Recent Beers - April 2013

Been on a craft beer tear lately.  Trades through BeerAdvocate, sours, stouts, etc.  I still have a few cool things not photographed, but here are the beers I have enjoyed recently.

Firestone Walker - Sucaba '13 - Single best barleywine I have ever had, and one of my favorite beers.  Perfect for sipping over 2 hours on a Sunday night.  Barrel aged notes, boozy, delicious.

Had to do a lot of legwork to find 8 bottles of this stuff, but definitely lives up to the hype.

Traded 3 KBS for 6 Heady Topper, through a local BeerAdvocate trade.  First time trying this delicious brew and it did not disappoint.

Big fan of Game of Thrones, an excellent TV show.  As soon as I heard this beer was going to be released, I knew I had to track it down.  Picked up 2 bottles, so my brother in law can try it when he comes to visit from Brazil in a couple weeks.

Least favorite of the recent beers.  Sierra Nevada's Ovila line - Quad.  I didn't hate it, but why would I drink this over Rochefort?

ATL Essentials: Spring 2013

As the weather warms up and the days start getting longer, I am beginning to put away the raw denim and heavyweight merino wool and reaching for shirts and vests.  For the 2nd quarter of 2013, I present the ATL Essentials: Spring 2013 Edition.

1) Prana Mojo Shorts - These are some of my favorite shorts.  They are perfect for the gym, casual trips to the grocery store, or lounging around  the house.  Not too expensive.  I am no yogi, but I am sure it would be good for yoga, if you are so inclined.

2) Tera'swhey - Favorite whey, mix as you please.

3) New Balance Minimus - The model that is pictured here is the MX20BK3, the most recent iteration of the cross training focused lined from N.B.  Flat foot, to mimic barefoot walking with a minimal 4mm drop from heel to toe.  These look great and are super light.

4) Auto Detailing - Gotta get the wip fresh for summer, check your local Groupon site for bargains.

5) Olive Chinos - These are not particular summery, but I have been sweating olive chinos pretty hard lightly.  The pictured pair is the NYCO slim from Outlier, but I also dig the Unis Gio, and Apolis Activism joints.

6) Red Sox - The Red Sox have been fairly dreadful the past two years, but seeing as today as opening day for the Boston team, I had to add them to the list.  A number of new names including young Jackie Bradley JR, pictured above, will hopefully breathe some new life into this team.

Until the summer, feel free to check out the ATL: Essentials archives.

New Kittens & Random Stuff

I haven't posted a ton lately, life has been extremely busy.  Work, working out, cooking, and Marina's school keep us extremely busy.  Couple that with taking a bunch of trips to the Boston area, leaves me with little time to blog.  So for this post, I decided to pull some shots out of my iPhone and post them.  

I was in Boston last weekend at my parents, and they recently acquired two new cats.  Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye are the names of the two brothers.  They are so cute and frisky.  Very friendly cats, I totally am smitten by them.

Marvin (left) and Otis (right)

Otis on my lap watching our Yorkiepoo Rosie

Marina is not a HUGE cat person, but I can tell she likes these two

Frisky devil

Marvin and me enjoying coffee and NCAA tournament

Marina and I checked out a local sushi restaurant.  Osaka Japan Northampton.  Prices are quite fair and I had the sashimi lunch special with a buddha roll, we will be back.

Obligatory beer picture.  Fantome Hiver.  Good, but not worth $17.

Tonight, I picked up a bottle of Pretty Things Fluffy White Rabbits.  A hoppy tripel that clocks in at 8.5% ABV.  I really like this beer, it has a great creamy mouthfeel and a hoppy finish.  Very unique.  #1 seed Indiana currently losing dramatically to Syracuse. 

Beer Review: Stone Enjoy By 4-1-13

I was not able to find the last Stone "Enjoy By" IPA beer, and set out to ensure I was able to try this edition.  I was at a local Whole Foods and saw a bunch of bottles and was quick to grab one. I enjoyed that first bottle very much, but the next day I returned to purchase a few more and of course they were gone.  Luckily, I was in Amherst, MA later that week and Russell's Liquors had a good number of bottles on the floor.  Unfortunately my inner Jew did not allow me to buy more than one bottle at $8.45, because the first bottle was $7.49 at Whole Foods.  Either way, awesome beer!

Heavy Tweed Jacket's Magnum Opus on Striped Shirts

Heavy Tweed Jacket is one of my favorite blogs, he focuses on Trad - Classic Traditional American clothing, but curiously is a resident of Japan.  I suppose that is not all that curious, considering how many great trad pieces that I list on eBay end up being shipped to Japan!

Recently he posted an incredible article on the various striped shirts that are available.  I have to admit, this helped clarify the difference between some terms such as "pinstripe" "candy stripe" and "university stripe" although if there is one thing that this article taught me it is that we need not follow a prescription with labeling the type of stripes on these shirts.

Check out the article: HTJ Archives: Shirts of Every Stripe

Trips to Night Shift Brewing and Mystic Brewery's Tasting Room

Having spent the last two weekends in Boston, I felt it was necessary to swing by the local breweries and pick up some libations.  It happened to come to pass that Mystic Brewery was opening it's Tasting Room the weekend before the one that passed, and as a fan of their beers, it was a no brainer for me to swing by.  The night before, I picked up a small 355 ml bottle of Saison Renaud, to whet my whistle.

A Saison, brewed with pilsner yeast, it was a very crisp saison and infinitely drinkable.  Still enough funky Belgian essence to be complex.  A great entry level beer.

The next morning I made it out to Chelsea by 12:30 and there was a small crowd gathered in the tasting room.  We did not have a ton of time to spare, but as I checked out the board, I quickly settled on one choice.

A 32 oz "growlette" or Boston Round of Flor Ventus, an American Wild, made with flowers.  Quite a tasty wild, and apparently it sold out within 2 hours.  Certainly a bargain at $10/32oz.  As a note, I felt that Mystic's beer prices were EXTREMELY fair, and the fact that they allowed 32 oz fills for half of the price of the full 64 oz fill was awesome.

Next I traveled onto Everett and popped into Night Shift Brewing, it is fairly inconveniently located in a small industrial area.  There is not much parking, but I had Marina sit in the car while I ran in and grabbed a 32 oz growler of Night Shift's Viva Habanera.  I really enjoyed this rye beer brewed with Habanero peppers.

I enjoyed both of these beers and the experience so much, I made sure that I made another trip this past weekend.  During the week, I was reading reviews of the event and I came across something from the Beer Nut.  Although I was only there for a few minutes, my beautiful wife Marina was captured in a photograph.  

There she is in the black jacket at the bar.  I am behind the bearded fellow.

Anyways, as I mentioned above, I decided to refill both growlers.  From Mystic, I chose the An Dreoilin Saison, and it was fantastic.

From Night Shift, I chose the Somer Weisse, a lemon ginger Berliner Weisse. Clocking in at 5.2% ABV it was much more of a standard American Wild, either way it was quite delicious and I polished it off rather quickly.