A great way to watch the Indy 500 – with Big Storm Arcus IPA

This year the Indy 500 was an interesting and competitive race.  I enjoyed the race even though my

favorite drive – Juan Pablo Montoya – crashed early on and finished last.  Fortunately, I made a good choice in the beer to drink while watching the 500 and then the Coca Cola 600 that followed later in the afternoon.

The web site says: “Details ABV: 6.2%, IBUs: 56 SRM: 6.9; Category: Year-Round Beers About This Beer: An Arcus is a low, horizontal cloud formation associated with a storm front. With the same gust provided by its name sake, our IPA rolls in with an intense citrusy hop aroma, and is brewed with two-row American pale ale malts. The addition of locally sourced wildflower honey lends a subtle sweetness for a clean and easy finish to our Arcus IPA.  Keep and serve cold as hail. Flavor Profiles: Hoppy and Aromatic, Vibrant Food Pairings:  Steak, Fried Chicken, Stone Crab.

A delightful beer, easy to drink with a hoppiness that lasts on the back of the tongue long after the beer has been drunk.  An excellent way to spend a Sunday, watching racing and drinking Big Storm Arcus IPA.  

After all the Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600 only happen once a year. I would also have liked to watch the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, but I no longer have any premium cable channels so it wasn’t possible.

 

Funky Buddha Floridian works great to ease Lupus symptoms

Floridian Hefewiezen

Funky Buddha Brewery, Oakland Park, FL

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally I get a flare up from the Lupus I have had for many, many years.  During the flare up every joint in my body hurts, its painful to stand, to walk, to bend, to lift or grip anything and then, poof, after a day or two, or sometimes a week, the aches and pains go away and its as if nothing had happened. 

I’ve tried many different drugs recommended by a phalanx of doctors, but the best any of them can do is partially mask the symptoms but always with a cost of unwanted side effects.  So now I use diet and exercise to keep the lupus at bay most of the time, and then when I get a flare up I use the beneficial effects of alcohol to soothe the aches and pains.

Funky Buddha Floridian Hefeweizen

This evening a rather mild Hefeweizen from the Funky Buddha Brewing Company in Oakland Park, FL is helping to dull the pains and lubricate the joints to relieve the aches.  Let me be honest, one of the reasons I like beer is that I get a good feeling from the alcohol. 

I like the taste of good beer. I like beer that is well balanced between malt and hops with neither being overpowering, but my palate is not refined enough – or perhaps has not been trained enough -  to discern “the compelling aromas of bananas, citrus and cloves” that, according to the label, is to be found in the Funky Buddha Floridian Hefeweizen.

Let me tell you what else the label says. 

“suntan for your soul.

Our unfiltered and refreshing German-style wheat beer is full on flavor yet light on the palate. Authentic Hefeweizen yeast creates the compelling aromas … while the all wheat and malt body perfectly captures the brilliance of a golden Florida sunset.

CONSUME FRESH

Pour into a pilsner glass and serve at 38 deg.  5.2% alc. By vol.”

So, what did I think of the beer. It did its job.  I’m grateful to Funky Buddha for easing the pain and helping the joints move.  The beer was gently flavored and easy to drink and there was a little something in the aftertaste that lingered. I feel much better now, let’s see how I feel in the morning!

What’s in name? Read the label on this excellent IPA and decide for yourself.

Big Top Brewing Company, Sarasota, FL

Ashley Gang India Pale Ale

It’s not often that I get to write about a beer while drinking it, usually I'm drinking the beer in a bar or restaurant or while chatting with friends and have to recall the taste later, when I get to my computer.

Right now I’m sitting in the patio looking out across the veggie and flower gardens to the pond.  It’s a beautiful day in central Florida, there are a few fluffy white clouds wandering across the blue sky from west to east. It’s 88 deg F (31 deg C), and the overhead fan is keeping me cool. There are a few red winged blackbirds eating at the feeders and our resident ducks have just landed on the pond.  The hawks screeching in the oasis are keeping the rest of the birds away.

Mama Leny and I have just eaten lunch and I drank part of the Ashley Gang IPA during lunch, saving the rest to savor with some sharp English Cheddar to help my digestion.

This is not the first beer I’ve drunk from Big Top Brewing Co (www.BigTopBrewing.com) having previously enjoyed the Big Top Trapeze Monk Wit Ale.  I liked this beer a lot.  It went well with the blue cheese burgers we had for lunch and complemented the Cheddar cheese I ate for desert very nicely.  It’s easy to drink with a strong, but not overpowering aftertaste of hops.

