Beer and Crab Cakes

We've made several trips to Adventure Brewing since they opened, but had not actually planned a visit this weekend. Then I read on their Facebook page that their Stiletto Stout was back on tap. Colleen had gotten only a taste of it during our visit a couple of weeks ago. Then, after Mass on Sunday, Colleen mentioned that the Beach Fries truck would be at Adventure from Noon to 4:00PM. (Such is the power of social media.) Well, that's just too good of an opportunity to pass up. So on the spur of the moment we decided to hit the brewery for a beer and lunch before grocery shopping.

We headed up to the brewery and ordered our pints of Stiletto Stout. (Trivia: I didn't know how to spell Stiletto before now.) Simply put, this is a good Stout. It's moderately light bodied, but with a rich roasted flavor. The flavor profile is pronounced, but not overwhelming. The ABV is up there at 7.5% or so, but it's well hidden. Each sip brings back the roasted malt flavor, but the palate is soon ready for another sip.

Soon folks around us were enjoying the Beach Fries signature Crab Cake Sandwich and we decided it was time for our own lunch. I ventured out to the parking lot and ordered two Crab Cakes, along with an order of Sweet Potato Fries. I've reviewed the Beach Fries Crab Cake Sandwich before, but I swear it gets better every time. I grew up in Maryland and have enjoyed many a crab cake in my days, but this one I think tops them all. Thick and full of real crab meat, with barely enough filler to hold the thing together, it's topped with tomato, lettuce, onion and a wonderfully delicious, and spicy, rémoulade sauce. It's served as a sandwich but they wisely include a fork. As far as the Sweet Potato Fries, well what else can I say: Sweet. Potato. Fries. Any questions?

We both opted for another Stiletto Stout to enjoy with our meal. Colleen and I enjoyed our food and beer, and some rare downtime just chatting about life and enjoying each other's company. Soon my beer was empty. Colleen had mentioned earlier that she might try a slice of the Beach Fries Key Lime Pie. Still thirsty for another beer, I headed back to the food truck for a slice of dessert for Colleen, while I treated myself to another pint of the Adventure Brewing Stiletto Stout.

Grocery shopping will have to wait until another day.

Lazy Afternoon: Mussels and a Brown Ale

After a morning of yard work, a little dry fire practice and a light lunch, I realized I still had an afternoon ahead of me, and my son and Colleen were both out for the day doing other things. How should I spend my afternoon? Then I remembered I hadn't visited the Blue & Gray brewpub for several months, and it seemed like a pleasant afternoon to head over for a bit. I had hoped there would be folks sitting outside, but alas the patio tables were empty, so I joined a few other folks at the bar and ordered a pint of Garryowen Brown Ale.

This was a new beer for me. Blue & Gray describes this beer as "a hybrid English Brown and American brown ale." I admit I'm not really sure what that means, and interestingly, none of the usual beer rating sites have it listed. Garryowen Brown Ale is transparent reddish-brown color with a faint malt aroma. The taste is a nutty, roasted flavor with a dry finish. There is but a small hint of hoppiness coming through.

As I sipped my beer, I had the urge for a bit of food, and ordered an "appetizer" of Bacon and Gorgonzola Mussels. The generous portion of mussels were covered in bacon pieces and grated cheese, and swimming in a bowl of a red pepper spiced sauce. It's a good thing the dish came with a big chunk of bread too, I used it to sop up the tasty sauce. (And still had plenty left over in the bowl.) I opted for another glass of the brown ale with the mussels, rather than switch beers mid-stream. The roasted profile of the beer did indeed stand up to the spicy mussels and sauce.

After finishing my beer and food, I had an enjoyable conversation with one of the long-time brewers at Blue & Gray, as well as the new brewer, who was learning the ropes from the older hand. We chatted about the Blue & Gray beers and other Virginia breweries for quite some time. It turned out to be quite an enjoyable, and relaxing, Saturday afternoon.

