my "official" blog

Laser sailing

2011-11-13T12:29:00.000-05:00

Robert and Jen stopped by on Friday around dinner time. They had started partying early being Veterans Day. After a little 3D TV demo we headed over to Steven and Yuko’s house to check out their new deck Steven built. Scott, Jen, and Scully were there already. The kids were up asking for entertainment or entertaining us. Steven and Yuko prepared dinner which was good. Robert and Steven were talking about sailing Lasers on Saturday being that it was supposed to be warm and windy. Robert was trying to convince me it would be a good day to go out.

So while I was watching Forumla One qualifying the next morning Robert and Steven called me. The thought of the cold Potomac water was not a fun feeling as I sat on my comfortable couch but I decided to go out and join them. Robert hooked me up with a dry suit and I was good to go. There were about 7 or 8 Laser sailors out for the preseason run. They took out the motorboat to set up a practice race course. Steven took out the motorboat first so he let me sail his try out is boat. I’ve never sailed in a dingy before. It is a whole different world. Steven's Laser was nice and new. It was going to be interesting.

A Laser is a one person boat that is very light weight and maneuverable if you know what you are doing. You can also end up on the water quite easily. You can go really fast but it is easy to go over the edge and end up in the water. My plan was to play it conservative, try to stay out of the water, and try to keep the boat in one piece. It took a little bit to figure out how to keep the boat going consistently and to work out the mechanics of tacking. I never did get comfortable with the tiller extension. Robert sailed next to me for a few minutes and gave me one of the best tips which is to turn with speed. I kept out of the water at first. Then after I was starting to think I’d stay dry it went over. I went over three times and I think each time was in heavy or shifting wind while jibing. Not having the mechanics down I’d either have my weight in the wrong place or some other basic mistake while I’m trying to deal with all these new factors at the same time. The first time I was able to roll over the high side, stand on the center board, and roll it back over. The second time I ended up in the water. I was scared going in but I quickly realized I didn’t feel a thing. The dry suit worked well. The last time I went over was a bit of an issue. When you flip the boat back over the trick is to land in the boat. Otherwise you can’t get back in without flipping it again. So it took me a bit to get it that time. I wasn't hiking out and healing over far so the most fun was surfing down wind at full speed. I could feel the hull vibrating.

The other guys did practice races. I’d follow along sometimes in the back but mostly tried to stay out of the way. Robert took Steven’s place on the motorboat so I switched places with Steven to give him his boat back. I was about done after the third time flipping the boat. After a couple more races everyone headed in. It was an interesting first experience. I’d be more comfortable the next time going out and maybe a little more methodical at learning how to handle that type of boat. I was trying not to break anything this first time. Not sure how much I want to get in to dingy sailing in the winter. I have no plans on purchasing a sailboat anytime soon. It is fun though and if the weather is nice I wouldn’t mind going out on occasion.

pic by Nabeel Alsalam during last season

Bela & The Flecktones

2011-11-08T12:22:00.000-05:00

The last time I saw Bela and The Flecktones was at the Strathmore. It was the reunion of the original lineup. I was able to get a center 6th row seat. It doesn’t seem like two years ago. This time I got a little different perspective and sat in the center of the last row. I didn’t feel like paying more than $30 for a ticket. The Strathmore is a great venue though and every seat is good.

Teri and I walked in and sat down the minute before the band took the stage. They played two great sets. It reminded me of the show two years ago. The harmonica/piano player, who is the one that came back from the original lineup, can play the harmonica with incredible precision. That always impresses me. The guy is good. Victor Wooten is an awesome bass player and he threw down some mind blowing bass lines and solos. Bela did his thing which was great as usual. His alternate banjo of choice was a guitar hybrid which sounded nice. With all that awesome talent between the three of them I don’t see how they still keep “Future Man” around on that percussion thingy.

Bela will always put on a quality show I’m sure. He needs to keep his ticket prices down though.

Skyline Drive drive

2011-11-07T12:03:00.000-05:00

A few times this fall, Teri and I thought about hitting Skyline drive, doing a little hiking, and checking out a brewery or winery. Usually this idea came to us after the weekend was over or it was too late to plan. So we finally planned it. She picked me up at 8am on Sunday and we were off. Good thing we had an extra hour of sleep thanks to the DLS time change.

The weather was nice. The leaves were about peaking in DC, which means they were past peak out in the mountains, but they were still very nice. Skyline Drive wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. Traffic wasn’t bad at all. We picked two of the shorter hikes. One with a large waterfall and another with a 360 degree summit view. They were probably the more popular hikes for people doing the drive like us but they weren’t too busy. The waterfall hike was downhill the whole way there and a bit cold without my jacket. It was worth the hike though and much warmer walking back up. At the end of Skyline Drive we hiked up to a little rock covered summit. It only took 15 minutes so I convinced Teri to hike on. It was actually part of the Appalachian Trail. We ran in to two guys who were finishing up an overnight 14 mile segment. It wasn’t the most exciting portion of the AT though so we made a U-turn before we got to our planned turn around.

After the drive and the hiking we were ready for some food. I originally planned to go to Devil’s Backbone brewery which is a favorite of mine but when I saw that the Blue Mountain Brewery was having their 4th Anniversary Birthday party we headed there instead. There was a lot of people but not much special going on besides a moon bounce and kettle corn. We missed the special menu by about 30 minutes. We had some decent food, sampled all seven of their beers, and each got a growler fill to take home. Teri got the Rockfish Wheat and I got their Full Nelson.

On the way back we ended up on I-95 somehow thanks to our GPS. And as we were stuck in traffic we looked over and saw Mark and Michelle trying to get our attention. After connecting with them on the phone we followed them on Rt-1 for a bit to avoid the traffic. Not sure how much time we saved but it was nice to be moving.

It was a long day in the car but Skyline Drive, the hiking, and trying new beers was fun. I didn’t see any black bears as I did once in the past but maybe next time. I gotta get out in the mountains and woods every so often or I get withdraw.

The GPS data includes the whole day from the drive out to the drive back. If you go to the split times you can see that laps 2 and 4 are the two hikes we did.

Soulive, Lettuce, & Rahzel

2011-11-05T11:48:00.000-04:00

I’ve been looking forward to this show since it was announced long ago. I’m a fan of Soulive and they always put on a good show, especially the Rubber Soulive tour, but I’ve never seen Lettuce and I dig raw funk and a horn section. I got tickets only a day or two in advance; I was surprised they were still available.

Teri and I tried to go to Mad Fox for dinner. It was the first day of their cask week. I’m a fan of fresh cask beer. Unfortunately the place was packed and had about a 40 minute wait. So we headed to the old staple Argia's which is almost next door to the State Theater. I ran in and put our name on the list, jumped back in the car and we found a place to park and break, then a minute after we walked in we were seated. Always good Italian food.

At 9:00 the line at the door was huge. And it was a bit cold. After waiting we ditched our coats in the car and walked in the warm venue. It took a few minutes for my ears and head to stop hurting. The place was packed. We headed up to the balcony to relax for the beginning of the show. The balcony was full but we found good seats with leg room. Lee walked past us but didn’t see/hear us in the dark. Soulive threw down as usual. It was a nice groovin’ set. They played a Beatles medley from their last tour that rocked. The crowd was crazy. Lots of young people on various intoxicants.

During the intermission between Soulive and Lettuce a guy named Rahzel came out and did his thing. It was quite impressive. With just his mouth and a microphone he threw out some crazy beats. He could put out a super low bass note that rumbled the whole place, and beat box on top of that, while also throwing in other odd DJ scratching noises and lyrics. It was something to see and hear. He made a point to count out all the tracks/sounds he was doing at the same time. Teri liked the car crashing and mechanical gear sounds. What impressed me the most was his ability to beat box while singing. You had to see it to believe it. He was entertaining.

Finally Lettuce took the stage. The guitarist and keyboard player from Soulive played as part of the band. The drummer, bass, and other guitarist all wore flat rimmed baseball hats and had that NYC or LA look. The could play some funk though. The horn section accented the grooves well. Teri and I got down in front during intermission for Rahzel and everyone was dancing around on the floor for Lettuce. It wasn’t as crowded as I was expecting close to the stage. They played a fun set. They seemed to be able to take a simple funk riff and put a great song around it. Lettuce only played a couple of shows with Soulive. Hope I can catch them again before too long.

Raging Bitch on cask at ChurchKey

2011-10-30T23:18:00.000-04:00

I’ve talked about Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch before. When Flying Dog released it as their 20th Anniversary beer in 2010 it was one of those beers you taste and realize is a special beer. Apparently I wasn’t the only one because it was one of the most popular craft beers of the year and Flying Dog decided to make it not only every year but all year. I’ve had it on cask once or twice before but try not to miss it when I can get it. It wasn’t my favorite beer on this night though.

I started off with a full serving of the Witch Doctor on cask from Oskar Blues. It is a blend of their Dale’s Pale Ale and Ten FIDY dry hopped with centennial hops. It comes in at 8.5%. It had that familiar Oskar Blues taste. I forgot the Ten FIDY was the stout but it had a nice balanced taste.

Next was the Stillwater Harvest Saison. This might have been my favorite beer of the night. Saisons aren’t my favorite style but this had the fresh hop taste along with the typical yeast flavors. The description said... "Brewed with East Kent Goldings, Summit & Wet Citra Hops; Matured on Spanish Cedar; Dry-Hopped". It was 6.8%. I only had the 4oz of this but could have easily drank a full serving.

I also got a tasting size of the Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head collaboration Life & Limb. This came in at a nice 10.2% but I couldn’t taste the complexity in the beer on this occasion for some reason. I could just barely pick up the maple syrup.

They were out of the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Session 38: Docesna - Czech Hop Harvest Ale. I was disappointed. So finally I had the Raging Bitch on cask in a full serving. It was good but not the explosion of flavors I was expecting. I thought I detected a metallic taste or something foreign but I quickly forget it at this state in the game.

the making of Freddie's Revenge

I wanted to end with a tasting size of the 120 Minute IPA but they ran out of that as well. So I ended with a Freddie's Revenge on cask from Pratt St. Ale House in Baltimore. It is a pumpkin ale brewed w/ roasted pumpkin, spiced with cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, and clove. I’ve had some unexpectedly tasty pumpkin beers this year. Unexpected because I’m traditionally not a pumpkin beer fan. I don’t like all the spice; similar to the x-mas beers. But this year there was more to the offering and some interesting flavors. Some were like eating pumpkin pie with whipped cream. So many craft breweries doing so much good stuff these days.

I had the potato croquettes just like last time. They are yummy. And the pasta special again which was fettucini with pork belly. It was pretty good. I got a good deal on the bill and didn’t get charged for any of the small servings. Similar to what happened to me earlier in the weekend at my other favorite establishment. My good looks I guess.

MMW

2011-10-28T11:09:00.000-04:00

I haven’t seen MMW in awhile. I find it kinda crazy that I can’t find them mentioned in my blog anywhere. I guess it has been a long while. They came on a Thursday and were playing with Antibalas which I guess is a band familiar to them. They did an odd DC, Philly, NYC run together. Odd in that it was not your usual MMW show. I’ve been hesitant in the second half of MMW’s career to go to their shows as they are a bit more avant-garde jazz then I like but this was a great performance that I enjoyed.

Port City Brewery tweeted that day that the 9:30 Club would have their Essential Pale Ale on tap. I replied that I’ll be partaking.

Teri was not having a good day at work so I invited her along to cheer her up and forget about the craziness going on during the work day. We walked in after the opening band stopped and got a spot up front. Before too long MMW came out and did their thing. I wasn’t sure what they were going to play but I ended up recognizing all the songs. They were getting down to all their old classics. Teri mentioned how they were not the easiest band to dance to with their style of play. They would play traditional timing but John Medeski would often play off beat which throws people off. The reason I recognized the whole first set except for one song was because they were all requests. I remembered them asking for requests on Twitter awhile back. They said they usually don’t take requests; usually they jam whatever new stuff they are working on. We were right in front of Medeski for the first set. I could see he took the lead; at least in those old school songs. I wish I could see his hands on the keys as he was all over the place. I could smell a lot more food than usual this show and some guy actually brought a couple sandwiches up to the front row and ate them off the stage.

During the set break I switched up the beer and got a draft of the DC Brau Public. I usually don’t get draft at the 9:30 Club because the open cups spill all over the place in the packed floor compared to bottles. During the set break though it was open and I wanted to change it up. The DC Brau Public was so much more flavorable than the Port City Essential Pale Ale. I’m curious why. I’m sure they were both fresh being local. I doubt the bottle vs draft had anything to do with it. The Public was definitely more of the flavorable hop taste that I am looking for. We stuck with that the rest of the night.

Antibalas came out with MMW for the whole second set. Teri and I missed their opening set so we didn’t know what to expect. The 9:30 Club stage is not small but I didn’t realize you could fit this many people on stage. Fifteen all together. Two bass players, two keyboard players, two drummers, multiple people playing percussion, guitar, and a four piece horn section. It was great. They played MMW style jams but with the Antibalas sound since they out numbered MMW 12 to 3. It was fun. I’d like to see MMW with just the horn section. I’m not sure if DC was the first show of the tour or not. I saw a tweet earlier in the week about rehearsal. It was definitely unique for a MMW show and I really enjoyed it.

NoVA Brewfest

2011-10-23T23:35:00.000-04:00

I didn’t go to the NoVa Brewfest out in Bull Run Park (next to Manassas National Battlefield Park) in the previous four years because I hadn’t heard anything special about the event. In the past the list of breweries was nothing to write home about but it has gotten bigger each year. And it was out in the ‘burbs. Also their method of distributing beer has changed over time for the better I think. It was ticket based as always this year although you could buy as many extra tickets as you wanted for only $1. Mark asked if I wanted to hit it up this time so I decided to check it out.

It ended up being a decent group of us including Mark, Michelle, Scott, Jen, Teri, Marc, and another couple that Mark knew. Marc from Pburg only lives about 2 miles from Scott but I had to pick him up since Scott wasn’t able to find him on the map. Teri and I filled our bellies at District Taco before getting stuck on I-66 and downtown Fairfax. Traffic was not fun at noon on Saturday. It was a nice day although cloudy. The leaves are getting to that perfect stage when changing colors. Most of us got tickets online in advance for $20 which was $10 off the gate price. I found out LivingSocial had a deal and sold over 1300 so that added to my fears of long lines. Especially after Oktoberfest in Shirlington. The website said the event will not sell out. How can an event not sell out?

