FlaSoxxJim

Wow Alex, that is horrific. Good thoughts being sent your way and to all those involved. You've got the right outlook on it, and hopefully the girl will come through alright.

Odd to think how that's what we all thought of the Indians just a couple years agow when they owned Central. Our time is coming up, I can feel it.

Who else is gonna be mad if Koch gets a 1-2-3 NOW?!?

OK, PA, I was waiting for you to show before hitting Pottsville… Yuengling: First things first. It is pronounced "YING-ling", not "Young-ling". I was soundly ridiculed on my first trip to Philadelphia in 1990 for not knowing better. Yuengling is America's oldest brewery still in existence. It was founded in 1829 in Pottsville PA, and moved across the street to its current location two years later after a fire destroyed the first brewery. For perspective, that means that at the height of Prohibition the brewery had already been around for 100 years. Like all of the breweries that were to survive those dark times, Yuengling turned to non-alcoholic commercial pursuits. In their case it was near beer and dairy products. They brewed a special batch of beer on the repeal of Prohibition and shipped a truckload of it to FDR in thanks. They are primarily a lager brewery of German lineage. But, as the Pilsner style and modern lager brewing did not come about in Europe until around 1845, they were producing something other than pilsner-esque beers in the early days. Possibly it was the darker, older, but still very German ‘alt’ beer style – an Old World ale style that almost completely disappeared when light lagers came on the scene. I had not had the Yuengling beers before that first Philly visit. They were available on draft everywhere – a pleasant substitute for the national brands that so completely dominated back then and mostly still do now. I liked the ‘Traditional Lager’ when I had it then, and REALLY liked the ‘Dark Brewed Porter.’ The now commonly seen Yuengling's ‘Black and Tan’ had not yet been introduced, and I didn't try their light beer on principle. I've not had their ‘Lord Chesterfield Ale,’ but have been told that it is not as good as the glowing self-description on the bottle suggests it is. I'll reserve judgement until someone sends me a bottle. I can now get both the lager and the black and tan (sadly not the porter) just about anywhere down here. They brew those two styles in the old Stroh brewery in Tampa so it doesn't have far to travel to get here. I realize now that I have only assumed y'all get it in Chicago, but I may be in err? Is it available in the Midwest? While the Traditional Lager is not world class by any standard, it's pleasantly drinkable. It's also cheap and invariably a better choice than Bud, Mich, Miller, et al. More importantly, it is probably also the best widely distributed modern interpretation of Pre-Prohibition American lager beer. That is not to say it is altogether accurate, however. Great European and English beers are all-malt beers, as are the American craft brews. That is, all of their fermentables come from malted barley and maybe some wheat in certain styles. But no corn, grits, or rice; these are cheap adjuncts that up the alcohol while not affecting flavor, body, or color very much. Today, the adjuncts make up about 50% of the grains in American beers, and the generally sad resulting product is the worse off for it. But what a lot of people – even "beer people" don't realise, is that there is a historically valid reason for the adjuncts to be there (other than modern corporate cheapness). The American-grown 6-row barley available to European immigrant brewers in the last half of the 19th century produced a harsh, phenolic, and hazy beer if used as 100% of the grist. The problem was that it had a lot more protein in it than the 2-row varieties they used back home. It was not economically practical to import large amounts of European grain, so the brewers turned to the use of adjuncts like corn and rice to cut the harshness of their products. Fortunately, the high protein content of the domestic 6-row also meant there was a high enough enzyme activity in the malted barley to convert not only its own starches, but also the starches in the adjuncts to fermentable sugar. That's something you can't do with classic European malts, which probably kept Old World breweries from screwing up their beers with adjuncts over the years. If not overdone, corn can give a pleasant graininess to a beer, along with light body and sweetness. When overdone, it throws the whole deal out of whack. Back to the present. So where does Yuengling's diverge from the the historic Pre-Prohibition lager? First, it is only about 1/2 to 2/3 as strong as the historic version would have been. It also uses a higher percentage of adjuncts than historical examples would have; probably 40% or so as opposed to 20-25% in the originals. It also has less than half of the hops that the historic version would have. That is a reflection of the need to decrease hopping (bitterness) rates as you bring down total grist amount and as you up the percentage of adjuncts, and also a reflection of changing consumer tastes that forgot the beauty of hops in beer after WWII. In the same vein, there is not a dedicated use of “noble” European hop varieties like Saaz or Hallertau. Even if domestic strains were used to bitter the historic versions, the noble varieties would have been used for late additions (flavor and aroma additions) during brewing. None of that is to single out Yuengling as a less authentic American lager than the megabrews; in fact it is a lot better than most. There is some body to the beer, some hop character, and some color from the use of a little high-kilned specialty malt. In that last regard, Yuengling Traditional is probably more a loose interpretation of a Vienna or a Dortmunder, and not a Czech or Bavarian Pilsner (which would use just light pilsner malt). I’ve had very good, very faithful reproductions of Pre-Prohibition American lager from some brewpubs and some homebrewers (I stick to ales in my brewing – no patience and insufficient cooler space to mature lagers). Quite simply, our grandparents and great grandparents drank quality American lagers on a daily basis while we of Generation Bud are left to wonder what that must have been like. And, while Yuengling may not stand with those, I’m finishing off my second bottle of Trad Lager as I write (and watch the Sox crash and burn…), so it can’t be all that bad.

