I’m writing about 2 beers in this one because I didn’t spend enough time thinking about either one when I drank them. So here goes nothing.
First up is Stone’s Oaked Arrogant Bastard. It’s a strong ale aged with oak chips to give it a nice oak flavor. Unfortunately, I only noticed the oak flavor when I first started. That flavor went away and it started to taste like the regular Bastard (though I wasn’t drinking them side by side, so I can’t be sure). It’s a dark reddish amber color with a nice head. The beer smells of caramel and roasted malts and piney hops. The flavors are very similar to the smell. It’s a powerful beer, but it’s a good one. This is definitely a sipping beer. As it warms, more of the caramel flavor comes out and the hops die down a bit, though they’re still very present. You can’t taste the alcohol, though it’s not terribly high at about 7.2% ABV. After the launch party, I still like the Double Bastard better (though it’s not available in RI yet). It had a better taste and was a bit smoother.
The second beer is Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. This beer is dark and leave a nice dark tan head. The smells are of (surprise surprise) chocolate, roasted malt, and coffee. The flavor is very similar. There are tastes of dark chocolate, coffee, roasted malts, and even some sweeter chocolate flavors. The beer is very smooth and very flavorful. There is very little carbonation, though that’s normal for a beer this thick and opaque. I don’t really have much else to say about this beer. It’s a very good stout. If you like chocolate and you like coffee (mocha perhaps?), you will definitely like this beer. This would also make a great dessert beer.
I’ve had this beer a couple times now and this post is coming a bit late considering this is a summer beer. But I figure it can’t hurt to post this to help you all prepare for next summer. When the craft brewers come out with their summer beers, they all tend to be similar… wheat ales, hefeweizens, Belgian wits, and, god forbid you actually buy into this, light beer (which isn’t craft, but is big in the summer). Dogfish Head decided to take a different approach and come up with a very different beer. That’s how they ended up with Festina Pêche, a Berliner weissbier.
The beer is very pale yellowy color and very cloudy (it’s still a wheat beer, after all). The looks is like your average summer beer, though maybe a bit more yellow than you’re used to. The smell is average, perhaps a bit of a lemon/fruity tartness, but it still seems like your average summer beer.
The taste, however, is nothing like your average summer beer. Berliners tend to be a bit tart and will make you pucker a bit, but so can a nice glass of fresh lemonade (so long as you don’t add a ton of sugar to it). This beer is no different. It’s brewed with peaches (hence the name) and there is a slight peachy flavor to it. At first sip, it starts off tasting like your average summer beer… until it hits the back of your throat and starts to go down. That’s when the tart punch hits you. It’s not like those sour candies you used to dare your friends to try without puckering or tearing up… it’s more of a refreshing taste to it. There’s definitely some malty sweetness at the beginning of the sip, but that turns into a fruity tartness at the end of the sip. It’s a perfect balance. Being a good summer beer, it’s not heavy, but it’s also not highly carbonated (though you can notice the carbonation).
All in all, this is a great summer beer with a twist. This would make for a great beer on a hot summer afternoon after mowing the lawn or after a long day on the water. I’m not normally a fan of most summer beers (as I’m not a huge fan of wheat beers), but I do like this one. Do yourself a favor… it’s still hot out. Find a package store that sells this and buy a 6 pack (or if you’re store sells singles, try a single). It’s worth it.
I have been a regular reader of and an on and off regular poster on Slashdot for several years. Well, the site that started in 1997 is now 10 years old. I don’t remember when I first started reading it, probably back in 1998 or 1999 (I have a UID of 136707, so I’m not one of the early ones, though I did read it for a long time before I created an account). I’ve wasted many an hour reading and posting to Slashdot.
For their 10th anniversary, they decided to have and allow people to create Slashdot parties around the country with prizes for some lucky party planners. They’ve also been posting some stories about the history of Slashdot. Here’s a roundup of the first couple. I’ll let you find the rest for yourself. I just wanted to wish my favorite tech news site a happy anniversary.
Slashdot Turns 10 But You Get the Presents
A Brief History of Slashdot Part 1, Chips & Dips
I remember when Blockstackers still existed and they had a site called Everything linking posts about random stuff. It was quite amusing to see how things linked up with other things. That site was replaced by Everything2, which I did not find as fun as the original Everything. I used to spend hours writing things and linking stuff and creating content there.
Being a GIMP user and an aspiring amateur photographer (just for fun in my spare time), I found this book review pretty nice. The book is called, obviously, GIMP 2 for Photographers. While most photographers, professional and amateur alike, use Adobe Photoshop and most photography magazines and books refer to Photoshop, GIMP provides a nice alternative with almost all the features for 100% less than the cost of Photoshop (which costs more than most digital cameras, even some digital SLR’s). Yes, GIMP is free software. It’s available for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux, giving you nice cross-platform availability. It’s my photo/image editor of choice (I gave up on pirated copies of software when I was had the money to buy them or found free and open source software to replace them, GIMP is one of them). GIMP is released under the Gnu Public License, meaning you can download the source code and edit it if you want, so long as you include the source code if you ever distribute your custom coded GIMP. I may have to go find myself a copy of this book (which includes the GIMP software). It’s about $20 at Amazon (a lot cheaper than the cost of Photoshop, which starts at $100 for the cut back Photoshop Elements and goes to $650 for Photoshop CS3).
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