Books and Beers

Coopers :Sparkling Ale

2011-08-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't written about beer for ages. I simply don't have time and I haven't drank anything exciting for ages. This one, on the other hand is quite refreshing. It is clear and bubbly, but has a deep sediment at the end. After first sip you might think it is an alco-pop, but there really is more to it. It is a real ale, full of flavour, plus bubbles, which changes the way you perceive the beer. I am going through my fourth six-pack of the stuff and still haven't quite worked it out.
The other surprising thing is that this is an Australian beer - for some reason is just doesn't taste/look like an Australian beer, but maybe I am just having the wrong opinion about the land of the marsupials.

Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhuse Five and Cat's cradle

2011-08-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

First, check this link out. I only read Slaugherhourse Five because I could get it for free on my Nook. The really embarrassing thing is that I absolutely abhorred Kurt Vonnegut as a teenager, I thought that he is really childish. I nearly left Maja for this! Haha, now I think he is really fun to read. Not a superintellectual, but his sarcastical writing style really gets under your skin. I've read two books and they really read as one large piece of work, similar themes, similar characters, some characters (the scifi writer) and places (Illium) just carry from book to book. Even phrases are being repeated by difference characters in different books (e.g. "I could carve a better man out of banana"). All in all addicitive fun reading in short pieces that you can read in a couple of train rides to work. When some time passes, I plan to top it off with Breakfast of the Champions.

Marcel Proust: Within a budding grove

2011-08-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

This is the second installment in the Proust's massive "Remembrance of the things past". I read the first part years ago, in Slovene, and I loved it. I tried to get the remaining parts in Slovene, but it is impossible, I only managed to get the third one, in a used bookstore. So, I read the second part in an English translation and will carry on with the third one in Slovene - it should be fun to compare how do books read like when one switches the language half-way through.

The second book is composed of two parts: in the first part the subject is in Paris, still in love with Swan's daughter Gilberte and in the second one, he finds himself in Balbec on some sort of summer trip to the seaside to relieve his nervous issues and jumps from one flower to the other. The way Proust writes is still quite fascinating; there is no real storyline per se, all there is is continous reflections of the reality in the mind of the protagonist and how these reflections change as the time passes. These books really are about our rather fragmentary understanding of ourselves at any point in time, understanding which is made worse by the fact that we constantly change.

Ahmadou Kourouma: Sons of independence

2011-04-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is just a short note to myself, for completeness, that I've read this book. Amazing book by an African author on the weirdness of post-colonial period as perceived by the newly liberated, but deeply transformed nations. A unique humour!

Nedeljka Pirjevec: Zaznamovana

2011-02-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

Ta knjiga je bila najdena v enem izmed antikvariatov v Ljubljani in sicer pripada Dnevnikovi zbirki Slovenska Zgodba. Iz ovitka gleda gospa z Kim Jong Ilovimi sončnimi očali, zelo resnobna in izvemo, da je zadnja žena legende slovenske primerjalne književnosti Dušana Pirjevca. Knjiga je očitno precej avtobiografska, četudi so imena glavnih akterjev zamenjana. V osnovi gre za zgodbo, kako je Pirjevec umiral, ki se prepleta z avtoričino življenjsko zgodbo. Kakorkoli že, resnobna gospa gor ali dol, celo knjigo fukajo in pijančujejo. V resnici gre za zelo luciden vpogled v družbo 60ih let, brez interneta, v komunizmu, ko je bilo iti na Dunaj že svetovljansko potovanje. Ta čas so ljudje res drugače doživljali sebe in druge: profesorji so bili legende, intelektualci so preživeli večere ob kajenju, pitju in razglabljanju o svetu in filozofih, redke knjige so bile svetinja. Informacijskega onesnaženja in socialnih mrež še ni bilo in moško-ženski odnosi so bili kljub vsemu intelektualizmu še komično šovinistični. Skratka, 60 leta so bila resnično drugačen čas, veliko bolj tuj, kot si danes to mislimo. Svetujem.

Lars Gustafsson: Čebelarjeva smrt

2011-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

Še ena kratka knjiga iz cikla 20. stoletje, ki sem jo prebral na brzino čez novo leto. Človek umira in potem umre. Pred smrtjo še naprej živi bogu za hrbtom nekje v ruralni švedski in se ukvarja s tem, kako misliti lastno smrt. Tip depresivne knjige, ki mene vedno znova nagovorijo, četudi knjiga ni kdove kako inovativna.

Ann Finkbeiner: A Grand and Bold Thing

2010-11-17T16:55:00.000-08:00

I bought and read this book, because it deals with the history of SDSS, a project that started in late 80s and is now in its third incarnation. As a scientist I spend most of my time working on BOSS, which is part of SDSS3 and so I was interested in reading this, especially given that I wasn't around when the interesting things happened. The book is good for me, because it deals primarily with: a) the horrible politics surrounding such big project and b) the way how SDSS changed the way we do astronomy these days. It doesn't do too much science though and when it does it is neither very accurate nor very well organised or focused. So, if you want to buy it for learning about what SDSS did - don't. Also, there is some stretching of truth here and there. For example, as someone who actually attended a couple of collaboration meetings, I have never heard of anyone referring to ourselves as Sloanies (or Threeons). I have hard time believing Željko Ivezić is the same to LSST as what Jim Gunn was to Sloan (and this is not to say that Željko is not super competent, just that LSST is one big corporate beast run by particle physicist where everyone is replaceable by construction). She completely skips big chunks of exciting science and everything revolves too much around Jim Gunn (yes, he is a walking legend, very intellingent dude, everything is cool, but we should get over personality cults at some point). Still, there are anecdotes in the book to tell on wintery nights in warm pubs and this is why it is still a must read for every one of us.

Jean-Paul Sartre: Intimacy

2010-07-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

I got this book for free, ages ago, while I was still a PhD student and an old professor brought his unwanted books to be picked up for free. And then, faced with a 9 hour flight, I picked it up 8 years later, not expecting too much. However, it is an amazing collection of 5 short stories; it sells as 'The Wall' these days. Short stories are a funny medium, because you never get immersed into them as much as you do in real novels, but on the other hand they offer a variety, which a normal novel cannot (in the sense that it is possible to read 7 short stories in 7 days). Maja was complaining that it is pure and boring intellectual existentialism, but I must profess that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For example, the last (and the longest) story, "The Childhood of a Leader" presents a perfect timeline of a young intellectual, stuff that we all went through: one is a teenager and then you discover philosophy and then you discover psychoanalysis, and then you try drugs, etc, etc, all these stages a young person goes through, only that the protagonist ends up being an idiotic antisemite in an utter anticlimax of the story. Warmly recommended, I haven't enjoyed reading fiction for some time now!

Sunzi: Umetnost Vojne

2010-07-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sunzi je famozni kitajski general, ponavadi se ga transkribira kot Sun Tsu. Oboje pomeni mojster Sun. Knjiga je prevod iz angleškega prevoda, torej ni neposredni prevod. Prevod je tu pa tam tudi malo labav. Celoten tekst se ponovi dvakrat. Prvič kot sam, neobremenjen tekst in drugič z dodanimi komentarji. Sam tekst je precej zanimiv, osebno mi je precej bolj berljiv kot npr. biblija. Čudna mešanica splošnih modrosti, nekaterih na robu kitajske ezoterike, in zelo konkretnih napotkov za npr. količine srebra, ki jih cesar potrebuje. Komenterji so še nekoliko bolj zanimivi, saj so k vsakemu verzu dodani komentarji tako starih kitajskih filozofov, kot tudi relevantnih rimskih/grških vojnih mislecov in modernih akademikov. Skratka, 2500 let star tekst, do kosti prežvečen.

