Science Marches Onward! - Alcohol!

 For a change, here's some news about alcohol that doesn't involve burning it. Seems this fellow has come up with a way to turn alcoholic beverages into something resembling ice cream, or at least soft serve.

Yeah, I know, the purists among us will denounce this as alcohol abuse, especially as it seems to work about as well with single malt Scotch as it does with beer of any sort. The extremes though probably are alcohol abuse on the one end of that spectrum, and reportedly abuse of the consumer on the other, so if you but one of his machines (about $6000-$7000) don't pour in either Glenfiddich or Coors Lite.

Fun With Headlines

 Found this in an Epoch Times newsletter:

FDA Approves New Drug Combination Treatment for CCP Virus

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a promising new drug cocktail for hospitalized CCP virus patients. The treatment involves combining ...  Read More Now you could click on the link and go to a boring article full of lawyer and doctor talk, or you could just read the teaser posted here and add your own conclusion to the line. Since March, plan A has appeared too many times to count, all giving false hope. Plan B sounds like a lot more fun.

Trump Raising The Price Of Beer

Oskar Blues Brewing Co. has figured out that Trumps proposed aluminum tariffs will impact the price of a case of their wares by between $.20 and $.24/case of 24 cans.

Tempest in a growler if you ask me.

Spring!

Spring having put in a one day appearance today, I took the bicycle out for a ride. 28 miles later I can report that the strength training I've done over the winter is paying off as I didn't get winded on the uphills and managed to keep a decent pace for the entire trip.

A bicycle group I sometimes frequent, Pedals and Pints, is having a Cinco de Mayo ride this weekend. Looks to be ridiculously easy at this point although the addition of a couple of beers along the way will slow the ride down a bit. Some of my less athletically inclined friends hear that they will be expected to actually pedal some 12 miles and immediately wimp out. Their loss. Pedals and Pints is a very sociable group.

A typical ride with P&P runs 10-20 miles, starts at a brew pub and visits 2 others on a round trip. My idea of a nice ride is 30 miles and using that as a round trip, there are over 60 brew pubs within that range of my house.

The only way to go.

Taprooms vs Bars

One of the biggest suppliers of beer to local type bars, Molson-Coors, is complaining that local microbreweries with taprooms are cutting into their business in a noticeable way.

Bummer dudes. First let's see what exactly is being compared.
Beer:
N.B. = Coors, Miller, Bud. Options = regular or light.
T.R. = The house brews. 6-12 variants ranging from light to black. May include fruit or other flavorings. YMMV but you knew that in advance.
Food:
Neighborhood bar = grill in back producing burgers and fries. Probably better than fast food but not greatly.
Taproom: These places seldom have a food production facility, but they cover the legal requirement to supply eats by contracting to a food truck to park outside. The truck is sometimes as much of the attraction as the beer inside and every one is unique, some much better than others.
Ambience:
N.B. = Loud background music, usually R&R, and wall-to-wall TV's tuned to various sports channels. Noise level demands yelling to make yourself heard across the table.
TR = Softer background music and probably only one TV, frequently tuned to a news channel. Fox if you're lucky, CNN if you're not. If you're really lucky, there won't be a TV. Conversation is easily possible.

So why did you go to whichever place you went to in the first place? My idea of a drinking establishment is a dimly lit place with many small (2-4 seats) tables with classical music playing softly in the background and a couple of larger tables in the back room for party groups. Craft beers and single malt whisky. Food = appetizers.

Having Fun

Pedals and Pints is a really nice meetup group that specializes in semi-organized bike rides around beginning at a craft brewery, and usually ending there after visiting 2 or 3 others. Today we started at Breckenridge brewery with an Agave Wheat, rode to Dead Hippie Brew Co for a brown ale, and thence to Boggy Draw Brewery fora Stuck Truck Dunkelweiser.

Your beer may vary, but that's what I had. Not bad for an 11 mile ride up and down the Platte trail. Actually there were 2 more brewery's on that route we didn't stop at, but we'll get to them next time.

Great bunch of people and a great time.

Spirits and Sparks

Went to a thing called Spirits and Sparks featuring fire drums, fire music, a really nice French food truck, a DJ, and about 15-20 craft distillers making everything from traditional moonshine to some pretty good whiskys, rums, gin, vodka, and other stuff.

These pics were taken early, before the official opening. Once it got going the place was pretty full.
The Denver Mad Scientists Club provided a bit of the entertainment at our table

providing instant solutions to whatever problems you might have. We added a disclaimer at some point denying all responsibility for injuries, dismemberment, jailing, or whatever else might accompany implementation of our suggestions, but generally we provided some good solutions to everyday problems. That barrel on the table is a smoke ring generator that can toss a 12 in smoke ring all the way across the room. Smoke was provided by a generator on the right side, barely visible.

