favorite beers

C-Monster has turned me on to a new idea for the blog. Inspiration abounds everywhere; topics and questions found in email threads are no different. I figure I can use pieces of email responses to re-purpose in this medium or respond to interesting inquiries from time to time here. As my favorite brother-in-law likes to say, "Fabulous!"

This afternoon she reached out to me and asked the following question:

what are your top 5 fav beers of all time?

Everyone has their own unique experience with adult soda. Craft brews and home brewing have never been so popular while many just never grow to love it. In either case, I think people generally lie when they claim that they fell in love with beer from the beginning. As they say, it's an acquired passion. Unfortunately, I can't consume too much beer in one sitting anymore. I feel uncomfortably full and fret about the calories that pile up in my gut, knowing full well that my slowing metabolism won't be able to break down the sugars.

But it's part of a progression - I drank it because I had to, I pretended that I liked it, one day I loved it, I prided myself on drinking dark beers and claimed Guinness was my favorite, I crafted a couple of brews at a local shop, I considered myself an expert at some point (I never was). All of this happened in high school and college. I drank pricey local craft brews with my friends. We'd discuss what we were drinking, thinking that we knew something. "Well, this particular IPA has a floral finish...so we should probably drink 12 of those each as fast as we can". Looking back, I should have been getting loaded on 25 cent beers. We never drank as an end in itself, we were always drinking as a means.

And then I got just a bit older. I noticed that my poor diet and drinking habits were visibly settling on my stomach. I rarely drink dark beer anymore. Drinking even three beers usually causes sluggishness and fatigue throughout the next day. Throwing back a few suds at a ballgame isn't desirable either. I just sit in my plastic seat, bloated beyond belief.

But don't get me wrong. I still love beer. Once you do, you never stop. You can't stop. You just have to learn to negotiate with your body (and your wife), find moments when you can extend yourself just a little further to tap into those days when you could really drink.

Anyway, here they are (or here's what I can think of). Keep in mind these are not in any particular order and may actually change in a week or two. Note, no dark beers or india pale ales on this list

Kona Longboard Lager. I can't think of the taste at the moment so I can't describe in this post. However, I really like it and almost always choose it over other beers when jumbled in a cooler together. It's a shame I didn't visit the brewery when I was on the Big Island several years ago. This is a beer I've enjoyed more recently - last 4-5 years, and didn't really consider it in undergrad.

Sam Adams Boston Lager. Every time I drink Sam Adams, I am reminded of a remarkable rose-like essence that releases. I've read that Sam Adams has one of the higher caloric counts for a beer of its kind. But it's always remained as a favorite for me.

Sudwerk Hefeweizen. Coincidentally, I was trying to remember a specific taste that I couldn't quite put my finger on from my UC Davis days. It was a beer, absolutely, but I couldn't quite remember anything else about it. But now I recall, it was this hef (unfiltered wheat beer) and I distinctly remember a lovely malt quality to it. I fully associate its nuances with my freshman dorm experience. Sudwerk is also special to me because it's a Davis microbrew. All of that makes it one fine brew on my list, and I'm making it a point to get some where I can (not readily available outside of Davis area). Wait, I might be mistaking this taste experience with Widmer Hef. Shoot.

Koshihikari Echigo. This is a beautiful beer crafted with rice rather than barley. Think floral qualities, much more delicate than I described above about Sam Adams. It's more prevalent than ever at Japanese dining establishments but runs pretty pricey compared to the Asahis and Sapporos of the world. Do yourself a favor and buy it at your local Japanese market. It's terrific.

Budweiser Lager. It's the king, what more can you say? Actually, there's a whole lot you can say. Bud is very versatile. It's a perfect way to kick start a wild night, a great beer back, and a suitable way to wind down as a last call drink or sipper after you stumble home. But those days are over now. These days, I'll drink this on nights when I'd prefer not to drink. You're drinking but you're not. You know what I mean. Bud Light is pretty excellent for this as well. Budweiser - it's an antidote for all those who claim that San Francisco is littered with beer snobs while avoiding the hipster trendiness of PBR.

Thanks to C-Monster for the question, and thanks to everyone else for stopping by!