Fredericksburg Practical Shooters June Match

Last Sunday was the monthly USPSA match held by the Fredericksburg Practical Shooters. This month's match made use of many of the walls and props left up from the VA/MD Sectional Championship Match the club hosted last month. I didn't shoot at that event, so it was good to get to play on some similar stages. In addition to the interesting courses of fire, the weather couldn't have been nicer, with warm temps and occasional cloud cover. There was even a cool breeze later in the afternoon, a pleasure often absent from the Fredericksburg range!

I started the day off on "Red Dawn" which featured targets in either side of a path down the middle of the bay which led to a door. Going through the door activated a swinger to be engaged, along with a few other targets. The final two targets were low and close, but engaged over a wall which hid them from view. (I saw one shooter totally forget those two targets.) There's a first-person video here of that run. Stage 2, "You Don't Know Jack" was a similar set up, engaging targets on either side while moving down range. There was a popper-activated swinger near the end, which I managed to time just right — after hitting the activator and engaging a static target, I swung over to find the swinger right there at it's peak extension. I've also posted a video of the stage here.

Next, "Gladiator" started with an empty gun and some magazines left on a barrel at the starting position. Additional magazines could be left on other barrels around the course of fire to be retrieved as needed. At the start, you loaded the gun and engaged two distant poppers which activated a swinger and a caused another stationary target to swing into view. About halfway through the stage I went to engage that appearing target, and it wasn't there! The equipment malfunction meant I shot it over again. More "bang for my buck" even though I got off my plan slightly on the second run, which proves the importance of going over the stage in your mind EVERY TIME!

Stage 4 was the Classifier, CM 03-18 "High Standards," requiring both strong and weak hand shots. Even though I had recent successful practice time on those skills, I managed to have two misses on the stage. Despite the frustration of following some good classifier scores with a poor one, which will have an adverse affect my average, it was a fun stage.

"Hanging Gardens Of Babylon" was an interesting setup that seemed to have as many no-shoot targets as scoring targets. The array of white there just to mess with your mind I think. The opposite ends of the course were mirror images, and included a poppers at either end which exposed a couple of drop turners in the center. This forced the shooter to both ends of the course before returning to the center of the stage. It was a fun course, that seemed to go quicker than it does in the video.

Stage 6, "The Graduate," was a large U-shaped course that covered a large part of the bay, requiring the shooter to move quite a bit to hit all the targets. During the Sectional, there was apparently a wall down the center forcing the shooter to travel down both legs of the "U" but for this match, the barricade was gone and we could take a short cut across. At the end of each leg was a bear trap disappearing target which was set in motion by shooting a popper at the opposite leg. It made for good fun trying to hit the distant target and swinging back to score the disappearing target before it was covered by a no-shoot.

The final stage, "Dodgeball" had the shooter running down a central path that had staggered walls intersecting the free fire zone at right angles. This forced you to zigzag back and forth down the path while engaging targets on either side. A steel popper activated a swinger that required, for me, a brief pause while it came into view. The close targets gave an opportunity for some fast shooting on the move, video of which is here. (Yes, I am enjoying the new camera.)

With the exception of the Classifier stage, I was pleased with my shooting. Unlike last week, I had some misses, but still finished 11th out of 31 in the Production division. It was a pleasant Sunday morning, and afternoon, shooting fun and interesting stages, with fun and interesting people.

A Stone Brewery in Virginia?

According to Veer Magazine, three Virginia cities are on the short list of East Coast locations under consideration by Stone Brewing Company for a future brewery. Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke are all under consideration.

Stone Brewing Company President and Brewmaster Steve Wagner and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Tiernan visited Norfolk on Tuesday. 

Norfolk is one of 10 cities under consideration for Stone’s much coveted East Coast facility. Other finalist cities include Philadelphia, Charlotte, Roanoke and Richmond. While many speculated Asheville, NC might be a top tier choice, according to Wagner, Asheville was never a consideration. 

The Stone team visited O’Connor Brewing Company for lunch, enjoyed a helicopter tour of the region, cruised down the Elizabeth River aboard the American Rover schooner with Norfolk city officials, Smartmouth Brewing Company and O’Connor personnel, and then ventured to Olde Town Portsmouth’s Bier Garden for beers and Still for a late night dinner.

