benstein, found in the library. So Phil and brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert, traveled to Belgium to retrieve this unique style lost to the ages. Their first challenge was deciphering antiquated script and outdated units of measurement, but trial and error (and many months of in-house sampling) culminated in 1554, a highly quaffable dark beer with a moderate body and mouthfeel.

The prosciutto wrapped veal lion was good with the Trippel (7.8%). Peter said only New Belgium spells it that way. The heirloom red potatoes were from a local farm.

The Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese was an American cow’s milk from WI. The Grayson was a soft American wild cheese. And I think the Cave Aged Marisa was from WI and smoked. The Ranger IPA is a year round beer for them but the other two from the Lips of Faith series are more limited beers. The La Folie is a sour brown ale and went with the cheese quite well. Similar with the Clutch which is an 80% stout and 20% dark sour wood beer.

The Almond Pound Cake and Super Cru was a great pairing. I scraped off the almonds of course. Peter talked a lot about enjoying American beer culture when talking about this 20th anniversary beer. It is based on Fat Tire but with a saison yeast.

The last beer was the Lips of Faith: Kick. It is described as a “a rich and tart pumpkin cranberry ale blended with wood-aged beer”. As usual I can’t say much about the last beer. Rachel and I enjoyed it and had fun listening to Peter’s stories. Not sure I’ll be back too soon for a Birch & Barley beer dinner even though I really like the place.

DC Beer Week: Cask Night at District Chophouse

Two of the events I planned to attend during DC Beer Week were limited and required tickets. The Founders Beer dinner was the first and Cask Night at District Chophouse was the second. Originally they planned to have 10 local casks available along with food. You get a serving glass and have at it for a few hours till the casks are kicked. Before the event they said they would have 12 casks but I only counted 11 for some reason. I got tickets for Lewis and myself. It was hard to get out of work with a proposal due that day but you gotta maintain your priorities!

When we showed up they said they weren’t ready but after a minute or two we headed upstairs and started drinking anyway. They were ready. It was nice to have 12 casks sitting around the room without any lines. I think there were about 80 tickets sold. It got a little crowded in their upstairs room but I never waited for anything. It was all self serve. The beer line up:

Capital City Brewing Company, of Washington, D.C., and Arlington, VA

Peat Me Up Scotty: 5.7% abv Scottish Export Ale, primed with fermenting Kolsch wort

Du Claw Brewing, of Bel Air, MD, etc.

Bad Moon Porter: 6.5% abv, aged in a Heaven Hill Bourbon Barrel

Franklin's Restaurant & Brewery, of Hyattsville, MD

Ludicrous: 6.3% abv, sour-mashed rye saison

Gordon-Biersch Brewery & Restaurant, of Rockville, MD

Gose: 4.4% abv, wheat beer brewed with slightly salted water, and fermented with lactic bacteria

Heavy Seas Brewing, of Baltimore, MD

Loose Cannon Hop3 IPA: 7.3% abv, dry-hopped with varities of hops: Ahtanum, Cascade, Centennial, Palisade, Simcoe, and Falconers Flight (a proprietary blend from Hop Union)

Lost Rhino Brewing, of Ashburn, VA

New River Pale Ale: 5.4% abv, "extremely aromatic American-Style Pale Ale."

Mad Fox Brewing Company, of Falls Church, VA

Wee Heavy: 8.6% abv, strong Scotch Ale, primed with Virginia honey

Oliver Ales, at the Pratt Street Alehouse, in Baltimore, MD

Strongman Pale Ale: 9% abv, dry-hopped with Sorachi Ace

Rock Bottom Brewery & Restaurant, in Bethesda, MD

Atom Smasher: 9.4% abv, 'English-Style' BarleyWine

Sweetwater Tavern, of Centreville, VA, etc.

Pale Face Summer Wheat (A L'Orange): 6.1% abv, HefeWeizen primed with orange liqueur

The beers were pretty tasty. I’ve only had a few previously which is nice. Lots of local beer folks were there. I talked to a bartender and server from Mad Fox who both work in the brewhouse. The brewer Charlie was there but I didn’t talk to him. I talked to Greg Kitsock from the Washington Post for a bit. I also talked to Tom Cizauskas who is a beer blogger and wholesaler. He said he gets scooped a lot on beer stories because he can’t write about certain stuff he is involved in. A Lost Rhino rep was there, not the guys I met on Tuesday night, who said he does fabracation for all the local breweries. I also talked to the brewer for the District Chophouse who I recognized from Brickskeller events. He is a cool guy to talk to. I recognized and talked to a few other beer geeks that I commonly see at events.

