What Friday's are for.

 I don't know what you do with your Friday nights, but I spend mine with my equally entertaining friends. At least they were fully clothed this time. Also, i don't think they would call me entertaining since I kicked them out to go to bed early. I was tired.

 Tyler brought over a couple of his favorite pretentious wines. The first was a nice white riesling from Willamette Valley Vineyards. While sticky sweet like most rieslings, and lightly bubbly, it was still really enjoyable. Not the best choice to drink alternating with his other bottle, a 2009 Chehalem merlot. 

The Chehalem is his hands down favorite so i've heard. Both of these wines are from the same valley in oregon, can you guess its name? Don't get Tyler started talking about it. I think its his favorite place on earth. It does make tasty wines, though. 

The merlot was lightly acidic and had great overall flavor. I may have tried this one before.
As for ratings i'd give the merlot a 5/5, and the riesling a 4/5. Mostly because i'm not a huge riesling fan. I refuse to give either of them a value score today because they are way out of my normal price range and into Tyler's much more pretentious wine price range.
happy drinking!

Tyler enjoying his pretentious wine

Kerri had finished her's so she moved on to Jack

Brooklyn just wants some Sherbert

                                                                                 

That wine that starts with a G

I still don't know how to pronounce this, but a friend brought over a bottle of homemade Gewurztraminer on Saturday.

Please note, the color looked nothing like this in person. I was actually a pleasant mellow color, to match its fairly pleasant mellow flavor. The maker, Mike (no not the asshole who dumped me for jesus... i may or may not have relayed that story here) but a friend who works up near Chicago, admitted to losing half the sweetening pouch. He may or may not have accidentally dropped a bunch of it on the floor instead of in the wine brewing bucket. The lack of sweetness was actually quite pleasant in this wine. 

The one downside was a slight off flavor. Mike says the wine may have oxidized a bit, how unfortunate. Overall, not a bad try. I think i'll buy a bottle to see if this type of wine is for me. In its unoxidized form of course. 

Here is your wine knowledge for today:

Gewurztraminer is made from a cool weather white wine grape. Nifty. Apparently it shares some of its aromatic compounds with lychees. If you haven't tired those, you should, they are quite good.

Ok, off to do more work. Sigh.

Happy Wednesday!

Happy 50th Post!

I wasn't actually drinking in celebration, but i really should have been! This is a bottle that would have been worthy of celebrating with, too!
You may remember that over labor day weekend, I drove out to Colorado with some awesome people and had a great time. One of the adventures i had there also included going to a free wine tasting at the Canyon Wind tasting room, right below the mountain pass we went up. The tasting room offered 4 free tastings, but as awesome people, we passed ours around, and pretty much ended up tasting everything they had to offer.
Sadly, i was too cheap to buy the almost 30 dollar bottle of my favorite there, one of the anemoi series, but this came in a close second. So for 20, i was sold.
Its a yummy Cabernet Franc, which i've never heard of before. I think i mentioned before how its a grape that is most commonly blended for other table wines. It has a nice bite, and a lot of flavor. Its flavorful without being overpowering and has a nice acidity. Yes, i do sound pretentious right now. I'll give it a 4.5/5 for flavor, but a 3/5 for value. This wine went way over my usual budget. I guess once in a while i can pretend i'm not a broke graduate student and drink good wine.
Happy 50th blog post! More to come i'm sure. Actually, i've got some in the fridge i should really talk about, but that's for another day.
Cheers!

Monday work nights

There are very few acceptable ways to correct papers. My favorite is starting with a mug of tea, then moving on to a mug of wine.
"What's all over my assignment?"
"the only reason you have an A, kid; pinot noir."
Last night i sat down with a bottle of Bella Sera pinot noir from the big wine sale a month or so back. I'd finished most of it last Tuesday, but there were still enough to get me good and in the grading mood. (*facepalm, i hate grading.)
This fairly moderately priced pinor noir turned a fairly lame evening into a fairly delicious one. It is nice and smooth, but with only subtle flavor. The nose is also weak. I'd drink it though. I don't think i spent more than 4 dollars for the bottle. Bonus! I get to feel snobby because its an import from Italy. Supposedly, it contains rich fruit (cherry and plum) flavors. I'd say its on the milder side for a Pinot Noir. 4/5 for flavor. Mild can be good and 4.5/5 for value. On sale of course. At its normal price of about 7 to 14 dollars, it would only get a 3.5/5.