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bruce wayne, not donald draper

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We are full steam ahead in 2012 or end of the world, whatever you prefer to call it. It feels like the perfect time to reflect for a moment to frame the course of action for the year that lies ahead. One of my fondest memories of 2011 came during Emmelle and my honeymoon trip to France. During our second week, we spent five glorious days on the southern coast in Nice, tanning on rock beaches and swimming in the shallow depths of topaz blue Mediterranean waters. I've never been a strong swimmer so I gladly embraced the daily afternoon challenges afforded by the sea.

Each day I reminded Emmelle that I needed to go for a dip in the ocean, to improve body and mind through the sea's rhythmic waves. My devotion to the water was reminiscent of one of Mad Men's story lines in season 4 in which Don Draper takes up swimming to improve his health. "We are so alike!" I admitted to myself as I walked toward the ocean to splash a little water on my legs, widen my toes to let the cool water wash up towards my exposed feet. My aggressively parted hair flapped gently in the breeze. While I stretched out my arms and legs, I would have mental conversations with Draper about how to romance my wife and who I might verbally accost once I returned back to work. Don and me, we had fine times.

Before I knew it, I would be in the water, flailing my arms to achieve some measurable distance from the shore. Mere seconds into each swim, my arms and shoulders fatigued, my thighs would burn unmercifully. It was not pleasurable. But it is a gentleman's exercise, I reminded myself. If it's good enough for Draper, than it surely is suited for my body.

Maybe not.

The show went away for some time, rumors of conflict between the creator and the network. In fact, season 5 will not commence until late March. Late March?! I can read the tea leaves well enough; it was time to move on. I needed to identify a new (fictitious) mentor. It dawned on me fairly quickly who that needed to be - somebody I saw in my reflection everyday. To continue my betterment as dutiful husband, business wunderkind, general man about town, my 2012 mantra is

"Be more Bruce Wayne than Donald Draper"

Once you get passed the disbelief, I already know the question that is forming in your eyes - "aren't they actually very similar? Practically the same (bad ass (fake)) guy?" I wholly understand where you are coming from. Both gentlemen are insufferably handsome, charming without peer, yet haunted by burdens of a dark, secret past. They are both orphans. They are wealthy, surround themselves with beautiful women and masterfully oversee their expanding business empires. Most importantly, they are and do all of these things in finely tailored suits.

Hhmm, on the surface, they appear quite similar; why am I making such a distinction in 2012? What does it mean to be more Dark Knight than DonDon?

Find below a short, but vital, list of key differences between DonDon and Mr. Wayne, any singular point alone worthy of the new direction I have taken.

1. Bruce Wayne doesn't drink. Reader, you've only been mislead to believe that you've witnessed Mr. Wayne sip fine champagne or cocktails at one of his philanthropic fundraisers. He needs to stay sharp for the criminal-fighting demands of the night. While he is famous for holding a drink in his hand, he's adept at slipping away to discard its contents. While I'm not claiming a year off the sauce completely, I'm definitely giving my liver a break here and there.
2. Donald Draper is a chronic philanderer. While Don would have us feel pity on his ever-growing, internal conflict of right and wrong, it's tough to paint a rosy portrayal of his inability to keep his pants on (outside of the pool). He's selectively compassionate to his children and employees just enough for his fans to latch onto that thread of morality. However, his bottom half is bankrupt of honesty or loyalty. He is a monstrous sexual, sexy villain. Contrarily, Mr. Wayne has demonstrated incredible devotion to just a handful of women over the last 50 years or so. His loyalty bleeds so deep that he risks his life even for the likes of Katie Holmes and beardless Jake Gyllenhall. We can all learn something here.
3. Donald Draper is a creative. In 2011, I left a planning and consulting arm of my company because of a misguided shift by the leadership to approach our projects with a greater creative perspective. Rather than deliver strategic recommendations to clients rooted in data and analytics, the group began to make ill-advised suggestions based on feelings and (retarded) intuition. This sounds crazy, right? Well, actually, this is what DonDon does. If you have the gift to be convincing without any material proof, you're never going to stop. Creative work belongs to left-brained English lit majors who become comatose as soon as you mention any numbers. I'd rather find solutions (and bring notorious criminals to justice) by means of rigorous analysis.
4. Bruce Wayne is not beholden to offspring. It's pretty difficult to maintain a demanding professional/social calendar while tending to young children. DonDon is conflicted by it, yet his response is to ignore the issue altogether and resigned to remain a terrible father with a future filled with terrible adult children. Mr. Wayne will probably punish these kids one day as they peddle cheap narcotics on the street. I'd rather pursue the independence that Mr. Wayne exhibits - beholden to just one human being in his life, and that one human being refers to him as "Master" and cooks his meals and tidies his palace. I can go for that.
5. Bruce Wayne is a ninja. Self-explanatory.

