If you didn't catch the CBS show "Creature Comforts" last night, you need to at least watch the following clip.
As I watched this clip last night, all I could think about was Smitty's beer reviews.
Please watch, but don't spit out your beer when you laugh.
Finally, after 6 months of screwing around, the Michigan Legislature is poised to introduce one of the most important pieces of legislation to be discussed yet this session.
Indeed, cosponsors are being requested on a measure to declare July as Michigan Craft Beer Month.
From the memo requesting cosponsorship:
Michigan has craft brewers in every region of the state and more than 70 craft brewers statewide. Michigan craft brewers are vested in the future, health, and welfare of their communities as employers providing a diverse array of quality local jobs, as contributors to local tax base, and as committed sponsors of a broad range of vital community institutions and philanthropic causes, including non-for-profit housing development associations, chambers of commerce, humane societies, athletic teams, and medical research. Michigan craft brewers also support Michigan agriculture by purchasing beet sugar, cherries, and apples grown in Michigan.As the memo indicates, there are over 70 craft breweries in Michigan which gives all of us plenty of opportunity to ask that our own Representatives cosponsor this legislation.
Smitty Jr. turns 2 today.
Success is no longer making loads of money, driving awesome cars or whatever other idealized and commercialized thing it used to be. It's now keeping a kid 1) unbroken; 2) happy and laughing; and 3) healthy and engaged.
So for all that it's worth, Mrs. Smitty and I are thus far very successful. Our kid turns 2 and is everthing we could have wished for.
He loves the Pigeon series of books by Mo Willems, the "How Dinosaurs [do whatever, like go to bed, eat, get well]" books, swing sets and is obsessed with hockey. He says his alphabet, counts to 10, defies his parents and adores his grandparents. He is 32 pounds of mayhem and unconditional love.
Here's to the 2 years gone by, and the years and decades to come!
I received a request from a loayl reader for a review of something from the Jolly Pumpkin brewery in Dexter, Michigan. I will do that next week, I promise. I didn't have time to get to my Beer Mecca yesterday to pray at the huge building and get such a beer. I will make the journey and try the Jolly Pumpkin. I used to not like their beers so much, but from what I had at the Winter Beer Fest this year, I think they have made some improvements.
I digress.
Today I was really in the mood for a Dubbel. The reason is that I am formulating a recipe for a dubbel and I wanted a good example produced in the States, as I feel like I could not ever truly reproduce the real style from the monks in Belgium. It's sort of like a pastrami sandwich from anywhere but New York City: it's pastrami...sort of...but it just isn't the real deal.
I recently traded with a buddy of mine via FedEx some Michigan Brewing Company and Founders beers for some New Belgium beers from Colorado. One of the bottles he included was this lovely little Dubbel called Abbey Belgian Style Ale.
Color me impressed! I like Belgian beers, but they can sometimes be a little cloying and they are not always a "session" beer, meaning they're not necessarily meant to park it on a bar stool for 6 hours and do one after another. This beer, though, I found to be very drinkable and...maybe even "sessionable!"
Dubbels are bottle-conditioned beers, so I poured carefully to avoid too much yeast in my beer: hurts the overall taste and clarity a bit, and makes you fart really hard. It poured a lovely copper color with beautiful red highlights when held up to light. It had a large, dense head that produced thick, sticky lacing down the glass.
I got a lovely creamy phenolic not on the nose with a heavy dose of plums. I thought I smelled some bananas which while rare for the style is acceptable. More spiciness, alomst a licorice/anise and black pepper. I did smell a mildly solvent-like alcohol in the back, which is a little harsher than the style should allow. Usually with Dubbels it's a softer alcohol, but it's not like I'm gonna stop drinking it....
Ahhh! What a taste! A rich, complex malty sweetness is the real backbone of this beer. It's medium-bodied with a nice medium-high carbonation. Malty with dried fruit all over the place, like raisins. It does have a hard alcoholic note which is not as smooth as it should be, but it indeed emboldens the beer. I got some breadiness in the finish, which was also semi-dry with a fading bitterness that didn't last. Throughout the whole beer, and especially into the finish, is that strong malt backbone; not sweet like a bock, but just a complex malty flavor. It's got just the coolest malt-alcohol-phenol interaction to it that makes it a very thoughtful beer.
A note on phenols: usually, this is a band-aid or antisceptic smell that is indicative of improper sanitation. But it is a proper smell in a Belgian and imparts a clove- or vanilla-like smell and taste. In this beer, I oberved that it was more on the clove-like end of the scale.
This was very drinkable and surprisingly comparable to the real Trappist beers like Orval and Westmalle. I was extremely impressed and have a Hell of a model to follow for my own recipe.
A note on Dubbels from the Wikipedia entry: The first dubbel-style beer, from which the beer style derives its name, was the Westmalle Dubbel, which has been brewed in the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle since 1856. The name of the beer is indicative of its higher alcohol content in comparison with the Trappist monks’ usual lunchtime beer (more...or double...malt).
Kinda makes me want to be a monk, especially if this is what I get to drink for lunch.
In the tradition of the Monday Link-O-Rama, I thought I would throw out some (hopefully) interesting stories I read this week. I don't have a lot of time, so I thought I'd use the same format as Smitty.
1. As a kid, one of my favorite shows was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Marlin Perkins was the host and I was always fascinated by the footage. Unlike many of the Disneyesque films of today, Wild Kingdom was brutally honest in is depictions of nature. If they showed a gazelle drinking from a watering hole, five minutes later a lion would probably be eating it. In that tradition, watch this Youtube video of an encounter between lions and a herd of buffalo.
2. Canada seems to have strange laws in regards to weapons. That, or they have a serious problem with Ninjas. I am sure that Canadians can sleep well knowing their government will protect them from dorks like these individuals.
3. I am a strong advocate for public schools. I received a good education from one. My wife and several friends teach at public schools. Unfortunately, when stories like this come out it is difficult to know what to say. Look carefully at the sign in the picture...'Let Are Kids Walk.' Maybe all those jokes about Texas are true...I mean our true.
One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints, and were stuck in the thick head. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer, and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink, held it out over the beer, and started yelling, "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT YOU BASTARD!!!!"
Damn bee. But it didn't stop me from enjoying my Guinness.
© Blogger template On The Road by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009
Back to TOP
