"February beer club" written by Heidi on estrip.org

02/09/11 09:13 - ID#53581

February beer club

Reference

metalpeter writes at 05:28:30 02/11/11 - Comment #60595: Apple Cider is great Apple Juice not so much so it sounds like this might be a good place to start with Cider until I find the best one.......

heidi writes at 02:04:48 02/11/11 - Comment #60590: I liked this hard cider, but i'm finding most hard ciders to be disappointing in that they're more like champagne than cider. They're heavily filtered, which means it's really fermented apple juice. (The distinction between apple juice and apple cider is filtration.) I like cider to have stuff in it and be a nice toasty brown, which is not what you get with most commercial hard ciders. I'm open to recommendations! My fav is homebrew cider, of course. Yum yum yum yum with fond memories attached.

jason writes at 06:07:33 02/10/11 - Comment #60578: I can answer that, Peter. It's hard cider, not beer. Actually it's a very good hard cider, although I admit I don't try a bunch of them myself.

James - If you like sours, try Ithaca's Brute or Ithaca's LeBleu. I would say Brute is on the "less sour" side between the two - a sour apple flavor. When I had LeBleu (imagine what the fruit is - not very pronounced, however) it was all about the brett.

metalpeter writes at 05:01:06 02/10/11 - Comment #60575: Question? Original Sin Hard Apple Cider is that a beer that is apple cider flavored or is it a cider I guess this question is also about what it tastes like as well?

heidi writes at 03:26:58 02/10/11 - Comment #60573: I hated the La Roja - more than slightly reminiscent of Robitussin. A couple people really liked it. I liked the Gueuze a lot and would definitely try it again. It was my first time trying lambics.

Next beer club: March 9. The focus will be on stouts. Not my fav, but I'd like to explore that type in more depth.

jbeatty writes at 12:29:36 02/10/11 - Comment #60572: I'm doing my best to drink more lambics these days. My first Gueze was the Cantillion and it definitely was a totally different beer drinking experience. I guess the term would be "it's an aquired taste". At New Years My brother and I shared a bottle of Girardin 1882 Black Label which was the most Barnyardy beer I have ever had. I have a bottle of the Fonteinen Oude Gueze on hand just waiting for the right moment and right crowd to be opened.

I'm really curious what you thought of the Jolly Pumkin La Roja. I haven't really had a whole lot of sours other than Duchesse de Bourgogne which I loved.

jason writes at 11:37:58 02/10/11 - Comment #60570: Interesting, you tried the Schaerbeekse Kriek. Out of the three Lambics, that's probably the one that is going to be the most traditional representation of the style out of the three. It also uses the Morello cherries grown around Brussels that is traditional for a Kriek.

It's interesting you are trying out the sours. The most traditional representation of Lambic comes from Cantillon, with the taste not being sweet but sour, really sour. The Cantillon Kriek has cherry as sort of an accent flavor.

Gueuze is a different animal altogether. Blended lambics, no fruit added. Big boy and big girl beer. Given how sweet the Lindemans stuff is I wonder how that went. I've tried a few and they will pucker your freaking mouth up. I like the Lambics/Sours myself.

heidi writes at 09:49:39 02/10/11 - Comment #60569: The whole list with our group's score of each:
Abita Purple Haze 6.33
Original Sin Hard Apple Cider 5.44
Unibroue Ephemere (Apple) 6.99
Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence 5.55
Southern Tier Choklat 7.88
Lindemans Kriek 6.22
Lindemans Gueuze 4.66
Drie Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek 3.22
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja 4.66
Pearl Street Belgian Sour 2

My three top were Unibroue, Original Sin, and Gueze sour.

jbeatty writes at 06:58:13 02/10/11 - Comment #60568: Three Lambics in one sitting wow! I do love Ephemere! and anything from Southern Tier. What is the second from the left?

heidi writes at 01:04:48 02/10/11 - Comment #60565: Darn, there are only seven in the pic!

Permalink: February_beer_club.html
Words: 2
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/09/11 09:13

Category: friends

02/06/11 03:46 - ID#53560

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, (e:leetee)!!!! I hope you have a wonderful day filled with new Chucks!

Permalink: Happy_birthday_.html
Words: 15
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/06/11 03:46

Category: holiday

02/06/11 01:36 - ID#53557

Infringement Festival!