The taxi van picked us up at Mark and Michelle’s at 1:45. The driver took some back way. It turns out it would take a lot of people to sell the event out. It was a big open area with some rolling hills. Tons of parking, a huge stage and crowd area, although the two rows of booths were sorta full. We got right through the entrance. There was plenty of room and most beer lines were short. Some food and bathroom lines got long. Teri and I found a secret port-o-potty behind the stage that was accessible but it got less and less secret as the day went on. Also as the day went on I think the volunteers were less and less worried about taking our tickets. People were more strict than the Shirlington Ocktoberfest but after awhile I seemed to be getting away with it more and more. Later while in line someone handed Teri and I a bunch of tickets so we were set. The kettle corn was pretty good. They had a HUGE “kettle” over a gas flame and would mix popcorn and oil in it with a large wooden stirrer. After awhile it would all pop at once and he’d dump it via hinges in another big container. Hot and fresh. There was also bratwurst wrapped in a pretzel but I didn't get to try one of those delights.

We all stuck together for the most part and everyone had a good time. Mad Fox had their Pumpkinator as well as the new brewer at Vintage 50. It was her first brew on that equipment with the help of Bill. Teri talked to her for a minute and unfortunately I never made it back to try her version that she was tapping at 3:00. Schafly had their pumpkin beer and it was just as good as I remembered. They had other vendors and craft booths including wooden croaking frogs. The had different sizes for different sounds and when you rubbed the wooden mallet over their backs they made a rather realistic croaking sound. The people at the booth were jamin’ to the band with the frogs. I’d never spend money on it though. When is there a band in the background to jam to?

The taxi guy came back with just a car so he had to wrangle with another taxi driver on site to get us all back. Marc used him to get home from Mark’s and called to complain afterwards that they guy ripped him off. For some reason I slowed down once we got back but a few of those I was hanging out with were rather toasted. It was a fun day hanging out with everyone outside and being hosted by Mark and Michelle that evening. The brewfest surpassed my expectations. It helps when you have friends that live close by. It is a twice a year event so we’ll see what happens next year.

biking, Chilean mine exhibit, and ChurchKey

2011-10-15T23:41:00.000-04:00

It was a nice day so I had to take advantage and get outside. I saw online that the Natural History Museum had an exhibit about the Chilean miners who were trapped and finally rescued. So I decided to ride down and check out that exhibit, ride past the new MLK memorial, and then up to ChurckKey for some new beers they had on tap.

I got to the museum around 4:00 about an hour before it closed. I hadn’t been there in awhile and the first floor ocean exhibit was new to me. The little special exhibit I was going to was in the geology section near the Hope diamond. I finally found it after checking out some other cool exhibits. It was interesting and laid out the geology of the area and how they mine the copper. There was a timeline of their time underground and a map of the mine. It showed how deep down they were and the three escape mines they drilled. The actual capsule used to bring the miners up was on display along with other artifacts donated by the miners. It was interesting to see the conditions they had to survive in. A video was playing of the rescue. Emotional stuff.

I walked around a bit more and checked out the Hope diamond and other gems. One of the coolest artifacts was molten rock that was in the shape of a projectile after it cooled and hardened while flying through the air.

It was getting dark so I didn’t ride over to the MLK memorial. I was also worried about getting a spot at ChurchKey. Sure enough when I walked in I got one of the last spots at the bar. I sampled a nice line up of beers while there. All the small 4 oz tasting size of course:

Sierra Nevada Estate Homegrown Harvest Ale (w/ Sierra Nevada grown organic barley & wet organic cascade, chinook & citra hops)
Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere Harvest Ale (w/ fresh Yakima Valley cascade & centennial hops)
Black Diamond Black Harvest Ale (w/ fresh organic hops)
Ayinger Weisse
DC Brau El Hefe Speaks!
DC Brau The Public on cask with summit hops
DC Brau The Public on cask with amarillo hops
Brooklyn The Companion (55% wheat malt & 45% floor-malted barley malt)
Flying Dog Wild Dog: The Fear (w/ pumpkin, squash, chocolate malt, spiced w/ cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg & clove)

Of course I had some food with this. I like their fully loaded potato croquettes with broccoli sour cream. I also had their pasta special which was very good. Don’t ask me to describe it now. I finished with their awesome arancini balls but I was getting full by then and it was hard to get the last one down.

After the ride home the Caps were playing so I watched that. Then at 2am it was time for the Formula One race live in Korea. I haven’t watched an F1 race live in awhile (timing being a big reason). It was nice to have the live lap times and twitter updates as the race was going on. That provides so much more information you otherwise wouldn’t get. I could only stay up for half of it and slept late of course.

G Love & Special Sauce

2011-10-14T23:39:00.000-04:00

I wasn’t sure how popular the show would be and if I should get tickets beforehand or not. They were still on sale the day of so I decided to do what I’ve done in the past and go to the venue, get tickets, then go eat before heading back right when the band starts. This way you avoid the outrageous online fees and get tickets before most people show up. I did the smart thing though and called the venue to see what is up. They have given me info in the past on how many tickets are left and if it will sell out. She said it will sell out. So I went ahead and bought tickets online. This was already about 7:45 the night of a show that was scheduled to start at 8:00. I was able to get the tix though and have them waiting for me at will call. The band we wanted to see wasn’t going on stage until 10:30.

I have never seen them before even though I was listening to them back in in the 90’s. They have a cool funk groove rap thing. The bass player was playing a stand up bass with a metal body. I’m not sure how that works. It was interesting. They had some new beers at the 9:30 Club such as DC Brau. You can always count on the 9:30 Club to have a good selection. Teri and I squeezed in from the left as I usually do. The place was packed. And it was an interesting mix of people. Lots of folks my age but younger as well. It didn’t appear as if many of them were hardcore fans. Not many sang along even on their old school popular songs. Some did though. It was fun and the crowd was in to it. They played for more than an hour on the first and only set. The encore was almost as long though. He came out solo, then played with an old friend from the area who sang “Before You Accuse Me”, then the opening band joined.

It was a fun and entertaining show. Creative funky grooves to get down to.

Trey

2011-10-13T23:29:00.000-04:00

It had been a long time coming because I got tickets back during the pre-sale. Thankfully. I don’t think it was possible to get tickets during the public sale because they went too fast. Although in front of the venue before the show there were tons of tickets for sale. And it was a brand new venue: The Fillmore Silver Spring. I think I’ve been in Silver Spring less than five times.

Teri and I met up in Silver Spring before the show. Thankfully it wasn’t raining. Being right on the metro was convenient. We passed Ray’s The Classic’s on the way. They made us empty our pockets and pull out our pocket lining to get inside the venue. Once in we were able to get a beer and a decent spot for the first set. Their beer selection was pretty bad. But I was surprised how easy it was to get a beer and a decent spot up front at a sold out show. It turns out we were lucky. It got packed as the show got on and I heard Primus a couple weeks before was packed.

We got all settled right before 8:00 and the band came on shortly after. The bass player was sitting down and I assumed he had his bass sitting on his chair or leg because it didn’t seem to move until I realized it was on a stand. Teri said that was cheating. The keyboard player seemed to fit in with the same old school session player theme and the drummer wasn’t far off. They were all very good. Trey also had a horn section which I always enjoy. There was a guy playing sax, a redheaded female trombone player, and a diva trumpet player who sang. The trumpet player tried to do some leading of the horn section and band but I noticed her mess up numerous times on the same song. She would try to signal when an upcoming change was and got it wrong about four times. After the song Trey came over and chatted with her while smiling. Later she did some vocals and belted out Black Dog. Even doing some back and forth with Trey during the solo.

During the second set we hung out upstairs for awhile. Downstairs was too packed after we waited forever at the upstairs bar. After waiting for awhile the hot female bartender who can’t tend a bar told me they were out of the beer I requested. I politely informed her that the other keg 10 feet away was still flowing strong. She said she couldn’t serve me from that keg. My mouth opened and I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know how to respond. The keg was right there and the one other bartender was not using it. I eventually said something. “We are trying to be efficient.” she replied. I couldn’t believe it. I had just stood there for about 10 minutes waiting my turn to be served. I looked over at the other line and assumed it would be at least another 10 minutes to get through that. So I complained again. Teri in the mean time was inching her way closer to being served by the other bartender. This allowed me to continue to harass the incompetent server on my side of the bar. If they had one other acceptable beer I might have had another option. She also had the nerve to tell me I was standing in “no man’s land” while waiting to be served around a huge bar that was surrounded with people doing the same thing. She seem a little overwhelmed and the bar wasn’t as busy as it could have been. We did not revisit that bar.

We found a decent spot in the balcony that was directly to the side of the stage. I was very tempted to sneak back stage. The girl watching the walkway was paying lots of attention to the band and we were almost standing directly behind her in a way that would have allowed us to just slip through. But after hanging out in the balcony for half the set it opened up downstairs. We headed down and were able to move in relatively close to the stage. The second set rocked out just like the first. It was cool to get so close to Trey and the band. It reminded me of the mid-90’s when Phish played smaller venues.

The metro ride is only a minute or two longer than the trip to the 9:30 Club. Another great venue I don’t have to drive to which is excellent. It felt like I hadn’t been to a concert in awhile. It was a great show. And we have another tomorrow night.

Set One:
In the Wee Wee Hours
Gotta Jibboo
Alive Again
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Money, Love and Change
Burn That Bridge
Burlap Sack and Pumps
Push On 'Til the Day
Alaska
Tuesday
Black Dog

Set Two:
Sand
Valentine
Drifting
Simple Twist Up Dave
Liquid Time
Pigtail
Mr. Completely
Ether Sunday
Magilla
Night Speaks to a Woman
First Tube

Encore:
Clint Eastwood
Heavy Things
Sultans of Swing

DC Brau at ChurchKey

2011-10-10T23:23:00.000-04:00

DC Brau, the first brewery in DC since prohibition, had a beer dinner at Birch & Barley along with special beers on tap up in ChurchKey. As I’ve said before, twice, I’m not a big fan of their beer dinners even though the place has excellent food and the best beer in town. But I did want to go try the DC Brau beers. It was Columbus Day so no work for me and the feds. After going on a bike ride during the day I met Sharon at the metro around 5:30. It was another great fall day. I’m beginning to think October is the best month of the year in DC. I wasn’t sure if the place was going to be empty or have a line out the door for this event. I figured it could have gone either way. These new local breweries have had a great outpouring of support. It turns out the place was rather empty.

I saw the DC Brau owners/brewers hanging out around the bar. We started off with three tasting size servings of The Public on cask each with a different type of hop: amarillo, citra, and summit. The Public is their pale ale. I think our preference was citra, amarillo, then summit. After that we tried their Helles Lagaer which was lagered for five weeks and hopped with US perle hops. Quite tasty. Next up was another local beer from up in Maryland the Flying Dog Wild Dog: Secret Stash ‘11. It is brewed with red wheat, sweet corn, potatoes, honey and fresh local cascade & chinook hops. It was only 5.5% which is low for a special beer but I wasn’t complaining. I thought it was a bit too carbonated though. Finally we had the DC Brau Citizen on cask and matured four months in Catoctin Creek Rye Whiskey Oak Barrels. The Citizen is the DC Brau Belgium pale ale. You could taste the whiskey from the barrels. I’m not in to whiskey beers usually.

We had one of their new flatbread pizzas with peppers and sausage and it was pretty good. Which isn’t surprising because that is what I normally get on my zzza’s. Not a bad Monday.

Capital City Oktoberfest in Shirlington

2011-10-08T23:20:00.000-04:00

Sharon and I hit up the Capital City Oktoberfest in Shirlington. Holy cow talk about arriving at the wrong time. The word was to get there early. The event was from noon to 7:00. So getting there around 1:30 or so should have been good right? Hell no! Everyone showed up at that time. It took nearly an hour to find a spot to park and over another hour to get through the line. Worst timing ever. But once in it was a good event. Space is an issue but nothing they can really do about that in their location.

There have been great beers the last few years as the event has gotten bigger. This year the pumpkin beers were the hot item I think. Mad Fox was selling the last of their’s. Schafly might have been the most popular. I had heard about this one and wanted to grab it. I think I got the second to last one of the day! It was very much the type that tasted like pumpkin pie. The Starr Hill seasonal called Boxcar might have been my favorite. I've had it before but I think it was warming up at the booth today and I got it at the perfect temp to taste the complexity. Great beer. I was able to talk to one of the Starr Hill brewers. He said it was made with canned puree as opposed to Mad Fox's which is made with fresh pumpkins. He also said it was supposed to be a chili porter but that tasted horrible so they made it a pumpkin porter. Again, it was my favorite of the day by far. I recognized the owner of DC Brau and said hi to him. I also saw Bill from Port City for the first time. All the new local breweries were in attendance and I saw most of them had brewery reps if not the owners on site which was great. As usual beer tickets weren't a problem because most places weren't even collecting them. Sharon had only 2 and a half servings before she was feeling it and passed all her tickets on to me. The weather was perfect. A great fall day.

Got the Caps season opener tonight, the Bathurst 1000 race in Australia, Robert Randolf at 9:30 Club, and the Japanese Grand Prix at 2am this evening. What to do?

Caps preseason

2011-09-30T23:16:00.000-04:00

I went to a Caps preseason game to get in the mood for the season. There are lots of new players to get to know. I hooked up the tickets in an online group deal and scored lower level at a good price. I was on the side where the Caps shoot twice. I like getting the different perspectives around the rink rather then sitting in the same seat every game as I did early on with season tickets. I sat on the club level mostly last year so getting down to eye level was nice. During the second and third periods I switched sides for a different view on and off the ice. It wasn’t full but there was a good amount of people there for a preseason game. Thomas Vokoun started in goal. They played the Sabres. It was a close game but the Caps pulled it off after a shoot out.

beer at Rustico

2011-09-21T23:05:00.000-04:00

As I sometimes like to do I hit Rustico in Ballston after work for a pint and some dinner. Of course being a fine beer bar with an excellent selection it is hard to just have one. It is not on the menu anymore but their NY Strip with garlic and mashed potatoes was yummy.

