Five O'Clock Friday: Eternal Question

It's the weekend, so undoubtedly I'll be wondering about this again.

I just don't get it.

NRA Loaner

The sarcasm runs deep in this Saturday Night Live skit from December 1993 but the absurdity of "gun freedom control" laws is obvious.

As Mr. Heston notes, "We have the Bill of Rights."

Sorry for the obnoxious embedded ads at the start.

Flying Dog K-9 Winter Ale

Ok, my aversion to Winter is no secret. However one thing I do like is the appearance of the Winter beers. Not the spiced up ales, but it's the rich malty beers, and high ABVs, that I look forward to. Even though it's not officially Winter yet, around this time I start digging out the big Winter beers I saved from last year. I also start looking for this year's releases.

This sample bottle of Flying Dog K-9 Winter Ale is the first of this season's beers to be enjoyed here. Flying Dog's "Winter Warmer" recipe varies each year depending on ingredient availability. As I poured the bottle and saw the deep garnet color I smiled. That combined with the malty, caramel and dark fruit aromas, although faint, made me think "Strong Ale." That's a style I am very found of. The beige head quickly dropped to a thin ring. The flavor is toasted malt, with some nuttiness and dark fruit. There are also some underlying bitter grassy hop notes. The finish is slightly sweet and dry. There's a lingering finish that's not quite clean and a bit slick. The 7.4% ABV gives a bit of a warmth and is readily apparent.

There are Winter Warmers / Strong Ales out there that are higher in alcohol, with richer flavors. I found the version from Flying Dog to be on the milder side of the scale. That said, I enjoyed my glass of K-9 Winter Ale and am now more ready for Winter — the beers, not the cold.

FTC Notice: This beer was an unsolicited sample from the brewery, I drank and reviewed it of my own free will. No compensation was received for the review.

Tab Clearing - Top Shelf Edition

I came across a couple of beer-related news items the other day that reminded how serious(ly expensive) this hobby could get.

IPA Whiskey
The folks at Serious Eats reviewed two whiskeys which got their start as beer. The folks at Charbay Distillery took 6,000 gallons of Bear Republic Racer 5 and distilled it down into 590 gallons of IPA-flavored whiskey. They also aged some of the whiskey in oak casks. Because I'm very familiar with the base beer, I'm intrigued by the whiskey. However at $54 and $75 dollars a bottle it's might not be something I'd take chance on just to try. Though I'd surely buy a single drink if I saw it offered at the local pub.

See "Distilled Beer: New IPA Whiskey from Charbay" for the reviewer's thoughts on the hop-based whiskeys.

Westvleteren XII
The beers brewed by the Trappist Monks of the Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in Belgium are highly sought after by beer fans. Until recently, about the only way to get them in the U.S. was via the online auction "black market." When I reviewed Trappist beers for a Lenten celebration a few years back, Westvleteren was the only brewery I couldn't include. But, tough economic times call for drastic measures, so the monks have loosened some of their distribution restrictions. In order to raise much-needed funds to rebuild their abbey, they've partnered with Shelton Brothers Imports to bring Westvleteren XII to parts of the United States. A special package of 6 bottles and two glasses will retail for $84.99 at Total Wine stores in limited states. Virginia isn't one of them, though neighboring states of Maryland and North Carolina are listed.

Even though I have been somewhat cynical of the awe in which Westvleteren is held, wondering how much if that is influenced by the hard-to-get factor, I admittedly would be tempted to make the Westvleteren purchase.

See "Westvleteren XII Sees Mainstream U.S. Distribution" for more on the distribution area.

Craft Beer Festival This Weekend

This looks like it's going to a lot of fun.

Virginia’s Largest Indoor Craft Beer Festival 

Saturday, December 8th, 2012
12-7pm
Meadow Event Park
(Home of the State Fair of VA) 

FREE ADMISSION!
Tasting Tickets are $1 each or $10 for a passport of 12 2 oz tastings
More than 25 craft beers to taste, featuring 15 Virginia Breweries!
LIVE music!
Plus – tons of crafts, Virginia food, beer accessories, and other vendors offering unique shopping opportunities! 

- Tickets are only available at the festival only.
- There is ample free parking at the festival, right beside the building
- All ages are able to attend the event, but only those 21 years and older, with valid ID will be permitted to drink. There will be people on site to check ID’s and manage crowd control 

This will be a fun event and a great opportunity for you to try new beers and re-taste ones that you love! We ask that you please drink responsibly and designate a driver.

I've also received word that there will be a couple of very special tappings during the day as well:

1pm – First Tapping ever of the Hardywood Bourbon Barrel Ginger Bread Stout (at the Hardywood Booth)
5pm- Goose Island Bourbon County Stout (at the Goose Island Booth)

See www.hcbclassic.com for more details.

Unfortunately I have conflicting plans, but wanted to share with the news with my local readers.

Green Peppercorn Tripel: A Gift From Mom

We first acquired our bottles of The Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Tripel after the original bottling back in 2007. The bottles were a gift from my parents who ventured into Baltimore specifically to visit The Brewer's Art to get the beer for me. Colleen and I shared the last bottle in 2009 to wrote our post for The Session. At the time I remarked how I hoped to get more, but never got around to finding more.

When mom passed away in 2010 we found a bottle of the beer in my parents' fridge. Mom had never drank the one she kept; she was more of a "Budweiser over ice" gal. Dad let me take it home and it's been in my fridge ever since. Colleen and I decided to share it after our Thanksgiving dinner this year.

The beer has held up very well. (And the cork was as tight as in the previous bottles.) It poured a cloudy golden amber color and the frothy head was as effervescent as ever. The aroma is yeasty over a sweet maltiness. The flavor has lost some of the pepper spice I recall in the "younger bottles." The predominant flavor was sweet malt and bready yeast. The finish was especially drying. The beer was very smooth and the 9% ABV was masked and undetectable.

As with our previous bottles, Colleen and I enjoyed sharing this beer. It provided a relaxing and flavorful cap to our Thanksgiving celebration. That the beer was a gift from Mom made it even more special. Prost Mom!

Black Friday Crowds

No, not at the mall. I try to avoid crowds of angry, desperate, and sometimes violent, people. There's no way I'm going to a store on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Instead we opted to spend time at a more sane location - the shooting range. Instead of electronics and clothing, we turned our money into smoke and noise.

I think we have everything

After loading the back of the vehicle with our gear we headed over to the outdoor range. I wasn't sure we'd be able to get on the range, given the holiday weekend, but it was worth the short drive to check it out. When we arrived there were lines of cars at both pistol ranges, as well as the rifle and shotgun ranges. Since it looked like a long wait we left to head over to the fru-fru coffee drive through. After stocking up on "Holiday Flavors" we headed back to the range to wait our turn while enjoying our drinks.

Fortunately the family ahead of us obeyed the "60 minute limit when folks are waiting" rule, so it wasn't an exceptionally long wait. Our turn came and we set up our targets quickly and got on with the fun. Most of the time I spent just working on trigger control, that double action first shot in particular. I also discovered that the tiniest cut caused by dry skin can be quite painful when it's on your trigger finger! After a while, I added some small stickers to my target and worked on shooting groups. As usual, strong hand and weak hand only shooting got some attention. We didn't do any shooting on the move, and most of the time was spent on the 10 yard line, but I found it a very productive practice session.

It was a fun afternoon, made even better by the unseasonably warm weather. A t-shirt outdoors. In November. In Virginia. Now that's hard to beat. No pushing or shoving either.

Bill Whittle - This Needs To Be Heard

Watch the whole thing.

We need to hear more like this from our current, and future, leaders.