Beer Post

I've been in beer mode for the past several months and thankfully, good beer is not hard to come by. Last summer Blue Moon was my beer of choice with a slice of orange. It was perfect. Better than iced tea on a hot day. This past fall/early winter I was still on the hunt for more great beers. I got into the typical Oktoberfest beers and even attended the Belgian Beer fest. Since the end of Fall I've had (and gotten hooked on) some fantastic beer, I've also had some very disappointing beer but that's been forgotten. I want to share some of my favorites.

Abita
One of my recently discovered favorites is Abita's Turbodog. I first had this beer a little over a year ago at a microbrew in New Orleans; where the beer is made. It is a terrific all time beer.
Abita Amber is also a fantastic beer. It's a Munich style lager with a slight caramel flavor. I had also tried the purple haze but it did not compare to these other two. I am looking forward to trying their Bock which is apparently out January to March. There is a local place I know which has Turbodog and Purple Haze. Fingers crossed their have the Bock! (I haven't checked yet.)

Brooklyn
If you like a serious stout, Brooklyn Brewery has a high alcohol content, delicious Black Chocolate Stout. It doesn't kid; it's a stout.

My brother introduced me to Brooklyn's Monster 2007 ale. This is a really balanced beer. It is copper red in color, high in alcohol content (really high), and not too malty nor too hoppy. It is a really impressive beer. I'm disappointed in its limited release-ness.

Blue Moon
As I mentioned, I love the original. But this Winter a friend (knowing I love the original) gave me some Full Moon, their Winter seasonal. While he likes it much better than Blue Moon (in fact he doesn't like Blue Moon at all) I still prefer the original. Full Moon is a good Winter Ale. I found it to be a combination of Sam Winter (a standby favorite) and Blue Moon. I plan to do my own taste test soon.
Rising Moon has just come out. It's the Spring seasonal. It's worth a try, especially if you like Amber beers.

Sam Adams
Sam Adams' Winter Ale is one of my favorite winter beers. It's easy to come by, it's local, and it's a great tasting beer. Nuff said.
I'm not a huge fan of Sam Adams' Double Bock. I'll take the Brooklyn chocolate stout or Sam Winter over it any day.

Anchor
I was very disappointed not to have Anchor Steam in California on a recent work trip. There's a local place that has this on tap and I usually get it when I'm there. I much prefer this to Blue Moon's Rising Moon.
After returning from said work trip, I had a party to go to. I brought Anchor Porter with me because I saw it in the store and because I didn't get to have any in California. This is an excellent porter! It pours almost as dark as oil. It's very intense but very delicious.

Now if only I could get access to my brother's beer fridge... (Other than to take a picture.)

A Fiat with a 24k gold paint job and Swarovski crystals? Hahaha.

Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

So maybe now it's: Filch it again, Tony.



Ok, that was weak. I know.

Persuade My Heart

My dream last night combined centuries: Captain Wentworth was trying to persuade Anne to have open heart surgery.

Persuasion was written by Jane Austen while she was ill and was completed in 1816. It was her last novel and was not published until 1818, 1 year after her death.

From NOVA: Pioneers of Heart Surgery

One of the first surgeons to use improved techniques to gain access to the heart was Dr. Dwight Harken, a young U.S. Army surgeon. Many of Harken's patients were young soldiers evacuated from the European front with shell fragments and bullets lodged inside their hearts. To leave the shrapnel in was dangerous, but removing it was almost surely fatal. Harken began operating on animals, trying to develop a technique that would allow him to cut into the wall of a still beating heart, insert a finger, locate the shrapnel and remove it. All of his first 14 animals subjects died. Of the second group of 14, half died. Of the third group of 14, only 2 died. Harken felt ready to try the technique on humans. All of his patients survived, proving that the human heart could be operated upon.

It wasn't long before surgeons began wondering if Harken's technique might be applied to defective heart valves. In 1948, within days of each other, Harken and a Philadelphia surgeon, Dr. Charles Bailey, independently reported on a daring procedure to correct mitral stenosis. Just as with the soldiers, a small hole was cut in the side of a beating heart and a finger was inserted to find and very carefully widen the narrowed valve. Early results were disastrous, with the majority of patients dying. Gradually, though, surgeons improved their technique and the procedure became quite safe. This kind of blind surgery -- or closed heart surgery -- spread to hospitals around the world.

On September 2, 1952, two University of Minnesota surgeons, Dr. Walton Lillehei and Dr. John Lewis, attempted the first open heart surgery on a five-year-old girl who had been born with a hole in her heart. Anaesthetized to stop her shivering, the girl was cooled by a special blanket until her body temperature reached 81 degrees F. At this temperature, she could survive without a pumping heart for ten minutes, not four. Clamping the inflow to her heart so that it emptied of blood, Lillehei and Lewis cut open her heart, which was still slowly beating, and quickly sewed up the hole. With the repaired heart working properly for the first time in her life, the girl was then immersed in a bath of warm water to bring her body temperature back to normal. The operation was a success."

Shipwrecked! Part II

This morning as I woke early, showered, and dressed I had a flashback to childhood Sunday mornings when I was woken early and prompted to put on my Sunday best for Church. I wasn't headed to church this morning instead I was headed to the beach which is a much more awe-inspiring place for me than Church. I headed back out to the Wellfleet shipwreck in hopes of less people and better light. My eagerness was rewarded; only a handful of people were there when I arrived which was about a half hour after high tide. I thought the tide might be too high to walk up to the ship but it was not.


I've posted some more photos on flickr.

EDIT: I ended up going back again on Sunday; this time I walked from Truro into Wellfleet along the coastline. It was a pleasant walk although the sun was blocked by the dunes so it was chilly.

I've tracked my walk in google maps.

Shipwrecked!

A wooden shipwreck from the 1800's has washed up ashore in my hometown of Wellfleet. Since today was such a gorgeous day, I headed to the beach to check it out. I wasn't alone, the parking lot was packed. There were more cars and people than there are on a sunny Saturday in July. They were all there to see the shipwreck. It's odd because on any other winter afternoon you could possibly have the beach to yourself.

The 50-foot keel and wooden ribs with hand-carved wooden dowels washed up onto the beach by waves from the snow storm last Sunday. Bill Quinn, who has written a number of books on Cape Cod maritime history, speculates the wreck could be the remains of the Logan, a 19th-century schooner, which was refitted as a coal barge and was wrecked around 1920. The Cape Cod Times reports:

"There were more than 3,500 shipwrecks in Cape waters between 1850 and 1980, most during the late 19th century when sailing ships were the primary way to carry cargo along the Eastern seaboard. Before the Cape Cod Canal was finished in 1914, the only way past the Cape was to make the treacherous journey around the shifting sand bars of the Outer Cape and Chatham."

There was no mistaking where the shipwreck was located, a large crowd of people surrounded it taking photographs, digging nearby, and walking all over the boat, children and adults. This annoyed me a little. It's a historical site, not a playground. Of course there were other people climbing the dunes to get a photograph from above. Real smart people. You must either be 1) superbly stupid, or 2) not from here. There are signs warning of erosion and prohibiting people from climbing the dunes. And with good reason. Example 1 & example 2. But clearly, Joe Schmo getting his photographs is much more important.

It was quite a spectacular sight, despite all the people. I will be posting pictures on flickr soon. I also aim to get out there early tomorrow morning in hopes of avoiding the crowds and having better light. For now, you can check out the CC Times article on the shipwreck, and check out some photographs from one of my favorite local photographers.