Daily Archives: March 12, 2009

Two thousand subscribers

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My friend Feedburner tells me that we have, as of last Monday, over 2,000 subscribers to our RSS feed.

Wow.

Ron and I together using all of the different avenues to consume an RSS feed couldn’t even come close to a hundredth of that. Thanks for making room in your subscription list for our mostly coherent ramblings.

For our new subscribers: Welcome! Belly on up to the bar. There’s plenty of room. For our long-time subscribers: Thanks for sticking with us.

Sláinte!

p.s., For those of you who only read us via RSS, we’re trying a new look out here. Stop in and tell us what you think.

Session #26 announced: smoked beers

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The Session - Beer Blogging FridayThe Session is a monthly one-day event held by beer bloggers around the world, where they each post their thoughts on a unified theme.

That theme, for April, is Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em, hosted by Lew Bryson.

There may be more smoked beers than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio; it’s not just rauchbier lagers from Franconia. Within the last year, I’ve had a strange smoked wheat beer, light and tart, that local brewers insisted was a re-creation of a Polish grodziski beer; a lichtenhainer, another light smoked wheat beer; several smoked porters; the odd Schlenkerla unsmoked helles that tastes pretty damned smokey; and, yeah, several types of smoked lagers. You’ve got three weeks, is what I’m saying: go find a smoked beer.

This episode of the Session will take place on April 3, 2009. Details here: Announcing Session #26: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em

Demon of Ale

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Now some beers are a bit higher in alchool than others. Normal might be considered 5%, 6%, 7% ABV, so by higher I am referring to beers with an ABV of 8%, 9% and even 10%. Some beers are considered barley wines because their alcohol content is on par with that of wine, around 11%, 12%.

So, I’m looking through my fridge to see what ale is next on my list. I’m feeling like a stout… Mephistopheles’ Stout looks very nice. I like the graphic on the label, I like the name and Mephistopheles is the final installment of “The Demons of Ale” series. This is going to be gr…. whoa! does that say 16.1% ABV??? Yikes!

That’s a bit strong for a Wednesday evening. It would be like having three beers at once. You and I will both have to wait to find out how this beer fairs, but I’m looking forward to it.

mephistopheles-stout
Avery’s Mephistopheles’ Stout
Beer Style: Stout
Hop Variety: Magnum, Styrian Goldings
Malt Variety: Two-row barley, black malt,roasted barley,Belgian special B, aromatic
OG: 1.135   Alcohol By Volume: 16.1%   IBU’s: 107
Color: Coal Black

Mephistopheles is the crafty shape shifter, the second fallen angel. Amazingly complex, coal black, velvety and liqueurish, this demon has a bouquet of vine-ripened grapes, anise and chocolate covered cherries with flavors of rum-soaked caramelized dark fruits and a double espresso finish. IBU’s 107.