Heathen's Beer Den

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 9: Ringing in 2010

2010-01-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

This is the last official post in this season's, "It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers. These are the beers. I had from New Year's Eve through January 3.

On New Year's Eve I began with Duyck Jenlain Bière de Noël, which is a Christmas beer brewed in France. The beer was like nothing I'd ever tasted before. It isn't very Christmasy, but it is a very nice Christmas gift. It isn't the greatest beer I've ever had, but one of the most unique so far — and after trying over 850 beers, that's saying something. I wasn't accustomed to grassy hops with all the malty, nutty and toasted flavors and aromas that are a big part of this 6.8% ABV Bière de Garde. There are notes of caramel malt, toast, nuts, champagne, red wine, grassy hops, cherry and a little citrus.

Next up was Géants Noël de Géants, which I started after the ball dropped and I made my phone calls to loved ones — so it become my first beer of 2010. It is a good one. This 8.5 % ABV Belgian strong ale brewed in Belgium falls somewhere in between a dubbel and a tripel. It hides the alcohol well and has notes of caramel, toast, nuts, doughy yeast, cherries and apples.

New Year's Day evening found me drowning my sorrows over the Flyers loss at the Winter Classic with a bottle of Nørrebro (or Nørrebros as the label states) Julebryg. It is a 7% ABV spiced beer from Denmark. It's very Christmasy, but seems to be watered down. There are lots of spices and sour fruit, nutty malts and hints of cocoa; but all those flavors seem watered down. There was even an ever so slight hint of sour chocolate milk in the taste. One of my least favorites from this season's Christmas/winter beer batch. Maybe I had a bad bottle, but I think it will be a while before I try it again.

I followed that with a much better and much more appropriate beer for the day — although by the time I tried it, it was already January 2. The beer I refer to is Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux, a 9.5% ABV Saison brewed in Belgium. The name means "best wishes" and is market more as a New Year's beer than a Christmas beer. I thought of it as being a like a far more complex Duvel. It is a very well made beer of the highest quality, but not really my cup of tea (or beer as the case certainly be). That's not to say I didn't like it, it's just not one of my favorites and I can think of many other beers I would like to have instead. It is very complex with an intense aroma. (It also went surprisingly well with a microwaved pretzel and squeeze cheese.) There were notes of oranges, tangerines, sour fruit, candy sugar, crackers, apricots, spicy yeast, peaches, peach pits, pepper, citrus rind, floral hops, lightly toasted light bread, mustiness, dust, slight funk and then toward the end some citrus hops.

On the second day of 2010 I tried Klein Duimpje Kerstbier, an 8.5% ABV Belgian strong ale from the Netherlands. It is a very interesting beer. The aroma seemed off to me at first but it grew on me as time went by and the beer warmed a bit; but the flavor was great from the start and became even better with time. This was one of the better Christmas beers I tried this season. It hides the alcohol very well. It does seem Belgian, but also somewhat different than a true Belgian beer. The aroma has caramel malts, cocoa powder, hot cocoa mix, bakers chocolate powder, spicy yeast, raisins, prunes, toffee, honey brown sugar, alcohol, sweetened tea, a little liquor and an ever so slight soured chocolate milk. The flavor is similar, yet more refined, featuring chocolate, raisins, caramel, spicy yeast, toffee, chocolate syrup, sour cherries, cocoa powder and slight sour chocolate milk. All in all, this is a special Christmas treat that gets better and better the warmer it gets.

On the last day of my Christmas vacation before going back to work for the first time in 11 days, I tried Amager Julebryg 2008. This Denmark brewed beer is another of those beers that is an entirely different beer each year. The 2008 version is a 7.5% ABV abbey dubbel. I don't know what it was like when it was first released, but the aging of this beer has made it great. It is very intense and does become a little cloying as time goes by. It's not all that Christmasy, but it is a wonderful Christmas gift from the brewer. It is also has a warming presence that makes it a nice winter warmer. If you try this one, make sure to keep the yeast out of the glass. I let a little get into my second glass and it killed some of the great flavors present. Some of those flavor notes were raisin, prune, alcohol, fig, chocolate, caramel, toffee, cherry, spicy yeast, maple syrup and brown sugar. This was a nice finale to this season's Christmas/winter beer extravaganza.

Once I go back to work in January I usually try to go on a bit of a beer fast, not having any beer until the Super Bowl, in an effort to save my liver after recklessly endangering it during December. So far I have been successful with this every other year. This is one of the off years. I made it almost two weeks, but decided that I may have had a lot of strong beers during the holiday season, but I usually wasn't getting drunk. I am however still going to take it easy until the Super Bowl and not try any new beers or any super strong beers until after the Super Bowl, so there won't be any posts about new beers that I'm trying.

The plan for the next couple weeks, is to finalize my 2009 favorite beer and music lists. I might post something sooner if I hear any breaking news, but look for the Heathen Awards to show up soon in a post or three. Until then, drink it in!

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 8: Christmas around the world

2010-01-17T21:22:00.000-08:00

The week between Christmas and New Year's Eve found me trying Christmas/winter beers from all over the world.

Hook Norton Twelve Days, brewed in England, is an English strong ale. It is a nice Christmas gift. It's like some sort of Christmas dessert. The carbonation is a bit overpowering, but there are notes of caramel, nuts, cocoa, raisins, dark cherries, plum,. apple, toast, cookies, molasses, earthy and herbal hops. At 5.5% ABV it would be easy to knock back a few of these around the holidays.

Stoudts Winter Ale, brewed Adamstown, PA, is a beer that changes from year to year. The 2009 edition is a 6.2% ABV, hoppy amber ale. It isn't very special, but the fact that the beer changes from year to year makes it a true Christmas present, because who wants to get a gift that they already received the year before. It's hoppy, but well balanced. Nothing too extreme.

The St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, brewed in Belgium, is a beer that I've been wanting to try for a few years now and finally got the opportunity this holiday season. This one has Christmas written all over it — both literally and figuratively. At 10% ABV, it is nice and warming, which was much appreciated the night I tried it, considering it was 19 degrees with the wind chill making it feel like 7 degrees. The aroma is evident as soon as this beer is poured. It hides the alcohol incredibly well. It also has one of the most persistent heads I've ever seen on a beer. It is a little hard to explain, but I will try. There are notes of dark, sour fruit, dark candy sugar, light Christmas spices, maple syrup, molasses, chocolate, cinnamon, caramel, earthy yeast and slight metal. An incredible Belgian strong ale. I think this will be on my list of Christmas Eve beers next year.

