In Which We Deviate From Our Normal Practice

Frequent EIP readers may have noted our tendency to provide favorable reviews on the contents of our humidor, what with us never having published a single solitary "this cigar sucks!" sorta review of anything, ever.  Well all that comes to a screeching halt today.  I've had the opportunity to sample not one but two 5 Vegas Gold Maduros over the past couple o' weeks and I'm of the opinion this cigar should be avoided at all costs.  My issues?  Just two...

1. This cigar is poorly constructed.  Both sticks I sampled burned unevenly and required numerous touch-ups, including cutting off unburned portions of the cigars... both cigars... and repeated re-lights during the process of smoking them down to a nub.


2. The taste is rough, biting, and abrasive... above and beyond that of a "full-flavored" body one normally expects from a maduro.  "Rough" is actually bein' quite kind... the taste and mouth-feel is more like what one would expect from a smoking session hosted by the CIA in a dank cell somewhere at a Polish rendition site.  The cigar burned my mouth and left a rough feeling in my nose, both of which are unacceptable.  That's torture, to put it bluntly.

I guess ya gotta expect losses every once in a while, and this would be one of those.  It's entirely possible I received two examples from a bad batch of these sticks, but a negative two-out-of-two experience would lead me to think otherwise.  YMMV, Gentle Reader (and cigar smoker).

I mentioned somewhere in the recent past that we're conducting an experiment of sorts, what with us storing a small quantity of Acid Deep Dish cigars to see if they actually get better with age, as I've read.  I pulled one of those sticks out of the humidor today and smoked it while enjoying our first two beers out on the verandah.  The bottom line?  There's no noticeable difference.  The cigar remains one of my favorites... it's tasty, well-constructed, and smoother than smooth.  But aging... in this case a mere six months... doesn't seem to improve the smoke.  Mebbe I need to buy a new box of Deep Dishes and smoke two of these back-to-back... one aged, one new... but my superficial experience reveals no marked improvement by aging the sticks.  We'll continue the experiment and save a few up to the one-year point.  Stay tuned.

(Full disclosure: the photo is a close proximity of today's Happy Hour beer and cigar, but it's actually a re-run from two years ago.  But that IS a Deep Dish and we DID drink a Mothership Wit [along with a Newcastle Brown Ale].  We're nothing if not predictable.)

Broadening XXV and Restocking the Humidor

We're enjoying... note that word, enjoying, as opposed to a generic "drinking"... a Blue Moon Summer Honey Wheat this afternoon, our first such encounter with this beer.  The consensus vote at Beer Advocate is the beer merits a C+; I'd give it a "B."  It's a little light on the palate compared to the European Wit beers but it's tasty and very drinkable.  I like it.  "Purists," OTOH, look upon this beer as unworthy, mainly because it's brewed by a company whose daily output eclipses the annual production of most craft breweries.  My scare quotes around "purist" refers specifically to those asshats who make comments like this (From a BA review):

Clear gold with a head more akin to 7up.

Weak, pale barley is the dominant flavor with an odd lemon Pledge note right before a tannic, slightly off finish.

I'm growing tired of all these pseudo-craft BMC endeavors. Leave the brewing to the real craftsmen and go back to your chemistry experiments.

Yeah, right.  OK.  We geddit... you don't like Molson-Coors and you're not afraid to say so.  I wouldn't drink a Coors Light if I'd been in the Sahel for five days without water, but that's a criticism of the beer, not the brewery.  I feel pretty much the same way about every "lite" beer out there... the entire lot of them bein' persona non grata here at El 'Muerto en el Agua' Casa Móvil de Pennington... with the exception of Labatt Blue Light, which I think is pretty damned decent.  Not everyone agrees with me about that, tho.  Whatever floats yer boat, eh?

Our  cigar today is a Drew Estate Kuba Kuba and the astute will note we got a boatload of these things in the mail today.  Let me sing the praises of Cigar.com yet again... and most specifically my cigar-bud and dealer, Tim.  Here's why we have what we have on this day:

Note the e-mail was to me and me alone.  I love Cigar.com, mainly for the personalized service and the responsiveness of the folks that work there.  Also note the date/time stamp on the e-mail exchange... the elapsed time from the offer to the stogies bein' in my hot lil hands?  Monday to Friday.  Ya can't beat that with a stick.  If you're a cigar smoker I recommend them.  Highly.