I started out with the Starr Hill Boxcar Pumpkin Porter which is a traditional English-style Brown Porter with pumpkin added to the mash. I liked it because it was a light stout and didn’t have that roasted malt or coffee flavors. The pumpkin came out in the aftertaste. Like many of the preacher man’s beers it is a good one.

I also had one from New Belgium’s Lips of Faith series called Kick. I had this during the New Belgium beer dinner. I think I should let the brewers describe it...

New Belgium and Elysian are together again with Kick, a rich and tart pumpkin cranberry ale blended with wood-aged beer for a uniquely complex harvest season sour. The russet and orange of autumn shimmer through a slight haze like sunlight through the smoke from burning leaves. The taste and texture of pumpkin give way to the refreshing tang of cranberries and critters, satisfying and exciting with each swallow, finishing with an urge for more.

Kim brought sour from New Belgium; Dick brought pumpkin from Elysian. You’ll get a Kick out of their collaboration.

When they mention critters it reminds me of how Greg described the Liefmans Goudenband I got awhile ago. This was quite the complex beer. I didn’t taste the cranberry so much or the pumpkin. I wonder if it was served too cold. The sourness of those critters came through the most for me. I’d like to try it again.

They had both the Stone 15th Anniversary Ale and the Stone Sublimely Self Rightous. The latter was originally the 11th Anniversary Ale but it was so popular they made it a year round brew. It is one of my favorite beers. When I’ve shared it with friends I get similar reactions. But now they brewed this Escondidian Imperial Black IPA for their 15th Anniversary Ale. Seems to me to be an imperial version of the Sublimely which is fine by me. This is a wonderful beer. One of my favorites ever. You have to drink it fresh. I’m in to fresh hop beer these days. And this wonderful black IPA is the gift that keeps on giving that Stone’s co-founder often talks about. I’ll have to go back to the Sublimely some day when the 15th Anniversary is gone but I’ll wait awhile so I forget what I’m missing.

The last beer I had was a Weyerbach Fresh Harvest. Did I mention I like fresh hops? It was pretty good. Excellent maybe on some other occasion. Craft beer drinkers are getting spoiled these days and its great. I had a few harvest ales or fresh hop beers this hop harvest season. I’m looking forward to them getting more popular as it becomes possible for more breweries to get their hands on fresh hops. Those yummy sticky dank hop buds.

HEXAGON (KH-9)

2011-09-17T23:10:00.000-04:00

Scott, Mark and I hit the Udvar-Hazy Center to check out a one day showing of a declassified spy satellite. I guess it’s not every day you can go check one of these things out so why not.

From here...

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the National Reconnaissance Office hosted a one-day-only viewing opportunity of the newly declassified HEXAGON (KH-9) satellite in the parking lot of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Saturday, Sept. 17. This was the first time the public was able to view this impressive spacecraft, and it was the only opportunity to see it in the Washington area for some time. Sixty feet long and 10 feet in diameter, the HEXAGONs were the largest spy satellites the United States had ever placed in space. The satellites took photographs of the Soviet Union and other targets around the world from 1971 to the early 1980s. The one-day display is in conjunction with the NRO's 50th anniversary celebration.

We even got to bypass the outrageous $15 parking fee by arriving around 4:00 or so. They had some info around the satellite talking about how it took pictures and dropped the film back to Earth. Someone was there talking for a bit that was part of the program telling a few people about some of the interesting challenges. After checking out the satellite in a temporary tent in the parking lot we walked in the center for a bit. Mark didn’t know what an SR-71 was so Scott and I had to give him a history lesson. They were setting up for some big donor event inside. It was an interesting visit.

Scott’s wedding

2011-09-11T22:59:00.000-04:00

Almost 18 months after Beth’s wedding Scott picked 9/10/11 to get married. How you can get married on 9/10/11 and not do it at noon or midnight I have no idea. Thinking about it now if it was me I’d have the reception first and then have the ceremony at midnight with whoever is still around.

The wedding was at the Tides Inn in the northern neck of Virginia. I’ve never been in the northern neck before but have heard about it from boaters and locals. Basically that is the slice of Virginia that extends towards the Bay from I-95 with the Potomac River on the north and the Rappahannock River on the south. I was sharing a room with Beth and Matt. They wanted to room up with me at a place a fraction of the price a few miles away but after all kinds of finagling we ended up staying together at the Tides Inn. Scott, Jen, and my parents arrived on Thursday I believe. The rest of the family all showed up before the rehearsal on Friday. Robert and his crew got about a 30 minute head start and arrived about an hour before I because traffic got progressively worse. I-95 between DC and Richmond is the worst. Especially on a Friday or Sunday. After talking to my Dad on the phone from the road everyone at the rehearsal thought I was stuck in traffic all day. Once I got off I-95 it was my kind of ride on rural highways. I picked up some beer on the way assuming that there would be some point during the weekend where alcoholic beverages would be in need. Of course that came to be true.

The Tides Inn was quite the little resort. They had a marina with boats, a sailing school that was unfortunately closed during this weekend, a beach, a pool, a spa, nine holes of golf, bikes, and the nicest staff. I pulled in and caught up with Beth and Matt. After getting settled I met Mom and some other family in the lobby. As my father and his brother get older they look more and more alike. We did the rehearsal. The weather was perfect after tons of rain the last couple of weeks. I get to make the initial entry in to the ceremony escorting Jen’s grandmother. After being the videographer at Beth’s wedding I got the job again at Scott’s wedding. So after walking down Jen’s grandmother I taped the rehearsal and tried to pick out good points of view that complimented Robert and Tiffany’s video camera.

Before dinner Matt, Beth, Robert, and I hit Walmart to load up on beer. We each got a 12 pack. This turned out to be a smart move later in the night. The rehearsal dinner was more time to catch up with extended family and friends of Scott and Jen’s that I don’t normally see. It was nice to hang out with Mike and Steve from Pburg. It was a buffet dinner. I sat with my parents, Beth, Matt, and others but hard to remember after hanging out and talking to so many people throughout the weekend. I do remember they had some fat slabs of beef for the rehearsal dinner. Afterwards all the youngin’s (or young livin’ folk) ended up at the bridal suite partying it up all night long. This is where the beer run earlier paid out because our beer was the only beer everyone at the wedding had to drink that night. Luckily we loaded up. We were happy to share to keep the party going and let everyone have a good time. After carrying my big cooler over I ran back out to grab my stereo to provide tunes for the party (does anyone else not think of these essentials?). While running up the brick steps in the dark I slammed my foot in to the steps and broke my big toenail. Nothing a few drinks couldn’t solve. We had a decent late night party. Cousins Beverly and Adam hung out with us after showing up a little late.

The guys went golfing around 9:30 the next morning. I was passed out in bed at 9:30 in the morning. Beth got up a little later and started helping out with the wedding set up. Lots of nautical themed items to place around. I eventually got up and presented myself around 11:00. After wondering around the grounds and asking people who worked there I still couldn’t find the dinner location where everyone was setting up so I had to call Robert to lead me. My Dad, Phil, and I decided to eat lunch at the place. I wonder if my brother and I will look so similar in 25 years? Robert was trying to get us to start the afternoon activities and after all kinds of meandering around the pool we eventually took out some boats. We took off in two kayaks and a little motor boat. Robert and I explored the coves around the property. Afterwards Steven and I (UK Steve not Sponseller) took off on a bike ride to the boat yard which was close by. The yard was pretty much full of sailboats that were stored out of the water which we thought was odd for this time of year. Maybe people pulled early with Irene coming in. After the bike ride I had less than enough time to make another beer run. I barely made the 4:00 meeting time for pictures. It wasn’t the worst experience I’ve ever had but by the end I was quite warm in my suit. I had to run back to the room and clean up before the 5:15 wedding meeting time.

Because of traffic or a number of other reasons people were showing up right until the last minute. Again the weather was perfect after a forecast of some rain. The band were two of Scott and Jen’s friends playing keyboard and acoustic guitar. They were quite good. I didn’t hurt that they played music I enjoyed. I heard some Grateful Dead and other classic tunes. They learned to play the wedding song the previous day. The ceremony started pretty much on time. I opened the show so of course all eyes were initially on Jen’s grandmother and I. After seating her I picked up my stashed video camera and attempted to capture the live event. It is not easy to capture a live event without much rehearsal. I remember I kicked the camera stand at one point while trying to change locations. I did get Adam knocking over the aisle lantern and taking 10 minutes to pick it back up. The ringing of the bell was a bit awkward for the parents and new couple. Scott and Jen’s ring was the worst. Another classic shot I enjoyed taking was the family getting up from the front rows and exiting after the new couple. Matt had a drink in his hand. It reminded me of Scott drinking during the rehearsal. I like a relaxed wedding.

We took more pictures while everyone else hung out on the patio and had cocktails and snacks. I took video as well. Mostly of the youngin’s playing on the croquet field. It was quite the setting. During this time and all the others when there was an open or cash bar I was either handed beers or I grabbed them out of my cooler in the trunk of my car. I’d have to say I was a rather cheap quest at the bar that weekend.

At first I thought the dinner set up was odd as it seemed to be separated between different rooms but then as the sun went down I saw that we all had a wonderful view of the sun setting over the river. The courses seemed to take their time but dinner was good. Eating a little over a long period of time suits me well so no complaints. The cake was nice with the wedding couple in a small sail boat on top. Afterwards they had the typical DJ. It is as if all these guys had the exact same training and play the exact same playlist. A big topic of conversation was when I was getting married and my three year plan. It is anyone’s guess when that will happen. I promise that I will not have a typical wedding DJ at my wedding. I am very much a music person and there is nothing worse than the party being killed by some crappy song. A crappy song played LOUDLY. It completely turns me off. I’m planning on a live band at my wedding and I’m leaning towards a full latin ensemble. I went to a wedding with a Guatemalan bride and the latin band closed out the reception with only about a dozen of us guests long after the wedding party left and only after an encore. That is how my reception will end. We did get down to a few good songs. Everyone remembered James Brown the next day. And most of us remembered Tiffany doing the Jersey Turnpike. The Tides Inn staff and I literally were rolling on the floor laughing. She was thumpin’ it perfectly.

After a few bad songs I solicited Scott for after-hour plans. I was ready to ditch the reception and relax in a setting where friends could converse and good music was in the background. It was close to the DJ ending so Scott gave us the key and after a stop for supplies we eventually met back up with Scott at the suite. Not as many people showed up as the previous night. The party didn’t rage too hard or late.

I was told to be at brunch between 9:30 and 10:00 the next day. I was there close to 9:30 but not too conscious. I sat with the wedding party and friends. It was the final time to see the extended family and others I don’t normally run in to. There were lots of kids and they were entertainment during many of the events throughout the weekend. After packing up and checking out my parents and I had lunch at the local cafe. As we left the wind was pushing the rain on top of us even though the clouds weren’t directly above us. The weather held out for the whole weekend. I enjoyed taking the Maryland route home and saw some flooding damage.

the car is legal

2011-09-01T21:55:00.001-04:00

Living on the metro, within walking distance of pretty much everything I need, and having friends that drive me around has allowed me to park my car for the last few years and not drive it at all. Once the registration and safety inspection expired it was hell trying to get things legal again. Today is the first day in almost five years that my car has been legal. I’m still not used to the idea.

The biggest hurdle has been my aftermarket catalytic converter. Toyota wanted to charge me $1100 and instead I ordered one online for $125. Of course I didn’t realize at the time the Celica’s catalytic converter and the down pipe to the back of the car was all one piece. The dealership originally said they would install the aftermarket one for me. Then when I showed up with the part they said they couldn’t because it required welding. So I had to take it to an exhaust shop which put it in for me. Then I had the common problem that everyone with an aftermarket catalytic converter has to deal with: the check engine light. The car’s computer can sense a change from the factory mixture coming out the exhaust and throws out an error even though the aftermarket piece is fine. I can’t pass inspection with a catalytic converter code being triggered. So my car sat for a few years.

I drove it on occasion to the grocery and beer store. As I kept up on police technology I knew my days were limited. The local cops were getting more and more license plate scanners. All they had to do is drive by me and an automatic flag would pop up on their computer telling them to pull me over. Sure enough that happened one day last year on my way to the beer store on I-66. A lady cop was just sitting on the shoulder scanning all the cars that drove from DC out in to Virginia. I couldn’t see if she had a scanner mounted on her car but as soon as she pulled in to traffic a few seconds behind me I knew that was the reason why. She cruised up to me and pulled me over. She wasn’t happy to hear that I didn’t have any registration and my plates were so old they weren’t even in the system. My safety inspection was expired. I did have a valid license though! For some reason she let me off, give me a light ticket, and told me to drive to the next exit and immediately park at that gas station. She said if I drive home and get caught I will go straight to jail.

So I drove home. What else could I do? How was I supposed to get home from Falls Church? The chances of me being pulled over again was rather low. I thought about it for many seconds. Almost a minute I bet! I knew I could take a different and relatively safe route home. No worries. The car didn’t move after that. It collected so much dust I had to wash the windows to drive it this week.

With a track car and a street car that I never drove I often had to deal with dead batteries. So I have my own battery charger. I charged up my Celica battery and she started right up. I'm not used to it; I'm used to Corollas. When I open the door and sit in the seat it always seems so low compared to a normal car. Until I pull up next to a Corvette and I feel high.

First I got insurance. I’m supposed to be in the standard category as opposed to the premium category because I haven’t had insurance for the last 6 months but for some reason I’m getting the normal rate. Then I rode my bike to the DMV to get a 30 day temporary registration so I could take the car in for inspection and other fixes. After waiting a good 30 minutes the guy that finally took care of me was worthless. I think it took him 30 minutes to take care of me. He had no idea what was going on. The guy next to him had to stop with his customer (citizen?) and help him every few minutes. When he finally got the correct commands in the computer to issue me a registration he found out I was not eligible. You can only get one temporary 30 day registration per car per person. I had already done this previously years ago. So now they need to go through the process to issue me a trip pass. From what I understood from the guys inability to communicate the trip pass is only valid for one day. I had no idea what day I could get in a shop or even what exactly I had to do until I got to a shop. So I picked Thursday (today). You have to declare your destination so they can document it. So when a cop pulls you over for no registration and you are not inbetween your residence and that destination you are busted big time. They advised me to pick someplace far away so I said Manassas. Turns out its a 3 day pass and it started on Thursday. That would have been nice to know.