New Holland Cabin Fever, a 6% ABV brown ale from Holland Michigan, is a bit of a mixed bag. It started out incredible and ended just nice. For having an average ABV the beer does a very poor job of hiding the alcohol. While not the best trait in a beer, the noticeable alcohol did make it a nice winter warmer on a cold night. It is almost like an ale version of a doppelbock. The key to enjoying this beer might be to drink it quickly and fairly well chilled, because it goes from tasting like a Chunky bar or a Christmas cookie to cloying and medicinal when you take your time with it and let it warm up a little.

Ølfabrikken Jule Ale, from Denmark, is just one of several Christmas beers that Ølfabrikken makes each year. Denmark is one of those place, like other Scandinavian countries, where the breweries commonly brew more than one yule or jule/jul beer as it is known in that part of the world. This is an odd Christmas ale because it is both hoppy and full of Christmas spices. Most brewers go one way or the other and I feared this combination as I opened the bottle. At first, the two flavors didn't seem to go all that well together, but it grew on me. This 8% ABV American strong ale didn't do a good job masking the alcohol content, but it seemed to work fine in this beer and was quite welcome. It has notes of caramel, chocolate, spices, citrus, pine, coffee and brown sugar. It is also very well balanced once you get used to the clash of flavors.

I also tried Ølfabrikken Kloster Jul, a bigger, seemingly more traditional (if only slightly so) Christmas ale from the brewery. This Belgian strong ale, at 9.5% ABV, was very warming. I definitely preferred the previous beer. This one seemed to have something off in the aroma and flavor, but I couldn't tell if the beer was slightly skunked or if it was the licorice root that was used in the brewing process. There are notes of caramel, molasses, raisin, cherry, licorice, yeast, cheap chocolate, instant coffee, spices, cola, alcohol, metallic hops, toffee and oranges. It is interesting, but not one of my favorites.

We've almost come to the end of this journey. My next post should wrap up the Christmas/winter beers that I tried this holiday season. It will focus on the beers I tried on New Year's Eve into the new year. Drink it in.

it's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 7: A Cold Nose and a Climax with an Italian

2010-01-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

It was a the day after Christmas and I still had a ton of Christmas/winter beers to try before my Christmas vacation ended, but that didn't stop me from picking up one last winter beer that I hadn't seen until the day after Christmas when stopping into a liquor store to pick up a bottle to take to a wassail party.

The beer I picked up was Laughing Dog Cold Nose Winter Ale. The beer, brewed in Idaho, is a malty winter warmer with a nice hop bite at the end. It is rather British and at 6.9% ABV it was very nice on a cold night. I only wished I would have had a chocolate chip cookie to go with it.

I also tried Eel River Climax Noel. It was my first Eel River beer and the first of several Noel beers I would be trying in the week between Christmas and New Years Day. This 8% ABV American Strong Ale, brewed in California, is a bit over carbonated. It is balanced between sweet and acidic. It is very fruity and reminded me a little of Tröegs Mad Elf, although nowhere near as good. It is a bit Christmasy, but not by much. The fight between sweetness and acidity in this certified organic brew also overpowers most of the underlying flavors.

The next noel beer I tried was Baladin Noel du Baladin, which is brewed in Italy. This is probably also the first true craft beer I've tried from Italy. It is a little light in body, but nice. It hides its 9% ABV very well. It isn't very Christmasy and being my first Baladin, I have no idea if this is a true gift from brewer or not, but I sure wouldn't mind getting this under my tree in years to come. Brewed in the Belgian strong ale style and is somewhat sour. It is an interesting beer. Some of the notes I jotted down about the flavor were: sour fruit, hints of chocolate, lots of yeast, tobacco, very sour fruit, red wine, apple cider, sour cherries, hints of wood and spicy yeast. Not as full as I would have like, but the flavors are nice even if they seem a little watered down.

That's all for now. I need to get started on the next few collages. Until I post again.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 6: Christmas Eve and Day

2010-01-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve I don't try any new beers. Instead I share my favorite Christmas/winter beers from past years and from earlier on in the current Christmas season with my brother. Above is a picture of this years Christmas Eve beers. As you can see, this year we had seven different beers and were jokingly calling it the feast of the seven ales. The picture will replace the picture of me holding a glass of Mad Elf for the duration of this series as the intro photo for each post.

Now it's time to get back to the actual new Christmas/winter beers I tried. On Christmas I tried Nøgne Ø/Jolly Pumpkin/Stone Special Holiday Ale. The beer is brewed with "Michigan chestnuts, white sage from southern California and Norwegian juniper berries," according to the label. This three-brewery collaboration is a great idea. Each year the beer is being brewed in a different one of the three's breweries. The recipe is the same each year, but the brewing and aging process is different each year, which I assume means they follow each breweries normal brewing and aging policies. I regret to say that I missed out on last year's version which was brewed at Stone in California. After seeing a picture of the bottle this year, I realized that I passed it up because it didn't look Christmasy enough. Another example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. This year's edition was brewed at Nøgne Ø in Norway and is great and very Christmasy. It has a very unique aroma and flavor. It hides it 8.5% ABV just enough. The alcohol that is noticeable just adds to its Christmasyness. It's like an even better Arctic Circle Ale. There was juniper, spices, toffee, nutty malt, fruit, some sort of pine or spruce, licorice, pepper, cola and a little yeast got in the glass some slight chocolate notes. I can't wait for next year's, which will be brewed at Jolly Pumpkin in Michigan where I'm assuming it will be aged in their famous wood barrels that ad a nice bit of sourness and some funk to all the beers I've tried from them so far.

