Category Archives: Drink

02.02.11
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28 in 28 Challenge

Nothing forces one to return to blogging quite like a goal, so a goal I have. In the midst of my attempts to make my way in a new job and further my health goals with a Q1 challenge I have taken it upon myself to work on clearing out my 200-bottle beer cellar. I had originally proposed to my wife that I would make this a 40-in-40 Lent Challenge. Those of you who know her can anticipate her reaction. My argument – Jesus turned water into wine at the end of a wedding when people had already had their fill of wine, thus he clearly has no issue with my drinking. Further, as I like Jesus and not religion what better way to combat the shackles of religion than a drinking challenge around a popular religious series of days?

So here I am, relegated to the shortest month of the year. The 28-in-28 Challenge. I have to drink 28 different beers in 28 days. Not necessarily 28 beers I’ve never had – I’ll try to track as many of those down as I can – but 28 different beers in 28 days. And my goal is to have one of my own brewed before this is done.

Oh, and I’m not alone. My buddy in brewing, beer and blues is worth reading as well: jrazyblog.

Cheers!
Rick.

08.15.10
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Homebrew Review: Fat Tire Clone

Homebrew from brewsandbooks.comAs previously noted I had the chance to do an in-person trade with Josh over at brewsandbooks.com that, amongst a plethora of awesome beers, also included two bottles of his homebrew. Tonight I ended my casual weekend with a clone of New Belgium Fat Tire he had produced.

The Pour: It poured a pretty solid, slightly opaque amber colour. Thick carbonation is present, but no head appeared for me.

The Aroma: The aroma is heavily malty and biscuity, slightly toasted bread and a hint of spicy, floral hops.

Mouthfeel: I couldn’t get over how smooth it is, well brewed to a terrific mouthfeel that makes it really easy to drink.

The Taste: Again, a very malty taste, seems reminiscent of Cooper’s Sparkling Ale, leading me to think it may use their malt extract. Caramel and toffee, slightly grassy and very dry. There’s a hint of hopping that’s more evident in the aftertaste. I can imagine drinking a few of these, and I must note I far prefer it to the real thing. Good work!

07.23.10
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Eastern Road Trip 2010: Day Four

We woke day four in our discounted hotel for a quick pack-up before breakfast. As I finalized the game of Tetris that is our car one of my longest standing friends, Brent, wandered up to the car. Somehow we’ve managed to cross paths every few years since high school ended and we went our separate ways. Sadly, due to my inability to get in the night before our only opportunity to meet would be for a Cora’s breakfast. We, as always, caught up and learned a few new things, then sorrowfully discussed how we hadn’t had the chance to hit Pump House Brewery as planned. And then we realized that there was really nothing stopping us from doing it right then, after our eggs and bacon at Cora’s. So we did! I did the flight of Blueberry Ale, Cadian Ale, Fire Chief Red Ale, Scotch Ale, Special Old Bitter (SOB), Pail Ale, Muddy River Stout and their seasonal, Raspberry Weizen and we finished our re-group with a walk along Moncton’s waterfront. It was a handshake and we were off, next stop the Confederation Bridge to Charlottetown.

Ah, save for one pit stop. Adding 30 minutes or so to our route gave us two sweet options. One, the chance to hit the bridge via the Acadian Highway, cutting along the waterfront that provides an excellent view of PEI from the mainland. The road was rough but I found the view worthwhile. Second, the opportunity to swing through Shediac and see the World’s Largest Lobster. You can’t pass crap like that up when given the chance pop over to these guys. And so with a shot of my inappropriate beard groping of the statue we were off to Confederation Bridge.

Word to the wise, PEI has it right. Going over, free! One long, 13km free bridge ride over, but if you want to go home again, $42.50. Keep that in mind. We made our way over a bit later than expected (par for the course this trip) and texted our hosts to say we were heading straight to the restaurant. Mary selected The Gahan House, which I’d tried on my earlier trip in May. I’d recommended the fish and chips to her and she was ready to try them. I, again, took advantage of being in a brew pub to get a flight of Island Red Amber Ale, Sir John A’s Honey Wheat Ale, Coles Cream Ale, Harvest Gold Pale Ale, Iron Horse Dark Ale, Sydney Street Stout, 1772 India Pale Ale and a new Oyster White Ale seasonal, alongside the “recommended by Foursquare” Butter Chicken on Fries. All was well, and made moreso by meeting up with Chris and Crystal for the evening. We concluded our day with a trip to the same Irish pub Mary and I had found 12 years earlier on our first visit to Charlottetown, the Olde Dublin Pub, to enjoy a little Celtic music, a little more food, and some good conversation.

07.18.10
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Eastern Road Trip 2010: Day One

Greetings! Fitting that I’ve gone from one trip to the next without any other posts at all, but alas, such is life. Yesterday we packed up the car and began the 5,000 road trip that will see us cross four states and five provinces en route to the end goal of Justin’s wedding. As usual, plans don’t always come together.

