He’brew Genesis Ale
Brewed in Saratoga Springs, NY
Slightly foamy mid-palate with a light, sweet finish. Crisp. It hits your tongue a bit on the homogenous side and you can‘t quite shake the dullness. Much sweeter aroma than flavor. Amber color. Not quite enough character and too much foam. First effort from self-described “Gourmet Kosher Microbrew” is still promising. It’s called a Light Brown Ale, but it’s more like a sweeter Amber in both taste and color.
Recommended for: Amber drinkers who like a bit of sweet and don’t mind a lack of complexity; Jews; Brown Ale drinkers looking for something a bit less sweet.
Important because: it really is a kosher microbrew and it’s not bad.
Try also/instead: Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
I would drink it again if: I was trying to pick-up a hot Jewish girl; if I were at a bar mitzvah trying to meet a hot (redundant) Jewish girl; If I were pretending to be Jewish while in the midst of picking up a h- Jewish girl.
Rating: 3
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Michelangelo Paints a House : Review of Echo Maker by Richard Powers
Richard Powers’ National Book Award winning novel, Echo Maker, showcases most every fault the author’s fictions have shown up to now, and virtually none of their strengths. From any other writer, Echo Maker would be a qualified success, but there’s only failure here for Powers: anything good in the book he has done better elsewhere and the low points descend below any previous nadirs.
You should not read this book with a beer: you must. And since it’s won a great award, the award with the best track history of late for American fiction, you will read this book, and you should do so only under the influence of alcohol. The beer of choice here is Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle IPA. I’ll give it a full review later, but it’s a tremendous beer: a smooth, rich surprisingly complex IPA, with little of the trademark IPA hoppy bitterness. It’s smoothness and sweetness make it akin to Bridgeport IPA in a superficial way, but it replaces that beer’s floral notes with something I can’t quite place without a bottle in front of me, so I’ll just shut up for now. Available at Beaumont Market and at the new Belmont Station sometime soon. Buy an imperial pint immediately for $3.29 or sleep with others for money until you do have the dough, because it’s amazing.
Echo Maker’s premise is interesting enough: a man (almost definitely under the influence of alcohol) crashes his car in a mysterious accident, in the dead of night, and any other details are sketchy, at best. After suffering a head trauma, Mark awakens in the hospital days later, refusing to believe that close loved ones are really who they appear to be. He surmises instead that they are elaborate impostors. The adjective to describe this setup is neat— it’s all kinds of interesting, especially since the crux of his Capgras syndrome (the term for this very real and very rare disorder) lies in Mark’s inability to ascribe any emotion to the dead ringer at his hospital bed. His sister looks just like his sister, but he feels nothing like what he would really feel if he saw his real sister, so his damaged brain crosses the emotional gap with the elaborate fantasy that she must be a fake.
The themes of identity, love in the post-industrial age, emotions real and imagined, the essential nature of man’s need to belong, the balance we all strike of head versus heart, whether we can know something in our heart (for real) and what it means to say that we can, and whether or not our brain assigns essential meaning to intrinsic familial relationships could all of have been explored in the novel, but none are, at least not to any satisfaction. What you have is a plot heavy, smart-alecky-in-the-worst-sense, plodding novel that attempts to simulate varying brain stages through three inert, flat characters. It’s masterful at times as a prose exercise, but an absolute chore to read.
The biggest problem is Mark’s sister, Karin. Powers has a bit of a track history with being accused by critics (somewhat unfairly, up to now) of having uncommonly intelligent characters, who seem a bit too encyclopedic for their own novel. Karin’s completely unconvincing as a 30 something Gateway customer service rep, who is supposedly relatively uneducated. Upon first acquaintance with her brother’s condition, she reads every last piece of literature she can get her hands on, understands it completely on first read, and asks the neurologists all the right questions. If she were this smart, she’d be smart. Powers takes pains to paint her as an average mind at best, yet she’s clearly not. Why not just give her an Ivy league education and an PhD in physics and have her be believable?
Powers knows better. His last novel, The Time of Our Singing, was 7 oodles and 4 tons superior to this, and you should read that instead. Yet, with all this negativity, Powers remains one of the best writers alive--words I don’t throw around casually--and this book has its moments. Still, whether or not you're new to Powers, you'll be really underwhelmed and struggle to finish this one.
Book Rating : 3
Beer Rating = Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA: 7
You should not read this book with a beer: you must. And since it’s won a great award, the award with the best track history of late for American fiction, you will read this book, and you should do so only under the influence of alcohol. The beer of choice here is Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle IPA. I’ll give it a full review later, but it’s a tremendous beer: a smooth, rich surprisingly complex IPA, with little of the trademark IPA hoppy bitterness. It’s smoothness and sweetness make it akin to Bridgeport IPA in a superficial way, but it replaces that beer’s floral notes with something I can’t quite place without a bottle in front of me, so I’ll just shut up for now. Available at Beaumont Market and at the new Belmont Station sometime soon. Buy an imperial pint immediately for $3.29 or sleep with others for money until you do have the dough, because it’s amazing.