I finished off Christmas with Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper 2009. It isn't very Christmasy, but it is definitely a Christmas gift from the brewery to the beer drinker. It is an even more special ale than their normally exceptional beers. This beer is brewed using a different recipe each year and is on of my favorites each year. It always seems to surprise me. The dominant flavor and aroma of this year's edition is moist coffee grounds that blend with piney hops, but there is also so much more. There's just layer after layer of flavor. It hides its 10.9% ABV extremely well. With a little less carbonation, I would considered this a perfect beer. The carbonation is so strong that it seems to hide some of the flavor. Thank you, Mikkeller, for a wonderful Christmas nightcap.

And thanks to anyone following this blog for being patient as I slowly get you up to date on the new Christmas/winter beers I've tried this holiday season. Drink it in.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 5: The Eve of Christmas Eve

2010-01-04T19:46:00.001-08:00

I'm very disappointed that I wasn't able to keep up with blog during my winter/Christmas beer experience. I was too busy trying new beers and didn't have access to a computer on more than half of my Christmas vacation. I did, however, keep notes and took pictures of all the beers I was trying, so they all will eventually be mentioned here in time. I'll be posting a few beers at a time instead of one long post with all the beers listed so that that it won't take forever to finish the post. I will also stop trying to be so technical with my comments on each beer and give a more general description in order to get these posts up faster. Well, enough about my bad blogging habits. Let's get to the beer.

On the Eve of Christmas Eve, I tried two more winter ales.

Smuttynose Winter Ale, is like a "Lite" abbey dubbel. "Lite" in alcohol that is. This 4.8% ABV beer, brewed in New Hampshire, may not pack a punch of alcohol, but it does have tons and tons of flavor. It has a very nutty, malty and Christmasy flavor without having any spices in it. Just a spiciness from the Belgian yeast used for the brewing. Some chocolate is also evident and it would pair nicely with some chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies. With all the flavor and the low ABV, I could have drank this all night, but I only had the one bottle.

I also tried Wachusett Winter Ale that night. At 6.1% ABV, this ale, brewed in Massachusetts, is a nice and malty Scotch Ale with notes of toffee. It isn't very Christmasy, but it is a nice winter warmer with all sorts of malts fighting each other for the starring role and a surprising, belly-warming power beyond what I would expect for the ABV.

The next installment in this series will finally get into some of the true Christmas beers I tried this holiday season.

it's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 4: Winter Comes Early

2009-12-23T16:19:00.000-08:00

Well, winter came early this year and I had the perfect beers to be drinking when it did. All but two of the Christmas/winter beers I tried on the third weekend of December were beers actually named "Winter Ale." So, as mother nature dropped around two feet of snow throughout much of the Delaware Valley before the official start of winter, I was sipping on ales from Brooklyn, Geary's, Oppigårds, Ipswich and Nøgne Ø breweries. I also tried Miller Coors Blue Moon Grand Cru and Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew.

Brooklyn Winter Ale is a Scottish ale brewed in New York. I've seen this beer for a long time but just got around to trying it now. At first I thought this beer came across as being a little flat for the style, but then I got to thinking. This beer is probably very similar to an actual Scottish ale. I've gotten so used to everyone making wee heavy style Scottish ales, that I forgot that all Scottish ales aren't huge alcohol bombs made even more intense by American craft brewers trying to appeal to many a beer geek's desire for extreme everything. Sorry, I'm getting off point. This beer isn't going to scream "Christmas" in your mouth, but it is a very easy-drinking winter ale that is full of caramel and nutty flavors along with slight citrus and cherry. At 6% ABV it might night thaw your bones, but you can knock back a few with good friends without embarrassing yourself.

Geary's Winter Ale is an India Pale Ale brewed in Maine. I never really think of IPAs being all that wintry or Christmasy, but a beer such as Sierra Nevada Celebration, an IPA, is one of the most sought after holiday beers around. This one wasn't quite as good as Celebration, but I might not have had the best example of this beer. It didn't seem skunked but the bottle was very dusty one I picked it up in the store. This is also a more British rendering of the IPA style, where Celebration is a very American and more specifically West Coast IPA. The Geary's has an almost honey-like malt with some cracker, oranges, peaches and apricots; and the hops are rather floral. It doesn't come across as very wintry flavor-wise, but it does seem to have a slight warming effect, which is a little surprising due to the fact that it is only 6% ABV.

The beer I was sipping when the snow began falling was Blue Moon Grand Cru, a beer brewed in honor there being an actual blue moon on New Year's Eve this year. If you think the original Blue Moon is incredible, this one might be a little too much for you; but if you the original is a nice stepping stone beer to get more people drinking craft beer, you will wish they made the Grand Cru all year long. It is basically an imperial version of the original in both flavor and ABV (11%). There is some biscuit in the flavor, with plenty of candy sugar, oranges, spices and even a slight funk. With the oranges and spices it comes across as a little Christmasy too.

The Oppigårds Winter Ale was surprisingly British for having been brewed in Sweden. The flavor is a little hop heavy in the beginning, but when it warms up a little it balances better with the malt. There is caramel and nutty malts, and all sorts of hops — perfumy, piney, resinous and herbal. There is also some sour fruit and citrus rind with hints of chocolate and coffee and an ever so slightly off, sour smell. It's a beer you could drink all night at just 5.3% ABV. It was much different than I was expecting when picking up a beer from Sweden, but surprises are part of trying all different beers.

The Ipswich Winter Ale, at 6.2% ABV, is a little hard to define. The brewery calls it a Scottish ale, RateBeer calls it an English strong ale, but I thought it seemed like a brown ale, but definitely a British brown ale. It is very malty, but a bit too hoppy to be considered Scottish. It has nutty, toasted and caramel malts, a little and a hint of cocoa, herbal and perfume hops, a little sour fruit, slight toffee, tea and citrus.

The Nøgne Ø Winter Ale, known as God Jul, in its native Norway, is quite good. It is particularly beautiful to look at. What you can't see above is that in direct light there is a reddish brown glow. It is very malty and chocolaty with a perfect blend of hops that almost makes it seem like there are spices in it, which it doesn't. (Their spiced beer, Peculiar Yule or Underlig Jul in Norway, is one of the most spiced beers I've ever had). At 8.5% ABV it is slightly warming. In a way it reminded me of those chocolate oranges I used to get for Christmas as a kid. It also goes well with chocolate chip cookies, so this might be a nice one to leave out for Santa.