Yeah, they'll want you to burn some jams for them. I'm going to look into the service, it sounds intruiging.

Sweeeet! Who's going and wants to pick me up one?!?

I can see the bidders wanting them as a gag (poor choice of words?)for themselves or to give as a gift. One Christmas office party for a "white elephant" grab bag gift I put in a book called "The Gentle Art of Bondage" and it was the most sought after gift of the night.

Cool, many thanks! I'd been to the Hopleaf maybe 5 years ago and liked it a lot, but when I found the Clark Street Ale House a couple blocks closer to me that also had an outstanding selection I started going there instead. The Ale House was also right next door to an outstanding resturant named Mango who's head chef was I guy I grew up with. played in garage bands with, etc., so between dinner there, the Ale House, and Blue Chicago a couple doors down we'd have ourselves a helluva night. I've not been to the Map Room. I'll have to try to get there (coming in in two weeks for Sox/Cubs!) Goose Island is always on the list. I went to Rock Bottom when it first opened and was unimpressed, but I've herd better things about it lately. I used to try to get out to the Winekellar brewpub in Berwynn as well before it had a fire and closed down a few years back (will probably always be may favorite Midwest brewpub ).

Yeah, I have head that proposed as the source of "33", but I had not seen the ORIGINAL Rolling Rock Pledge Before. THANKS for providing it here. As far as that theory I always loved it, because if you read the Rolling Rock Pledge as it appears on the bottles now... "From the glass lined tanks of OLD LATROBE we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment, as a tribute to your good taste - It comes from the mountain springs to you." ... THERE ARE ONLY 31 WORDS IN THE PLEDGE!!! The apparent original version of the pledge has possibly shed some light on the matter, but it also calls into my question one of my own theories on "33" – that it was tthe number of Rolling Rocks that needed to be consumed before one could count those words and end up with 33. I'm going to track down a 1939 bottle and look at the Pledge as it originally appeared before I make a decision, but you have lent some credence to one of the competing theories. The other leading theories are: • The number of letters in the ingredients list also included on the bottle – water, malt, rice, hops, corn, brewers' yeast = 33 letters. • 1933, the year of the repeal of Prohibition (as you noted) • The suggested serving temperature in degrees Fahrenheit – One degree above freezing! But like most American beers, many think your tastebuds need to be frozen before you can drink the stuff. • There were 33 or more diffferent recipes in the Latrobe catalog, and Rolling Rock was number 33 – Depending on whether Heinz '57' came out before or after 1939, maybe they took note of a successful marketing gimmick. My own theory (the one I do believe but have not seen put forth elsewhere) is that it is shorthand for an original wort (unfermented beer) gravity of 1.033. This is a low starting gravity on the scheme of craft beers (high grav translates into high alcohol), but it is right there as far as an SG for a commmercial cream ale. There is some historic presidence for this. English brews will have the alcohol content right on the pump handle badges, and some have the starting gravities as well. At least two beers I can think of off the top of my head – Saint Sistus Abt 12 (Belgium) and EKU 28 (Denmark – out of production I think) – were purportedly named to indicate their weight on the Balling Scale (also measures specific gravity, used more in Europe than here). 28 would be WAAAYY up there alcohol wise so I don't know for sure – EKU was the world's strongest beer for a good while and I remember being blown away by it, but I'm not sure it was that strong.

Pssst. Don't forget Chris Snopek's pants...

Well... Discovery Science Channel did just air a special featuring our group last friday (So nyah nyah nyah NOAA). I posted it here last week, but heres the page on the story... http://science.discovery.com/convergence/s...p/medicine.html

I may be out of my vulcan mind, but no, it's ocean exploration in general that I enjoy following out of professional habit. Here's a link to an NPR All Things Considered piece that ran Monday about some of the "Drugs From the Sea" submersible-based research my institution is doing. I'm working on the educational outreach material for this cruise at the moment. Go down the page and click on the audio link for the story "Sub Seeks Medical Miracles at Sea".