Art

Well, it may not be art... but I know what I like.  We've put fire to the end of a La Gloria Cubana Serie R (and no, that's not a misspelling, it's Spanish) and are just about to make our way outdoors to park our Old Ass under the awning and gaze at the hole where the Lovely Miss Zukiko used to sit.  But about the art...

The cigar is artfully constructed to begin with, but it's the (slightly out o' focus) image of the smokin' lady on the cigar band that I dearly love, mainly for the 1920s gestalt that's in it.  That said, I'm thinkin' I know one or two lil girls that might could want to wear that band on their ring finger for the afternoon.  Too bad they're not here to keep Grandpapa company.

"Nuthin' Up Mah Sleeve!"

"Well, of COURSE not, Bullwinkle... and why would ya want beer up your sleeve, anyway?"

--Rocket J. Squirrel

That by way of introduction, Gentle Reader.  To this:

There is a back-story, of course.  I received an e-mail from Occasional Reader Brad day before yesterday, which said... in part:

You only know me as an occasional poster to your blog, which I totally love. I moved here to Portales last year, and now my stuff has finally caught up with me. My stuff includes a spanking brand new Rocky J. Squirrel glass tumbler, one that I actually helped create for a firm called Toon Tumblers. I had it in mind for you a while back when you referenced Rocky and Bullwinkle in one of your posts.

...

All I ask is that at some point, you include the glass in one of your great beer shots on the blog! :-)

Well, Hell Yes... C'mon down, Brad!  And so he did, leaving me with the tumbler you see above AND a matching Rocket J. Squirrel pint glass, which I'll feature in another beer post in future.  Brad is a graphic arts instructor at ENMU and used to live in Noo Yawk before moving to P-Ville.  As luck would have it (and because these here inter-tubes are a wonderful thing!), you can see more examples of his work here.

Thanks, Brad... and Prosit!

―:☺:―

Which brings us to Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack...

No... wait.  That's not it, even though it prolly should be.  What we're really listening to today is this, in part:

This would be Kate Nash... new to me but mebbe not to YOU, Gentle Reader, given that you're hip to all this new kinda stuff...

Well, now.  Isn't that a lovely confection?  Young Kate reminds me of someone but I can't put my finger on who that might be.  No matter, I listened to this about three times in a row and liked it more with every listen.  YMMV, of course.

In Today's Mail...

... and just in time for Happy Hour... eight lil and most excellent cigars:

That would be...

Sampler includes the following 8 cigars in a special, limited edition 5"x42 corona:
1 x Ave Maria
1 x La Herencia Cubana
1 x La Herencia Cubana Oscuro Fuerte
1 x Diesel Unholy Cocktail
1 x Diesel Unlimited
1 x Man O' War
1 x Man O' War Virtue
1 x Man O' War Ruination 

Eeeny, meeney, miney, moe... which cigar's the way to go?  I'm thinkin' we'll do two, coz they ARE small.

Update, not quite an hour later:  So we opted for the La Herencia Cubana Oscuro Fuerte, which is a pretty damned good stick (and the first of what WILL be two smokes today).  As is my UCR practice I went off searching for reviews on this cigar and looky what I found at the bottom of the first page:

Damn, but Google is QUICK.

Broadening XXIV, Teh Funny, and Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We're just in from an uneventful re-supply run, where we cut corners and bought beer at Wally-World instead of the beer store, which is our usual practice.  But Wally-World surprises me at times... and this is indicative:

From that Lil Ol' Brewery in Shiner, Tejas... it's Bohemian (style) Black Lager, rated B- at Beer Advocate.  I'd go a notch higher and give it a full-blown "B" but I'm easy, yanno?  Our cigar today is (what's left of) one of those Nica Libre 1990s I was on about yesterday.

―:☺:―

My Buddy Ed In Florida comes through again:

The economy is so bad that...