So the day before the winter solstice, I decided to try Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew, a beer brewed on December 21 as the sun turns and changes direction. The label states that this turning of the sun is something Norwegians believe in. Whether you do or don't, it is a fact that cultures were celebrating this time of year because they new that after the solstice days would start to get longer again. These celebrations were around a long time before Christmas and led to the birth of Christ being celebrated at this time of year, which is something I will get into more in my next post. But back to the beer in hand. It's pretty much a smoked barley wine, that hides its 11% ABV incredibly well. It is surprisingly easy to drink for a smoked or high ABV beer. Part of that is due to the fact that it is not overly smoked. There is just enough smoke to make it interesting. It really is like drinking an ancient beer and oddly enough I do think of it as Christmasy. The flavor is way more complex than the aroma, but the aroma is fairly complex to begin with. An excellent example of something similar to what people might have been drinking while hoisting stone drinking vessels to their lips in celebration of the sun's lengthening of days.

I really need to post more often during this project to avoid these long posts. I hope you enjoyed these latest beers. As I post this I am starting an 11-day weekend and hope to have more time to try more Christmas/winter beers. I have a few more "winter ales" to go and then I'll be getting into the specifically Christmas and Jul beers. Here's hoping my liver survives the journey. If it does I'll tell you about what some more beers. If not, I hope you will continue to drink it in.

The Bruery's Holiday Party this Friday!

2009-12-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone from California will be seeing this, but I figured I'd pass on this e-mail that I received today.

It's that time of year to get out your favorite holiday sweaters and come on out to the Tasting Room! We're having a holiday party this Friday (December 18) and we're inviting you to come dressed in your favorite holiday sweater.

This will also be a charity related event for Project 23, benefitting homeless and families in need here in Orange County. We ask that you donate an unwrapped, first use toy for girls under the age of 12.

As a thank you for your participation, we'll be raffling off some items including a few of our favorite beers from our archive to those who contribute.

Humulus XPA will be featured on cask dry hopped with hops grown right on premise. We'll also have a few light snacks because what's a holiday party without snacks?!

Speaking of snacks, on Saturday night our friends at Kogi BBQ will be stopping by to serve some of their delicious Korean BBQ for your enjoyment (and ours) so come hungry!

You can also pick up some last minute holiday gifts like Bruery Reserve Society memberships, Bruery gear (including our new beanies!), and gift baskets.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 3: Preludes and Pirates and Bears, Oh My

2009-12-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

It took me a little longer to get this post ready because I am trying something new with the photos of the beers I mention. I made photo spreads for each beer and it took a little longer than I thought it would. I'd love to say that this was a great idea that I came up with all by myself, but I saw similar spreads on John Lemasney's now defunct beer blog, Beer Critic, and was inspired to do something similar. I'm just giving credit where credit is due. John decided to stop blogging about beer and pursue other interests. He describes the reasons best on his blog. While there are no new posts on John's website, it is worth taking a look at, since his detailed reviews and beautiful pictures are inspiring. I will apologize ahead of time, though, for the quality of my photos. They are, for the most part, all taken with an IPhone camera. I would use a better camera, but I find that currently this is the fastest way for me to get the photos onto the blog. It also allows me to use just one device to take pictures and look up information about the beer I am trying. I do hope you enjoy the spreads.

Well, the second weekend of December has passed and I have barely put a dent in the Christmas/winter beers that I stockpiled, but I did try a few nice ones since my last post. There wasn't anything that blew my mind, but you'll never hit a home run if you don't swing. I tried Mahrs Bräu Christmas Bock, Boulder Never Summer Ale, Philadelphia Joe Coffee Porter, Shipyard Prelude Special Ale, Clipper City Heavy Seas Yule Tide and Long Trail Hibernator.

Mahrs Christmas Bock, a 6% ABV German beer, was a bit confusing to me. RateBeer.com lists the beer as a heller bock, which I believe was the beer in my bottle; but Beer Advocate lists the beer as a bock, which I believe I tried at a winter beer festival last December. Many of the review I looked at described the beer as being dark, which I thought it would be when I bought it because of my own experience last year; but the beer I tried Thursday night was definitely golden. I tried to investigate on Mahrs Bräu, but there really wasn't any information on the beer. Maybe it is a case of alternating beers from year to year, or maybe there are two versions bottled each year and part of the Christmas surprise is finding out which beer you received. I was hoping for the dark, malty beer I sampled last year, but will have to describe the golden beer that was in this year's bottle, because I wasn't taking notes at the beer festival. This beer is very German, but not very Christmasy. Heller bocks are not a style that I particularly like, but this one isn't half bad. But it certainly doesn't seem like a special gift for Christmas. It's almost a more malty version of a pale lager. It had a lot of hay and straw flavors with some malt sweetness and then the metallic and grassy hops take over. Not flavors I enjoy very much, but it was crisp. I'd recommend drinking this on the colder side as, unlike most beers I drink, it becomes harder to drink the warmer it gets.

Boulder Never Summer Ale, a spiced beer brewed in Colorado, is a lot easier to explain. It is fairly Christmasy and at 6% ABV, you can knock back a few. It has just enough spices to make it interest. They aren't overdone. It's has fairly British malt and very American hops. Its a nice blend of UK and US. Overall, it's a nice, easy-drinking, winter ale.

The Joe Coffee Porter, brewed in Philadelphia, is one of those beers that doesn't really market itself as a winter beer, but it is only available for a short time right around this time of year so I'm counting it. The only thing I can really say about this one is, that if you like coffee, you will like this. This 5% ABV porter had flavors of coffee with a little cream, some sour coffee and fresh coffee grounds.

Prelude, Shipyard's winter offering, is an English strong ale weighing in at 6.8% ABV. The beer is made in Portland, Maine, but tastes very British. It isn't spiced, but was fairly Christmasy. It has nutty and caramel malts, metallic and herbal hops, toffee and a little stewed fruit.