How's your Latin? Translate the motto on the sign and win 10 extra points. Click pix to enlarge.

All in all a fun event. I had no idea there were that many craft distillers along the front range. I had some coffee liqueur from  Black Canyon Distillery that was better than Baileys.

Weekend Entertainment

As part of the Maker Faire this weekend, there's the part where the makers doing demos are craft distillers and brewers. There's also this:

420 Courtney Way, Lafayette, CO 80026, 7:30 PM. We will have a large whiteboard set up and will provide advice, drawings, and possibly requests to film from a safe distance, our solutions to whatever you think you need built. Some assembly may be required, funding, batteries, and legal advise not included.

Fun! Prizes! Alcohol, making hare-brained ideas seem reasonable for 6000 years.

Exercise

That which doesn't kill me... yeah, yeah. The approach matters. Last weekend was supposed to be 2 bike rides, one of 22 miles and one of 7 which all together would visit 4 craft breweries. This is like finding those health boost boxes in a Doom game. 29 total miles, 4 beers and half an hour rest at each stop.

Didn't happen. Instead we got 8 inches of snow which makes for dicey bicycling, even with snow tires.

This weekend I tried a makeup ride. By way of prep I had Mexican breakfast of 2 eggs, Chorizo, potatoes, and green chili topping. Your heart starts slowing down just reading the menu at El Tejado. 5 cups of coffee counteracts this. Leaving my house, 16 miles up to Great Divide Barrel Bar, 2 beers, and back. Worked out pretty good. I only needed 45 minutes of unconsciousness when I got home to resume normal functions.

Great Divide had only just opened when I got there so no crowds. The Roadie Grapefruit Radler really hit the spot, thirst quenching, refreshing, vitamin C and 4% ABV which is about all I want. The Velvet Yeti Nitro Stout is a nice main course as well at 6% ABV and very smooth.

Thanksgiving

Made it through the Feast with everyone happily stuffed, including the dog who made out like the proverbial bandit when D'wife dropped a container of gravy on the floor. The only casualty was the microwave which gave up the ghost after being asked to reheat one more 5-person helping of something or other.

Endorsements:
1. Boston Market makes a fine pre-packaged and pre cooked Thanksgiving spread. Minimum fuss except for reheating the sides.
2. Beaujolais Nouveau is a fine red that goes well with turkey and goes down easily. Only available for about 2 weeks around Thanksgiving. Go grab a bottle.
3. Crown Royal Rye is over rated, at least to my taste. Suitable for Irish coffee but a bit harsh to drink straight up.  Buffalo Trace is better but I still prefer Black Grouse or Shanahans Colorado Whiskey. YMMV.

Scoring The Debates

Because everyone else is doing it.
Drudge has Trump winning big:

I'm sure the New York Times has a similar poll with similar proportions showing Hill the winner. It's a problem with polling your own followers or employees. Maybe Real Clear Politics will give us an average of some 10 or more polls from reputable sources. Meantime here's a good sized set. I counted so you don't have to. Trump won 16:1 by varying amounts.

My take:
1. Trump didn't fly off the handle and Hill didn't collapse. Kudos to Trumps shrink and Hill's medical team. Her cosmetologist deserves credit as well, she didn't look a day over 40. I had a quiet side bet with myself that neither of them would make it past the 1 hour mark. I lost, so I owe myself a beer.

2. Hill was more polished and better prepared. I suppose that spending 11 hours before a Senate panel repeating the 5th amendment is good practice, although he performance at remembering all those talking points makes you wonder about why she can't seem to remember anything else when seated in front of a Senator.

3. Hill put out some whoppers that Trump let slide. Yes he called her on some, but he missed several as well. The audience seemed to be catching the BS fairly well.

4. Hill pushed the "racist, crazy" meme and Trump brought up the "crooked, untrustworthy" bits which seemed to stick better.

I watched the debate with a bunch of fellow deplorables at the Waters Edge Winery 2101 East Arapahoe Road #101 which isn't near any water at all. The black rasberry Merlot was delicious. To see how this helps the candidates, go here.

Medical Advances

Here's a doctor who knows how to drum up business. This note was issued to Churchill.

Found this on Power Line.

Blogfest

It came and went and I did not get a complete list of all who attended. There were 8 of us altogether. The pint Room in Littleton has 175different beers, some 110 of which are locally produced so there's probably something there for everyone.

Oh yes, and several ciders including pear which was tasty in a different way.

Since we started at 3, the place wasn't inordinately noisy and we all got home before dark.

You should have been there. Rich turns out to be cougar bait. Who knew?

Blogfest - Short Notice

Come on down, have a drink, and hang out with local celebrity* bloggers this Saturday, April 9 from 3pm till we go home, at the Pint Room,  http://www.pintroomlittleton.com/home.aspx, 2620 West Belleview  Avenue, Littleton, CO 80123.

