LT Saloon

My town is quite lucky. We still have a small grocery, a hardware, a gas station/convenience store, a seasonal restaurant, and of course the requisite bar. We do not have a mayor or a police force (not even Andy and his deputy). The nearest doctor’s office is 10 miles, the nearest hospitals are 30 miles away. Our fire and ambulance crews are all volunteer. These emergency services have had more trouble recruiting volunteers since most people are working off the farm and therefore out of the community.

What will it do to us if drilling at the scale the gas companies are indicating happens in our community? Even IF everything proceeds smoothly with good intentions and practices there will be significant impacts. An increase in traffic, especially the heavy truck traffic that will be needed to service these sites will increase the number of vehicular accidents putting a strain on volunteer emergency medical services. Given that people act as people do, increased traffic will mean a need for more law enforcement in order to control traffic violations. An increase of people in and out of our businesses will increase the likelihood of altercations which again will create a need for law enforcement. Will our children and ourselves still be safe walking and riding our bikes on narrow country roads with no sidewalks?

Housing becomes an issue. Transient workers need housing and often can pay more than local residents, driving up housing costs. Transient workforces tend not to have the same respect for the towns they work in as do permanent residents. This applies to both the physical landscape and the population. It’s easier to behave badly where nobody knows your name. And in a small town where our personal safety relies on everyone knowing each other, what will it mean to have a town full of strangers?

I am reading an article now on how small towns in Western US were impacted during the energy booms of the 1960′s and 70′s. There is a lot to consider. One difficulty is that the need for more services, regulations etc., comes before they are able to be provided, and small town government is usually not prepared to deal proactively with the types of complex issues that occur. It’s always a game of catch-up. The towns change faster than the residents can deal with it both during the boom, and then the collapse. The boom often has grandiose expectations that don’t pan out, and the bust is often not considered at all.

Boom, boom, boom, boom – the pounding of drill rigs begins to sound like a death knell.

“Barack Obama has yet to have to prove he’s a citizen. All he’d have to do is show a birth certificate.”
– Limbaugh once more, from his July 20, 2009, radio show. [All Rush would have to do is use the Google in that laptop he has in front of him at the EIB studios and in under a minute he could find a copy.]

“Who calls a shot like that? Who makes a decision like that? It’s a disturbing trend.”
– Sarah Palin in West Allis, WI, Nov. 6, 2009, in a tizzy about Obama supposedly moving the legend “In God We Trust” to the edge of US coinage, a change made by the Bushites and reversed by Congress before Obama took office. [That's leadership you can trust – imagining 'disturbing trends' in inconsequential matters.]

“I basically don’t.”
– Dick Cheney, when asked if he believed the Bush Administration bore any responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan, Dec. 1, 2009, from Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog. [Sure, because we didn't invade Afghanistan in October of 2001, we invaded two minutes after Obama was sworn in last January. Republicans believe people should accept responsibility for their actions, as long as they are Democrats or liberals. See Dana Perino quote below.]

“We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”
– Former Bush WH Press Secretary Dana Perino on Sean Hannity’s gabfest, Nov. 24, 2009. [Insert disk in slot in back of head underneath hair flap. Press 'play' behind right earlobe to activate voice.]

“You are being shagged by a rare parrot!”
– Comment from a man watching another man with a large parrot attempting to mate with the back of his head, as shown on The Rachel Maddow Show, Dec. 30, 2009. [This could be America's motto for the entire first decade of 'Century 21.']

Michael Palin (as the shopkeeper): “There, he moved!”
John Cleese (as the customer): “No, he didn’t, that was you hitting the cage!”
– From Monty Python’s “The Dead Parrot Sketch,” wherein John Cleese tries to return a clearly dead bird to the pet shop where he bought it. [So far, the majority of the American public hasn't caught on that most of the fearmongering of the past decade has been the result of vested domestic interests profiting from 'hitting the cage' rather than the actions of a ubiquitous, terrifying external enemy.]

Have a Happy New Year and catch you on the flip side, cousin.

H/T to Media Matters for America, Bob Cesca’s blog, MSNBC, and other sources for the quotes.

© 2009 RS Janes. LTSaloon.org.

