Sliding into Damenti's Ice Bar for a Quick One!

Last night S and I slid in to a crowded Damenti's Ice Bar in Mountain Top for a quick one and a good cause.

The barmaid told us that the proceeds from the $3.00 cover charge this year are going to repair a local Mountain Top man's barn that was also his home, which recently burned down.

The first thing you'll notice is that this year marks a change in the ice bar design in that it's no longer all-ice like an igloo, but instead is built under a permanent roof.

Inside the crystalline objet d'art, we found a sensational 30' ice bar where we could pick from a selection of canned beers (none of which terrifically tickled our tails), plenty of cocktails and a wicked rum punch that turned out to be deeeeeeeelicious! Careful now, anything placed on the bar is liable to slide right off.

The inside walls are adorned with sometimes stunning natural scenes depicted in sunken and Bas-relief.  The few pictures here don't do the artistry of the 500-plus man-hours of work justice.

This whimsical snail utters: "Welcome to Damenti's Ice Bar."

Every ice bar needs a throne upon which the Ice Queen's fat arse may rest!

The back bar is a wonder and it even has an ice mirror!

Hey Tazio, What's in the Beer Meister (Single malt IPA, Slimy the Imposter, #homebrew)

Aah, yes....

The Meister be filled and we be whittlin' away at some fine homebrew for the past few weeks.

The Espresso Stout is about kicked, barely holding on 1/2 way out the back door of the Meister, but, no fear: we've got a new roomie lined up. More about that later. This stout was a good beer, a fine beer--don't get us wrong: chocolaty and faintly espresso flavored, with just a wee bit of hop flavor and taste. Beautiful color and a tempting chocolate-milk head. We were a tad disappointed by the espresso flavor--didn't use anything special for the espresso, just grocery store Espresso Napolitano. Will be brewing this again but will try some other espresso.

The second keg contains our first attempt at all-grain that started out as the Blackfoot River Brewing Co.'s single malt IPA clone. But sans the correct hops (Citra substituted), it turned quite good in its own right: a grapefruity vunderkind knockout which even S enjoys the hell out of. This one's a bit foamy and never calmed down much and it too's almost kicked.

But wait: there's more...

The third keg is an all-grain repeat of Slimy the Imposter, but this time with the correct hops, but the wrong yeast. (Sidebar: our starter never, um started, and in a masterstroke (not really, more like a desperate attempt to save brew day) pitched a outdated packet of Munton's ale yeast into the starter. It did the trick and this version turned very clear (the Munton's yeast perhaps?) unlike the previous ver. Fine and dry as tinder be. D loves it but T enjoyed the previous version which had Amarillo substitution and seemed truer to the real thing. Pliny the Elder really does live up to the hype.

So, if all goes according to plan, a sensational (?) little black CDA should be taking up residence in the Meister, two weeks hence. We're calling this Zeroth Degree CDA in honor of our first zero degree brew day yesterday. We hit pre-boil gravity right on a 1.06 and starting gravity of 1.07. It's percolating nicely now.

Damenti's Ice Bar is Open!

Arrrrrrrrr!

Just passed by Damenti's ice bar on the way home from work and I see that it's now open for the year.

Here's some pics of what it looked like last year.

Gotta stop in tonight and see what Kevin and Helen have in store this year.

A scurvy dog tied to the yardarm?

Grog anyone?