Posts Tagged “beer”

About 4 months ago I came to a big decision in my life. Staring at 3 bills (or 25 lbs shy of 300), I decided that I needed to do something to get into better shape and lose some weight. With this decision came the realization that I needed to both diet and exercise. As far as diet goes, I had not shown any pretext for being able to show will power when it came to food and drink. As far as exercise goes, I have horrible ankles and was generally sedentary and didn’t do a damn thing that might be considered physical activity, barring the occasional Wii golf game. I was a complete slob, for lack of a better way to put it. I was growing close to going up yet another size in pants and other clothing options. I refused to move to 3X shirts…that was THE final straw in a long list of final straws that led to my decision.

With that decision I had to muster self control and start eating well, or at least better. Everything I use to eat, I cut in half and I dropped fried fatty foods that are eaten too quickly to notice the sensation of being full. I cut the amount of cheese I ingested. I ate more vegetables as snacks and dropped my calorie intake to about 1500 calories per day. I also used Wii Fit to get myself into what I refer to as “gym shape”. Before starting this journey, I would get winded walking quickly to the end of my driveway to get the trash can. I needed to get into a shape that would allow me to use the cardio machines at a gym long enough to actually make them useful and not be in pain the entire time because of my knees and ankles. Through this, I discovered that carrying 272 pounds is not good for knees or bad ankles. I lost 19-20 pounds just by doing cardio and a little yoga on the Wii Fit, but hit a major plateau.

This plateau made me examine my calorie intake again. I was still drinking regularly, but moderately (2 drinks per day) and had cut back some of the frequency of that moderation. I was journaling my calorie intake and was including the beer in my calories. I was also working out between 25 and 40 minutes a day with the Wii Fit. I hit snag and for about 3 weeks, I bobbed around 255 lbs with no movement lower or higher. I needed a change. 2 things came to mind.

1. I needed a more rigorous workout routine. Jogging in place and doing step aerobics were no longer cutting it as far as what I was doing. I could burn many more calories with better equipment and a better regimen.

2. My calorie intake was too low. 1500 is good for starvation, but with calories being consumed from my daily total with alcohol, I needed better calories and more of them to keep stimulating my metabolism.

Because of these 2 things, I made 2 more decisions. I joined a gym and discovered the beauty of cycling. As well, I decided to further limit my intake of alcohol. I no longer had cheap beer just for the sake of having beer with dinner when we went out. I also cut back on the big beers that I regularly enjoyed. 2 barley wines are far more calories than 2 pale ales because of alcohol content. I looked for more sessionable beers with lower alcohol by volume, not for sessions of 4-5 beers, but for healthier drinking. Through this whole process, I came up with some discoveries for those who love beer, but want to be healthier.

1. Alcohol is not a bad thing. In moderation, its a great thing! Learn to have some self control and don’t think that because you didn’t drink 2 on Tuesday, you can have 4 on Saturday. Beers are not rollover minutes. Binge drinking is not good for your system.

2. If you do drink more than you intend, which can happen, you can work it off in the gym. It will hurt more. Alcohol naturally dehydrates, thus causing headaches and other baddies that accompany binge drinking. Because of this, drink more water than you drink alcohol and the gym won’t be as painful the next day.

3. Knowing when I am going to drink, or planning my drinking ahead of time, allows me to plan my workouts so that calories are taken care of ahead of time. I typically ride the cycle for an hour on days that I plan on meeting friends for drinks. This allows me to be more social and not be a killjoy because of my diet. Noone likes a buzzkill at a bar.

4. Taster glasses are a miracle made of glass. If you are going to have a big beer, split it with a friend in 6 oz taster glasses! If getting drunk isn’t the point, and honestly it shouldn’t be in the context of this conversation, then what does it matter if you have 6 oz instead of 12? You can enjoy the beer for taste without over-indulging.

Dieting sucks. So does exercise. The worst thing about both is that with old school methodology, the need to cut calories and become very rigid in both practices causes them to suck more and interest can be lost. If interest is lost, then its all moot and weight loss won’t happen. I had to take a step back and decide if I was going to punish myself daily and take things that I truly enjoy out of my life in the name of losing weight. I think that you can see by my blog here and if you know me, by my actions and beer-geek-speak, I enjoy beer as a hobby, a passion and as a method to be social with friends and strangers alike. None of those things are bad if done moderately.

