Beer of the Week: Tommyknocker Pick Axe Pale Ale

Beer score: 4.7

Company: Tommyknocker Brewery
ABV: 6.2
IBU: 55

Fairly strong with a bit of a nutty flavor and a touch of sourness more common with India Pale Ales.

Goes down wet and smooth.

Though not a really great beer, it's not bad, and is probably a little too complicated for non-connoisseur. Still, worth trying out if you get a chance.

Beer of the Week: Wychwood Brewery Hobgoblin Gold

Beer score: 7.1

Company: Wychwood Brewery
ABV: 4.2
IBU: NA

Pours a nice golden color while giving a fairly foamy head.

The smell is grainy with a touch of fruity, maybe some subtle citrus hints.

In taste there are more hints of that citrus, along with some sour. Pretty bitter for me. The bitterness was strong but mostly was gone by the time I swallowed.

A touch too harsh for folks who aren't beer tasters, but not a bad brew at all.

Beer of the Week: Rolling Rock Extra Pale

Beer score: 6.0

Company: Anheuser-Busch
ABV: 4.4
IBU: 5

Long brewed by the Latrobe Brewing Company, this one was bought out a few years ago by Anheuser-Busch.

This beer is very wet and a good thirst quencher. Pours a light golden color. It has a frothy taste that stays with you. This isn't a real exciting beer, but it is very agreeable.

Normally I wouldn't say this is a drink for a beer snob, but the taste is so smooth it just has to be tried.

Beer of the Week Blast from the Past: Liberty Brewing Company Beers

Years ago the Liberty Brewing Company, a brewpub out of Akron, Ohio, produced some damn fine beers. As happens all too often, they eventually went out of the business, with the staff moving on to other brewing ventures.

Still, as I often do during a week in which I don't try a new beer, here are a few old notes I made about a brewing company that's no longer with us.

Liberty Brewing Company White Lace Wheat

Beer score: 5.2

Nice head. Fairly weak, even for a hefe-weiss. Non-beer tasters would probably like this, while real snobs can enjoy it for drinking.

Liberty Brewing Company Paul Bunyan

Beer score: 6.5

A little sugary and a little fizzy. A little strength here, too. Everything about this beer is little (except the mug it came in). Still, not a bad brew over all.

Liberty Brewing Company Sir Winston

Beer score: 6.5

This English pale ale tastes more like a medium lager than a pale ale, but it's still worth drinking. A good, strong bitterness as you swallow.

Liberty Brewing Company Mad Cow Milk Stout

Beer score: 7.1

A little weak for a stout, but not bad. Has a decent, burnt quality. Smooth.

Liberty Brewing Company Dragonslayer

Beer score: 5.2

Pretty wet and non-sweet for a Scottish ale, which isn't necessarily bad. Kind of tastes like a weak lager, but very drinkable.

Liberty Brewing Company Around the Horn

Beer score: 6.2

Tastes like a fairly weak India Pale Ale, but doesn't have the grapefruit-like sourness often associated with I.P.A.s. One thing I've noticed about the beers from this brewpub is they don't necessarily taste like what they're supposed to taste like; often, many of the brews tasted like a lager of one strength or another.

Books read in 2023: No. 3 -- The Book of Hosea

published by Zondervan

Started: Jan. 30
Finished: Jan. 31

Notes: It's time to get back to some Bible reading. I'm near the end of the Old Testament now, entering the shorter works of the later prophets.

Mini review: Most of this is the prophet Hosea and God calling upon the Israelites to return to God or to face awful consequences, which seems a common thread for most of the prophets.

Beer of the Week: Deep River Chocolate Stout Nitro

Beer score: 7.7

Company: Deep River Brewing
ABV: NA
IBU: NA

What is a "nitro" beer? It's a beer than contains more nitrogen gas and less carbon dioxide, at least compared to most beers. Usually these beers are nitrogenated (if that's a word) before being put in a keg or bottle or whatever.

This one ... is quite awesome. It came with a moderate foamy head that was smooth, smooth, smooth. It gave off scents of coffee, dark chocolate and burnt maple.

One of my criteria for a good stout is that you can hold it up to the light in a clear glass and still not see the light. You couldn't see the light here, so for me that's a winner. The color itself is that cool dark chocolate not unfamiliar to many an excellent stout.

The taste is much like the smell, burnt maple, coffee, dark chocolate. And the taste is fairly light, not overpowering. However, this isn't an extremely strong or thick stout, reminding me in texture more of a porter. One of the smoothest stouts I've tried over the years.

All that being said, normally I prefer a stout at room temperature, but this one I preferred chilled. When I first got this beer, it was quite cold, and I fell in love with it. However, as this beer sat on my table and warmed, the flavors seemed to become a bit dull for me. But maybe I'll just have to try this one again. Whatever the case, this beer would have scored higher for me if it had remained as good as it had when it was still cold.

Books read in 2023: No. 2 -- The Bahá’í Faith: The Emerging Global Religion

by William S. Hatcher and J. Douglas Martin

Started: January 12

Finshed: January 30

Notes: One of my girlfriend's family members is a believer of the Bahá’í faith, and I know only some basics of that belief system. Curious to know more, I asked and this family member suggested this book as a basic introduction, and he let me borrow it.

Mini review: As best as I can tell, here are a list of the basic Bahá’í beliefs:

1.) The oneness of humanity.

2.) The unity of all religions, with most major religions seen as a succession of stages leading up to the Bahá’í faith.

3.) Harmony between science and religion.

4.) Equality between all races and sexes.

5.) The eventual establishment of a world-wide order, sort of a religious government.

There's more to it than that, but those seem to be the basics as I understand them. There is a lot to be commended here, much which I wish other faiths would learn, but I also see a lot to be concerned about. At its heart, I find this basically liberal social engineering with trappings of spirituality, and this ignores the various dangers of such.