Amber Rye 2023

Here’s a nice little amber. A fantastical, creamy head of foam, with a pretty solid color.

Which is good, because unfortunately the scent qualities of this one seem muted. I’m not sure why, because the flavors are really good! A lot of caramel, a hint of roast and fairly clean finish.

I’m mostly perturbed about the lack of a nose. However, I can’t be irate about the end result, so we’ll call it good.

Brew date: 8.19.23

Steeping grains
.5 lb Spring Rye
7.5 lb Oregon Promise Pale
1 lb Special Roast

Fermentables: 3 lb Light LME

Hops
1 oz Hersbrucker, .5 oz Cashmere @60
.5 oz Cashmere, .25 oz Herbrucker @30
.75oz Herbrucker at flameout

Yeast: Imperial’s Pub

OG: 1.06

FG: 1.01

Bottled 8/26

ABV: 6.8%

The Residency #6

Past me (who is not at Workers Tap, but it’s the holidays) is wishing you a happy Thanksgiving, with a German style Pilsner from Future Primitive called Nazi Punks Fuck Off!

I feel like I ought to acknowledge that the holidays are not always joyous for people. There are lots of reasons why that might be the case and I’m not here to tell anyone they’re wrong.

Nonetheless, I wish anyone reading this a happy holiday-even if this time of year is hard for you because the weather drags on you, or your family isn’t very supportive, or you don’t have somewhere to go or a person to visit for whatever reason.

It doesn’t matter, though most likely I suspect that the holidays are difficult because they are lonely.

When I say that we are here for each other, it is times like this that I’m talking about. We are here to help one another, because the alternative is terrible.

With that, it is also a time to be grateful for whatever it is you DO have, because we know what that alternative is.

I have people who love and care about and for me-more than I ever thought. A house to shelter me, good food to eat, a body that is pretty damn functional for my age, a brain that is about the same, and a heart that hasn’t been obliterated by the slings of the world.

I don’t know that I deserve any of this; I just acknowledge that I’m worthy of it.

Everyone is. That’s the trick, right? Everyone ought to have food and shelter and a community.

Let’s keep at that.

The Residency #5

Yay, the House passed a bill to keep the government funded through January and February, depending on what you’re talking about.

I’ve always felt that politics is art of what you can accomplish, not what you want.

However, $10 will get you $20 that Rep Mike Johnson (a Very Creepy Dude, because I do not know how else to describe someone who uses his son as the accountable partner to prevent him from watching porn. That boundary is just YIKES, folks.) did this in order to appear “reasonable”.

It’s a bipartisan bill to fund the government. What could be more reasonable?

Except Rep Johnson isn’t a reasonable person. He’s an election denying, homophobic asshole who should never be trusted. He’s a mainstream Republican, which means he’s sharing the house with fascists and his version is 100% sponsored by Christians-Christofascists, if we’re being straight about it.

This action is the kind of thing that gets people to trust you, so that when you bring out the knives, nobody believes that it could be YOU doing the carving. “How is this possible??” Very stupid pundits will ask, “He seemed so reasonable.”

I bring all this up because as normal as things seem to be, after TFG’s presidency, Project 2025 is still a thing. TFG is using more explicit Nazi rhetoric than ever. For “some reason” one Senator has been able to hold up major military promotions for months.

Those same pundits asking “How can one person DO this?? How can one person GET AWAY with this?” Instead of noting the obvious problem: no ONE person can do shit in the US Government. He’s doing it because he’s supported. Who am I talking about when I say “he’s supported”?

Boy, isn’t that a problem unto itself?

And so on.

So enjoy this Luncheon Time IPA from Fracture with me, ok? Because while it’s critical that we take time out to just sit down, have a beer and visit, it’s important to recognize that this is the rest we get before having to do the work of telling the fascists to fuck off. Or maybe it’s the other way around: it’s important to do the work of telling the fascists to fuck off, but also to recognize that we need to take time and sit down and visit.

The Luncheon Time is a very clean, citrus oriented IPA: it’s so balanced that I might consider it old school-or at least a visitor from the 90’s. I could have a couple of these solo or with some food and I’d feel like it could compliment a variety of things well.

Edit: Last post of the week, as I’m off for Thanksgiving! Happy holiday, everyone!

Common Ales: Grains of Wrath-Beastenwolf

Grains of Wrath is as brewery I always want to like but still tends to run hit and miss.

But the Beastenwolf festbier is looking good-brighter than other festbiers I’ve seen and with a nose that is definitely malt forward.

However. The finish on this beer is a wrecking ball of corn. It just distorts everything else about this lager: a finish that should be clean isn’t and turns something very promising into something I cannot recommend.

Which is a bummer: I really like the design on the can, too.

Inconsistency

I had a little trouble with this beer. The scents have a malt, mild honey like quality. It’s muted-at least with this beer-because there’s no effervescence to speak of.

Fortunately, the middle doesn’t have much in the way of pronounced flavors either. And the finish, while offering a little bitterness, doesn’t have a lot of ways to overwhelm what came before.

Now, while none of those things are bad, but there’s no bubbly here! Except sometimes when there IS and…well then the beer starts to take on a different dimension.

Except what I’m reviewing is this experience: which is subpar. If the carbonation was on point, this might be a much, much better beer.

Or if there were some consistency between beers that might help.

I wish I knew what happened: because clearly I did something right, but also something incorrect. I can still drink it-I can even still offer it to people, but I can’t say that this is a beverage that demonstrates my best skills.

