What are we drinking this holiday weekend?

[arbusto_baboso]

I've got some truly tasty beers lined-up.

I bought a 4-pack of Sam Adams Double Bock. Also acquired a 750 ml bottle of Deus, a Belgian ale made using methode champenoise (sp?), and a 750 ml of Angel's Share, an 11.5% ABV barley wine from a great microbrewer here in SoCal named Lost Abbey.

[malta blue]

1. Sounds tasty!

I actually am not drinking this weekend because I am having minor surgery next week and am avoiding anything that might thin the blood. :shrug:

Have a great weekend!

[backtoblue]

2. Rum and coke

Amstel Light beer.

[mainegreen]

3. Vodka server chilled in a Pufferfish glass.

[Symarip]

4. Barley Wines are beyond me

That's some pretty rough shit there. I can handle IPAs, Double IPAs, Belgians, Doubles, Triples... But one drop of a BW in my mouth and I damn near swear off drinking for good.

I'm thinking I'm going to get Optimated this weekend. MMMMMmmmm.... The Optimator.

[arbusto_baboso]

5. Optimator is a good choice. The thing about barley wines is...

there's a huge difference between the American and English styles of same. The English is much more palatable and smooth. Not quite so much with the 100 IBUs that some of the American varieties will have.

That said, I figured Angel's Share would be nice - even for an American-made barley wine - because the brewery very much tries to duplicate Euro-styles, albeit with a twist.

[Symarip]

6. Do you do the homebrew thing?

I started getting into microbrews in my early 20s and then started homebrewing. You can make the beer you want, in mass quantity, for about a quarter of the price. Granted, that's after you sink five hundred to a couple grand on equipment.

[arbusto_baboso]

7. Yes, I sure do. Won a prize last year for a Wee Heavy/Barley Wine/Honey Ale hybrid.

But for the time being, when I homebrew, I'm still using borrowed equipment. Don't really have the room to store it all in my condo.

Got plenty of homebrewer friends, though. One recently made a stout with some yeast that was retrieved from the wreck of the Mary Rose. Talk about drinking history! I've had beer made with a yeast culture grown from nearly 500 year-old yeast recovered from bottles at the bottom of the English Channel!

[Symarip]

8. That's pretty cool

I do all grain, myself. I'd love to sample some beer made with yesterday's yeast like that. Just to get an idea, y'know? Currently, I don't brew as often as I used to because Virginia is like a homebrew desert. I played the Temecula Homebrew Festival a few years ago with my band... Don't really remember too much of it, but man was that a good time.

[arbusto_baboso]

9. Some places are better than others for that.

I think Utah just legalized homebrewing in March of this year (I have some in-laws there so I keep track of these things).

Those older yeasts lend an interesting character to beers, lemme tell ya. That stout had a yeast profile not too unlike a lambic. Odd when combining that with a roasted stout grain. Odd, but very good.

That Temecula festival sounds like fun. Have to give that a try.

So, I see the Kosovo ribbon on your posts. Which branch, and are you still in?

[Symarip]

10. I was in the Navy

Nearly 9 years. Sonar Technician, First Class (E6).

[arbusto_baboso]

11. Heh. Sonar Tech AND a musician. That seems to go together...

I was in the Army. 8 years active duty, 5 years reserve. O4 when I resigned in 2002 because I saw what was coming with Iraq. 18A MOS.

[Symarip]

12. We share another thing in common

I got out for the same reason.

[arbusto_baboso]

13. Wise move, my friend.

I feel I'm alive today because I did that. The same could be true for you.

[Left Is Write]

14. At the moment? A blackberry latte.

Later? Who knows. I have a half-dozen or so varieties of beer, several bottles of wine, Mike's Hard lemonade, tequila, rum, brandy, Crown, vodka, and a variety of mixers.

[CBR]

15. Wine -- always wine. Shiraz to be specific.