Weird Beer Night The First...

was a huge success. It was a tradition that was started back in college when a few buddies of mine and I got together and decided that we wanted to try new things. We all liked good beer and decided that we wanted to expand our horizons and try a few new kinds. But what do you do on a students salary or more importantly what do you do when you buy beer and you hate it. Just throw away the other five? No you gather up your friends and get them to try the crappy beer and see if they may like it. Everyone has different tastes some like the hops, some the maltier the better, others like it as light as water. The taste is the key, beer is to be enjoyed like a fine wine. So that is what we did. The rules are simple, actually THE rule is simple. Everyone brings a beer that they have never tried before. This can be hard normally especially since I have been "of age" for seven years now and have tried most domestics. I haven't had a weird beer night since I graduated college.

The signing of "Gourmet Beer Bill" in May 2009 thanks to the Free the Hops campaign opened up a whole new world of beers to Alabama. The increased alcohol content is not the exciting part, it is the doors that it opens. Many breweries will not ship any of their beers to Alabama if they can't send all of them. This means more microbrews, more foreign beers and just generally more of everything. There is still some ways to go as you can see by the site but this enhancement in our beer choices gave me an idea. Weird beer night in Montgomery!

A month or so ago I got together five of my buddies who were good beer lovers like myself and we inaugurated this new bill with a beer tasting of sorts. Eight different beers were brought to the house and I had two others that didn't enter the "competition".
-Gaelic Ale from Highland's brewing company
-Delirium Tremens from Huyghe Brewery in Melle, Belgium

 

The other eight were rated very partially by the judges and finished as follows, one being the highest rated by average and eight being the lowest but still good beer.

1. Fat Tire from New Belgium Brewing 
2. Butt Head Bock from Tommyknocker Brewery
   
3. St. Bernardus Tripel from Belgian Family Brewing
   
4. Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale from Anheuser-Busch Company
   
5. Hoptober also from New Belgium Brewing
   
6. He'brew The Chosen Beer Messiah Bold from the Shmaltz Brewing Company
   
7. Rogue American Amber Ale from Rogue Ales
   
8. Jack Whacker Wheat Ale also from Tommyknocker Brewery
   

It was absolutely awesome. Hopefully soon we will be able to do it again and we can use my certified best gift of Christmas 2009, my new Sam Adams glasses.

Designed for the perfect pint of beer. Check it out here. My sister and brother-in-law got me a set of four and I am so excited. I will update with another list next time we get together to sample the mead.

On A Cold Day in December... 

my father and I made a drive to Nashville. But I need to start at the beginning. I rarely have a weekend off (about once a month) and so we took the opportunity to travel to my parents house and have Christmas a little early since I have to work on the actual holiday. I got a random text Friday night, "Dad got 2 free tickets to Titans/Dolphins game Sunday, Noon. Would you want to go?". I was like what, sure, maybe I'm dreaming, free tickets to one of the most exciting matchups of the weekend. I wasn't. After an awesome pre-Christmas Christmas day where we watched "Elf" and "Christmas Vacation" in an amazing holiday double feature, opened presents and had a big family dinner, we headed up the road to Nashville. The pops and and I swooped into the 37o stadium fully layered and ready for some football. With both teams facing elimination from the playoffs with a loss this game had a lot riding on it. We were treated to an awesome game worthy of it's importance...




The Titans were winning 24-6 with 5:40 left in the 3rd quarter and it was looking like they were going to pound the Dolphins when they did what they have done all season and slogged back into the game. Helped in big part to an absolutely improbable catch (it's about 3:06 in the highlight reel) where the ball is almost intercepted then knocked away then caught for a long first down. The temp dropped to a lovely 35 about mid game before the wind finally let up and the sun came out right before overtime started. That's right OT, it was my first NFL overtime and I have to say that I LOVE college footballs overtime setup and have been a frequent nay-sayer of the NFL overtime but man it's crazy watching it. The Titans intercepted a Chad Henne pass on the first drive and kicked a game winning 47 yard field goal... WOW!

Titans won and we headed home. We left the house at 9:15am, walked into the stadium 30 seconds before kickoff and were back in Hartselle right at 6pm. An awesome day with my kick A dad.

