Day 622: Russian River Damnation

I read an interesting article in The Press Democrat this morning. It coincides nicely with the beer I planned to review tonight so I recommend that you give it a read. If you're not into reading or if you prefer to have your news spoon fed in tasty little nuggets, here's what I learned. Russian River Brewing Company maxed out capacity and the news seems to have broken in a most dramatic way...they ran out of bottled beer at their Santa Rosa restaurant on a recent, particularly busy weekend.

Russian River started out in 2004 with a brewpub in Santa Rosa and not even ten years later is among the most coveted American beer brands in the United States (my interpretation of the facts). With Russian River only being available in California, Colorado, Oregon and at select bars in Philadelphia, I fear they are going the way of The Alchemist and that's going to severely impact my ability to get my hands on their product. That day is going to be a very sad day indeed.

Until then I'll be stockpiling Russian River beer like it's the end of days. 

Tonight's beer selection if Russian River's Damnation--a bottle aged golden ale. It pours a bright golden color with a loose white head. The flavor full and round with a good balance between malts and hops. There are fruit undertones with banana standing out. Russian River writes that this beer is inspired by Duvel. Having just spent some time in Belgium drinking Duvel (and many other beers) like it was my job, I can assure you that the tribute is spot on!

Beer stats
Style: Golden ale
ABV: 7.75%
IBUs:  Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from Russian River
My review of the sampler during a visit to Russian River in Santa Rosa with some fantastic vacation pics!
Mr. Blog Named Brew's review of the sampler, Consecration and Damnation
My horizontal tasting of Supplication
Mr. goes all Captain Ahab on Pliny the Younger but not Pliny the Elder

Hands Up!

Day #584 Caskette / Tired Hands Brewing Company, Ardmore, PA
Previously from this brewery:  Is it lazy that I just link you to the Tired Hands tag rather than listing out all of the TH beers?  Maybe.  Or maybe I'm just efficient.

Keeping things brief, as it's been a busy week.  But you're not here to hear about me and my problems, you're here to learn about beer.  I don't know, I guess that's why you're here.  Maybe you're here to feel better about yourself after reading about my problems.  Either way, I'm fine with it.  I do appreciate you reading, regardless of your motivation.

If today is Tuesday, then I'm making one more back in time review from an old visit to Tired Hands.  Up to bat is a glass of Caskette, a "hoppy golden ale."  In a pint glass, this beer is an orange amber color, with a fluffy white head that lingers.  The aroma is of bread and citrus, and when you take your first sip you pick up flavors of cracker, lemon, flowers, and earthy pine.  This beer is light and refreshing - I ended up ordering two.  Sue me.

Fuzzy.  Deal with it.

Thing to Think About Today
I suppose if I'm drinking Tired Hands, I'll close things out with Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional. Enjoy your evening, dear friends.  Be good.  I miss you all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVN2b0DdZAQ

"My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me / So won't you kill me, so I die happy"

Rolling.

Day #556 Summer Love / Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA
Previously from this brewery: Too many to type, so do yourself a favor and just click here to read all of the old Victory reviews.

The "World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band" is coming to town today, as The Rolling Stones continue to thumb their nose at Father Time, conventional wisdom, and the notion that drugs are bad by powering through their incredibly successful 50th anniversary tour.  As many friends and frequent readers might know, I've been a huge Stones fan since I was in high school, and I've been fortunate enough to see all of their recent tours in their over the top, excess filled, Brobdignagian glory.  For those who have never attended a Stones concert, allow me to suggest that there are Stones concerts.... and then there's everything else lumped into a battle for second place.  Yes, your favorite artist puts on a great show with super music and wonderful atmosphere, and no it's not anywhere the same as a Stones concert.  They aren't even events, they're cultural happenings - are an enormous melting pot of old and young, biker and investment banker.  I've seen things at Stones concerts that defy logic or explanation, to be honest.

And yet all of this doesn't explain why I'm not attending the show tonight.  A long while back I did make a half-hearted attempt to win a luxury box for one of the shows, but that didn't exactly pay off.  If anyone out there has an extra, let me know..... I'll bring the beer.  I have seen things at Stones concerts that defy logic or explanation, and I think me not being there tonight is one of them.

And speaking of beer, tonight's beer is Summer Love, a golden ale from Victory Brewing.  Brought this one home in a growler from an in-person visit for dinner a few weeks back.  In the glass, you see a clear gold color, and your nose finds aromas of grain, light citrus, and grass.  The taste is really solid, with a nice bit of biscuit, citrus, and light peppery spice.  It finishes dry, and is very refreshing.  Definitely a go-to beer for the warm, summer months.  Highly recommended.

