Samuel

This brew is from Goose Island Brewing Company in Chicago, Illinois. The bottle says that it was brewed in celebration of the 1000th batch of beer brewed at their brewpub, which is now firmly established on my (long and growing) list of places that I’d like to visit one day. This is an intense beer by any measure. It weighs in at 13% ABV, which means that I will enjoy this all evening. It is aged in bourbon barrels for one hundred days. The 12 oz bottle I am drinking cost $4.99, and I found it at the Market of Choice.

This beer pours black, thick, viscous. It clung to the side of the glass as I poured it down. It must have a very high finishing gravity. The other thing I noticed as I began to pour it, even before sniffing at the glass, was the aroma; boozy, bourbon, roasty. This is an aroma that would be at home in a cordovan leather wing chair with a cuban cigar. The smell of this beer wears ten year old $1000 shoes. It nearly took Taylor’s nose off (she hates this kind of beer). The first hit of the flavor winds you a little. It’s a molasses, bourbon, chocolate, beer milkshake. After the initial hit, the flavors separate from each other and fill your mouth up. It’s a big, chewy beer. It’s a syrupy beer. In fact, it’s kind of a cloying beer. This is not necessarily a liability, but it necessitates very, very slow sipping. Other flavors hiding behind that initial wall of taste are sour, bitter, and fruity. There’s also a hint of some licorice/anise spice. But these are muted compared to the primary flavors, which are god damned overwhelming.

My overall impression is that this is a great beer, a big beer, an impressive beer. The one thing is that on drinkable/approachable it scores really low. Even seasoned craft beer drinkers might find this one overwhelming. It puts other ‘big’ beers to shame. But so what; let them drink water. We’ll drink this sweet ambrosia of the gods.

A lot of what used to be shorter blog posts have become twitter ‘tweets’. That means I’ve been ignoring this space a little. That stinks. I’m thinking about some regular features. I try to write at twitter haiku daily, and I’m thinking that I’ll do a weekly post here with all those. Also, I’m hoping to review/share tasting notes on a new beer every Friday (as finances permit). I haven’t been paying as much mind to national politics since the election as I usually do. I think that having a President who I like and trust takes some of the fire out from under me.

Anyway, you can follow me on Twitter, http://twitter.com/samuelrutldge
You can also follow toddlerhead, http://twitter.com/toddlerhead

Hey there sport fans. Today, the family went to the Oregon Logging Conference. This seems like a strange event for a family of environmentalist, earth conscious, back to the land type organic granola crunchers like us. And it is, but there is one marvelous redeeming feature of this event; lots and lots of machines which on Saturday morning they let kids climb around on (in what is probably a massively bad idea from a liability standpoint). You can see some pictures of Arthur and his friends climbing around here. But in this post, what I want to show you is exactly how dangerous a place the world really is. I went around the displays of machines looking for pictures of everyone’s favorite stick man getting mangled in various ways. It’s amazing all the bad things that can happen to you when you’re not careful around machines. Check it out;

This is described as a beer that combines old world brewing with new world flavor. I’m not sure in what way that sets it apart from any other craft brewery, since basically all the styles we brew have their roots in old world tradition. That said, I had to give this beer a chance (if only for the label – never a good reason to choose a beer, and yet one I succumb to all too often).

Pours fizzy with a vigorous but thin head, color is like bronze or natural stained wood.

Very little aroma. What there is is citrus.

First hit is bready from the munich malt, then sharp and citrus. Hop character is understated at first but the noble hop character really comes across in the aftertaste. Malt character is present, but not cloying.

Sharply carbonated and tickles the mouth. A little creamy, seems to coat the inside of the mouth. Finishes dry.

Overall, a lovely, drinkable lager. I could drink a case of these (but it wouldn’t be good for me). Not at all heavy handed.

Read the story at NPR.org

In 61-37 vote the US Senate today passed a version of the economic stimulus package. The news that’s relevant to me; both the House and Senate packages contain increased Medicaid funds for states. Good news for someone whose work is intrinsically tied to Medicaid funds. But here’s the fight that’s shaping up in Oregon; we’re getting increased federal money for our Medicaid program, which means that the state contribution is less which frees those dollars back into the general fund. How will they be used? I would hope that the State would not divert this new federal money to other programs. Medicaid is in line for some pretty dramatic cuts in the Governor’s proposed budget, cuts that will have a deeply harmful impact on the quality of life of Seniors and People with Disabilities. Need for Medicaid is at a high point, and will continue to rise as the population ages. Also, in terms of economic stimulus, the return on investment for Medicaid is very high. It remains to be seen what the State will do, as we’re still very early in the process, but I hope that the passage of this federal stimulus will give legislators the tools they need to sustain meaningful funding in the Medicaid program.

Hey. I don’t usually do the music blog thing, but I have to share this. Every time I hear one or the other of the following two songs, I think of the other. Lyrically, musically, and just in terms of the overall aesthetic sense, these songs belong next to each other. It’s almost as if the two are telling the same story from different angles. Check the tunes out and see for yourself.

In St Paul a young lady called Ruth
drank ten glasses full of vermouth
then she fell on her ass
and just for a gas
we mailed her, first class, to Duluth