Also I joined the twittering phenomenon this weekend, I have yet to tweet but I am following several folks to get the feel. Look me up - JohnMcFeeIII. Follow me and I will follow you or whatever the kids call it these days. Actaully I am going to announce this blog post on Twitter by tweeting a tweet about this bweet or bleet or tweelog.

Now winter is half over...

and this is my first blog in 3 months. Not going to happen again but then again it may. The winter is here and my wife and I both absolutely love this season. Maybe for not all the same reasons but we do share at least one major crossover. We love to spend time with family and friends as we celebrate the cornerstone of our beliefs. Without His birth he couldn't have died and given meaning to this crazy race we call life. We get distracted this time of year by presents and football and worrying about how we are going to get to everywhere we have to go. But we cannot forget the reason for the season. I will get off my deacon soapbox and continue on to other things.

It is a great time of year for reading. I know that I read year round but this time of year is when coffee takes on a new life. Christmas blends at my favorite coffee shops sipped slowly at home or at the shop itself. Starbucks at Eastchase or Cafe Louisa in Cloverdale are outstanding venues for a cup of coffee 'for there'. I forgot how much fun it was to just slow down and finish a mug of coffee, something I took for granted all those years at Taylor's Bakery in Auburn. I figured that in order to catch up on my 3 month drought of posts I could go through a few interesting books that I have read in the last few weeks. As most of you know who read my blog I am an avid movie fan as well and as mediums go only books are better. So it only stands to reason that I would rather read a book before seeing the movie and alot of times I have already read a great book before they even decide to make a movie out of it. So four of these are topically relevant all but one I have also seen the movie.

The Blind Side - Michael Lewis (5 out of 5) - An amazing story about a black boy born in the worst part of Memphis who through a series of events ends up at a private Christian school thanks to a grandmother who new there was potential in her grandson and left money for him to attend a private school. Michael Oher wasn't the grandson he was just a friend of the grandson who went along for the ride. A caring family who found out he didn't have a place to stay took him in and helped him qualify for high school football as well as adopt him giving him a family for the first time in his life. The book continues on through his college recruitment and an investigation by the NCAA when he chooses his adopted parents alma mater 'Ole Miss. The book a ton of info about left tackles and their development as one of the highest paid positions in the NFL second only to quarterbacks. The movie is also outstanding and does a great job of telling Michael's story.

Twilight & New Moon - Stephanie Meyer (3 out of 5) - Unless you are a dude or a girl living under a rock you have already heard about these books. I have called this many times 'girl porn' as it appeals to the most basic want for girls to be sought after feverishly by a godly being of a person who is willing to forsake his own needs to be with her. The first book is about Edward and Bella meeting and cementing their love for each other and felt more like a prequel than a full story. The 3 out of 5 is more of an average Twilight got closer to a 2 and New Moon closer to a 4. New Moon starts with Edward leaving Bella after a very tense event where Bella cuts her hand in a room full of vampires, and he realizes the danger he is putting her in. Jacob her friend and soon to be werewolf falls for her and again she is swooned over by a guy who never wheres a shirt. The movies were similair to the books Twilight was ok and New Moon was better. If it keeps improving the 4th book may just be great.
 
The Road - Cormac McCarthy (5 out of 5) - I don't understand why it took me 3 years to find this book. I can only blame Oprah's Book Club for picking it which is no excuse since everyone of the books on her list I have read has been great (Night by Wiesel and Million Little Pieces by Frey). It is about a father and son who don't ever even have names that are traveling through a post-apocalyptic world trying to find food in the ash covered world that is left after some nuclear event. People have resorted to eating each other and they are trying to find a place where they will be safe and maybe get out from under the clouds of ash. The father is trying desperately to show his son that life can continue on without resorting to cannibalism and loss of morality. The movie is in limited release now but I strongly suggest you go see it especially if you aren't planning to read the book. No spoilers but it is a heavy story so don't look down on a man who sheds a tear while watching.

Hopefully I will have several more posts before the end of the year to give some best of 2009 stuff and alot more book reviews. Merry Christmas!