V is for Very Good.

Thing to Think About Today:
The Rolling Stones have been featured no less than eight times in this closing space, as they always have something appropriate for us to think about.  You can check the past editions and revisit some great old blog posts by clicking here.  Tonight I leave you with a live version of Jumpin' Jack Flash from the 1998 Bridges to Babylon Tour (great tour, by the way).  You don't really get a total sense of the complete madness that happens in the audience from this video, but trust me... it's there.  And has been for the past 50 years.  Enjoy, and good night, people!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URSwxG4RJpU

"But it's all right now...."

Day 476: Spring (Evolution) Sprung Somewhere

Spring, you fickle creature. Taunting me with thousands of crocus in my yard. Daring me to wear a single layer on my ride this morning with your glorious sun. But no, you vixen, you rebuff my advances with that still too cold wind. You hide your daffodil buds in the most coy of manners. Alas I'll wait. Perhaps we'll meet next weekend.

Evolution Brewery's Sprung doesn't mess around. It's a hibiscus, chamomile, and honey ale.

It poured a copper color with very little head and what was there quickly disappeared. The aroma was nondescript, but the flavor was really good. Lots of tea. Very malty. A little floral thing happening. Not sure if that's the honey or the hibiscus. It's generally a pretty mild beer. Easy to drink and didn't disappoint on the flavors.

Beer stats

Style: Golden ale
ABV: 4.9%
IBUs: 14
Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from Evolution
His and her reviews of Menagerie #7 (Belgian strong dark ale)

Patriots vs. Texans

Beer #275 Caesar Rodney Golden Ale / Twin Lakes Brewing Company, Greenville, DE

Today is a hustle day, so I'm diving right into the beer.  For your reading pleasure, may I present the Caesar Rodney Golden Ale from Twin Lakes Brewing Company.  This beer was on draft at Whole Foods, so I brought home a growler.  In the glass you see a dark gold color with a fluffy white head.  The aroma is light, with grain and grass.  The taste is an earthy mix of grain and malt, with notes of bread and some light citrus and a dry finish.  This beer is easy drinking, with an agreeable 5.5% ABV.  I'm thinking this might be a good call at an early season tailgate.

Hail, Caesar!

Unless you live in Delaware, and possibly even if you do live in Delaware, you may not be aware of who this beer is named for.  I can help.  Caesar Rodney was a lawyer, politician, and military officer in the late 1700's.  He served as President of Delaware (sort of like Governor), and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  The state quarter for Delaware has a man on a horse on the back - that's Caesar Rodney.  Now you know.

Thing to Think About Today:
To continue with the theme I started yesterday, let's take a moment to think about another great football movie, Varsity Blues.  This movie tells the story of high school football in Texas, where the game is more of a religion than a sport.  A win-at-all-costs coach is forced to turn to his backup quarterback Jonathan Moxon, played by James Van Der Beek, after his star QB gets injured - because he made the kid play hurt.  Mox must now deal with his new found fame, his utter lack of respect for the coach, and Ali Larter wearing nothing but whipped cream in order to still come out ahead in the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSnkWiacUW4

"I DON'T WANT YOUR LIFE!"

Beer 114: Old Forge Endless Summer Ale

It is 10pm on a Monday night.  Let's face facts -- no one is reading this.  And if I don't get my shit together at some point tomorrow morning, we are going to have a week full of 10pm-and-no-one-is-reading-this posts.

***

Tonight I'm drinking an Old Forge Endless Summer Ale.  It pours a deep golden straw color with a very weak head.  It has a general beer smell - nothing notable.  It drinks with a mellowness but ends with a surprising amount of hop flavor.  There is a lot of wheat or grain flavor to this one. I don't know if it was the color of the packaging for the Endless Summer Ale, but I really wanted it to have a lemon zing to it.  No lemon zing.  Boo.

Having been totally underwhelmed by this beer, I checked out what the reviewers at beeradvocate.com had to say.  Not nice.

Gary reviewed another Old Forge offering here.  Also not nice. Plus I'm confused by the Old Forge in Danville thing.  If you are at all familiar with Pennsylvania geography, this will be perplexing.  Named for one city nowhere near the city of origin.  /scratches head

And on that surly note, I'm going to bed.

Cheers.