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can't afford batteries.

CEOs are now playing miniature golf.

A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.

I saw a Mormon with only one wife.

If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America .

My cousin had an exorcism but couldn't afford to pay for it, so they re-possessed her!

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.

Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Pakistan , and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck. 

Some of these have a lotta miles on 'em, but a couple were new to me.  They're ALL good, though.

―:☺:―

We're listening to Neil today...

That would be the acoustic take which is just as good as the full-blown rocker.  It's understood that YMMV, Gentle Reader, but we're in a mellow mood today.

It's Not Global WARMING That Bothers Me...

... it's the gotdamned Global BLOWING.  Yes, yet another rant about wind.  I'm just in from retrieving the day's mail (more about which below) and it was quite the slog up to the mail kiosk and back.  This is what we look like at the moment (or 53 moments ago, according to WX Underground):

The troops in my shop used to joke about making me carry my tool box everywhere I went so I wouldn't get blown off the top of the mountain, back in my young radar days... mainly coz I've always been light in the ass.  I could have used some ballast today, srsly.  I think the wind in the above WX report is very understated... it feels more like 40 mph continuous wind with 50 mph gusts.  And it's hot, too.  But it's a dry heat.  Heh.

―:☺:―

About the mail...   Our humidor is a lil bit fatter now, seein' as how we received a resupply shipment from Cigar.com in today's mail.  We opted for three copies of this sampler this time around:

Coffee Infused Sampler
Sample the finest coffee-infused smokes all hailing from the Drew Estate factory, the authorities on cigar infusion. Includes 8 cigars, two each of Isla del Sol, Tabak Especial Cafe con Leche, Tabak Especial Red Eye, and Tabak Especial. A Starbucks selection at a Dunkin' Donuts price!

We've smoked three of the four varieties listed above (we love 'em, too) and we're burning the previously unknown-to-us Isla del Sol as we speak.  I'm about a third of the way through the cigar and I'm fairly well impressed.  It's not quite as strong as the others in this sampler but it IS pleasing.  And here's what we're drinking along with our cigar:

Yup.  This takes the sting out of being forced to remain indoors.  Kinda-sorta.

Broadening Our Horizons XXII

We've been laboring under an oh-so-rare internet outage for the last hour or so and that has cramped our style, to say the VERY least.  But, Hey!  These things happen.  In the meantime we've been enjoying a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale, 2011 edition.  And this beer, Gentle Reader, is meaty, beaty, big and bouncy... to say the VERY least (again).

Given the stout ABV of this beer (9.60%) I'm thinkin' we'll do only one before moving on to sumthin' a lil less potent.  But it IS most tasty!  Our cigar today is a Cuba Libre One, in the Churchill size.  Most excellent.

―:☺:―

I don't have a helluva lot more today, other than to mention the Osama killin' has taken up most of my time.  Details continue to come out in dribs and drabs but we'll prolly never know exactly what went down in any great detail.  I suppose that's as it should be, but still... Enquiring Minds™ wanna know, eh? 

And then there's the weather.  We had a rather severe cold snap over the last 48 hours... including a freeze... which necessitated us breakin' out the electric heater and runnnin' it nearly full time over the last couple o' days.  But that's in our immediate past and today is just a brilliant sorta day: 69 degrees and gentle breezes out of the west.  It doesn't get much better than this, Gentle Reader.

Back To Our Roots/Broadening Our Horizons XXI

One of my "roots" beers...

... and a new cigar.   The beer is a 1554 from New Belgium, as any fool can plainly see, while the slightly outta-focus cigar is a new-to-me cu-avana Intenso.  This is the STRANGEST cigar I have ever lit, bar none... and that's because of the intense peppery-spice on my lips as I'm smoking.  It's as if the torcedore dipped the finished cigar in some sort of hot sauce when he or she finished putting it together (I like to think my cigars are rolled on the substantial thigh of a zaftig brown sweetie, but that's just ME).  Cubans are known for their practice of dipping the draw end of cigars in sugar water to sweeten the taste in the mouth, but this is the first time in over 30 years of serious cigar smoking I've ever had a stick as spicy as this.  It's not bad and I kinda like it although I AM surprised there's no mention of this character in the linked review.