Yule Tide is part of Heavy Seas new 22 oz. bomber series. The beer, which is brewed in Baltimore, is a 10% ABV abbey tripel. I was hoping for more from this one because the other three beers in the series are quite good. This one was a bit sweet for the style. It seems to not be fully attenuated. If it was the ABV would probably be through the roof. As it is, it doesn't hid the alcohol all that well, but it didn't finish to boozy. It had flavors and aromas that were fairly Belgian. It iss only slightly Christmasy. It also doesn't seem like much of a special Christmas gift, considering the high quality of the other beers in the series. This one has spicy yeast, apple, white wine, tons of candy sugar, oranges and hops in the flavor. The aroma is much the same, but I could swear there is a hint of vinegar there too. It wasn't awful, but I hit my glass with my elbow when I went to sit down and spilled more than half of the beer and wasn't too upset about losing it; and I am the kind of person who usually does cry over spilled beer.

Finally, I'm getting to that bear beer I mentioned in the title to this post. Hibernator is an odd name for a so-called Scottish ale. since beers ending in "ator" usually denote a doppelbock. Beside the misleading name, this really isn't a great example of a Scottish ale. They are supposed to be malty and this one, at 6% ABV, was a bit too hoppy for the style and doesn't come across as being very malty. It isn't horrible by any means, but it is a bland example of a great, full bodied style. It also doesn't really seem much like a winter warmer. This beer, brewed in Vermont, seems more like an Autumn transitional beer to me. I had this a few years ago and remember it was being way more malty and enjoyable. May this was just a bad bottle.

That's all for now, but I'll be back soon to post more about the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers.

Drink it in.

Just prior to the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers

2009-12-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

I felt it was necessary to also mention the other two winter beers that I tried prior to Thanksgiving, which was the kickoff for my Christmas/winter beer tasting frenzy. There were only two, but I felt like I was punishing them for arriving to the party a little early.

I tried Magic Hat Ho w l, a 4.6% ABV schwarzbier from Vermont, the night before Halloween. I knew it was a winter seasonal when I tried it, but the somewhat scary label drew me in. It may not have been the best example of a winter warmer, but with its low alcohol content and full flavor it does make for a nice session beer. It was roasty with with notes of coffee, a little chocolate and some nuttiness. It was flavorful but fairly light and easy to drink.

I tried Founders Backwoods Bastard the weekend before Thanksgiving because I just couldn't wait. When I bought the four pack, I knew it was a bourbon barrel-aged scotch ale and I assumed that it was just a bourbon barrel-aged version of their year-round Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale, but it wasn't. The Dirty Bastard is 8.3% ABV and big enough, but the Backwoods Bastard trumps it at 10.2% ABV. You gotta love an American brewery that puts out two scotch ales. Everything I've tried from Founders, which is based in Michigan, has been great, and this was no exception. It is currently in my top five beers that I tried for the first time this year. (But who knows if that will stick with all the great Christmas/winter beers I still have to try.) Backwoods isn't really market as a winter beer, but is only available from November to January. It had tons of flavor and the alcohol was noticeable, but not nearly as evident as you would think for the ABV. There is caramel malt, cherry, whiskey, wood and lots of vanilla. It isn't very heavy either and while it is a sipper, it does go down easy. Keep watching to see if this one hangs around to make my top 13 beers I tried this year.

Well, now I've told you about all the new winter/Christmas beers I've tried so far this season. Tomorrow I'll start trying more. Until then you might want to check out some of these other Christmas/winter beer lists that I've discovered over the past few days: The Beer Advent Calendar at The Brew Site and Draft Magazine's 25 Holiday Beers.

Drink it in.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 2

2009-12-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Here is another installment of my series on the new Christmas/winter beers I am trying this holiday season. A new feature in these posts will be my little traveling Santa who will appear, facing the camera, with all the Christmas. He will also appear to be admiring the bottle or glass of any beer that is a winter seasonal, but not officially Christmas related.

During December, I usually try to take Fridays off from work to give me an extra day of trying new beers each week since I don't make a habit of trying new beers on days that I have worked and have to work the following day. With that explained, I tried Anchor Our Special Ale 2009, Victory Yakima Twilight, Ommegang Adoration Special Winter Ale and Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale between December 3 and December 6.

Anchor Our Special Ale, brewed in San Francisco, is thought to be

the first truly American craft Christmas beer. It has been brewed since 1975. Each year the recipe changes a bit and the brewery never reveals any of the recipes. Each year may be different but they are all spiced with seasonal tasting spices. With every edition of the beer there is also a new label depicting a different tree. I may or may not have tried this beer years ago, but it was long before I started taking notes and rating every beer I try. So I think of this as my introduction to this classic holiday beer. This beer has tons of holiday spices. It just tastes like Christmas, and smells that way too. It's definitely Christmasy, but I think they could have eased up on the spices a bit. While drinking it I felt like I had poured dried spices into my mouth and tried to wash them down with a great craft beer. As it warmed that sensation decreased a little, but I still think it would be better with a little less spice. The Grey Lodge Pub is scheduled to host "An Anchor Christmas Carol," where three years of Anchor Our Special Ale will be on tap (2009, 2008 and 2007) on Friday December 18 from 6-9 p.m. It should be an interesting night.

Victory Yakima Twilight isn't really marketed heavily as a winter beer, but it is only available from November to January so I think it fits the bill. RateBeer.com lists the beer as an American Strong Ale, but I choose to call it a black or dark India Pale Ale (IPA). These dark beers that are hopped like IPAs are becoming more and more popular and will hopefully soon have a category all their own. Prior to this year the only one I can recall having tried was Dogfish Head India Brown Ale, but this year I must have tried at least five that could be put in the category. This one, brewed in Downingtown, PA, is very nice. It was malty and hoppy and the two flavors were well balanced. The whole concept of umami, the fifth taste that scientists found we have (sweet, salty, sour and bitter being the others), but I think this beer has it. And when you understand that the Japanese describe umami as deliciousness, you will know that I am paying this beer a compliment. At 8.7% ABV it also makes for a wonderful winter warmer.

I tried Ommegang Adoration this weekend because I figured with the feast

of The Immaculate Conception on December 8 it was a nice way to remember the religious side of the season. I was told at a winter beer festival that this was based on Scaldis Noel a famous Christmas beer from Belgium, which I tried last year. If it is, the Adoration is huge improvement. I'm sure the Scaldis tastes nearly as good in Belgium, but the Adoration, having been brewed in Cooperstown, NY, didn't have to cross an ocean to get to me. In other words — it's super fresh. Adoration is brewed with coriander, cardamom, mace, grains of paradise and sweet orange peel; and it tasted a bit like Christmas. It was very Belgian and was spiced perfectly. The spices weren't overdone. This big beer, weighing in at 10% ABV also hid the alcohol very well.