Years ago, the brew club met on the 3rd Thursday of each month. Beginning Jan. 21st we will add to our club activities The Thursday Night Brewers Group. The purpose of the group is to share expertise & to sample and evaluate our latest creations. All beverages are eligible for sampling. No comercial beverages are allowed unless the brewer brings it. To attend you must bring something. We need volunteers to provide a place to meet. Mark & I will host the first 2 meetings and when the weather is OK we may meet at Pat’s shop. If you are interested please let me know. Only those who respond will recieve email regarding this group.

jim

Annual Chili cook off at Seville is Jan. 16. Brew club will have 2 teams. Team #1 will be Jim, Kellie, & Tracy. Team #2 will be new member Julie & TBA. Club will pay entry for all members who say they may come. Please RSVP ASAP. I will keep a list of those who respond and purchase an entry ticket for each one. If you do not RSVP your name will not be on the list and YOU can pay the $10 entry. cooks need to be there at 11am. Drinking begins when you get there. Chili tasting usually starts at 4pm.

jim

Membership renewal for 2010 will be due Jan. 1. We already have 22 members paid for 2010. Dues are still only $20. If dues are not paid by March 31, you will have to fill out application, have it approved, and pay $50 new members dues & initiation fee. If you do not wish to renew membership please let me know and you will be removed from email lists. Pay at any club event or meeting.If you want you may pay by mail. Send check to:

Jim Martin
1727 Eagle St.
Cantonment, FL
32533

Make checks payable to EBH

jim

For those into competition…
Style guidelines link. (From this link you can reach different categories.)

Lets all get things coordinated so that we “ALL” brew together on National Big Brew Day (May 1st, 2010). For more info on the history and specifics regarding the day you can go to the following website but the big deal or us is simply to do a large club gathering where we brew beer! We did one of these kinds of events at the Wisteria pub last year and had a blast. This would be a great time for new members to learn about brewing and a great time for everybody to brew, network, buy & sell some equipment. Click here for more information.

In 1988, May 7th was announced before Congress as National Homebrew Day. The American Homebrewers Association created Big Brew as an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day not only in the United States, but around the world. Big Brew is held each year on the first Saturday in May.

Pat Johnson
850-261-9218

But actions by Americans of goodwill could still salvage what looks like a difficult year ahead by recognizing the mistakes made and extracting some lessons learned.

First, it must be acknowledged that in his first year, President Obama repeated many of the early mistakes of President Bill Clinton – by playing it safe on a number of key issues and hoping against hope that the phantom of Republican bipartisanship would materialize.

Like Clinton, Obama gave his Republican predecessors a pass on their foreign-policy crimes and chose a corporate-friendly strategy for dealing with the health-care crisis.

Obama opted to “look forward, not backward” regarding George W. Bush’s policies on torture and aggressive war. Obama proposed but didn’t push for a public option that might have given a real choice to Americans compelled to buy health insurance under the Democratic-passed House and Senate bills.

Obama also treated America’s miscreant big banks with kid gloves; he watered down the stimulus bill to secure a few Republican votes; he took a tepid approach toward global warming; and he expanded one of Bush’s misbegotten wars. Obama even dressed up elements of the Bush Doctrine as “just wars” in his Nobel Peace Prize speech.

Without doubt, Obama could have done better.

He had a legal and moral obligation to undertake serious investigations of Bush-II-era crimes; he could have temporarily nationalized some of the too-big-too-fail banks to deliver a stern message to executives and shareholders; he could have used his bully pulpit to demand a stronger jobs bill; he could have twisted arms for more effective health-care and environmental policies; he could have worked harder to find a different course for the Afghan War.

Yet, from my perspective of having lived in Washington for more than three decades, I can understand why he made the choices that he made – even as we published articles at Consortiumnews.com warning of the likely negative consequences of his excessive caution.

If Obama had gotten tougher, he would have been mercilessly trashed by the powerful right-wing news media and its me-too mainstream counterparts. The only real Washington political pressure that Obama faces is to “steer to the center,” as Washington Post columnist David Broder advised on Sunday.

Indeed, it is a measure of today’s Washington press corps that its top pundits consider Obama’s mushy decision-making of the past year as too left-wing.

One can only imagine what the reaction would have been if Obama had channeled an inner Franklin Delano Roosevelt and put the ruling class on the defensive. The first African-American president would have been denounced – even more than he has been – as a commie, a Nazi, an America-hater or pretty much any other epithet that might come to mind, including many with racial overtones.

Nevertheless, many on the American Left insist that an FDR-style Obama could have rallied the masses and overwhelmed the entrenched powers-that-be. But that is magic thinking, because the Left lacks a political/media infrastructure that could support any politician in such an endeavor.

Over the past three decades, the Left has done little to build a media/think tank infrastructure that can challenge Washington’s center-right conventional wisdom either Inside-the-Beltway or in the cities and towns of Middle America.

