Daily Archive for November 3rd, 2007

A Tasting and Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA

Published on November 3, 2007 in Ale, Beer and Review. Closed

Before I get into this beer, I want to give a huge shout out and thanks to Mike at Nikki’s Liquors. I went to the tasting there last night (it was Avery’s, I’ll write about some of those next), and as I usually do, bought a mix-a-six. Unfortunately, I have a hard time picking out beer and generally buy stuff that I’m comfortable with or that I really wanted to try. Last night, Mike basically picked out the whole thing for me. I had one of them tonight, it was excellent (more on that later).

The tasting was Avery Brewing Company from Colorado. I’ve had their IPA before on tap at Big City in Boston, but never the rest of their lineup. It started with their Belgian-style Witbier, White Rascal. That was alright, but nothing special. I’m not a huge Witbier fan, but it was more bearable than some of the others I’ve had (like Hoegaarden). Next was Redpoint Ale, an American Pale Ale. Again, nothing spectacular, but it was alright. Next up was 14′er ESB. That one was pretty good, though again, it wasn’t anything mind altering for an Extra Special Bitter. After that was the IPA. That’s a fairly solid, more accessible American IPA. It was hoppy, but not over the top. I moved to their Double IPA, Maharaja. This one was my favorite. It was nicely balanced. Mike had mentioned that they had it for about 3 months and it mellowed out since it first arrived. Following that, was Ellie’s Brown Ale, an English Brown Ale. That wasn’t anything special, didn’t have a whole lot of flavor (most have some sort of nutty flavor, this was very mild in flavor). Their Irish Dry Stout, Out of Bounds Stout, was next. This one was different. Most stouts have more of a malty character and are a bit sweeter, but this one played up the bitterness a bit more than usual. It was good because it was different, but I wasn’t a big fan. We then moved onto the bigger beers. Salvation was next, a Belgian-style Strong Pale Ale. I wasn’t overly impressed with this one. The flavor wasn’t anything spectacular, though you couldn’t tell that it was 9% ABV either. After that was The Reverend, a Quadrupel. This one was pretty good. You couldn’t tell it was 10% ABV, but the flavor was nice and fruity and malty. The last beer of the official tasting was Hog Heaven Barley Wine, an American Barley Wine. This one was a bit more bitter and hoppy than most Barley Wines, but it wasn’t quite as much of a hop bomb as Bigfoot. This was probably my favorite beer of the night. Of course, it wouldn’t be a tasting at Nikki’s without something special. Mike had opened a bottle of the Beast Grand Cru, a Belgian-style Strong Dark Ale. The word “strong,” here, is an understatement. This beer was powerful. It had a nice flavor up front, but when it hit the back of your throat, you felt the burn of the alcohol. This was no surprise at 16.42%! Amazingly, Susan seemed to really like this one.

As I mentioned above, my beer of the night was Weyerbacher’s Double Simcoe IPA. This one was good. Immediate floral notes hit the nose. I would’ve been happy just sitting smelling this beer all night… but that would’ve been a waste of good beer. There was also a piney scent to the beer as well, but mostly floral. The flavor was excellent. Up front was a slight malty sweetness, but that was overpowered by the hops. The hops had a floral, piney character to them. It was a different kind of hops flavor than I’m normally used to, but it was a good one. It was actually a very easy drinking Double IPA. If you’re a fan of hops, like me, you must try this beer. It was excellent. I haven’t been overly impressed by much of the Weyerbacher beers I’ve had, but this one was a definite two thumbs up. I couldn’t even tell it was 9% ABV either.

Jammie Thomas Speaks Out (a big mistake if you ask me)

Published on November 3, 2007 in Internet and Music. 1 Comment

Jammie Thomas, the first person to lose a trial by jury to the RIAA, wrote a story for P2PNet.  She blames her loss on a few things related to her case.  She starts off by trying to paint herself as a poor victim, not wanting any press and not wanting notoriety.  Well, writing that piece for a website is certainly not going to go unnoticed.  I don’t believe she didn’t want the notoriety for a minute.  She then blames the media for filling in stories with misinformation.  I wonder if she realizes that the transcript of her trial is public record and anyone can read it for themselves… unless, of course, she wasn’t telling the whole truth at the trial or was purposely leaving stuff out.  Now onto the rest of the blaming.

First, of course, she blames the RIAA.  While that’s cute and all, they’re just protecting their copyrights.  I don’t blame them for trying to make a buck (even though their music sucks, there is better ways of hurting them than illegally acquiring or distributing their music, like not bothering with their music to begin with).  Next, she blames the hard drive that was replaced.  Of course, the story gets good here.  While I don’t think she purposely had the hard drive replaced after the infringement occurred, I don’t think it makes her innocent either.  Apparently, the hard drive died two weeks after the infringement occurred because her son, upset that the computer froze up while in the middle of an intense battle in a video game, beat the side of the computer.  I’ve done it… many times.  In fact, my hard drive never died, though the computer has shut off on my for doing that.  But I can see how it can happen.  I’m not doubting that the hard drive died and had to be replaced.  Unfortunately, she got the dates screwed up when she first spoke with her lawyer.  And then she got them screwed up during a deposition.  Not only were the dates off, but they were off by a year.  That makes it sound a little suspicious to me… and of course, since the jury heard it, I’m sure they were thinking the same as me… something’s not right.  She also, while seemingly attempting to sound like she doesn’t know a whole lot about digital music, said that she ripped almost 3000 songs to her computer from her CD collection.  Could it be that the 24 songs in question came from that collection?

She blames her lack of money to pay for her expert witness.  If I was on trial and risked paying up a maximum of over $3,000,000, I’d certainly find a way to pay the expert witness who probably would have only cost me a several hundred dollars.  That’s a better bargain than the $3,000,000.  She talks about her defense and how it was not about spoofing like the media reported, but rather that you can’t turn an IP address into a person.  However, you can turn an IP address into an account holder with an ISP.  That’s exactly what happened.  Since she only has 1 computer and no wireless, I’d have to say based on my knowledge of TCP/IP networking that the IP address in question actually did belong to her computer, assuming her ISP’s logs were correct (which it is possible they were not, though unlikely).

In her long diatribe about this whole thing, she forgot to mention one of the more damaging pieces of evidence… that the KaZaA username in question was an exact match to her email username and the username she uses for various online dating and shopping sites.  There’s really nothing about what she wrote that will change my mind about her.  A jury of her peers, which her attorney had to agree upon, found in favor of the RIAA.  You can’t blame the jury, you can’t blame the RIAA for stacking the jury, and you can’t blame the system.  This was a case where she went through the American justice system and it did its job.  Sure, it didn’t turn out in Ms. Thomas’s favor, but it worked as its supposed to.  Unfortunately, there are still people out there who think she got the raw deal (just check the comments for the original story).  I wholeheartedly disagree.  She tried to fight it and she lost, fair and square.  If I were her, I’d stop writing this stuff and see where this post-trial motion that she filed leads.  My guess is that the judge will not overturn the verdict or rule it unconstitutional because it is written in copyright law and there is no reason to believe any foul play occurred on the part of the RIAA.  I’m sure she’ll appeal, though I’d like to see her explain how she can’t get any of her dates right.

As with many of the stories I write about, I found it on Slashdot.  There’s a nice discussion there as well on this whole thing.