I took today off to deal with getting the emissions and safety inspection along with whatever hoops I’ll have to go through to get my catalytic converter past the state laws. After getting a much needed car wash I hit Jiffy Lube and got the works. They washed out the engine and gave me new transmission and radiator fluid. There was a Shell station a few doors down so I decided to go give it a try and see what happens. I assumed they would turn me down because I hadn’t driven enough miles since I reconnected the battery for the car's computer to get a diagnostic reading. I was very confident when it did finish its diagnostics it would throw a code for my catalytic converter as it has done every time in the past.

Things didn’t go well in the start. I couldn’t understand this guy either. Everyone else in the shop spoke Spanish but I’m not sure what this guy spoke. He found that my wheel was loose. I had to wait for them to put it on the lift and check it out. Luckily for me they were able to tighten the wheel bearing (after an hour or so). Then I got the best news ever. The car passed both the emissions and safety inspection. I was shocked. I’m still shocked. I’ve only driven about 18 miles and I’m pretty sure that is not enough for the ECU to get a reading. I didn’t ask questions. I paid and left with a smile.

After stopping home for lunch I hit the DMV. I knew exactly how to fill out the form. The lady knew exactly how to serve me. Once I was called up I was out in five minutes with my registration and temporary plates. I got temp plates because I’m getting the ‘bicycle enthusiasts’ plates and they didn’t have them in. VA has a ton of special plates.

I guess I can make it to my brother's wedding now. It will take a bit to get used to the fact that I can just jump in the car and take off somewhere. Road trip anyone?

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-28T09:17:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-23T20:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-22T23:50:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-18T20:30:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-16T20:30:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-15T20:30:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-14T23:50:00.002-04:00

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

2011-08-11T23:17:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-08T22:29:00.004-04:00

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

biking and beers

2011-07-31T15:17:00.006-04:00

Teri and I got out of work early on Friday being that the office was about empty anyway. We headed to Mad Fox for some good food and beer. My first beer was their Defender APA on cask which is one of my favorites. I also brought home another growler of Orange Whip IPA.

Then on Saturday Teri and I rode bikes to ChurchKey for a few beers. It was a nice ride there and not too overwhelmingly hot. Here are the beers I sampled at the bar:

Oliver's Cask Punk (dry-hopped w/ Amarillo and Citra Hops in the Cask)

Pratt st. Ale House - English IPA - 7% - full glass

Snake Dog on cask

Flying Dog - American IPA - 7.1%

The Public

DC Brau - American Pale Ale - 6%

Face Plant IPA

Lost Rhino - American IPA - 6.2%

Blanda Drops (blend of 4 different Haandbryggeriet ales)

Haandbryggeriet - Belgian Dark Ale - 5%

Aphrodite (Brett beer w/ raspberries and pears added in fermentation)

Ommegang - saison - 8.9%

120 Minute IPA (hopped for 2 hours, dry-hopped in fermenter for 1 month then aged one month on flower hops)

Dogfish Head - Imperial IPA - 18%

I believe I'm missing one of the beers I tried because their menu is out of date. Teri had a nice saison flight and a belgian blonde flight. We split the 18% 120 Minute so we could still bike home.

Lots of great tastes. We tried the cheese board for the first time. The bartender did a good job pairing the three cheeses with three beers. A smoked beer was paired with the cheddar. The Aphrodite was paired with a creamy cheese. And the last mild blue cheese was paired with some beer I can't remember. We watched the first half of the Manchester United vs Barcelona soccer game that was going on here in DC. Then we rode back to my place to watch the second half.

I think the Aphrodite was our favorite beer of the day.

Smuttynose tasting

2011-07-27T22:29:00.006-04:00

Rustico in Ballston had a Smuttynose event with beers previously unavailable in the area and the brewer in attendance. Five minutes before 5:00 I escaped from the office and ran home so I could get a decent seat for this lineup. After a bike ride home and a refreshing shower I was able to get a seat at the bar not much after 5:45.

My first round I got a full serving of the Smuttynose A'muttonator '08. It is a dunkles doppelbock at 9.6% ABV. I’m a fan of dunkle beers which is a big reason why I started with this one. Then I noticed a dunkles doppelbock from Duck-Rabbit so I ordered a sample of the Duck-Rabbitor which comes in at 8.5% for a comparison.

For the next round I got three sample size tastings of strong ales. There was the New Holland Beethoven Triple at 9%. And the Epic Brainless on Cherries which is a Belgian strong ale with cherries at 10.8%. And the third one was the Smuttynose Homuculus '11. It is a Belgian strong blonde at 9% and is the debut of this beer in Virginia.

The third round was another mix of samples. First was the Smuttynose Wheat Wine at 12% ABV. It was a great beer, quite mellow; I didn’t taste any alcohol at all. The Smuttynose Gravitation '09 was another good one. There are 200 lbs of raisin puree added to each batch which provided that grape taste. I thought the raisins and aging brought out a very wine like character. The third was the Smuttynose Imperial Stout at 10.1%. It was dry hopped with Cascade pellets then matured with Cascade & Columbus whole flowers. It was very good, hard to say why, maybe because it is a dark beer without the roasted aftertaste?

The last round was an Oskar Blues G'Knight Imperial Red/Double IPA at 8.7% ABV. It was on cask which made it that much better. The Oskar Blues beers are full of favor and I assume they all would taste great from a cask.

Before I left I noticed Tom hanging out at the bar who used to hook me up at my local Whole Foods. I haven’t seen him for awhile and it sounds like he is inbetween jobs. He said if he hooks up the job he is lining up I’ll get 30% off my beer in the future. I’m crossing my figures for him!

Tuesday Tapping

2011-07-26T23:11:00.003-04:00

On some Tuesdays Mad Fox will tap a new beer that isn’t currently on their rotation. Often its either a new beer or one they haven’t had in awhile. Previously Teri and I have hit up the Tuesday Tapping of their Strawberry Blonde. On this Tuesday they were tapping their very popular Orange Whip IPA. From what Bill and his bartenders tell me this is by far their customer favorite. The citrus hops give it that very citrus taste. As has been mentioned before on this blog I believe the reason he doesn’t brew it more often is the lack of citrus hops on the market.

I did the metro/bike combo a few weeks ago during the Mad Fox 1st Anniversary. They had some special food, some special beer, and a band playing that weekend. They had 250 1st Anniversary glasses that they gave out and went quick. It was a hot day but I took the metro to Falls Church and rode my bike the rest of the way. It was a short metro and bike ride. That day I hung out with a home brewer and ran in to Teri who was there to pick up a growler.

I did the metro/bike combo again today. It only takes about 35 minutes or less to metro or bike the whole way. It was crowded and there wasn’t any room at the bar. I asked to share a bar table and met an F1 fan and biker. The best part of the night was getting a growler of Orange Whip IPA for less than my pint. Their Tuesday Tapping special is half price on growler fills. The 2 liters of Orange Whip I took home only cost $5. Not bad for one of my favorite beers.

I was tempted to ride all the way home but I did jump on the metro. Now I’m enjoying an Orange Whip IPA at home in my Mad Fox 1st Anniversary glass. Having access to such great beer is a wonderful thing.

riding free

2011-07-11T23:41:00.002-04:00

I wish I was a kid again...

Take Away The Worry

a couple fine fruit beers

2011-07-06T23:37:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday’s Mad Fox often taps a new beer. On this Tuesday they tapped their first ever fruit beer. It took Teri and I forever to get there because a truck full of hay caught fire on I-66. Not too many people were there although they said the beer had been popular that day. It is a wheat beer made with strawberries called Strawberry Blonde. It was very mellow and refreshing. Perfect for the sweltering summer days. It reminded me of 21st Amendment’s Hell or High Watermelon Wheat that Teri was drinking at Super Ball. Probably because they are both wheat beers. Bill’s Strawberry Blonde was excellent though and I took home a growler fill. Teri dropped me off at the metro and took off to Michelle’s.

Once home I jumped on my bike and headed to ChurchKey. I hadn’t ridden my bike in the dark much yet this season. They had sent out a tweet earlier that day about tapping Founder’s Blushing Monk. This is a very special beer by Founder’s. They last brewed it in 2007 and it has been highly requested since. It is a Belgian Raspberry Ale made with real raspberries. It is 9.2% ABV. It was not as sweet as the Lindemans Framboise of course. It had the perfect carbonation. A bit of a tart after taste. It was very good. You could tell it was made with real raspberries. Definitely a sipping beer.

The next beer I had was DC Brau’s The Corruption. It was excellent. Dry hopped I think. I wonder if it was so tasty because of its freshness being a DC beer?

When I went back out to my bike I had a flat tire. Not exactly what you want to fix after a few beers in the evening. I’ve gotten quick at it though on my road bike and was riding home in no time. I had stage 4 of the Tour de France to watch that night.

4th of July

2011-07-05T23:30:00.002-04:00

Teri, Matt, and I went to the office to watch the fireworks after driving home from Super Ball. Robie and his family were supposed to be there. I was worried about who else might be there. Thankfully no one was there other than Robie’s clan. I met his son Robie and saw his brother Jodie again. All their kids were there. Teri, Matt, and I hung out in my office while drinking beers and eating some chips and dip. It is the perfect view. It was amazing how many other firework shows we saw. Pretty much from 8:30 on there were fireworks non-stop on the horizon. It was really cool to see. I wish I had a camera set up to take a time lapse shot. You would see fireworks across the whole horizon all at once.

The DC fireworks were nice. A few seemed to go off pretty low. Lots of shaped fireworks such as hearts. It seemed like a lot of fireworks over the 15 or 20 minute period. The river was full of boats as usual. Our location in Rosslyn was perfect because we didn’t have to deal with all the crowds. We decided to walk back. Teri attempted to take the metro but gave up when she saw the line of people waiting to get in. Next year maybe I’ll bike down to the mall again.

Picture by Kevin Ambrose of the Washington Post

Phish Super Ball IX

2011-07-04T16:45:00.002-04:00

The big three day Phish festival called Super Ball IX came quick with lots of events preceding it the last few weeks. I think I originally planned to drive up on Thursday but because of the lack of planning we ended up taking off early Friday morning. Matt was coming in from Spain and because I was supposed to leave during the day on Thursday he got a ride from Brent who came from PA to pick him up. Opps. Teri and I drove up an acquaintance who had to work Thursday night. The new plan was to leave at 6am Friday morning. The first set was scheduled for 7:30 that evening. We wanted to plan for a long line getting in and some time to set up camp. At the last minute I found out that we could not take the charcoal grill we wanted to use to cook. I also found out it was a good thing we got canned beer because bottles were not allowed.

While I was waiting outside to get picked up Teri was waking up late. She jumped in her car and headed over to my place from her new Crystal City apartment. We packed up all my gear and the cooler and set off. It was about a 5.5 hour drive on mostly secondary highways in the rural country of MD, PA, and NY. It took awhile but I was finally able to find a method to listen to the Bunny radio station on site at the concert. They were playing great tunes and giving info about the weekend and the process for getting through the gate.

I saw a few Amish folk in PA. Our 3rd person drove the last leg and was following his broken iPhone to Watkins Glen the city. We didn’t get too far before I noticed and we swung over to the race track. We were in the VIP camping site which had a special entrance on the opposite side of the track. At the first entrance we went in they pointed us around to the other side of the track. Then when we got there the cop told us they just opened another entrance and we should head that way because it would probably be quicker. We figured with his radio he knew what he was talking about but he did not. We ended up back at the entrance where they turned us around last time. So we turned around again and got back in line where the cop had been. After walking up to the front I found out that the VIP camping had its own line and we were able to get in relatively quickly. While waiting we were entertained by some guys who worked at the track and got their pickup stuck in the mud on the side of the road. The security to get in the lot was strict. You had to get out of your car and they searched it top to bottom. Lots of people were getting all of their beer and much of their food confiscated because it was in glass bottles. I saw people in line with multiple coolers full of glass bottles and they didn’t know what they were going to do with it all.

As we entered our camp ground I started making fun of some people who had to park up front next to a bunch of fire department vehicles. Then we quickly realized that we were being directed to that location. It actually turned out to be a very nice spot. Not only were we 100 feet from the entrance to the venue but we had twice as much room as most people and shade. The fire guys kept to themselves. I would have been more worried if they were cops. We got there with plenty of time to set up camp, meet our neighbors, and touch base with Matt & Brent.

I’m more equipped for backpacking rather than car camping so my tent is small and I don’t have an EZ Up canopy for cover like most festival goers. We also didn’t have a stove/grill not being allowed to take the charcoal grill. We could have easily used it without any issue. We brought enough munchies and found enough food on site. Matt said he didn’t buy anything all weekend. I loved the jalapeno cheddar hush puppies the best. Although the southern fried chicken tacos were quite good too. The jambalaya wasn’t too bad. I only had one grilled cheese the whole weekend.

Everyone was running out of power for their cell phones. There was plenty of service but not many ways to charge your battery. The guys next to us killed the battery on their SUV. There was a charging station in the venue that was usually quite full. My Solio solar charger didn’t work that well because I had to have it out in the sun at all times and I wasn’t at camp all the time. It wasn’t until Sunday that we noticed the piece of equipment next to our camp being used for either the vendors or the stage. It was a black case with a few racks of 12v outlets as well as a wifi router and a panel for some type of system adjustments. From that point on we had all the power we needed right at our camp site. Unfortunately we found it on the third day. I could have charged people money for powering up their cell phones.

The bathrooms in our VIP campground were a bit cleaner than most I think. The best part was being able to run out during the show to our bathrooms or campsite. The entrance/exit was right near the stage and our campsite. We’d go to skip the long bathroom lines in the venue or to sneak beer back in the venue. It was perfect. On Saturday I visited the executive bathroom trailer which was quite nice. It was all decked out with fake wood and fake marble and had A/C and music. Very luxurious. On Sunday I was able to be the first one in a port-o-potty after it had been cleaned. That is always a big score to get a clean port-o-potty. Teri and I both took showers right after the concert ended each night in the shower trailers. That way we had warm water and no lines and could pass out in the tent clean. It was very dirty all weekend with all the dust. During the day the lines for the showers and bathrooms could get long.

