Month: November 2005

Lee’s Mild, 8th Anniversary Ale, Stone, California

What can you say about a beer that says so much about itself. I picked this one out of the stash, $5.99 USD last time I was south. It is a one off brew made in August 2004 from Stone of a previous standard of theirs called Lee’s Mild…which makes it more of a revival than a one off. At 7.8% I am wondering where I will find the mild in it but these things do happen sometimes.

Mild is generally the lightest of the dark ales – below porter, sub-dark and under brown. Big in, say, Wales circa 1910, milds are now rare. They also were a bit of an innovation when they came out as they were a break from stales or beers that had attractive sour tang to them. The idea of an actually sterile and fresh to the consumer beer was very 19th century
industrial revolution. I think the only true one I have had – other than those I brewed myself – was at C’est What in Toronto last winter. The perfect session ale. But that one was only 3.3%…or 42% the strength of this one of Lee’s. So what will this bottle provide when opened. The BAers give great hope. More in a moment when I get the danged thing open.

It pours a really attractive reddish mahogany with a rich and lace leaving tan head. Good and black rummy – sweetness worked through and dried. Masses of malt with notes of fig, date and pumpernickle with a good swath of green and twiggy hops cutting but not severing betwixt and between. It is just a notch below an old ale or something that might come out for Christmas but not by much. A long long finish. Another impressive big ale from one of the great US brewers.

Contract Enforcement

This is an interesting situation and an educational point on the enforcement of contracts:

“If they don’t comply with the contract … we can do whatever we want with these aircraft, whatever the hell we want. Maybe we’ll give 10 planes to Cuba or to China so they can study the technology,” Chavez said. “We could give them away and buy aircraft from China or from Russia. … We don’t need any U.S. imperialism,” he said. A U.S. defense official said there had been no communications with Venezuela’s government about any sale of F-16s to other countries, but he noted that U.S. laws on foreign arms sales were “quite strict” regarding third-party transfers.

Via the Unabrewer.

New CBC Afternoons

Interesting to read that my old pal from Halifax days, Kelly Ryan, is reviving her radio host career started twenty years ago when she did CBC Halifax’s weekend wake-up show. Once I goaded her into referring her co-host as “L-7” and “four corners” based on the Flinstone’s beat poet episode of another twenty years earlier. I think she got into news not long after that. Kelly has had some grim national radio news reporting jobs like 9/11 and the Picton mass murders. With her sense of humour, I have high hopes for this show.

I am a little more concered with the Globe’s report on what will happen with the CBC Radio 1 11 am to noon slot:

The new programming will kick off in the late morning, before local noon-hour shows, with host Jian Ghomeshi’s The National Playlist, which will feature musicians, actors and politicians debating their favourite songs. Listeners will also be able to call in to kick songs off the continually evolving play list. CBC is billing it as an iPod play list debated nationally every weekday.

Gee – Jian is going to rate songs…like he has for about 3 years now in unending repeats. Nice pandering to the iPod bubble, too. I have low expectations but it is nice to see, at least, that the Ghost of Peter Gzowsky Past may have less air time.