BeerDiablo

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The Magic is in The Hole

Portland-based Voodoo Doughnut is a dive-doughnut shop trying a little too hard and is cash only.

From left to right the line-up is
Voodoo Doughnut – a voodoo doll-shaped treat that has a blood red jelly-filled belly.
Diabolus Satani – food with a pentagram is good.
Triple Chocolate Penetration – action like Jackson.

*leftover from the Portland trip, though a splash of color would liven up the stream amongst the Captivity Reports*

mood:

relaxed

music: Steve Roach & Loren Nerell - Cavity of Liquids

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Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Headbanging Back to the 80’s Weekend

About six weeks ago, I found out that one of my favorite thrash bands from the early 80’s, Hirax, was coming to Texas. Austin was the closest show [3 hr.drive] and with work being an onslaught, I didn’t know if I would get to see the show but things actually went my way for once through a light workload and telling everyone that I wasn’t available for work that weekend beyond a few hours Saturday. Add to that working the previous weekends when I didn’t need to in order to lay the foundation to justify being unavailable. [i.e. with all the works I’ve done, others wouldn’t be able to shy away from filling in the gap].

The New Age of Thrash and Destroy
Hirax finally came to Texas about twenty-four years after releasing the great “Raging Violence” LP. Well, great to me in terms of potential but that would never be built on [my interpretation of the music vs. their vision –lack of + later: drugs/booze] and after a thirteen year layoff, started back up in 2000 with only the original singer and a revolving door of musicians that finalized into a retro-thrash band a couple of years later. Unlike most old metal bands, this singer’s actually gotten better. Sure, he had a 13-yr break in which his colleagues were wrecking their pipes but oh, well.

The band continues on in an old-school-thrash style, much like AC/DC does with rock. Less than a hundred people at the show but the band did like true performers do – full on- whether it’s 25 or 25,000. Everybody gets the same show.

I got to be fifteen again for a night, not bad.

mood:

accomplished

music: Pseudogod - Branded by Hornz

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The Jackelope: It’s What’s For Dinner

Instead of Casino El Camino, I went with HermanoDiablo’s recommendation and got a burger at The Jackelope. The online menu showcased an item that I couldn’t resist: a four-chile cheeseburger that had roasted Hatch, Poblano, Serrano and Jalepeño peppers a top a burger with smoked pepper mayo.

With a description like that, you’d expect a Scoville Holocaust in your mouth but no, this was a wimpy burger that only spice avoiders would find dangerous. Technically still a good burger. Oh, and the food ordering system blows donkey. Go upstairs to order, then they’ll bring it to you. But if it’s booze, then it’s full service. Dumb.

mood:

working

music: Pretty Little Flower - ironic curse of possession

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Friday, July 31st, 2009

Portland Trip Cliff Notes I

Portland reminded me of Austin, lots of tattoos and piercings but with more strip joints and beer. I’ve got the photo albums on my myspace page.

The Liver is Evil and Must be Punished
The Fest wasn't that exciting for me, I just did four tastings and left after eating. I realized that at this point, I prefer specialty fests or events at a pub/brewery. The cattle herd beer tent scene isn't for me.

Later, I met up with Goodbye Ohio at the Hair of the Dog brewery and this was a lot better. A good amount of people but not packed and the beer was way better, not to mention free. Plus the brewing equipment has a Rube Goldberg/Willie Wonka vibe. Fred from the Wood was the best of the day. I bought three bottles to add to my cellar.

Saturday's visits to the Deschutes and Bridgeport brewpubs were impressive in that the building and decor were given serious consideration -and budget! Deschutes pub only draft offerings outstrip the pedstrian bottle offerings available in Texas. Highlights were Ocho Negro, Cherry Quad and of course - The Abyss at $5.50 a snifter [would've cost $9 easy in TX].

In short, Portland is a beautiful city with friendly people and a beer scene that I hope Texas can grow to in time. Fuck, you can even get growlers at the airport and the pints are street prices, not airport sodomy prices. I'll be back as I've unfinished business. ;>

mood:

sleepy

music: Mutilator - Immortal Force

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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Portland, OR Trip: Beer Smuggling Report

A high-class haul that cost me quite a bit but these are some gems. The Nørrebro is a 2006. That is the Old Rasputin XII.
I'll work up a full report on the trip but in short, this is a definite beer destination that I will revisit.

mood:

tired

music: Symphony Of Grief - Immortal Fluids

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Monday, July 27th, 2009

Stronger Than Beer

Sunday, I returned in one piece to DFW. This vacation packed a lot of new experiences that left me wanting more from Portland, OR.