According to the report, Stone will narrow the list down to three cities in the coming days. Construction is planned to begin in January.

See "Norfolk a Finalist for Stone Brewery" for the complete report.

From Grain to Growler

From Grain to Growler - The Virginia Beer Story is a short documentary film focusing on the explosion of craft beer culture across the State of Virginia. Take a Penny Productions has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the film.

The project has a Facebook page where you can follow the project as the crew travels around Virginia visiting our many great craft breweries.

Note: I did join the Kickstarter campaign, but am not associated with the project.

Mobius ActionCam

For quite some time I've been interested in trying out a hat-mounted camera. One of the problems with many popular cameras is their size and weight. Although the popular cameras are relatively small in size, there's still added weight and bulk attached to your cap or hearing protection. A couple of months ago, a friend told me about the Mobius ActionCam. This is an amazingly small video camera that is popular with the RC model aircraft crowd.

The Mobius ActionCam measures just 1 3/8 x 2 1/2 x 3/4 inches and weighs 1.4 ounces. Videos are stored on a 16GB micro SD card. There are also a number of mounting options available which add slightly to the bulk. I selected the visor mount which makes use of the camera's standard magnetic base. The magnetic base is part of the "Pro Mobius mounting package" which includes a variety of mounts and a wet weather cover. The visor clip and magnet mount combo provide a stable attachment to a ball cap, although I did discover that a fairly tight fitting cap works best.

The camera controls are very simple. There are just three buttons; Power, Mode, and Shutter. Two tiny LCDs are used to indicate status. All configuration is done by editing a text file on your computer. There are also GUI applications for Mac and PC to simplify the configuration process. The Mode button is used to rotate between two video modes and still photography. The video options are 1920 x 1080 HD at 30fps, and 1280 x 720 at 30 or 60fps. There are also narrow and wide field of view settings. Additional options such as motion detection, record on power on, and color editing are available, but untried by me. I have found that 1920x1080 at 30fps, with the narrow FOV setting, works well for the 1st person action shooting videos. 

The biggest issue I have encountered so far in using the Mobius camera is human error — remembering to turn it on before I shoot, and then off when I finish the stage. On numerous occasions I've forgotten to turn the recording off for several minutes, which has led to capturing some interesting, and often humorous post-stage banter. 

I've been very pleased with the Mobius ActionCam so far. When trying to analyze where we can improve our performance in shooting, or just about any sport, being able to watch a video of ourselves in action is an excellent training tool. Unfortunately, getting a squad mate to hold hold a video camera for us is not always convenient. I am typically hesitant to ask, for fear of disrupting another shooter's own preparations. First person video is a good compromise. It's easy to notice things like hesitations, flinching, not having the gun on target when coming into position, or seeing times when I had to look around for the next target. It's also good for showing when you don't do those things! Reviewing the video after a match is just plain fun too and I've enjoyed watching and re-watching the videos following a day of shooting (and forcing my family to do the same.) The camera also makes it very convenient to record your friends' shooting; all you have to do is stand and look in their direction, which is much easier, and more enjoyable, than watching through a view finder.

I've used this camera during my last three matches, and I always get questions about it from other shooters. Folks seem to be intrigued by the device, especially its small size. I do literally forget I'm wearing it at times. For a small lightweight camera to help capture the fun of my shooting activities, Mobius ActionCam is a relatively inexpensive tool that serves the purpose well.

Standing and Shooting

Shooting on the Move

Note: I purchased this Mobius ActionCam myself. No compensation was received for this review. I'm just a satisfied customer sharing my experience. Head shot photo by Paul Begovich.

Another Use for Those Beer Bottles

With a few hundred empties downstairs, I could probably start an orchestra.

That is, if I had any musical talent.

H/T Common Sense Evaluation.

Catholic Cheer

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!
--Hilaire Belloc

It is my design to die in the brew house; let ale be placed in my mouth when I am expiring, that when the choirs of angels come, they may say, “Be God propitious to this drinker.”
 –-St. Columbanus

I'd like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven's family drinking it through all eternity.
--St. Brigid of Ireland

"From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world."
--Saint Arnold

Cheers! Have a wonderful Sunday!