The label is interesting in that it commemorates the Ashley Gang, a gang of outlaws who lived in the Everglades in the early part of the 20^th century.  By all accounts the Ashley gang  was rather inept ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ashley_(bandit)) and gained their notoriety from being brazen rather than smart.  The gang appears to have no redeeming features which is perhaps why the movies about them did not resonate with the public at large.  John Ashley was no Robin Hood.

After the somewhat romantic notes of the Ashley gang the label goes on to say: “This high powered but smooth imperial defies what you thought possible in a 120 IBU 10% IPA.  It’s a reminder that you have to ignore the rules to make a statement and it always takes an outlaw to remind us that the bigger picture isn’t always the most important.”

I wish I hadn’t read that.  I like the beer, I like the taste, though I’m pretty sure that it’s not 120 IBU since most ways of measuring IBU stop at 100.  My guess is that it’s somewhere around 75 IBUs.  

But really, why do I need an outlaw that killed six or seven people to remind me of anything.

An excellent beer, spoiled by a name and label that grates.

A Day Trip to St. Augustine With the Three Sisters

Ancient City lager reaches parts other beers cannot reach – my sore feet!

It’s three hours drive from Seffner to St. Augustine, but by leaving early in the morning we were able to arrive in plenty of time for lunch and then spend four hours wandering through the old town and around the castle, before driving home again in the early evening.  

My wife’s aunt, Maria, is staying with us for a couple of months to be with her sister, my mother-in-law, Leny, who lives with us.  The third sister of the family, Lia, lives in north Tampa and was the main reason we chose to live in central Florida a year ago. The three sisters sat together in the back of the Toyota talking, talking, talking in Spanish all the way to St Augustine.

We stopped for a picnic lunch on the outskirts of St. Augustine at Anastasia State Park, a great place to stop during the week as covered picnic tables were easy to obtain just a short walk from SUV.  Lunch was delicious and to stretch our legs and limber up for the afternoon we took a short walk down a well-constructed board walk across the dunes to the beach.  It was a beautiful day, sunny with a few clouds to provide occasional shade, and a slight breeze to keep us cool.

With lunch finished we drove into St. Augustine and easily found a parking on Avenida Menedez just a short walk from the old town and the castle.  Parking was a very reasonable $4.50 for three hours. 

The three sisters spent that much of that three hours walking through the streets of the town, many of which are pedestrians only, and darting in and out of gift shops and art stores and artisan shops.  After a couple of hours, my feet were protesting and it so happened we were standing right outside the Bull and Crown Publick House on St. George Street. 

Ancient City Brewing Galleon's Golden Ale

This was a perfect place for Patricia and I to sit and rest my weary feet, and as an added bonus, the pub served a beer brewed in St. Augustine – Ancient City Brewing Galleon’s Golden Ale.

The beer was just what the doctor ordered. It was light and refreshing at 4.8% ABV and 16 IBUS.  The Ancient City web site  http://www.ancientcitybrewing.com/home.html) says the beer is “An American Golden Ale with a medium body that’s sweet and malty.  This ale is brewed with pilsner-style hops to create a summertime-style beer that finishes crisp and clean.”

I couldn’t agree more.  The beer, Patricia smiling across the table, the covered table on the patio next to the street and the comfortable seat, all provide respite for my feet and after a couple of beers in the space of half an hour I was ready to hit the street again, move the Toyota to the car park next to the castle and walk all around the castle with the three sisters and Patricia.

It was a good day.  Many factors conspired to make the day enjoyable, but not least of which was the Ancient City Golden Ale that came along at just the right time to help my feet fight another battle.

A Great Reward for a Job Well Done

Big Top Brewing – Trapeze Monk Belgian Style Wit Ale.

It took two Saturdays, a redesign and three trips to Lowes to buy more concrete blocks, to complete construction of our fire-pit in the Oasis – our patch of garden the other side of the pond that houses the tool shed and is the future site of our gazebo. 

Big Top Brewing Trapeze Monk Ale on Fire-Pit phase 1

On Saturday a week ago, I dug out a hole in an embankment in the Oasis and carefully laid 10 concrete blocks bought from Lowes and an 11th block I’d found behind the shed. Then we lit a fire to burn some of the big pile of tree limbs and branches that could not be composted.  The pile had accumulated from our first 8 months of work around El Paraiso, and included lots of trimmed shrubbery and branches less than an inch in diameter.  The biggest branches were the dead fronds that occasionally fall from the palm trees in the front yard as the trees continue to grow and produce new leaves, so I chopped these into more manageable pieces.