So, there is your list. A compelling, incontestable documentation of why Donald Draper will cease to be my fashion/love/work guru and will fade into my subconscious while The Dark Knight uses his grappling gun and advanced weaponry latch onto the forefront of all my intuition and decision-making. It's a new year, and I'm aiming for some drastic improvements.

Happy new year!

To conclude, as I frequently like to write whenever I offer discourse on Batman, ninjas, or Batman and ninjas, yes, I am married, and yes, I am in my thirties.
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mendocino bed and breakfast

It's been quite some time since my last long-winded blog post. Even if I tried, I couldn't produce anything at this moment. Just like anything else, you have to dust off the cob webs and slowly churn the gears back into solid working condition. Everything goes stale if unused. I need a recharge with my overly verbose writing style.

But until I'm refueled, I'll try my best to tell stories with photos. The ones below are from a recent two night trip that Emmelle and I took after our first Christmas holiday as a married couple. The retreat served as a relaxing getaway after days of familial get-togethers. Married couples can pontificate all they want to about the advantages and disadvantages of having family near or far, but it's really pointless. If distance prevails, you long for a grand family reunion to invoke holiday memories of years past. If your family lurks near, you want to slam the gas pedal in the opposite direction - maybe north to a Mendocino bed and breakfast.



There are some really nice wineries on the way to Mendocino. Our favorite was the Goldeneye vineyard where we sampled some tasty pinots and even a Duckhorn cab. It's renewed a desire to be passionate and knowledgeable about wine. I'm skeptical though, I'm not sure I'll ever feel strongly about grape juice. However, I'll just have to make a habit of buying expensive bottles to make sure.



Emmelle exploring the Mendocino coastline. We carved our names into the massive trunk of this tree and had a romantic picnic lunch (there is a chance that this last sentence is completely false).



While Mendocino county is vast, the actual city is incredibly small. Visits that far north usually include a further ten minute drive north along the coast to Fort Bragg, home of the famed Glass Beach. In the forties and fifties, locals used the beach as a dumping area. Years of ocean waves and salt have corroded some of the trash and have yielded a colorful array of glass pieces along the shore. I believe the beach used to be more abundant with colors, but visitors have ignored the county's mandate to leave the beautiful litter for others to enjoy. It's certainly worth seeing, yet it's hard to determine whether some pieces have been "naturally" birthed by Mother Nature or it's simply beer bottle shards of a rowdy high school party from the previous weekend.

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hakushu 12 years

Just a couple of weeks ago, my doctor requested that I reduce my alcohol consumption for a short period of time. His timing couldn't be worse as we headed full steam into the holiday imbibing season, but alas, I'm a dutiful and frightened patient. Now, I'm not exactly sure what he meant by 'reduce', but I've miraculously committed to sobriety since his scrooge-like mandate. And while I continue to abstain from my God-given right to drunkenness (for the time being), it would seem appropriate to commence the new year with a quick, mindless post about a new alcohol that I've discovered.

This is not a tasting note on the Hakushu 12 year that you see below. It remains unopened and sits regally on our bookshelf. It calls to me in the night like something that calls something in the dark. It's fairly new to the United States and I have yet to see it carried by large vendors. I'm intrigued by its green bottle and look forward to comparing it to the Yamazaki 12 years. I imagine it will be a bit lighter with less smoke. But I can only speculate. These are dark times friends.

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