Deadline for submitting proposals for the 2011 Buffalo Infringement Festival is May 1.

The festival will be July 28-Aug. 7... it starts right after the NYS bar exam. Excellent timing. :-)

Permalink: Infringement_Festival_.html
Words: 31
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/06/11 03:47

Category: weather

02/05/11 11:14 - ID#53555

Beautiful snow...

But my neighbor is a freak, snowblowing his back deck at 11pm!

Permalink: Beautiful_snow_.html
Words: 14
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/05/11 11:23

Category: friends

02/04/11 04:31 - ID#53546

Qwirkle!

I finally bought my own copy of qwirkle! Got it at hyatt's. Thanks, (e:puddlediving), for letting me keep yours for so long. Next game purchase will be ticket to ride.

Permalink: Qwirkle_.html
Words: 32
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/04/11 04:31

Category: friends

02/03/11 10:21 - ID#53539

Skye's blanket

I gave jennie 1/5 of the afghan at her shower... All that's left is edging and tucking in the ends. Soo much quicker than jill's!

(e:heidi,53500)

crochet

Permalink: Skye_s_blanket.html
Words: 28
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/03/11 11:30

Category: friends

02/01/11 09:55 - ID#53534

Make beer?

An (e:peep) suggested we make beer, since we like drinking it so much. Here's a recent display of game night beers. And cookies.

But this is what I picture when someone says beer-making...

Grain mill

Food scale

Five-gallon carboy with tap

A stack of books

Yards of plastic tubing

Kettle for cooking, copper tubing for cooling (we forget its proper name and the brewmaster is downstairs)

Basement sink - brewing was banned from upstairs after an explosion busted a dining room window and threw shards of glass into the newly plastered ceiling.

Hydrometer

Kegs and CO2 charger in 1965 GE fridge (freezer on the bottom - great item!! donated by Penn College, refurbished by Lou)

Chemicals and stuff

The stove caught on fire and has been replaced by a propane burner (probably from a turkey fryer)

I hear there are $100 kits available...

================

Icicles at the office

Uncle Dudley and her new cocker spaniel puppy Jude. He's four months old.

Permalink: Make_beer_.html
Words: 177
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/01/11 09:57

Category: home

02/01/11 09:34 - ID#53533

Spotlighting

So usually when you go wandering around the countryside here, you're spotlighting for deer. A and I went rig-spotting instead. We drove from Covington over to Troy, down to Canton, over 414 to Gleason, then towards Fall Brook through County Bridge. We were travelling on little snow covered back roads in my two-wheel drive Dakota.

We passed Fallbrook Road, where we had taken pix last April (e:heidi,51874) and I wanted A to turn around so we could head out towards the cemetery and the compressor station we saw last year.

As soon as he headed toward the berm, I knew we were stuck.

A nice couple comes up in their chevy truck, asked if we had chains. Nope, I don't keep chains in my truck. They say they're headed to the Legion just over the top of the hill and they'd ask if anyone had chains and could pull us out. Another truck stopped, "Got chains?" "Nope."

Next, a frack waste water truck stops. He's got chains and a thick Southern accent. Our local fire chief, who also owns a tow truck (and I have his # in my phone), pulled up behind us. I'm sure Shawn got a chuckle out of it.

A hooked up the chain.

And he towed us out. I should have tried video.

He wanted to tow us to the top of the hill but we said just out of the snow would be fine.

So yeah, irony abounds. Uncle Dudley thinks the out-of-state gas workers have been instructed to be nice to the locals whenever they have a chance.

[A says I should have gotten out and taken pix, the snow was really deep where we got stuck.]

Permalink: Spotlighting.html
Words: 289
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/01/11 09:39

Category: home

01/31/11 07:04 - 14.ºF - ID#53522

Tree farm gas well

This is a picture of the gas well drilling rig in the backyard of the Zimmer Century Tree Farm on Cherry Flats Road in Covington, Pa.

Close up of the well

Baby trees

I have lots to say/write about this weekend, but I'm just doing a quick draft edit of photos (over 225) at the moment. I drove by this house five times in different lighting to get this shot.

Here's a map of permitted (green dots) and drilled (red stars) wells in PA.

Don't let this happen in NYS.

Permalink: Tree_farm_gas_well.html
Words: 109
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 01/31/11 07:07