The goal was to make it from Toronto to Syracuse for lunch at Dinosaur BBQ, as featured on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”, before getting to Boston in time to catch a concert by my favourite band, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers. Alas, the unexpected world of border crossings. We stood idly by for over an hour at the Queenston-Lewiston crossing, thereby ending any chances of arriving in Boston early enough for the show.

The first stop happened as planned, albeit a bit later than usual lunch. Dinosaur BBQ came recommended by Adam Gertler on said Food Network show for their BBQ chicken. Mary did a chicken and rib combo with mashed potatoes and tomato and cucumber salad, I did the pulled pork and brisket combo with beans and chili. All of it was excellent. This is a huge place in the middle of an older, slightly industrial area of town that was absolutely packed even after 2pm in the afternoon. Food was served quickly and tasted great, highly recommended. I even managed a flight of odd beers: Middle Ages Ape Hangar Ale, Ithaca Cascazilla, Lake Placid Ubu Ale, and Middle Ages Wailing Wench. Ape Hangar was crap, the others were great.

After that it’s a long haul of boredom to the Boston area, trust me. Oddly I’m starting to recognize things after my many trips this way, and we pulled in near 8:30pm. We hit dinner at a place called nourish in Lexington, meant to be a restaurant of ethically sourced food that’s relatively natural, organic, etc.. Small issue that the service was horrible and the food was average, regardless of the restaurant being almost empty. I did enjoy a Peak Organic IPA before we hit the Fireside Bed & Breakfast in Lexington for the night. A very nice B&B with wireless internet (w00t!), air conditioned rooms, and a really friendly and helpful host. We caught a late night swim before retiring out of sheer exhaustion.

So this morning I lay out the goals:

  • My geek cred life goal of having my picture taken outside Kirkland House at Harvard, the dorm where Facebook was invented is primary
  • Securing the Yard Bird (Harvard) foursquare badge is second
  • Lunch at Mr Bartley’s Burger Cottage, which was closed on our first visit in 2006
  • Doughnut at Craigie on Main, as recommended by Food Network magazine
  • Delivering a rather large care package of Ontario beer to Josh Christie

Let’s see how many of these I can cross off today!

08.15.02
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Get The Trapper.

This will be my last entry until Monday. After my bitter post demanding personal vacation time a week ago or so I took advantage of Mar’s offtime tomorrow and Friday to book some time at the cottage of my friend Craig. This usually involves relaxing, sitting around, fishing with lobsters (don’t ask), and at least one evening of excessive libation inhalation. I blame this on the poor influence of Craig who I once witnessed drinking 38 beers in one day. Regardless of all this, it’s four days in the calming surroundings of Echo Lake in the Muskokas where I will continue my five year quest to catch a fish. Little mofos are going to bite one of these years. ;( And for those of you thinking of breaking into my house and stealing my white tequila I say POO POO! The watchful eyes of a friend of the family will be here to guard over my house AND imported alcohol collection.

I’m going to chalk up the AudioBlog experiment as a rousing failure seeing as I didn’t get ONE comment in the comments area – Kip, the nice guy that he is, at least proved he listened to it with a Zonkboard post. As for the Trapper…

Kip can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m going to guess this is dating circa 1993 or so. We could drive, I remember that. We headed out to Bramalea City Centre where we went shopping for stupid toys. We each got a Nerf gun with foam darts and a Cookie Monster figurine. We then headed to the Beer Store with the intention of buying something we’d never heard of. We scoured the wall until one of us noticed a bottle of “Niagara Trapper” featuring a non-glossy label housing a drawing of a lumberjack kayaking down a river. This was the winner. I walked up to the cashier and requested a 6 of Niagara Trapper. His normal process of glazingly repeating the order through the microphone without so much as looking up was stirred when he realized what was happening. He glanced up and asked “Niagara Trapper?” I said yes, and pointed towards it. He gets on the mic and announces “get the trapper”. THE Trapper. We headed to my house with “the Trapper”, chock full of an inch high layer of dust, our toys, and decided to order the “ultimate pizzas”. I have no idea what was on them, I just remember they were medium pizzas from 241 and each had to have about 7 toppings. We then shot our Nerf guns, ate pizza, drank Trapper, and played electric guitar while watching TV and recording everything on audio cassette. I distinctly remember one conversation detailing how “hot” the girl in the Freedom 55 ad and other assorted ramblings of 19 year olds who had just eaten their weight in pizza, drank their weight in Trapper, and shot each other silly with Nerf foam darts.

Coming next week – the even more entertaining tail of Kip being pulled over by the cops while walking a block back to his house with an armful of Trapper empties and a bag of toys. :) Actually, Kip, if you’re reading this – send me this account in your own words and I’ll post it up. hehe..

See ya later, all – have a great weekend! Don’t forget to visit me again on Monday, show me some love. :(

Cheers!