Chattering-Magpie-blog
Don't panic, drink organic.
With seventy-five beers, certified organic, and compostable cups, the North American Organic Beer Fest is a beer hippie’s paradise. Lotsa bikes parked outside make this a real Portland event.
I only tasted nine beers but that was plenty for me.
Roots Organic
Portland OR
Gruit Kölsch
Kölsch
5.5% alcohol
0 IBUs?
Beer without hops, an older beer than modern beers. Yes, there was beer before hops. Fruity, citrus overtones. Slightly cloudy. Very refreshing, though the aroma is a little offputting if you’re used to hopped beers.
Santa Cruz Mountain
Santa Cruz CA
People’s Porter
Porter
5.5% alcohol
41 IBUs
Looks like coffee. Smells like coffee. Tastes like coffee. Not too sweet, not too heavy.
Fort George
Astoria OR
Quick Wit
Belgian Wit
5.5% alcohol
<3 IBUs
A Belgian Wit with a Finnish accent. The citrus flavor is lemon instead of the traditional orange, making it taste like a Finnish fermented lemonade called sima. Slightly skunky aroma.
Fort George
Astoria OR
Spruce Ale
Ale
Subtle spicing and spruce tips combine to produce a nicely carbonated beer with no one taste dominating. Very similar to a wit.
Captured by Porches
St Helens OR
Invasive Species IPA
IPA
6.3% alcohol
72 IBUs
Cloudy amber in color, fruity aroma. Not as hoppy as we’d like in an IPA. Rather malty, even kind of spicy in fact.
Eel River Brewing
Fortuna CA
IPA
IPA
7.2% alcohol
72 IBUs
A perfectly reasonable and balanced IPA but not outstanding. Flavor profile is very even, does not stay long on the palate.
New Belgium Brewing
Fort Collins CO
Mothership Wit
Belgian Wit
4.8% alcohol
15 IBUs
A classic Belgian wit: flavors of orange and coriander and plenty of carbonation make this a perfect summer refreshment.
Nelson Brewing
Nelson BC
Paddywhack IPA
IPA
5.2% alcohol
34 IBUs
Not very hoppy for an IPA. Something a little off on first tasting, maybe too much malt. Then the hoppiness seems to increase as the flavor lingers on the palate. Oddly this beer tastes better after you’ve swallowed.
Laurelwood Brewery
Portland OR
Green Elephant IPA
IPA
One whiff and you’re transported to fields of hops. It just smells green. This is an IPA. Flowery with a bite and a tad of malt to keep it from being overly bitter. Glad I saved this till the end.
Chattering-Magpie-blog
Spring Beer & Wine & Cheese & other crap.
This spring event started out with just beer. Then they added wine. Now cheese. And whole lot of other crap. I like to keep my beer tasting and wine tasting separate, but not everyone is so picky.
I was relatively restrained, limiting myself to only a few beers. I have things to do tomorrow.
This is my first beer review posting since getting the iPhone, which makes no difference to anyone but me.
Cascades Lakes Brewing Co
Redmond OR
Blonde Bombshell
Blonde ale
4% alcohol
26 IBUs
Fizzy, sunshine yellow, citrus overtones with a subtle finish. Refreshing without being insipid.
Lost Coast Brewery
Eureka CA
Tangerine Wheat
Wheat ale
5% alcohol
No question why they call it Tangerine. Very fizzy, a little sweet but not overwhelmingly so, the flavor drops off rather quickly.
10 Barrel Brewing Co
Bend OR
Summer Ale
Golden ale
4.7% alcohol
26 IBUs
Color of light honey, a touch of carbonation and a light hoppy flavor. As promised by the name, perfect for summer.
Silver Moon
Bend OR
Panty Dropper Ale
IPA
5.9% alcohol
64 IBUs
Flavorful and flowery, not overwhelming. Drops off quickly to a lingering finish on the sides of the tongue. Hoppy flavor without being excessively bitter.
Big Sky Brewing Co
Missoula MT
Moose Drool
Brown ale
4.3% alcohol
The first time I had Moose Drool was bottled and it was true to its name. On tap, a much better experience: malty and rich, a tad dry. Too sweet for me to drink in quantity, but alright in small doses.
Mad River Brewing Co
Humboldt County CA
Steelhead Double IPA
Double IPA
8.6% alcohol
95 IBUs
High IBUs but not bitter at all. Good balanced flavor with a long finish. Very tasty.
Sierra Nevada
Chico CA
Pale Ale
Pale ale
5% alcohol
33 IBUs
Tasty, amber colored, more flavorful than your run-of-the-mill pale ale. Closer to an amber, really. A rich rounded, mouth-filling flavor.
Chimay
Bavaria Germany
Aventinus
Eisbock
12% alcohol
An aroma of wine and the alcohol content to match. A chocolaty mouth feel, this double bock is made like an eiswein. Just wow. Made in an authentic Trappist monastery they say.
Chattering-Magpie-blog
Oh noes, the Twitter is down!