Ommegang: Hennepin

2010-07-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

Ommegang's Hennepin declares "true Belgian-style saison". Indeed! Hennepin was a Belgian missionary who discovered Niagara falls. Ommegang is a small brewery in upstate New York which focuses on Belgian stuff. And they do make quite good beers that taste of the Old World. A bucolic summer beer, slightly citrusy with a non-threatening light colour.

Stanislaw Lem: Fiasco

2010-06-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of Stanislaw Lem. I read everything that was translated into Slovene. As an adult, I am still fan of Tarkovski's Solaris. So, I've listened to this book in an audio version on the way to work. Nearly 15hours of stuff. I like science fiction books that progress slowly and this is one of them. The production from Audio Frontiers was high quality stuff, reading was convincing and clear. The content however, is very much crap, however. Stanislaw can be repetitive, in about 5 different places of the book he goes on about how being in weightlessness can be tricky. Yes, i can imagine. But much worse, for all the musing about anthropocentricity that main characters indulge in, the story falls into anthropocentric traps really badly many times. For example, when they finally establish contact with foreign civilization using some sort of code (it is not explained modulo that it is transmitted by laser), they beam to our earthlings something like "Welcome. We expect you in peace". Come on, 'welcome' and 'peace' are utterly human concepts, they do not transcend species. Surely, we could agree on the value of pi or fine structure constant, but give me a break with welcomes...

Brooklyn brewery: Summer Ale

2010-05-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've been buying mostly variety pack these days and I'll write about them at some point. Especially the Blue Point brewery, which makes decent beer but puts some stupid number of blueberry infused beers, which made me fed up with the blueberry for some time. Anyway, I went back to Brooklyn Brewery variety pack and now the seasonal beer is the 'Summer ale'. And man, it is indeed hot and sticky as hell at the moment. This is a summer ale in the old British school of brewing, essentially a very pale ale, that is as refreshing as a lager when cold, but still manages to have some real taste. There is subtle hop and bitter and maybe a bit too much sweetness for the summer, but all in all a decent choice for these days.

Doris Lessing: Zlata Beležnica

2010-05-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, to je knjiga od 600ih strani in jaz sem se, z velikim trudom prebil do 275. In zdaj imam dovolj. Marginalno histerične ženske, odnošaji in komunistična partija v Veliki Britaniji v 60ih letih. Nekoliko passé...

Dudzinski & Frohoff: Dolphin Mysteries: Unlocking the Secrets of Communication

2010-02-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

I was really looking forward to this book, but after reading it, I feel I really haven't learned much about dolphin cognition and communication. First, the book is extremely repetitive. For example, in the first two chapters, the authors says that dolphins are "egregious" animals, again and again and again. And then in the middle of the book they say how they touch with pectoral fins and how this can mean different things in different contexts, again and again and again. And in the last chapter they say how loud noises can adversely affect dolphins, again and again and again. The book could have been shortened by a factor of a few without any loss of information. Second, the style is really annoying: the book was obviously written by two people as it is a bit incoherent at times and they often say things like "I (Toni) observed this and that" and then Kathleen thinks this and that and then we are served a thick dose of emotional stuff about how they love dolphins and oceans. I bought this book to learn about dolphins and not about Toni and Kathleen, so passive voice with some information might be more helpful. Finally, when they come to the really interesting stuff, they don't go into any detail. For example, they explain the false belief task challenge and then they say that there is some reason to believe that dolphins have passed this task, without any elaboration whatsoever. Sure, I could go and find the source paper, but I bought the book precisely because I don't have time to do things like that...

Magic Hat: Feast of Fools Winter Variety Pack

2010-01-18T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is a nice selection of beers from Magic Hat. For some reason I had a bad prejudice about Magic Hat, but already the very first beer from them that I drank, I liked. Well, at the moment, Magic Hat from Vermont is what Lagunitas from California used to mean for me, while I was still at the West Coast. Apart from the usual collection of the winter beers, Number 9 is still here and I still like it a lot. More importantly, they have a selection of beers that go under label "Odd Notion". These beers are experimental beers and they truly bring some new flavours to the established styles. Unfortunately, I've drunk all of them, so can't be more specific than that... Haha. :)

Brooklyn Brewery Variety Pack

2009-12-06T14:57:00.001-08:00

Brookly lager was the first beer I wrote about here. This time I bought the Brooklyn Brewery Variety pack, which contains 4x Brooklyn Lager, 4x Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55, 2x Brooklyn East IPA, 2x Brooklyn Brown Ale. Well, what to say: I still really like Brookly Lager, the rest is so so, nothing to really write home about... Let's stick to Brooklyn Lager from this brewery, the only one really worth a mention.

André Gide: Ponarejevalci denarja

2009-10-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Ponarejevalci denarja so knjiga, ki sem jo žvečil celo večnost. Par mesecev, čeprav je relativno kratka. Zgolj, da ne bom čez tri mesece pozabil, da sem jo bral, so tukaj ključni podatki: izjemno kompleksna zgodba z malim miljonom karakterjev, umetniki, ki "ne mogu da gledaju ljude", vsi heteroseksualni odnosi so napisani pavšalno, res se dogaja zgolj homoseksualcem in te dogodivščine so napisane s takim žarom, da se človeku kar milo stori pri srcu. Naslov izhaja iz dvojnosti, original in kopija originala, tako na ravni umetnosti, kot na ravni medosebnih odnošajev.

Apollo Olive Oil: Mistral Olive Oil

2009-09-05T21:18:00.001-07:00

I tend not to rave about things like oil, but this olive oil really deserves attention. We bough it in the local whole foods and when I saw Maya speaking to the dude I was immediately suspicious since in California people usually put more emphasis on bullshit and organic credentials of ingredients rather than the quality itself. But this guy was different, he was spelling out the various varieties of olives that went into different versions of their oil (I didn't recognise any) rather than go on about tradition, environment, etc. And indeed, these dudes use an advanced vacuum milling technology (allegedly only one of five in the world) and the results are worth talking about. For the first time I am looking forward to taste olive oil in salad rather than just assume it is going to provide some neutral background to the salad itself. Warmly recommended.

Fantôme de Noel

2009-08-07T23:38:00.000-07:00

I've decided to splurge on beer this Thursday and spent $15 on Fantôme de Noel. Fantôme makes expensive beers in a small craft brewery in the French speaking area of Belgium. Well, I got home, opened the beer and it exploded, making a small fountain in my living room and kitchen that took 20 mins to clean up. Now, I was paying $15 for half a bottle of beer. Huh.
But it was good, real good. With wines, price never correlates with taste that much, at least not to my buds, but with beer you can never do wrong with buying an expensive one...

Deschutes: Red Chair IPA

2009-07-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am simply too busy at the moment to write much about cool beers I am drinking. However, this one is really quite interesting. Inidian pale ale (IPA) is one of my favourite styles and American microbreweries created their own stream of IPAs characterised by excessive hoppines, bitternes and high alcohol content. This one keeps the hoppines and high alcohol content, but manages to remove bitterness. The result is quite intruiging and novel in addition to be a very drinkable, citrusy beer. Well done, Deschutes!

Lagunitas: Hop Stoopid

2009-05-03T21:38:00.001-07:00

Lagunitas is one my favourite west coast breweries. They are the ones that did the Zappa series (I wrote about the first two and also drank the third). The bottle of this beer shows a wooden farmhouse of some kind, a bizarre tall building (I think it was stretched vertically using photoshop) and you can just imagine a stoopid hillbilly coming out... And the beer lives up to its name, it is stoopidly hopped. It makes me see green. Green, green, here I come.