I need to heal up, sync up with InfiddlevestCorp and figure out just what the hell I did on the trip and why I now have
so many cases of freaky beer in my apt. [ha!]

mood:

accomplished

music: Wolves In The Throne Room - Behold the Vastness and Sorrow

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Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Vacation Planning - July 2009

July 23rd, I'll be headed to Portland Oregon for the Oregon Brewer's Festival. Aside from Apizza Scholls and Voodoo Doughnut, does anyone have suggestions for places to hit?

mood:

planning

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Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Xmas 2008: Gently, With a Chainsaw

Xmas eve- good thing I had a late, pork-laden lunch as PadreDiablo wanted to get out of the house. Hello Fredericksburg VFW Hall, where $12 [tip incl.] buys a round of beers for eight people. No craft beer here as Shiner Bock is considered “fancy”.

Returning home for dinner, MadreDiablo heated up both the chili and the tortilla soup as requested by PadreDiablo. She combined both in the same pot. Oops -it worked though.

Xmas day – the usual routine, though a little lighter this year. The best gift would come on Friday while making the rounds on el ranchero, where PadreDiablo pointed out a good goat skull. I still want to get a taxidermied shoulder of a Spanish black goat with a beard [Stiefelgeiss would be better]. Venom Tupac Rios, our mysterious appearing and gratuitous black goat, disappeared a year ago. That bitching billie would’ve been a great icon of evil. Though no goat can replace my waterbuck skull.

Day After Xmas – No calluses ripped, though I destroyed one pair of work gloves while exhausting two tanks of gas [and self] in the “Wild Thing” cutting firewood for my parents.

After cleaning up, it was time again to hit the beer joints in Johnson City as both PadreDiablo and I wanted a beer. The 4-R was nothing exciting but a decent steak dinner at “Friendly Bar”, formerly known as the “Too Damn Friendly Bar” hit the spot.

Day after the Day After Xmas - Drove “Aunt Johnnie” to the Austin airport and then joined HermanoDiablo for an Indian buffet, followed by a match of Galaga Legions – excellent graphics that will short circuit anyone indulging in Liquid 25. I drove back to Dallas that afternoon and continue to rest up.

mood:

groggy

music: Steve Roach - Slow Heat

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Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Strong Ale Trip: Day 3 –San Diego

The last “party” day of the trip was anti-climatic with visits to beer bars that featured about 20-30 taps and expanded/eclectic bottle selections. Then a Sumerian demon paid me a visit.

Hamilton’s is a worn bar in a soon to be hipster neighborhood. Two cool things about this place:
1. Their veggie burger is called “Cattle Decapitation” after the metal band.
2. Tons of tap handles hang from the ceiling like bats.
Unfortunately, there was low energy here, maybe it was the 2pm start but this place wasn’t happening.

After some “To Live and Die in L.A.” highway hijinx, we met up at the hotel where instead of taking a cab, an idea was hatched to walk to the next venue. A twenty-minute walk that was easier before mass quantities of beer.

¡Damn you, Pazuzu!
O’Brien’s, like Hamilton’s was dead. We attributed this to the Strong Ale Fest still going Saturday night. Food was quick and so were the next beers. A little too fast, perhaps. Maybe it was the Argentinean Barleywine but I started sinking into a Sumerian Beer Trance. Luckily, it was closing time.

Unluckily, no one wanted to cab it back to the hotel. I’m sure I was a pain in the ass that complained all the way back too. I want luxury when I’m drunk. The next day was pleasant, no hangover –again!

If I do it next year, I might do both nights of the fest as I see it only getting bigger/better. It’s a little too soon to say, based on work-life-etc. but I like SoCal and I know my way around a lot better.

mood:

okay

music: Entombed - Thou Shalt Kill

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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Strong Ale Trip: Day 2 -The Fest – 4oz. Samples

BeerDiablo texts “First Beer of the Fest: DARK LORD” [DL]
Assurbanipaul texts “Notify next of kin”

Seeing DL on the list affirmed that things were going to go well and indeed they did. Many longtime fest attendees said the selection was more varied and expanded this year. With 102 beers from over 15 states, I couldn’t argue.

Pizza Port’s Strong Ale Fest is shaping up to be a nationally known event for brewers to break out their strongest 8% alcohol and up beers. Most macro lagers are 3.5% alcohol at best. The average abv here was 9.7 to 10%.

Pre-fest: Oceanfront Property
After lunch, I “meditated” on the beach for a while and I felt a zen calm while standing in line for the fest. This helped as I started going through the beers at an even pace of one every 10-15 minutes.

After a few hours, a number of us took a break and went down to the shore to watch the sunset. You can’t buy that type of wonder and it was a nice bit of quiet, plus the walking helped with the breakdown of the heavy beer.