Eifuku... Isn't he Japan's all time base-stealer? Seriously, this is right up my alley and very cool. Thanks for the link.

ZING!!! That had actually crossed my mind as I posted. And as a matter of full disclosure, if E-Lo grows a white man afro that would make Grand Funk envious and starts to sing songs in an annoying through-the-nose falsetto ala' Mr. Lynne I'll probably sttart to like him less too. Don't bring me down, Bruce.

Them: A Chimp Us: A HAWK Dang, if we were talking about Comiskey I ca. 1977 I'd go for this one... Them: Weeds on the outfield walls Us: Weed in the outfield stands

Them: Bums in the bleachers Us: Mobsters under the parking lot Or is that not a good thing...?

I didn't know he had penned a song they recorded, that's for sure. I vaguely recall once knowing something of a Beach Boys/Polanski connection involving Manson now that you jogged my memory, but didn't know asbout the B-side recording. Anything in that cranial hard drive about the sinister side of Laly co-writer and Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon? That story I do know.

to you both!!

There is a time and a place for ELO. The time is any time I'm not around, and the place is anywhere I'm not at.

He's a snot and an anti-authority person from way back, to be sure. But Moore is also actually very self-deprecating in his books. He admits to his academic and intellectual shortcomings – barely getting out of high school and never graduating from college etc. And the fact that he's a shlub from a Flint Michigan shlub family has always kind of been the point of a lot that he has done. That's certainly easiest to see in Roger and Me, but elements of that still come out in his stuff now. In Stupid White Men he talks about finding out that he could run for school board commissioner at age 18 – when he was still in high school. He confirmed that was the case, ran, and won, putting the teachers that pretty much hated him in an odd position since they were now answerable to him at some level. It's an odd situation done, no doubt, to flaunt the system. But it underscores Moore's recurring idea that, sure we're a bunch of little guys being trod upon (Moore is less little than some, which his mom always reminded him of...). But if more and more of the little guys start to care, pay attention, and do something about the things that piss them off rather than just b****ing they can have a voice. That message is true regardless of what flavor politics any of the little guys practice. And it's good that there's meaningful grassroots work being done on all sides – I much prefer it to apathy.

That's pretty creepy.

I will see it, opening weekend most likely.

Rolling Rock ‘Extra Pale’: Ahhh, "From the glass-lined tanks of Old Latrobe," "33," aka the mysteriously and cleverly labeled Rolling Rock. There’s nothing like a good beer. And THIS is NOTHING like a good beer. I know Ranier, Genessee, Special Export, Mickey's, and Haffenrefer have all been dubbed “Green Death” by their devotees/detractors (all of these are defunct but Genesee now I think, so apparently having the “green death” moniker attached to your product is not a shrewd marketing move). I think Rock is the heir apparent to the title. Don't get me wrong – I'm an 'any-port in-a-storm' beer drinker, and if that's what you got then that's what I'm drinking. It's just not nearly as good as I thought it was 15 years or so ago when there weren't so many much better things to drink. The beer is overly sweet, overly thin, and overly carbonated to be considered drinkable by many. Still, that combination can be refreshing if it’s not the only thing you ever drink. I admit the one I had last night during the game is the first I have had in about 5 years. Most other breweries call their products brewed to these specs ‘cream ales.’ In truth, cream ales have no cream of any sort in them (but they are usually very sweet) and are lagers NOT ales (i.e., bottom fermented and cold conditioned versus top fermented and usually with no protracted aging). Bastard pseudo-style though it may be, cream ales have kind of a cult following and there are even those who homebrew them now. Viva la difference. The corn flavor from all the adjuncts in Rolling Rock is more pronounced than even Busch or a Miller product. That is probably the biggest thing keeping me from rushing out and getting more of this any time soon. If you do get some Rolling Rock, I encourage you to try a little science experiment that will tell you a lot about what beer is and isn't supposed to taste like. Take one of those green bottles and place it, full and unopened, in your backyard to bask in the summer sun for a day (I just did). Then chill it and, er…, enjoy it. That overpowering smell of Green Giant niblets corn gone bad (if you've done it right) is DMS – dimethylsulfide. It's the premier off-flavor in adjunct heavy American beers that have been "lightstruck." It involves some hairy chemistry between sunlight, hop isomers, and fermentation byproducts in the beer, and it is not pleasant. It's also the reason beer is usually shipped in dark brown bottles – clear bottles won't protect the beer, and neither will the green ones Rolling Rock and many other breweries use. Weird Science. Yuengling’s next time.