Anniversary Celebration Cut Short, Beer Flows Sparely

S and I cut short our weekend in NYC--I got sick--and we came back Sunday morning.

We stayed right over the High Line, near the western terminal of the L subway line.

We did manage to visit a couple of places for the first time: Jimmy's No. 43 (Sausage Week and Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter) and St. Dymphna's (Happy Hour: Czechvar!).

We saw the comedy God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza which was pretty good. It's a story about two couples meeting to iron out a fight between two of their kids. Rum, a cell phone, and flying tulips all play parts as truths are exposed and their relationships unravel and ultimately coalesce again due to a new perspective brought about by a hamster. S saw shades of Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf in it. Jimmy Smits, Annie Potts, Christine Lahti and Ken Stott starred.

Nude Beer. Girls. Beer. All the Time!

Thank you God!

Hang on while I turn down the shameless attention grab knob.

Mr. MyBeerBuzz got me to imagining the subject of Nude Beer and if you haven't seen this before, what we have here is probably the finest example of attention-grabbing, motivational beer marketing this world has ever seen--right up there with the best from Olgivy and Mather. I know it got my attention when I was a young pup back in the day.

This is another of my beer collectibles: A gift from my Dad.

Unfortunately, it doesn't fit under the mattress, so I need to take great pains to hide it from my Mom.

This four-pack contains four bottles of Nude Beer. From the Golden Beverage Company based out of good `ol Wilkes-Barre PA. Each bottle has a label (there were over 50 different labels used for the brand), each adorned with a beautiful, big-haired, fully-clothed, babe.

Each a period `80s homage to Charlie's Angels if you will.

The girl's clothing became optional as the intent was to get beer drinkers so enamored of the girls, that they'd buy the beer and giddily scratch away the exclusive scratch off label and repeat as necessary until all of the girls were exposed. Think of the notches in bar rails across NEPA!

These are original, bottles haven't been opened, the girls haven't undressed yet.

The packaging has seen better days but you would too if you'd been drug out of hiding to be shown off constantly for the last 30 years or so.

Boy would I like to talk to the guy who dreamed this up.

Coming soon: Nude Beer Burlesque Show!

March of the Penguins

And they will march just as they have done for centuries, ever since the emperor penguin decided to stay, to live and love in the harshest place on Earth: Tazio's bar!



No actual penguins were harmed during the making of this farce.

The Tactical Nuclear Penguin Has Targeted My House!

It didn't sense my presence and is retargeting to the W-B P.O.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I sincerely hope this year brings you, your families and loved ones, much success, joy, happiness and good health.

Creatures: Imagined and Real

Diesel rhinoceroses charge overhead as I pass under them.

Deer crossings in the snow, purposefully, in the direction of breakfast.

Humans doing the same for their breakfast of news.

Young trees with branches uplifted, long, snow-covered faces yearning for Heaven.

Old pine trees, sagging, small pine tree children abound. Lives fulfilled.

But not all! Some shaggy around the ears, still young at heart and healthy, reaching upward.

The occasional crazy-old guy, his synaptic branches, sparkling and still growing like crystals, turning all which-way, yearning for knowledge and reflecting a voracious mind no doubt.

Along Blue Ridge Trail, I see a dromedary in deep repose, snow-covered, next to the 10th green.

Lake Blytheburn is a frozen skate, blending right into the surface of the lake.

Another person: sweeping his walk, his broom a horse's tail scattering snowflakes like so many flys.

Happy New Year! I yell as I pass. Same to you! He yells back with a smile.

Old Belsnickel Delivers

S and I made it over to the Ice House Pub this week for dinner and the chance to try Breaker Brewing Company's Belsnickler Ale.

First, let's get one thing as clear as a December eve: This place does not serve run-of-the-mill, deep-fried pub-grub--even IF it has Pub in it's name! They have a real chef and the food's served on really clean plates and silverware.

It happened to be Italian night when we went and there were enough inspired Italian dishes on the menu to make even a South Philly native feel right at home.

Now don't get the wrong idea, I do have a major porcine obsession but I prefer mine in the form of kielbasa. But I have been know to make quick work of a sopressata.

The salads were fresh--large and overflowing a salad bowl. Not skimpily strewn across a small plate like so much straw on freshly seeded grass.

I chose the lasagna which came in a large portion, bathed in fresh home-made tomato sauce. As I've said again and again (and once more for the ladies): I like to taste the tomato unmasked by salt, sugar, peppers, and the whole shebang of other stuff that gets thrown in there from time to time when real taste can't be trusted. Well, in this sauce I found what I always look for and it was deeeelicous!

If you ask anyone, you'll get the same answer: Tazio has been a really good boy this year--maybe the most well-behaved in a long time.

All I can say to that is that is my brainwashing plan is working. Eggsalenttttt!

No. It just requires beer, constant work and attention to detail.

And it doesn't come easy. Po mo wu!

That being put out there, I guess someone has been watching `cause Old Belsnickle brought me something really nice--so nice in fact that he left it in a shaker glass instead of a stocking! This year he brought me amongst other things, a 22 oz. bomber of Belsnickler Ale.