Come Mr.Tally Man. Divide and Conquer, Then Go Home
With one day starting at 1pm, there was no way to try them all and no way that I would want to. The strategy:

1. ID & mark the beers that will go fast that I’m interested in. This serves two purposes, I get what I want while my palette is reasonably fresh.
2. ID & mark the styles I don’t like, beers I’ve had before and beer that I can get easily. Blow them off.

With that, I set out and tried 24 beers in roughly eight hours. There were only four pour-outs. You don’t have to drink it if you don’t like it. Plus you have to protect your palette by dumping a beer that –while good- will wreck it, like a ale that turns out to be sour, despite the description.

Leftover, there are some I would’ve like to have tried-didn’t know-or forgot- but with the fest getting crowded, I agreed with the rest of the crew that it was time to leave.

The Summary
The Strongest: Virgin Papier from The Bruery at 14.7%. Dull, not boozy though.
The Best: The Abyss from Deschutes at 12%. Bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout
Freakiest Letdown: Imperial Malt Ball Stout from Karl Strauss. Imperial stout w/malted milk powder. Meh.
Biggest Drain-pour: Veritas 002 from Lost Abbey. Dark barrel-aged Belgian ale with raspberry nectar. Sour-y blah.

Combined with food, water and breaks, the hangover was minimal. Victory!

mood:

chipper

music: Disincarnate - Stench Of Paradise Burning

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Monday, December 8th, 2008

Strong Ale Trip: Day 1 Escondido

Escon-dildo as the locals call it, though I found the small patches I visited agreeable due to all the beer available. It makes for a hell of a set of blinders.

Holiday Wine Cellar was the first stop and it’s always a treat when a majority of their inventory is either new to me or isn’t distributed in Texas. I missed Descute’s Abyss by about a week but that would be remedied the next day. Their beer expert was an attractive lady with tattoos that unfortunately wasn’t attending the fest due to work. Out here, women beer geeks are not uncommon. I got the majority of my beer here and picked up the rest here and there. Behold the pictures below, a good haul. There’s multiples of the bottles with the exception of the Euro brews.

Get Stoned for Free
Stone Brewing and Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens are a destination enhanced by the nearby hotels. This was built two years ago and the brewery is state of the art but I hate the building’s exterior and landscaping. However, throw in a tour, free samples and I won’t mind.

The tour was almost a private one –no one else but the guide and me until about ten minutes into it, five others joined the tour -cognitive science doctoral students that I suspected to be a bit buzzed/baked.

At the bottling line, I made a joke about finding mice in the bottles and the PHDs-to-be didn’t get it. Definitely a generational thing at this point.

The bistro has a great beer selection –not just Stone- and the food menu is varied, keeping with the “world bistro” theme. I kept it healthy but went with a chocolate mousse to pair with Ballast Point’s Three Sheets barley wine.

I had about five beers [counting samples] for the four hours I was there; I needed to conserve my strength for the next day – Pizza Port’s 12th Annual Strong Ale Fest.

mood:

cheerful

music: Strange Brew Soundtrack

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Sunday, December 7th, 2008

Back From Battle

I'm back from the SoCal trip and I'm intact. No amputations, tattoos or new scars to speak of. The planning paid off and the logistics worked out in that I didn't get lost. There were a couple of beers I didn't get to pick up but other beers made up for it. Pictures and highlights to come. I've got tomorrow off, so I plan on doing some sleeping.

mood:

tired

music: *silence*

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Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Going Back to Cali

I leave in a couple of hours for Southern California to attend the 12th annual Pizza Port Strong Ale Fest. I feel a lot better and should be near full strength for Friday's VIP session of the fest -where there's a bonus of 25 beers on top of the 75 already featured. Yes, I have a strategy.

Lights, cameras -nudity optional, ACTION!

mood:

determined

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Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

There’s Always a Story

Everyone’s got a Las Vegas story [or two] and today, I heard good one:

Casino Hotel –to be unnamed- had their reservation system down and being a mega-hotel had hundreds of people to check in. Mix-ups were bound to happen.

One vendor’s prude male employee finally got a room and went in, quickly to leave due to, you guessed it, a couple fornicating in the assigned room.

The salesperson [that relayed the story] saw him in the lobby and asked what was wrong, being that this person just got a room while others waited an hour-at least- in line.

After the horror was revealed, one question was asked: above or below the sheets?

The prude turned red.

mood:

amused

music: Deathspell Omega - The Repellent Scars of Abandon and Election

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Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Averse Sefira at Austin's Room 710, 10.18.2008

It turns out that HermanoDiablo’s friend, Crisco, works with the guitar player in Averse Sefira, so I got an introduction and chatted with Sanguine for about ten minutes. Oddly, they were at Casino El Camino when we were there also but at the time, I didn’t know what they looked like without the corpse paint.