Magic Hat Brewing: Magic Hat 9

2009-03-27T15:52:00.001-07:00

I've drunk this beer in a dodgy greek restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday. I must admit that this beer intrigued me somewhat, it smells of honey and fruit, but it actually doesn't taste of honey. It is a bitter, lemony taste with a sweet after taste; it seems that the progression of tastes goes follows an unusual progression. I wouldn't call it a great beer, it didn't seem like a very well balanced taste and nothing amazing in the grand scheme of things. It is, however, an intriguing beer, well worth trying...

Ivo Andrić: Most na Drini

2009-03-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

Do te knjige sem bil precej skeptičen, ker sem si v svoji nevednosti megleno predstavljal, da gre za partizansko zgodbo v kateri partizani na koncu most razstrelijo. Kar je precej idiotsko, saj je gospod knjigo dokončal leta 1943, sicer pa zgodba poteka v obliki povezanih kratkih zgodb, osnovanih na resničnih dogodkih, od grandnje mostu v 16. stoletju pa do začeta 1. svetovne vojne.
Zgodba je resnično fascinantna: Mehmed Paša Sokolović, ki so ga Turki kot otroka ukradli iz neke Bosanske vasi se v Turčiji politično povzpe do prvega vizirja, ki praktično vodi državo in da v svoj rojstni kraj postaviti svoji veličini primerni most. Tako Višegrad, rupa najjača, dobi neskončno lep most, ki je trenutno zaščiten s strani UNESCA. Zgodba potem sledi tem ljudem, kako živijo svoje življenje na prepihu zgodovine, malo pod Turki, malo pod Avstro-Ogrskim imperijem in malo pod Srbi naslednjih 400 let. Knjiga po mojem sicer ne zasluži Nobelove nagrade (ki jo je Andrić dobil), stilistično je malo repetitivna in prevod Toneta Potokarja je slab, da o v pički skeniranju v Delovi ediciji niti ne razpravljam. V vsakem primeru je knjiga definitivno vpisala Višegrad na spisek destinaciji, ki jih je treba obiskati pred smrtjo.
Roman je dandanes zanimiv predvsem iz dveh razlogov. Prvič, napisan je je bil pred moderno fantazmo boja ver in strahom pred muslimani; v Višegradu živijo muslimani, pravoslavci in nekaj Židov in sicer se precej štocajo, ampak neke odkrite hostilnosti ni, če pa že je, je predvsem na osnovi narodnosti. Drugič, knjiga se zaključi z razbitjem mostu leta 1914 (3 od 11 stebrov so bili podrti, danes obnovljeni) in umiranju ljudi vseh narodnosti v vojni med Srbijo in Avstro-Ogrsko, kar na pronicljiv napoveduje Višegrajski masaker 1992, v katerem je bilo ubitih 60-200 ljudi in 10,000 izgnanih.

Peroni: Nastro Azzurro

2009-02-06T11:38:00.001-08:00

This is my third week in Italy and while trying to avoid beer so far, opting for wine instead, I've nevertheless drank one of the local mass produced beers, Nastro Azzurro, which can be roughly translated into "blue ribbon". And yes, white I love Italian cousine, this is simply not a good beer. And the mass-production is not an excuse as the Italian mass-produced espresso is often fantastic.

However, it has to be admitted that Italians drink beer in small doses, typically only 2 or 3 dcl and they have a somewhat different perception of the thing. So, while Nastro is nothing more than a somewhat smooth lager, it does go well with Italian fashion and food. Italy is no country for a heavy stout... It still somehow managed to fall behind Union and Lasko on ratebeer.com. Haha!

Harry Markopolos: The World Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud

2009-02-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

Harr Markopolos wrote a 19 page document to SEC discussing why he believes that Bernie Madoff is a fraudster. It can be found here.

It is a really interesting read. Basically, it is quite hard to believe that SEC didn't buy this. He puts out a plethora of arguments, some interesting, some obvious (even to me!) about why Madoff's fund is a fishy. Basically, Madoff claimed to have been using the so called split-strike conversion. This is a simple strategy, where you buy a portfolio of stocks and prevent losses associated with downward motion of these stocks by buying out of money put options on some index correlated with your stocks. You pay this protection by selling out of money call options. In other words, if nothing happens you get the profit on the mean growth and you protect yourself against large losses by forfeiting large gains. So, why is Madoff a fraudster?
Harry puts out many, many reasons, but most interesting are:

The size of the entire market for these options on regulated markets is not enough to cover hist investments, neither for call, nor for put. Why would he be buying such vanilla options over the counter and pay extra for them?
He had virtually not losses over 20 years. Now, to avoid this, he would have to been buying at the money options, rather than out of the money options and the sums don't add up - there is no way he could keep such profits while still paying for these super-expensive options.
Nobody else following this strategy was able to do much better than treasury bills + 1 percent or so.
There was absolutelly no correlation between market movements and Madoff's returns. Since he is buying a real portfolio of stocks, but insuring only on indices, this is mathematically impossible!
Taking private money and returning it with 12% interest to run his strategy is stupid. Why wouldn't he borrow at LIBOR+something rates?
He unwinds all his investment always at the right time, just before market crashes.

There are many less technical resons to do with secrecy, avoidance of anythign regulatory, etc. But the best bit is Harry's style. He writes as if SEC and himself were good friends, chatting about Madoff over a beer. Sentences like "Leon is a free spirit and if you ask him he'll tell you but you'd understand better if you meet him in a private room...". A really fascinating read!

Anthony Trollope: The Way We Live Now

2009-01-06T06:02:00.000-08:00

At over 750 pages, this is Trollope's longest work. I nevertheless managed to read it in less than 10 days due to my sprained ankle and the victorian soap-operaness that pervades this book. There are many sub-plots, all revolving around Melmotte, the great financial scoundrel that shines like a comet in London for a year. A really infectous read, perfect for christmas holidays next to a fireplace, but not sure if I do like it after all; it has a somewhat overly sweet ending and language-wise Jane Austen wins hands down.

Thomas De Quincey: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

2008-12-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

It took me a long time to actually go through and read this book. It's a truly bizarre literary contraption. It reads as an unedited ramblings of an intelligent and witty, but otherwise stubborn English aristocratic fart. It is an autobiographical account of opium addict from the times, when the addictive properties of opium were not fully understood and you could buy stuff in a drug store. Essentially the dude got a toothache, which he attributed to not washing his face with cold water every morning (?!) so he did water his entire head one evening and ending up having a terrible cold. And so a friend recommends opium as relief (?!). As simple as that.

The best part of the book is the insight you get into the customs and thinking of the time; there is really nothing transcendental about this book, it is as deeply rooted in its time as it gets, together with all class, gender and racial prejudice. And then there is the great English wit. Witness this:

"Neither Coleridge nor Southey is a good reader of verse. Southey is admirable almost in all things, but not in this. Both he and Coleridge read as if crying, or at least wailing lugubriously."

"Positively, in one line of communication to the south of Holborn, for foot passengers (known, I doubt not, to many of my London readers), the road lay through a man's kitchen; and, as it was a small kitchen, you need to steer cautiously, or else you might run foul of the dripping pan."

"Turkish opium eaters, it seems, are absurd enough to sit, like so many equestrian statues, on logs of wood as stupid as themselves. But, that the reader may judge the degree in which opium is likely to stupefy the faculties of an Englishman, I shall (by way of treating the question illustratively rather than argumentatively) describe the way in which I myself often passed on opium evening in London during the period between 1804 and 1812."

And so on and on... Really fascinating stuff.

