Anthony Rants

Today on my bus ride home I couldn't help but overhear the following conversation:

Man #1: I haven't seen you in awhile, how are you doing!?

Man #2: Well, that's because I've been in a nursing home for the last 6 months! I actually had a botched surgery, it was a back surgery but I got a staph infection. I was paralyzed on my entire right side for awhile, but I'm better now, my foot is a little uneven but that is about all and at least I am finally back to work.

Man #1: Wow, well I hadn't seen your car in awhile and I wondered if you had gone somewhere... say how is your dad doing?

Man #2: Ah, well he passed away... the same day of the botched surgery in fact... He had been in a nursing home with Alzheimer's.. so...

Man #1: I am so sorry to hear that...

Then it was time for my stop so I got off, but when I listened to this guy cheerfully tell of these awful things that had been happening to him, most of my troubles actually didn't seem that big of a deal after all.

Each couple of weeks I try and expand my horizons by trying a beer I haven't had yet. This helps broaden my tastes and sometimes gives me something shoot for if I find an example of a style I have brewed (or am brewing). Here are some recent beers I've had and thoughts regarding them. For anyone in the Urbana / Champaign area, you can assume these beers are available at Friar Tuck's (where I get most of my beer).

Mighty Brown, Small Batch 471 Series, Breckenridge Brewery - I can't find anything about this beer on their website, but as far as I can tell it was a very limited run American Brown Ale from this brewery in Colorado. Friar Tuck's currently features 22 oz. bottles of this beer for a very reasonable $2.99. So far, this has been one of more memorable American Brown ales I have had. The beer is a deep mahogany with a tan head. The first taste is of toasty malt and nuts. It finishes relatively dry with warmth (it is 7.5% ABV after all). If you can find it, I'd recommend it. I haven't had the chance to try any of the other 471 series beers (yet).

Avery New World Porter, Avery Brewing - I had this beer on Friday at Radio Maria. This was a good example of a porter in my opinion. The beer was a very deep brown, bordering on black with a light brown head. Roasty, toasty, caramel dominates the first taste. It finishes with a little bit of a bitter sweet taste. Apparently this beer is currently out of season, but it was still pretty tasty.

Anchor Steam Summer Beer, Anchor Brewing - I had this beer as part of a mixed six pack from Friar Tuck's. This beer seemed to have great potential but I think my particular bottle was skunked. Skunking happens from a reaction of the alpha acids in hops and sunlight. The aroma was dominated by that unfortunately skunky fragrance. The beer was a warm golden color with a bright white head. At first the taste was of that corrupted hop goodness, that gave way to a malty, wheaty sort of spicy. The beer finished dry but still had a faint trace of that skunk aroma. I think that this beer had a lot of potential but it was ruined by the skunky characteristics, this (combined with the next beer) actually makes me think twice about mixed six packs at Friar Tucks. I'll have to try it again from the cooler.

Monarch White Beer, Two Brothers Brewery - This beer was also part of the same mixed six pack from Friar Tuck's. It was supposed to be a beer in the tradition of a Belgian Wit. This beer also had a strange skunky aroma. I think I'll have to reserve judgement until I have a straight six of this as well.

Lunar Ale, Boulevard Brewing - Boulevard is known in Missouri for their unfiltered wheat. This beer was quite a pleasant surprise. The beer is a rich amber with a thick white head. The aroma is very distinct, it smells of a Belgian beer, sweet, yeasty, and malty. The taste starts with a malty and a touch of tart. It finishes dry and clean. I really, really liked this beer, lots of flavor but low alcoho (4.5% ABV), so you can enjoy a few of them. I totally recommend this if you can get a hold of it.

So I guess the real note to take away from this is buyer beware of the Friar Tuck's mixed six packs. I've had them before with no real disappointments, but this last one was really sub-par.

On one of the beer forums I frequent, a guy from Florida posted a couple of really interesting pictures that are a result of a forest fire a few miles away... Check them out.

So just what sort of things can you trade home-brewed beer for? Well so far I've traded it for other homebrew and about a pound in hops! This month I decided to give my first ever 'beer pass' a try. Essentially, names and addresses are drawn and paired. Each person is responsible for sending between 4 and 6 beers to their assigned person (think Secret Santa... but with beer!) The nice thing about participating in the Northern Brewer Forum beer pass is that since NB is a midwest based company, there is a good chance I won't have to ship my beer very far (St. Louis in this case). I ended up sending out two bottles of Alofskie's Russian Imperial Stout, one bottle of BBC English IPA, and one bottle of BBC Dubbel Down Ale. I haven't heard anything back with regards to any of the beers (although in a separate trade, I did hear back about BBC Dubbel Down... more on that later :) ). The person who sent me beer was in Michigan. He sent two bottles of an amber, two bottles of an alt, and two bottles of an IPA. If you're a homebrewer, I'd seriously encourage you to give the beer pass experience a try, it is a great opportunity to experience new beers and receive some feed back about your own beers. Ironically, this has some interesting parallels with what Matt was talking about with photo print exchanges.

My second experience bartering with beer comes from a recent trade of beer for hops. I saw a post on the green board about a guy who was willing to trade one pound of vacuum sealed Hallertauer hops for a 20oz. bottle of beer. Typically, one batch of beer uses anywhere between two ounces and six ounces of hops (depending on the recipe), so you can get quite a few batches out of one pound. So we exchanged information, I sent off a bottle of BBC Dubbel Down (my Belgian Dubbel), incidentally it was the furthest I've sent my beer so far (California), and in exchange I received the hops as promised. I haven't had a chance to use any of the hops yet, but I did receive a nice message regarding my beer:

I brought your Dubbel to the SCHF last weekend and it was great!! We opened it for lunch and had it with some Brats, it was a perfect combo.
I hate to say it but with around 300 beers on tap your dubbel was one of the best we tasted...

The SCHF is the Southern California Homebrewer's Festival, so that was a really nice complement. I can't wait to see how this beer does in the BUZZ competition :)

New photo over at anthonysnaps (on the right...), in the spirit of trying to remember some of my other hobbies ;) Hopefully I snap a picture or two this weekend at some of our planned activities (summaries of those later!)