My favorite beers of the night were Loose Cannon, Lost Rhino’s Pale Ale, Strongman, and the Wee Heavey. I think the Loose Cannon was my favorite as it was excellent in the cask form. They had lamb chops, meat balls, pizza, pasta salad, and hummas to eat. Lewis left around 8:30 or so and stayed for another hour or so. They had a raffle to give away growlers that you could fill at the end of the night. Lewis’s ticket was one number away from winning. I swapped info with some people. It ended up being a great event. I definitely wasn’t the only one who was rather intoxicated at the end of the night.

DC Beer Week: Lost Rhino at Fire Works

I wasn’t expecting anything to be going on at Fire Works when I showed up on Tuesday. I was just getting some dinner after work as I often do at my favorite neighborhood beer bar. When I walked in I noticed Dave Engbers from Founders who I recognized from the previous night. He was with what appeared to be some distributors by their shirts. I talked to Dave for a few minutes before I sat down at the bar. He seems to be a pretty cool and nice guy. He said he has enjoyed DC and the dinner last night at Birch and Barley. He seems genuinely happy about introducing his beer to new customers and introducing new beer to existing customers that hasn’t made it out to DC yet.

Although I ran in to the Founders co-founder the promotion at Fire Works that night was for a new local brewery called Lost Rhino. They took over the Old Dominion location and have just recently gotten their three beers out on the market: Face Plant IPA, New River Pale Ale, and Rhino Chasers Pacific Pilsner. I had one of each and got a Lost Rhino glass to take home. Sitting at the bar I talked to both brewers and owners at Lost Rhino. They are previous Old Dominion brewers. They seemed to be happy and busy. There is a great chance in a few years from now they will be sitting back and enjoying the profits of a successful business. A local wholesaler named Jeff was also there who Matthew from Lost Rhino gave some credit to. Favio, a Lost Rhino brewer, said they want to do bus tours from DC to the brewery. When he ordered a Face Plant IPA I asked if he usually drinks his own beer. He said he liked to try the Face Plant because it is unfiltered and different at each place. Both co-owners were excited about the local keg competition at Mad Fox tomorrow. About five local breweries are each having a keg tapped at 6:00 tomorrow at Mad Fox and the first one kicked wins. Favio said they made a “Brewer’s Cup” out of some beer keg or something that looks like the Stanley Cup. They are hoping to take it home but they don’t have a chance against Orange Whip IPA. We’ll see if I can show up for that tomorrow and at least get a growler of my current favorite beer.

DC Beer Week: Founders Brewery dinner

Birch & Barley scheduled a Founders beer dinner this week and a New Belgium beer dinner next week. I preferred the Founders dinner because the founder of Founders was to be there but unfortunately it was sold out when I tried to make reservations. I put my name on the waiting list and didn’t expect much. Sure enough the night before I got a call from a last minute cancellation. After a crazy day at work Teri and I headed over for the 7:00 dinner.

When we arrived 10 minutes before 7:00 they weren’t letting people in the restaurant area downstairs so we hung outside for 15 minutes. The dinner started a little late and went slowly but it was very well put together and I’m sure it took lots of time to prepare each course. It was a great beer line up with beers formally only available at the brewery. It turned out to be an excellent dinner overall although on the light side. The menu:

