July Walnut Ridge USPSA

On Saturday I headed over to the Walnut Ridge USPSA match held at Summit Point, WV. The match was fun, as always, with some interesting stages, as always. Six courses of fire, including a classifier stage, awaited us.

The first stage I shot was the classifier "Front Sight 2." It was a simple course of fire, with fairly open, and close targets. Should have been easy, right? I dropped my first shot of the match right into the no-shoot! Well, it could only get better from there! And it did, thankfully.

The next stage was a longer course that used most of the width of the bay. The shooter ran along the narrow free fire zone, engaging targets as they became visible. There was a long shot thrown in the middle, visible through a narrow opening which required the shooter to apply the breaks in the midst of otherwise quick course. I was happy with my hits on this fun stage, especially since I didn't let the previous stage get into my head!

One of my favorite setups of the day was fairly straightforward, but with plenty of leaning required to see all the targets. Four falling steel targets and two paper were engaged through a narrow center area, but not without some footwork adjustment. I enjoyed this one and I felt I got into my positions well, without having to send time hunting for my targets.The targets arrays at either end required a reaching lean to finish. In fact, there were several stages in the match that required a deep lean around a wall at the end. Often we saw shooters taking their last shots as they "fell" out of the shooting area. 

Another stage I found especially interesting was the sixth and final stage I shot. We started on the right side of the course of fire and moved left across the course. (Moving to the left is generally anathema to me, in life and shooting.) Most of the targets were visible while you were looking towards the right. If I could run backwards as fast as forwards I might have shot the stage while running backwards. The stage provided an extra challenge for right-handed shooters to make sure the gun didn't break 180 while reloading. It was fun to shoot the stage as it forced me out of my comfort zone of always trying to shoot left to right. I was pleased with my performance here too.

In fact, I was pretty happy with most of my shooting that day. There was that opening dropped shot on the Classifier, and too many misses on another stage, where some missed steel broke my concentration, and my plan. But otherwise, I walked away smiling from the rest of the stages. Well, truth be told, I smiled after all the stages. It's more fun that way. :-)

Near the end of the match we watched as some dark clouds move in, but fortunately no rain fell. I don't think the afternoon shooters were as fortunate though. My usually pleasurable drive back from West Virginia saw continuous, and often heavy rain falling. But all in all it was a very enjoyable day. The weather was pleasant, the people fun, and the shooting challenging.

Ominous

Update: The match results have been posted. I had stage finishes running from 5th to 12th, with an overall finish of 7th out of 17 Production shooters. I'll take it. :-)

Brewer's Alley, Frederick, MD

We were passing through Frederick, Maryland on Sunday when I remembered the Western Maryland town was home to Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery. This is a place I've been wanting to visit for some time, so we made an unplanned stop on our way back to Virginia.

We arrived mid-afternoon and the bar area was quite crowded, but the dining room was nearly empty. An outside seating area had a number of folks enjoying the pleasant weather as well. Of course, our first order of business was deciding which of the house beers to try. We still had a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us so we were quite limited in how much we could experience. I decided on Brewer's Alley India Pale Ale, an English-style IPA. The beer was dark amber with a very thin head. The aroma was caramel malt with some floral hops. The flavor was a nice balance of sweet malt with both citrus and piney hops. Nothing overpowering, but still quite flavorful and enjoyable.

Colleen opted for the Gettysburg Wheat. This unfiltered wheat beer is brewed with peaches and lemon zest. The beer was brewed to commemorate 150th Anniversary of Battle of Gettysburg. The attractive amber-orange beer had an aroma of biscuity malt with a faint citrus fruit note. The typical wheat beer flavor was accented with a subtle peach flavor and a mild tartness. I enjoyed the sips I stole of Colleen's beer.

For the food portion of our meal we started out with the Brewer's Beef Nachos from the appetizer menu. This was a mountainous platter of Tortilla Chips, topped with Ground Beef, Cheddar-Jack Cheese, Pico de Gallo, Sour Cream and Shredded Iceberg Lettuce. The nachos were roasted, in the wood-fired pizza oven I suspect, to a nice brown with just the right amount of toasted edges. The dish was simple but quite tasty.

We weren't aware of how large the nachos "starter" would turn out to be, but we had already been tempted to also order the Apple Goat Cheese Wood-Fired Pizza. Fortunately we had opted for the "small" size. The menu description describes the pizza as "Gala Apples, Onion Marmalade, Garlic Butter, Proscuitto Ham, Goat Cheese and White Cheddar Cheese." The pizza appeared to have Granny Smith apples but given that's my favorite variety, it was fine. The pizza was very delicious, and our thoughts to take leftovers home were quickly forgotten.

We enjoyed our meal very much. The beers, the food, and the service were all excellent. I don't get out to Western Maryland very often, but when I do next, I'll try to make plans to enjoy even more of the good beers, and food, being served at Brewer's Alley.

Heritage Brewing Reaches Kickstarter Goal

Just six weeks ago I posted about the Kickstarter Project by Heritage Brewing. A few weeks ago it appeared the fund raising was progressing slowly. However, this weekend I received an email letting me know that the brewery's initial goal had been reached. Reaching that $20,000 goal took just 60 days. Aren't craft beer fans great?