Which One of You Guys Wants to Be a General?

Beer # 75 Douze / Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes, Jura, Switzerland

Instead of tasting a beer from a brewery in Belgium, apparently I'll just move along and grab one from Switzerland.  Hooray for other places in Europe!

This one is another brewery Marci has already added to her collection, BFM, or Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes for those so inclined to be more formal.  Douze is a golden ale, and it pours with a golden orange hue and a foamy head.  There aroma is a light, tart citrus scent.  The taste definitely sticks with the tart citrus flavors, as there's not much malt or hops associated with this brew.  Overall, this beer lacks some backbone or complexity, but it's pretty damn tasty none the less.  Reminded me a teensy bit of an 1809 Berlinerweisse, a beer I haven't yet reviewed, although I'm very familiar with its work.  That one's coming soon enough.

Douze is French for "twelve", so it makes sense this is their special edition 12th anniversary beer - congrats to BFM on 12 years!  If you can find one of these, it's worth picking up.

Thing to Think About Today:
If we're celebrating a dozen, then let's go ahead and think about a classic film, The Dirty Dozen.  This is a legenedary WWII movie about an officer who selects 12 soldiers currently serving sentences for murder a choice: "volunteer" for a top secret suicide raid behind the lines in Germany and go free if you live, or die in prison.  Make no mistake, there's some serious star power in this movie - Lee Majors, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, and Donald Southerland.  Heavy hitters, indeed.

What does any of this have to do with beer?  I have no idea.  Just remember that it's always better to down swinging than to quit fighting - even if you're crazy.  We'll stick in two of my favorite scenes here - the first is the mnemonic exercise to remember the steps involved in the raid, the second is Southerland pretending to be a general while they complete their hush-hush training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3AEetq9o8s

Donald Duck's down at the crossroads with a machine gun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJJHSsLhE24

Where you from son?
    Madison City, Missouri, sir.
Nevvvver heard of it.

Write Drunk, Edit Sober

Beer #70 Kinder Downfall / Buxton Brewery, Buxton, England

Big start to the weekend.  Early morning Delta Force mission to procure two cases of a beer Marci has been chasing for a year (which I hope to sample tomorrow), a visit with some potbellied pigs (seriously), a day of drinking in at TJ's and Teresa's Next Door, takeout Chinese for dinner.  I mean, that's all a man can ask for right there.  Missed a chance to hit dinner with some dear friends due to a sick child, but that happens when you have kids I suppose.

For today's beer update, I'm throwing out Kinder Downfall, a golden ale from Buxton Brewery. It pours a copper color in the glass with a light, light aroma of bitter hops. There's a mild flavor of hops, with some floral notes as well (lavender?) and a slight touch of citrus. At 4.3% ABV, this is a session beer, so not terribly complex, but it has decent flavor with a bit of bite. If forced to choose between this and Coniston Bluebird Bitter, I'm taking the Buxton. Odd fact for the day: this beer is named after a waterfall in Derbyshire. Now you know.

Thing to Think About Today: 
Ernest Hemingway once said, "Write drunk; edit sober."  Papa was a far better writer than I am, and it's Saturday night and I've spent the day enjoying some great beers with some great friends.  So why don't we let the Bay City Rollers carry it home from here.  We'll edit later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBn2ux5vRHk

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!

Beer 40: Duvel Belgian Golden Ale or I Have Nothing Witty to Write Here

For the past few months, I keep turning the phrase baroque pop over and over in my mind.  I had never heard it before reading a response to my tweet about the unmatched excellence of the song Hallelujah.  I believe the tweet focused on Rufus Wainwright's take on Hallelujah, but you would be equally served by the original version by Leonard Cohen.  Hell, I would even take Jeff Buckley's rendition and I'm not even a Buckley fan.  (Hopefully that doesn't cause anyone to doubt my musical taste. Opinions, people, opinions.)  

As I cruised down I-76, belting out my duet with Rufus Wainwright, all was right in my world.  So right, in fact, that I opted to tweet about it.  Don't worry, I-76 doesn't allow for much cruising during the morning rush and I was stopped dead in traffic tweeting and singing by that point.  Seriously.  Who am I?  