So, here we are... all prepared for the beginning of Game Three... Bruins-Habs... of a four-game marathon.  It's really, rilly nice to watch hockey without stress, yanno?  By that I mean I ain't got no dogs in today's fights, it's just pure entertainment.  We'll begin stressing again towards the end o' next week when the Beloved Wings get back in action. 

Gettin' Back to Our Roots...

... with yet another Perfect Pour:

I'm livin' proof that practice makes perfect, eh?  I must say life is good here on The High Plains of New Mexico despite the miscellaneous moans, groans, bitches, and complaints in the post immediately below.

Beer may not be THE answer but it certainly works in most cases.  That depends entirely on what the question is, don't it?  Prosit!

(Inadvertently) Broadening Our Horizons XX

I bought a sixer of Sammy Adams' Winter Lager on my last beer run and imagine my surprise when I went to the fridge and pulled this out of the carrier:

That's an SA Blackberry Witbier, which I wouldn't have bought by choice, given my recent less-than-satisfying run-ins with American fruity beers.  This one is no different, bein' way too sweet for my tastes... but we shall drink the damned thing anyway.  And then follow it up with a Winter Lager, which we both wanted and expected.  The best laid plans, yadda, yadda...

Today's cigar is an Acid Kuba Kuba... a fine lil stick that often graces our humidor.  It looks like today might be a two-cigar kinda day.  I just kinda-sorta feel it in my bones and elsewhere.

Update, 1535 hrs:  Round Two.

MUCH better!

Update, Part Deux:  Under the awning, in two views:

You need to view the second picture in its original size, i.e., click for larger.  In which we thank The Deity At Hand we don't suffer from allergies as the cottonwood detritus resembles a snow storm in its most intense moments.  But other than that?  It's the finest of fine days here on The High Plains of New Mexico.  I hope your day is half as good, Gentle Reader.

More Fruity Thangs

About ten days ago I said "I'm thinkin' I've had enough of this fruit-beer thang for a while."  Well, I lied.  Here's Round One of today's Happy Hour...

That would be a Lindeman's Cassis Lambic, rated B+ at Beer Advocate.  Here's an excerpt from one of the reviews:

Pours a dark purple red color with a thick light pink head and a ton of lacing. Super pretty. Smell is of currants and tartness. Tastes super tart with tons of oak, funk, and currant flavor. Mouthfeel is medium with a heavy carbonation. Overall, this is an awesome brew from a great Belgian brewer.

It's the tartness that makes a good fruit beer good, IM(NS)HO, and this is where the fruit beers I've sampled recently have gone wrong  -- they are all much too sweet for my taste.  Lindeman's, however, hits that sweet spot on my palate, which is a lame-ass attempt at a pun.  I really enjoy this beer but it's only an occasional treat for me, seein' as how the folks at Lindeman's are right proud of their product.  While it's true the price the Cannon Class VI store charges is cheaper than most of the prices at the link, they're not all THAT much cheaper.

Another thing... the observant will note opening a bottle of Lindeman's is a right royal PITA.  You uncap the bottle in the usual way but then ya gotta pull a freakin' cork.  Can ya say "overkill?"  Sure ya can...

Now if you'll excuse me, Gentle Reader, it's time to go set my ass down under the awning and enjoy what's left of this beer.

Update, 1600 hrs:  This might be heresy, but for Round Two of Happy Hour I combined one of those Leinenkugel Berry Wheats with about two inches of left-over Lindeman's Cassis in my pint glass.  The result was pretty danged good, as the remains of the Cassis had just enough tartness to take away the cloying sweetness of the Berry Wheat.  That was a one-time good deal!

Broadening Our Horizons XIX

I could mine this vein from now until the day I die and prolly WILL... for as the unnamed sage so wisely noted: "So many beers, so lil time."  Today it's a Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat...