Apéritif

All Day IPA

Crudo Of Spanish Mackerel

Heirloom Tomatoes & Gooseberries

Cerise

Torchon Of Foie Gras

Spiced Almond Purée, Frisee, Mâche

Blushing Monk 2011

Grilled Skirt Steak

Toasted Farro, Mustard Greens, Roasted Cauliflower

Cashew Mountain Brown

Quicke’s Cheddar

Pinenut Butter & Micro Arugula

10K IPA

Ossau-Iraty Vieille

Dried Currants & Candied Almonds

Founders Imperial Stout

Roquefort D’Argental

Port Wine-Glazed Figs & Micro Celery

Nemesis 2010

Classic Peach Shortcake

Creme Fraiche Biscuit, Bourbon Caramel, Virginia Peaches

KBS 2011

Digestif

Devil Dancer 2011

The co-founder of Founders Brewery, Dave Engbers, was in DC for his first time and on hand to talk about the brewery and beers. He was a pretty cool and straight forward guy. The dinner consisted of nine beers and five “courses”. The main course combined three of the cheese pairings which is how they came up with five. Greg Engert, the Birch & Barley beer director, first talked about how they put the dinner together and then introduced Dave from Founders. Dave talked about All Day IPA a little and gave a quick background of the brewery. Founders seemed to have a similar story to other breweries from the 1990’s that are still around. Investors thought they were crazy and it took many years of hard work to convince distributors and bar owners. Craft beer finally came around and in the last five years they have had trouble meeting capacity and have been growing tremendously each year.

The All Day IPA was an excellent beer. As the name implies it is a session beer at only 4.5%. And as Dave from Founders said they don’t do small beers. It had a great grapefruit smell and taste. A wonderful beer. A little light bodied but with all the aroma and taste. Something you could drink all day. Dave said this was going to be a regular Founders beer and should be available in March.

The mackerel, tomatoes and gooseberries were good. The mackerel was served basically uncooked. Teri is not a fan of sushi but she liked it. Of course I didn’t eat the tomatoes. But tasting the Cerise I can see how it would be an excellent pairing with tomatoes. Dave said that they used to brew a raspberry beer and when the auto industry in Michigan took a dive they decided to use local cherries instead. He said 90% of the cherries in the country come from his area in Michigan. So they made this cherry beer to help the local farmers.

I’m not a fan of foie gras but I gave it a shot. It wasn’t too bad with the salad type stuff around it. I can enjoy a lot of things when they are paired with a Blushing Monk. I visited ChurchKey for this specific beer awhile ago. Dave said they use 33,000 lbs of fresh raspberries and they do not make any money on this beer.

They served their pretzel bread at one point between courses. All their breads are wonderful.

The grilled skirt steak was the heartiest of the courses. Everyone commented on how good the roasted cauliflower was. And it was pretty good. Not sure I’ve had roasted cauliflower before. This was paired with the Cashew Mountain Brown ale. This was a favorite beer among everyone. As Dave said “nothing we release is going to be schwag”. He also called is a “stupid good beer”. Apparently he likes his own beer. This is a bourbon barrel aged beer. Roasted cashews were used in the brewing process and the beer is usually only available at the brewery tap room.

Next came three cheese dishes all as one course. And three beers to go along with each one. Each cheese and beer had a unique character and the pairings worked well together. The cheddar and the hoppy 10K IPA were good. The 10K is supposed to be an imperial west coast IPA. I’m not much of a blue cheese fan so I didn’t eat the Roquefort D’Argental. It’s supposed to be one of the best blue cheeses in the world. I did drink the Imperial Stout and Nemesis though. The Nemesis is an annual beer but they do it differently each year. Apparently they had trademark issues with this beer.

The dessert dish was nice. The bourbon caramel went well with the KBS 2011 which is aged in bourbon barrels. It used to be called Kentucky Bourbon Stout but they had to change the name for legal reasons. Same with Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS).

We finished off the night with a Devil Dancer. A triple IPA. This beer is dry hopped with ten different types of hopes (can you taste each one?) and over 12% ABV. Dave said this was an example of “fuckery” where they take an existing style and fuck with it. He also said it smells like sweet bong water which I didn’t understand too well.

The dinner was excellent. Although for the price we felt sorta jipped that we were still hungry. It was great to hear from Dave and get a chance to talk to him. It is always nice to put a personality to a brewery.

DC Beer Week: Summertime in Allagashington

DC has become a decent beer town. We have gotten a few nice beer bars that have excellent rotating selections and bring in new and unique beers from across the country and world. In the last year we have about four or five new breweries that have started brewing. SAVOR brings the whole craft beer industry to DC and we celebrate with a week’s worth of events. And we also have DC Beer Week (DC Beer Week origins). I don’t mind how it came about I’m just happy to take advantage of the fun. This year there are dozens of events going on during the week with brewers from all over the county and rare beer that isn’t distributed to the area. I only have one or two events planned but I hope to show up to a few more.

