McChouffe Artisanal Belgian Brown Ale

This is one of the beers I got from my mother-in-law on Valentine's day. Thanks again Jan!
McChouffe is a really nice Belgian Brown. Lots of great malt character, with a distinctive, but not overpowering Belgian flavor. It's fairly strong, (8%) but that presents itself mostly as a pleasant subtle warmth in the finish.
It's a bit cold right now, so I'll update later after it warms as I near the end of the 750ml bottle.

Update: The Belgian character of some great banana and clove notes comes out as the beer warms. Really pleasant beer, the gnomes did well.

WRC on HD Theater

This may make our cable upgrade worthwhile all on its own.

Shmaltz Coney Island Lager

I'm not a huge lager fan, as mentioned in the Shmaltz tasting post below. With that said, if all lagers were like the Coney Island series from Shmaltz, I'd like lagers.

The Coney Island Lager is quite good. The aroma is almost all malt, very clean and crisp, and reminds me of a freshly opened bag of pale malt, minus the dust. Flavor balances similarly, mostly malt, but with a great hoppy bitterness to balance the malt in the finish. The Label says there are 8 malts and 6 hop varieties -- that may be -- whatever it is, it works. Even with the variety of ingredients, this isn't all that complex of a beer, it's just really good. It's very balanced, easy to drink, and quite tasty. The label artwork is even cool. This is a great beer, highly recommended.

Edited to add:

22oz bottle, 5.5%abv 

Shmaltz Tasting

The local brew shop (Corvallis Brewing Supply - http://www.brewbeer.cc/) hosted a free beer tasting with Shmaltz brewing and their West coast rep, Zak.

We got to try six of Shmaltz's great beers, four of the Coney Island lagers, and two of the He'brew ales. All the beers were excellent, and I was really surprised at how much I liked their lagers. I'm normally not much of a lager drinker, but I bought two of them to bring home -- they're that good.

The beers we tasted were: (left-to-right in the first photo)

Lagers:
Coney Island Lager
Albino Python
Sword Swallower
Human Blockhead

He'brew ales:
Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.
Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah more info here also and such as.

They were all really good.  I came home with the Coney Island Lager and the Human Blockhead, both lagers, both yummeh as can be.  I'll post full reviews of the ones I brought home as I have a chance to drink them and get my thoughts down coherently.  Basically, if you have a chance to get any of these beers, do.  I plan to buy the rest of them after I deplete my existing overstock of beer, and once I do, I'll review them too.

(Oh, and by the way Zak, assuming you read this: the page linked on the Shmaltz website's left menu as "The Chosen Beers" -- http://www.shmaltz.com/HEBREW/chosen-beers.html -- comes up with a "404 not found" error... Not the individual beer pages, but the "chosen beer" link itself)

41% ABV

Holy crap!  The Scots have brewed up a 41% abv beer!?!!!one!

I wonder what it's like.  I'm curious if it would even be legal to sell it as beer in Oregon, or if it would have to be sold at liquor stores like other "hard" liquors are here.

Valentines

Had a great V day. Tracie gave me a great book and a really nice new Brooks running jacket. We just got back from trying our new gear out on a fun trail run.

My mother-in-law surprised me with the selection of excellent beer you see pictured. From left to right, we have:

JW Lees brewing, UK: Harvest ale matured in calvados casks. 11.5%abv, 275ml bottle, brewed in 2006.

North Coast Brewing, Fort Bragg, CA: Le Merle saison, Belgian style farmhouse ale. 7.9%abv, 750ml bottle.

Kleinbrouwerij De Glazen Toren, Erpe-Mere Belgium: Ondineke Oilsjtesen Tripel. 750ml bottle, 8.5%abv.

Deschutes Brewery, Bend Oregon: Hop Henge IPA. 22oz bottle, 8.75%abv.

Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico, CA: Estate Brewer's Harvest Ale. 24oz, 6.7%abv

Brasserie D'Achouffe, Belgium: McChouffe Artisanal Belgian Brown Ale. 750ml bottle, 8.0%abv.

Thanks Jan!!

I've only had the Hop Henge and Sierra Nevada Estate -- the others look quite interesting and I'm sure I'll enjoy trying them.

Now to get started making a delicious steak and shrimp dinner!

HD

I can't believe I survived without an HDDVR and HD Theater until now.

That is all.

For Chris

'Cause I have lots of beer and he doesn't...

This is one of two five gallon English Brown Ale batches I brewed recently. The better of the two will be entered in the Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing in a couple of weeks.

Playin' live!

Saturday was my Dad's big 60th birthday party in Hood River. His high
school band ("The Scepters") got back together for the occasion, and I
was invited to sit in for a couple of songs. My dad's the one on drums
in the photo. All of these guys have kept playing all these years, and
are damn good.

Since I'd never played in public, let alone with players of this caliber
in front of 100+ people, this was a bit nerve wracking. I was nervous
for no reason though, as it ended up sounding great and we all had a ton
of fun. Tracie got some great pictures to commemorate the event, and it
was recorded too -- hopefully I'll get a copy of that.