Sierra Nevada: Harvest

I am suspicious of Sierra Nevada. I have yet to drink a good Sierra Nevada beer. But this time, they convinced me with claim of fusion of "fresh New Zeland hops with the finest North American malts". Fusion my arse, the beer, while expectedly very hoppy, misses a clear vision or balance and ends up just about drinkable, without excess in any one direction... Another disappointment by Sierra...

Best American Short Stories of 2007

I am, in general, not too keen on short stories - to me it always seems to be a cockout for a writer to write a bunch of short stories rather than one proper novel. However, this book is different, because it is a compilation of short stories and even more than that, it is a selection of the best short stories. I am intrigued by the selection of Stephen King as the editor, as I have and still think of him as a pulp fiction writer. Nevertheless, the stories inside are, while not annoyingly arty-farty, still a good read (as opposed to most SK stuff). It takes one or two days to read each of them and there is a lot of variety, styles... basically one gets a taster for each writer.The overwhelming theme is plain, sad, everyday life, not even life slotted into the grand scheme of larger forces influencing us as was the case with the realism at the end of 19th century, but the real depressing stuff of pointlessness of our life. My favourite ones were Toga party by J Barth, My brother Eli by J Epstein, Where will you go when your skin cannot contain you by W Gay, Wake by B Jensen, Horseman by R Russo and maybe Sans Farine by J Shepard.

Anchor Small Beer

I learn new and exciting things about beer every day. I bought this beer out of support for my local SF brewery that tends to brew an okish, but fairly non-descript beer. However, this one is a gem. The label says:

The tradition of brewing two distinct beers from one mash has existed for thousands of years, and for centuries the term "small beer" was used in English to describe the lighter and weaker second beer. By association, the term came to mean something of little importance.
We make our Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale from the rich first runnings of an all-malt mash, and Anchor Small Beer is our attempt to duplicate the "small beers" of old by sparging that same mash: sprinkling warm water over the Old Foghorn mash after the first wort has run off, thereby creating a second, lighter brew from the resulting thinner wort. Technically, both beers are "ales" because they are made with top-fermenting yeast.

The beer itself is very interesting. I definitely would call it bitter, more like a sparkly, not very strong, but very bitter lager. And I liked it a lot...

Walker's Firestone Reserve Porter

Ok, I haven't updated this blog for a long time and I have drunk an entire slew of very good beers recently. So, if I post a lot about good beers, it is not because my standards are falling, but because that even though I've drunk lot of shit beer, there were quite a few jewels.
Walker's Reserve Porter is one such good beer. It is an excellent beer in the old sub-stout porter style. Very smooth, liquid beer that still manages to punch an incredibly smooth bitterness with strong unmistakably chocolate taste, which actually made me look at the label to see if this is a chocolate beer. Not too strong for American standards at 5.9 %, Reserver Porter makes an excellent, excellent desert beer.

Jon Lee Anderson: Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

It took me 9 months to read this book, it is 800 pages long. If there is one thing that cannot be denied about this book is that it is extremely well researched. The guy interviewed literally hundreds of people and went painstakingly through all available archives (including Russian and CIA's ones). The outcome is probably more or less as complete biography about Che as we will ever have (or need). The book is quite objective and while it is clear that the author likes Che, it steers away from an unfettered adoration that is present in so much work about Che.

The resulting image of Che remains, even after all bad things are taken into account, that of a positive historical figure. While Fidel's struggle was about power rather than personal convictions, Che was an everlasting idealist. True, he was naive, he never doubted in Fidel and he killed people. However, he did so because he saw himself as an inevitable force of history. Rather
than retire in Cuba, where he could have lived a comfortable life of a revolutionary hero, he went on and fought, first in Africa and then in Bolivia, where he was killed. And while in Cuba, he lived a manic frugal life, thinking it is a duty of revolutionaries to live exemplary anti-capitalist life. He was also incredibly creative, authoring several books on economy, he was critical of the Soviet system and had deep understanding of Marxism. His main theoretical weakness was near fatal attraction to armed struggle - armed struggle was elevated to literarly epic proportions and was in Che's view crucial for development of the "New Man". Most fascinatingly, excerpts from his letters and poems show an incredible mastering of language - he would have been a writer if not
a revolutionary.

The story goes that when his executioner came to do his job, he invited him: "Go on, you're only going to kill a man." [and not an idea]. Essential reading for both moonbats and wingbats alike...

Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout

Young's really made a hit with this one. It drinks like a mousse desert, not much sweetness, just a balanced taste of dark, bitter chocolate accompanied by an appropriate chocolate malts and with a yummy thick head. I am not really keen of flavoured beers, but this one just shows that you can make a really good one if you try hard enough. Strongly recommended.
And btw, while British drinkers will inevitably get the violet label reference - it is better than the original...

Butte Creek: Train Wreck

I bought this beer tonight and started drinking it before the dinner. By the time I managed to get my dinner on the table, I was already fairly wasted. Then I read "You'll be lucky to walk away from this one!" on the bottle. Hummm, good to know! Train wreck indeed.
This beer is at10.6%, which is 2% more than the infamous Skull Splitter!! Anyway, this beer belongs to the Barley Wine class, very strong kind of beers, bitter, hoppy and one can actually taste the high alcohol content. Characterized by long periods of fermentation and maturation. Some American brewers actually use wine yeasts which are capable of producing higher alcohol content. Definitely a style to consider for my future Slovene brewery...