Weight loss can be achieved while enjoying alcohol, and do not let anyone tell you otherwise. By making some small changes in my life and the way I look at beer in general, I am now very close to 40 pounds lost. The key, in drinking, dieting and even exercise, has been moderation. Who judges moderation for you? I hope it’s you and I hope you do it well. There are many resources on the internet that cover what moderation is in practice both psychologically and in actual practice. I challenge you to read them before you give up something you truly enjoy. Remember that too much of a good thing is still too much!

Very soon, we will have some new reviews up and some new beer/homebrewing talk!

What a weekend! I was more tired and delirious on the ride home Sunday than I remember being in a long time. The trip was well worth it and I had some ridiculously tasty brews and made new friends. Let me get to the good stuff.

Friday, the wife and I left the Tri-Cities about 11AM and stopped in Johnson City for lunch and because my wife said “I just need to see if they have any tank tops for tomorrow.” An hour later, she hadn’t bought any of the tank tops I had imagined she might, but had an arm full of stuff.  Thank God she has her own bank account.    After the shopping extravaganza, we headed to Asheville. Where we are located geographically is nothing short of a miracle, to be honest. I can get to Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte in about 4 hours each way. I am also within day trip distance of Louisville and several other cool cities. The great thing about where we live, tho, is that we can hit Asheville, NC in about an hour. Asheville is a beer drinker’s dream come true and is always a stop when we head to the Hops festival.

We stopped in at Bruisin Ales to buy some things I had on my shopping list. I picked up some Stone Levitation, The Bruery’s Hottenroth, an Oskar Blues Gubna and a couple others. I wasn’t sure what time I would come back through on Sunday, so I wanted to be sure to make my purchases during business hours. We loaded up my bounty and headed East to Hickory, NC. Upon our arrival, we got settled and after running into some friends from Knoxville, decided to head to a local restaurant/bar named Amos Howard’s. I was due to meet up with someone from Olde Hickory Brewery there as well, so it worked out. We had a great dinner and several tasty brews from Olde Hickory. The list goes something like this 1. Tavern Ale 2. ESB 3. Doppelbock 4. Imperial Stout.  The Wife had the Ruby Lager, Hefeweizen and the Nut Brown. I sampled hers as well and quite honestly there is not a bad beer in the bunch!

We met up with Nikol from Olde Hickory and had a great time talking about beer and then what has to be the oddest combination of topics for a tweetup ever. It was interesting and my wife and I both feel we made a friend, so it was a win/win for us. Shortly after some random dude played Purple Rain for me on the jukebox (I crap you not), we headed downtown to the Olde Hickory Taproom to meet up with some other friends from Knoxville. Our drinking was limited at this fine venue, but we had a great time with friends before we retired to the Park Inn for some rest.

Saturday morning I woke up early and rested and ready to go. My buddy Clint, his wife and our friend Ima got into town a bit later and we headed over to the festival. The line wasn’t too bad and the staff (including Nikol) was on top of things handing out bracelets and checking ID’s to make sure we all got into the area quickly…which we did. After setting up camp, I realized that I hadn’t gotten a “program”, so I went to get one and stopped by a distributor’s booth who had New Belgium and Oskar Blues. My first beer of the day was Mama’s Little Yella Pils from Oskar Blues. To demonstrate how much I love this beer, I bought some before I left NC the next day.

The next 6 hours are a blur of meeting friends from the local homebrewer’s club, talking to old friends and chatting with brewers. I hope to do a more detailed post on the grades I gave some of the beers, but here are the highlights for me:

Beer of the day: Natty Greene’s Cask Aged Sour Ale – perfect blend of aging with lacto and talent in brewing. The beer was sour in all the right ways and was one I went back for seconds of.

Brewer of the day: Mother Earth Brewing – I had 3 of their beers AND a special bourbon barrel aged version of their Tripel that was incredibly tasty. Their Kolsch is a perfect and refeshing example of the style. My wife also likes their hippy imagery and shirts…

The beer I hoped would be there and was: Foothills Sexual Chocolate – If it were not for the 2 sours I had, this would have easily claimed the beer of the day crown for me. Perfectly malty and bitter and a pleasure to drink. I hit it early to make sure I got to it before the crowds sucked the tap dry, and that may have caused some slight inebriation on my part. 

Biggest Surprise – Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery:I had eaten at this place in Myrtle Beach SC a few years back and was not pleased with the beer. It was OK at best for me. I passed their booth and noticed they had an odd Belgian/French type name to a beer that was described as a sour wheat. I had it and loved it! I am trying to find the exact name, so that if you are in SC, you can ask for it. More on that later.

We ended the night at the Hickory Taproom for dinner and after having half of a 6″ pizza that was delicious, I headed to the hotel for bed.