It was a great three days of music. It only sprinkled a little bit one day. Everything worked out well and the trip home with Matt went quick. Saturday was a long day of music with three scheduled sets and then a surprise late night set. Teri and I happened to be right in the middle of the action by accident when the late night set started. We hung out with Matt and Brent for a lot of the weekend. Everyone had fun with all the activities such as the waffle ball tournament, 5K run, running of the bulls, and other stuff. Our neighbors got to fourth place in the waffle ball tournament. I wish I would have gotten on the ferris wheel. Of course balls were the theme of the weekend and there were hundreds of beach balls floating around during the shows. Phish even brought out their own super huge balls during AC/DC’s Big Balls. Being that there were about 8 sets of music throughout the weekend I won’t list it all here (go here for setlists). You can see the official videos for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and a special fan based video. And of course my pics and videos.

120 Minute IPA

2011-07-01T23:12:00.001-04:00

After what I heard on my search last Saturday I assumed there was no way I was going to get any Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA this year. Only 20 cases were supposed to come in VA (or Northern VA). So only a few lucky stores were going to get it and they were only going to get one case each. It was going to go quick so if it arrived in the middle of a week day as it was scheduled I didn’t see how I could get any. There was a limit to one bottle per person at all the places I talked to. The one Total Wine that did get it in the previous week said it sold out in two hours. I made some phone calls on Monday to see what was up but didn’t have much hope. When I called the Chantilly Total Wine they claimed to have a couple cases. I didn’t ask questions and took off during lunch to make the long drive. Once I arrived there was no 120 Minute IPA. Their case had not yet come in. They said none of the Total Wines in the area had it yet. The person on the phone must have confused it with 90 Minute or something. So on the way back I called Norm’s Beer and Wine in Vienna. I assumed theirs would go in minutes being that they are the popular non-chain beer store in the area with lots of loyal customers. The woman on the phone said that they got their case in two days ago but that not everyone had come in to pick up their bottle and they had one or two they could give away. Thirty minutes later I had my 2011 bottle of 120 Minute in my hand. Only $10 for the 12 ounces.

The next day I tried again at the McLean Total Wine. They said they were getting their case in that Tuesday. When I called at 11:00 they said the truck was there and the beer should be in the store within the hour. I showed up around 1:30 and they said I was the 15th person and that it wouldn’t last the hour. I now had my second bottle.

On Wednesday the Springfield Total Wine location was supposed to get theirs so again I went during lunch. Apparently they have a different distributor and got two cases. I was allowed to get two bottles. I gave one to Robie being that he has been talking about how much he likes 90 Minute IPA lately.

On Thursday the Alexandria location was supposed to get their two cases. I called around 10:30 and they didn’t have it yet. When Teri called around 1:30 it was all gone.

It was a lot of time and effort to get my four bottles and I figured I was very lucky to get any so I called off my search. After assuming last Saturday that I wouldn’t get any I’m happy to have three bottles for my beer stock. I’ll drink at least one now and save at least one for a few years. The third one will be opened for some special occasion. Maybe at the same time I open my 2008 bottle.

parents visit

2011-06-27T23:08:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-19T22:59:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-13T22:09:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-05T23:09:00.002-04:00

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)

2011-06-04T22:56:00.002-04:00

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)

2011-06-03T22:44:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-02T21:58:00.004-04:00

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

2011-06-02T18:20:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-01T21:45:00.004-04:00

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.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-31T22:58:00.002-04:00

The Memorial Day Weekend snuck up on us. It is freakin’ June already? I’m going to wake up tomorrow and be 40 and my life will be almost over (just kiddin’ Mom & Dad).

I’ve got a lot of things lined up in June so this long weekend was a good chance to relax. On Friday Teri and I took a long lunch and went to Mad Fox Brewery. I took a growler of their new Elixer to work for my weekly PMO status meeting with the client on Friday afternoons. The Elixer is a great German lager. The description:

The Elixer (6.5% ABV)
A deep golden-colored, light bodied seasonal lager. Pilsner, Vienna and Dark Munich malts balanced by Tettnanger hops gives this beer it’s toasty nose, smooth yet crisp character and late dry finish. Notes of light honey and Hazelnut.

Thankfully the client canceled so I brought in Teri and Lewis to join Robie, Woody, and I to swill the growler. Everyone thought it was pretty tasty.

On Saturday I watched a quick version of Formula One qualifying. Teri had a PMP class so I waited for her to watch it all in detail. I took off to Arlington Cemetery for something to do outside on the Memorial Day weekend. I’ve only been there about two times previously because you are not allowed to ride your bike through. It was packed of course being probably the busiest day of the year for the Cemetery. I walked the loop in the heat. Saw the Kennedy’s and the Arlington House. The Arlington House has a great view up on the hill. I’m sure it was quite the property a few hundred years ago. I walked up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier right when the changing of the guards was taking place. They also did an official wrath ceremony which I left in the middle of. The Tomb of the Unknown Solider looks out over quite a view. They really lined up the landscaping and the area that projects out towards the river and DC. I found myself actually in the center of this view and everyone at the wrath laying ceremony when I continued my walk down the hill during the ceremony. The road wraps around and past the area that projects out from the tomb. I felt the urge to distract everyone and divert their attention but that would have been most disrespectful.

Teri and I headed out to Mark and Michelle’s for some grillin’ and swillin’ that evening. We stopped by Mad Fox to bring a growler of that Elixer. Again everyone enjoyed it. Mark grilled up burgers, hot dogs, and steaks for four couples. Teri and I kicked some butt in corn hole.

One Sunday we watched all of Formula One qualifying and the race. Monaco is always an interesting race. There was also the Indy 500. I almost missed that thinking it was Monday. I did watch the second half. Boring like all oval races until the end. And this one had an exciting last lap. Bummer for the newbie.

After dinner Teri and decided to bike down to the Capitol and check out the free concert. We ended up arriving about when it was ending. I got a flat and fixed that real quick. Teri was swapping out her CaBi bike at each station as we cruised around.

Monday was a day of relaxing and getting stuff done at home. This is a big week of beer events leading up to SAVOR. The summer starts now for me and it’s going to go quick.

BikeDC

2011-05-22T22:27:00.003-04:00

When I first heard about BikeDC a few years ago I thought it was a little crazy to pay $35 to wake up early and ride in the streets of DC as I do on a daily basis. I emailed the organization because I was curious about the entry fee. Most of it goes to the permit they need to shut down the major roads and highways of DC for a few hours. Last year I was thinking about doing it but it rained. This year there was a perfect weather forecast so I registered the night before. It was an intereting course starting at the Capitol building, going past the White House, past the Kennedy Center, across the river and up the GW Parkway, then around the Marine Corps Memorial to the Air Force Memorial, before heading back across the river and finishing in DC.

As I was riding across the river in to DC to the start I saw the first riders going up the GW Parkway. I showed up at end of the allotted start time but people were still arriving and lots of people still milling around the start. I took what I thought was a very nice picture of the Capitol building with many bikers in front. Later I realized I was missing my memory card. Along the ride I saw people of all ages and types including a lot of kids and kid carriers. The most interesting was a tandem bike with mom up front, son on back, and the younger sister on the kid-bike-attachment as the third person. Everyone was having a good time riding in the open streets of DC.

There was a little bottle neck at the VA side of the bridge because the exit ramp was split with riders going in both directions. The GW Parkway was nice. Longer than I expected when looking at the route. Lots of hills that some people had trouble on. The experienced bikers in the group were held up a lot by the more casual and slower people. We'd form small lines on the left and slip by when we could between the packed lane on our right and the on-coming traffic of riders on the left separated by a traffic cone on occasion.

It was my first time at the Air Force Memorial. It has a decent view of DC. People must have wondered what was going on with about 5000 bikers showing up. The Memorial was designated as one of the few rest stops with food, water, and bathrooms. It was a pretty nice event. The turnout was big and the weather was almost perfect. I only saw one crash or actually the crash aftermath. I saw a couple Capital Bikeshare bikes which would have been expensive and difficult to take up the hills. I'd love to do the event again next year and start at the beginning of the line.

GPS route info

Google Music

2011-05-22T22:20:00.004-04:00

After Google Music was announced last week, actually before it was announced and just a few hours after the site went live, I requested an invite. It is Google's new music service. Basically you can upload all your music and stream it from the cloud anywhere with any browser. There is an Android app for my phone and I can listen to my music library basically anywhere. Of course I can also listen to whatever is stored on my phone when I'm not connected to the internet. It's an interesting service. They give you some free music to start. It basically forces you to upload your whole library because when you specify your music folder it uploads it all. Thankfully I signed up on my laptop which has a fraction of my whole library. It still took days to upload in the background. Looking forward to trying the service out more. It will be nice to listen to any song I want whenever I want even if I don't want to stream my music from the cloud on a regular basis. It is currently available only via invite. Click the link above to request an invite.

Bike to Work Day

2011-05-21T22:15:00.000-04:00

Bike to Work Day turned out to be a nice day. Lots of people turned up at the pit stops for free food and goodies. They had a stunt rider this year to entertain the crowd. I got my shirt this time unlike last year because I didn't register.

Since my client was on vacation and I didn't have my normal Friday afternoon meeting I took off the last few hours of the day and did my normal loop around Arlington. There was some water that closed the trail near the river but people were riding around it. You could also see that Four Mile Run flooded the trail and left debris. Not a ton of people out because of the threatening weather. I did get a few drops on me but it turned out to be a nice ride.

GPS of loop ride

Sonos setup

2011-05-15T22:48:00.002-04:00

I got a Sonos set-up and am quite happy with it. First I got the bridge and the portable S5 to verify I wouldn't have any wireless issues in my dense RF environment. It worked well so next I hooked up my bedroom and living room as well. It is nice having access not only to my whole music library but I've also been exploring the hundreds of internet radio stations. I've found some good ones. I can use my phone as a remote control. The downside is I now have my phone's wi-fi on all the time and have been recharging my battery a lot more. That is not an issue though. Although I'd like to have the ability to set the timer with my phone and I can't do that yet. I should have set this all up a few years ago.

Charlie Hunter

2011-05-09T22:06:00.002-04:00

photo by person_64

Charlie was hanging out on the front porch of the venue when we arrived. The show turned out to be rather empty. They had seats out unlike last time and we were able to sit in the front row. It was just Charlie and the drummer as it has been lately. It might have been different drummer than last time but they obviously were familiar with each other's playing. They played some of the good tunes from his last album. He would ask for recommendations from the crowd but would ask which key we'd like to hear... "D Major or D minor?" he asked, "Augmented!" I replied and Charlie chuckled. He said we were requesting old songs and he doesn't remember anything more than three years old. Someone requested Pursuit Package and since he couldn't remember how to play it he told the story of how it got its name. He explained that he bought some Pontiac or Plymouth or something for $1000 and the selling point was that it had the pursuit package. During the set break he hung out with folks outside again. During the encore he played some crazy song that was almost exclusively harmonics. It appeared as if it was something he has been messing with recently. It was pretty interesting.

Infamous Stringdusters

2011-05-08T21:48:00.001-04:00

It was a double concert weekend and the Infamous Stringdusters were the first up at the State Theatre. Teri and I had dinner at the Mad Fox brewpub as has become a habit. We heard Orange Whip IPA was going back on tap and I had to get my growler filled with that lovely citrus hop brew.

Apparently it was the last show of the tour for the Stringdusters although there were not a ton of people there. The show opened with the Two Man Gentleman Band. They were an interesting Smothers Brothers look-alike that had a funny unexpected risqué routine.

Once the Stringdusters came on you could tell they were going to have a good time. They mentioned it was their last show of the tour and they were recording it. There was a video camera on the side of the stage and the banjo player had a Flip camera on his banjo head. I've seen that before on his banjo and didn't realize it was a video camera. They threw down two great sets. I love how they always surround whoever is soloing. They can pick. Just like last time they came down in the audience for the encore and played acoustic. It was fun. They had a good time and the crowd had a good time. Till next tour.

pics and video

rainbow over DC

2011-05-04T19:30:00.004-04:00

I captured this pic from my office window...

Later I saw this on my twitter feed by @WeatherBugMedia:

Nearly full rainbow across the Washington DC sky... from our @WeatherBug camera at WJLA studios around 5:30pm http://twitpic.com/4tffsi

Caps R2 G1

2011-04-30T11:17:00.004-04:00

Having made it to the second round of the play-offs the Caps are up against the Tampa Bay Lightening. I wonder what their mascot looks like? Our mascot turned in to a cardinal from an eagle in the end of the season. Not sure how that jives. Looks like he added to the new look with a mohawk in round two.

credit: clydeorama

My weekly Friday meeting with the client didn't happen so after helping out the boss for a bit out was out of there at 5:00. Teri and I got good seats on the club level at exactly center ice. We were a couple rows behind the TV cameras. I always find it interesting to watch how they work. For some reason tickets were available for this game. I think prices dropped leading up to it. Of course we got tix after game six of round one so they were probably at their highest price. We ended up getting a decent deal for a round two play-off seat at club level on a weekend.

This game they gave us thunder sticks. They are 2.5 foot long but thin balloons you blow up and bang together. Thunder sticks versus the Lightening? The first minute of the game was the same as its been during the play-offs and the Caps were on their heals. After that though they picked it up. Teri had her Avon walk the next day so no drinking for her. Unfortunately even though the Caps seemed to have control most of the game the Lightening got some luck and scored. After that we couldn't come back. Hopefully the Caps pull it back in game two before heading to Tampa Bay.

Netherlands Carillon

2011-04-24T23:43:00.002-04:00

It was a nice day so Teri and I rode bikes to Shirlington to have lunch. On the way past the Marine Corps Memorial and the Arlington National Cemetery we saw that the Netherlands Carillon was open. I've been riding past it for years and this was one of the only times I've seen it open. The last time was years ago. Teri and I stopped and took the opportunity to go up inside and check out the view. Other folks there were saying that it was closed for a few years. I didn't have my camera with me but below is a phone picture. It was a nice view. The bells rang while we were up there but thankfully it was only a quarter after the hour. Teri got a little wheezy being up so high and we headed down before the bells rang again.