This weissbier is sweeter than most and that's not an entirely bad thing.  The characteristic that leaps out at you as you bring the glass to your lips is its nose, most commonly described by the readers at Beer Advocate as reminiscent of Froot Loops or Fruity Pebbles.  That might be off-putting to some beer drinkers but it pleases me... today.  Tomorrow might be an entirely different story.

Today's cigar is a Drew Estate Tabac Especial Red Eye, which is rapidly becoming the cigar of choice here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  Well, one of the cigars of choice, anyhoo.  We're still quite partial to the Acid Deep Dish.  

Speaking of...  I bought myself a box of Deep Dishes for Christmas and that box remains largely untouched, as I'm engaged in a lil experiment.  I read somewhere that aging a cigar has much the same effect as aging fine wine... as in "the older, the better."  That presupposes you keep the cigars properly humidified, of course, which I'm doing.  So, we pulled one of the now three-month old Deep Dishes out of the humidor yesterday, fired it up, and I couldn't tell if it was any better or not.  There may be two things in play here: (1) I haven't given the cigars enough time to age properly or (2) I just don't have an educated palate.  As far as (1) goes... I'm not sure if I have the will power to let the cigars age for a year or more.  And there ain't no fixin' (2).  It is what it is.

―:☺:―

We're taking today's Happy Hour indoors as it's not a nice day outside.  What the hell happened to Spring, anyway?  I suppose I shouldn't bitch, as some of you Gentle Readers have had snow in the last day or three.  That said, the recent good weather (read as: temps in the 80s) left me somewhat spoiled and not very tolerant of our 51 degree temperature, as we speak.  We'll be back to normal in a day or two, though.

―:☺:―

Here's my next musical purchase:

From one of the reviews at Amazon:

Alligator Records celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2011 with the release of The Alligator Records 40th Anniversary Collection. The 2-CD set clearly lays out Iglauer's wide-ranging blues vision. From the ragged glory of Hound Dog Taylor to the raw Chicago blues of Koko Taylor, Son Seals, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, Lonnie Brooks and Eddy Clearwater to the harmonica workouts of Charlie Musselwhite, William Clarke, James Cotton and Rick Estrin to the guitar pyrotechnics of Guitar Shorty, Albert Collins, Johnny Winter, Michael "Iron Man" Burks and Tinsley Ellis to the front porch roots-rock of JJ Grey & Mofro to the gospel soul of Mavis Staples, the one constant is Alligator's dedication to releasing what has been dubbed "Genuine Houserockin' Music."

From the early days of recording only Chicago blues artists to the addition of national and international artists to the label's commitment to younger roots acts who are creating new blues for a new millennium, Alligator continues to forge ahead. Even after 40 years, Alligator is committed to discovering great new talent, proving that the passion, soul and redemptive power of blues and roots music is alive, well and genuine, capable of rocking the house for many more years to come. 

Now is that right up our alley or WHAT?  You should peruse the track list at Amazon, Gentle Reader, to see why I'm so enthused.

Heh

An Occasional Correspondent sends this along...

Good advice and I'll be takin' it later after the errands are done.

Broadening Our Horizons XVIII

From the Great Pacific Northwest...

... a Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen.  Beer Advocate... the first and last word in beer criticism... gives this brew a C+.  I'd be a little kinder than that; I think the beer deserves a "B."  It has the right color and consistency for a hefeweizen and tastes quite good, as well.  While it won't replace Franziskaner as the hefe of choice I would definitely buy more of it.

OTOH, mebbe the reviewers at BA were a conservative bunch.  One might could suspect the brewery is trying to appeal to "a certain demographic..."

Ya think?  Berkeley?  There's a brewery in BERKELEY?  Who knew?  Hell, I lived there for a year and had no ideer.

Here, There, and Everywhere

Well, we got off the dime today and ran those deferred errands from yesterday.  So the prescriptions for pre- and post-op meds have been handed over to a very nice LtCol at the Cannon Airplane Patch pharmacy (who addressed ME as "Sir."  I let that slide.), the larder is racked and stacked, the freezer is jammed with nukable food, and we have more beer in the fridge than I can shake a stick at.  See?

I just lurve the way that looks...

