Beer

[aggienaut]

   (A) I've remembered my dreams for the last few nights, which is a bit unusual. (i) Three nights ago I dremt I was a political prisoner; (ii) The night before last I dremt I was an adventurer in Saudi Arabia around the turn of the century. Lawrence of Arabia style (not that I've seen the movie actually, but I'm guessing), riding around on horses involved in inter-tribal political intrigue, battling with rifles and sabers... (iii) Last night I dremt that a friend and I got lost and left behind by a group somewhere in the mountains and we walked for like two weeks before we made it back home.

   (B) Recently Larry, and I, went to the Stone Brewery, where the Sam & his girlfriend Allison met up with us. As most of the group had never been to the Stone Brewery, everyone was impressed by their nice grounds and garden.
   I was extremely pleased to find that they had the hard-to-find Meantime Coffee Porter, so of course I got it asap and it was delicious as always. Next I had Young's Old Nick Barleywine, which was also delicious. I definitely think barleywine is my favourite variety of beer after sweet stouts (such as the ubiquitous Young's Chocolate Stout, or my personal very favourite beer Mackeson Triple XXX Stout). Following this the server gave me a sample of Alesmith Speedway Stout and Coronada Brewing Company Outlet Stout, of which I believe we all preferred the Outlet Stout (interestingly Speedway has a higher average review on beeradvocate.com) and I proceeded to get a glass of such. It was good but I found myself wishing I'd gotten another barleywine.
   Perhaps the most noteworthy beer I got a chance to taste, however, was the Stone Brewing Company's Wine Barrel Aged 2007 Vertical Epic Ale that Larry got. It was extremely flavourful - tasted like it was going to be bitter but then didn't have an unpleasant bite. I only had a sip of Larry's but now I definitely want to do further research as to whether the more readily available non-barrel-aged Vertical Epic is as good.
   After the abovementioned barleywine and sweet stout varieties I think I like "American Strong Ale" (AKA most things just labeled "ale" I think). I have long tried to avoid all lagers, but Larry made me try Landshark the other day and it wasnt' bad. I agree with Larry's description of it being "like Corona, only much better." So I recommend you all immediately replace Corona with it in your drinking habits (its readily available from BevMo). Also I'm starting to consider IPAs something I try to avoid.
   While poking around on beeradvocate.com I was amused to find that most of the extremely mass produced beers ("macro lagers") such as Corona, bud light, coors light, etc etc all have either D- or F average reviews (by both the users in general and the professionals) (interestingly, the oft derided PBR has better reviews than most of the other "macro lagers"). Personally I'd rather drink tapwater and therefore tend to grab a bottle of Old Guardian for myself before I head to parties. And speaking of which I filled my two liter growler with 2008 Old Guardian Barleywine on the way out.

Picture of the Day

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Comments

[misterschmoo.livejournal.com]

Very jealous of your bees, I am thinking of getting some hives in the next couple of years, I have a question, if you had known what you know now about bees/hives etc. is there anything you would have done differently.

Also, about getting stung, I appreciate that this happens, but I'm curious as to why, does the protective clothing not work?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Sometimes even after meticulously putting on the whole suit they can somehow find their way into some gap or hole in the suit you were unaware of or accidentally left. BUT

Whats more likely is that, as you can see for example my associate doing here, experienced beekeepers almost invariably eventually become too lazy to put the suit on unless they really have to. If you have docile bees and aren't rummaging about their hive overly much you can still maybe expect to get stung once or twice while wearing no protective clothing, but one usually eventually decides this isn't a terrible cost to pay to not have to wear the big clumsey suit.

Or frequently beekeepers just sloppily put on the suit and say leave gaps around their wrists, or I, personally, frequently don't bother to zip the veil on -- so bees can occasionally fly in and buzz around my face, but I also can itch my nose, take a drink, etc etc.

Or in the case of the day I took these pictures I actually wasn't wearing gloves when I took the pictures because my gloves quickly became sticky and I wasnt' about to get my camera sticky. Suprisingly I only got one sting to my hands.

And then there was the time in january which due to an error in judgement on the part of myself AND two other experienced beekeepers (well one was drunk at the time I think) we attempted to move beehives in the dark without protective suits after they'd been rattled around on a trailer and I got stung 130 times. d= but we all laughed about it later and the older beekeepers remarked I'd "gotten my cherry popped" and "it happens to everyone sooner or later."

As to what to do differently .. not really. Start out small with just a few hives to get the hang of the common procedures. Helps if you are able to befriend a local beekeeper to show you the ropes or perhaps join a local beekeeping club if there is one. Where do you live? If you live somewhere thats already saturated with Africanized bees I highly recommend you buy your bees from somewhere else rather than catching a local swarm.

But yeah. Bees are fun! You should get into it. (=

[misterschmoo.livejournal.com]

Well that's good to hear, in other words I will only get stung as much as I deserve to be.

There is a bee keeping club here and a guy just in the next town over who will sell swarms for a nominal fee, so that's all good, to my knowledge we have no problems with africanised bees here, though the country has a problem with the Varroa bee mite,

http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/pests-diseases/animals/varroa.htm

Though I don't think it has made it to my area yet, and I don't know if it's innevitable that it will.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah varroa mites are pretty much throughout North America now I think. There are some basic treatments though which should keep them at bay. Where are you located?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh I just looked at your profile and you're in NZ -- I don't know if Vorroa mites are there. But yeah you probably do not have Africanized bees. I have no idea you might even have the asian honeybee there, Apis cerana (which is good IMO, they're more resistant to many of the diseases currently ravaging Apis mellifera across North America).