Fraoch Heather Ale

2008-11-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

This is a terrible photo stolen from flickr, and I like it because the glass is exactly wrong kind of glass for this kind of beer. Anyway, this is one of those beers that you mindlessly put into your basket only to discover it is damn expensive at the checkout (at least in Whole Check Foods, where things are even more expensive than usual). Either way, the beer is quite good, it has a distinctly British character and it is a nice refreshment from the hoppy madness of local American beers. I got an unexpected proustian flashback of my times in England. A very mellow, somewhat sweet taste, balanced to the level you don't really notice anything in particular, a slighly bitter taste and a then an easy Sunday afternoon tipsiness.

UPDATE:
Ok, the owner of the photo has contacted me and is upset about me stealing the pic and saying it is terrible! I now linked the pic to the original source and want to stress that comments were not meant to be derisive but rather playful: I do like the photo! Really!

Michael Pollan: Omnivore's Dilemma

2008-09-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Reason for reading this book was a very Berkeley one. My colleague was supposed to be organising a series of diners/discussions on food politics and we were all supposed to read Pollan's book. It is quite infamous in Berkeley circles.

I have several reservations about this book. The biggest problem is that it reads as a really long in-flight magazine article. The dude is a journalist and it shows. There is no scholarly rigour, it is mostly a readable entertaining prose, more like a travel documentary rather than a serious book about food. If you like a genre like this, then you might like the book, but it is not very intellectual. Having stated this, the book is still worth reading because of the factual information it provides; it gives several convincing arguments against industrial production of food and puts my dislike of Whole Foods / recent fad on organic food on a firmer basis. Finally, some of the Salatin's methods described in the book are just genius and this book has convinced me that this might be the way to go, after all.

Ommegang: Ommegeddon

2008-09-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

You don't see a beer with an atomic explosion on its bottle every day! It's a beautiful beer from Ommegang Brewery which, according to the label, is "3,264 miles from Brussels, but its heart is right in Belgium". It is also part of Duvel empire (see dude's comment under my Duvel post). It is also very expensive at $11 per bottle. Decently strong at 8%. In some respects it is close to spontaneously fermented beers, mostly in its acidity and fruity after taste (I think it is the Brett yeast that does it). However, much more civilised and drinkable. My drinking partner claims it is "maybe a bit too sweet?". Maybe, I wouldn't have noticed it.

The bottle explains the bomb picture: "And remember: 'Don't wait for the Last Judgement. It happens every day.' (Camus)". Oh, yeah!

Russian River: Beatification

2008-08-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

This is possibly the most expensive beer that I have ever bought. $13 for a bottle of 375ml, i.e equivalent of a $26 per a wine bottle, but taking into account the poshness premium on wine, it is more like a $100 wine bottle. Anyway, it is a mixture of two spontaneously fermented beers, which are in turn fermented again in the bottle. Spontaneous fermentation is my favourite, it is a true art of Belgians that make beer rot and acquire random bugs from the air in a semi controlled manner - this makes each batch unique (my was batch #2). It is extremely sour, like a lemonade and quite fizzy due to secondary fermentation. Not complex, but with a beuatifuly simple vision instead. A truly acquired taste that I wish I could afford to sample more often.

Green Flash: Trippel

2008-07-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

"Rich pale malt flavors provide a solid base for zesty Styrian Golding and Czech Saaz hopping. Trappist ale yeast contributes the fruity, spicy profile of classic, monk-brewed, Belgian ales. Our Trippel is luscious, fiery, golden brew and a contemporary rendition of traditional Belgian Trippel." I am drinking this beer for the second day in a row. Yesterday it was my pick and today's it was Maya's. Her claim is that it is "definitelly too sweet". Off record she would also say that it is "too dense". I concur.
Note however, that it uses famous Slovenian Styrian Golding hops - that was my main motivation for buying it in the first place. Plus, green flash is an astronomical event...

Sierra Nevada: Harvest

2008-07-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

I am suspicious of Sierra Nevada. I have yet to drink a good Sierra Nevada beer. But this time, they convinced me with claim of fusion of "fresh New Zeland hops with the finest North American malts". Fusion my arse, the beer, while expectedly very hoppy, misses a clear vision or balance and ends up just about drinkable, without excess in any one direction... Another disappointment by Sierra...

Best American Short Stories of 2007

2008-07-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

I am, in general, not too keen on short stories - to me it always seems to be a cockout for a writer to write a bunch of short stories rather than one proper novel. However, this book is different, because it is a compilation of short stories and even more than that, it is a selection of the best short stories. I am intrigued by the selection of Stephen King as the editor, as I have and still think of him as a pulp fiction writer. Nevertheless, the stories inside are, while not annoyingly arty-farty, still a good read (as opposed to most SK stuff). It takes one or two days to read each of them and there is a lot of variety, styles... basically one gets a taster for each writer.The overwhelming theme is plain, sad, everyday life, not even life slotted into the grand scheme of larger forces influencing us as was the case with the realism at the end of 19th century, but the real depressing stuff of pointlessness of our life. My favourite ones were Toga party by J Barth, My brother Eli by J Epstein, Where will you go when your skin cannot contain you by W Gay, Wake by B Jensen, Horseman by R Russo and maybe Sans Farine by J Shepard.

Anchor Small Beer

2008-05-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

I learn new and exciting things about beer every day. I bought this beer out of support for my local SF brewery that tends to brew an okish, but fairly non-descript beer. However, this one is a gem. The label says:

The tradition of brewing two distinct beers from one mash has existed for thousands of years, and for centuries the term "small beer" was used in English to describe the lighter and weaker second beer. By association, the term came to mean something of little importance.
We make our Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale from the rich first runnings of an all-malt mash, and Anchor Small Beer is our attempt to duplicate the "small beers" of old by sparging that same mash: sprinkling warm water over the Old Foghorn mash after the first wort has run off, thereby creating a second, lighter brew from the resulting thinner wort. Technically, both beers are "ales" because they are made with top-fermenting yeast.

The beer itself is very interesting. I definitely would call it bitter, more like a sparkly, not very strong, but very bitter lager. And I liked it a lot...

Walker's Firestone Reserve Porter

2008-04-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, I haven't updated this blog for a long time and I have drunk an entire slew of very good beers recently. So, if I post a lot about good beers, it is not because my standards are falling, but because that even though I've drunk lot of shit beer, there were quite a few jewels.
Walker's Reserve Porter is one such good beer. It is an excellent beer in the old sub-stout porter style. Very smooth, liquid beer that still manages to punch an incredibly smooth bitterness with strong unmistakably chocolate taste, which actually made me look at the label to see if this is a chocolate beer. Not too strong for American standards at 5.9 %, Reserver Porter makes an excellent, excellent desert beer.

Jon Lee Anderson: Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

2008-04-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

It took me 9 months to read this book, it is 800 pages long. If there is one thing that cannot be denied about this book is that it is extremely well researched. The guy interviewed literally hundreds of people and went painstakingly through all available archives (including Russian and CIA's ones). The outcome is probably more or less as complete biography about Che as we will ever have (or need). The book is quite objective and while it is clear that the author likes Che, it steers away from an unfettered adoration that is present in so much work about Che.

The resulting image of Che remains, even after all bad things are taken into account, that of a positive historical figure. While Fidel's struggle was about power rather than personal convictions, Che was an everlasting idealist. True, he was naive, he never doubted in Fidel and he killed people. However, he did so because he saw himself as an inevitable force of history. Rather than retire in Cuba, where he could have lived a comfortable life of a revolutionary hero, he went on and fought on, first in Congo in Africa and then in Bolivia, where he was killed. And while in Cuba, he lived a manic frugal life, thinking it is a duty of revolutionaries to live an exemplary anti-capitalist life. He was also incredibly creative, authoring several books on economy, from which it is clear that he was critical of the Soviet system and had a deep understanding of Marxism. His main theoretical weakness was near fatal attraction to the armed struggle - armed struggle was elevated to literary epic proportions and was in Che's view crucial for development of the "New Man". Most fascinatingly, excerpts from his letters and poems show an incredible mastering of language - he would have been a writer if not a revolutionary.

