One New York Life

Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection — New World Tripel

Brewed By: Boston Beer Company
Brewed In: Boston, MA — also aged there, per the press release.
ABV: 10%
Type: Belgian (style) Tripel

What They Say: Pale gold in color, this ale is big, flavorful and complex. A special Belgian yeast strain adds tropical fruit and spice notes to the crisp dry ale, while Saaz hops add a subtle herbal note. (~10% ABV). Sadly, the neck booklet didn’t make it to New York on this beer.

Website: Other than the press release, I can’t find much info on this beer on their website. According to my newsletter, these are still available at the brewery but I don’t know if they’re anywhere else.

Why I Picked It: In various trades with The Big Show, I managed to get my hands on all three of these. I saw the press release a (long) while back, really wanted them, and eventually got them. They sat in my refrigerator for quite awhile waiting for the perfect weekend. As it turned out, Mets/Yankees Subway Series 2 + UFC + World Cup turned out to be that weekend. This is the first of three beers in the Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection series.

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Presentation (5): I love the whole idea of these bottles. I like the caged-cork, I LOVE the BRC logo, and I like the bottles looking vaguely like barrels. Sam usually does a pretty bang up job with the packaging of their specialty offerings and these are no exception. This is what being big enough to have a marketing department allows. 5

Originality (5): This is more “eh” in originality than the other two. I’ve mentioned this before: I’m not a huge fan of American breweries doing Belgian styles because, well, they really don’t do them better than the abbeys that have being doing them for, in some cases, hundreds of years. As also mentioned before, there is one brewery that does Belgians well, and it should, by law, be served on taps at every baseball stadium due to its location in Cooperstown. 2

Body (10): This smells, pours, and looks like a Belgian. The expected heavy-yeasty aroma is cut a bit by citrus. The beer pours a hazy gold with some yeasty, floating sediment. Decent head in a tulip glass that reduces with some nice lacing. It’s a satisfying thickness for the type, with a smooth, creamy mouthfeel that’s quite nice. The carbonation here is just right, but slightly difficult to separate from the burn of the alcohol. 5

Taste (10): I originally decanted in to a Guinness glass until I read the press release which suggested a tulip glass. The rest of the bottle went in to the tulip. The flavors and yeasty aromas really did become much more intense. Honestly, I had a hard time picking up any flavors other than the yeasts, alcohol, and a touch of fruit. Between the citrusy acid, the carbonation, and the strong alcohol it had a very warm finish. The barrel aging, if anything, took away some of the Belgian flavor. As fake Belgians go, the flavor here wasn’t my favorite. Ommegang, as usual, does it better. 6

Efficiency (10): The 10% claim almost seems low. It’s possible I was tricked by the strong alcohol warmness in the finish. I’m not sure if the aging process (about three months) made the alcohol more distinct, but this would be tough to call efficient. Due to the trading situation, I’m not really sure what this cost so I’m working on the assumption the bottles were $7 – $12. The pinnacle of efficiency for this type is Three Philosophers from Ommegang and, well, this just doesn’t get there. 6

Versatility (10): Incredibly low. This is a cute beer and I love Sam trying to claim some of the “we’re going to make some obscure stuff” title from Dogfish and Brooklyn but there are many better Belgian styles on the market. As a Sam completest, this was worth it for me, but I’d never recommend this over some of the other, better ones. 3

The Snob Sez: Acceptable beer, but like I implied in the review of Saranac’s Belgian: it’s a crowded market between real Belgians and Ommegang. If a brewery’s going to bring it, they need to bring it hard. This doesn’t quite bring it hard enough.

Final Score: 27 (of 50) — Good beer.

Rogue XS Imperial Red Ale

Brewed By: Rogue Ales
Brewed In: Newport, OR
ABV: 9%
Type: Red Ale, Imperial

What They Say: 8 Ingredients: Crystal 40, Chocolate, Rogue Micro Barley Farm Dare(tm) and Risk(tm) Malts, Rogue Micro Hopyard Alluvial & Williamette Hops, Free Range Coastal Water, and Top Fermenting Pacman Yeast. According to this beer’s web page, though, that appears to be a lie. The web page claims 12 ingredients and also offers the normal Rogue tasting notes: A big beer with a spicey [sic] fruity aroma, chewy mid palate of figs and spice and a long lingering finish. Deep burgundy in color with tremendous drinkability.

Website: Discussed in depth last week. Still love it.

Why I Picked It: This was purchased from the Whole Foods Bowery Beer Room on the same day I picked up the Half-E-Weizen. A box of small 7 oz bottles were next to the register. Since it was there, I grabbed one.

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Presentation (5): The “7oz nip”-sized XS bottles exist to be placed at the register and grabbed as an impulse purchase. It’s sneaky, but effective. Considering the presentation, in this case, was the only reason I bought it, it would be really dishonest to not go full points. Otherwise, it’s a Rogue-styled bottled with an odd painting of a mustachioed dude in a red cloak. 5

Originality (5): It’s an imperial red, so there’s nothing here setting it apart from others of the type. They also claim a proprietary style of hops on the bottle, but this claim is disputed by the website. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I do know it’s a red with a high ABV. 1

Body (10): This pours a deep, almost-crimson red with a small head. I decanted in to a regular pint glass which, obviously, only filled about halfway. It didn’t seem to require a tulip glass. There’s a strong, spicy carbonation that pairs well with the heavy malts. Everything works pretty well together. 8

Taste (10): It smells and tastes malty. It’s really all about malts. I notice the chocolate first which struck me as out of place in a red. The raisin and fig flavoring come in well behind the bolder flavors. The conflicting ingredient lists are screwing me up here because I’m not sure what I’m tasting. Ultimately, the beer tastes like a mash-up of a high-quality, dense red bittered up with chocolate malt. Dry finish leaves the lingering flavor of chocolate. I love the flavors here, and they work together, but I don’t know how much of this I could drink. I guess that explains the serving size. 7

Efficiency (10): At nearly $1/oz ($4.99 plus tax and deposit for 7 oz), this beer would have to reach Utopias-levels of ABV to be efficient. It doesn’t have that. Really, it’s an overpriced sample. I complain about cask festivals that charge $3.50 for an 8 oz pour, so it would be disingenuous to not complain about it here. The 9% ABV saves a little face but, really, why would I pay bar prices for a high ABV beer when I could, you know, go to a bar? 2

Versatility (10): Incredibly low. What am I going to do with a bunch of 7 oz bottles that cost $5 each? These are like the Coronitas… except if an 8 pack of Coronitas cost $40. They exist so people can look at them and go OHHHHHHH THEY’RE SO CUTE!!!!! There’s hardly enough in the bottle to get into. Just as I started enjoying it, it was over. 1

The Snob Sez: A tasty beer destroyed by its serving size. I’d support the idea of sample-sized bottling. I won’t support it at bar pricing. If the Bowery Beer Room ever gets this in Growlers, we’ll revisit.