Brew date: 7/1/23

Steeping grains
8lb Oregon Promise pale malt
.75 lb Dark Munich

Fermentables: 2 lb Pilsner extract

Hops
@60 1oz Hersbrucker, .25 oz Triumph
@10 1 oz Hersbrucker .75 oz Trumph

Yeast: Imperial’s House (2nd use)

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.01

Bottled 7/8

ABV: 6.23%

The Residency #4

Caldera’s Toasted Coconut Porter sits on the table tonight. It’s….adequate. I don’t get much in the way of coconut, toasted or otherwise and the finish is coffee-sharp to the point of overriding everything else.

You can’t win ‘em all.

I’ve been thinking a bit about how I ended last Monday’s post, with a specific exemption to the common humanity of us all: Nazis and fascists.

It’s real easy to just pat myself on the back and go; well yes, of course those groups. Fuck ‘em.

I stand by that statement: fuck ‘em. They’ve decided to break the social treaty allowing us all to get along and build an actual country instead of insidious city-states fighting for dominance. (Although it can be argued how much different things are, that’s another time).

Yet also: they are us. Dehumanizing them serves only one purpose; making it easier to annihilate them and what they stand for. Either through soft means, like economic strangulation, or actual boot to the head level resistance, thinking of them as subhuman makes those choices a lot easier.

But like I said last week, I think we’re all a bit too comfortable with murder as a concept.

The challenge that I find myself having to rise up to is having both things be true: Those are human beings who I am talking about, AND their goals need to be stopped, whatever it takes.

Because we’ve seen what they want-they’re always happy to tell us, when they are asked. Cruelty as currency, dominance not discussion. Crush the weak. When the weak are crushed, find the next weak. There’s always someone who isn’t as strong.

The bastards hid it for awhile, but TFG let them fly those flags in full.

To be better, justice must be the ideal to serve. Compassion must be woven into the resistance we set.

I didn’t say it was going to be easy. I just don’t want to become the thing I’m fighting against. You’ve seen the hatred in their acts; do you want that in you?

My old man often says that we are called to evolve. “It’s the only way out of this,” he’s said.

Well. Let’s get to climbing the evolutionary ladder, damnit.

Well Of Course It Will

I mean, anyone paying attention to how the climate is changing should be able to draw the obvious conclusion.

The Residency #3

I’d call this the first official weekend of autumn; rainy, leaves all over the ground, darkness spreading over the land faster than chocolate is smeared on the walls by a kindergarten class. Good to be adaptable when my first choice for beer-a pale from Foreland-kicks and I need to pick something else.

So it’s Ancestry’s Irish Red tonight.

A solid beer, the head thick enough to prevent me from capturing anything from it, but the notes from my tongue go: cocoa, a little malt sweetness to reign in the chocolate bitterness, and a strong bubbly finish to cleanse the palate.

Too bad it can’t cleanse the mind-at least, not at this dose.

I’ve been reading Poverty, By America my Matthew Desmond and…boy, if you weren’t convinced that America hated the poor and loved racism by now, this book certainly makes a strong case for the powers that be trying to keep us from seeing the poor as human, and when that wasn’t working, using racism to try to ensure an underclass.

It is utterly absurd how much could be alleviated in this country if we just insisted on a partially more equitable share of resources.

It’s also appalling how much of the current issues we wrestle with were kicked off by the 1980’s and Ronald fucking Reagan.

Time Machine: first we kill Hitler, then we suffocate Reagan.

Though I feel like those things are too easy. I still think I live in a country that is way too comfortable with murder. Maybe it would be better to ask whom we save. JFK? Huey Newton?

The bad ideas are pernicious and persistent. Good people to fight them often cut down too soon.

Maybe we look to save what we love, and not just destroy what we hate?

That’s work worth doing. Recognizing the common humanity* we have and working to save ourselves.

*Nazis and fascists can get fucked.

Ed.-Sorry about the delay, thought this would publish yesterday! No post on Wednesday: I’m out of town.

TPK Brewing

The new hotness is TPK Brewing, which just opened last Saturday. Billed as a gaming and drinking space, formerly Tabor Bread bakery, I’ve been keeping my eyes on this place for over a year. And now they’re open!

First sample: the Kokua pale ale and it…is really good. The hops are likely from the New Zealand family, because I’m getting more tropical and kiwi notes, with a pleasant malt sweetness in the middle to rein it in. There’s also a pleasant hop bite on the end to tie it all together. That bite is…almost like a tiny spark on the tongue. Not unpleasant, but a sensation you can’t miss when it happens.

However, I feel like the pale could be a touch more carbonated. The effervescence is notably absent, with very little head on this beer and that is holding it back from being all it could be. But for a place that is 4 days old, this is a quibble. It always takes a little time to iron out all the kinks, and I suspect they’ll have this settled in no time.

The environment at TPK has much to commend it as well: there are well lit spaces, including an upstairs that is perfect for any kind of gaming, while having a very homey vibe downstairs. There are some lit spots but many of the tables have a tavern lighting vibe; good conversation spots.

During the day, I can see this being very good for games; the windows are wide and open to the neighborhood. Nighttime sets a slightly different aura-one that may change come mid November, when their food partner moves in and is able to light up a truly gargantuan oven to start cooking meals with.

TPK has the potential to be not only a great neighborhood spot, but a location where gamers seek out tables too. I’m looking forward to visiting again and seeing where they go!