WE Island Mist kit?
What's in your glass tonight?
- Thread starter Boatboy24
- Start date
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Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
I love brewing with Mt. Hood hops. Saaz ain't too bad either. That brew sounds delicious.
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
2013 H3 Les Chevaux
2014 Chrysalis Vineyards Norton - @mainshipfred (Fred) gave it to me when we met up at Harford Vineyards today. I was excited enough to try it today (heard so much about this grape variety but had never tried a single varietal wine made with it)(also can be grown around these parts since it is zone 4 and I'm in zone 6b-7a). When I took a deep wiff, I was worried. Definitely American grape variety written all over the aroma. But the taste, a different story. It was unexpectedly good, also unexpectedly dark - rivals Dornfelder in opaque purpleness. Could use some more oak, I think it has a lot but the variety can even handle some more. I've had two glasses and want to save a glass or two for my wife, who tasted some dry wines today and liked them (my dry wine stash is in deep do do). Thank you again Fred for your gift, it is an excellent wine!
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And now for something different........
Our local beer Co-op of which I am a life time member...... LOL
Produced their first Grapefruit IPA last week so I had to stop by and get a growler fill! BTW a 64oz growler is $10 for a member so $1.84 per 12oz beer not necessarily "cheap" but this stuff is da bomb! This was their first batch for this blend and it was truly spectacular. This could compete with Deschutes "Fresh Squeezed" IPA easily. Very nice balance of Grapefruit and Hops. Maybe I will go work there when I retire and learn the craft of beer making just for shits and giggles....
BTW the name Bath Tub Row has historical significance. During the Manhattan Project, the houses on "bathtub row" were the only houses that had bath tubs in them, so if you had been assigned to one you were truly someone special. Only scientist like Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Bethe, etc were assigned these houses. The rest of the lower class had communal showers like in any other army barracks during the war time. These houses all still exist and are just a portion of the downtown historical district in Los Alamos
Our local beer Co-op of which I am a life time member...... LOL
Produced their first Grapefruit IPA last week so I had to stop by and get a growler fill! BTW a 64oz growler is $10 for a member so $1.84 per 12oz beer not necessarily "cheap" but this stuff is da bomb! This was their first batch for this blend and it was truly spectacular. This could compete with Deschutes "Fresh Squeezed" IPA easily. Very nice balance of Grapefruit and Hops. Maybe I will go work there when I retire and learn the craft of beer making just for shits and giggles....
BTW the name Bath Tub Row has historical significance. During the Manhattan Project, the houses on "bathtub row" were the only houses that had bath tubs in them, so if you had been assigned to one you were truly someone special. Only scientist like Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Bethe, etc were assigned these houses. The rest of the lower class had communal showers like in any other army barracks during the war time. These houses all still exist and are just a portion of the downtown historical district in Los Alamos
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Interesting! I had never before heard about Bathtub Row. Cool.
Not only did he have an amazing career, Hans Bethe lived a good long time. He was born in 1906. He was active in research, producing important work, into his mid '90s. In the early 2000's, as he became somewhat less active, and there was sort of a parlor game among physicists. You would ask an unsuspecting colleague, "Hey, do you know when Hans Bethe died?" Usually, they would stammer and give some plausible guess, until you revealed that not only was he alive, but he was still publishing!
Not only did he have an amazing career, Hans Bethe lived a good long time. He was born in 1906. He was active in research, producing important work, into his mid '90s. In the early 2000's, as he became somewhat less active, and there was sort of a parlor game among physicists. You would ask an unsuspecting colleague, "Hey, do you know when Hans Bethe died?" Usually, they would stammer and give some plausible guess, until you revealed that not only was he alive, but he was still publishing!
Paul, probably only you and me will find this interesting but I have been at LANL since 1986 and I was fortunate enough to attend scientific guest lectures from both Hans Bethe as well as Edward Teller. I was very young back then but I knew I was witnessing something very special!
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My postdoc mentor had an interesting experience with Bethe. He went to Cornell to give a job-interview talk. He put up his first slide, whose title was about "Blahblahblah." After the introduction, but before he had a chance to speak, Bethe said "There is no such thing as Blahblahblah." Before my advisor could respond, Ken Wilson said "Yes there is!" So the two Nobel Laureates proceed to have an (uninformed) discussion for 10 minutes about whether blahblahblah was possible, without paying any heed to the man who developed them and was there to talk about them. Finally, it was suggested that perhaps we could hear what the speaker had to say about blahblahblah and then continue the discussion after the talk. He did get the job, so I guess it turned out okay.
Another funny story regards my grad advisor and another Manhattan luminary, Richard Feynman. My advisor knew him quite well, from student days at Caltech, and they were quite friendly. In fact, my advisor has a bit piece in "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman." Many years later, I heard the news that Feynman had died. A few days later, my advisor and I were driving somewhere, and I referenced his passing, but my advisor did not really pick up on it. I began to suspect that perhaps my advisor had not yet heard, and so I was forced to relay the sad news. After a lengthy silence, my advisor's first comment was "You know, he could be such an asshole."
Another funny story regards my grad advisor and another Manhattan luminary, Richard Feynman. My advisor knew him quite well, from student days at Caltech, and they were quite friendly. In fact, my advisor has a bit piece in "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman." Many years later, I heard the news that Feynman had died. A few days later, my advisor and I were driving somewhere, and I referenced his passing, but my advisor did not really pick up on it. I began to suspect that perhaps my advisor had not yet heard, and so I was forced to relay the sad news. After a lengthy silence, my advisor's first comment was "You know, he could be such an asshole."
Tasting really good.
Nice, Varis! Did you make that label?
I am tasting petit Syrah from @Boatboy24 tonight. I can taste integrated oak and tannins, and some nice fruit flavors. Very tasty!!
and....did you say the darkest wine ever....LOL
I was at Trader Joe's, so I picked up a cheap bottle of French GSM (2014) from Languedoc. It seems they are trying to fool people into thinking it is a Chateauneuf-du-Pape: the label is called Pontificis, and they have a bottle and label that both look like a C-d-P. (The label even has a seal with crossed keys that says "Pontifex Maximus"!!) Anyway, this set me back a cool $6.99 -- which is not so much more than my kit wines cost! It is a quite quaffable wine -- and so I did! Bottle is nearly gone now... 
We downed a few (bad bottles) of that stuff once upon a time to bottle up a CC Showcase CdP knock off. It didn't taste much better than the TJ's ultimately and now I have several cases of those silly bottles collecting dust in the storage shed.......
I think it must have been a slightly different one. Mine did not have the bottle embossed with shenanigans, just the label: http://www.reversewinesnob.com/2013/06/pontificis-gsm-blend-trader-joes.html
Honestly, it was not a bad vin de table for a Wed. night. Its biggest flaws were: it was quite simple (i.e., lacked any complexity to speak of), and took a bit of time to open up (it was a bit, almost, sour upon opening, but mellowed a lot over an hour). Decent fruit, decent nose.
Honestly, it was not a bad vin de table for a Wed. night. Its biggest flaws were: it was quite simple (i.e., lacked any complexity to speak of), and took a bit of time to open up (it was a bit, almost, sour upon opening, but mellowed a lot over an hour). Decent fruit, decent nose.
Ahhhh, this make TJ's make a lot more sense: (emphasis added)
http://www.reversewinesnob.com/search/label/trader-joes/
I always wondered why wines that I am familiar with are NOT cheap at TJ's. I feel a bit naive!
http://www.reversewinesnob.com/search/label/trader-joes/
I always wondered why wines that I am familiar with are NOT cheap at TJ's. I feel a bit naive!
