Beer and Food Tasting Event

This weekend we held the first of two beer and food tasting events we donated to benefit the school's fund raising activities. These tastings are always a lot of fun to do, and always a lot of work. Admittedly, I had the easier part. I selected the beers and did a lot of talking about them. Colleen spent the day before, and the morning of, cooking all the food to be served. She also worked in the kitchen to prepare the dishes for serving. Food serving, and clearing between each course, was handled deftly by our son.

I selected beers that were readily available in our area, and represented some of the variety of American Craft beer. Of course, there were many beers I could have included but we did want these folks to go home eventually!

Jomo Lager

Starr Hill Brewery, Crozet, Virginia

Amber Lager (4.6% ABV)

Paired with Artichoke Dip and Tortilla Chips

Prima Pils

Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, Pennsylvania

German Pilsener (5.3% ABV)

Paired with Cheddar Bacon Bites

Port City Optimal Wit 

Port City Brewing, Alexandria, Virginia

Belgian White Ale (5.0% ABV)

Paired with Peaches and Cream French Toast Casserole

Bell’s Pale Ale 

Bell’s Brewing, Kalamazoo, Michigan

American Pale Ale (5.2% ABV)

Paired with Buffalo Chicken Sliders

Dale’s Old Chub

Oskar Blues Brewing, Longmont, Colorado

Scottish Strong Ale (8% ABV)

Paired with Spicy Beef and Provolone Ciabatta Panini

Flying Dog Wildeman

Flying Dog, Frederick, Maryland

Farmhouse IPA (7.5% ABV)

Paired with Olivada and Mozzarella on French Bread Crostini

Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout 

North Coast Brewing Company, Fort Bragg, California

Russian Imperial Stout (9.0% ABV)

Paired with Brownies and Ice Cream

Brooklyn Local 2

Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, New York

Belgian Dark Ale (9.0% ABV)

Paired with Stilton Cheese, Sugared Walnuts, and Pears

It's Called Responsibility

"The decision to not carry a firearm is a conscience decision to pass the responsibility for your own safety on to someone else."

I posted an editorial entitled "You Are Responsible For You" over on the Gabriel Possenti Shooters blog. Read it here.

Design Flaw?

What could possibly go wrong?

Not that I typically drink from the bottle anyway.

Found here.

Not Your Father's Red Ryder

A different take on a classic.

And Now, Oskar Blues

First it was Sierra Nevada. Then New Belgium. Now the state of North Carolina has attracted another west coast brewery, Oskar Blues Brewing Company. Our friend Dave over at Fermentedly Challenged has the story.

OSKAR BLUES FINDS DOWNHOME VIBE AT GATES OF PISGAH NATIONAL FOREST 

Longmont, CO. Funky little Oskar Blues Grill & Brew started 15 years ago when Dale Katechis and his high school sweet-heart stumbled across the small town of Lyons, Colorado while on a road trip north from their home in Alabama. That Rocky Mountain trip continues east as Dale finds the same downhome feeling in the rolling hills of Pisgah National Forrest of Brevard, North Carolina. 

Oskar Blues, named “The hottest place to be on a Saturday night in Colorado” by Rolling Stone Magazine, has announced plans for a restaurant/music venue and brewery location just off the bike path to Bracken Mountain in the small downtown of Brevard, N.C. The brewery plans to have the soul-savin’ live music venue and brewery up and running by December 2012.

I'm partial to Virginia, but I'll celebrate any east coast craft beer expansion. I got to spend some time at an Oskar Blues restaurant in Longmont recently, and also the brewery, and had a great time. For all intents and purposes, the future location in North Carolina isn't any more convenient than the one in Colorado for me (in fact I may be able to visit the Colorado venues more often), but the folks around Brevard are in for a treat.

Read the complete article at "Oskar Blues makes plans for second brewery in NC".

Next, A Shotgun

As regular readers know, my shooting has up to now been limited to pistols. I've been itching to expand my skills for some time now, but just haven't made the leap. I spent some time in a local gun shop ogling the various AR clones recently, but that's not in the budget right now. A few weeks ago we were discussing shotguns, both for fun and defensive purposes, then about that time I came across an article on the latter that really got me thinking. You can read the article yourself over at the Gabriel Possenti Shooters blog.

A couple of weeks ago a friend brought over his Remington 870 for our trip to the range. After we finished shooting the pistols we went over to the shotgun field to familiarize ourselves with the weapon. I've not shot a shotgun as an adult, so it was for all intents and purposes a new experience for me. And a fun one!

This past weekend we got back to the range and spent more time with the shotgun. As with our pistol shooting, simply standing and aiming down range doesn't do it for us. So we set up some clays on various stumps throughout the firing field. The idea was to shoot a clay from the closest group, advance and hit one or two more. Then continuing to advance to the first target group, take the next next further out target. Advance to somewhere near where that target was and engage the next one out. Finally advancing to the last stump to engage some of the clays on the berm.

Keeping in mind, this is a new weapon for me, the movement and reloading was slow, and awkward. But the intent is to learn to get the shotgun mounted in a consistent position, and shoot accurately while still adding a bit of stress and variety. The gun we were using is set up for waterfowl hunting so can hold only three shots total. So there was ample opportunity for grabbing shells from pockets and reloading.

We had a lot of fun with this exercise and of course we're just getting started. I'll be shopping for a shotgun of my very own, as well as doing some related reading. Besides the added skills, when we head out for a range day and the pistol bays are all in use, we'll have another option for shooting.

Beer Shopping

Picking up the liquid portion of this weekend's event.

Betcha wish you had bid, eh?

Targets!

While loading up the car recently for a trip to the range, I was struck by the number of different target styles we have on hand. I thought I'd share a few of them.

There's the USPSA practice target, for obvious reasons. I've have similar targets on order with the IDPA layout. We occasionally use the headshot / hostage target. You can alternate which figure you want to hit. And yes, even as a paper silhouette it adds to the pressure. The two targets with the colored shapes are part of Rob Pincus' "Balance of Speed and Precision" series. There's an unlimited number of drills and games you can create with these. Of course, we also use the ubiquitous "man with a gun" poster. The numbered circles on the side add to the options. The body silhouette with scoring rings is one of the earliest targets we started using. Affectionately known as "postage stamp" guy for the small tiny target in the upper left. There's more than one tiny postage stamp guy with a center hit posted as a trophy on a shooter's refrigerator or office door.

Most of these paper targets are 24 inches wide, which is wider than the typical 18" cardboard USPSA/IDPA targets, and stands. When I made my stands I set them up to accommodate the wider targets. I keep a constant eye out for scrap cardboard wide enough to use with the stands.

Why so many targets? Mostly for the fun of it. We like to mix things up at the range, and we sure don't want to get bored. A lot of our range trips involve "games" we make up, and the various targets add to our options.

Of course, that's just the commercial paper targets. We also use paper plates, index cards, sticky notes, colored construction paper, the occasional lottery ticket or novelty target. We'll haul out the steel targets regularly too.

Both in sport and self defense, one doesn't want to train to always look for an X. I believe that using a variety of targets, and mixing up the drills and games we play, helps to avoid complacency in practice. And we certainly never get bored!