I made a stop in Asheville on the way back looking for Mother Earth beer and couldn’t find it where we stopped…I know they have it in Asheville, so I will grab it next time. I picked up the Yella Pils and some Raging Bitch from Flying Dog. I will review those as time and diet (I gotta cleanse after this weekend!) allows.

A link to http://sessionbeerproject.blogspot.com/ was broadcast on Twitter this morning by @maggiejane.  After checking the site out and really enjoying the content and appreciating the intent of the site, I decided to share it as well.  The Session Beer Project is a great initiative that is aimed at getting bar owners to have at least 1 session beer (besides Guinness) in their bars.

A session beer is a libation that is less than 5% ABV by most definitions, but according to the site 4.5% and can be consumed in higher quantities because of the lower alcohol.  This would be an incredible movement to get behind so that one could enjoy themselves more safely without sacrificing flavor or being forced to choose one of the major US lite beers that are normally the choice of the masses in these cases.  Get behind the movement and visit these guys often for information on tasty brews!

On Twitter, I decided to start doing short 3 word reviews of the beers I try.  It’s easier than writing out a whole formal thing and really works into my laziness and schedule.  Each week I will try to combine them and post them here with additional notes.

Rogue Yellow Snow IPA

Twitter Review – Three word review of the Rogue Yellow Snow IPA: 1)Citrusy! 2)Balance 3)Tasty I would give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Notes:  This hits you in the nose, mouth and throat with hops.  The citrus is strong in this one.  It has a definite grapefruit taste and the smell has a flowery, almost lemony scent to it.  It pours a nice pale color and is honestly one of the best IPA’s I have ever had.  The aftertaste does not linger, but it has a crisp bit at the end of the swallow that makes it possible to session this thing.  You may not taste anything for a couple days after the session, but it’s definitely tasty enough to do so.

Meantime Coffee Porter

Twitter Review – Three word review of the Meantime Coffee Porter: 1)Crisp 2)Java 3)Lingering. I would give it 3.5 out of 5 stars

Notes:  Great smell.  It’s like lifting a cup of coffee to your nose.  The taste is good and is definitely a porter with coffee beans added, but is not as good as a couple others I have had recently.  The Valdex from Pisgah Brewing and Java Head from Troegs are both really good and are slightly better than this version.  However, this has a good flavor and sticks to your tongue, much the way a good coffee does.  The aftertaste is nice, so when it lingers, its a good thing.

Magic Hat Winter Lager

Twitter Review – Three word review of Magic Hat Howl Winter Lager: 1)Nutty 2)Dark! 3)Bite. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. Very good beer!

Notes: This is not what I have come to expect from Magic Hat.  To be honest, after #9, which is pretty good, I haven’t really fallen in love with any of their beers.  Matter of fact the weird Wacko very nearly turned me off their beer all together…brewing with beets my a$$.  Despite all that, I was pleasantly surprised with the Howl Winter Lager.  They darkened this beer to the point of nearly impeding all light from coming through.  It creates a nice reddish glow around it tho.  The taste is nutty and hoppy, but not IPA hoppy.  The aftertaste is a typical lager aftertaste with a a crisp bite from the carbonation that when mixed with the hops, makes it very refreshing and not heavy at all.

I am glad to see Clint has posted something.  Be sure to read his great post touching on Octoberfest in Cincinnati.

As for the site, I have been in planning and deciding mode.  I very nearly decided to shut this sit down and move it to my home blog, but if I can get enough help, I plan on keeping this site open.  Here is the deal:

If you want to post reviews or thoughts here on this site, I am officially opening it up.  Here is what you can do.

1.  Click the Register option on the bottom left of the page and register.  This will be basic viewer permissions.

2.  Send me an email to ernpacATgmailDOTcom and let me know and I will give you Author permissions.

3.  You can then post and after the post has been reviewed, it will go live on the site.

So help me out here!  Keep the site alive.  I cannot possibly drink enough beer to keep reviews rolling in on a constant basis.  I am dedicated, but not that dedicated!

I will be (hopefully) brewing a new beer this weekend. This is my 2nd attempt at crafting my own recipe. If this turns out as good as the Honey Amber, I will be thrilled! Here is the recipe.

Malts / Fermentables:
24 oz Blackberries
24 oz Blueberries
2 lb Gambrinus Honey Malt
2 lb Honey
3 lb Weizen Dry Malt Extract
3 lb Wheat DME

Hops:
1.50 oz Hallertauer – 60 mins
1.00 oz Saaz – 15 mins

Yeast:
Wyeast 3494 Belgian Witbier

The fruit and honey will be added near or at the end of the boil to preserve as much flavor as possible. Once again, I am going with a gambrinous malt that will be added to impart a honey sweetness. Heck, it worked last time!