Echo Maker’s premise is interesting enough: a man (almost definitely under the influence of alcohol) crashes his car in a mysterious accident, in the dead of night, and any other details are sketchy, at best. After suffering a head trauma, Mark awakens in the hospital days later, refusing to believe that close loved ones are really who they appear to be. He surmises instead that they are elaborate impostors. The adjective to describe this setup is neat— it’s all kinds of interesting, especially since the crux of his Capgras syndrome (the term for this very real and very rare disorder) lies in Mark’s inability to ascribe any emotion to the dead ringer at his hospital bed. His sister looks just like his sister, but he feels nothing like what he would really feel if he saw his real sister, so his damaged brain crosses the emotional gap with the elaborate fantasy that she must be a fake.
The themes of identity, love in the post-industrial age, emotions real and imagined, the essential nature of man’s need to belong, the balance we all strike of head versus heart, whether we can know something in our heart (for real) and what it means to say that we can, and whether or not our brain assigns essential meaning to intrinsic familial relationships could all of have been explored in the novel, but none are, at least not to any satisfaction. What you have is a plot heavy, smart-alecky-in-the-worst-sense, plodding novel that attempts to simulate varying brain stages through three inert, flat characters. It’s masterful at times as a prose exercise, but an absolute chore to read.
The biggest problem is Mark’s sister, Karin. Powers has a bit of a track history with being accused by critics (somewhat unfairly, up to now) of having uncommonly intelligent characters, who seem a bit too encyclopedic for their own novel. Karin’s completely unconvincing as a 30 something Gateway customer service rep, who is supposedly relatively uneducated. Upon first acquaintance with her brother’s condition, she reads every last piece of literature she can get her hands on, understands it completely on first read, and asks the neurologists all the right questions. If she were this smart, she’d be smart. Powers takes pains to paint her as an average mind at best, yet she’s clearly not. Why not just give her an Ivy league education and an PhD in physics and have her be believable?
Powers knows better. His last novel, The Time of Our Singing, was 7 oodles and 4 tons superior to this, and you should read that instead. Yet, with all this negativity, Powers remains one of the best writers alive--words I don’t throw around casually--and this book has its moments. Still, whether or not you're new to Powers, you'll be really underwhelmed and struggle to finish this one.
Book Rating : 3
Beer Rating = Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA: 7
Saturday, February 17, 2007
My Night with Miss June - Review of Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere Farmhouse Ale
Brewed in Dexter, Michigan
Cloudy, almost straw colored. Aroma is a bit like a lighter Belgian, sweet, spicy, and rich. A bit of foam when it first hits the palate, but still sharp and there’s a nice crispness that that sits on your tongue mid-palate. Fades into an unexpectedly hoppy finish. While I like the transition, it’s not a particularly well balanced beer for me. Seems super carbonated and a bit on the fruity/apple side. Tastes kind of like champagne mixed with hard apple cider. I like how rich it is, given the light color, but the hops wore on me while I drained the glass, and I am a huge hop head, so that’s a problem. A beer I can admire from a distance, but not when it’s in front of me.
Here’s why real beer reviewers taste blind: I heard so much about this brewer that I expected a lot from this beer and it’s not really performing for me, kind of like when you get Miss June in your bed and she‘s a colossal disappointment. Bam Biere looks great in the lobby, but once you get up to the room, this beer doesn’t quite get you through the night. I struggled to finish the bottle (please don’t tell).
Recommended for: All the people recommending Jolly Pumpkin like it’s Hair of the Dog or Tricia Helfer.
Important because: You can finally taste a Jolly Pumpkin beer without having to shell out 8 bucks for one of their large bottles (they have 3 other beers in the $8 realm which are not available in 12oz. bottles like Bam is).
Try also/instead: Well, it’s a saison style beer, something I have little experience in. This may be my first one, which is perhaps why I struggled with it.
I would drink it again if: I lost a bet; developed an appreciation for the style; I wanted to see if my tastes have changed 6 months from now.
Rating = 4
Brewed in Dexter, Michigan
Cloudy, almost straw colored. Aroma is a bit like a lighter Belgian, sweet, spicy, and rich. A bit of foam when it first hits the palate, but still sharp and there’s a nice crispness that that sits on your tongue mid-palate. Fades into an unexpectedly hoppy finish. While I like the transition, it’s not a particularly well balanced beer for me. Seems super carbonated and a bit on the fruity/apple side. Tastes kind of like champagne mixed with hard apple cider. I like how rich it is, given the light color, but the hops wore on me while I drained the glass, and I am a huge hop head, so that’s a problem. A beer I can admire from a distance, but not when it’s in front of me.