Final Score: 24 (of 50) OK beer.

I was innocently bumming around on Twitter during Mets/Orioles when Low Res Joe started talking about LOGO’s list of top Buffy episodes. Joe soon turned it in to a (rightfully) indignant post over a horrifically conceived list which was clearly stuffed by Team Spike fangirls.

Now, I like Spike. I think he was probably one of the most valuable characters in the show’s run minus the wholly out of character and stupidly conceived “Spike kinda rapes Buffy” scene. The problem I have is that the Spike/Buffy relationship wasn’t wholly responsible for the show’s best. The other problem is it wholly ignores the great stuff that happened between Buffy and Angel in early seasons and totally marginalizes the rest of the characters. Specifically, almost nothing with Anya or Oz.

Three episodes this list doesn’t include and why:

Hush: This is the much lauded episode which was written specifically so Joss could prove dialog wasn’t the only thing he was good at. I know this is a popular episode because it’s so memorable. But, I think it’s a gimmicky episode that sits by itself in the universe. Outside Tara’s first appearance, it didn’t really contribute anything to the rest of the narrative. That said, if I’m creating a list of Creepiest Bad Guys In Television History, The Gentleman would be high on it.

Once More With Feeling: See above. I love this episode, I have the soundtrack, and whenever Going Through The Motions or Walk Through The Fire hits the iPod it makes me happy. Just writing this paragraph will be sufficient to make me sing “The battle’s done, and we kinda won / so we sound our victory cheer” and “The curtains close on a kiss, God knows / We can tell the end is near” for the next two days. That said, it’s also a gimmicky episode — albeit a great one — and didn’t really do much. It just kind of served as a weird way to make all the characters admit things to each other that they’d been hiding. Not including it doesn’t mean I dislike it… it just means I want my episodes to be memorable outside of their gimmick.

Conversations With Dead People: I know a lot of people love this episode. I hated it. If The First was going to mess with Willow, he would do it with Tara — not with some random girl that nobody remembered for anything outside her creepy voice. If they couldn’t use Tara (and the Wiki entry states Amber Benson refused) then they should have used Willow’s guilt over killing Warren or used a different character entirely. I’ve never been able to get past this and it’s why I think the episode is hugely overrated.

Anything From Season 7 After The Potentials Are Activated: As the show pushed toward the end, I thought it fell apart down the stretch. I didn’t like the forced relationship with Kennedy and Willow. I didn’t like Anya’s gratuitous, pointless death in the finale. I didn’t like the silly storyline with the Battle Axe Of DOOM. I didn’t like the Faith/Buffy interplay at the end. I largely didn’t like The Slayer Army. As an aside, though, I’ve always thought this pile of potentials is what they should have used to launch a movie franchise. Take the Slayers and turn them in to a Bond-esque franchise where one girl gets followed for a few movies. When she gets too big, kill her off and move to a new girl. Or, have the first movie start with a Slayer Armageddon and go back to having one Slayer. Just because all the Slayers were activated due to Willow’s spell doesn’t mean that new ones aren’t being born. Faith is currently the Slayer Of Record, so we even have roles for Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku in the first movie. I digress.

Below is my personal top 15.

15) Graduation Day (S3E21/22): The finale of season three. I didn’t love the episode as a whole, but I loved the message. That being that your principal is a secret demon and everyone can fight evil if they worked together…. and blew up their school. If, for nothing else, it gave me Harmony the Vampire, who became one of my favorite characters in the final season of Angel.

14) Wild At Heart (S4E6): This was the culmination of the far too short Oz/Willow/Veruca love triangle. It was everything that a Whedon love-triangle should be. Oz’s werewolf self fell for Veruca’s werewolf while his human self still was in love with Willow. Great twist on the standard love triangle and awesome parallels between guy’s bad halves and good halves. Oz’s werewolf form saves Willow from Veruca as Willow was considering doing something awful to him. If you believe the Wikipedia entry, Joss had a much longer arc for this storyline planned before Seth Green decided to leave the show. Another reason to hate Seth Green, though it wound up working out because it let Willow and Tara happen.

13) Entropy (S6E18): Anya and Xander recover from their broken wedding. Anya does it by returning to D’Hoffryn to become a vengeance demon. Xander sulks. Anya tries to grant her own wishes to get back at Xander but can’t. Anya spends most of the episode trying to get someone to wish harm on Xander before eventually getting drunk with Spike, revealing their secrets to each other, and then banging. This episode was significant only in that it finally revealed Spike and Buffy’s secret relationship and Xander’s insane issues with becoming too much like his awful father. By the end of the episode, Anya prevents Spike from making a wish. Not much, but something.

12) After Life (S6E3): I wasn’t a huge fan of the premiere episode of season six. I did love the follow-up though. Toward the end of this episode, Buffy describes to Spike where she was the 140 or so days that she was dead. Wherever I was… I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time… didn’t mean anything… nothing had form… but I was still me, you know? And I was warm… and I was loved… and I was finished. Complete. I don’t understand about theology or dimensions, or… any of it, really… but I think I was in heaven. And now I’m not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out… by my friends. Everything here is… hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch… this is Hell. Just getting through the next moment, and the one after that… knowing what I’ve lost… (h/t to tv.com). This is the (conveniently ignored by Christian protesters) closest Whedon’s universe gets to admitting that there is a higher power on the good side, rather than just the load of evil beasties on the evil side. The first time through, I got sick of Buffy’s annoyingly fatalistic attitude. It took the second trip through season six before I realized she was in Heaven and got ripped out (or finally became lucid in the real world… more on this later) and had to start fighting again. I’d probably be trying to get back, too. This episode is the reminder.

