CrashOctopus Blog

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we found ourselves in Savannah, GA, drinking locally brewed beer at the Moon River Brewery. We tried several, but the only dark one was their Captain’s Porter. I love beer fresh from the tap.

This porter was sweetish at first, but had a very sour aftertaste. It was not complex at all, which made it sort of boring. The hint of chocolate flavor was slightly redeeming.

Ratings:
M: 7
N: 5

This week, I bring you Anchor Porter. I’ve had it several times before, but just got around to ranking it.

It has a little initial sweetness, but afterwards is overwhelming savory, almost like peppered beef jerky. But strangely, the aftertaste is sweet again. It’s an interesting effect. It isn’t tangy or too bubbly, and doesn’t kick you in the teeth. Decent overall, but nothing to write home about.

Ratings:
M: 6

Okocim Porter from Poland rocks my socks. It is rich and smooth and has none of the usual bitterness of porters. Some are strong and powerful and smack your teeth, but this isn’t; it’s agreeable, gentlemanly, and you could take it home to Mom. It tastes more like a stout than a porter. It’s sweet, delicious, and fragrant, with a hint of honey and little aftertaste.

M: 9.5
N: 9

My short absence has not been idle - I was on beer vacation! It was planned as a regular family reunion, but unexpectedly turned into a beer vacation, which is perfectly fine with me.

Day 1: Meet with Casey Klahn of The Colorist, who has the most beautiful backyard ever. Got to see some of his originals and his awesome new studio-in-progress. He has cute kids and gave me beer. Thumbs up!

Walnut Brewery Old Elk Brown Ale: a nice red beer, tastier by far than Killian’s. Ratings for a non-dark beer… M: 7 N: 6.5

Day 2: Family reunion in beautiful Leavenworth, WA. Found out that I have the same birthday as this handsome fellow, my great-great-grandfather the horse-wrangler.

Also found out that I’m related to an excellent botanical artist, Catherine Watters. My family rocks.

Leavenworth is a Bavarian Village, and has tons of good beer on tap. Here’s what we drank:

Big Sky Brewery Moose Drool Brown Ale: chocolatey, mild, complex, and dark for an ale. On tap at Gustav’s, which makes kick-ass cheeseburgers. Non-dark beer ratings… M: 9 N: 8.5

Boundary Bay Imperial Oatmeal Stout: served room temp, it’s dessert-sweet and rich, like a mild black russian. On tap at Ducks and Drakes. M: 9 N: 9

Elysian Perseus Porter: complex, better than Guinness. On tap at I forget which beer garden. M: 7 N: 7.5

Hales Brewery Sleeping Maiden Porter: deep, rich, tasty. On tap at, and made exclusively for, Gustav’s. M: 7.5 N: 7

Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter: smooth and mild, a typical porter. On tap at Gustav’s. M: 8 N: 7

Day 3: Drove to Dayton, WA to visit my grandmother, a 96-year-old firecracker with a 20-year-old sense of humor. Visit Palouse Falls. Successfully take photos without falling in.

Day 4: Visited Little Goose Dam and its fish ladder. I’ve never seen salmon so big.

Day 5: Dinner at Skye Book & Brew in Dayton. It’s an awesome little mix of cafe, coffee shop, and bookstore. Their brewmaster makes excellent beer that is only available on tap at this restaurant. They have $1 pints on Monday night. ONE DOLLAR. I love this place.

S. McTaggart Scottish Ale: dark, complex, and earthy with a hint of cocoa. Non-dark beer ratings… M: 9 N:9

Pataha Creek Porter: light for a porter, smooth, complex, and bitter. M: 7.5 N: 7

Tucannon Honey Wheat: not dark beer at all, but Grandmother liked it, so I had to try. Sweet and tasty.

Startin Starveout Stout: I had this on my last trip to Dayton, and it was delicious. They aren’t making it right now. Shame.

Day 6: Pick wild blackberries. Dinner at the Weinhard Cafe. Awesome food.

Deschutes Brewery Obsidian Stout: full, smooth, thick, nutty, and sweet. M: 9 N: 8.5

Day 7: Had beer on tap at Squatters Pub Brewery in the Salt Lake City airport while waiting on a layover.

Squatters Polygamy Porter: mild, smooth, with a small bite. M: 7 N: 5

Squatters Captain Bastard’s Oatmeal Stout: complex but verrry bitter and sour, smells like coffee. M: 6  N: 5

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed my beer vacation as much as I did.

This week, I purchased a pint of Hooker Imperial Porter. Both the label and the link (which apparently hasn’t been updated in two years) say that it is “full bodied, sweet, with a caramel flavor and a coffee-like taste.” I’d say that description is fairly accurate - caramel was the first flavor I tasted. However, they forgot to mention the aftertaste, which is sour and quickly takes over the sweetness.

The bottle also says “Adds holiday warmth and cheer to any beer lover’s winter.” Ha. It is as refreshing as a dark beer can be, and isn’t too bad in the Georgia summer heat. And one last note - I do know how to pour beer, but this one dumped it head over the side of the glass and I had to wait quite a while for it to go down. This may or may not be related to my technique, but I assure you that my clumsy pouring did not contribute to the problems I mentioned in last week’s post.

Rating:

M: 8

N: out of town

This week, instead of beer ratings, y’all get a warning and a question. When it happened once, I asked the liquor store (and stumped them). When it happened again, I turn to you for answers.

Twice we’ve bought organic beer that was possessed. Two separate occasions, two different breweries. We’d open the bottle, but as soon as the beer reached our mouths, it turned to complete fizz. All air, no liquid. Same if we poured it in a glass - it turned completely to foam. Let it sit for half an hour, and there’d be half an inch of totally flat beer in a glass that had been brimming full of foam.