The Left has actually reduced its media presence in Washington. For instance, one of the Left’s highest-profile magazines, The New Republic, was sold to neoconservative Martin Peretz, who turned it into an incubator for neocon and right-wing pundits, such as Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes.

The Left has concentrated what little money it does spend on media on West Coast outlets, mostly in San Francisco, three hours behind and 3,000 miles away from the political front lines of Washington.

The Right’s Investments

Meanwhile, the Right has poured billions of dollars into building its own intimidating media infrastructure based largely in Washington and New York, while also reaching out across the country through talk radio, cable television, print outlets and the Internet.

Further tilting the Washington playing field, the Right invests millions of dollars a year in anti-journalism attack groups, such as Accuracy in Media and the Media Research Center, whose job is to identify and destroy honest mainstream reporters who undercut the Right’s propaganda themes.

In this asymmetrical media world – where journalists are constantly under career pressure not to show a “liberal bias” – it should not be surprising that mainstream journalists do whatever they can to avoid coming under attack from the Right. They know that if the Right drives them out of their mainstream media jobs, there is no safety net for them, certainly not on the Left.

Still, many on the Left act as if some other political/media reality exists in Washington and around the United States, that Americans are regularly hearing the case for more progressive solutions when the opposite is true.

So, rather than undertake the hard work of building media that informs the public about the nation’s problems and supports responsible political solutions, the Left finds it easier to bash Obama for not being that knight in shining armor who would slay all the dragons.

In these attacks on Obama, there is an echo from 10 years ago when many on the Left were so furious with the triangulating Clinton that they rejected Al Gore in favor of Ralph Nader. A Nader slogan was that there wasn’t “a dime’s worth of difference” between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

At the time, I warned some progressives that a Bush-II presidency would reopen the doors of the U.S. government to the neoconservatives who were hell-bent on resuming the aggressive foreign policies that they had advocated during the Reagan and Bush-I presidencies.

But the prevailing view of these progressives was that George W. Bush really was the moderate Republican of his early press clippings and that he would surround himself with foreign-policy pragmatists, not with neocon ideologues. It was more important, I was told, to teach the Democrats a lesson.

When the Nader campaign siphoned votes away from Gore in key battleground states and Bush muscled his way to a tainted victory in Florida, there was little protest from the American Left, even though Bush had lost the national popular vote and essentially stole the White House. Many progressives simply blamed Al Gore for not running a better campaign or for not devising a better Florida recount strategy.

Even as the disastrous Bush presidency unfolded, the American Left did little to build the kind of national media infrastructure that would be needed to turn the country around. There were a few under-funded efforts, like Air America radio, and some more West Coast media startups, but very little investment was made in challenging the Right’s dominance in Washington.

That was the reality that Obama confronted after he won the presidency.

Despite the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the national press corps – from Fox News to the Washington Post – was still dominated by rightists and centrists with a heavy dose of neoconservatism on foreign policy. The Republicans also were determined to undermine Obama at every turn.

Obama also took office with the United States in the midst of its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. If Obama had decided to be combative, there was the real possibility that the downward economic spiral could spin the world into a Worse Depression – and the U.S. news media would have heaped blame on Obama.

Hard Truth

While this difficult reality doesn’t excuse Obama for failing to meet moral and legal obligations – like enforcing laws against torture – nor for letting the health-care debate meander for the entire year and thus delay other priorities, the media imbalance cannot be ignored either.

It may be satisfying for some on the Left to simply denounce Obama and claim that he is no better than Bush – much like Nader backers previously saw no difference between Bush and Gore – but that misses the point that democracy is not a spectator sport. It’s not enough to sit in the stands and boo.

Nor can one expect a reasonable outcome if one team is well equipped with the finest pads and helmets – and the other goes onto the field with little or no protective gear.

While it might have been an interesting experiment if Obama had simply charged into the fray and tried to rally the public to his side for major progressive reforms, there is little reason to believe that he would have succeeded. And there’s a good chance that some on the Left would still have second-guessed him for not following precisely their preferred game plan.

So, at the dawn of the New Year and a new decade, what can be done?

In my view, first and foremost, there must be a major investment in building a media-political infrastructure that fights for truth and sanity inside the Washington Beltway. That means support for honest journalism and for policy groups on topics from national security to the environment to economic reform.

Such an infrastructure would both support political leaders who do the right thing and hold accountable politicians who don’t.

There also must be expansion of independent means for disseminating important information to Americans across the country, whether through talk radio, cable television, the Internet or print forms. The U.S. mainstream press corps has been too compromised and weakened to be relied upon.

