Miasmatic Review

Beer tasting is almost here

Sorry, no beer review this week. I'm holding the third annual Miasmatic Review Beer Tasting this weekend and I've had to prepare for that. I've made Three bacon explosions and prepped 7 pounds of rib tips for this weekend. I also have the beers lined up that we are going to review. We have three flights.

Beers of South East Asia: Kingfisher from India, Tsingtao From China and Singha from Taiwan.

Beers from Gray's Brewery: Rathskeller Amber Ale, Honey Ale and Bully Porter.

American Stouts: Bell's Java Stout, Left Hand's Milk Stout and Millstream's Colony Stout.

Off course there is a tenth beer. The Mystery beer. Who ever comes the closest to identifying the beer wins a pint of Glogg and a reviewers note book from Bell's Brewery. The tenth beer won't be revealed until after the tasting.

If you are one of the people that RSVPed that you are coming, I'm looking forward to see you there. If you didn't make it this year, I hope you can join us next year.

How to make friends with media personalities.

Ktreva and I have a kid free weekend. We decided to head out last to a couple of bars last night to have a good time. The last bar we went to they had a local Radio personality DJing. They brought him in hoping to boost customers on Friday nights. That’s not why we went, it just happens to be our favorite bar.

For most of the night, this radio personality whom won’t be mentioned by name, but I will refer to as Peve Mannon, was hitting on my wife. Right in front of me! For the majority of the night he kept coming up to her, talking, flirting, touching and staring at her chest. Of course, as I was sitting right there and we made it abundantly clear she was my wife, he continued to do so. Now, also keep in mind that he is married and talks about his wife and daughter on the radio all the time.

Finally at one point, I had put up with enough and was about to chuck a beer at the guy. Fortunately for my beer soaked brain the bartender and owner advised that it would not be a good idea for me to chuck a beer at him. We ended up settling up our tab and heading out shortly after.

So in the end, I was almost bounced out of my bar by a local radio personality because he was hitting on my wife and I didn’t like it. Good times!

Belhaven Scottish Stout

Ktreva is trying to be the first double Enabler. She saw tonight’s beer at the store and had to get it for me to review. She picked out Belhaven‘s Scottish Stout by the Belhaven Brewery in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland.

Belhaven uses a 500ml (16.9 fl.oz.) brown bottle with the company logo cast into the bottle just below the base of the neck. The front label is a grey scale label with some gold highlights of what I believe is two men digging peat. The name of the beer is proudly at the top 1/3 of the label, with the company logo just above it. Below the picture is description of the beer. There is a back label that has some more information about the beer on it and a small neck label with the name of the beer on it.

In a pint glass it has a dark mahogany coloring with a touch of ruby to it. It’s so dark that light doesn’t pass through. A thick foamy tan head formed when poured. It lasted for quite a while before it faded to a film on the top of the beer. There was little to no lacing on the glass.

The beer has a sweet dark fruit scent to it, like prunes or dates. There are undertones of vanilla, coffee and chocolate. A nice roasted malt scent permeates the beer as well as a hint of peat. The flavor starts with a nice malt and cream with chocolate and molasses. There is a touch of peat smoke to it. The aftertaste has a slight coffee and cream flavor to it.

This is a full bodied beer that leaves a creamy coating in the mouth. There is not a lot of carbonation in the beer making it easy to drink.

This is the first Scottish Stout that I’ve had. I’m a huge fan of Scotch Ales so when my wife found this one for me, I was intrigued. Needless to say I was most impressed with what I had. This is a great evening beer to sit back and enjoy while letting the day unwind. The 7% Alcohol by Volume gives it just enough kick that you don’t want to drink it too fast. I give this 8.5 out of 10.

I'm not a hippie.

When I was in High school, I had longer hair. I wouldn’t call it long, but it was past the collar of my shirt, ala mullet style. When I went to college I let it get down to the middle of my back. During the summer after my freshmen year I had to get my hair cut for a job I took. The long hair was a safety hazard in welding cages…. Something about bursting into flames. So I had it cut, shaved the sides and went with a big fuzzy Mohawk. There is one picture still in existence of me with this hair cut. Some days when my wife is being particularly snarky she’ll pull it out to show people. That hair cut lasted for about six months, and when I was home, I’d leave the hair down, not fanned out. I got tired of dealing with it, so I cut it down and went with shorter, easier to style hair. I’ve had short hair ever since. Usually never longer than two inches in length.