11) Villains (S6E20): Willow’s various adventures in to the evil side always made me happy. It was just such a departure from the normal character. This is the episode following Tara’s untimely gunshot death by Warren and Willow’s quick descent in to batshit insanity. This is one of the more brutal, drawn out deaths given to a mortal in the show’s run as Willow first takes the bullet that killed Tara and slowly uses magic to push it in to Warren’s chest before flaying him alive. It’s also one of the few times we get Buffy’s view of the mortal justice system. She disagrees with what Willow is doing, because the justice system is for people. It’s not on them to be judge and jury. Dark Willow disagreed.

10) Prophecy Girl (S1E12): The finale of Season One. Buffy discovers that prophecy says she will die while fighting The Master. She quits slaying before deciding to do her job. This is the first of many times we see Buffy trying to fulfill her death wish. They’d explore it much more in later seasons, but they really didn’t waste any time talking about the unfairness of The Slayer’s life. Buffy protests she doesn’t want to die at sixteen, then So that’s it, huh? I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, next one’s called. Wonder who she is. Will you train her? Or will they send someone else? They say how he’s gonna kill me? (quietly) Do you think it’ll hurt?.

9) Fool For Love (S5E7): This is one of the few episodes where Buffy faces the fact that she will be the Slayer until she dies and that the Slayer spell is such that all Slayers are destined to die young. She decides to research how they died to keep herself alive longer. Eventually, she asks Spike to describe his final fights with the two Slayers he’s killed. Spike is the first one to publicly call out Buffy’s (and all Slayer’s) death wishes. He says that all Slayer’s secretly wish for death because they know that it’s the only way this work ends.

8) Hell’s Bells (S6E16): Xander and Anya’s wedding episode. As it goes with wedding episodes on shows like this, it gets broken up. A man who Anyanka turned in to a demon returns to exploit Xander’s issues. He gets in to Xander’s head and shows him a future of nagging Anya and himself an injured mess at the hands of demons. After Buffy kills the demon, Xander can’t go through with the wedding after watching his drunk parents fighting. This was one of the few episodes where they let Xander do something other than comic relief — showing him as a real character with real demons. Even though the bad guy died, he got what he wanted — ruining Anya’s life as she ruined his. I also loved that they told Xander’s family that all of Anya’s demon friends were “circus performers.” I liked this relationship even more than Spike and Buffy. Maybe just because I liked Anya — even though she was a crazy man-hating demon.

7) Normal Again (S6E17): Strange pick, I know. This was the episode in which Buffy “wakes up” in a mental hospital due to a demon’s poison. She finds herself back in Los Angeles, with an alive mother and a happy father. It also essentially renders the entire Buffyverse (including Angel) as a hallucinogenic dream. The final shot of the episode, after Sunnydale Buffy’s been “cured”, is of Los Angeles Buffy catatonic in the hospital. If she was cured, and real Los Angeles was the dream state, then the dream would no longer exist and this image would not be possible. Joss has hand-waved this interpretation, but really it’s the only one. The episode that defines the entire universe as a crazy-girl’s hallucination probably deserves a spot in the top ten.

6) Selfless (S7E5): Anya’s backstory, becoming a vengeance demon in 880. Anya, after spending five years as a mortal, finally gets back in to the vengeance business. A girl wishes for all the members of a fraternity to “have their hearts ripped out”. Anya complies in the form of a giant spider demon. Buffy decides to kill Anya over Xander’s objections. Lots of stuff comes out here, including Xander’s deliberate not telling Buffy that Willow was working to restore Angel’s soul in season two. Her admission to Xander that Willow succeeded and she had to kill Angel to save people from demons stops Xander cold. Anya can’t handle what she’s done, eventually decides to not to be a vengeance demon anymore, and D’Hoffryn kills her friend Halfrek before stripping her powers. This is really the last major storyline for Anya before becoming “main character Joss kills in the finale”.

5) Doppelgangland (S3E16): Speaking of Anya, way back when she was newly mortal, she tried to convince Willow to help her get her powers back. In trying to summon her medallion out of the alternate reality, she brought over Vampire Willow. Vampire Willow was a fun character. This episode also pretty much establishes the reality of what happens when a person becomes a vampire. They simply become who they want to be outside of conscience and morality. The Watcher’s Council teaches who they were in life has nothing to do with their vampire self. Angel starts to protest this but gets cut off. Really, if there’s a demon infection that takes over the body after death, the demon is just a hybrid with the person… unless the person was tortured to the point of insanity like Drusilla.

4) Innocence (S2E14): The first appearance of Angelus. I will set aside the fact that Angel lived with this curse for so many years and didn’t know the trigger that would send him back to evil. Although, props to the gypsies. Give the guy his soul back and the world of guilt associated with the things he’s done. Then make it so if he ever becomes happy, he loses everything. In the world of guilt, he has to know he can’t become happy. It’s great. It took a while for Angelus to really get going. In fact, it took him three episodes.

3) Passion (S2E17): Really, the only way to get the audience to turn on Angelus was to have him kill someone important. Having him kill “Random Sunnydale Student X” wasn’t going to do it because Sunnydale students died all the time. Since none of the A-characters were getting off in Season Two, Ms. Calendar’s ride was over. It wasn’t so much the killing of Ms. Calendar that was artistic — though chasing her through the halls and snapping her neck instead of feeding on her was inspired — it was staging Giles’ apartment as though he was in for a night of passion, and leaving Jenny’s body in his bed. Then standing outside Buffy’s house and watching in glee as Buffy and Willow get the news.

