Heavyweight, session notes from the Rogue.

Northeast winds and a strong southern current from the Hurricane's rotation, left plenty of time to think about getting in again. Dorian's 'a comin'. Holidays and 66th, 9/5/2019.

   Gets heavy right before the storm reaches us. Usually the pattern. Then it cleans up over the next few days. So to try to get wet the day before is not the best of decisions, regardless of the siren song that big chunky surf calls out. Dorian came outta the lower Caribbean as a Category 1 Hurricane. Built up to a real heavyweight Cat 5. Hung out over the Bahamas for a couple of days laying absolute waste to the Abacos and Grand Bahama Island. Swept by the Florida Coast and bounced off the Outer Banks before flying by our shore (reduced back to a Cat 1), and heading north towards Nova Scotia way. Other than beach erosion (which can be a good thing for some of our breaks), very little in the way of storm damage. Prayers go out to those in the Bahamas. Will be a long rebuild. My experience? Felt the atmospheric changes, like havin' a heavy weight on my shoulders. Chest to head storm chop...shocking. Received a good sand exfoliation, and got rolled a few. Minor issues. Let's see what can be done with a clean-up weekend.

Dorian's track the morning of 9/5/2019.

Slap-happy battering, 9/6/2019.

81st Street access, 9/6/2019.

   Heavy surf calls for heavy brews (deja vue?). Dogfish Head Brewery has a heavy Belgian Brown-Strong Ale full of plump raisins and malts. Raison D'Extra clocked in at 18.0+% ABV (give or take) with a dark mahogany pour tinged of ruby-red. Tan finger-plus head and thick, but not real sticky lacing. Light haze. Had aromas of fig, dark fruit, and rum. Plenty of malts which added a toffee-leather essence. At 40 IBUs, D'Extra had a restrained bitter woodiness in the finish. Perfect collaboration with the flavors going down. Sweetness of molasses and dark rock candy, cherries, rum soaked stone fruit and light banana, peppery Belgian yeast. Lot goin' on in this bad-boy. Felt like I needed a cigar. Rated an A.

The other somewhat heavy beer was Yards Brewing's Love Stout, a creamy, black, dry stout that screamed coffee with a touch of chocolate in the aromas. Poured an opaque black with a thinner than expected, brown head. Thin lacing... this one went down much different than expected. Some smoke in the aroma as I drank, possibly from the toasted malts. Not thick, more of a crispness. The crisp bitterness tends to come out in a dry beer despite only 33 IBUs. I could not taste much coffee, but definitely the distinct, unsweetened, dark "cooking" chocolate taste came through. Malts, some char, slight vanilla. At 5.5% ABV, it helped heal the sand burn. Gave it a B rating.

"God is great, beer is good 
and people are crazy."

-Billy Currington

Dorian on the rise...sunset the night before, 9/4/2019.