Also on the horizon, Clint and I will be scheduling a time very soon to do our Recession Tasting. Anyone else interested, please let me know. The Mix-A-Six we will use will look something like this:

Bud Heavy
Miller Lite
Southpaw Light
PBR
Keystone Light
Coor’s Heavy

That’s my wishlist anyway. I figure I can get some and Clint can get different and if we do 4oz tastings of both batches…even with 12 beers, these things won’t even have us buzzing! It should be fun. I have never seen anyone do a complete tasting based on cheap crappy beer. Any suggestions or volunteers?

I have recently had this thought in mind and came to the conclusion that perhaps I should share it with anyone who reads this blog.  I was raised to believe that all alcohol in any amount of consumption was wrong, sinful and a tool of the devil to lead believers and non-believers alike to the road of damnation.  While I don’t agree or disagree in whole with that statement, I will say that I do not believe that alcohol is the evil it was presented to me as I was raised.  This site is evidence of that.  Currently, I do not discuss alcohol with my parents because we have come to a place where we “agree to disagree and not to talk about it at all…ever”.  I will say nothing, absolutely nothing, negative about my parents in connection to this belief because they raised me, as any parent does, the best they knew how.  More over, it is because of them in many ways, I have a strong faith in Christ and believe as I do today.

Over the years, I have ventured on my own in my personal belief system.  I have even gone so far as to leave the church behind completely for an amount of time out of frustration that many believers feel from time to time.  For all intents and purposes, I hated the church.  That is besides the point of this post, but lays out a framework for where I am now spiritually.  Many times during the last few years I have struggled with what I believe to be the Old Testament mindset of my upbringing compared to the New Testament beliefs that I personally think Jesus wanted to impart upon us.  Not to leave the OT in the dust, mind you, but to remember that because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are given freedoms from the laws that required us to sacrifice animals to Yahweh and to stone those found in the list of transgressions listed in the OT…of which, there are many.

So this internal conflict, matched with the fact that I honestly like to taste beer, had led me to believe that I would just be an outcast forever.  Drinking leads to sin, which leads to Hell, right?

I towed that line for some time after becoming an adult.  I felt immense guilt for drinking at all, yet I did it anyway.  Some would say this “guilt” was “conviction”…others, myself included, would say that this “guilt” was a bi-product of my raising.  It was an inherent coding to allow me to feel bad for something I was warned against or taught to abstain from.  Over the years, and even recently, because of some rather comical situations in retrospect, I have studied different viewpoints on the idea of drinking alcoholic beverages.  I will not go into all of the Bible verses that say not to drink or even the ones that say it is okay to do so, however I will say after studying this for some time, that I do not believe that drinking is at it’s core an evil activity.

Comparatively, sex is spoken against many times in the Bible.  It is spoken of in reference to both homosexual and heterosexual relations.  Moreso, it is spoken of as a sin when done outside the boundaries of marriage.  The key to this possible sin is in the context in which it is partaken.  Marriage = Okay.  Anything outside of that standard (we won’t say rule because we all hate rules) is sin.  Even so, there are situations where sex is wrong within the boundaries of marriage.  I believe the same can be applied to drinking, or most other activities that are thought of as “sinful”.  Just a clarification…I am not saying sex IS a sin.  I am also not saying it IS NOT.  With context, either is possible.

So I come to drinking.  Ephesians 5:18 clearly states “Do not be drunk with wine.”   Titus 1:7 says that leaders should not be addicted to alcohol or be “drunks” as the Message states it.  It all seems clear, right?  Alcohol is sin because you cannot possibly drink without being drunk and you cannot possibly drink more than once without becoming addicted.  For some, this could be correct.  Every individual is different.  Where one may have a lower tolerance to alcohol and become drunk quicker, others may not suffer the same effects.  Some people have a genetic predisposition toward alcoholic dependence.  For these people, drinking could very will be considered a sin.  However, what about the rest?

Romans 14 is filled with ideas about how to handle what some would consider “grey areas”.  Verses 2 and 3 state “One person believes in eating everything, but the weak person eats only vegetables.  The one who eats everything must not despise the one who does not, and the one who abstains must not judge the one who eats everything, for God has accepted him.”  Simply put, for some it may be a sin, for others it is not, however the 2 sides should not condemn the other.  Perhaps the chapter starts out with the most important verse of the entire bunch.  “Now receive the one who is weak in the fait, and do not have disputes over differing opinions.”  I believe this goes for both sides…the “weak” and the “strong”.  Dare not consider yourself part of the “strong” for too long…who are you to decide that anyway?  Pride is frowned upon as well by God.  Let us not put words in God’s mouth when he has given us a book full of them!