2) Becoming (S2E21/22): The finale of season two, Buffy has to face down Angelus to stop him from ending the world. Spike, in a rare moment of clarity for bad guys who want to end the world, joins forces with Buffy to prevent it. Spike’s monologue was everything that everyone who’s ever been annoyed at the “plot to end the world” storyline wanted. Again from TV.com We like to talk big, vampires do. “I’m going to destroy the world.” Its just tough-guy talk. Struttin’ round with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is, I like this world. You’ve got dog racing, Manchester United, and you’ve got people… billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It’s all right here. But then, someone comes along with a vision. With a real… passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester-bloody-Square. You know what I’m saying?. This one moment of honesty — the fact that vampires in this world have a pretty good deal and it makes no sense to end it — made a lot of this finale worth it. The events leading up to Buffy and Angelus’ final battle, in front of the opening portal right before Willow restores his soul, is incredibly well done. Even Xander’s honest belief that he’s doing the right thing is great. The final “Angel, close your eyes” finishing with Buffy being forced to kill him after his soul is restored at the last second is great television. It’s a heavy thing she carries with her for the rest of the series before finally lashing out at Xander about it season six. This episode is also the beginning of the odd and fun Joyce and Spike friendship.

1) The Body (S5E16): The challenge of making a death meaningful in a show where so many people die is an impossible task. Even when characters die, it’s expected they’ll go out in a blaze of glory. That’s what made Joyce’s death so incredible. Buffy’s mom was kept away from the violence. What better way to make that death meaningful than to have her taken by natural causes. In the previous episode, Joyce had gone out on a date and came home happy. At the end of the episode she’s laying on the couch dead of a brain aneurysm. Joss’ approach of having no music made the audience deal with the awful, brutal, natural, helpless suddenness of Joyce’s death. The credits were handled in a two minute flashback. The credits run over this more happy scene with Christmas music playing in the background. After the credits, there is nothing but dialog and dealing with the death. This was also a turning point with Anya’s character. She had only been mortal for three years after 1100 years as a demon so they were able to use her in the child, doesn’t understand what’s happening role. Her speech: But I don’t understand! I don’t understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean I knew her, and then she’s, there’s just a body, and I don’t understand why she can’t just get back in it and not be dead anymore. It’s stupid. It’s mortal and stupid, and, and Xander is crying and not talking, and I was having fruit punch and I thought, well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever. And she’ll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever and no one will explain to me why.” Xander and their friends hadn’t realized Anya didn’t get what was happening. She had no idea how to process it. Everyone in the universe was affected by the death. Spike, who cares for no mortals, came to pay his respects in the next episode. It’s been four years since I’ve seen this and it’s still hard to think about Buffy breaking down when she referred to her mother as “the body”, Willow’s inability to select a shirt, and Anya’s speech. Nevermind the best episode of Buffy ever. It’s possibly one of the best episodes of television ever.

That’s my list. Catharsis complete.

Rogue Mom Hefeweizen

Brewed By: Rogue Ales
Brewed In: Newport, OR
ABV: 4.8%
Type: Wheat Ale
Awards

• Bronze: World Beer Championships – 1994, 1996-1999, 2005, 2008
• Silver: World Beer Championships – 1995
• Gold: World Beer Championships – 2003
• Silver: Australian International Beer Awards – 2004
• Bronze: Australian International Beer Awards – 2008
• Pacific Northwest Champion: U.S. Beer Tasting Championships – 2002, 2003
• First Place: California Brewer’s Festival – 2002

What They Say: This Belgian-style blonde ale is an unfiltered fusion of wheat and barley malts, spiced with coriander and ginger.

Website: Of all the beer websites I’ve seen, Rogue’s might be the best. A clean newswire service (without an RSS Feed) on the front page to keep people updated with current events. The navigation is contained in a nice, thematic header with links decreasing in importance from left to right. The videos aren’t auto-play, letting the user decide if he wants to read or listen. Each “Meeting Room” includes a menu, map, and description. Events are actually up to date. In fact, the only error I could find is that their “Home” and “Blog” link in the upper right both lead to the same page. I’ve found another disciple of Don’t Make Me Think.

Why I Picked It: I’ve been a fan of Rogue for a long time. My first ever Rogue purchase was a joke. From high school through my mid-twenties, I went camping every Memorial Day weekend at Lake George; a small tourist town in Upstate New York’s Adirondack mountains. In general, people go to Lake George because it’s one of the few places in Upstate New York that has a beach… or what passes for a beach when one doesn’t grow up near the ocean. It’s also one of the half-dozen places that Rachael Ray claims she’s from dependent on what she’s making. In this case, she graduated from the high school and worked in one of the town’s many hotels before becoming the little juggernaut we know today. The first year we turned 21 and didn’t have to smuggle beer in to the campsite, my friend Chris and I went to the beer store that’s across the street from the campground. Inside, we were introduced to the world of craft beer bombers (though we didn’t know it at the time). We purchased Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale and Young’s Dirty Dick Ale because, well, they were funny. Ten years later and Rogue is my favorite underrated (on the East Coast) brewery. Amazingly, this is the first Rogue I’ve reviewed on here. At Whole Foods last weekend, it was between this and Brooklyn’s Buzz. I’ve been in a rut with Brooklyns, so I went Rogue. This was on the Whole Foods growler board as “Half-E-Weizen”

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Presentation (5): I got this from a tap, but the 22 oz version is a typical Rogue bottle with the image of, presumably, somebody’s mom. I’d suggest the person on the bottle looks more like the average grandmother, but whatever. Rogue’s bottling is pretty creative — managing to be unique while the images are always stylistic enough to be very obviously a Rogue bottle. On this particular beer though, it’s labeled as a hefeweizen, is claimed as a Belgian-style on the website, but fits neither of those profiles. BeerAdvocate claims it as a witbier and that seems probably the most correct. 4 for the uniquely Rogue presentation of bombers, but minus 2 because of my inability to figure out what I’m drinking. 2

Originality (5): By the bottle definition of it being a hefeweizen, my gut instinct is to say “low.” However, the description and the tasting notes suggest it’s a fusion of Belgian-style and hefeweizen, with a sprinkling of blonde wheatness. I don’t know if “Mom Hefeweizen” exactly covers everything that’s going on here. 4