Others drove down from Dallas also, inspiring Sanguine to give “The Dallas Crew” a dedication that warmed my black little heart.

The set was structured very well for continuity [reminding me of Rush’s Moving Pictures –in a way] and it was a good show. 710’s PA kept it from being a great one. Not enough channels on the mixer to properly mike the drums and this affected all the bands.

I recommend those loving old VoiVod to purchase Averse Sefira’s “Advent Parallax” CD which is built to be listened to from start to finish as a dark journey. Great stuff.

Averse Sefira live in Austin, TX at the 710 Room on Oct.12, 2008 playing "A Shower of Idols".

mood:

relaxed

music: Numina - Sothis

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Friday, October 17th, 2008

Las Vegas Day 5: Virgin Killer

The conference sessions are finished. Last night was the “zPub” party in which there was beer/wine/food and games. In the three hours the party was open, I finished off about seven beers and spent the bulk of my time playing vintage 80’s video games – I hogged Galaga for at least an hour. . Some people were dancing - not pretty, good thing I was drinking.

Currently in The Hole: $80
Two more virginities gone: Solicitated by two prostitutes on the casino floor in The Rio [though only one did the talking] and I rolled dice for a co-worker at a craps table -they believe a craps virgin's first throw to be lucky. I proved them right. The rest of the throws sucked.

I’m down $80 and I’m leaving it at that. I’m sick of this town.

In a few hours, I fly back –upgraded to first class with airmiles- to central time and my own bed in which I will probably sleep most of the weekend.

mood:

tired

music: Averse Sefira - Decapitation of Sigils

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Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Las Vegas Day 4: Family Night

My co-workers wanted to do a group dinner that –in the end- was a decent time. My manager, Mrs.Ed [highest rank buys], was nervous about putting an all-out Eye-talian dinner for eight people on her corporate card but went ahead anyways. The damage wasn’t too bad; she even ordered a third bottle of wine.

The beer run was successful, though not too many new brews to be found, so I augmented my current stash. Lee’s Discount Liquor on Sunset has the best selection in Las Vegas proper for those planning a beer excursion while in town.

Currently in The Hole: $80
No gambling last night. IBM is throwing a party tonight, so I don’t know if I’ll go play blackjack again. This all depends on swag giveaways, they usually don’t have good beer [though free] at these events and I don’t want to be hungover on the flight home. It’s going to be a pub theme, so there might be Guinness and Harp. Fingers crossed, invocation to Satan spoken.

At worst, I’ll wander over to Gold Coast and shove a $20 into a slot machine so I can make my losses an even hundred.

Tomorrow, I fly back to central time and my own bed.

mood:

cheerful

music: *hotel music*

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Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Las Vegas Day 3: Ugh…

My co-workers aren’t fun, no one is really going out or doing anything interesting. I suspect my manager – who is a cheapskate, might be getting in on dinners/nights out on the town with vendors and not sharing. That definitely isn’t cool.

Today I’m skipping the last two sessions [nothing there for me anyways] to do a beer run. There’s bound to be some treasure to be smuggled back to Tejas. I’ll be documenting this closely for those who’ve asked me how I pack all these beers.

Currently in The Hole: $80
One co-worker and I hit the Gold Coast Casino last night. He blew his bankroll within 15 minutes laying craps –an odd chaotic game. I played decently in blackjack for about an hour [hint: $5 minimum] but should’ve quit when the bankroll returned to break-even. I’m still playing minimum bets and need to learn bet phasing in order to make more cash to keep playing longer. I’ve picked up six decks of cards at a vendor exhibit booth for practice at home.

Tomorrow is the last full day and I can’t wait to get back to central time and my own bed.

mood:

blah

music: *hotel music*

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Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Las Vegas Day 2 Begins

It was a grueling weekend and Sunday's travel made the first day of the IBM Conference a drag.
So what did I do the first night in Las Vegas? I went to bed at 8:30pm.

I'm now recharged. Tuesday is drinkie night.

Not sure about hanging with co-workers but, it does help on the cab fare, which is expensive.
We're at The Rio, which isn't close to anything good.

mood:

awake

music: *fucking muzak*

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Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Release from Captivity 101108

This was a relatively easy on-call tour of duty with only one hellnight that wasn’t too bad. I sleep as a free man, no longer on-call. Low chance of disturbing calls –work related anyways. I can move about without worry, my plans will not be squashed.

Now to pack for Las Vegas but I’m driving to Austin to:

1. Go with Quetzie to Casino El Camino.
2. See Averse Sefira live - Voivod/Immolation inspired black metal.

Now the machines call someone else to say they’re broken…

music: Steve Roach - A Deeper Silence

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