Today, this outreach to rank-and-file Americans is dominated by the Right, which has shown its capacity to rally the Tea Party crowds to support pro-corporate (anti-government) positions that would continue Bush-like policies that have favored the rich and hurt nearly everyone else.

The ugly truth is that until some media symmetry can be restored, politicians – whatever their personal desires to do good – will continue to make concessions to those who wield the power.
_______

This is a lot better than their Caramel Porter, which was a bit like a liquid Worthington drop last time we had it. Update: at competition a few months ago a fellow judge whined, “I love Saranac, but I agree. All the judges I’ve spoken with describe it a bit like you do. But it’s my brother-in-law’s favorite beer.”

Never be offended by any reviewer’s comments. And we do mean “any.” Your taste is what matters. Period. And we hope his brother-in-law likes this too because we’re all in favor of satisfying the tastes of all kinds of quaffers.

There was a distinct coffee; malt-driven nose and, of course, maple syrup. Almost fruity. I’d sure like to know how they did this: I’ve tried over and over to make what I call Maplead: a pure maple syrup beverage that would compete with Mead. No honey. The problem is the hideous expense of the good stuff needed to make it: Vermont or New York pure, of course vs. the fact that it simply winds up tasting like mediocre’ mead. I have some aging: we’ll see. But for now it seems all the maple ferments out no matter how much I try to caramelize it.

This Saranac, however, has a distinct maple taste. More than a “hint” as their site claims. How did they do it? Just a wee too cloying, whereas the Caramel Porter we tried a while back was pretty much defined by “cloying.”

Creamy head lasts forever.

The maple add is a nice twist, but we thought some might eventually find it just a bit annoying. Maybe it needs just a little more spicy hops to balance? Probably not the more fruit/citrus-like kind, example: Cascade. We thought that would probably just make it even more cloyingly sweet, unless done very early in the boil so it mostly just adds to the bitter. But then why bother with Cascade? Mt. Hood perhaps? Always seems to add a nice twist; especially later in the boil.

The balance isn’t way off, by any means. We do suggest you try this; but perhaps as a dessert beer shared with friends, rather than a regular quaff.

Or maybe they could make it into more of a Robust so the deep, dark, roasted grain sense balances out the sweet? We liked Maple Porter… just a schnipple too much Maple and not enough balance with the malt and the bitter. Yes, “schnipple.” And, yes, it’s a made up word.

Belgian Ale

The obvious use of a Belgian yeast here pretty much defines the product. A nice, but rather unspecific, Belgian ale that needs a bit more complexity malt-wise. It should certainly peek the interest of the uninitiated, but thirsty, yet, experienced, Belgian beer-ites might be mildly disappointed.

Other than the yeast, slight caramel-like malt to the taste. Seemed just a tad inappropriate if your looking for more “Belgian,” less of an American take on Belgian.

Hazy. Not unexpected. Long lasting both bubbly and tad pillow-like head.

Put your nose up to the bottle and you’ll get that Belgian funk right away: a bit old sock-like perhaps. There are many descriptions of this smell, none of them really work. It’s unique and either you like it, or you don’t. White labs Belgian Abbey yeast, perhaps?

Just a little astringent. Could be the yeast.

Says on the label: “brewed in the Trappist style.” How so? No double yeast or yeast mixing sense, aging, Belgian white candy-driven higher alcohols, noted. Nothing else that screams Trappist. We were curious how it was “brewed in the Trappist style.”

We recommend, just don’t expect to be blown away if you’re a Belgian beer lover. More a Belgian beer to drink when you can’t get Chimay, Urtel, Orval… well, let’s just say most of Belgian beer. Curiously Hoegaarden, now brewed by AB, still seems to have a bit more to it Belgian-wise than this, though it’s hard to compare since it’s not the same style. And what style is this? We couldn’t decide.

But… it is good. A good option for those who’d rather go just a tiny bit lighter, and just a little less authentic, on the “Belgian;” or those who want a mild introduction to Belgian brewing: specifically Belgian yeast. The malt is enough in the background that adding it to the commentary would be pretty tough. The star here is the funk, and that’s a bit one dimensional. But, to be fair, certainly far, far better than drinking Bud, Coors, Miller, or even Yuengling, if you are a Belgian beer lover and there are no other Belgian beers on tap.

Black Lager

Honest… we lost the notes on this one. I remember the head being decent and long lasting. Both lagers here were tasty, and that’s a comment from two judges who have judged lagers… but neither of us are very fond of them.

