Month: October 2004

Quality

Somedays the hopes and dreams of those who sell on eBay just amaze me. This is for sale at a starting price of 45 pounds:


Glentoran Football Club Signed Postcard 1980

Hey! It is signed. And…ummm…its 24 years old and…its from a club in Northern Ireland who “won the Cup” in 1980. Nothing but respect for the team but, holy moly, over 100 bucks Canadian for a beat-up, creased to…wherever creases go…old postcard.

Maybe it is because of the haircuts…or the cheap hotel shorts.

Morning After

So in my world the Red Sox do beat the Yankees and get to the World Series. They got there when I was 23 and when I was 12. Last time when the Mets beat them there was the Gary Carter consolation, the slight measure of a victoy for the Expos. Since then, however, it seems that every winnign team must have the hand of Filipe Alou or perhaps a whisp of a steaméhovering over it – with Francona, Pedro and Orlando, this years Sox are no different. I woke up this morning right after dreaming of calling Chicken out east, a congenital Red Sox fan, apologizing for forgetting the time delay. He said it was ok.

Putting Pedro in in the 7th was either a masterstroke of a head game or the biggest placation of a fading star I have ever witnessed. I think it was the first. I think they wanted to crush the Yankees, let them know we can give you a couple of measley runs because there is high 90s heat to get you out anyway. That won’t happen in the World Series. Please no. You should only wake up Nils’s house once a fall, Mr. God and your Red Sox interests.

New York: Post Road Pumpkin Ale, Brooklyn Brewery

Now that the Yankees are out of the playoffs, I can admit again to my enjoyment of things New York…more upstate than anything but, as the City and upstate have a mutually vestigal relationship, there is much of the City to be found upstate. One great thing is the New York Times, another is the effect of the Brooklyn Brewery and its range on intellegent challenging beers. I reviewed the Brooklyn Brown in August and, when last in Syracuse, I picked up a six each of the two fall specials, Octoberfest marzen and Post Road Pumpkin Ale. Such is the integrity of the head brewer of Brooklyn, Garrett Oliver, that he has started a line of historic beers of the US. One is Post Road Light Dinner Ale, a remembrance of a late 1800s middle class urban style. The other is Post Road Pumpkin Ale, a tribute to earlier colonial pioneer brewers.

The aroma is pumpkin patch, autumn frost. The taste, pumpkin pie spices. Its light body makes it an easy drink but the nutmeg backed with cinnamon makes it a bit dry for a quaffable, sipping or session beer, compared to say a rich spicy thang like a Belgian dubble say Unibroue’s Maudite. Brooklyn’s web site says:

Post Road Pumpkin Ale is a revival of a beer brewed by the early American colonists. Pumpkins were plentiful, flavorful and nutritious and they blended nicely with barley malt. Hundreds of pumpkins are blended into each batch of Post Road Pumpkin Ale, creating a beer with an orange amber color, warm pumpkin aroma, biscuity malt center and crisp finish. Post Road Pumpkin Ale is spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.

The other day I roasted a lamb’s leg and basted it with half dark maple syrup and half this ale. It was good, candied up over 4 1/2 hours. I used to make a roasted pumpkin porter with Ringwood yeast. While this is a much lighter take, the idea is there – the summer’s work saved in the celler. Advocatonians have their say.

Smuttynose Variety

Now that I have spent more than a year having made up with New Hampshire, I can enjoy Smuttynose as I should. These variety packs are great. They introduce you to a brewery’s product for under 20 bucks Canadian, 14 US. Smart marketing. Good labels, too. The two old guys on lawn chairs on the IPA are reason enough to buy that brew.

  • Old Brown Dog Ale: Like Rogue, this brewery displays the smarts to know we, the consumers, also have smarts on things brewing. This info is included on the website:

    VITAL STATISTICS
    OG: 1060, TG: 1016
    Grain Bill: Pale Brewers, Munich, Crystal 60°L, Chocolate
    Hops: Cascade, Willamette
    IBU’s: 15, ABV: 5.7%
    Color/Number: Deep brown-amber, 25°

    I can read this and think – umm. This gives enough to start the homebrewer off to replicate their product. Why? I’d bet it’s because they can figure it out anyway so why not make a pal?

    So what to make of the beer? I’d call it a lighter version of the American brown but still nicely balanced, a notch more than a mild ale. Nice fruity notes, too, almost cherry pie between the bisuity thing and the nutty notes. Nice pale tan head. I talked up the first one I popped over here. I would be very interested to compare it with the Brooklyn Brown, side-by-side, contemporaneously as it were. By gumbo, someday I will.

I will report on the lager, pale ale and IPA later.

Game Seven

Good thing I had one 22 page document to draft today, straight through short break for lunch. Driving home it felt like mid-week halloween with the anticipation of big doin’s tonight. I will try to stay tube-bound. I have a bad habit of making myself busy elsewhere during big moments in sporting events, by the radio.

I fear Boston’s pitching will throw me off. I hope Lowe, left, can pull it off but this is going to be a full bullpen event for both sides. Wakefield will cover two. Foulke one. Who else?

At 8:19 pm, half an hour, the world stops again for four hours. What I have to put up with in the meantime [144 KB .wav file]


12:10 am this morning, men in red hug again.

Half Life 2

Appparently it is coming out in a month. I had a weird experience with my glacial attempt at the original Half Life. I was half way down the collapsed building fighting evil things when 9/11 happened. I just couldn’t pick it up after. Maybe now I will be ready to beat shin-high brain/chicken monsters with a tire iron again. Maybe now that I have kids who can turn on the computer I won’t.