Body (10): The first clue that this is neither a Belgian or a hefeweizen is the body. It doesn’t have that thick, dense quality of the Belgian nor does it have the floaters of the hefeweizen. Instead, it features the thinner, golden, clear amber of a wheat. The head pours nicely and dissipates quickly, which prefaces the lowish carbonation content. Given the body, I’m not sure how much the Belgian yeasts really add. It seems to make the beer a little dryer than it needs to be. 6

Taste (10): I see what they’re doing here. There are flavors of all the things they suggest. I get the aromas of the Belgian-style and also the nice mix of citrusy flavors from both styles. The yeasty bite of the Belgian half hits you in the finish, but the citrus and the wheat malts really work to defeat the dryness associated with the style. The coriander and ginger flavors lend it a much more refreshing, summery taste — the citrus jazzing up a pretty strong yeasty presence. There’s a lot going on here. It’s not bad, but I don’t know if it’s the most fabulous pairing of flavors. 7

Efficiency (10): While I can’t beat the price of $7.99 for a half-gallon-o-beer, the 4.8% ABV, while it’s standard for the type, makes this relatively low on the efficiency scale. If I’m going to be drinking hundreds of empty calories, I’d rather them not be accompanied by 4.8% ABV. I mean, it’s hardly worth it at that point. I’m pretty sure you could drink this beer forever and hardly catch a buzz. For instance, my whole growler went down with nary a whisper. 2

Versatility (10): On the other hand, this is a fantastic summer beer. While the flavor is a bit complex, it goes down easily. Consumed ice cold out of the tap, most folks probably wouldn’t notice the complex flavors. Consumed a little warmer and snobs can try to pick out everything going on. One strike I have: purchasing options of “bomber” and “keg” probably doesn’t address every need. 9

The Snob Sez: It’s not Rogue’s craziest offering, though the blending of three distinct types is right up their alley, but it’s a decent summer beer. I have to say, if I had to choose one 22 oz bottle of summer to bring to a cook-out — this would be pretty high on the list. Solid, if not rockstar, offering from Rogue.

Final Score: 30 (of 50) Good beer.

Current Record (May 31st): 26-26
May Record: 12-17
Games Back (NL East): 3.5, Atlanta, 3rd Place.
Games Back (Wildcard): 5.5, San Diego

1) So, what have we learned since April? We learned that the Mets are full of streaky hitters who go from horrid, 0-21 stretches directly to weeks where they hit .410. We also learned they are an incredibly awesome home team (19-9) and a horrid road team (7-17). Part of this is managing and part is overuse of a short-handed bullpen. Since Oliver Perez’s rather public refusal to go to the minors to work on mechanics, he’s been a $12M/year mop-up man, coming in the game to clean up after blowouts. This rather public pissing contest will likely come to an end, one way or another, on June 4th. That’s the day Jonathan Niese is scheduled to come off the DL. Ollie is currently the only useless piece on the roster. It’s quite possible he either goes to Buffalo on the 4th (with, by the way, a full recovery plan including a return date) or he gets released. Folks, even Scott Boras, his agent, is on board with the minor league assignment and it’s bad enough that even the players are making public statements. Pride goes before the fall, Oliver.

2) From bad starters to excellent ones. Mike Pelfrey has thrown his hat in to the ring with the other excellent young starters in the National League this year and is making a solid play for his first All Star appearance. He’s gotten great run support and is putting together a fantastic season. Johan Santana is also putting up a fantastic season, but is getting no runs for the second straight year. In his last five starts, he’s sporting a 0.74 ERA, a .493 OPS against, 22 Ks, one win, and 4 no-decisions. It’s frustrating for me and it must be murderously frustrating for him. Predictably, the New York media is desperately trying to create a story out of this. They haven’t been successful. Yet.

3) Two years after signing an ill-advised (for the Angels) contract, Gary Matthews Jr is washed up. Like, totally washed up. Washed up to the point that he was hitting .132 a few weeks ago and Jerry Manuel was still giving him every opportunity to come out of it. The final tipping point, I think, was May 29th against the Brewers. In a game where the team had to give a reliever his first start, Fernando Nieve gave up 5 runs in two innings. In the top of the third, the Brewers forced Manuel’s hand by intentionally walking the bases loaded up two runs with two outs to get to the pitcher. Manuel complied, pulling Nieve for a pinch hitter. Instead of using Chris Carter or Fernando Tatis (two much better pinch hitters), Manuel agonizingly sent up Matthews who struck out weakly on four pitches. From there, Matthews would only get three more pinch hit at-bats in low leverage situations. His time with the team is drawing to a close (He was DFAed on 6/3. He was doing so badly that the Mets don’t have a back-up center fielder on the roster — ed.) and I think even he knows it after that strike out. He got off to a terrible start, was stuck with even though Angel Pagan should have gotten his job out of Spring, and eventually went out weakly. He did, however, last longer than Randy Winn who some Mets’ fans were convinced would have been a great signing.

4) For a team that was destroyed for having a terrible farm system two months ago, it certainly seems like the kids coming up are much better than people recall. Ike Davis, slumping now, emerged as a legitimate power threat. He’s already locked in as the team’s every day clean-up hitter and is likely a contender in the crowded NL Rookie Of The Year market. Angel Pagan, who was drafted by the Mets, sent to the Cubs, and ultimately traded back to the Mets has emerged as a pretty good every day center fielder. Chris Carter, also known as “The Guy From The Billy Wagner Trade” has shown himself to be a competent pinch hitter and I’m actually looking forward to nine days of watching him pace the dugout like an animal while DHing through Cleveland and Baltimore.

5) It’s become such a normal thing for me to respond to various unfair criticisms of Jerry Manuel that I sometimes forget he does some frustrating things. Besides the situation where he was out of bench players in the bottom half of a nine inning game (and then Wright got tossed, which would have led to an interesting extra innings had he Mets scored), he also has an infuriating tendency to play for one run in extra innings on the road. Meaning, he’ll get a guy on first and sacrifice two outs getting him to third. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the Mets have lost seven walk-off games this year and ALL their road extra inning games except for the 20-inning disaster. Why does he follow “typical baseball knowledge” except for the “don’t play for one run on the road” one? I hate it.