The story goes that when his executioner came to do his job, he invited him: "Go on, you're only going to kill a man." [and not an idea]. Essential reading for both moonbats and wingbats alike...

Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout

2008-02-18T22:10:00.000-08:00

Young's really made a hit with this one. It drinks like a mousse desert, not much sweetness, just a balanced taste of dark, bitter chocolate accompanied by an appropriate chocolate malts and with a yummy thick head. I am not really keen of flavoured beers, but this one just shows that you can make a really good one if you try hard enough. Strongly recommended.
And btw, while British drinkers will inevitably get the violet label reference - it is better than the original...

Butte Creek: Train Wreck

2008-02-12T22:45:00.001-08:00

I bought this beer tonight and started drinking it before the dinner. By the time I managed to get my dinner on the table, I was already fairly wasted. Then I read "You'll be lucky to walk away from this one!" on the bottle. Hummm, good to know! Train wreck indeed.
This beer is at10.6%, which is 2% more than the infamous Skull Splitter!! Anyway, this beer belongs to the Barley Wine class, very strong kind of beers, bitter, hoppy and one can actually taste the high alcohol content. Characterized by long periods of fermentation and maturation. Some American brewers actually use wine yeasts which are capable of producing higher alcohol content. Definitely a style to consider for my future Slovene brewery...

Vielle Provision: Saison Dupont

2008-02-10T21:35:00.001-08:00

Another beer that got 96th percentile at ratebeer. Very dense, unfiltered beer that tastes a bit like a wheat beer, but considerably more bitter with a cider-like texture. The back blurb says that it is a classic example of "Saison" style. Ultimate beer book informs that the "saison" is inevitably summer. And that Belgians like strong beers. What a surprise, haha...

Lagunitas' Lumpy Gravy

2008-02-04T21:46:00.001-08:00

Lagunitas did it again. This is the new beer in the Zappa anniversary line (see my previous post about Kill Ugly Radio). A standard brown ale this time, goes well with well cooked pork or lamb. Released in celebration of "the 40th anniversary of the release of the second part of FZ's 3-Phaze masterwork". Lagunitas is probably the only brewer that has a 420 section on their website. When I grow up, I'll be a brewer as well!

Widmer Hefeweizen

2008-02-03T23:43:00.001-08:00

A half-baked hefeweizen. Americans obviously did a lot to IPA, but hefeweizen leaves them somewhat confused and they never quite get the silky taste of the originals.
What is more interesting is how every hefeweizen boasts about being unfiltered. Surely, this gives them the cloudy appearance and typical taste and is the right thing to do; but if unfiltered beer is better, why don't everybody leave them unfiltered? I agree that lagers must be filtered and hefeweizens must not, but it is nevertheless stupid to be bragging about something that you didn't do...

Jennings' Crossed Buttock

2008-01-24T21:03:00.001-08:00

That's it. That is the largest image that I could find. I drank this beer in an lovely Oxford pub "The Anchor". Made the South African bar-maid smile when I referred to it as Crossed Buttocks. Good, fresh ale with fruity overtones, a very inaggressive beer. Named after a wrestling move or something like that.

Koshihikari Echigo Beer

2007-12-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

A typical Japanese lager, a bit like Asahi. According to wikipedia, Japanese got their beer with Dutch sailors in 18th or 19th century. Since then they have been brewing these silky lagers. Nothing to be really proud of, but goes well with some fusion noodles!

St Peter's Old-Style Porter

2007-12-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

After really not liking them for a couple of years, I have recently fallen in love with porters. Not sure why, maybe because they are 19th century London invention and I love this the era, maybe because all microbreweries in the states are trying hard on them or maybe I just wanted a change from overly hopped IPA's. Either way, this is actually a British recreation of old-style porter. The back says: "This beer is blend of old mature ale and a younger light beer just like true porter should be." Fair enough, always new things to learn. Incidentally I also learned that stout it is really just a short for stout porter - a really strong porter. Dublin, I am coming...

Orval Trappist Ale

2007-11-21T22:05:00.001-08:00

I have never drank anything like that. Tasted as if some port was poured into the brew. Very bitter. A truly acquired taste. Hated it to start with and then it slowly became more and more tanglible. "Semi-wild Brettanomyces yeasts give the beer a distinct subtle body and a refreshing tartness as an after effect. It is suitable for genuine connoisseurs and experts." says one website.
I fully agree. I also admit that I am not quite the expert yet...

Marin Brewing: Hoppy Holidaze

2007-11-13T22:41:00.001-08:00

The name is just terrible. Infinitely terrible. The beer is actually a flavoured ale, a drink very much popular in the states. All in all it is an ale with plenty of hop (Sterling and Styrian Golding varieties) and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, orange peel and pure vanilla extract. It is effectively a beer equivalent of mould wine. Stuff to drink on Christmas. Nice, but maybe a bit over the top...

Farmhouse: oasthouse IPA

2007-11-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

IPA stands for Indian Pale Ale, a beer designed by British to survive the scorching climate of India so that they could enjoy ale even while there. Americans have created their unique version of it which has nothing to do with India. Oasthouse's IPA is a typical example, a much stronger beer compared to British IPA with much more flavour, lots of hops and stronger colour. And the label design just clicks. A good beer to finish off the weekend!

St Feuillien

2007-10-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

Belgians are just one bunch of dirty bastards. Basically, it seems to me that they get some barley and water and let it rot. Out comes this "natural ale", a double fermented mushy drink with strong flavour. (Ok, ok, I know that is more complicated than that). Beautiful, I love it.

Rogue Ales: Morimoto Soba Ale

2007-10-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

"It better be good..." I grundged to myself while buying this beer - it was devilishly expensive for a beer imported from Oregon (no, it is not Japanese!). Morimoto is a Japanese surname and soba are, as far as I can tell, Japanese noodles. The blurb on the back says "The delicate flavor of our roasted Soba brings a nutty finish to this light and refreshing ale." The taste is very strange, but good. If you ask me, it reminds me of apples, rather than nuts. Like Hoegaarden mixed with a bit of water and apple juice and some groovy after-taste. All in all a balanced taste, but not sure if I wouldn't get bored of it after a while. Might try it again!

Stone Brewing: Arogant Bastard Ale

2007-10-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

"This is an agressive beer. You probably won't like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth." This is the arrogant bastard statement on the back. It carries on with the usual crap about small breweries and large corporations producing shit. This is a common theme in the states - I don't see why beer from large corporations should be bad (take Fullers for example), but in the states this seems to be indeed the case.
It has reached 98th percentile on ratebeer. It is indeed quite good, though I wouldn't rate it above 1845 which managed to reach "only" 95th percentile...

Lagunitas: Kill Ugly Radio

2007-10-07T19:55:00.001-07:00

This is my first post from the States. And this is actually the first beer I bought in the States, while still in the hotel. I just bought and drank it again, this time in my own flat and the beer is still excellent. A small edition Frank Zappa themed beer, hoppy, balanced taste. Strong beer at 7.8%. Some serious beer can be had in the States if someone can be bothered to look for it!

