Hammer Time, notes from the Rogue

Thigh to Waist slop.  Nice lil' Spit.  4/25, Holidays.

"While it's rollin,' hold on,

pump a little bit,
An let 'em know it's goin' on,
Like that, like that
Cold on a mission so fall them back
Let 'em know, that your too much
And this is a beat, uh, you can't touch"
                                -MC Hammer

 
                                                                     
    By the third time coming up for air felt like a hammer, between the southeast onshore winds and the sub-50 water.  This sucked.  Rubber.  Age. Stiff from lifting. (Cry much?)  48 degree water, southeast winds at 10 kts.  The new suit held up well. Body not cold at all.  Plenty of stretch.  Still fu#king cold when that blast of wind hits the head...like a...a hammer.  High tide made it even tougher to get out beyond the break. A winter without surf.  Out of water shape. Frustrating.  Fu#k! Why is it that I leave home and it's 70F; I get to the beach and it's mid-50's. Blows. And YES, I'm still whining. First day back. Need to appreciate more.

  I do appreciate the local beer up for grabs.  Old Dominion Brewings' Morning Glory Expresso Stout.  Nice graphics. Smoooooth choco-coffee feel and taste.  Poured a brown-black with a very thin brown head.  Even the scent said "Expresssso!"  Shared this one with my daughter out of a 22oz. bomber. This is a strong malty one, light on the hop finish. 9% ABV.  Little nutty, not too sweet.  A great stout. I rated it an A- only for the lack of final bite dispite the 35 IBUs.

"All the marinas, like the honky-tonks, were

beer and black-eye places.  You could get a 

drink and a fight in any of them at any time"

                                    -Ken Stabler, "Snake"

I, Mudapalooza - notes from the Rogue

Wet Finish, 4/13

   Still anticipating the first surf of the season.  Needed a distraction.  My first "Mud Run."  Down the road in Parsonsburg, MD.  I looked forward to it with a mix of excitement and ambivalence.  My girl, Lisa was in town for encouragement (we both could use that a lot more), but the team I was on seemed ever changing.  Members, times, strategy.  Nothing in stone.  Made for some initial frustration.  Ryan, a  fellow gym rat (and trainer), put us together and I gotta say with the cancellations and time changes, he handled all with poise.  In the end, it was a good trial run for my first.  No real competition, challenging obstacles (including a 50 yard zip line!), plenty of ankle deep muck, and fresh beer at the finish! And the next day, we took my daughter out for good grades and finishing her first year of college. Dogfish Head Brewpub.  Good times, good times.

Pick 'em up!

Strike the pose

Splashdown!

Job done.

  At Tall Tales we sampled a few.  At Dogfish Head we sampled quite a few. Tall Tales to come. Two Dogfish reviewed.  The Spring IPA seasonal ApriHop and the Maui Brewing collaboration, Liquid Breadfruit.

ApriHop, made with pilsner and crystal malts and hopped on a big time scale.  Ya gotta love dry hopping. And with apricots no less. You have the apricot hop bite at 50 IBUs balanced by the sweetness of the malts. Bright amber pour with a thick, two finger, tan head.  Good lacing thru the experience.  Nice carbonation that does not downplay the warmth of 7% ABV. Decent IPA for the transition to Spring.  I rated it a B.

An Imperial Pilsner that pours a coppery orange with a thin white head.  Fair lacing.  Regardless of the hop bitterness (50-ish IBUs), this brew has the fruity backroud of a wit and packs 2x the punch at 8.2% ABV.  The hawaiian breadfruit gives a tropical fruit aroma and I could taste the additionl earthy pepper spice in the background.  Dogfish Head boasted this collaboration, but the taste just didn't do it for me.  I think  overexpectation let me down. I rated it a C+.

 "The best things in life are friends that are like family,
           and family which are like friends."  Nice.               -Nishon

Dogfish Head.  Rehoboth Beach, DE 4/14