Plenty of free parking, and just off the Platte River bike trail. Craft beers galore and tasty food to go with.

*We think we are.

The Third Rail in Iowa

In spite of the fact that 3-rail electric trains aren't popular outside of New York, everyone understands that there are certain issues that one simply dies not bring up in an election year. This myth is pushed hard by the left to keep the right from pointing out some of their greatest failings. Social Security for example is an unsustainable Ponzi scheme but if anyone suggests this they are instantly denounced as wanting to "toss grandma (who votes Democratic) out on the streets". The Republicans (stupid party) assume that anyone over the age of 62 is too dumb to understand simple economics, and let the cancer grow.

This year in Iowa Cruz has taken a position against Big Alcohol and Trump has waded in on the side of ADM, denouncing Cruz as being in the pocket of Big Oil. So far the folks in Iowa, which boasts one of the best school systems in the country, are favoring Cruz, apparently recognizing that burning all that corn lowers their fuel economy, increases the carbon footprint and tax bill, speeds up the deterioration of their vehicles, and raises the price of food. Even if you get paid well for selling that snake oil, the increased costs elsewhere more than offset the income.

Running a farm is no different from running any other business and if you don't understand the economics of business, you won't be running it for long. Cruz has grabbed the third rail of taxpayer subsidized corn alcohol and has discovered that there is little or no voltage in it as he currently leads Trump in the Iowa polls. I find this encouraging as the more we learn about Trump, the more apparent is becomes that as popular as he is, the man is an economic ignoramus. The world economy is in bad enough shape already and we don't need a trade war right now.

The finance wonks currently meeting in Davos seem to agree with most of them seeing President Trump as no improvement over O'Bungler.

“The globe needs the U.S. to be strong,” she said. “The U.S. is still the horse that’s pulling the cart, and more so now with the capital outflows from emerging markets.”

 With the rest of the world being run by socialists of one stripe or another, that's an accurate picture, made complete by visualizing the cart as being full of the economically dead or dying ("I'm not dead yet!") viz. the Bring out your dead scene from Monty Python.

Drunkbloging The Debate

I'm following the debate via Stephen Green here and I decided to join in so to speak. Night before last I was given 2 porters made by a student of a fellow I know to be a good brewer. I also know that the student had added ground pear to the wort and had bottled it a bit too soon so I opened the bottle very slowly in the sink. It put out a great deal of foam, then seemed to settle down so I pulled the cap the rest of the way. Big mistake.

After mopping the foam and pear shavings off the ceiling and cabinets I find that the explosion took essentially all of whatever was in the bottle with it. Mikes hard Lemonade becomes a much safer alternative.

Price Of Beer To Go Up, Or Down, Or Something

There are two proposals out there right now, the first of which will raise the price of beer and probably reduce your choices. This is a new federal regulation requiring people selling beer for local consumption to post the nutritional and caloric data for each glass or bottle sold so that consumers will be able to drink without worrying too much about busting their diets or developing the dreaded "brewers droop" AKA "Dunlaps disease" in which your belly has "dunlapped over your belt".

This seems to cost between $500 and $1000 per run and of course is paid for by the consumer.

The other item is a proposal to allow grocery stores to sell full strength beer and wine. This is opposed by liquor store owners who enjoy a state mandated niche market and don't want to see it disappear. If Kroger buys beer from Breckenridge Brewery or wine from the Gallo brothers and places it in their stores, their cost of acquiring the product will be lower than those of the corner liquor store and as a result one would hope that the retail price would be lower. Generally a good thing.

Personally I think grocery stores should be allowed to sell whatever they want. Niche products will be sold in niche stores and if they turn out to be all that good, the big stores will pick them up. It's called capitalism.

Active Shooter Training

Go here for an essay on active shooters and/or terrorists and what to do in case you meet one. Be Prepared, like a good Boy Scout and for goodness sake don't end up like these people, dead or wounded on the street.

Oh wait, this seems to be several practitioners of Irish Yoga awaiting the first morning bus outside of Clancy's Pub.

Well, never mind then. Carry on.

Burning The Food Supply - Biofuels

Biofuels are inefficient, costly, and contribute to the rapid rise in food prices. Anyone could have predicted this and several did only to be told that we had lots of acres of farmland that could be profitably be turned to producing corn for fuel. Never mind the increased demand for water, fertilizer, and infrastructure that goes along with this making a gallon of ethanol harder on the environment than a gallon of petroleum-based fuel.

Just remember, there is no environmental problem that can't be solved with a big tax increase, the loss of jobs, and an expansion of government regulation.

The Global Warming Front

Seems the biggest solar plant in the country runs primarily on natural gas.

Cut off the gas supply and you shut down the plant.

That ethanol mandate still isn't working out all that well either. So tell me again what the benefits of burning our food supply are?