Now this seasonal Quad/Winter Warmer available in draught at certain locations and bottles in others (methinks) so it can be found in a lot of places. Even bad boys and girls can get some, I hear. This beer is mighty tasty but at 8.1 ABV it seems a bit low for a Quad to me but I'm in it for the taste so what's with a name? I'm not Saint Michael by any stretch, but, and here's the thing: the taste, plus the eight dot one, added to prit-near perfection to me. This has a nice and complex malty backbone like some of their other beers and was unmistakably a Breaker Brewing beer. Perfect for a December Winter's Eve. The head was a bit weak but then again, I like to pour softly and carry a big keg. ClockworkOrange (gotta love that, huh?) had two fingers so it may have been the soft pour. (I'm wondering if this was Breaker's first go at a distributed bottle-conditioned beer? That could explain it. Note to self: I'm working on these, well, demons is too strong a word, let's say gremlins myself--some of my bottles come out great-others low carb. [Sheesh how many levels of indirection can you stand at this point?]).

The place was hopping at around 6 pm with kids, parents, dates, the after-work crowd and all sorts, so don't be afraid to bring anyone along. Oh, did I tell you about our waitress? She was so nice and pleasant--she went down the entire beer list from memory, was patient with us and knew the details about each dish on the menu, and seemed to be happy to be here waiting on us. Don't you just love when people are like that?

It's been a while since we've been here and I had forgotten how nice it is and how great the food tastes. They had a number of craft brews available and their inclusion on the taps site Mybeerbuzz, bodes well for this becoming a favorite haunt for the beer drinkers of Mountain Top.

The guys over that Breaker Brewing are quickly becoming this millennium's version of Sierra Nevada. Keep an eye on them--there are great things happening with their beers and expect more to come in `10.

Dalwhinnie Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky

My buddy T-Bone gave me a bottle of Scotch from the Dalwhinnie Distillery tonight as a surprise Christmas present--he had been saving it for me since our trip to Savannah went awry earlier this year. His plan was for us to stop somewhere along the Blue Ridge Parkway, crack it open, and enjoy it along with the view from the Highlands.

Kids: Don't drink and drive! Become a pop-star blogger and you'll be able to drink and have someone drive YOU around.

Instead, we enjoyed it next to a roaring fire in the club room, reminiscing about the improper uses of Drambuie.

Thanks T-Bone, I hope you have a Merry Christmas too.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a great and Merry Christmas and can have the time to enjoy the important things life has to offer.

Hmm, I really like turkey

I just happened to be looking outside and saw this encounter between my neighbors.

BrewDog's Tactical Nuclear Penguin--World's Strongest Beer. Ever

Read about it and see what it took these guys to make this beast here.

Style: Uber-Imperial Stout
ABV: 32%
OG: 1092
Malts: Marris Otter, Dark Crystal, Caramalt, Chocolate Malt, Roast Barley
Hops: Galena, Bramling Cross

I just had to order two bottles. One to try now and one for my FMP day.

One of my few Beer Collectibles

Here are some photos of an intact four-pack of Casey's Lager From the Valley Forge Brewing Company. Circa 1980s I think. The pull tabs are undisturbed.



They have illustrations depicting Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Monte Irvin of the New York Giants, Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees. There's a little blurb about each player on the other side of the can.

New Beer Tower

I'm upgrading to a three-handle beer tower as part of my bar project.

Here are some photos of just the base. It attaches to the counter top via two 1/4" threaded rods running up through the counter, inside the tower, to a yoke welded to the inside of a brass faucet collar that rides atop the base. Atop that will sit a decorative ceramic cap--it also attaches to the yoke via a single 1/4" threaded rod.

Now I know why Thomas Jefferson was so enamored of constantly tinkering with Monticello.

He needed something to do while drinking his home brew!

Don't Be Afraid

With the state of the economy causing fear and confusion in some quarters, it's not difficult to see why people call for a return to an economy where we ``make stuff''. We had an economy up until the 1980s where we largely ``made stuff''. We remember that times weren't ``that bad'' before then, and yearn for a return to that sort of economy as a solution to our problems.

People: That sort of an economy is over and probably won't ever come back until our country's arc bends back in the direction of earth. The United States is inexorably marching into a ``make ideas'' or Ideas economy.

Our can-do, never-say-die, strive-for-improvement, try-something-else-if this-doesn't-work culture--comprise the individual fibers that make us American. This is what makes the Ideas economy something we should be reaching for and not turning away from--we are well suited to this!

It is this very Ideas sort of mindset that has given us the chutzpah to invent, create, and explore new flavors and tastes in beer. Do you think that it's just a coincidence that the craft beer movement began in the very 1980s when the ``make stuff'' economy began to dwindle in favor of the Ideas economy?

Germany has an economy that is still a ``make stuff'' economy, but it too has some of its people yearning to unleash good ideas. While they have a significant number of ``make ideas'' enterprises there, they still excel at making stuff: Machinery, tools, automobiles, suitcases and scientific instruments come to mind. In 1993 the German Beer Purity Law, the Reinheitsgebot , was relaxed to allow adding a few other ingredients. Still, their beer recipes are quite traditional, hence they have not fully embraced an Ideas economy.

And if you look around beyond our shores, you will see that many other countries are still making stuff and not ideas. When's the last time you were sitting in front of your LG flat-screen enjoying a really flavorful and interesting Chinese beer?

What am I trying to say: Don't be afraid. Put your thinking cap on and embrace change. We are Americans. We have a culture that embraces the varied flavors of new ideas. We will survive and grow stronger through this.