Try it for yourself! This one comes with my recommendation. A quick warning, though, not everyone on the internet seems to share my description of mild. Keep in mind, friends, this is a cheaper wine.

Newcastle Beer, and What is Skunked?

Last night while enjoying after finishing some leftover bottles at a friends place, I came across a bottle of Newcastle ale. While I don't think Newcastle is bad, this bottle might have been on its way out. The normally  nutty, mild beer smelled a little bit off. I think think it was on its way to being skunked. After saying as much, i realized I don't actually know that much about what skunked is. Time to do some research, both for myself and to educate my friends who argued that the beer wasn't.

What  I knew about skunked beer before:
Light affects flavor molecules
Beer has a shelf life that is frequently exceeded by smarter-than-smart college students


What I know now (and i wasn't even totally wrong!):
Light does affect beer! Ultraviolet light can over time degrade the flavor molecules derived from hops. These broken down molecules can bind with sulfur compounds to form that wonderful skunky aroma. While i did not think there were any hops in Newcastle (that's a joke because its so mild) this may have been the problem. Especially since Newcastle comes in its striking looking while useless clear bottle. Also, my friend was storing the beers on top of her fridge. Boo.
Good news however, it was only slightly skunked. We drank it anyways.

Now for the shelf life of beer. I was under the impression that beer lasts about 6 weeks. WRONG. Beer according to various sources on the ever accurate Internets beer can last 8-12 months if properly stored (away from heat and light) in cold environments (the fridge). Beer that has a higher APV can last even longer. Oh, alcohol, you are a wonderful preservative. Beer companies also take care to protect their product by employing filtration which can remove most of the microbes that help make the wondrous result, and by pasteurizing the beer.

Well now I know a little bit more. There is no way, however, that beer will last 8-12 months in my fridge.

Why I may never like Heineken

What do you reach for when you want a classier big beer?
 For me, its never Heineken, I've been told i'm a snob, but there are a few good reasons why I can't drink this beer that many assume is highly palatable, cheap, and still maintains a feel less like a miller or coors, and more like a 312 or semi local beer.
One of those reasons was my first drinking experience as a stupid, stupid 17 year old. Somehow my friends and I got a hold of wayyyy too much heineken for our own good. We drank a lot. Well, I had 4 beers. Ha, and proceeded to get super drunk and throw some if it up. Its hard to forget losing your cookies over alcohol for the first time. Doesn't make good memories.
The second bad experience I had with Heineken has to do with those mini kegs they sell. One of my friends as an undergrad received one for a housewarming present. It was just plain skunked. Skunked beer is one of the sadder things in life. Well not really, but its still pretty sad.
Anyways, this has pretty much cemented my aversion of the green bottles. I will on occasion sample one of their special darks, so i guess its not a complete loss. Drink to your hearts content, but mine won't be a heini.
Just so you know...

Becoming a Boring Drinker

Yes, I'm a terrible (or terribly boring) person. I've been ignoring my blog and working on things like rock climbing and doing actual work. Boo. I clearly should be drinking more.
In honor of what a boring person I have been lately I shall blog about the Miller lite i had last night at Trivia night where my team was coming in 8th (last) place out of 24 teams. There were a lot of ties for much better scores.

Their registered trade mark. Duh.

I suppose this will serve as something of a meter for my beer rating system. I'd actually give Miller a 2/5 for taste. It tastes like almost nothing, and therefore, when i want it to look like i'm attempting to drink something at a bar, and don't want to actually have to drink, then this works out. For value i'd actually give it a 3.5. That its not very good, adventurous and flavorful actually brings this beer down. That and the shame of drinking but big beer company beer recently :/. Otherwise, Miller is unpretentious. It knows its not a spendy fancy beer. Its just beer (almost). So they price it that way. Thank you Miller, even if i scoff you, mock you and rarely "enjoy" you, you do have a place in our beer drinking. Just not frequently.