What we essentially come to is a differing opinion on the freedom that God’s grace has granted us in our daily walk.  We argue and bicker about such things, when time could be better spent sharing his word in our daily deeds.  Being good to people is far more important than being full of bile and hatred towards our own, or those that are not our own, because of a judgement made on one action.

What I do believe, and this is by no means the Gospel, is that for some drinking may very well be a sinful endeavour.  For others, however, it may not.  Is that clear?    I have always, even in regard to my conservative upbringing, believed that our salvation and relationship with God is a very personal relationship.  We are to treat him as a father and expect him to lead and father us…as well as shepherd us throughout our lives.  Because of that personal relationship, I have always tried (and failed many times) not to judge based on a singular action.  Drinking, and other areas such as this, should be treated as something that a believer must handle between themselves and God himself.  It is not for me to play judge and jury for this person…actually, the Bible states clearly I should not.

So when does drinking become a sin for those who feel the freedom to partake?  It can happen quite easily.  Never should we partake to spite someone or without regard for those around us.  Never should we lack consideration for those who are not as mature as we feel we are and who do not understand this freedom.  Never should we over partake when representing our God…and isn’t that always?  We should ALWAYS be responsible with the freedom we are given from Christ.  That responsibility goes further than partaking of alcohol.  We are responsible for this body, this life, our example to others and to our planet.  Because of these responsibilities, we should always be careful in what we do in anything.  We are free, but that freedom imparts responsibility that we must feel we can manage.

Perhaps I am a liberal believer.  We do not have all the answers to the questions we face on a daily basis.  What we do have is a Bible with many eyes interpreting it on a daily basis.  I would challenge you to find the will of God for your life in any matter, especially one such as this where it seems to be such a volatile issue for believers.

If you want more data, scripture and information, I found this link very useful:

http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=988

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2009/april/pleasedonttaste

So apparently, this could be considered uprising against the tasting of beer as a hobby or even in separating beer from other “food” and treating as tho it is something special.  I don’t read the article that way when I re-read it.  What I do see the blogger here saying is that we, as the “elite” beer appreciators, sometimes value the experience of beer tasting over the actual beer.  If I were a consistent beer taster where all I really did was sit around with a snifter glass and a line up of beers to smell and taste, I might find it more offensive, but I agree with it completely!

So many times, and I find myself doing this sometimes, I feel I must form an opinion on a beer.  I don’t love beer for what it is, I love it for how smart it makes me look and what opinions I can come up with.  Sometimes, the “critic” in me completely ruins what good beer is all about.  We forget that sometimes it’s not the taste, smell and look of the beer that is important, depending on the situation I am in.  This made me think of situations where “tasting” may not be a great way to use beer.

1.  Socializing – Unless you are sitting with another “critic” (I am using that term loosely), you can’t really experience beer in the taster’s sense.  There is a time for tasting and a time for leaving 7 rings on the way to the bottom of a glass.  Turn off the critical opinion in your head and just enjoy the time.

2.  Refreshment – Sometimes after you mow, a Corona is the best thing in the world!  The problem for the critic in this place is that Corona, mostly, is not a great beer and in order to rid yourself of the inherent skunky-ness brought on by clear bottles, you have to fruit the beer.  So critically speaking, it’s a bad beer, however, it’s so so good!

3.  Lubricant – This ties to socialization, however, you don’t always need a “good” beer to enjoy just hanging out.  Beer is good at dropping preconceived notions and creating a more “honest” conversation.  I don’t say that we should get hammered and talk about everything possible up to embarrassing lengths, however, a couple gets some very good conversations going and creates an open line of communication between friends.

It really has been a long time since I have sat down and thought about posting on this site.  That is my bad.  I won’t apologize because life goes on and things happen, but I do hate that I have not had the time to talk about one of the greatest things in the world…beer.

Of late, I have made some strategic purchases that I hope will lead to some interesting reviews or at least one sided conversations concerning some beers I hope will be as tasty as they are “cool”.  Bear with me.  When I started this site, it was intended to include more than one author, but that hasn’t worked out because of busy-ness.  Life happens, so we must adjust.

I hope to be back soon with a tasting of my very own Frisky Valley Honey Amber.