Holiday Ale Festival

My brother has landed. We decided to celebrate his 3rd interview at one of his potential companies by going to the Holiday Ale Festival with some friends after work. Here are our reviews of the beers that they're still offering. We're going back tonight to socialize with friends, but I'm sure it will be packed so it will be more talking and less beer drinking.

Enjoy!

Must Try:

• Firestone Walker - Velvet Merkin Stout - This got consistently high reviews among all of us and other tasters. Kathy went back for more. (ranked #1 by Kathy)
• Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla beans - Wow, so great. If you like vanilla, you must try this. All five of us agreed that we really loved it. If I had to get a full mug of any of the beers, this would be one of my top picks. I'm sad Ken got it instead of me. (This was ranked #1 of the night for Lisa, Andrew & Ken; #3 for Kathy)
• Collaborator - Hallucinator (Strong Ale) I love the homebrewers' entries. This was no exception. I thought it was terrific. (ranked #2 of the night by Lisa)
• Hair of the Dog - JIM 2008. Kathy loved this one. It's a little too strong for me, but it got decent to good reviews from most tasters.
• Lagunitas Yersinia Pestis Stout - Ken likes this a lot. Wow, it's like drinking chocolate at your desk at the office. If you like chocolate, you'll be blown away. (Ranked #2 by Ken)
• Max's Fanno Creek Dopplebock - Kathy loves this one and there were a few in the crowd that definitely agreed. (Ranked #2 by Kathy)

Decent

• Golden Valley Oaken Bomb (Spice beer) - I got this later in the night. I thought it had a good flavor and was unoffensive. My brother thought it was delightful.
• New Belgium Abbey Grand Cru (Belgian strong ale) - This was Holly's favorite so she got a full mug. But by the time she got to the bottom, it was way too sweet for her. Still, if you like begians, go for a taster of the stuff.
• Redhook's Double Black Stout - Ken loved it. It was heavy like a meal and too much for me. but if you're a stout person...
• Rogue Yellow Snow IPA - Good flavor, light, full and hoppy. It's great without being a heavy IPA
• Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale - My brother loved it. It has 90 IBUs, highest of the night so if you like hoppy beers give it a try.
• Widmer Babushka's Secret Stout - It was pretty good. I got this, my brother got the Collaborator, but we liked each other's better so we traded glasses. He called this dark and stouty with a bite. It packs a punch at the end.

Interesting

• Cascade Brewing's Sang Noir (Sour Ale) We never had a sour ale before and we were split down the line whether we liked it or not. Some love the cider-y bite. Other though it was too "specific" of a taste for most. If you like malt vinegar on your french fries, give this one a try.

OK but not worth much mentioning

• Anchor Brewing - Old Foghorn (Strong Ale) - Good, tastes like a thin IPA
• Brasserie Dupont - Avec Les Bon Vouex ( Belgian/french ale) - Cleans the palette, light and estery
• Deschutes Mirror Mirror 2005 (Strong Ale) - other people at the festival liked, Andrew and I thought it was ok. It tasted a little past its prime and skunky to me.
• Eugene City TrackTown Shotput Stout - Ken got it. thought it was ok to good, but I preferred other stouts at the party.
• Hazeldell Weihnachten (Spice beer) - unoffensive, ok but nothing great. Not to be confused with the other Weihedkdiakidfijekahdieafeffest
• Hopworks Noggin Floggiin Barleywinee - Was described as generic but I thought it was pretty hoppy and strong. There was something missiing from it though so the flavors didn't truly shine.
• Ninkasi Sleigh'r (Amber) - I love Ninkasi so my hopes were high and left me disappointed. Others felt that it was good.
• Yakima Craft Twin Stag Oaked Scottish Atle - I have litte memory of this beer but I wrote that I liked it better than the Ninkasi, so it's going in this category.
• Pyramid's Snow Capn' and Tenille - We loved the name. Beer was good though I can't remember much about it since I was in spreadsheet land.

Avoid:

• Laurelwood Weihnachtfest (Bock). We all agreed that this was the worst of the night. Dirty socks of a hobo says Kathy.
• North Coast Old Stock Ale - Horrible aftertaste
• Off the Rail Brewing - Blizzard of Ozz - We did not taste it but were told it was completely broken with a bad chloraseptic taste.
• Eel River Climax Noel - we didn't taste it but another said "too syrupy and not as ineresting as I hoped"

Soap works

My soap turned out!

I read that it has to sit for a couple of weeks after making it since the lye can still be caustic. I was giving some to a friend but wanted to test it first, since nothing says "happy thanksgiving" quite like a chemical burn. So after drywalling Thursday morning, I went to take a shower with my soap. I grabbed a bottle of vinegar on my way (to neutralize the lye in case I started burning). Ken was very confused as I took the bottle of vinegar to the shower with me. We were telling the story to some friends later who advised Ken to never ask about weird girl behavior. Suffice it to say, I never needed the vinegar and my soap turned out great. Who knew you could feel so clean after bathing in bacon fat?!

Incoming

My brother arrives today. In less than 6 hours.

Meanwhile, I spent most of the long holiday weekend sleeping and working on the basement. I am doing the last corner now -- where the workshop is. I finished the three coats of drywall mud, priming and painting two coats of two different colors. Now it's just a matter of hanging the pegboard, painting that and moving my workspace over to that area.

After that, Ken is helping me frame the soffits to hide all the weird wiring, pipes, etc. There will be access panels where appropriate, but other than that, we're hoping for a sleek look in the basement (well, sleek as far as basements go, that is). We went to the Rebuilding Center on Sunday and bought reclaimed 2x4s for 0.15/foot. So for $22.50, we purchased 150 feet of wood. Pretty awesome. I'm hoping that we'll get a lot of the framing done this week/weekend so I can start installing the drywall next weekend. I wonder if Andrew likes drywall...

After that, I'll be refinishing the basement floor by acid etching the concrete (looks like stain, but penetrates better than regular concrete staining). Thanks to the Sirkins for the help on how to do it. Then it's installing the baseboards and sitting down with a beer in hand as I admire the huge transformation of the basement. I can't wait. I've been working on it since this summer. I have a feeling I still have about 6 months to go, too. Ugh.