Archive for July, 2012
My 30 Seconds Of Fame
If you’re reading this on Friday morning, odds are you were listening to News1130 this AM, heard a tightly-edited 30 second spot on bad beer, and thought you’d go online to see what else this nutter Chuck has to say. Well, thanks for stopping by. Feel free to browse around and read anything I’ve got, but if you’re here because of bad beer, here’s a great place to start:
My Four part Molson Saga from last spring (in which Molson sent me samples of “M” for a review, and were shocked I didn’t like it):
And, of course, nothing like some good old-fashioned classic Chuck swearing-at-the-man for entertainment (aka my most popular post of all time):
Enjoy, and watch this space for some more rants soon. Also, I’ll throw up the audio of that spot once Mike sends it over.
Link to text of the article: here.
Update: Now with audio; Mike sent along both versions for our enjoyment! Edit 1 or Edit 2
I’m Back! Did You Miss Me?
You know how sometimes, when you’re cooking, you just have to open the oven and check on the roast? Despite knowing full-well that it’s doing just fine, is in no danger of being burnt, and will be fantastically delicious once done. Well, my relationship with Portland is kinda like that. I know Portland is there, and being awesome even when I’m not present inspecting the various awesomeness and ensuring it’s up to Awesome Code (there is such a thing–I’m an official Awesomeness Inspector. It’s a rigorous six-month training program that involves far too much fire, in my opinion).
That was the main drive of my past weekend: sniffing around Portland’s many breweries, bars and restaurants, making sure that they’re just as great as the last time I was there. The short version is that, yup, you can all relax for another year: Portland still rocks. The beer scene is still lightyears ahead of ours, and you could still fit all of Vancouver’s food carts into just one of the dozens and dozens of parking lots that Portland sets aside for such things.
And yes, everything is still freaking cheap (2 pints and a lemonade at Lompoc Brewing = $8), and there’s still no tax (2 pints and a lemonade at Lompoc Brewing ACTUALLY = $8). And yes, Whole Foods still sells about the best collection of bottled beer I’ve ever seen (albeit now in a twenty foot long two ended walk-in freezer with automatic doors that annoyingly open whenever you get within three feet of either one). Of course, that collection is somewhat reduced by my presence. I did play nice, though, and leave some Hair of the Dog Adam & Firestone Walker Parabola for other people.
Actually no, I did not.
My haul for this trip? Nothing too over the top, just:
- Hair of the Dog Adam (x5)
- Hair of the Dog Fred (x4)
- Hair of the Blue Dot (x3)
- Dogfish Head Ninety Minute (x4)
- Stone Imperial Stout (x3)
- Firestone Walker Parabola (x3)
- Russian River Sanctification (x2)
- Russian River Supplication (x2)
- Southern Tier Creme Brule (x2)
- Misc singles from Cascade, Laurelwood, Boulevard
Great haul? Not really. Decent haul, perhaps. More beer than I can fit in my beer cellar? Absolutely. I’ll be updating my cellaring pages shortly with the cellarables in that list (Adam, Stone Imp, Parabola), but other than that I suspect my beer geek friends will start asking to come over more often than the never they currently do.
Well, I guess I’m done with Portland for another year. Next time, though, I’m going to focus less on revisiting the same old breweries, and more on checking out awesome restaurants. My visits to Pok Pok and Fire on the Mountain were highlights during this trip, and I can’t help but notice that I traveled past a few dozen other similar-looking places to get to them.