Adnams Explorer

2007-09-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

This is a very interesting beer. It is heavily hopped with hops from what they call "the New World". And this New World stuff makes a very refreshing beer with some fruity-peach taste to it. It was the last beer I tried in UK and I am updating this post from a cafe in SF. It was a sign of good things to come. :)

Sierra Nevada Summerfest

2007-09-08T14:45:00.000-07:00

Shit, shit, shit beer. Watery lager reminiscent of home. Even Maja confirmed this. Regardless of how much I like Slovenia, beer is something we can't do.

Fuller's 1845

2007-08-21T13:12:00.001-07:00

In 1995 Fuller's dusted off the recipe of their original beer to mark the 150th anniversary. The resulting beer became an instant classic. Reached 97 percentile on ratebeer. This is an excellent English strong ale, strong earthly flavour, one can just about smell the dirty pubs of industrial era England. This is stuff Dicken's characters are made of. Great beer.

Duvel

2007-08-20T15:52:00.001-07:00

This is one serious beer. It has really funny text at the back claiming that the beer you are drinking is exactly like the one they serve in some central square in Brussels. As if I gave a shit about what eurobots are drinking!
Anyway, they must be proper drinkers as Duvel is not for weak. At 8.5 percent one can actually discern alcohol in the taste. Regardless, it is very nice, smooth and bitter at the same time. Even those idiots at ratebeer.com give it 96 percentiles. Lucky bastards, these Eurocrats...

Coors Light

2007-08-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is a cheap beer that everyone hates. I don't hate it that much. It's got a well designed bottle, a little fancy "rocky mountain icon" that is supposed to turn blue when it is cold enough (although my tempering in freezer didn't make it very blue, but I could just about notice a bluish hue). While not noticable, its taste is not offensive. Better than e.g. San Miguel.

Blandford Fly

2007-08-12T09:23:00.001-07:00

There is a silly story attached to this beer as well, something to do with flies and ginger that is supposed to scare them away. Anyway, the bottom line is that this beer has ginger in it and ginger is something that I like a lot! The only problem is that this beer is really a bit too sweet and hence much less refreshing that it could have been. Really not sure what were they trying to do when designing this beer...

Fursty Ferret

2007-08-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

When in decades past the idyllic country home of Miss Rose Gribble became a local inn, legend has it that the inquisitive local ferrets frequented the pub's back door on a mission to sample its own reputed brew. In their honour it was named Fursty Ferret.
A hoppy, sweetish ale with a distinctive bitter character, a classical English real ale. Good stuff.

Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Fiziki

2007-07-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

Obvezno čtivo za srednješolsko maturo, ki jo med drugi dela tudi moj brat. Čisto sranje.

Gunter Grass: Pločevinasti boben

2007-07-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Kate Land me je pred kratkim opomnila, da moj blog vsebuje skoraj povsem zgolj recenzije piv, čeprav so knjige nekako prominentno v naslovu. Glavni razlog je, da sem zadnje dva meseca žulil Pločevinasti boben Gunterja Grassa, to je 608 strani bobnanja. Težko priznam, ampak na splošno sem ljubitelj dolgih knjig, ker te poskrajo vase tako močno kot te sto-stranske knjige nikoli ne. V osnovi gre za magični realizem, ampak to ni tipična južno-ameriška sorta z družinskim sagami, ki se vlečejo nekaj generacij, temveč življenje Oskarja Mazeratha od rojstva do njegovega tridesetega rojstnega dne. Oskar se pri treh letih odloči, da noče vstopiti v svet odraslega življenja in se zato vrže po stopnicah in od takrat ne raste več, temveč samo še bobna in se dela malo neumnega. Pri 23 (?) letih se odloči, da ima tega dovolj in vrže boben v grob svojega očeta, vstopi v svet odraslih, zraste iz 94cm na 123cm in služi denar z različnimi priložnostnimi deli. Na koncu pristane v bolnišnici za duševno bolne, čeprav pravzaprav ni nor. Vsa ta zgodba naj bi bila nekakša metafora za vse nemško kolobocijo, travmo z nacizmom (sam Gunter Grass je bil član Waffen-SS, kar je priznal šele pred kratkim) ampak najbolj zanimivo pri vsem je, da ni očino točno kako naj bi ta prispodoba delovala. Tako se knjiga utaplja v eni težko oprijemljivi metaforiki, ampak je, ko se enkrat zažene, zelo berljiva, tako kot pač skoraj ves magični realizem. Prevod je odličen (Janko Moder, kdo pa drugi).

Special Flagøl

2007-06-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

Ordered "Special Flagøl" in a Danish restaurant. Got a dark, drinkable beer on tap. Can't really tell anything else...

Boddingtons

2007-06-22T13:47:00.001-07:00

My everlasting crusade to save money made me travel from Oxford to Paris by bus. It was one of the more idiotic ideas of mine. At 3 am, after boarding a ferry at Dover and after talking to immigrants for 2 hours while waiting for the ferry (which was good fun, actually), I had a half-pint of Boddies. This is a famous cheapo British bitter that I used to drink with Alan in Locomotive, a den full of fighty locals on Mill Road in Cambridge. It immediately brought back memories and is a beer perfect for such occasions, bitter, creamy, dense with no subtleties whatsoever. I never realised quite how much I like it!

Fuller's Summer Ale

2007-06-12T16:23:00.001-07:00

There are one billion beers called Summer Ale. This is Fuller's version; had two pints in Royal Oak while discussing who might get the latest physics appointment in Oxford (Joanna Dunkley did!). Light, easy beer perfect for musing over job market...

Ale Fresco

2007-06-10T12:18:00.001-07:00

by Greene King. This is a terrible, terrible pun. Beer is not much either...

Abbot Ale

2007-06-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the James Street Tavern to watch England vs Brazil. I had a pint of Abbot and you know what: it tasted so bad that I reverted to Fosters Extra Cold after it. Can you imagine? Was I just so drunk, was the beer off (didn't taste like it), or is Abbot, the Greene's King flagship beer, really a bit shit? Need to try again in a more sober state!

Kingfisher

2007-05-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

There are two good curry places in Oxford: Star of Asia and Uddins Manzil. Some people will try to convince you about e.g. Aziz and I indeed bought a half year discount in there only to discover that it is not very nice at all. Either way, eating curry in England usually involves drinking either Cobra or Kingfisher. The former is not very good and the latter is not very good either. It is however much better than the former. :) It is really Indian and although supposedly a lager it is very cloudy, one cannot see through (unfiltered?). Tastewise it reminds me a little bit about wheat beers. So, although watery it is still quite refreshing and goes well with hot Indian food. So, remember Kingfisher, not Cobra!

Old Peculier

2007-05-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

(When you are in a different country, builders come and disconnect your server. Oh, well...)
First, note that it is not Old Peculiar. Instead, it is Old Peculier. It is a strong beer by Theakston, claims to be legenedary on the bottle. I remember being uber fan of Old Peculiar a few years ago, it was my favourite in the local pub (King Street Run!), when they discontinued Flowers... Anyway, I bought 4 bottles this time and the beer is just not as nice as I rember it. Maybe it is just the difference between bottled and draught beer... Maybe my tastes have just changed.
(BTW - speaking of bottled vs draught: only very recently did I realise that the bottled Guinnes original is actually a different beer to Guinnes draught, not just bottled version of the other. One can also get Guinnes original on tap and Draught Guinnes in a can. There are always new learning opportunities...)

Hop

2007-05-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

This Greene King's Hop, formerly known as The beer to dine for. It now has a new name and a different label, but unique bottle style is still there. Greene King is known for its IPA, Abbot ale and to some extend the Old Speckled Hen. The bottle is tall, resembling the wine bottle and as its former name suggests it also tries to compete with wine as a drink to be drank with a dinner. As such it is extremely mild, but very aromatic, mostly due to use of funny hops from Oregon, they call them Tettnang hops. I shared a bottle tonight with Maja and whatever the idiots on the internet say, it is actually an ideal kind of beer to have with Italian or similar food (but no, don't have it with German sausages and sauerkraut, oh no! :) ) Plus, the 750ml bottle is ideal to share between two without either party getting overly drunk (which you inevitably do on a bottle of wine)...