6) The trade rumors have started to get really loud around the Mets. At the moment, it’s centering primarily around two guys. First, the Mariners fooled everyone in the preseason and are much more awful than anyone expected. This has created a Cliff Lee watch. Second, Roy Oswalt’s public demand for a trade has fired everyone up considering, according to most sources, the Mets had Oswalt in a three-way deal two years ago until the idiot in Baltimore pulled out. Both deals are intriguing. Dealing for Lee would probably be much cheaper since the Mets would be renting him for a potential stretch run. They’d probably be able to pull it off for Triple A talent and a couple nameless prospects. It would also, presumably, be a dress rehearsal for how big a contract the Mets will offer him next season if the Yankees don’t decide to blow everyone out of the water. The Oswalt deal, on the other hand, would be much more expensive in terms of talent. Now we’re talking young talent like Jonathan Niese, Ruben Tejada, and others, but it gets them back two or three years of a pitcher the team has coveted for, literally, years. It also takes them out of the Cliff Lee market next year. Sadly, neither will happen. The most likely deal, I think, might be swapping Oliver Perez, most of his salary, and a prospect to the Brewers for Jeff Suppan. The Brewers can get a free pitcher for 2011 and reunite Ollie with the only pitching coach who’s really had success with him while the Mets can give Suppan a change of scenery and hope their canyon-sized ballpark and good defense can bring his .400 BABIP down.

7) Also, a moment to call out the disingenuous people in the New York media who were still gleefully calling for the GM and manager to be fired because the Mets were in last place a few days before Memorial Day. I find it stunning that they think nobody can see through the “well, I called this team as last place crap so I need to now defend my premise” nonsense. There’s an ocean of difference between “22-23, 5 games out” last place and the “13-26, 10 games out” last place from the Brewers and Diamondbacks. It’s become literally impossible to take any of the regular media writers (and some of the bloggers) seriously as this season goes on. We get it, you predicted the team would be in last place so you’re picking apart every move to prove your premise. You’re wrong. Move on. It’s a tight division, it’s a surprisingly good division, and the last place team in the NL East is probably better than most teams in either Central division.

8) And, leave it to Major League Baseball to take the tightest division, and present a gift-wrapped three free home games to the Phillies. I understand that the scheduling algorithm, for whatever reason, doesn’t work things like “city closing events” to make sure teams aren’t home at that time — but the best idea they could come up with was allowing the Phillies to play the Blue Jays IN PHILLY when they’re supposed to be in Toronto. How is that fair to the rest of the division? You’re going to tell me that the logistics of moving it to Pittsburgh (where they hate the Phillies) while the Pirates are in Oakland was too hard? Besides the point, a Mets/Marlins series has already been moved to Puerto Rico from Miami. They really couldn’t have convinced San Juan to host six games instead of three? American League baseball isn’t THAT bad, is it?

9) Or, here’s the best idea nobody’s come up with except (of course) fans and a couple bloggers. There are two American League franchises that are in potential relocation situations in the next couple seasons. NOBODY thought to take Montreal’s temperature? Where, not only would it be way more fair because there’d be a Canadian team playing in Canada, but Mets fans would certainly make the drive up for a unique way of rooting against the Phillies. I understand that Stade Olympique isn’t a fabulous baseball stadium, but it’s a much fairer location for the games and, if it turns out that Montreal is receptive to getting a team back, suddenly Tampa has to think a little harder about telling the Rays to go screw. A second AL East team in Montreal is a WAY more attractive situation for baseball. It creates a great rivalry in Canada and makes road trips much easier for other teams. For God’s sake — Montreal is an 8 hour (counting time spent at the border) train ride from here and I still would have honestly considered the trip to 1) root against the Phillies and 2) have a throwback weekend in Montreal. This division is almost certainly going to come down to less than three games and, should the Phillies win, it’s going to be something of a travesty.

10) Ultimately, the team is doing exactly what I thought they had to do back in the preview. They had to dance right around .500 with their piecemeal line-up until they figured out what they had in the rotation and until Carlos Beltran came back in late June or July. That’s almost exactly what they’re doing. They’re getting great pitching out of two planned starters, they’re getting surprisingly good pitching from two key, quiet pick-ups from the Worst GM In The History Of New York in R.A. Dickey and Ken Takahashi, and their bullpen has vacillated between OK and fantastic. When they finally add a great 3-hitter and one more pitcher, the worst team that’s absolutely no better than last place is going to make a push at this division. And I can say “I told them so.”

Kona Brewing’s Fire Rock Pale Ale

Brewed By: Kona Brewing Company
Brewed In: Kona, HI via Portsmouth, NH
ABV: Bottle claims 6.0% — Website claims 5.9%
Type: Pale Ale

Awards

• 2009 Bronze Medal: American Pale Ale category, U.S. Open Beer Championships, Georgia
• 2008 Honorable Mention: American Style Pale Ale category, United States Beer Tasting Championships
• 2007 Gold Medal: Pale Ale category, Portland Spring Beer & Wine Festival, Oregon
• 2007 Bronze Medal: American Style Pale Ale category, Australian International Beer Awards
• 2005 Gold Medal: Pale Ale category, Capital Food & Wine Festival, Washington

What They Say

• Website: Fire Rock Pale Ale is a crisp, refreshing “Hawaiian-style” pale ale. Its signature copper color results from the unique blend of specialty roasted malts. The pronounced citrus-floral hop aroma comes from the liberal amounts of Galena, Cascade & Mt. Hood hops added to each brew.
• Bottle: Active volcanoes on the big island of Hawaii leave visitors awestruck by their power. The glow of lava as it meets the ocean is an amazing site [sic]. Our Fire Rock Pale Ale is inspired by this place with a bright copper color and rich roasted malt taste. Aloha! Since 1994, Kona Brewing Co. has been committed to making handcrafted ales and lagers of uncompromised quality. We invite you to visit our brewery and pubs whenever you visit Hawaii. Mahalo!

Website: Mostly OK. I’m not a fan of the autoplay music on the front page but their flash apps load quickly and all the beer info is easy to find directly at the top of the page. Their “About Us” page is a bit crowded and it uses a little too much Flash but, other than that, it’s a really well done website. The site did crash my browser, but that’s likely more to do with Firefox’s suspect Flash handling than bad code… as I step ever closer to moving to Chrome and turning my browsing history over to Google, too.