Here’s why real beer reviewers taste blind: I heard so much about this brewer that I expected a lot from this beer and it’s not really performing for me, kind of like when you get Miss June in your bed and she‘s a colossal disappointment. Bam Biere looks great in the lobby, but once you get up to the room, this beer doesn’t quite get you through the night. I struggled to finish the bottle (please don’t tell).
Recommended for: All the people recommending Jolly Pumpkin like it’s Hair of the Dog or Tricia Helfer.
Important because: You can finally taste a Jolly Pumpkin beer without having to shell out 8 bucks for one of their large bottles (they have 3 other beers in the $8 realm which are not available in 12oz. bottles like Bam is).
Try also/instead: Well, it’s a saison style beer, something I have little experience in. This may be my first one, which is perhaps why I struggled with it.
I would drink it again if: I lost a bet; developed an appreciation for the style; I wanted to see if my tastes have changed 6 months from now.
Rating = 4
Friday, February 16, 2007
Sacred Sugar - Review of Speakeasy Old Godfather '06
Speakeasy Old Godfather ‘06
Brewed in SF, California
Now, that’s more like it. For a beer novice, I’ve got a pretty strong attraction to barleywines, which means that I’ve got the sophisticated palate of a born beer taster in me or I like to get very drunk very quickly (OG has an alcohol content of 10.2%). Either way, this is a good barleywine for a beer tyro to get into, as it’s a very accessible beer overall.
Rich amber color, approaching copper. Smell is a bit flat for a barleywine, but it tantalizes your nostrils quite nicely if you really get in there. I had to sniff deeply to get much and mostly what I got were electric currents running up and down the interior of my nose, which was kind of nice.
It’s really rich and sweet when it hits your tongue. Mid-palate is full mouthed flavor and you feel this one command your sense of taste and smell if you swirl it around your mouth a bit. It’s a smooth going down, but it finishes super sweet. I like the lingering flavor it has after that sweetness fades, but, jeez, this beer is sugary sweet. Got a little bit of the cough syrup thing that some of the less stellar barley wines (read: cheaper barleywines that I pick up to get hammered on the cheap) seem to have going.
It’s nice to try a new barleywine at a reasonable price, but I can really only recommend this to new barleywine drinkers (and would do so emphatically). It just lacks complexity. It could also be a bit on the young side as well. If I pick up another bottle, it will be aged a bit before I drink it.
Recommended for: People who are new to barleywine and want to pick up a modestly priced bottle.
Try also/instead: Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine (which is just astonishingly good AND inexpensive)
Read with: Speakeasy makes pretty good beer overall and has very cool bottles, with a old school gangster theme going on. For this reason, you’ve got to quaff some Old Godfather (or better yet Speakeasy Untouchable Pale Ale) while reading this year’s IT book thus far, Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. I’m not going to do a full review, but it’s a long, enthralling first-rate literary gangster saga set in Mumbai (Bombay) that you absolutely have to read. Or no one interesting will ever speak to you again.
Rating = 5
Brewed in SF, California
Now, that’s more like it. For a beer novice, I’ve got a pretty strong attraction to barleywines, which means that I’ve got the sophisticated palate of a born beer taster in me or I like to get very drunk very quickly (OG has an alcohol content of 10.2%). Either way, this is a good barleywine for a beer tyro to get into, as it’s a very accessible beer overall.
Rich amber color, approaching copper. Smell is a bit flat for a barleywine, but it tantalizes your nostrils quite nicely if you really get in there. I had to sniff deeply to get much and mostly what I got were electric currents running up and down the interior of my nose, which was kind of nice.
It’s really rich and sweet when it hits your tongue. Mid-palate is full mouthed flavor and you feel this one command your sense of taste and smell if you swirl it around your mouth a bit. It’s a smooth going down, but it finishes super sweet. I like the lingering flavor it has after that sweetness fades, but, jeez, this beer is sugary sweet. Got a little bit of the cough syrup thing that some of the less stellar barley wines (read: cheaper barleywines that I pick up to get hammered on the cheap) seem to have going.
It’s nice to try a new barleywine at a reasonable price, but I can really only recommend this to new barleywine drinkers (and would do so emphatically). It just lacks complexity. It could also be a bit on the young side as well. If I pick up another bottle, it will be aged a bit before I drink it.
Recommended for: People who are new to barleywine and want to pick up a modestly priced bottle.
Try also/instead: Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine (which is just astonishingly good AND inexpensive)
Read with: Speakeasy makes pretty good beer overall and has very cool bottles, with a old school gangster theme going on. For this reason, you’ve got to quaff some Old Godfather (or better yet Speakeasy Untouchable Pale Ale) while reading this year’s IT book thus far, Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. I’m not going to do a full review, but it’s a long, enthralling first-rate literary gangster saga set in Mumbai (Bombay) that you absolutely have to read. Or no one interesting will ever speak to you again.
Rating = 5
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