Personally I believe I’m a better judge when I don’t prefer a category or style. I feel I can focus more on what it’s supposed to be, rather than being even slightly tempted to swoon, or be annoyed, by what I personally prefer.

A lot of Munich and a bit of Vienna? Seems the melanoidins were plentiful. Dark. Black. Obsidian. Malt nose plentiful and deep. Though the Matt site suggested to us that this is a power of the Schwartz… bier, we thought it more a cross between mostly a good Schwarzbier, and Munich Dunkel.

Two cheers from two ale lovers are probably in order. But remember, the notes are missing. But we think you’ll like it if that’s your style.

Winter Lager

A distinct lager nose provided a warning we didn’t like, or heed. As I mentioned, we are not lager lovers. Lots of head: long lasting. Deep gold to bronze. Deep melanoidin sense but… perhaps more Vienna, a bit less Munich? Still plenty here. These two pretty almost tied, but if I remember right this topped the other because the balance was so perfect and the experience a bit more unique. You can pick out the sensations. Very Bock-like. Lots of long lasting head. Some caramel notes. Hops present and a little up front in nose and taste… Hallertau?

Big Moose Ale

OK, I admit it. I partially grew up near Big Moose, NY, which is probably this beer’s namesake. My wife and I got married and had our honeymoon near Big Moose. So we’re bigots: prejudiced; pro-Big Moosers. I can’t claim that this had nothing to do with achieving second place, or that the fact that we both prefer ales. But very, very little… if at all.

What took this beer to second place was actually two factors. Saranac already has a pale as one of their flagship beers… one of the first, if I remember right. We expected that this would simply be a relabeled Saranac Pale, which is a good beer. That would have been annoying, in our opinion.

That’s not what we found. There’s an obvious citrus; Cascade-like, hop up front to the nose and the tasted, but it twisted and turned into a bit more spice. Complex? Yes, because the taste morphs in your mouth before it barely leaves the bottle in your hand. And, yes, plenty of hops… but this mix could have easily gone into astringency. It came right to the edge and the stopped and smiled a knowing smile. Wow. That’s brewster talent.

Their site says Centennial. I would have guessed something a bit more spicy, but the additions were done quite well.

Not a lot of malt but not unbalanced. The malt was firm and not too caramel, or too pale, or too anything. The hops are the showcase here; close but not quite an IPA. More a unique pale and a pleasant symphony.

And the top of the six…

Rye IPA

Mozart maybe? Perhaps more Chopin? I feel like letting this cradle my tongue while listening to the gentle flow of the soft side of Scheherazade.

This really need to win awards. Rye can create some off flavors: this doesn’t. I have had and enjoyed Rye IPAS made by talented homebrewers and brewpub brewmasters, but I have never sensed such perfect harmony between hops and rye with none of the downside that rye can offer. Of the rye beers I’ve had I have found rye can brings out less than pleasant phenols. Not a lot, but enough if phenols bother you it may be noticeable. Nothing like that here.

Foamy head: plenty. A copper/gold cross, SRM-wise. Didn’t have the chart with us when we tasted these brews or I’d offer a number.

This has the same magic Big Moose had but the rye takes the spicy (somewhat pepper)/citrus (somewhat grapefruit) hop mix to a new level. We guessed Saaz and Cascade, or Centennial. But their site says Hallertau, Saaz. Well, we were partially right. Something in the hop equation added just a bit of the fruitiness like what was found in Big Moose Ale. Probably a matter of when; and how, the hops were added.

Submit this brew somewhere for competition, please? If it doesn’t win anything then judges need to have taste bud transplants.

Managing director James Watt said a limited supply of Tactical Nuclear Penguin would be sold for £30 each.

This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance Tactical Nuclear Penguin label warning

He said: “This beer is about pushing the boundaries, it is about taking innovation in beer to a whole new level.”

Mr Watt added that a beer such as Tactical Nuclear Penguin should be drunk in “spirit sized measures”.

A warning on the label states: “This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost.”

However Jack Law, of Alcohol Focus Scotland, described it was a “cynical marketing ploy” and said: “We want to know why a brewer would produce a beer almost as strong as whisky.”

The beer has been launched on the day alcohol was at the top of the political agenda with the unveiling of the Scottish government’s Alcohol Bill including proposals for minimum pricing on drink.

Meanwhile, BrewDog’s plans for a new headquarters to produce millions of bottles of beer a year have been approved by Aberdeenshire Council.

The decision was taken at a full council meeting despite having been recommended for refusal by officers because the site at Potterton, near Aberdeen, is in the green belt.