Guinness

2007-05-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

I was dreading this moment for a long time. The truth is that I am still pretty much undecided about Guinness, but it is such as big name and I still drink it often enough that I need to include it in my beer blog. So, I used to hate it. But then, on NAM 2003, we went to Dublin, my entire PhD class and I had time of my life crawling between Dublin pubs getting wasted on Guinness. Plus, we visited the Guinness brewery cum museum: it is a place of perfect marketing, same as all Guinness adds, where you go through 5 floors of history and making of Guinness and you can smell hops and touch malt and learn about a small dose of copyrighted yeast that the director keeps in his safe in case the brewery yeast receives a deadly infection and so on and so on and at the end of this journey, one ends up at the top of the building, in the bar with magnificent views over Dublin. And then they serve you a complimentary pint of Guinness and by then there is now way anybody wouldn't be convinced that Guinness is indeed drink of angels... And so I still like it, but not sure whether I appreciate it as a beer of simply because I connect it to NAM 2003... At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter.

Spitfire

2007-05-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

On my way to inebriation last Friday I drank Spitfire just after Bishops Fingers and I immediately liked it. A malty, sharp taste that just makes you thirsty and longing for more. Coming from Kent and not too strong at 4.5%. And, it is a beer with a wikipedia page! Huhoh! Named after legendary aircraft that was used in Battle of Britain which was fought in the skies above Kent. Now we need a beer named after a hang-glider, that would be something for me...

Bishops Finger

2007-05-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

What can I say? Not bad, a well balanced ale with great name. But no extra points for originality as far as taste in concerned.

Bulmers' cider (on ice)

2007-05-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, it is a cider, not beer, I know. But there is this new cider craze in the UK. Cider used to be drank by lowly winos and teenages, but now they managed to rebrand it into a hip drink. Along with super-chilled beers comes Bulmers on Ice, i.e. you are supposed to sip this with your best friends and not be even a little bit ashamed... So, I couldn't resist and produced some ice and bought (three for the price of two, mind you!) Bulmers. It actually does work, cider is a somewhat refreshing drink and if you make it colder, it is even better. I think it will take some time to get used to, but now I consider it an option. Never underestimate marketing monkeys....

Honey Dew

2007-04-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

Honey Dew is another excellent invention by Fuller. I liked it a lot, even though it was given bad reviews on the internet. This style of honey beers is quite new to me and I must admit that I never associated honey with freshness, but there you go: Honey Dew and Waggle dance are both very fine beers. Served in a round glass resembling wine glass only a bit larger.

Waggle Dance

2007-04-22T04:45:00.000-07:00

Waggle dance is the figure-eight (or figure infinity) dance of the bee to communicate with its mates. Young's Waggle Dance is, as the name suggest, a honey beer. But it is very refreshing and very sparkling - once you pour it in a glass it bubbles like I have never seen a UK beer doing. Wonderfully delicate it says on the back of the bottle and I concur.

Asahi

2007-04-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

I remember Asahi beer primarily from an excellent noodle bar in Cambridge named Dojo. I used to like it at the time and so I bought it again and was pleasantly surprised. Surely, it is a watery lager (kind of stuff hobgoblin would look down onto :) ), but it has a remarkably silky and smooth after taste. Perfect for sunny summer middays with a bowl of Asian food.

Wychwood's Hobgoblin

2007-04-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've been drinking Hobgoblin for some time now. The beer is ok, very chocolatey, but not quite bitter enough for my taste... What is really good about Hobgoblin is its advertising slogan: "Are you afraid you might taste something, lagerboy?" Beautiful...

Old Hooky

2007-04-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

A beer brewed in Oxfordshire. Simple, quite drinkable but nothing special, despite all the rubbish at the back of the bottle.

Fruli Strawberry Beer

2007-04-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

I tasted this beer in Cape of Good Hope yesterday. It is quite strong for such kind of product 4.1%. I thought that it is actually a fermented strawberry juice (like strawberry cider or something), but it is actually a normal beer with strawberry juice mixed in or so the internet says. I must stress, that this is not like alcopop at all, it is thick and dense and tastes of real strawberries. In principle I like the fact the the sweet fruitiness of strawberry juice is complemented by beer bitterness. Ultimately, however, it is too heavy and too sweet... Hogaarden with a little bit of lemon does that kind of stuff much better....

Tyskie Gronie

2007-04-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

Tyskie Gronie is a Polish lager from Kompania Piwowarska. England is full of Polish people these days and obviously they need something to drink... :) I am not too fond of lagers in general, but this is a good beer. For a change, it actually has some taste, which is very unusual for a lager, and it is not even that bitter. Mild hop aroma, golder colour and thick white head... Ummm....

Artois Bock

2007-04-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

Artois, how do we know Artois? Stella, of course, the ultimate club lager everybody used to drink while starring at revealingly clad ladies on Friday night. Now, Artois Bock is like a posh artois: Artois Bock est une biere complexe et intriguante says the French bit on the back of the bottle. A bit further down, in English translation, one can find that this is "a blend of lager and aromatic malts [that] produces a superb fusion of malty flavours which contrasts with the exotic fruit aroma." Sounds interesting? It is, the beer is a funny mixture of lager and real ale, as if you put a grumpy British brewer in charge of stella... Indeed, quite intriguing...

Weissbier Etalon

2007-04-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

Pshenychne (pšenične!!) Weissbier etalon is the winner in one particular category of the Tesco beer challenge. Blurb goes as: "Tesco has been proud to support the international brewing industry ... yadi yadi yada ... The 'Best New Imported Beer' award was open to all non-UK brewed beers, and the judges were looking for beer which was distinctive and unusual, having the potential to intrigue and educate [mind you!!] the British drinker, whilst adding interest to the British beer culture. "
Beer itself is from Ukraine, conforms to the Beer purity law of 1516 and is actually a quite ordinary weissbier, nothing truly spectacular....

Morland's original

2007-04-10T06:51:00.001-07:00

This is one jolly nice beer from the creators of the famous Old Speckled Hen, which, amongst other things, is the beer drank by Alan's father... Not even British so much, this is just very English drinkable pub beer...
(Drank it with Maja on our pub-lunch day and we go so very full by food from Jude the Obscure that I had hard time focusing on the beer...)

Borislav Pekić: Steklina

2007-04-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

Na splošno nisem ravno navdušen nad srbskimi finticami, melos v stilu Ko to tamo pijeva in podobno, zato sem precej s težavo začel brati to knjigo, sploh ker je to debela bukla dolga 540 strani. Ampak, Pekićeva steklina, ki je izšla v Delovi zbirki Vrhunci stoletja je res dobra. V bistvu sem jo prebral že nekaj mesecev nazaj, ampak takrat še nisem beležil prebranega... Hecno pri tej knjigi je, da ni prevedena v angleški jezik (razen nekega debilnega prevoda pisateljeve vnukinje) in je potemtakem sploh ne morem priporočit nejugoslovanu... :) Osnovna zgodba je, da se Heathrow okuži z neko super-steklino, forma horror krimiča, ampak v bistvu je zgodba irelevantna, podobno kot pri večini postmodernistov tistega časa (knjiga je bila napisana v sedemdesetih letih). Kritiki na splošno trobijo o totalitarizmu in podobno ampak jaz sem knjigo povsem drugače izkusil. Gre za bizaren preplet človeških zgodb, čudnih karakterjev, malo verjetnih toda možnih zapletov, cel vrvež modernega letališča in bralec vseskozi ne ve, kaj se bo zgodilo z zgodbo: bo postala znanstvena fantastika, orvelijanska strahota, komedija? Torej bereš in bereš in vseskozi narobe ugibaš in potem te na koncu še poslednjič preseneti z res bizarnim koncem... Močno priporočam.