A couple o' random notes... I don't get out a whole helluva lot during winter so I don't take The Green Hornet by the gas station all that much; once a month is the usual, and that might be pressing things where the gawdshonest truth is concerned.  That said... I was shocked to find gas is up to $3.55/gallon for mid-range (remember: it was mebbe mid-February the last time I bought gas).  I don't pay a lot of attention to gas prices as a rule... you can't bargain over the price and you can't go without... so I just fill 'er up and the devil take the hindmost.  I'm grateful for two things (a) TGH is a thrifty girl, averaging just under 30 mpg and (b) I don't have to do a lot o' drivin'.  Times are hard for those folks with big-ass SUVs and long commutes.

I want to express my appreciation to all you taxpayers once more, this time for the fact all the drugs I need (heh) are pretty much paid for by My Favorite Uncle and there are NO co-pays.  My eye surgeon warned me the drugs she prescribed were expensive and "insurance may or may not cover them, depending on the plan."  Not to worry, Ma'am, My Favorite Uncle... and you taxpayers... always comes through.  We are blessed and I thank you.

―:☺:―

Today's Happy Hour soundtrack... more Stones:

It's the graveyard watch,
Running right on the rocks,
I've taken all of the knocks.
You ain't giving me no quarter.
I'd rather drink sea water,
I wish I'd never had brought you,
It's gonna be the death of me.

There's some wicked piano playin' on this track and Jagger's vocals are just too damned cool fer school.  This is yet another track from Exile on Main Street (Number Seven on Rolling Stone's Top 500 albums of all time and should be Numero Uno as far as I'm concerned), which is STILL in TGH.  Full disclosure: I own TWO copies of the CD, one for TGH and one for the house.  That's how good the album is.

Beer me! 

Procrastination Я Us

I really should have been out and about earlier, coz I have various and sundry errands that must be attended to... like filling three prescriptions before my eye surgery in two weeks time, restocking the larder, and replenishing the beer inventory.  But we weren't out and about and we ain't gonna be so, for we are having another wind event here on The High Plains of New Mexico.  Shorter: it ain't nice outside.  None of the foregoing items are time sensitive and the beer supply is adequate for the moment, so... everything can wait.

Well, sorta.  I'm drinkin' the second bottle of that beer for people who don't really like beer and I'm seriously considerin' chuckin' the four remaining bottles in the trash.  Throwin' out beer is a RARE thing at El Casa Móvil De Pennington but it HAS happened (we disposed of this moose-piss-in-a-bottle with no regrets).  OTOH, I might save what's left of this berrry interesting stuff, if only because I have occasional female visitors who might like it.  Mebbe.

In the mean time we have an adequate stock of suitable beers for our second and possible subsequent round(s).  Coz we're good like that.

―:☺:―

Speakin' of wind events... we were out and about for about five hours yesterday, having journeyed to Cannon Airplane Patch to resupply the meds and then over to The Big(ger) City™ for our pre-surgery eye appointment.  I made the grievous mistake of leavin' all my windows open while I was gone, with predictable results: the 40-mph winds left a fine coating of miserable frickin' grit all over every-gotdamned-thing.  I gave the desk a perfunctory wipe-down when I got back in last evening and saved the heavy-duty cleaning for today, which took me at least an hour... no shit, really.  Suffice to say our windows are shut tight today and we WILL use the AC if conditions require.  Housework is the curse of the drinking class, yanno?

About that eye appointment... I've decided to go with an upgrade and will get my astigmatism fixed when the cataracts are removed.  Medicare won't pay for the upgrade but the price is reasonable and it will be a welcome change to go through the rest of life without glasses.  Well, sorta.  I'll still need reading glasses for close-up work but that's not all THAT bad now, izzit? 

So... beer me! 

Broadening Our Horizons XVII

"Berrrry interesting... but..." as Arte Johnson might have said:

That would be a Leinenkugel Berry Weiss, which is berry mediocre according to the readers at Beer Advocate.  One dude really didn't like this beer (copied exactly as found... don't be yellin' at ME for the grammar and spelling errors):

i knew i was in trouble when this candy like color starts to fill the glass, with a fizzy white top that seams to pop up and fall down immediatly. ehh. but then i took a whiff, fake berries, and just light kool aid like aroma. not even close to a good fruit beer. way too light and the flavors and aromas are so blatently artificial it was downright scary. light berrys and hints of sweet malts try and poke up but they are just remnants of what would make a good beer. 

