Ah, Pumpkins...

'Tis the time for Pumpkin beer, my friends. However, not all of the pumpkin beers are made equal, so let me run down what I've tried so far. Dogfish Head makes the good stuff. This 7% juggernaut has the perfect blend of pumpkin flavor and spice. To expose my bias, I think that if a beer is called a 'pumpkin' beer, it should taste like something besides pumpkin pie spices. I like for there to be some pumpkin in there as well. As I type this, I am drinking the Shipyard Brewing Co.' s pumpkin beer, and it has a little too much spice to it. However, paired with apples or cheese, it might balance out the sweetness. I'll keep you posted as I try more of the pumpkin ales.

I just recently tried a few others. The Jiahu beer from Dogfish Head is really amazing, with a Belgian style depth but without the ponderous heaviness of the white ales I've had. Also, this is a 9000 year old recipe, so its like drinking a piece of history. Speaking of history, what about a glass of Pangaea? The shtick here is that it was brewed with an ingredient from every continent. I sure can't taste all of them, but I do love the crystallized ginger on the finish.

So, I suppose I might have been leaning heavily on Dogfish Head recently. I don't know exactly how that happened, but I assure you that it wasn't intentional.

Also recent has been my first experiences with a liquor known as grappe. Be careful with this stuff, as it will put hair on your chest. However, while being highly potent it is also delicious. The one I had was redolent of cedar and dark berries.

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I have been working on a presentation and paper related to Baroque machine plays. 'What are these?' You might ask. Well, look it up on the series of tubes that you read my Blog on or come to my presentation. Do look it up though. Fascinating stuff.

"Adieu, adieu, remember me..."