Caps R1 G5, Mad Fox, Soulive

2011-04-24T22:04:00.003-04:00

Game five seemed a long way away when Teri and I bought tickets but the week went by quick and Saturday was upon us. I was looking forward to this day all week but unfortunately I was still sick even though I've been going to work most of the week. I thought on Thursday and Friday I was starting to go in the wrong direction and felt worse than Tuesday and Wednesday. Thankfully things didn't seem too bad waking up on Saturday. It was an early 3:00 game which allowed us to hit the Soulive concert afterwards.

We got club level seats as usual. The lines on the lower level are way too long for the bathroom and food/drink. The other issue with the lower level is they serve the good beers in smaller cups than the club level for some odd reason. Preferential treatment? It was a red out as usual in the stadium. Unfortunately they gave us "cheer cards" this game unlike the red towels I got in game one. The cheer card was a half sized poster with the Caps logo and not the take home item most fans would enjoy. Not many people actually held them up during the game. It was a cheap game for me holding off from the $8 beers. The Caps put together a good game. They scored in the first period which is not usual lately. Green went down with a shot to the head but returned to the bench later. Any win in the play-offs is fun.

After the game Teri and I hit Mad Fox for dinner on our way to the State Theater. It was a 25 minute wait so we sat outside in their recent outdoor set up. It was a bit chilly but not too bad. I had some stuffed trout and Teri had a pizza. We sampled some beers of course and headed off to the show down the street.

They were supposed to have the same popular local gospel-influenced soul singer that opened last time but instead there was a DJ. The guy looked like Eric the guitarist of Soulive. Finally Soulive's suited groupie announced the band and they took the stage. I think they opened with the same song they did last time. They seemed to be enjoying their job and wanting to play well. They picked it up throughout the show. The drummer seemed to have some issue with his hand. The suited groupie brought out a towel that appeared to have ice in it and tied off with a guitar cord. It didn't seem to affect his play though. At some point he went off stage for a couple minutes while the other two diddled around. They brought out some of their Beatles songs during the second half of their show. Those seemed to be more layered and high energy then their own songs. It was a jamin' medley. I ended up having a beer or two at the end of the night since I felt so well.

Teri's game pics

sick

2011-04-20T21:58:00.000-04:00

I started feeling sick on Friday with a sore throat and head congestion during work. Thankfully we had our weekly Friday afternoon meeting with the client early and I was able to go home before 5:00. I think I was the worst that night. I was pretty warm and may have had a fever. I spent Saturday on the couch. I felt a little better but was still sick on Sunday. That stayed the same on both Monday and Tuesday so I stayed home from the office to rest. I didn't do a whole lot of resting; I worked all day Tuesday from my couch. Tuesday morning around 5:30am I woke up thinking I had bugs crawling on me. I realized a second later I was covered in sweat and it was beading up and dripping down my skin.

I finally went to the office today. I still have congestion. May even feel my sore throat coming back now that I analyze myself. After the Caps finally win tonight I'm going to bed. Amazing game with the NYRs scoring three goals in the second and then the Caps scoring three in the third to tie it up.

Round 1 Game 1

2011-04-14T12:21:00.002-04:00

The Caps clinched the Eastern Conference Championship despite some rough patches during the season and it's finally time for the play-offs. The first two games are in DC being that the Caps have home ice advantage. Teri was busy with a softball and soccer game of her own. I decided I couldn't pass up the play-off fever and surprisingly was able to find great seats for (relatively) cheap. Teri and I sat in row F near center ice a couple weeks ago and ticket I got for game one of round one was right behind that in row H.

Play-off games are different than regular season games. Of course the game is sold out and every seat is filled. Everyone was rockin' the red. The energy is high with both the fans and players. Lots of antics by the fans (depending on your home team). This year the Caps fans behind the visiting bench brought rain ponchos. This is because the NYR's coach dumped water on a Caps fan during the play-offs two years ago.

Everyone got a red towel to wave around so the place was pretty much solid red. Instead of blue man, who I saw earlier this year at a game, there was red man. He was taughting the Rangers player in the penalty box at one point. It was an entertaining game all around. Well except for high scoring which the NHL seems to have these days on occasion. It was high tempo. The Caps laid out a few Rangers during the game with Ovechkin giving out one of the best hits right in front of me. After the Rangers had control for the first two minutes the Caps seemed to control the rest of the period. It wasn't until the third period when the wrong team finally scored. From that point everyone was begging for a goal as the time counted down to the end of the period and a game one loss. With six minutes to go Ovi slammed one in under the goalie that had to be reviewed. Regulation ended so we took a 15 minute break before another 20 minute sudden death period. That fourth period went almost the full period before Semin snapped one in the back of the net with 1:30 left.

Pictures and video

first bike ride

2011-04-12T22:39:00.001-04:00

It wasn't my first bike ride of the season but it was definitely the warmest. It was in the upper 80's and stayed warm throughout the night. Around 5:00 I suddenly realized I needed to be out of the stressful office and on the outdoor carefree trail. I didn't make it on my bike till 6:30 of course but it was still bright and warm out.

The trail was filled with people. I wasn't too bothered as I need to work my pace back up. It was very windy. I didn't mind the resistance this ride too much for some reason and of course going with the wind you feel like Superman. I just made it to the airport and back; less than 10 miles. Looking forward to some hard and leisurely and hard rides on a regular basis this summer.

GPS data

Raleigh WBF

2011-04-10T22:37:00.003-04:00

Another fun beerfest down in Raleigh with Beth and Matt hosting. Mark and Michelle didn't come this time. Teri and I drove down with Scott and Jen for their first WBF. We left the rain in DC and drove in to some decent weather down south.

After a nice baked breakfast from Beth we headed downtown for the noon start. This year they took our tickets and checked our IDs before the start time but had the tents blocked off inside the festival grounds until noon. The line went rather quick this year. Most people were inside at noon who were in line. Everyone was lined up against yellow tape that prevented them from going in the beer tents. Then after some presumed approval one part of the crowd started moving in the tents. The rest of the crowd didn't wait for any word, walked over the yellow tape, and filled the tents. They had water out for drinking and rinsing. People were doing more rinsing than drinking. I should have had more food before the festival or ate in the middle. We never eat at the Raleigh location for some reason although it may have to do with going to the afternoon session. I remember people were feeling good in our group after an hour. I got a new cool belt buckle made from a beer bottle bottom and Teri got a sweet flask belt buckle for her Dad. I took my GPS to record how far we walked and it ended up being only about 3.2 miles. If you look my speed over the duration you can see when I go to the bathroom because I stand still in line for awhile. The frequency increases as the four hours goes on. An interesting data point no?

After the party we went out for food and more drinks. We got to see Beth & Matt's plates in Flying Saucer signifying 200 different kinds of beer drank on premises. It sounded like Beth was well on the way to earning her second plate.

On the way back Scott missed a turn and it allowed me to grab a quick pic of the Lizard Lick Towing company. First they were one of many stories on All Worked Up on True TV but they have since graduated to their own show called Lizard Lick Towing. It is quite funny. Can't believe we actually drove past the place. The town is not more than an intersection off of US-64.

I also brought back some New Belgium beers across the state border for my beer stock since they are not distributed in VA.

pictures and video

GPS data

final Caps home game

2011-04-06T23:47:00.003-04:00

Teri and I were busy working late when I got a tweet from my guy TicketManJosh about last minute club level Caps tickets at a great price. Not only were they good seats at a great deal, it was the last home game of the season. An offer I couldn't pass up. I quickly replied and was able to secure the tickets. A few others emailed him while we were talking. I asked why they were available being the last home game and he said he was saving them for himself and ended up not being able to go.

We missed the first period but sat down with food and drink before the crowd rushed out for the first intermission. Caps were already up by one goal and scored another as we were sitting down. Sean Collins scored his first goal (second game) of the season during the second period to make it 3-0. Hendricks made it 4-0 in the 3rd period and we were hoping for a shut out for Varly. Unfortunately the Panthers got one in about mid way through the third. They must have been desperate for points at the end of the season being third worst in the league and pulled their goalie with 2:30 left in the game. It worked and they scored making it 4-2. But to no avail, Backstom and Ovechkin pulled some tricky maneuvers at the end and scored a slick goal 12 seconds before the home season ended.

A good end to the season. I didn't miss the lower level lines. Who knows how accessible play-off tickets will be.

Cherry Blossoms

2011-04-04T22:40:00.003-04:00

It has stayed cool this early spring and it was odd to see the cherry blossoms open the last two weeks. The weather finally opened up on Sunday. Of course being a weekend it was a mad-house down on the mall and around the Tidal Basin. I don't think I've been down during the weekend in awhile during the Cherry Blossom Festival as I don't remember so many people. It was nuts. Teri and I biked down and had to lock them up because there were too many people to ride among. It is interesting to see the trees blossom in the city each year. It is a lot of color and you wish they would last for more than a week or two out of the year. I'll have to do another geo-tag ride some year. Not too many pictures this year. We saw a bride and flower girls. The Jefferson Memorial is being renovated on the outside and it was no fun having to walk all the way around to get to the steps. Hopefully the government doesn't shut down for the tourists this weekend or all the memorials and sites will close.

I took a few pics of kids being posed in the trees and I wonder what the parents must think as some stranger captures their kids.

pictures

We biked 4.45 miles to and from the mall and walked 2.46 miles around the Tidal Basin.

GPS data

Caps row F

2011-03-30T22:29:00.004-04:00

AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Being only a few home hockey games left this season Teri and I decided to get tickets this week before everyone else realized this and prices doubled. I found lower level tickets for about face value on the website of a guy I've been buying from for awhile. I was surprised to see such good seats for the price so I snatched them up.

It was a good game. We were 6th row around the blue line of the visiting side. I haven't been that close in a long time. We have been getting club level seats all season and now I remember why. The lines were insane for both substance and waste on the lower level. It was great to see the faces of the players though. You get a much better sense of the speed and effort at that distance.

Ovechkin and Arnott came back after a few games off. Wideman got nailed right in front of us and ended up being injured. It ended as a tied game at 2 after both regulation and over time. Unfortunately the 'Canes won in the shoot out.

federal protection

2011-03-27T23:10:00.000-04:00

Not sure if it was the Secret Service or FPS. As Teri and I got off I-66 in Rosslyn on our way to work from her place we came upon a large blacked out Chevy SUV with police lights. It caught our attention not because of the lights but because some big bald guy in a suit and sun glasses kept waving off cars from the back seat window. It was hard to tell what exactly he was trying to communicate. Then we noticed the Caddy it was trailing that had some VIPs inside. The security crew were trying to help block off cars so the Caddy could change lanes on Lee Highway. It was odd. We were directly behind them coming off the highway when they started waving at us. In rush hour traffic it would be impossible to keep all cars away. They were successful at keeping away cars from the SUV but the Caddy just drove as normal in to backed up traffic. After following them on to Lee Highway we then followed them on a right turn in Rosslyn. They were definitely checking us out. At the next intersection they stopped to go straight and we pulled up on the left hand turn lane with guys in both cars eyeing us. I wasn't able to recongnize anyone in the Caddy as we went by. I assumed they were going to a State Department office on the same block as my office but their destination must have been some other location in Rosslyn.

crappy cell phone pics

Mike Gordon

2011-03-26T12:45:00.003-04:00

Mike Gordon and his five piece band came back to the State Theater on Friday. Teri and I each got a set of tickets due to some miscommunication. We finally decided to try to off-load one pair a few days before the show. Tickets were still for sale so people were offering below face value to get a good deal. I was trying to get them back up to $40 for both having spent another $8.20 on fees. We decided to try our luck on those in line to purchase tickets before the show rather than go out of our way to meet up and sell for under face value. It ended up being a wise decision as the show sold out the day of and all of the sudden I got a few more emails pleading for tickets. It took two seconds to sell each for $25 as we were walking in the show.

They took out a lot of the side tables and the venue was as full as I've ever seen it. They came on about on time and put on a great show. We got a good spot near the front of the left side during the first set. The band throws down some good grooves and solos. The guitar and keyboard player did a few great extended jams. Mike had a microphone on stage to direct the band on what to play next. The did two nice sets. We relaxed in the balcony during the second set. Usually I relax and rest my legs in the first set and get down during the second set but we had a great view and were feeling good.

The previous night Mike and the band had dinner at Argia's. He twitted the above pic within 15 minutes of us picking up our tix at the box office and were very tempted to stop in and say hi.

Poncho Sanchez at Warner Theater

2011-03-13T22:12:00.003-04:00

After years of putting him on my concert calendar I finally got tickets and went to see Poncho Sanchez. He was at the Warner Theater and Teri got us tickets on the right side of the aisle in row J. We rolled in feeling good right before they started playing. I didn't know what to expect at his current age but I assumed he would at least have some good musicians along side. They did not disappoint.

I believe it was about as close as I've been to the stage at the Warner Theater. They played one long set. I recognized a few songs. I realized before the show I don't have any Poncho Sanchez music in my possession. The timbales player in back was the most vocal and toyed with the crowd a bit about getting up and dancing. All the musicians were great. The trumpet player was the arranger and he slide some nice notes. Eventually for the last few songs people stood up and started dancing in the aisles. We had a good time. Definitely a recommended show.

Band lineup...

Poncho Sanchez - leader and congas

Robert Hardt - saxophone

Ron Blake - trumpet

Francisco Torres - trombone

Tony Banda - bass

David Torres - piano

George Ortiz - timbales

Joey De Leon - bongos

Stanley Jordan at Blues Alley

2011-03-12T13:16:00.007-05:00

If you haven't heard of Stanley Jordan he is someone you have to see to believe. Similar to Charlie Hunter, he plays two different guitar parts at the same time. While Charlie strums a seven string guitar in a somewhat typical style, Stanley plays a six string guitar by tapping rather than strumming. This allows him to play two different parts, such as the lead and rhythm, at the same time with both hands by tapping on the neck. Look him up on YouTube if you can't picture it. The guy is technically advanced and takes full advantage of his talent.