On December 6, I decided I needed to have a beer with jolly, old St. Nick on the label since it was the Feast of St. Nicholas. I went with Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale. For not being spiced at all, this beer was fairly Christmasy. It is a rather malty beer with notes of tasted and nutty malts with just a hint of chocolate. The more I think about it, the more I think my reason for thinking it was Christmasy is because it reminds me of the chocolate chip cookies my mother makes this time of year. Don't get me wrong, there are also a good amount of hops in this one, but the malt is what really shine. The hops are there more to balance the malt than anything. At 6.2% ABV this might not warm you up too much, but you sure can no a few back and not pay for it in the morning.

I picked up a bunch more Christmas and winter beers last night, so there will be plenty of material for several more installments of this series. Hopefully my posts can keep up with the beers. Drink it in.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers

2009-12-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

This will stand as my first official post chronicling the new Christmas/winter beers I am trying this year. There is no better time of year for trying new beers. Just about every brewery and brewpub puts out a special beer at this time of year. There is no set style definition for a winter/Christmas beer. These beers are just a chance for the brewer to try something different and offer it as a gift to their dedicated customers. Another plus is that they might gain some new customers in the form of people who want something festive to drink around

the holidays and see something with a beautiful holiday or winter scene on the label or a description that mentions an ingredient that the shopper might have never thought they would see in a beer.

Some of my favorites are Tröegs Mad Elf, Samichlaus, De Dolle Stille Nacht and Jo lly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza. Sometimes they can be a familiar taste that I know I can only have around this time of year and they conjure memories of times sharing those tastes with friends and loved ones on Christmases past. Other times, the spices that are in the beer just make them taste like Christmas, taking you back to a time before I knew what beer was and a great Christmas treat was a spiced cookie with milk that I would share with Santa Claus on his busiest night. Still others are just heavy, warming, comfort beers that burn the belly just enough to keep the winter chill out of my bones. But this is supposed to be a post about the new Christmas/winter beers that I'm trying so I'll get on with that.

On Thanksgiving weekend I tried Kulmbacher Eisbock, High & Mighty Home For The Holidays and Huvila Arctic Circle Ale.

While the Kulmbacher isn't a Christmas beer or even really marketed strongly as a winter beer, it still belongs in this category because the eisbock style was created in the winter. A regular bock beer was left in the cold and froze. When the ice was scraped away there was a more flavorful, concentrated beer with a concentrated alcohol content as well. This particular beer weighs in at 9.2% ABV and is brewed in Kulmbach, Germany where the label proclaims this frozen incident occurred. The beer is also labeled as being "the original German eisbock." What better time of year would there be to drink such a beer? The beer was nice, but not very special. I'm not a huge fan of lagers, but this is one of the good ones. It was sweet, malty, full-bodied and warming.

The Home For The Holidays beer is a 7% ABV brown ale brewed in Massachusetts. It was better than I expected, but I really picked it up because profits from the beer will be donated to Iraq War veterans organizations. It's a great way to support returning troops. The beer, itself, is a real malt bomb that is rather nice at first, but become cloyingly sweet by the end,where some metallic hops also introduce themselves to the tongue. If you try this one make sure you share it with someone, because a little is nice and more than that is just OK. It isn't a spiced beer, but it did seem to be somewhat Christmasy.

Huvila Arctic Circle Ale is market as a "special winter ale." It is brewed in Finland to an ABV of 7.3%. The more unusual ingredients in this beer are juniper twigs and dark rye malts. I'd have to put this one in the same group as Mad Elf and Samichlaus — they are all beers that I can't fully explain the reasons why I like them. This one was kind of like juice, liquor and beer all mixed together. Which, I guess, is also a little bit like the other too in the group. Except with them I would probably say wine instead of juice since they have almost double the alcohol content of this one. It was fruity and malty, with notes of dark bread, toasted malt and a little smoke. It almost seemed barrel-aged. There were also slight notes of whiskey or port, a little cola, a hint of chocolate, toffee and hops. All in all a very nice winter beer and the best I had in the category that weekend.

Look for the next installment about the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers soon.

Christmas test

2009-12-03T20:27:00.001-08:00

I'm writing this on my phone to see how this new app works. Hopefully it will and over the next few weeks I can keep you up to date on all the Christmas and winter beers I'll be trying. I had my first last weekend. It was High & Mighty Home For The Holidays. It was big and malty, but was a little cloying by the end. It was nice, but not great.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas Is Here

2009-11-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

Like I mentioned in my last post, which was about seasonal beers, these things just keep coming out earlier and earlier every year. I swear that Tröegs Mad Elf used to be released the first weekend in November. This year they started shipping on October 1. Mad Elf was already in a store by me before Halloween. I picked up my first holiday beer, High and Mighty Home For The Holidays, and said to the cashier that it was the first holiday beer I saw this season. He then informed me that Mad Elf just arrived also. I didn't bother buying any, because the particular store is better for buying single bottles and six packs, and I always need at least a case of that Mad Elf to get me through Christmas. So if your used to picking your Mad Elf up closer to December, you might want to get out soon and pick up your case.

But back to the Home For The Holidays beer. Even if you don't like beer, you should probably pick up a bottle of this for someone who does or if you have relatives who have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. Profits from the beer will be donated to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Pumpkins, Punkins and Pumkings

2009-08-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

I had my first new pumpkin beer of the season this weekend. By new, I mean it was a pumpkin beer that I had never tried before. It was Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale. (Note to reader. If you click the link and want to try the beer, you should know that the label does not look like this anymore.) It wasn't my first pumpkin beer of the season though. I had one of my favorites, Southern Tier Pumking, a few weeks ago. "Pumpkin beer comes out in August?", you think. Well some of them do, but you may be shocked that the Pumking was actually available in July along with a couple other pumpkin beer varieties. Each year, it seems that pumpkin beer comes out earlier and earlier. An employee at a liquor store that I frequent in Wilmington, joked that she is waiting for the year that it becomes a spring seasonal beer.

