So my camera died sort of. It flashes “turn off and on again” over and over on the little screeen. Something wrong with the lens which I suspect is a little beach sand. If I can take it apart, do some highly technical blowing, flapping and flicking, I might get it to work. But I had a wedding to get to so I bought a Sony DSC-S40 to replace the Sony DSC-P32. Virtually the same camera that cost $250.00 Canadian in December 2003 cost $250.00 Canadian in April 2005 but it has a 3x Zeiss lens. Having taken over 4,000 shots with the first one and having not bought film and processing for a year and a half I figure it has paid for itself. But if I get it going again, it is definitely the beach camera.
Portland, Maine
One of my favoriter cities, I was quite pleased to find I could get to the Mall and back in a pinch without discovering new streets. I am pretty sure most of these photos are not of South Portland but Portland proper…except maybe that one of the ship going under the bridge.
The bowl is full of $3 Dewey’s smoked seafood chowder. The best.
Seven Hours
Who knew that the beaches of New England were 7 hours away from Lake Ontario? Who knew that once you have 512 MB on your camera you get 342 photos to look through when you get home? Who knew that I would have first-and-first-cousins-once-removed-in-law-to-my-second-cousin with whom I might go to see the Bruins play if the NHL ever gets going again? Who knew?
Paper City Brewing, Holyoke, MA, USA
We stop in Holyoke as our half way point between Maine and home. Last year at a gas station I saw in the beer fridge one of the Paper City Brewing Company‘s ales and I recalled I liked it. This year I headed into town and found a variety twelve pack for 13.50 USD.
As I have said before, these variety packs are the best way for a brewer to get a fan base as you get to know the product without a great outlay. I look for them when travelling and this is one of three I picked up duing my week in New England. One hint – if you are not sure of your stock, a brewer ought to go with a 4 variety selection. The brave go with two bottles of six types. Sometimes this can mean you show your weak hand, as with Cooperstown, but Paper City is one of the brave and rightly so. In fact, this brewery does more than a few things right and really deserves to be better known:
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Cabot Street Wheat: [click right for detail] This brew pours whipped egg white head, golden colour with a real lean towards a yellow tinge. A hefe-weizen which is light, crisp and fresh. The homage to this south German beer, under its clean green grassy wheat, leans more to the banana side of the spectrum rather than the clove. The hops have a rough edge which balance off well. The yeast is traditional hefe-weizen, an unfiltered reminder being left in the bottle. This is a vastly superior product to the eastern Mass. version produced by Sam Adams.
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- Dorado Lager: Holyoke has a significant latin presence and having a cervesa on its repetiore means Paper City is paying attention. This lager is fruity in the peachy/orange range with a slight astringent adge which neatly cuts its biggish rich malty mouthfeel. It is a denial of the tedious thin sway of pilsner on the lager market and it is masterful in doing so.
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- Nut Brown Ale: This is a favorite style of mine and one not done well usually. Paper City almost pulls it off. I’d call their effort a good decent nut brown. It is definitely not a US brown as it leads with the malt and not the hops. The yeast, however, is a bit out of balance and does not support the nuttiness of the grain which should be a hallmark of this moreish style. I am guessing that was created to be served cold which would cause the yeastiness to recede but also cause the nuttiness to hide as well. There is chocolate and something of the chalky side I like in a nut brown but it is all a slight bit out of balance.
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- Riley’s Stout: The day and the day before I had this beer I also had Gritty’s Black Fly Stout. Standing up to that competition is a great claim to fame and Paper City has earned it. They are not exactly of the same sort, however, the offering from Gritty being a creamy stout from heavy reliance on rolled barley in the mash tun. Riley’s Stout would be rich rather than creamy with a good claim to the classic black malt burned toast theme. It is tempered, however, by chocolate malt and a well balanced use of the minty hop Northern Brewer to create a very nice medium bodied stout. The head pours rocky and tan, hanging on and on to the side of the glass. The yeast is clean and supportive and all in all I am reminded of a lighter version Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout. Worthy.
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- Banchee Extra Pale Ale: this straw coloured ale has a white fine rocky head and smells like sweet orange blossom. The malt is fruity with green and slightly astringent hops over a light but grainy brew. Very nice.
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- Goats Peak Bock Spring Lager: I really like this lager…and that’s sure something I never thought I would ever write. It has a big malty profile – more like a marzen than a bock, its tight off-white foam head sits over the red hued drink the colour of deep amber maple syrup. It is sweetish with cherry in the fruity malt balanced with a light touch on the German hops. The yeast is a little spicy and earthy, slightly dairy sour but more subdued than most lagers falling on the wrong side of the line.
All in all I was very impressed with Paper City. Hopefuly with a few more years it will get to more glasses than just those in its current western Massachusetts market.
Wedding
My Armenian Bostonian family knows how to through a party. ‘Nuff said on that but for one observation. “Hey Ya!” is the new “Bird Dance“.
New York: Ubu Ale, Lake Placid CBC, Plattsburg
This ale is the partner to Lake Placid’s 46’er reviewed last month. It is a fine ale but hard to pin-point for style. At 7%, it is like a low-hopped strong US brown or even a weak Belgian dark strong beer. At its heart it is a big malty brew with some definite notes of chocolate and even a bit of a plum note in the middle. Dandy. $7.99 US or so at upstate NY grocery stores for a six.
512 MB
Care of Best Buy and 65 bucks US, we can now take 831 1.2 MB photos with our digital camera. That is 1/2 of the memory on the hard drive of my last computer – sure I bought it in 1996 but it cost 3,000 bucks so I thought I would squeeze it for everything it was worth. Memory is like air now.
What am I going to take a 22 minute movie of anyway.
Mailbox Money
I recalled this morning, reading about the sponsorship inquiry from a certain distance…because I am down here…that twice in my young and fawn-like life I have actually heard about the same sort of thing happening from the horses mouths except it was money arriving from provincial governments – “the program without a name”. But without the taint of the kickback, I suppose. Or perhaps there is a difference between a kickback and a long-term relationship. Dues served and all that. Intergenerational patronage kind of thing.
Why do I have this suspicion that these guys either just did it so badly or they just got caught?
April In Portland
Isn’t there a movie where Maurice Chevalier sings about Maine’s industrial seaport?
Anyway, hitting the road for a week to eat marine life and boo the Yankees. So the mantraps have been set and the pride of lions released from their cages at our house. I have never taken more than a long weekend in the spring and certainly never gone south in the winter – being albino between the freckles it is a bit pointless – so I am looking forward to some version of that beach life even if a bit chillier. Beach.
Update: for my pal Michael – this is a mantrap.
Update #2: [Some road notes that you probably do not need to care much about.] As sweet a six hour drives as you would want with little people to Holyoke MA and the Holiday Inn: 401 to I-81 to NYS Thruway to Mass Turnpike to I-91. We were here before and I will pay for a little time passing since refurbishment as long as there is a good indoor pool. Ninety-nine bucks. The Mohawk Valley is quite a something and around Little Falls there steep incline in the highway for six miles that makes me wonder about those poor saps that actually built the Erie Canal. WRVO Oswego NPR is audible from Kingston to halfway between Utica and Albany – 350 km or so. I bought some instant grits to bring home even though AA Gill described it as something like the throw-up of someone else’s child. Also Friendly’s never disappoints and never surprises. If you think sugar is a poison you probably should not go. Not that there is much sugar but I’d have to put up listening to you bitch about everything else as I ate a few booths over.