Anchor Small Beer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!