Anyway thank goodness I don't act my age because if I did, I wouldn't have the lovely and intriguing baroque pop phrasing to contemplate.  A bit of Googling revealed a lot of information on the topic.  Baroque pop came about in the mid-1960s with artists like The Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and Beatles incorporating it into their repertoire.  This next part comes directly from Wikipedia:  Baroque pop stylistically fuses elements of pop and rock with classical music, often introducing instruments not common to rock and roll such as harpsichords, clavichords, violins, cellos and other strings, oboes and French horns. It is also generally characterized by highly orchestral, lush instrumentation. Now back to me:  This describes Rufus' Hallelujah perfectly.  But judge for yourself:

Rufus Wainwright, Hallelujah

And while you're at it, thank me for introducing you to one of my all time favorite songs:

Rufus Wainwright, Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Turns out baroque pop started to fade away, but is enjoying a renaissance.  Take a listen to Florence and the Machine, Belle and Sebastian, Arcade Fire, or The Decemberists.  Now you have some homework to do, don't you?  

***

That Golden Monkey glass owes me nothing.

Tonight all I can say is thank god for leftover chili and corn muffins...otherwise I'd be drinking beer and eating Special K.  And I'm fairly certain that is exactly the opposite of what Kellogg had in mind when promoting a healthy, balanced meal.  I'm not sure if anyone else agrees that Duvel Belgian Golden Ale goes well with chili, but I do now.  

I'm pretty pleased with my pour - based on the pouring instructions I found after drafting this post, I got it just right. Score one for Marci!  The name of this beer says it all: golden ale and that is exactly how I would describe the beer's color.  As you can see it poured with a substantial and white head that lasted a good long time.  I can't really report on the smell of this one due to a stuffed-up nose, but I did get a bit of sweetness and general beer scent.  It drinks crisp and smooth.  You can taste the hops (noble hops, from what I read) and I definitely get some sourness.  It weighs in at 8.5% ABV but the alcohol doesn't slap you in the face but rather gives you that warm fuzzy feeling.  

I'm not going to lie, I'm labeling this one potential top 25.  And with that, good friends, I bid you adieu.

Beer 39: Voodoo Love Child

Imagine getting this instead of your favorite beer-related blog!

I'm postponing today's post in support of the SOPA / PIPA online protest.

Since I’m not going to summarize it any better, I’ll allow Wikipedia to do the writing:  Fighting online piracy is important. The most effective way to shut down pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding. There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs.

If you are like some people I encountered today, you may be wondering why you should care.  SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA =  Stop Online Piracy Act.  PIPA =  Protect IP Act (IP being intellectual property).

At their heart, both bills have the good intention of attempting to stop copyright infringement.  What they will most likely end up doing if passed, is infringing on free speech and limiting the growth of the Internet.  An immense burden will be put on website owners requiring them to police user-contributed media.  Your access to online information will be severely curtailed.  Think about how many times you’ve visited Wikipedia, YouTube, fashion or sports blogs (This beer and lifestyle blog! Oh my!), message boards or…ahem…adult entertainment sites.  It’s all at risk.

If you are bothered at all by the thought of limited free speech, write your representative or senator.  Share your thoughts.  Make yourself heard.  Be part of the process.

***

Beer and Pupperoni!  Yum!

Tonight we're drinking Voodoo Brewing's  Love Child.  Voodoo Brewing is based in Meadville, Pennsylvania - a tiny little hamlet near Erie, Pennsylvania.  After checking out their website - quite possibly created by crackheads - it's pretty certain these guys are dedicated to their beer and aren't worried about anything else.  I love it.

Love Child is advertised as a golden ale aged on raspberries, cherries and passion fruit.  It's described as a bastardized Belgian fruit style beer.  Wow.  I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I do.  But maybe that was due to the mildly disturbing image on the label.

Yes, I see a rotund man in a thong wearing a helmet too.

I wasn't sure what style glass to use for a bastard beer so I went tulip.  It poured with a surprising red hue that didn't really translate well in this photo.  It barely had a head and what was there fizzled out quickly.  A swirl released a nose full of raspberry but it wasn't cloying.

Drinking it revealed big carbonation, lots of fruit and a sweetness with a mild bite.  The fruit is best described as strong undertones of fruit.  This Love Child is by no means fruity.  Based on the scent, I was expecting more lambic qualities and when they weren't there, my fondness for this beer grew immensely.  That being said, at 9.5% ABV, one of these bad boys is good; two would be daring.  Three may have you stripping in front of a roaring fire while yelling at your co-workers that it's too hot.  (Man I worked with some lunatics over the years!)

So here's to you, friends - appropriate and inappropriate - and here's to freedom of speech and all the porn you can handle!  Cheers!