This is one of the most disappointing things going on in the beer industry today. The early release of seasonals. It makes it hard to actually get a beer during the season it was meant to be drank in. For beer geeks like me it's not a problem. I'm always in liquor stores looking for my next beer. Even if I don't buy anything, I check to see what's in. So for me and many others like me. We pick up a bottle of our favorite pumpkin beers to drink in July, August and September and drink it, but we also pick up another one to put away for Halloween or Thanksgiving, because you really should try these beers with caramel candy or pumpkin pie.

The problem comes when we talk, type, chat and blog about these beers and beer drinkers who aren't in the category of beer geek want to try them. These are the people who run into the store and buy the case of beer that they knew they wanted when they left their house and then run home and crack up the favorite beer. They rarely look for something knew except at certain times of the year or just every once in a while. So these people here us praising pumpkin beers and then they stop in the liquor store to pick up one of the pumpkin beers before heading to grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner and they are nowhere to be found. They might be able to find some of the pumpkin beers that no true beer geek wants like Anheuser-Busch In Bev-made Michelob Jacks Pumpkin Spice Ale and they try what tastes like a spice rack and wonder what we're yapping about. Sure. No pumpkin beer is something to be drank often or in mass quantity. You have a few in the fall and you've had your fill for a year, or at least nine months. But a truly well-crafted pumpkin beer is a great treat and the casual beer drinking is missing out because of the early release of these beers.

It's the same thing with winter and Christmas beers. You can get them in November or earlier and then you go to stock up on some red and green bottles for the company coming over between Christmas and New Year's Eve and there is none to be found. I don't know how many people have asked me where they can get a case of the Mad Elf I am serving them in late December and I have to tell them, nowhere, because I and other beer geeks bought their cases in November.

I feel breweries are missing out on a great way to spread the word on great craft beers. Casual beer drinkers can become beer geeks, but they never will if they can't get the beers that all their beer geek friends are raving about at a time of year that they are willing to splurge a little and to try something new.

Drink it in.

Finally

2009-08-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

I had big plans for this blog. I was going to do a second award article about the worst beers I tried last year, the coolest bottles and the best beer trips and destinations. The problem was planning it all and trying to make it perfect. The next thing I was going to write about was the top albums of 2008. I was going to post the list I came up with based on an equation I used to sort out the top albums after looking at about seven different end of year music lists. Then I was going to list my own favorite albums of last year and songs too. That didn't happen because in an effort to make everything perfect and finding the perfect time to blog I never got around to doing any of it. It is now almost six months since my last post and now that information is kind of pointless. I need to stop thinking and start blogging. So here is a very abbreviated version of it all.

Budweiser Clamato was the very worst thing I drank last year. If you don't know, it's a mixture of beer, tomato juice, clam juice, lime and salt. The large, 24 oz. can reads, "the

perfect combination." I agree. It's the perfect combination if you want to know what it's like to vomit backwards.

The coolest bottle was almost definitely Rogue Double Dead Guy Ale. I mean what's cooler than a 22 oz. Red bottle with skulls on it.

One of the best beer first trips my then girlfriend and now fianceé went on was to the Goggle Works studio in Reading, PA. They had an exhibit about the artwork that goes into the packaging of beer. They showed the progress from sketch to actual label or six pack carrier for some brands. For others their were original paintings that were used for labels and even some hand-carved tap handles. It might sound a little boring, but we're both graphic designers and it was very cool. Plus we ate at Canal Street Pub, one of the best places I ever had a beer. They had things I never see on tap, they had the proper glassware for just about every style of beer you could imagine and the bartender was very knowledgeable. They had Rodenbach Grand Cru on tap so I ordered it with my dinner, a sushi tuna steak salad. The bartender brought me over a glass of water halfway through, knowing what a powerfully flavored beer I was drinking. Then when I came to dessert the bartender got into a pleasant argument with me about what we should drink. We were splitting a chocolate peanut butter cake or pie and I was ordering a Youngs Double Chocolate Stout. He agreed it would go nice with the cake, knew I had, had both beers I was drinking that day before and he was insistent that I try something I never had before. The beer he described sounded great and I knew from the style that it too would be great with dessert, but I had to let the poor guy down. The reason I ordered the Youngs was because I had to drive and knew it was low in alcohol, and the beer he was offering had a much higher ABV. He understood but looked disappointed as he went back to the others at the bar, talking them into trying something new. We need to get back to that place. (Sidenote: we tried last month, but the bar was closed on Monday for the 4th of July holiday. We were very disappointed.)

The top 5 albums according to a bunch of different lists compiled were:

5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

3. Lil' Wayne - The Carter III

2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science

1. Coldplay - Viva la Vida

Some of my favorites, in no particular order, were: My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges, Kings of Leon - Only By The Night, The Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark, Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons and The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely.

Best song by far was Hayes Carll - "She Left Me For Jesus".

So that about does it for last year. Maybe sometime soon, I'll get to this year.

Drink it in.

Heathen's Beer Awards Part 1

2009-02-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

I thought it was a little late to be doing awards for last year's beers, but with the Academy Awards happening tonight, I thought, "what the hell." Here are the top 13 beer beers I tried for the first time in 2008.