Why I Picked It: I’d been hearing about Kona’s stuff for a few months and have been told it’s relatively good. On my last trip upstate, I finally came across it at, of all place, the supermarket I used to work at. Small world and all.

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Presentation (5): The label has an island sunset painted on it. It’s a rather beautiful look and thematic as the beer pours a similar color. Great job matching this particular label with the beer and it’s an enticing look. 5

Originality (5): Not particularly. Since I usually err toward an average score trending high when it’s of a type most craft brewers have, I’ll do so here, too. 3

Body (10): The beer pours a cloudy copper with very little head. I didn’t get much lacing while drinking so if you’re big in to “head performance” (I’m not) this would be annoying. Because of the slight head, I wasn’t expecting nearly the amount of carbonation I got. This is a pretty hefty pale ale, actually, with a thick body and a burly, mealy mouthfeel but with the carbonation to make it pleasant. The only reason I’m deducting a point here is because I’m not quite sure it tastes like a pale ale. 9

Taste (10): The Munich malts are the easy star here while the hops sit in the background. Again, I love this flavor, but I’m having a terrible time equating this to other pale ales. The odor is malts and honey and it has a distinctly German flavor. The aforementioned honey only slightly sweetens the malty dryness. I love the way this tastes, my only strike is that it doesn’t quite fight off the burn of 6.0% alcohol and malts are just a little too strong in the finish. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure I love this. 8

Efficiency (10): Very high. The beer is delicious and it’s right on the 5.9/6.0 sweet spot. The flavor is fantastic, highly sessionable, and wrapped together in a nice ABV. This beer could honestly crush you given a night of consumption. I desperately want a taste of this beer on draught somewhere… unfortunately I don’t see myself going to Hawaii anytime soon. A brewpub in Portsmouth, please? 10

Versatility (10): The opposite of high. This is a beer snob beer. The taste is too bold for folks who don’t enjoy craft stuff. On the positive, there’s enough flavor here that most everyone who likes craft stuff (save for folks who claim to only like beers that make their face turn inside out with hoppy bitterness) will like this. Those people are wrong. 4

The Snob Sez: Weirdly, if the name of this was “Fire Rock Copper Ale”, I think I’d like it better. Mostly the lower ratings are coming from trying to equate this beer with other pale ales and failing. However, if I was comparing it to, for example, Copper Hook, it would seem better. Strange, I know. All that said: the awards — I get it.

Final Score: 39 (of 50) Really good beer.

As any of you who follow the Twitter Feed know, I finally had a chance to go to Fenway Park this past Friday to watch the Red Sox get slaughtered by the Royals. When fellow Beer Snob TheBigShow first mentioned the tickets to me back in late April, the following inner dialog occurred:

“Yay! Fenway.”
“Boo. Royals.”
“Wait, when does Greinke start?”

Then I went to the Royals website (one of seventeen hits in April, I’m sure) to check Greinke’s appearances. It didn’t work out correctly. Then, he started the Sunday before my Friday game. I got really excited, only to find out that the Royals wouldn’t keep him on his day (they had a day off), but instead would let him start five games after Sunday instead of five days. I was going to be treated to former Atlanta Brave Kyle Davies. Not really what I had in mind but, for my first Fenway experience, I’d certainly take it. However, it did increase my personal disdain for the Royals from “low” to “burning.”

Now, my ballpark collection is small. I have been to five ballparks and three of them no longer exist. Of those parks, two are in New York City, two were in New York City, and one was in Montreal. Parc Olympique is located in Parc Maisonneuve which is well removed from any of the insanity on Rue St. Catharine or the student ghetto near University of Quebec. Yankee Stadium is surrounded by sketchy bars and junk stores where more folks visit to check their bags because of the Yankees’ bat-sh*t insane security policies. Shea Stadium/Citi Field is located in a gross part of Queens known more for junkyards and chop-shops. Meanwhile, the neighborhood around Fenway Park is actually, well, a neighborhood. There are apartments, restaurants, and bars. It’s one of the first ballparks I’ve been to where someone realized that people might like to, you know, do stuff after a ballgame.

5:15 pm: Step off the T at the Kenmore station. The previous day I had gotten off an Amtrak train at South Station which had been been collecting drunken Red Sox fans at every station since Providence, RI. Once again, the quiet car on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor trains is the best invention in the history of modern travel. TheBigShow and I get off the Kenmore stop quite frequently, albeit usually to go to the awesome Eastern Standard. Pro-Tip: the T-station named “Fenway” is not the station one uses to get to Fenway Park. I love Boston.

5:45 pm: Turn right on Lansdowne Street. I have been to the neighborhood around Fenway Park on two other occasions. Once, to go to a Siena alumni event at a bar called Game On (to watch a NCAA Tourney appearance) and the second time to go to the incredibly awesome Bleacher Bar. The Bleacher Bar is built in a former equipment shed in Fenway and includes a clear, soundproof garage door that opens on to the field. TheBigShow took me there in late April when they were preparing the field. I can easily say the block around Fenway is fully, wholly, and incredibly designed to get Boston college kids to fall in the love with the Red Sox. It’s brilliant, actually. Some day, I’d like to watch a Red Sox game just in the Bleacher Bar. I imagine the vibe must be great.

5:50 pm: Meander down Lansdowne Street to the planned dinner location at Laverdad Taqueria. TheBigShow informs me that this was a former Tiki-themed bar that has apparently had a moderate overhaul in to a more Mexican themed bar — including luchadore masks, a selection of margaritas, and lots of tacos. TheBigShow and I arrive before our compatriots, so we go to the bar to order two Sam Summers. Being as I’m across the street from the baseball stadium, I reach for two $20s assuming this is going to set me back a bunch. Instead, the bar has $5 draughts. Stunned, I hand her one twenty and, indeed, get back ten in change. Baffled, I return two dollars to the bar.

