PANIC!

Day #376 HopWired / 8 Wired Brewing Company, Blenheim, New Zealand
Previously from this brewery: N/A; new brewery

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're by now well aware the world is ending tomorrow.  If you were living under a rock, great job in resurfacing just in time to die tomorrow!  Sorry I can't nail down a specific time things are going to head south tomorrow, but maybe it's better if the end of the world just sneaks up on you.  I guess people will always try to predict the end of days - eventually, someone is going to be right.  All kidding aside, this talk of the Mayans and their lack of desire to keep printing calendar pages 1,000 years in the future does raise the question: what would you do if you knew today was the last day ever?  Personally, I'd gather up my friends and throw the biggest, wildest, craziest, most out of control tailgate of all time.  If possible, I'd try to coordinate this in State College, PA, as that's the town that's always felt most like home to me, despite only living there four years.  Should things get crazy tomorrow... call me.  I'll have the beers cold and the grill hot.

To get ready for the big day tomorrow, I'm reviewing HayWired, an IPA from 8 Wired Brewing Company in New Zealand.  This one was on draft at TJ's, where they continue to roll out new breweries even though they no longer are required to (by me, anyway).  In the glass, this beer is an apricot color, with a lingering white head.  There's a floral, grapefruit aroma, and the taste has notes of grass, green pepper (or is that green apple?  It's definitely green), pine, and citrus, with a mild bitter finish.  This is a very interesting, not like many other IPAs.  Well worth a sample if you find this one on draft or in a bottle shop near you.

G'Day! Or, whatever the catch
phrase greeting from New Zealand might be.

Curious brewery name, right?  True.  The name comes from No. 8 gauge wire, which is commonly used in New Zealand for electric fencing and serves as a symbol of the ingenuity and resourcefulness prevalent in their culture.  Now you know.

Thing to Think About Today:

Hey, if the Mayans are right and it all goes to shit tomorrow, I want you all to know it's been fun.  Glad you guys have been along for the ride.  And if the Mayans are wrong?  Man, I got some catching up at work to do.  We close with the obligatory song for the end of days, R.E.M. singing It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).  Good luck on the other side, friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

You Ain't Got No Alibi!

Beer #274 Boysenbeery Stout / Invercargill , Invercargill, New Zealand

After a bad football Saturday, we did a late lunch with friends and got back in the groove with an Eagles win today.  Ugly, but a win anyway.  Also managed to go for a long walk on one of my favorite trails along the Schuykill River, which was exactly what I needed to start my day.

Now that the day is in full swing, it's time for a beer - the Boysenbeery, a stout from Invercargill Brewery in New Zealand.  I drank this one in a dark bar (Famers' Cabinet), but it appeared to be a ruby color, with no head at all.  Your nose picks up the scent of fruit and jam, and the taste is dry, with fruity strawberry and boysenberry notes, along with hints of cocoa and roasted malt.  Interesting beer, and if you're a fan of stouts, beers with fruit, or beers from New Zealand, I can't recommend this one enough.  This brew is made with boysenberry juice, and everyone knows boysenberries are were originally produced after cross breeding raspberries, blackberries, and loganberries.  Okay, I didn't know that, but Wikipedia is smart in ways I am not about the origins of berries.

BoysenBEERy.

Invercargill is the southernmost brewery in New Zealand, and depending on what's out there in Chile or Argentina, maybe the world.  It is run by a father and son team who have been brewing beers since the late 1990's.  This brewey has no ties to agri-business giant Cargill, one of the largest privately held companies in the world.

Thing to Think About Today:
It seems football is in full swing, so perhaps we'll spend this week reviewing some of the greatest football movies of all time.  I'll kick it off with one of my all time favorites, Wildcats.  This film is the story of a disadvantaged high school with a forgotten about football team who hires a woman to be their head coach - much to the dismay of the players and the coach's ex-husband.  Along the way she whips the Central High Wildcats into an actual team, and gets them to believe they can win.  Don't just assume this is a feel good movie; it is, but it's also hysterical along the way.  Incredible star power in this film, with Goldie Hawn in her prime, Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes, James Keach, and the ever awesome Nipsey Russell, along with a theme song from LL Cool J.

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

And no review of this movie would be complete without a clip from the Wildcats cheerleaders and their incredible put-down skills.  U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi!  You UGLY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shDtJ99lT-U

Beer 257: Invercargill Boysenberry and the Wall

I hit the wall at about 4:15pm today and I'm not sure how I'm going to pull it together and make it through another day tomorrow. I knew it was all over for the day when I shouted, "I wield all the power!"  At least I have friends, beer and barbecue waiting for me on Saturday as a reward for acting like a productive member of society on Friday.

I write about beer and friends this Saturday as if that's not how I would have described last Saturday or the Sunday before that.  I have a lifestyle.  It revolves around beer.

I have two more reviews left from last weekend's beer bonanza but one of them is being saved for a special occasion in November.  (Hopefully you'll have stuck with me for that payoff!)  I discovered the Invercargill Brewery's Pitch Black Boysenberry Stout thanks to The Farmer's Cabinet.  It's brewed in New Zealand with a 6.5% ABV and great fruit flavor, this beer was very easy to drink. It poured a red-tinged chocolate brown color with a slightly pink head. At least I thought I saw pink under the candlelight of The Farmer's Cabinet.  It smelled like figs, but the flavor was red berries, chocolate and roasted coffee.  It's flavorful but dry.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.