13. Southern Tier Jahva- A really nice coffee imperial stout that tasted like coffee, but still had an imperial stout profile. I would have never guessed this was 12% ABV until the slight heat in my chest.
12. De Dolle Stille Nacht- It didn't really say "Christmas" to me, but it was a true Christmas gift. An incredible beer that I have to try to age.
11. Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye- I looked at it. I smelled it. And at that point it was perfect. I knew it wouldn't last. The flavor was a nice change of pace, but not perfect. I don't know exactly what the rye did for this beer, but it seemed to make it a better double IPA. It seemed to lesson the harshness of the bitterness of the hops without taking away the flavor of them.
10. Founders Breakfast Stout- Not the best imperial stout, but a great beer. A little one sided, but it was a great side. More coffee flavor than beer flavor, really. But that was fine with me.
9. Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout- A great beer. One of the darkest I've ever had. Not super complex, but who cares when simplicity is this good.
8. Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron- Hid alcohol incredibly well. There was chocolate malt, maybe some vanilla, some dark fruit, slight wood and some roasted coffee.
7. Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza Special Ale- It reminded me of Rodenbach, but with a touch of spice. The flavor and aroma changed so much as it warmed. It took me nearly two hours to drink a bottle, because I just kept wanting to see how much it would change. It was sweet, sour and acidic all rolled up together.
6. Great Divide Oak Aged Imperial Stout- A little more hops than I prefer in an imperial stout, but there was enough malt backbone to balance it. The oak aging didn't dominate flavor or aroma, but I think it just tamed the original version (which is also a great beer), helping to balance the hops and malt.
5. Mikkeller Black Hole- This was great and dangerous. It hid it's 13.1% A.B.V. incredibly well. Not a hoppy imperial stout. It had some coffee flavor to give it bitterness, but too much coffee. There was just enough to give it some flavor without the overall flavor straying too far from what an imperial stout should taste like. Brilliant.
4. Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout- Very nice. The hops weren't overpowering, they just balanced the flavor so that it wasn't sickeningly sweet. It went great with Hershey's chocolate. If you like imperial stouts, find this and drink it.
3. Fantôme de Noël- An incredible beer. It was like a sour porter. It wasn't all that Christmasy, but for a saison I guess it was. Before this I didn't even know there could be dark saisons.
2. Weyerbacher Thirteen- A really nice beer that will probably be off the charts after a little aging. It was a little harsh, but I didn't mind. There was a nice burn in the belly and chest. I already have one put aside to try in a year or two. At 13.6% A.B.V. the bomber is a little hard to finish by yourself. A perfect beer to share.
1. Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper 2007- This was just incredible. It had everything I love in a beer. It was sort of like an old ale, a dubbel, a foreign stout, a Belgian strong ale and a Baltic porter had a baby. It always seems like these beers that defy style are my favorites. It will be hard to find because it is retired, but if you find it buy it.

Part 2 of Heathen's Beer Awards should be coming soon.

An Introduction

2009-02-16T14:08:00.000-08:00

I felt a little bit of an introduction to my blog was in order. I love beer, music, television, sports and like movies, books and magazines. I originally took the name Heathen for a site that I belong to because at the time I was really enjoying Weyerbacher Old Heathen imperial stout and one of my favorite bands, Drive-by Truckers, used the word in a few of their songs. I didn't feel like I was an old heathen or a young heathen, so I just went with Heathen. But the more I started to think about the meaning of the word, the more I thought it fit.

While there are many of us who love craft beer, the majority of beer drinkers in America only drink Bud, Miller or Coors. Some of the more adventurous might drink Blue Moon, which many of you know is a Coors product anyway. Still others might drink a local favorite, such as Yuengling, which is only slightly better than one of the three (or I guess it's really two now that Miller and Coors have joined forces) big breweries. So I thought as the Drive-by Truckers sing, "we were heathens in their eyes." The "we" I'm referring too is the true beer lovers, who rarely drink a Macro-brewed beer unless it is to say we tried it, maybe rate it on a website, or see if these mega-brewers have finally given in and are making quality beer or are just cashing in on the craft beer market making watered-down versions of craft beer that will appease the many. The "their" I'm referring to is the many who outnumber true beer lovers. They drink their watered down beers, that lack any flavor or body, thus making them "drinkable."

So, while there are many true beer lovers, we are and will be some for some time the minority, or "heathens" as I prefer to say, among the beer drinkers of America. I almost called this site "The Beer Heathen," but decided against it. I thought it sounded a little to reminiscent of The Beer Hunter, and I in no way feel I should be mentioned in the same breath as the late, great Michael Jackson. Even if it would be just to say that I ripped off his name. I decided on the "Heathen's Beer Den" because I wanted to focus on more than just beer. In a den, people don't only drink beer. They listen to music, watch television and sports, read books or just have discussions with friends about the world around them.

The name Heathen fit most of my views on the above topics as well. I don't download music. I still go to the store and buy CDs of whole albums on Tuesday's, the day that new music is released. I used to download from Napster in its first incarnation, but I wasn't stealing music; I was sampling a few songs from bands I thought I might like and then going to the store and buying several of that artists CDs. I did this because I wanted the liner notes. Sure I can print out lyrics from a band's web page, but I can't smell that web page to see if the artistic director for the album decided to us a varnish coating on top of certain images in the printed version. I also don't listen to the radio. I lot of what I listen too isn't played on the radio. I get most of my information on bands from magazines and then go to the bands' website to hear samples of the songs, to see if the album is worth buying. And hell, sometimes a review in a magazine, a name of a band or album, or the art used on the cover of the album, might be enough to get me to buy it. Once again, I am the minority or heathen here.

I also watch many TV shows religiously, but my favorite ones are usually the ones being cancelled or losing all of their early season viewers. I adored shows like Arrested Development, Kidnapped, Pushing Daisies, and The Powers That Be. I never gave up on shows like Heroes, Life and Lost. Once again, heathen.

My favorite sport even cries, heathen. I love hockey, a sport that every time it starts to gain a little traction, shoots itself in the foot letting things that I will never understand the popularity of, such as NASCAR, move up the ladder of sports enthusiasm in the US. I hate baseball, but love the Phillies. I like football more than baseball, but will never love the Eagles more than the Phillies. I'd rather see a good game from two teams I don't follow, than see the Eagles win a sloppy game just because someone made a mistake. I also like other less popular sports like MotoX and snowmobile racing, but they have their place near the bottom of the ladder, where they belong.

There are many industry insiders who have blogs on the subjects I hope to cover here, but I want to give you an outsider's (or heathen's) view on these topics.

Most of my posts will not be this long. I really hadn't intended to go on like this. It has been a while since I have really written anything. I went to school for journalism and was a reporter for about couple years, but have been working as a graphic designer for over six years now, so there will undoubtedly be some rust on my writing. While I was always good at expressing myself, I really had to work at punctuation. Forgive me if I start my blogging endeavor with a few misplaced punctuation marks. I will work on getting my messages across in a clear, uncluttered way if you just give me a little patience. I hope you'll drink it in and enjoy.