The pit was a great success and we burnt perhaps a tenth of the wood pile before we sat on a couple of logs overlooking the pond and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.  To celebrate we tried a new, to us, Florida beer from Big Top Brewing in Sarasota, FL.  The Belgian Style Wit Ale, called Trapeze Monk, was just what the doctor ordered, tasty and thirst quenching.

We drank a little more and then got to thinking “what if?” when we looked at the pile of tree limbs and wood debris that hardly seemed touched.  My wife, an engineer who is much smarter (and prettier) than I then said “What if we add another layer of concrete blocks?” We now had a new plan.  We would be back next Saturday to build the walls of the pit higher.

Big Top Brewing Trapeze Monk Ale
on Fire-Pit phase 2

Big Top Brewing Trapeze Monk Ale can.

So yesterday, working together, we finished the project.

The front is now three blocks high and the sides and back are the equivalent of 5 blocks high.  The bottom row of blocks are placed on their sides so air can pass through them to provide oxygen to the fire.

The neighbors with whom we share the pond were having a birthday party for one of their children so we decided not to test the fire-pit, which is why there are no flames in yesterday’s pictures.  Big Top Brewing Trapeze Monk had helped us celebrate the first phase of construction so we used the same beer to celebrate the end of the second phase.  The beer is a delight to drink when you are tired, hot and sweaty.

The can says “Just like a trapeze artist uses precision timing and balance so does Big Top Brewing Company with our Belgian Style Wit Ale. Our Trapeze Monk skillfully blends the flavors of wheat, coriander and local citrus, resulting in a crisp and refreshing Withier.  Let every sip defy what you thought possible in beer.  Alc. 5.3%”

Trapeze Monk was the only Big Top beer I could find in our local Winn Dixie liquor store in Seffner. 

A look at their web site, www.bigtopbrewing.com, lists several other beers I’d like to try, so watch out for further reviews and stories about El Paraiso as I find the beers at bigger package stores.

An Unfortunate Event with a Beer has a Happy Ending

Darwin Brewing Co, Summadayze FL West Coast IPA

I should know better.  My excuse is that I was in a hurry and I didn’t give the beer a second thought as I put it in the trunk of the Flying Carpet, my metallic blue Mazda MX-5.  It was a lovely day for driving with the top down, hardly a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the mid 70’s with a breeze blowing from the north keeping the humidity down.

I was out running errands and had just visited Lowe’s to buy squirrel repellent, an electrical outlet and a bag of thistle seed bird food when I recalled ABC Fine Wine and Spirits was served by the same parking lot.  I knew ABC had a great selection of Florida beers, so I drove across the parking lot to their store and bought a six pack of Darwin Brewing Co. Summadayze IPA and placed it in the trunk.  A new Florida beer for me to try.

So far so good.  I continued my errands and spent 30 minutes or so at the Latino Market buying Colombian groceries for the lunch Patricia’s aunt was preparing, then a short stop at the Bank of America drive through ATM to get some cash before heading for home.  Driving out of the bank parking lot I heard a loud pop behind me, sounded like a back-fire from someone’s car.  I knew it wasn’t me and there were no other vehicles around so I promptly forgot about it, turned onto SH92, accelerated to the traffic lights and turned north on Parsons.  The air smelt clean and fresh, the sun shone brightly overhead and the wind blew across the windscreen keeping me cool.  Life is good.

Twenty minutes later I pulled into the driveway, opened the garage door, backed the car into the garage, closed the garage door and opened the trunk to take out the groceries. I then discovered where the popping sound had come from.  The heat had caused the beer in the cans to expand and one of the cans had popped its top.  Fortunately it was only one.  But that can had opened with enough force to unlock the can from the six-pack carrier, one of those new designs of carrier that is made of hard plastic so it won’t harm dolphins if disposed of improperly.

Darwin Brewing Summadayze IPA can
opened by heat expanding the beer

The picture shows the opened can on the edge of the trunk.  The can stayed upright during the journey and only a small amount of beer was spilled, so I was able to drink the beer, and even though it was warm I enjoyed it a lot.  Be assured though, that my review of the beer is not based on just this one warm beer, I had another somewhat colder can later in the day.

The beer is brewed by Darwin Brewing Co who - the web site says – “brews chef-inspired, culinary-centric, well-balanced ales and lagers evolved from the flavors of Florida and Latin America. Our beers are designed to complement cuisine and have the depth to stand on their own.”  And “brews artisan ales and lagers influenced by the flavors and spices of South America’s Andean and Amazonian Regions.” (http://www.darwinbrewingco.com/)

The can says of Summadayze IPA “Citrus, pineapple and grapefruit shine through Summadayze, a West Coast IPA long on flavor and surprisingly short on bitterness.  Crisp and refreshing, yet complementary to warm weather flavors, enjoy Summadayze on the beach or with a meal in the shade.  Pair with spicy foods, ceviches, salty or fried foods, curries, burger and steaks.” (or pretty much anything except fish as a main course.) The web site recommends pairing it with Lomo Saltado (Peruvian tenderloin stir fry) which I think is an excellent recommendation. The can also says the beer is 6% ABV, a fairly strong brew for a day at the beach.