As a (small) contributor to the project, I understand I have a Heritage Brewing pint glass and merchandise voucher on the way. I can't wait to put them to use at the brewery!

Congratulations Heritage Brewing!

Blue Mountain Tap Takeover

Thursday evening, Capital Ale House dedicated 10 of its tap lines to beers from Blue Mountain Brewery. I headed over after work, and since my family was off on a day trip, I hung around for several hours enjoying the opportunity to try a few new beers.

My first selection was the Steel Wheels ESB. ESB is a style I'm particularly fond of, but not one that's commonly brewed by a lot of breweries. Blue Mountain's version is dark caramel in color with a thin head. The flavor is predominately sweet, caramel malt. I also picked up some faint bitter chocolate lurking in the background. The finish was dry. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

Next up was one of the barrel-aged selections from the Blue Mountain Barrel House. Local Species is a Belgian-style Pale Ale. The reddish-amber beer had a thin white head, and was, in my opinion, served much to cold. I grabbed the snifter to have a sip and was shocked by the chill on the glass. I let it sit for a few minutes to warm a bit. The aroma was fruity with hints of yeast and lemon. My first sip evoked a "Oooh" exclamation, followed by an immediate second sip. I would enjoy this one I could tell right off. The taste was a flavorful blend of grapefruit citrus and funky yeast. Some bourbon notes came through at the end. The slightly sticky finish left a bit of lemon tartness behind.

Now I had a decision to make. Do I order another glass of the tasty Local Species, or do I continue my exploration with a different beer? I opted to try another Barrel House selection, the ÜberPils Imperial Pilsener. The bright, straw-colored beer had a strong grassy, sweet aroma. The taste is predominately sharp grain with a touch of bitter citrus. The alcohol warmth is noticeable and not masked. I've had a couple of these "Imperial Pilsner" style beers, and I must admit, I just don't get them. They take the crisp, sharp flavors of the Pilsner and add in a very noticeable alcohol aspect. There's just not enough to the base beer to cover that addition. I do enjoy a good alcohol "burn, when matched with a strongly-flavored beer, but in a pilsner it becomes medicinal tasting to me.

I did order one of Capital Ale House's giant Bavarian pretzels with spicy mustard to go along with Pilsner. The brown mustard certainly cleared off the alcohol notes of the ÜberPils.

Finally, I opted to end my stay with a glass of one of the brewery's flagship beers, Full Nelson Pale Ale. Although I've enjoyed this one frequently, I wanted something more moderate in ABV, but flavorful enough to stand up to the spicy mustard as I finished off my pretzel appetizer.  The mild citrus and fruit aromas, belied the citrus and bitter hops to follow in the flavor.

The evening proved to be an enjoyable mid-week diversion. I've made a mental note to find and enjoy again, Blue Mountain Local Species, which was the beer highlight of my visit. A surprise of the evening came when I looked over to see who had sat down at the bar a couple seats over from me. It was a cross-country teammate from college, who I had not talked to in at least 30 years! We had a good time chatting and catching up. It turns out he's a regular at Capital Ale House, and we share similar tastes in beer, and politics.

I only got through four of the 10 beers being featured. But I did have to get home at some point!

Beer Labels in Motion

Is this the beer label of the future? Check out the Beer Labels in Motion web site.  Trevor Carmick is creating some mesmerizing animated GIF based on craft beer labels.

I'll never look at a bottle of Yeti the same way again.

There are lots more at Beer Labels in Motion. Follow the artist on Twitter for updates too.

Beer & Kidney Stones

Don't fret. The news is good. A study of 195,094 people over an eight year period has shown that what you drink may be more beneficial in preventing kidney stones than how much liquid you consume. Daily Health News reports on the findings.

Beer reduced kidney stone risk by 41%.
White wine reduced risk by 33%.
Red wine reduced risk by 31%.
Caffeinated coffee reduced kidney stone risk by 26%.
Decaf coffee reduced risk by 16%.
Orange juice reduced risk by 12%.
Tea reduced risk by 11%.

Not only beer, but apparently my fondness for caffeinated coffee may prove to be a good thing in the long run. Another interesting finding in the report is that diet colas did not appear to increase the risk, although diet non-colas and sugar-sweetened colas did.

The researchers theorize that the diuretic effect of caffeinated and alcoholic beverages is a contributing factor in their benefits. So perhaps the healthful conclusion is to not fret about those frequent beer-induced bathroom breaks.

See "Best and Worst Drinks for Preventing Kidney Stones" for more.

It's Noon on Hump Day

We're half way to the weekend.

Not promoting GEICO, but this makes me laugh every time I watch it.

Sam Adams Octoberfest Quandry

I saw over at Beerpulse.com that Sam Adams Octoberfest is already now available for the 2013 season. That's a week earlier than last year. Normally, this would be exciting news as I've always looked forward to this seasonal beer. However, I recently learned that Boston Brewing wishes to avoid any reference to "religion or religious themes" in it's marketing. This creates a problem, as all my money has a reference to God on it, thereby limiting its use in their market.

I guess I'll wait for the release of the excellent Oktoberfest beer from Fredericksburg's own Blue & Gray Brewing.