Both times, the blight affected the entire six-pack. Both times, we’ve had the beer several times before and it was fine. The first occasion was several months ago, and it was Bison Chocolate Stout. The second time was last weekend, with Butte Creek Organic Porter. It wasn’t as bad as the Bison, but still difficult to drink. Beer is much less enjoyable when you have to concentrate on each sip or end up with fizz up your nose and a shirt covered in beer fluff.

So… if you but these organic beers, beware… and does anyone know what the freakin’ heck is going on? Unless you have ideas, I’m going on the presumption that these beers are possessed.

To continue with beers that only come in huge bottles, this week I present Left Hand Smoke Jumper Porter. Left Hand is quickly becoming a favorite brewery, and not just because they have such a variety of dark beers - they all taste good.

Smoke Jumper Porter is labeled as “Smoked Imperial Porter,” and Nathan and I were both plagued by curiosity about smoked beer. Smoked?? The guy at the store told is it was made to benefit our country’s smoke jumpers - it’s called the “Official Beer of the National Smokejumper Association.” So, brand loyalty, curiosity, and a good cause had us opening our wallets. It was about $12 for the 750 ml, which is outrageously expensive. I’d probably buy it more often if it came in normal bottles, because getting two people to agree they want the same beer at the same time is a challenge.

Smoke Jumper tastes as if someone took a Left Hand BlackJack Porter and put it in a smoker for 8 hours. It smells like jerky and tastes like hickory barbecue. It has a small initial bite, then is smooth and has no aftertaste (except maybe the faint whiff of burning leaves). It has only a hint of sweet - most of the flavor is tangy and, well, smoky. A very interesting beer. I’ve never had one even remotely like this. If you have the curiosity and the cash, I’d recommend trying it.

M: 8.5

N: 9

Today’s beer is the last of the Superbowl beers: Left Hand Blackjack Porter. It was the best of the three, although not our favorite from this brewery. It does have a cool label, though:

To help describe this beer, I’m creating a new term: the “First Taste.” It is defined as the immediate impression of the beer, and lasts for a very short time before the full flavor hits your tongue. You could also associate it with food - some foods taste strong at first, but the taste fades away to nothing by the time you’ve eaten the whole pint of ice cream in one sitting. Anyway, Blackjack Porter’s First Taste has a lovely hint of chocolate. The overall flavor is very mild and smooth. It’s a bit like Guinness, but a milder. The aftertaste is bitter and strong.

A pretty good beer, but after tasting Left Hand Milk Stout and Imperial Stout, we were expecting better.

M: 7.5
N: 7.5

So yesterday, we stocked up on six (six!!!) different kinds of beer, three of which we’ve never tried before. We had to buy them yesterday, because the great state of Georgia doesn’t allow liquor sales on Sunday. I have never understood this rule - if you’re desperate enough to be drunk for church, you’ve probably planned ahead.

Anyhow, this week’s beer is Highland Oatmeal Porter - both bottled and on tap. We’ve had both versions before - the tap version at the North River Tavern and the bottle from our most favorite of liquor stores, the Beverage Resort.
The bottled beer is smooth and a tiny bit sweet. It has a medium-dark flavor, not too heavy. After the first taste, the sweetness sinks in a bit, and is then followed by a bright aftertaste that gets bitterer as you go. An interesting beer.

The tap is a bit better than the bottled version. Could be that we’re biased towards freshly pulled pints as opposed to bottles that have been sitting around for who knows how long. This one is a little bright and bubbly, with the same slight tang as the bottle, but with less of the bitter ending.

Tap:
M: 8.5
N: 8.5

Bottle:
M: 8
N: 7.5

Butte Creek Organic Porter is this week’s beer. It hails from California, and reminds me of all the good things about the state - sunshine, rolling hills, and warm evenings. It is, of course, organic, which means they use no pesticides or chemicals to grow the ingredients. Its flavor is sweet, smooth, and crisp, with a light tang and aftertaste. It just goes to show that wholesome ingredients = good beer. It also proves that just because something is organic doesn’t mean it has to cost an arm and a leg - it is very reasonably priced, and cheaper than a lot of the beers we’ve reviewed.
M: 8.5
N: 9

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I’m still working on that pastel piece from last week, but I have no new insights or complaints. So this week I’ll wax philosophical.

Artistic courage is a many-faceted part of being an artist that few people discuss. I thought I had a good handle on it, until yesterday, when I made my first sales call. Oy.

The courage I do have, I apply to the works of art themselves. I’m not afraid to waste film, paint, paper, etc. I’m not afraid of an empty piece of paper - in fact, I look at it as a challenge. When something is going through an “ugly” stage, I never for a moment fear that it won’t work itself out. And if it doesn’t… no big deal. I’ve learned from the experience and improved myself as an artist.

But then there’s the other part of arting - selling stuff. I’m excellent at posting things on the Internets, but lousy at promoting. And having a bunch of people you don’t know “favorite” your art or photos is great, but gets you zero dollars. So I must sell myself, and that, I’m afraid of. Yesterday I called up a small store in Laurens, IA, where my family lives and the subject of many of my photos. I asked the owner if she’d be interested in selling photos of local scenes… and she was wonderful, helpful, and a joy to work with. It turned out well, as I told myself it would. But it took a long time and a lot of courage for me to make that call. This part of artistic courage is something I need to practice, and although it probably doesn’t come naturally to many artists, I haven’t seen much written about it. Anyone have any insights?