Beer of the Week/Cheer of the Week

Ah, happy Friday. I make no promises about this next statement, as work has kept me quite busy to post regularly, but I will attempt to honor a great beer each week, and offer a "cheers" to various ridiculousness. For, and so you understand my palate and opinion, Natural Light and its ilk are a 0. Guinness in the UK is a 10. Guinness in the States is an 8.

This week, I would like to honor the Sam Adams Octoberfest.

Sam Adams is one of my all-around favorite beers. I find it well-balanced and extremely consistent. Another quality I enjoy about Sammy A is that their seasonal selections vary season-to-season. They are constantly working on their Summer Ale, their Octoberfest, Winter Lager (another fav), etc.

This year's Summer Ale was pretty weak by Sammy A standards, and that really disappointed me. Not to the same level as finding out that there is no Santa or that U of M cares more about Ohio State than MSU. In other words, I didn't have to re-evaluate anything in my life because it was weak this year. Just be disappointed.

So, I was skepticle about Octoberfest. I was worried that like the Summer Ale, the normally-nonpareil brewers in Boston would have so perfectly-balanced a beer between hops and malt that it comes out....neutral. No kick. But when I cracked my first bottle a few weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised.

This year's Octoberfest is an amazing blend of four different types of barley with a heaping amount of malt. With this combo, you get what I think is a great toffee or caramel taste. This is balanced with juuuuust enough hops to make it heartier than summer beers but no so heavy or sweet. I give Sam Adams Octoberfest an 8.

And for this week's Cheers:

Actually, I have 2 this week, both from Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird.

First, because with September being Octoberfest around the world, In Kimberly, British Columbia, in July, trying to establish a Guinness Book record, 644 people at a music festival played their accordions simultaneously for half an hour.[Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 8-11-05] So with earphones blaring death metal into my ears, cheers on breaking the record!

Next, in the Best Influences from America with which to Rebuild Your Country category, "Abu Mustafa" (a nickname) is part of a small market of vendors of pornographic videos operating in Baghdad, according to an August Reuters dispatch, and sells about 50 DVDs a day, with movies from Lebanon and other Arab countries the most popular. "I tried lots of other jobs," he said, but this was his most promising opportunity (although he said the righteous Shi'ite Badr Brigades have threatened to kill him and his approximately 30 competitors in the Bab al-Sharjee neighborhood). [Reuters, 8-10-05] So with my left hand grasping a beer and my right hand, uh, busy...cheers on your success as a pornographer!