Oh, Cecil, the winter Bocks are in!

[thebitterguy]

Friday night, Snra. Bitter & I went to a beer tasting at a friend's. Quite an interesting experiernce. I should have eaten more, as it did involve drinking a fair bit of beer.

We were given ten beers, and asked to judge each on its appearance, scent, flavour aftertaste and overall impression. I truly should have brought some takeout curry to eat along, as that makes the beer experience perfect. Hmmm. Or perhaps a plate o' nachos. Or a greasy burger.

Of the X amount of people originally planning to attend, Y (x/2) made it in. Which was kind of unfortunate, as I'd hoped for more people to disguise my beer ignorance among.
I had one that I hated (but the host's wife gave fours to), and two I liked quite a bit. The theme was winter Bock beer, which I know nothing about (although there WAS a handout. It has something to do with goats). I did get to let a couple good belches rip. And by teh time we were done, my lips were numb. Enjoyable, even if we did end up drinking a bottle of a liquid best described as a black hole of beverages (No Light can Escape).

On the plus side, I got to talk about The Drawing of The Dark for about ten minutes, which no one had read, but which I suspect they WILL read. That was a cool book. "Blah, blah, beer as grail, blah blah, beer, arthur, Jannisaries, blah, finis."

I was mildly terrified yesterday, as the Xbox Live connection was not working. I dug out the book and checked the troubleshooting section (there's a restore pinhole on the back, which I dread ever since the first of Snra's Palm Pilots died a sad death). What does it say? "Unplug and plug back in, fool."

So I did. And it works. I played Mechassault with some guys. Apparently there's a huge piece of downloadable content that requies a premium membership (which I have no idea what that means; does it cost extra?), which a lot of the games required to play.

I DID run a Giant Killer game, which consists of six players, one of which plays a heavy mech, the other five playing elementals. If you kill the mech, you get into your choice of mech. Lots of fun.

Now, to play CS with people I know. What a wonderful world we live in.

Oh, yeah: there's someone who's friended me I do not know. Are any of you abcesyas?

Comments

[brand-of-amber.livejournal.com]

Damn. I loved Drawing of the Dark. Even better than Last Rites or On Stranger Tides. Right up there with Anubis Gates and the Stress of Her Regard.

I must start rebuilding my Powers library.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Kim Mitchell did a cover of Sudbury Saturday Night? Neat!

I can imagine needing something in the way of carbs to cleanse one's palate and lay down a protective layer between samples of beer. Beer is proof that g-d loves us and wants us to be happy, someone said, but what they didn't add is that g-d also gets a hearty laugh out of our misery the next day. ;D Winter Bock is, I suppose, like ice wine -- it's all done pretty much the same way, but there's huge variety within the genre.

There used to be a bar on the Danforth that brewed its own beer in the basement. They had this "sampler" of their four beers, a quarter pint of each, lined up on their own little display board with labels beneath. It was a wonderful thing for someone who likes variety but doesn't want to get pished. Sadly, that place closed down. The sampler packs you can get sometimes at the LCBO (they never seem to sell them at the Beer Store) are pretty cool, too, but it's not the same. You could go to the Festival of Beer at Fort York, sometime, if you're keen on sampling.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, I got to talk about The Drawing of The Dark for about ten minutes

I have that! It's great! I had never heard of it or him but I was in a nifty used/new science fiction bookstore in Berkeley (best. business trip. ever.) and it was recommended to me. Thumbs up.

[thebitterguy]

Oddly enough, I'm not that much of a beer drinker. I prefer hard liquor. Certainly, I won't turn DOWN a beer, but it's not my first choice of beverage.

So my buying a sampler would be like the swine going pearl shopping. :)

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Hey, I wasn't much of a beer drinker, either, back in the day. You never know. :)