Teri and I got to Blues Alley about 35 minutes early for the 10:00 show and there was a bit of a line already. A couple drunk guys happened to get in line behind us. One was more drunk than the other. They were hanging literally on top of Teri while the people behind them stayed about 5 feet away. After denying the first option we got excellent seats at a front and center table with another couple. The guy had seen Stanley's previous show and had to come back with his girlfriend. The place was full.

Somehow Stanley was able to make it to the stage between the tables with his guitar. He played first before talking and revealing his soft-spoken self. He played some jamin' grooves, slower ballads, and some classical tunes. I believe during the last tour I saw he debuted the trick of playing the guitar and piano at the same time. This time though I was a lot closer and could see him switching hands to go up and down the keyboard while not missing a note. The drunk guy almost embarrassed himself too much with some comments. We ate the stuffed shrooms as an appetizer and then I had the gumbo while Teri had the stuffed shrimp. Teri got all of three shrimp. But they were quite stuffed. For the encore Stanley played Eleanor Rigby which is a favorite of mine by him.

birthday dinner at Birch & Barley

2011-03-09T23:14:00.005-05:00

Teri took me to Birch & Barley for my birthday dinner. It is a favorite restaurant of ours with one of the best beer selections anywhere. The chef can put together some fine food to match. We had early reservations at 6:15 and had to boogie over after work. We started off with the Crispy Creamy Polenta that included Sauteed Mushrooms, Taleggio Fonduta, and Artichoke Hearts. It was like a delicious cakey cornbread with tasty mushrooms and some other stuff dripped on top. To accompany our appetizer I had the Great Divide Belgica on cask and Teri had the Huyghe St. Idesbald Blond. It was a great start to the rest of the dinner. We also ordered 4oz samples of the Starr Hill Cryptical for myself and the Mort Subite Kriek for Teri. The Kriek was sweet, light bodied, and pretty yummy. Their bread plate had some new items on it and was good as ever.

After some discussion we each ordered a pasta dish and agreed to share. Teri ordered the Hand-Cut Tagliatelle w/ Rabbit that included Sauteed Mushrooms, Parmesan, and Fresh Herbs. I ordered the Ricotta Cavatelli with Roasted Pork, Broccoli Rabe, Pine Nuts, and Aged Provolone. Both were excellent. Teri's had wide long noodles with a slight nutmeg or cinnamon taste to it. Mine was a dumpling like thing that tasted great just like Teri's with all the ingredients combined. Teri had a Het Anker Gouden Carolous Classic with her dinner and I had a Bell's Double Cream Stout on cask. The Double Cream Stout was nice on cask but I've been spoiled lately with some velvety chocolate stouts. Teri's Gouden Carolous Classic was really good. It's a strong dark Belgian ale that had a some tart/sourness to it similar to the 2006 Goudenband I had at Birch & Barley awhile ago. It was well balanced and one I want to note to seek out again.

We headed to the P Street Whole Foods to check out the beers distributed to the District of Columbia. Goose Island is the main one I notice that I can't get in VA. We picked up some Stone Vertical Epic 10/10/10 and some Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Catamount Maple Wheat for the beer stock. The express line was about 100 feet long; it stretched to almost the back of the store but went relatively quick.

It was a good bday dinner. Teri got me some nice wireless speakers as well.

growler goodness

2011-03-09T23:05:00.002-05:00

Shortly after Mad Fox opened last year in July I purchased a nice growler from them and have been filling it up ever since. Lately a few places started filling growlers in my neighborhood and it's been quite convenient. The 2 liter containers equal just over 4 pints or 5.5 12 ounce servings. My favorite at Mad Fox is the Orange Whip IPA. It is a most delicious beer made with citrus hops. I got Bill's Kolsch a few times as well being a great session beer. When Fire Works opened in my neighborhood I got access to a great pizza joint with over 30 taps, two hand pull cask set-ups, and a binder of bottled beers. Being that the draft brews are not often available at my local stores it adds a lot to my available selection. My local Whole Foods also recently installed four taps and is filling growlers. I'm starting to get it filled with a different beer each week for my Friday meetings with the client. I need a second flip top growler for special occasions.

Mmmmm fresh local beer in the most environmentally friendly packaging.

Mad Fox Barleywine Festival

2011-03-01T00:04:00.005-05:00

My favorite local brewpub hosted a Barleywine beer festival all day Saturday and Sunday. Bill Madden usually only sells his own beers at his brewpub but this weekend he is opening his taps to some fine beers from near and far. Teri and I got there with perfect timing. The place was full around 2:30 with a 20 minute wait for a table so while on the wait list we wandered to the bar. There were some beer geeks that I recognized. I had already seen some tweets from folks who arrived before me. Even though the place was full with people standing around Teri and I managed to get two seats at the bar. We canceled our table reservation and settled in at the bar among all the other folks there to get a taste of some new beers. Other than their normal line up of Mad Fox beers they had 11 Barleywines from all over. Then at 3:00 they switched over to 11 different Barleywines. They served 4 oz glasses for $3 and we were able to sample beers from both sessions. Beers sampled...

Brooklyn Monster 2010 and 2007
DuClaw Devils Milk regular and aged in Jack Daniels Barrels
Lagunitas Olde Gnarleywine
Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Jack & Ken's
Victory Old Horizontal
Avery Hog Heaven
Bearded Pat's Barleywine
Climax Barleywine-Style Ale
Duck-Rabbit Barleywine
Mad Fox Wheat Wacker
Weyerbacher Insanity
Insanity Grand Illusion
Mad Fox slobberknocker on cask
Mad Fox Wee Heavy on cask (half pint)

The Brooklyn Monster was my favorite. It was simple, not over powering, and for some reason hit me just right. The 2007 was a slightly fiery example of the 2010. The 2010 was almost too drinkable thinking back on it.

The DuClaw Devils Milk was hard not to like with the brewer sitting next to me. He said the barrel version was aged for about 5.5 weeks.

The Old Gnarleywine had that distinctive Lagunitas flavor which I enjoy.

Bill's Slobberknocker on cask was better than expected.

Barleywines average around 9% or 10% alcohol so we were feeling good after those tastings. Sitting next to us was the brewer from DuClaw. I asked lots of questions and we talked about getting barrels from Jack Daniels, distribution, brewery vs bottling ratio, the growing craft brewery market, and others. Teri and I had the pulled big sandwich from a whole pig they grilled up that day. It had a light vinger sauce which isn't my favorite but I really enjoyed the sandwich. I talked to the co-brewer Charlie for a bit as he was running around switching the taps. He said they were out of my favorite Orange Whip because they couldn't find any citrus hops. I could tell from what he said and from what others said that it is a popular beer. I was dissapointed that it was no longer available but still filled my growler with some of their Saison. On the way out a Girl Scout and her mom were selling cookies. After passing them we reversed, parked, and stocked up on the first round of Girl Scout cookies for the year. $4 this year! I remember when they were $2.50.

Galactic w/ Cyril Neville and Corey Henry again

2011-02-28T23:50:00.003-05:00

pic by: TheWestcott

Galactic was at the 9:30 Club again with Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers and Corey Henry from the Rebirth Brass Band. Teri and I arrived about 20 minutes late. Being Friday I have a late afternoon meeting with the client in which Robie and I mostly finished a growler of Flying Dog limited release Irish Red. It was a full crowd when we did arrived. They had a backdrop with the words "Ya Ka May". It was a good show with some good grooves and solos. I recognize less and less songs from them these days. They played straight through with no break. There was a bass solo before Stanton did his thing on drums. Their guests stayed on the stage for most of the show then left for the final jams before all coming out at the end. I like how the band is playing these days, similar to their original style, compared to the harder hip-hop type stuff they were doing a few years ago. We had to walk a few blocks in the drizzle to find a cab but it wasn't too bad. It was a fun night.

changin' it up

2011-02-21T23:07:00.001-05:00

The blog has been the same default colors since the beginning of time. I think I'll change up the colors and theme on occasion.

Jason Alstrom likes my fridge

2011-02-18T23:40:00.001-05:00

Jason Alstrom, founder of one of the biggest beer websites there is, tweeted a pic of a fridge full of beer so I replied with a pic of mine.

JasonAlstrom: Wow ... RT @SlopeSurfer: my #beer stock goo.gl/gXBw8 http://twitpic.com/419lq1 --http://twitter.com/JasonAlstrom/status/38800115368075264

Tea Leaf Green

2011-02-05T22:07:00.001-05:00

Teri and went to check out Tea Leaf Green at the 9:30 Club. I haven't seen them in a long time and really wasn't all that impressed the last time I saw them. I decided to check them out again for something to do on a Friday night. When we first walked in I didn't recognize them with their former lead guitarist and singer gone. I only recognized a song or two. The place was pretty full. They played well but it wasn't the great jams I remember from them years ago.

my second basketball game

2011-01-22T10:21:00.000-05:00

I went to my second Wizards game and my second professional basketball game last night. My first game was with a coworker from Convista who was dating a Wizards cheerleader. We got 400 level tickets but with only 200 people in the stadium we were able to walk down to the 15th row of the lower level. This game was a bit different. My company got nice seats to a few games with the intent of giving them to business partners and the like. Apparently there was no one to give them away to as Woody, Robie, and myself sat at about 15th row or so. They were playing the Phoenix Suns. John McCain was there routing his home state. They did a quick interview with him between quarters. We also saw Wolf Blitzer and Juan William (the guy fired from NPR). I think the Wizards lost.

Terrapin Beer Dinner @ Fire Works

2011-01-19T22:01:00.004-05:00

Fire Works' first real beer dinner was based around the Terrapin Brewery in Athens, GA. There were open tables in the back room and we counted only about 20 people. The Fire Works beer manager and the local Terrapin rep were on hand to discuss the food and drink. Teri brought along her brother, JR, and her mom who was in town for work. It was their first beer dinner. Teri's mom had her first beer tasting with us and we also took her cousin to his first beer dinner.

They did a pretty good job with this meal but the quantity of beer was a bit low. The menu:

Chicken in Saffron Spinach Ravioli

Ginger tomato sauce, fried leek

Rye Pale Ale

Local Butter Lettuce, Gorgonzola, Walnut Flat Bread

Greek vinaigrette

Hopsecutioner IPA

Shrimp & Tasso Risotto

Black butter

Tomfoolery Black Saison

Sticky Duck Leg

Maple sweet potatoes

Wake 'n Bake Coffee Oatmeal Stout

Wake 'n Bake Stout Cheesecake

Espresso custard sauce, coffee almond coffee

Moohoo Chocolate Milk Stout

Even though we felt the amount of beverage served with each course was light they did give us a full pint of Golden Ale before the dinner started. They served this in a Terrapin glass which we got to take home.

The Tomfoolery Black Saison was served from a cask and it was the first time served outside of the brewery.

The Sticky Duck Leg (which was quite good) came with their Wake 'n Bake Coffee Oatmeal Stout. You won't find Wake 'n Bake on the label though because the feds didn't like that name.

They served us an after dinner beer from their special Georgia Theatre series called Double Feature. It's a Belgian-style Dubbel Ale that comes in 22oz bombers.

One of the questions asked to the brewery rep was about the name and he confirmed that the owners are Grateful Dead fans.

Mad Fox Beer Dinner

2010-11-22T21:59:00.000-05:00

Mad Fox threw together their first beer dinner as a fund raiser for a friend of the brewery with a sickness. Teri and I took Teri's cousin Oden who was in town from Montana. They caught on pretty quick that he was under 21 so no beer for him. The menu...

Butter Poached Lobster

Celery Root Puree, Micro Greens, Lemon Butter Sauce

Kolsch

Roasted Chicken Consommé

Julienne Vegetables

Saison

Smoked Duck Breast Salad

Baby Greens, Orange Cranberry Compote, Pistachio Tuile

Altbier

Spinach and Sausage Wrapped Venison Lion

Butternut Squash and Yukon Mash, Asparagus, Portor Demi-Glaze

Porter

Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart

Fresh Whipped Cream

Wee Heavy

Maceo Parker & Karl Denson

2010-11-20T22:38:00.002-05:00

I've been going to see these two sax players for almost 20 years. Maceo was on the scene first and had a good funk groove. Karl came out in the mid 90's and really threw down. I'm surprise these two haven't come together for a sax party previously. It was a great show.

Black Crowes

2010-11-15T21:55:00.002-05:00

The Black Crowes came for two nights at the 9:30 Club. Teri and went for the second night. The first night sold out right away so I got tickets for the second night on a Sunday. Then a few weeks later Charlie Hunter announced a date at Jammin' Java on the same Sunday. Whatareyougoingtodo? The Black Crowes put on a good show as usual. I didn't realize how thin Chris had gotten.

Infamous Stringdusters

2010-11-12T22:41:00.002-05:00

While trying to catch up on old posts in the second half of 2010 I found a ticket stub to this show. I'm sure there are a few other shows I missed posting about. This one was at the State Theater. I'm not a fan of their new rules and security. I do remember these guys came out to the middle of the dance floor and threw down acoustic style for the encore. They always rock out.

Soulive @ 9:30 Club

2010-11-06T21:49:00.003-04:00

Soulive came to the 9:30 Club for some good jams. It had been awhile since I had seen them. I'm posting way after the fact so not much to recall. Nigel Hall opened and he got the favor of the crowd. It was their Rubber Soulive tour and I do remember it was something special. They rocked the Beatles. I'd love to have a soundboard recording from this tour.

Rally for Sanity and/or Fear

2010-10-30T23:30:00.002-04:00

The opposite of Beckapolozza was the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear. Mandy drove up with friends and parked near my place. Teri and I headed down on bikes. It was quite a different atmosphere than Glen Beck's rally.

Pics and videos

Whet Hop Ales with Tomme Arthur

2010-10-26T22:48:00.002-04:00

Tomme Arthur missed out on the Lupulin Reunuless this year and his beers are not distributed out here so I thought the wet hop ale or fresh harvest tasting would be a good one to attend. Teri's mom was in town for work and joined us for her first beer tasting. Not sure hops are the best place to start with people new to beer but that fresh hop taste is quite unique.

lineup...

