Beer!

[rmstevens2]

I like beer. It makes me a jolly good fellow.

It's a gift from God, and a good one.

My personal favorite is Butty Bach (Welsh for Little Friend) from Wye Valley Brewery in Herefordshire, England.



I also like Doombar a whole lot, and the whole range of Brains beers. The photo below is a pint of Doombar that I drank at the Lamb and Flag pub in Rhayader, Powys, Wales.

[Albruic]

Right now enjoying a good, legitimate German Lager Pure Malt from Bremen

[rmstevens2]

Beck's is good beer.

I just polished off the last of a six pack of Old Chub Scotch Ale last night, 8% ABV.

Good, rich-tasting, malty stuff.

[JonikW]

I just enjoyed some of Brewdog's Punk IPA. Like most IPAs in the UK these days it's packed full of tropical, citrusy, American hop varieties and highly enjoyable. At 5.4 percent, it's weaker than the original 19th century India Pale Ales, which were strong in alcohol and high in hops so they could survive the sea voyage from Britain to India. If you can find it, I'd recommend Shepherd Neame's IPA as a good example of something close to the original style and far superior to Brewdog's offering. It's 6.1 percent and only uses British Fuggles and East Kent Goldings Hops. I honestly think it goes some way to explaining a few things in imperial 19th century history.

[rmstevens2]

I just enjoyed some of Brewdog's Punk IPA. Like most IPAs in the UK these days it's packed full of tropical, citrusy, American hop varieties and highly enjoyable. At 5.4 percent, it's weaker than the original 19th century India Pale Ales, which were strong in alcohol and high in hops so they could survive the sea voyage from Britain to India. If you can find it, I'd recommend Shepherd Neame's IPA as a good example of something close to the original style and far superior to Brewdog's offering. It's 6.1 percent and only uses British Fuggles and East Kent Goldings Hops. I honestly think it goes some way to explaining a few things in imperial 19th century history.

I know the American hops you're talking about: Cascade. They're mostly grown up in Oregon and Washington (although those aren't the only places they're grown).

I used to use imported Fuggles hops in my own homebrewed Pale Ale. I really like their flavor.

[alexfritz]

last notable beer i drank

re:post from the old forum

[rmstevens2]

Here's one of my favorite American beers: Dale's Pale Ale. Wish it wasn't ten bucks a six pack.

[rmstevens2]

Went out and got my own Dale's Pale Ale today. I'm drinking it now (the glass in the photo holds just a little under two 12 ounce cans). Excellent beer.

[rmstevens2]

Here is something interesting from pages 249-250 (4-5 of 14) of the 2006 paper by Elisa Guerra-Doce, "Exploring the Significance of Beaker Pottery Through Residue Analyses":

Residues of alcoholic brews have been identified from several Beakers from Spain. In the burial cave of Calvari d’Amposta (Amposta, Tarragona), one of the Maritime Beakers (Herringbone variety) deposited in one of the five undisturbed graves located inside showed the presence of the alkaloid hyoscyamine and traces of beer. This highly psychotropic alkaloid is found in several members of the Solanaceae family, including henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) and black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), all of which belong to the European flora. This residue seems, therefore, to indicate that the pot was filled with a hallucinogenic beverage consisting of beer to which some Solanaceae member was added (Fábregas 2001, 64). In the funerary mound known as Túmulo de la Sima (Miño de Medinaceli, Soria) three Maritime Beakers deposited in the burials of two adults, possibly female, contained beer (Rojo et al. 2005) . . .  Likewise, beer has been detected in another Maritime Beaker (MHV variety) found in a severely disturbed Beaker grave dug in the barrow covering the collective tomb of La Peña de la Abuela (Ambrona, Soria), located nearby (ibid.).

I like the name of that psychotropic alkaloid, hyoscyamine. Sounds like it should have been called "high-as-the-sky-amine". 

I wonder how common a practice it was among Beaker people to mix that with beer.

[Webb]

I decided to make my avatar Gambrinus. I have used Celtic folk heroes in the past but decided to go in a different direction. The only samples from the Celtic paper and Anglo-Saxon paper who ended up being in the old North/South cluster of DF27, Z209/Z210/Z220, were two brothers and a son of one of the brothers excavated at Sedgeford and were from around 700-800CE. A study of their feet by a noted podiatrist/ forensic anthropologist, suggests that they may have been of Celtic stock. Sedgeford happens to have the only Anglo-Saxon malt house ever excavated. I would like to think that the brewing of beer may have been enough to save them from the sword, as it may have not been wise to kill the native brewers. Anyway, I thought Gambrinus rather a good choice for an avatar.

[rmstevens2]

Gambrinus is a great choice for an avatar.

Here's a song he might have sung, had it not waited until Tom T. Hall came along.

[rmstevens2]

Earlier today, my wife and I attended the Oktoberfest in the nice little town of Kilgore, Texas. The weather was perfect: bright and sunny but pleasant, with the high around 68 F (20 C), and a nice breeze. It was one of those crystal clear October days, with a high blue sky.

Anyway, we only had one pint each of a beer called St. Arnold's Oktoberfest. It was tasty.

If the sun looks odd in the photo below, it's because there was a partial solar eclipse visible in East Texas today.

[Webb]

Earlier today, my wife and I attended the Oktoberfest in the nice little town of Kilgore, Texas. The weather was perfect: bright and sunny but pleasant, with the high around 68 F (20 C), and a nice breeze. It was one of those crystal clear October days, with a high blue sky.

Anyway, we only had one pint each of a beer called St. Arnold's Oktoberfest. It was tasty.

If the sun looks odd in the photo below, it's because there was a partial solar eclipse visible in East Texas today.

You aren’t too far from where a large part of my father’s family is from.  Limestone County.  They moved from Limestone to Gatesville around 1870.  My great great great great grandfather survived Goliad and later fought at Jalisco.  His wife, my gggg grandmother, Elizabeth Eaton’s family travelled with the Parker family to establish Fort Parker, which became famous for the Fort Parker massacre.

[rmstevens2]

My Y-DNA second great grandfather, James Holmes Stevens, is supposed to have roamed around in Texas in the 1850s before going back home to NE Louisiana (he was born in Beaver Co., PA - you don't live too far from there, I believe).

A great grand-uncle on my mother's side settled in Kaufman County, Texas (on the way to Dallas), after the Civil War. He was a Union Army veteran, but the Texans didn't kill him, so what the heck.

Here he is. He was kind of a Buffalo Bill, wild west sort of guy, thus the appearance.

[rmstevens2]

Way back when, in the mid-1980s, I went to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, a lovely little town on the Mississippi River, and toured the G. Heileman Brewery, where they brew "Heileman's Old Style", an excellent beer almost unknown outside the Midwest. We got free samples of beer, which was great, and then we ate in Gottlieb's Restaurant, which we had to pay for, but which was also great.

I posted this over at the other spot, but it's a good memory, so I figured I'd repost it here.




Not sure why this almost 40-year-old memory popped into my head today, but might as well go with it. ld Style", an excellent beer almost unknown outside the Midwest. We got free samples of beer, which was great, and then we ate in Gottlieb's Restaurant, which we had to pay for, but which was also great.


Not sure why this almost 40-year-old memory popped into my head today, but might as well go with it.Way back when, in the mid-1980s, I went to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, a lovely little town on the Mississippi River, and toured the G. Heileman Brewery, where they brew "Heileman's Old Style", an excellent beer almost unknown outside the Midwest. We got free samples of beer, which was great, and then we ate in Gottlieb's Restaurant, which we had to pay for, but which was also great.


Not sure why this almost 40-year-old memory popped into my head today, but might as well go with it.