6:10 pm: Order tacos. I order fish, carne asada, and (to be different) duck. They stand no chance. I also go girly drink and get a strawberry margarita. The carne asada and fish are exactly what I expect. I couldn’t get in to the duck taco. I’m desperately trying to see what people love in duck but, thus far, I’m still not feeling it. Hopefully, Peking duck will help me turn the corner.

6:50 pm: We head down the street to the ballpark. I see the Ted Williams statue and it makes me oddly happy. I also get to walk in to a ballpark without getting patted down. The girl with us earns a half-hearted look at her bag. Yankee Stadium doesn’t allow any bags. Citi Field allows bags but also searches them AND pats everyone down. Fenway just lets you in.

6:55: I’m walking, I’m told, underneath the right field bleachers. There is food and ice cream and various things for little kids. Eric (the guy who got the tickets) tells me none of this was open area before. What was once equipment storage and tunnels is now concessions, kids’ stuff, and picnic tables. There are even concessions for lobster rolls and chowdah. Sadly, I was too afraid of ballpark chowdah to get any.

7:05 pm: I decide against going to check out Yawkey Way for the moment. Having never seen the field, I want to see that first. Having handed over my $60 to Eric for the tickets, we walk to what I’m assuming is going to be a section well away from the field.

7:06 pm: Or Not.

7:27 pm: Still recovering from the location of the seats, I nearly forget to stand for the National Anthem. I start trying to come up with American League jokes to tweet.

7:35 pm: Red Sox almost batted around in the first. #LaserShow. The Red Sox put a 3-spot up on Kyle Davies in the first inning. Fenway is rocking.

7:35 pm: I find a couple of things stunning about Fenway. First, what you can’t see in TheBigShow’s photo is a giant green pillar to the right of the picture. I’m assuming the reason these tickets are only $58 face value is because they are technically obstructed view. From my seat, I couldn’t see in to right field, but everything else was fine. You’d be hard pressed to find many seats behind those pillars that don’t have some bit of the field obstructed. Second, on the video board, they actually tell you how to score the play on a card. Third, the stuff between innings is mostly centered around the team and not inane sponsorships. It’s not quite as throwback an experience as I’m told Wrigley is — but there’s something to be said for less T-shirt launches and more team stuff.

8:00 pm: I run upstairs for a Bud Light. $7.75. There we go, now I feel like I’m home.

8:10 pm: The Royals get two back in the top of the third. Victor Martinez responds in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer. To fire up the crowd during the home run trot — as if they needed it — they play the chorus beat of Sexy Chick (skip to 1:28). Take that for what you will.

8:15 pm: 135 pitches. 3 innings. #DomesticLeague — I’m not sure when Hulse decided to start calling the American League the “Domestic League.” It was some slow-pitch/beer league softball joke. I still like it. This is an honest opinion and not an anti-DH dig — I really fail to see where adding another batter to chew pitches and work at-bats makes the game “more exciting.” It seems like the trade-off for not having to watch a pitcher bat is an extra half-hour of game. I don’t get it. Also, you never get the absurd joy of seeing a pitcher knock in a run.

8:30 pm: The Royals put up seven on Tim Wakefield. I want to joke about superior AL pitchers, but my phone is dead. I decide it’s time to see Yawkey Way.

8:40 pm: Yawkey Way runs along the stadium on the west side. In recent years, the public street becomes part of the stadium and closed to traffic during game day. Folks can actually walk out of the stadium on to the street where there are stadium concessions, a sports bar, and some various merchandise shops. We discover that if you go out there at game time, there’s almost nobody in line on the street. Instead of Bud Light, they have Sam Summer and Harpoon IPA for the same $7.75. There are stand-up tables outside the bar and a few people drinking. I presume them to be season ticket holders who have given up after the seven-spot and are just relaxing with a few eight-dollar beers in a venue more comfortable than their seat.

9:00 pm: We eventually head back in as I wait patiently for in-between innings to see if the Mets manage to scratch out a run for Johan Santana. No luck though. I find myself strangely fascinated by the Green Monster guy, who wanders out with a stack of numbers between innings.

10:15 pm: We head out of the stadium and back across the highway to Cornwalls — a smaller, English-style pub where people are watching the Celtics clinch a trip to the Finals. I’m again struck by the difference of having a nice neighborhood to go out in after a game. I mention to my compatriots how nice it is to be able to immediately grab a drink or some food without an interim 40-minute subway ride just to get to Midtown.

And, really, that’s the crux of what made the Fenway Park experience great. Don’t get me wrong, the park was nice. My knowledge of old Fenway is based on what Bill Simmons wrote in “Now I Can Die In Peace” — a hard, uncomfortable stadium that had terrible bathrooms, bad food, and wasn’t friendly in the least. However, for my money, the redesign turned it in to a much nicer stadium than either of the New York ones. They left Fenway intact, but took all the hard, rugged stuff and made it in to a playground while the field itself still looks like Fenway Park. The whole stadium experience fits the city. At its core is the field and the Green Monster — remnants of a hard, rugged Boston. The stuff going on inside the walls of the stadium is something like a private little club of long-time residents. The surrounding block on Lansdowne Street and Brookline Avenue — and especially the bars — is a playground for the college kids and the younger folks that flock to Boston for higher education. College kids who can’t afford a ticket can still get off the Green Line T at Kenmore, practically a shuttlebus from BC and BU, and still get an exciting bar experience with a city only rooting for one team. Of the people I’ve known that have gone to college there, not one has escaped without becoming a Red Sox fan. It’s an infectious and more organic fan base that probably won’t abandon the team in lean times. It is something that we in New York miss out on; that provincial knowledge that everyone in the bar, or everyone in the city, is rooting for your team. In New York, even beside two fan bases bickering at each other, I can find (and have been to) bars dedicated to the Red Sox, Cubs, and Cardinals. Boston is small enough that I don’t know if I could find that there. Mostly because the bar wouldn’t survive the hit in business.

I had a great time before, at, and after Fenway. It probably would have been slightly different with a rooting interest since the slaughter wasn’t fun. But I didn’t, so I was able to just take in the ballpark experience. It gets added to the laundry list of reasons that I wish I’d more rigorously pursued a college in Boston.