I agree to a point, but not as much as that guy above; the beer is like an alcoholic Kool-Aid.  That said, it is nice for a warm Spring day but it also won't be seein' the inside of my fridge again for a while, if ever.  This one really IS too sweet for my tastes... I shoulda saved the "Barley Pop" post title for this particular beer.  I'm thinkin' I've had enough of this fruit-beer thang for a while. 

Barley Pop

Pop, indeed.  Purists will shudder but I enjoy this beer from time to time...

That would be a Sammy Adams Cherry Wheat (C+ at Beer Advocate), which I think just might be the perfect drink for our first 80-degree day here on The High Plains of New Mexico.

We're recently in from our daily errands... including collecting our snail-mail, at which time we were pleased to find that eagerly-awaited shipment from Amazon lurking in our mailbox.  Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack will begin with "Low Country Blues"... no Pandora today, thank ya.

And now to fire up both cigar and stereo, put the awning down, and enjoy.  I hope your day is going half as well as mine, Gentle Reader.

Wherein I Say Something Good About Obama

Yeah, you read that right.  Check this out:

That would be the president holding a bottle of beer... but that's a bottle of 312 beer, brewed in Chicago (312 is the metro Chicago area code -- how clever) and gifted to David Cameron last summer.  That's not necessarily a noteworthy thing as people give other people beer all the time... even presidents and prime ministers.  Nope, what got MY attention is the fact Obama is brewing his own beer.  Supposedly.  He's doing it in the White House and will serve the fruits of his labors at White House dinners in future.   From NPR's web site:

During this year's Super Bowl, President Obama created a stir by offering guests at the White House beer that he'd brewed himself. And now the president reportedly plans to have another batch of his homebrew on hand March 17 — that's right, for St. Patrick's Day.

According to the Irish Central website, when Obama announced that this March is Irish American Heritage Month, he also pledged to serve his own White House Honey Ale — made with honey from the White House garden beehive — to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Well, hell, that's no small beer.  Good on The One.  While the fact that the President brews his own beer is pretty cool (actually there's a Beer Czar in the White House kitchen that does it for him)... it's also unlikely to change my mind about Obama the president or Obama the politician.  That said, I wouldn't mind sampling a bottle of White House Honey Ale.  OTOH... "Gub'mint Beer."  The very thought makes me snicker.

I'll remind you that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, Gentle Reader.  Indications are Obama's clock stopped at Happy Hour, and that would be the best case.

―:☺:―

In other beer news.... Fox News has a good piece up on the craft beer explosion.  A few excerpts: 

In fact, while beers sales fell as a whole by almost 3 percent nationally, the sale of craft beer -- which is any beer made by breweries producing less than two million barrels a year -- has gone up.
 
In the first half of 2010, the sales of craft beer went up 9 percent by volume and 12 percent in dollars, according to the Brewers Association, a national non-profit association representing the majority of  U.S. breweries. 

While craft beers are still a small percentage of total beer sales, the totals are staggering and sobering: nine million barrels, more than $7 billion in sales, helping to fuel an estimated 100,000 full- and part-time jobs coast to coast.

Julia Herz, spokeswoman for the Brewers Association, says that breweries are on the rise in U.S. neighborhoods, with more than 1,600 breweries registered and another 500 in the planning stages.

It's no great secret that Americans' taste in beer is improving, what IS news is the proliferation of small local breweries.  The linked article claims that most Americans live within ten miles of a brewery and that is very good news.  Beer should be local, unless it isn't.  By that I mean there ain't no such thing as the Portales Brewery or "Big(ger) City Beer."  The nearest brewery to me is in Santa Fe... as far as I know... and they put out crap, unfortunately.  So we'll hang with beer from Fort Collins, CO; Shiner, TX; and Boston, among others.