I enjoyed this beer a lot.  It had the nice flavor of a well-balanced beer where the three hops and the malt from three grains worked well with each other to produce a easy to drink beer with a hint of bitterness to remind you it’s an IPA. 

This beer is definitely on my buy-again list.

A Serious Beer for Serious Drinking Slakes our Thirst After a Day in the Garden

Tampa Bay Brewing Co. Old Elephant Foot IPA

Tampa Bay Brewing Old Elephant Foot IPA

There is always lots to do to keep the garden at El Paraiso looking nice.  Leny, my mother in law, does a wonderful job keeping the garden watered and the flowers and bushes trimmed.  But she is 76 years old and recently had a heart bypass, so she cannot do any lifting or mowing or weed eating. 

Fortunately, our growing copywriting business allows us to work from home and to work hours that to many would be unconventional. Instead of commuting we walk for 40 minutes or so in the morning and ride our bikes for about the same time in the late afternoon.  We tend to work in the business at weekends and take days off during the week to work in the garden or go shopping when grocery stores are quieter or go to the beach where we can more easily find a place to park.

We spent Friday morning and several prior days researching and writing articles for two web companies belonging to Verified label, Print and Promotions Inc.  We sent the articles off to the owner of Verified, breathed a huge sigh of relief that we’d finished our first assignment, then broke for lunch.

The afternoon sun was intermittently hiding behind white fluffy clouds when we decided to call it a day and do some work in the garden.  The grass needed mowing and edging and we wanted to move the outside table to a place on the lawn that was more in the shade from a couple of the deciduous trees that had recently reacquired leaves.

It’s worth noting that we have around 2/5 of an acre (+/- 17,000 square feet) of grass, that we cut using a walk behind gas powered mower.  The grass has lots of flower beds in the middle and along the sides, so there’s a lot of twisting and turning of the mower, even though it’s basically driving itself.  There is also lots of edging to be done with the trimmer.  The complete operation takes the two of us over three hours and it is great exercise.

We have developed a routine where Patricia does the mowing and I do the edging and help her with the grass and leaf clippings that collect in the bag behind the mower.  We use these clippings as mulch in the garden and it works very well as a weed barrier and fertilizer.

And off we went.  Mowing and edging and emptying the grass catcher while keeping a wide berth around the Plumbago bush where the Cardinals had built a nest.  Two chicks had hatched yesterday and were being fed by their proud mother.  Needless to say, as the sunk slowly in the west and the shadows got longer our weariness started to show and we were grateful to reach the end of the project and put the mower and edger back in their places in the shed.

We were hot and sweaty and needed something to slake our thirst and put the iron back into our blood.  Bad planning on my part had left us with one four-pack of beer in the ‘fridge, Old Elephant Foot IPA, brewed and canned by Tampa Bay Brewing Company.   So this was the beer we were going to drink.

The beer in the glass has a lovely light brown color with no hint of cloudiness.  The first taste knocks you back in your chair.  This is a serious beer for serious beer drinkers, it’s not a beer to be taken lightly or frivolously, nor is it a beer to be chugged to slake a thirst.  As I felt my throat constrict at the sharpness of the hop taste I took a look at the can and read the description.

“Old Elephant Foot IPA has been brewed by the Doble family since 1993.  Throughout the 90’s many people referred to this beer as over hopped and out of style; todays it is known as west coast style IPA. Cheers!” and on the front of the can “alc 7% by Vol. 80 IBU. DraftBeerToYourFace.com”

The IBU provides a measure of the bitterness of a beer.  Generally speaking, a high IBU number means a beer is more bitter to taste than a beer with a low IBU number.  I say ‘generally’ because the bitter taste in beer is also affected by the quantity of malt used, but in most cases high IBU = a well hopped bitter beer.

For this particular occasion Old Elephant Foot IPA was not the best choice of beer.  We found a way to improve our enjoyment of the beer and to savor the full flavor of the hops and the malt.  We mixed the beer 50/50 with La Croix lemon flavor sparkling water.  That did the trick.  If fact we liked it so much we finished all four cans mixed 50/50 with the water while we sat at the table in its new place on the lawn and watched the birds and the ducks having their supper.

Life is good.