Solana - Low Tide Fresh Hop Ale
Carlsbad - Plant to Pint
Ocean Beach - Get Wet IPA
Sierra Nevada - Northern Hemisphere Harvest Wet Hop
Sierra Nevada - Estate Wet Hop
Port Brewing - High Tide Fresh Hop IPA
Weyerbacher - Harvest Ale
Port Brewing - Mongo Double IPA

Tomme has four Pizza Port locations and runs Port Brewing. During the tasting he went through a powerpoint presentation about brewing fresh wet hop beers that gave the event that presentation type feel. The brewery is an 18 hour truck ride from the Yakima Valley where the hops are grown ($2500 per trip for an empty truck). The brewery has to be ready to brew the beer whatever day the hops are ready for harvest. The farm has to harvest all the hops the day they are ready or they will spoil. They left hops on the vine this year due to not being able to harvest it all at one time but also due to low demand. Dealing with fresh hops once you have them at the brewery isn't an easy task either.

The Low Tide Fresh Hop Pale was a good start to the evening. Most of these beers can only be purchased at the pub it was brewed in California. The bitterness of this beer came from hop pellets as opposed to the fresh hop buds.

Tomme said he had to beg his own brewpub to get a couple 5 gallon kegs of the Plant to Pint. This is a 100% fresh hop beer with no hop pellets used. It was tasty.

It was Tomme's first time trying the Riptide. It has a malt component and was also 100% fresh hops. It had a good balance. At one point Tomme said he didn't think the beer was 6.5% alcohol because usually when he has three he can feel it and he can't feel it so much tonight.

The Get Wet IPA was probably my favorite. It had that wonderful fresh dank wet hop taste that the night was all about. A beer with fresh picked hops served fresh. Too piny and bitter for many but there is something about the fresh hops that I love. Of course they are the best smelling beers as well.

The next two beers were by Sierra Nevada who Tomme credited for inventing the fresh wet hop style. They sell 1000 barrels of Northern Hemisphere a year which is quite small for Sierra Nevada. And apparently they lost money on it for many years. People at the tasting complained that the Estate Wet Hop Ale is twice the price. Tomme said the Southern Hemisphere Wet Hop beer has hops that are kilned for the travel across the globe.

The High Tide Fresh Hop IPA used pellets for the bitterness and is wet hopped twice. Another one brewed with hops driving straight from Yakima Valley.

The Weyerbacher Harvest Ale tasted like the typical store bought harvest ale in that it is not the freshed in the world which is really needed for this style.

The Mongo Double IPA was a special treat and very yummy. A typical southern CA hop bomb.

Phish in Charleston

2010-10-17T21:41:00.002-04:00

Teri and I went to Charleston for two nights of Phish. We toured the downtown area and had some local food and beer. I heard a lot of good things about Charleston but I didn't think it was all that; old money and old school.

Friday, 10/15/2010

Set 1: Punch You In the Eye > Possum, Bathtub Gin, Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Destiny Unbound, Backwards Down the Number Line, Bouncing Around the Room, Stash, Joy, Buffalo Bill, Dog Faced Boy, Run Like an Antelope

Set 2: Down with Disease > Prince Caspian > Twist, Roses Are Free > My Friend, My Friend > My Problem Right There, Tube > Mike's Song > The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Mexican Cousin, Weekapaug Groove, Suzy Greenberg > Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore: Character Zero

Notes: Bill Bailey featured Page’s dad, Dr. Jack McConnell, on vocals and tap shoes. Antelope's Marco Esquandolas lyric was changed to "Mike-O."

Saturday, 10/16/2010

Set 1: Kill Devil Falls, Guelah Papyrus, The Curtain With > The Mango Song > Sand, Limb By Limb, Sneakin' Sally through the Alley, Uncle Pen, Pebbles and Marbles, Cavern > David Bowie

Set 2: Crosseyed and Painless, Dirt > Fluffhead > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Tweezer > Show of Life, You Enjoy Myself

Encore: I Been Around, Quinn the Eskimo > Tweezer Reprise

Notes: The YEM vocal jam contained Guy Forget quotes.

WBF Durham

2010-10-10T21:36:00.003-04:00

World Beer Festival in Durham. This was one of the first times I didn't take pics. I think we had the usual transportation issues if memory serves me correctly which is questionable. Sorry for the lack of info.

Beth's BBQ party

2010-09-10T23:27:00.000-04:00

Beth threw a BBQ part with her neighbor. Teri and I went down for some fun and swill. It was catered and they had tons of food. Teri and I did have decent in the corn hold tournament. And as has been habit the last few times I brought back some New Belgium beer. This time it was their Hoptober which I dig a lot.

Pics and videos

Duncan Knob

2010-09-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

Teri and sought out a new hike and decided to do Duncan Knob. It was pretty cool. It's a loop in the George Washington National Forest. We almost missed the little side path to the Knob which would have been a bummer cuz it was a nice view after a rock scramble.

Pics and videos

GPS route

Beckapolozza

2010-08-28T23:21:00.003-04:00

Glen Beck put on a sermon on the mall. Always entertaining.

Pics and videos

GPS route

Jen's b-day and brunch with Ben

2010-08-22T22:36:00.001-04:00

Ben was in town for work and he stayed the weekend to enjoy DC for a couple nights. We stopped by Scott's place on Friday for Jen's birthday. Scott had some alcohol in him and was talking up Teri and her golf. We had brunch on Saturday and did the tourist thing with Ben

DC Beer Week Kick-off Brunch

2010-08-22T21:34:00.001-04:00

I think DC had two DC Beer Weeks last year. And I think that confusion rolled in to this year but there were a ton of events throughout this week but that is a good thing. Ben joined Teri and I for this brunch at Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupont. Ben had a tight schedule with a flight right after brunch. This brunch had a mix of breweries rather than featuring just one. The menu...

Hot Pepper Jelly & Peach Goat Cheese Crostini

w/ local peaches & thick cut bacon

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin'

Coddled Egg w/ Roasted Local Summer Squash

w/ roasted local carrots, radishes & Asparagus in an ale hollandaise

Kiuchi Hitachino Nest Nipponia Ancient Ale

Local Soft Shell Crab, Heirloom Tomato, Roasted Corn Pizza

BFM La Douze

Coconut Rice Pudding w/ Toasted Coconut & Lime Shavings

Three Floyds Stay In School

Dark Chocolate Pecan Coffee Cake

w/ Maple Ice Cream

Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout

The crostini was decent. I'm a fan of Little Sumpin' Sumpin'. The Nipponia Ancient Ale was brewed with a malt that came from three seeds from some ancient seed bank. It also had that familiar sorachi ace hop taste. The La Douze was brewed with flowers of salt of Guerande from Switzerland. It had a salty aftertaste. The Three Floyds Stay In School was strong at 10%. And the Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout of course had a big coffee taste that I'm not found of. Ben had to eat the last course quick and boogie. I'm not a fan of coconut or coffee. Not a bad way to start a Sunday though.

Phish @ Jones Beach

2010-08-18T23:16:00.001-04:00

Teri and went up to Jones Beach outside of NYC for the end of the Phish tour. It was a great venue on a beach on Long Island. The sound was excellent. The venue had it's own beach. It was a nice set up. We had awesome seats the second night down on the floor. Some guy freaked out and jumped off the balcony during the set break. It wasn't too fall of a far luckily for him. It was a fun end to the tour.

Pics and videos

Birch & Barley and Trombone Shorty

2010-08-13T22:33:00.000-04:00

I got word it was going to sell out so we did like Galactic and got tix before hand then headed to 14th street for some fine food and drink. At Birch & Barley they said it was an hour wait and that fit perfect with our schedule so we put in our names and headed up to ChurckKey for some fine swill. We got called in 30 minutes. After ordering the risotto balls upstairs as an appetizer they gave it to us complementary at our table downstairs. We got the duck egg again and it was great. The bread was awesome as usual with cornbread and pretzel bread. I had the halibut. Can't go wrong with such excellent food and beer.

The show was awesome. Being sold out it was of course packed. We hung out in the back of the floor the whole time but we could see being a tall couple. Shorty would play sweet short little distinct bursts on his trombone which were cool. He could sing well too. It was another good show.

Old Rag hike

2010-08-09T23:13:00.000-04:00

After visiting the breweries the previous day we did a Monday hike of Old Rag. This is the most popular hike in Virginia and the DC area. It has great views and some rock scrambling. It's a nice hike if you can avoid the crowds.

Pics and videos

GPS route

Starr Hill & Devils Backbone Breweries

2010-08-08T23:08:00.000-04:00

Matt and I met up with Mandy and another old Perrysburg alum, Doug, for a tour of some Charlottesville breweries. We got a tour of Starr Hill which was interesting. They had a little tasting bar set up in the warehouse style brewery. I got to hold a Great American Beer Festival medal which I thought was cool. We didn't get a tour of Devils Backbone but we did have lunch.

Pics and videos

Galactic @ 9:30 Club

2010-08-06T22:31:00.001-04:00

Teri and I ate at Bar Pilar which is a place Lee had recommended previously. They have some great food and decent beer. The show sold out and although he came to the venue from Maryland Matt didn't make it in. Teri and I hung out on the floor while Lee was up on the balcony with some friends. It was a great show. Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers and Corey Henry from the Rebirth Brass Band joined the tour. Teri found a new band she likes.

Cedar Point

2010-07-25T23:03:00.000-04:00

Teri, Ashley and I took a Monday off and went to Cedar Point. We stayed with my parents on Sunday and Monday nights. It was a full day; we stayed till after dark and close to closing time. Even on a Monday the lines were long. We hit most of the rides but didn't have time to hit everything.

Pics and videos

DC United w/ coworkers

2010-07-24T23:01:00.000-04:00

A group of coworkers went to go see DC United and we had a good time. There isn't 100,00 people but they tailgate and chant like the best of them.

pics and videos

Kentucky Breakfast Stout

2010-07-09T22:21:00.001-04:00

I've heard some rumblings about this beer the last year or two but never paid attention because I'm not a huge stout fan. But I was at my neighborhood beer store (the Whole Foods a few blocks away) and was talking to the beer guy. I see this guy less than my coworkers but more than my friends. On this occasion he was tending to some customers asking him about inventory age... "Have you heard of Total Wine?" "Have you ever been to Brickskeller?"

Once he saw me Tom asked if I had any of the Stone 14th Anniversary or some other special beers not in the shelves. I had been in earlier in the week and picked up some 14th Anniversary. Quite the interesting Emperial IPA. The one he did mention that I have yet to have is the Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. From the Examiner:

"The original" actually started with Breakfast Stout, an Imperial Stout at 8.3% alcohol by volume, made with flaked oats, chocolate and coffee. In 2005, Founders premiered the "Kentucky" version, so called because it was aged in oak bourbon barrels. This beer pops up to 11.2% alcohol, and is meant to be poured into and enjoyed from a snifter if possible.

It is also an extremely rare and very hyped beer. It is brewed once a year, is hard to find and not cheap. Whole Foods sells it for $20.99 but my guy hooked me up and put a $9.99 price tag on it for me.

4th of July

2010-07-04T22:17:00.000-04:00

Teri and Ashley rented bikes for the day and we went on an initial bike ride during the afternoon. We took Ashley on a quick sight-seeing tour although we didn't have much time. The Folklife Festival was happenin' on the east side of the mall. We went in and out of security on the west side of the mall and took note of all the people already camped in their spot for the evening fireworks. There were a lot of people but the masses hadn't hit yet. People were crowded in the shaded areas and the Lincoln Memorial steps.

After our initial bike ride we met up with Matt and Kevin and we had a biking gang of five. Hell Burger had a line out the door so we went to Rhodeside Grill for dinner. Then we met up with Sonny at the office who only had Sam and Vanessa with him this year.

The five of us rode off to the mall. The sidewalks were covered with people. Every year you see this mass migration of people headed to the mall from every direction using every method of transportation. Biking is definitely the best. We got there pretty quick and heard about metro stations that were over flowing with people. We got a nice spot up front just as the show was starting. The fireworks were decent with a big finale.

The way back is always difficult because the streets are flooded with people. My bell came in handy. I followed a guy and his kid but lost the group behind me. It would be very difficult to stay together unless we were walking but then that's a waste of a bike. It took some time but everyone made it back to my place.

pics and videos

GPS route

Phish in Charlotte

2010-07-02T22:56:00.000-04:00

Teri, Ashley, Erik, and I saw Phish in Charlotte.

setlist:

Set 1: Buried Alive > AC/DC Bag > Vultures, Wolfman's Brother, Back on the Train, The Wedge, Mexican Cousin, Stash, Sparkle > Chalk Dust Torture

Set 2: Drowned > 46 Days > Twenty Years Later > The Lizards, Carini > Fuck Your Face > Also Sprach Zarathustra > You Enjoy Myself

Encore: A Day in the Life

Notes: This show featured the first Fuck Your Face since April 29, 1987 (1,413 shows). AC/DC Bag contained Buried Alive teases. YEM contained Fuck Your Face and Moving in Stereo (The Cars) teases. The YEM vocal jam included portions of Proud Mary and Get Back interspersed with Dong Work for Yuda (Frank Zappa) and Slow Ride quotes.

Pics and videos

Stone 14th Anniversary Ale

2010-06-30T22:14:00.000-04:00

Stone's 14th Anniversary Ale is called Emperial IPA. It was released on the 21st from their northern San Diego brewery and I'm drinking it on the 30th on the east coast. Not bad distribution.

I found some Bruery Coton too which I've been slowly introducing to my boss and client late Friday afternoons.

hippy counter surveillance

2010-06-27T22:11:00.002-04:00

The cops set up this camera in the parking lot of the concert I was at over the weekend. It is a large outdoor venue and it is known for the cops being strict. Some of the hippies in attendance were throwing a football at the camera trying to knock it down. Makes me wonder how much fun you could have if you brought your own tech trailer to something like this and did counter surveillance for the concert goers. You could charge a small fee to all the illegal vendors by providing them with intel and security. You could send out twitter or text alerts. You could do map analysis of where the hot spots are to avoid or the cold spots with low probability of arrest. You could set up a sniffer to capture all the wireless data the cops are transmitting back and forth. You could cause interference and block the cops data transmissions. The possibilities are endless.

pic of camera and cop trailer