Since the end of March, I’ve decided not to cut my hair. I’m going to let it grow. Let it grow long and luxurious, as only a guy who doesn’t care about his hair can. Those ladies out there that spend hundreds of dollars each month to make their hair “perfect” know exactly what I’m talking about. I do nothing with my hair and it has all the body and slight wave they wish they had. Right now, it’s too short to tell what it’s going to look like, but it’s long enough to be annoying. It’s about three inches long. Considering when I started letting it grow it was about a quarter inch long, not a bad growth rate.

Why am I growing it out? Well, this is why I told you the background of some of my goofier haircuts. I’m trying to grow out a mullet. But not just any kind of mullet, I’m growing a very specific style of mullet. I want a 1756’s height of fashion mullet. Yea, that’s right, my facial hair isn’t the only thing that get’s altered for my re-enacting lifestyle!

I’m a long ways to go before it gets long enough, probably about another three inches or so at least. Until then, it just looks like I’m rocking a 70’s pr0n star part. And that I have grey wings on the side of my head. The grey hair really stands out around my temples. There is grey hair in other places, but it’s thickest there. So for all of you “long haired hippies” I’ve made fun of over the years, the next time you see me remember. I’m not a long haired hippie; I’m a man of means from 1756!

Beer Tasting

The beer tasting is just over two weeks away. I’ve already started gathering beers for it. So far I have 7 out of the ten. I just haven’t decided on the final three. This presents one of the two dilemmas that I’m having right now.

The first is that I have four bar cases of beer sitting in my house… and I can’t drink a drop of it. Not one single drop. Now if this was say, Bud Light Chelada or Corona, not a problem. I wouldn’t want to drink it. But these are beers that I want to try or have tasted in the past and know they are good. This kills me. Yet, I have people that are waiting to sample the enticing elixirs I have procured for them. Thus it would be wrong for me to imbibe of them in solitude without their companionship.

The next issue that I’m having is that I’m holding this on the Saturday of Memorial day. The weather is unpredictable at best. I’ve gotten lucky the last two years and it hasn’t rained on me. I just don’t know that I want to gamble that it’s going to hold out and not rain a third year. Since I am an Eagle Scout, I attempted to take precautions and look for someplace that will let me host the beer tasting indoors. So far what I’m being told is that due to liquor laws, I can book/rent a room at various places, but they have to supply the beer, at their standard markup.

That in and of itself causes a problem. Most of the places I could get a room, don’t have the beer selection for me to choose from if I wanted them to supply the beer. Second, even if they did, the price per bottle, especially on a couple that I have, in a bar is going to be in excess of $6 a bottle.

If all else fails, I’ll set up my re-enacting fly and the easy up that I have and we’ll all be nice and cozy under there. It’ll give me the excuse to buy the walls for the easy up I’ve been looking for. The worst case scenario is that it’ll end up looking like some redneck pavilion.

If you want to attend and haven’t contacted me, please do so ASAP. I’m starting to run out of spots.

Kalamazoo Stout

Tonight I’m reviewing Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout by Bell’s Brewery in Comstock, MI. This is one of the beers that I brought back from my trip to Kalamazoo where I was able to spend some good quality time sitting in their Eccentric Café in Kalamzoo, MI.

Bell’s uses the standard 12 oz bottle. There is an off white label with a blue boarder around it. At the top of the label is Bell’s logo. Below the logo in a line box is a picture of a guy, I’m not sure who that is, but it does almost look like a cartoon zombie. Below the box it states “Stout brewed with brewer’s licorice.”

There is a dark ebony color to it in the glass. Light doesn’t pass through at all. A thick viscous foam head forms when poured. The head fades slowly as the beer is drunk. Along the sides of the glass is a light lacing.

The beer starts with a rich coffee smell. Roasted chocolate malts are quick to follow along with a hint of caramel. The scent is strong, but not over powering. It’s the smell that makes the drinker eager with anticipation to take the first sip. The flavor is a delicious combination of coffee and chocolate malts. The roasted malts present a combination of sweet and bitterness on the tongue. There is a slight bitter burnt taste. If one savors the flavor you can pick up the faint hints of sweet licorice. Not enough to overwhelm the taste, but just a touch to enhance to flavor.
This is a medium to full bodied beer. There is a creaminess to it that coats the mouth and helps hold the flavor in.

This is by far one of the best American Stouts that I’ve had the pleasure of drinking. This is a great beer to sit down with friends and enjoy with friends. I’ve had some really good stouts, but this is by far going to be one of my favorites. I give it 8 out of 10.