On this first day of DC Beer Week Teri and I rode bikes down to Pizzeria Paradiso in Georgetown for our favorite pizza. They had an event called Summertime in Allagashington in which they had five Allagash beers on tab. We had a hop flight that included an Oliver’s Ironman on cask and two Mikkeller Hop Series beers. We also had an Allagash flight with Victor, Victoria, and Fluxus. I've talked up their Victor and Victoria for years with their grape wine characteristics but I liked the Fluxus the best on this occasion out of the Allagash beers. I think my favorite was the Pratt St. Ale House Oliver’s Ironman Pale Ale on cask dry hopped with citra hops. We also ate their special pizza for the week which we both loved. It had sausage, roasted corn, fresh mozzarella, and something else I’ve forgotten.

It was a good start to DC Beer Week. I thought the Victor and Victoria would be the highlight of the day but it turned out that I enjoyed the Ironman on cask and special pizza the best. Teri rode back to Rosslyn and got her car and I rode back home. Tomorrow’s event may be the highlight of the week.

Oktoberfest just out of July

I happened to be in Ted’s Montana Grill getting a burger. The Sam Adams seasonal on tap was Octoberfest. The last few years many of us have complained about how early the seasonal beers come out. Each year they seem to come out earlier and earlier. I’ve heard the brewers talking about brewing fall beers this year but I haven’t heard about any fall beers actually being on the market yet. The shelves will be full of fall beers next week I’m sure. Season creep. It is like scope creep on my projects at work.

sailboat transport

Scott’s friend, Lars, has a 28 foot Tartan that he wanted to move from the Washington Sailing Marina near Regan Airport out to Deale, MD. Someone called it a pseudo bachelor party for Scott and there ended up being six of us total. It would be an overnight trip around 155 miles (135 nm) sailing the whole way. Matt was the only person without sailing experienced. I think the rest of us had all done long overnight trips before. A lot would depend on the weather.

Robert and his wife had us over for dinner and to stay the night on Friday so we could leave early Saturday morning. Scott and Robert had dropped Scott’s car off at the destination marina. We ate chili and spicy enchiladas for dinner. Everyone passed out pretty early and by 11:30 I found I was the only one awake. I wasn’t ready for bed on this Friday just yet so I drove the 10 minutes home and eventually passed out in my own bed. The next morning I showed up for breakfast. We had breakfast tacos with farm raised pork I believe. It was a good way to start the day.

The plan was to leave the dock around 9:00 and we got there 15 or 20 minutes beforehand to pack. Lars and Steve’s wives and kids were there to see us off. Once the boat was loaded and all the hugs and kisses were given we left around 9:30. In for the long haul.

We had lots of food, water, beer, and music. The GPS guided us the whole way. Lars had all the way points in for the whole trip so we just followed the route and rounded a buoy on every turn. The GPS map included depth and it was surprisingly shallow in many areas of the Potomac. We had to motor most of the way down the Potomac because of a southern breeze. We used the jib or main as much as we could. The weather wasn’t perfect but not too bad on Saturday. The overcast kept the sun away mostly. It rained around us a lot and on us a bit. We passed the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, Fort Washington, Mt Vernon, and a ton of other landmarks. A fire boat passed us with its lights on but we didn’t spot any boats on fire ahead of us. I’ve driven over the RT-301 bridge a lot going from Annapolis to Richmond but had never been under it. We were able to use the auto pilot often and just set the course that the GPS told us to go. After the 301 bridge the river really opened up. Once night settled in we just followed the route on the GPS and watched out for other boats.

Around midnight I think everyone passed out but Steve and Lars who sailed all night in the rain.

I slept in the back berth which was nice because I had walls. Matt and Scott slept in the cabin benches so when we heeled over or came about they would tend to roll off their bench. Around daybreak everyone woke up but Scott. I sailed for a bit on a nice easy beam reach. We had a nice wind coming from the west that kept us on a reach up the Bay until it died. Then we sat in the hot sun with no wind while we motored the rest of the way. The last leg was brutal in the sun and humidity. I managed to protect myself mostly but it wasn’t easy with as much as you sweat in 100 degree heat index. We also managed to drink all the beer but one of the 10% ABV Gubna’s.

The wives and kids met us at the destination marina in Deale, MD. It looked like a nice marina. There was a wedding going on and people hanging out at the beach. We saw two crabs mating in the water at the dock. Once the boat was unloaded and the cars packed we were off. It was a long trip for only being 36 miles away by car. After leaving at 9:30am on Saturday we arrived around 1:30pm on Sunday (28 hours). Our route was 166 miles (144 nm).

GPS map and data

pictures and videos