E thinks Twitter is an evil addiction. He may be right. It’s down right now, not even throwing the Fail Whale, and I’m going into withdrawal.
On the other hand, one of our corporate lawyers brought in her two newly acquired Yorkshire terrier puppies. Utterly adorable. Almost as nice as cats.
Chattering-Magpie-blog
Vegan baked goods ain't half bad.
It’s good to learn something new every day. Today I learned, done right, vegan baked goods are downright tasty. What’s more, they don’t weigh you down and make you feel slightly sick when you over indulge.
At least, that’s what I’m told. I didn’t eat a dozen cookies or an entire loaf by myself, but I did sample some banana bread (moist, not greasy) and oatmeal cookies at a bake sale.
The trick is to replace eggs with flax seed. That’s right, flax seed. I never would have guessed. Apparently, when crushed and mixed with water, flax seed whips up like egg whites. It adds appropriate body and moisture to the baked goods. Plus, there are good substitutes for butter.
Who knew? Vegans, that’s who.
Chattering-Magpie-blog
This is only a test. If this had been an actual blog post ...
I’m trying out posting directly to my blog from the iPhone. Touch screen one finger typing is still awkward for me. I can touch type with fair speed on a full size keyboard and I’ve gotten pretty good at Grafittis 1 & 2 on the Palm OS over the years. I’m told it will take practice. We just got the iPhones Friday evening. Auto-correction is saving my butt.
Chattering-Magpie-blog
Cocktails and basketball.
We were hanging out the other night at our favorite bar, when the bartender mentioned he had been asked to invent some cocktails in honor of the NCAA.
As it happened, the martini I had just had him mix for me would fit right in that theme: Belvedere vodka with a splash of Clear Creek Distillery Eau de Vie of Douglas Fir and a twist of lime. I christened it The Tall Fir. The first NCAA basketball champions were the team from University of Oregon, nicknamed the Tall Firs.
We brainstormed a few more possible cocktails:
- NCAA: *N*ocello, *C*offee, *A*maretto and *A*bsolut Vanil
- Sweet Sixteen: something sweet and pink with a powdered sugar rim
- Bracket Busters: regional cocktails to honor each geographic region of the NCAA
Chattering-Magpie-blog
Crime in the 'hood.
I used to say that we lived in a no-crime zone. You could look at a map of my city that shows where crimes are reported. There’s a little blank square where nothing happens. Our house is inside that square.
This morning as I prepared to scrape the frozen frost from the windshield I noticed my driver side door was slightly ajar. I was sure I had closed it, I thought, as I opened the door.
Immediately I saw that my coin holder was missing. Not just the change it contained, but the entire holder. Plus the few random dollar bills I would occasionally tuck into the another holder between the seats (do those things have names?)
Damn punks got into my car and took my change. Now I’m mad. They didn’t take anything else, not that there was anything of value. I’ve been very lax about security, neglecting to lock my car as it sat in the driveway. I’ll be locking it from now on, I suppose, for all the good it will do.
Now what do I put my loose change into?
Comment [1]
Chattering-Magpie-blog
My husband's cousin.
Is an idiot. He or she (I’m being marginally discreet) regularly forwards emails warning of dire consequences of using some product or service. “Authorities” cited are of dubious credibility if not downright fictional. Many of these emails originate from the 80s or early 90s and were debunked ages ago.
- Cell phones cause brain cancer
- (Then candidate) Obama wasn’t born in the US, doesn’t have US birth certificate
- Microwaving food in plastic containers releases dangerous toxins (okay, this has some validity, but nothing so drastic as the email suggested)
- #77 connects you to the state highway patrol (this one came with a rapist scare story to make it more … scary)
- Tampons and sanitary pads contain asbestos and cause Toxic Shock Syndrome
There’s more of course, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind.
This person is otherwise reasonably intelligent and is college-educated. But when it comes to alarmist emails, common sense just flies out the window. And clogs up my inbox.
Magpie-Knits
Aran Long Cardigan
Digital photography is a miserable thing. I have yet to figure out the ideal combination of shutter speed and aperature to bring out the shadows of white-on-white cables. Lighting has something to do with it, too. Someday I should take a class and really learn this stuff.
More ...Chattering-Magpie-blog
Some days I shouldn't be allowed to have a computer.
I was all set to demo a piece of functionality to an internal customer this afternoon when my laptop computer suddenly shut down. I rebooted and it immediately began shutting down again. I begged off and went in search of IT.
Just for the heck of it, I docked the laptop and tried rebooting again. Sure enough, it shut down just about as everything had completely loaded. Everyone in IT was off helping other people, so I took my laptop to the “Vault”, a secure room where the programmers and QA work.
Let’s take a look at it. What’s it doing?
I start it up and it immediately shuts down, I say.
Fire ‘er up.
The laptop started up and loaded my startup apps.
I’m going to run the command line to abort the shutdown process. Oh. It couldn’t abort because it’s not shutting down.
I explain that I can’t even shut off the sound and reach out to press the sound on/off button.
Why are you pressing the power button to shut off the sound?
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