Discovery

2007-04-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

Fuller's Discovery is a rather weak (3.9%) beer. It claims to be Blonde Beer, but it doesn't quite taste blonde to me. Either way, I like weak beers because I can drink them on a Friday afternoon lunch without being afraid of getting drunk - and this beer is good at it with its lemonly, easy going taste; ultimately maybe a bit too tasteless...

Old Tyme

2007-04-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

I seem to be drinking more beer than reading recently... ;) Old Tyme is a classical ale that I drank yesterday in Jude the Obscure, together with my former supervisor and Kris. Nice, but nothing special.

Expecting England

2007-04-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am positive that was the name of the beer I drank today in Jericho Tavern, although internet does know anything about it. It wasn't bad, a sort of typical english ale you get in small breweries. Might drink it again, but not going to jump over the fence for it...

Six Nations

2007-04-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Drank this beer in the local pub. I think the 6 nations is something to do with rugby, etc., but I really don't know anything about that sport. Either way, the beer itself was too sweet for my taste, like if somebody put too much honey into the brew.

Golden Glory

2007-03-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

This is a 4.5% beer from Badger. There are funny floral motifs on the bottle and I remember buying this beer several times and for some reason I always forget about its taste. But it is actually good, somewhat different than your ordinary real ale, as if some juice was mixed into the brew. Indeed, the back of the bottle says that "peach blossom extract" has been added to "enhance the floral blend". Whatever. Very fresh, slightly lemonly, to be served chilled. Ideal for summer afternoons, not very much so on winter nights by the fireplace. Taste profile on the back of the bottle gives it high sweetness and fruitiness.

San Miguel

2007-03-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Shared this one with Maja in Kasbar today. Shitty tasteless lager. I hate cheap beers...

Marco Rossignoli: The complete Pinball Book

2007-03-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

I bought 3 book this New Year. One on beer (shit one, more on that on a later post), a Che Guevara bibliography (still waiting to be read) and this jewel about pinballs. It sounds like sad cases' hobby, but pinballs are actually incredibly cool and this book is just a very good introduction to the history and inner workings of pinballs. You can sort of see that he is not a professional writer, the style is a bit shabby every now and then, but the guy is so keen it is just joy to read him. It goes through all the history including flippers, bumpers, scoring devices, mutli platfors, EM-SS transition, pinball art, alternative experiments, etc., etc. It is amazing how much text the guy actually managed to write on the theme without repeating himself much... For example, did you know that flippers didn't exist before fifties and the first time they put them in, they pointed outwards? Or that flippers used to be just 2 inches long? And that you had to manually push ball into the lane using a strange contraption on early pinballs? Warmly recommended.

Cotswold Way

2007-03-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

Tesco, my closest and dearest supermarket, a huge chain where 1 in 8 pounds spent in Britain is spent, still manages to come up with a new good beer every now and then. Cotswold Way by Wickwar Brewing is one good beer. If you don't chill it out, you get a perfect real ale at room temperature, kind of stuff you drink at beer festivals and old smelly pubs. Evokes memories of my undergraduate years in King Street parade. I will not go on about malty-chocolaty-hopy crap some beer enthusiasts are so keen on; this is just a jolly drinkable beer for relaxed evenings.
Update: Don't drink this beer cool! Just done that and it tastes much worse!

Kingsdown Special Ale

2007-03-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

Ha, new beer in Tesco and no picture on the net. Made by Arkell from Swindon. It says "Strong Brew" on the bottle, but at 4.5% doesn't seem that strong to me, even for a real ale. There is a blurb on the back of the bottle about them being the finest "Victorian Stem Brewery" in the world. What exactly that mean is not clear, although they say something about raw material being fed on the top of the building and casks of ale coming out at the bottom - a bit like conveyor belt. The beer itself is actually quite good, a smooth traditional real ale with lingering taste. Too bad Maja spilled the bottle half-way through.

Virginia Woolf: K Svetilniku

2007-03-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

To je moja tretja knjiga od gospe Woolfove, prebral sem še Orlando (pred nekaj meseci) in Valove (pred nekaj leti), oboje v originalu. Valove imam v spominu kot boljše, so pa precej podobni. Orlando je povsem drugačen in malo slabši, četudi še vedno berljiv... Tokrat sem bral v slovenščini v prevodu Rape Šuklje, v bistvu je lepo brati dobre prevode in ta je bil precej soliden (čeprav se je Maja pritoževala obratno).
O Woolfovi se nikakor ne morem izdelati mnenja, nekaj časa se mi zdi ok, nekaj časa povsem jadna. Ima res dober feminističen cinizem, gospa Ramsayeva, ki je tipičen produkt 19 stoletja se ves čas prepričuje, da je zadovoljna, da je zgolj žena tečnega postaranega filozofa in poskuša poročiti še vse ostale v njeni bližini. Tudi tok zavesti ji gre dobro od rok, precej prepričljivo, ampak hkrati nekoliko dolgočasno za bralca - po pravici povedano so debilnosti, ki krožijo ljudem po glavah relativno dolgočasne. Najslabše ji pa gre, kadard začne razpredati o umetnostu, v K Svetilniku obstaja pisateličin alter-ego, slikarka Lily, ki vidi, ki gleda, ki tako vse uvideva in doživlja, da človeka primer srat, čeprav izgleda sicer čisto ok človek.
Tri do štiri.

Budweiser

2007-03-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

I tried the Budweiser beer for the first time ever last Saturday. Not that I was particularly keen on it, I just wanted to try this ephemeral omnipresent Yankee beer. And it was exactly as I expected, a watery, slightly bitter lager. A bit like Lasko (one of the two equally crap Slovene beers)...

Harvard Business Review on Entrepreneurship

2007-03-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

Ok, couldn't get a more decently sized picture. A good book, not too much bullshit, but general common-sense that might be useful when you try to get rich as I do every now and then. A collage of papers from different authors - every now and then they blatantly contradict themselves; some papers much better than the others. My biggest problem is that all this is pre-internet (my copy is a 99 reprint, but articles date mostly 85-95) and business, marketing and distribution models were considerably different then. Still, who made millions there is likely to be able to make them now. Chapter about commercialising technology is particularly crap, and "How much money does your new venture need?" is also surprisingly useless. Chapters on how to write a successful business plan and the one on milestones are particularly good and so is the quite amusing rant by Arthur Rock, a legendary venture capitalist.

Tangle Foot

2007-03-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

According to the bottle, this is a premium traditional ale. There is a short story on the bottle about the head brewer, who invited his staff on the tasting session for his new creation and they all got hammered and head brewer's feet got tangled on the way out and hence the name. They call this idiotic fall "a sudden loss of steering". :)

Quite good, but not quite malty enough for my taste. Still, consistent with "deceptively drinkable" description found on the bottle. Fairly strong at 5%, not much head-ache afterwards.

Brooklyn Lager

2007-03-04T04:29:00.000-08:00

I've noticed this beer being sold in Tesco for 1.20 pounds per bottle, rather cheap.

The bottle advertises "..Broklyn Lager is a revival of Brooklyn's pre-Prohibition all malt beers." And indeed the inside is a superb, rudimentary tasting beers evoking what I want to think were smoky bars in foggy 1920 New York with feeble street lighting and old cars...