For a day in February, Saturday morning was surprisingly warm and sunny. Seventy shooters took advantage of the warm weather to come out for the February IDPA match at Rivanna Rifle and Pistol club. The grounds were wet and exceptionally muddy, which c…

Back in 2009, Flying Dog released Raging Bitch Belgian IPA to mark their 20th Anniversary. I enjoyed the beer then, and frequently since. Five years later, the brewery is celebrating 25 years with a take off on that popular beer, with Tropical Bit…

I’ve never heard of this phenomenon before. I recommend watching with sound too.It’s awesome to watch, but it doesn’t make me like winter any better.Thanks to Colleen for sharing. 
[ This content originated at Musings Over a Pint ]

If the claims from a recent study are true, I won’t be moderating my coffee addiction anytime soon. As reported by the New York Post (a renowned scientific journal)…

Drinking more coffee might help reduce the kind of liver damage that’s associated with overindulging in food and alcohol, a review of existing studies suggests.

Researchers analyzed data from nine previously published studies with a total of more than 430,000 participants and found that drinking two additional cups of coffee a day was linked to a 44 percent lower risk of developing liver cirrhosis.

While just two cups a day brought about a “significant” reduction in risk, the researchers concluded that the risk from liver cirrhosis declined 57 percent for three cups and a whopping 65 percent with four cups of coffee a day.

I wonder if drinking Coffee Stouts would be as effective. That’s a study I’d like to take part in.

See “Drinking more coffee may reverse liver damage from booze” for more.

An Irishman moves into a tiny hamlet in County Kerry, walks into the pub and promptly orders three beers.The bartender raises his eyebrows, but serves the man three beers, which he drinks quietly at a table, alone.An hour later, the man has finished th…

Most of the snow has finally melted, but unfortunately more frozen precipitation is predicted for early next week. The brief respite from the cold was motivation enough to hit the range and take advantage of the sunny day. I grabbed a few pistols, and …

Colleen and I returned to Capital Ale House Tuesday evening for a Devils Backbone Steal the Glass event. The event featured Devils Backbone Kabong Triple Imperial IPA. A few other Devils Backbone beers were also available; Black Rock Oatmeal Stout, Sonnet 54 Saison, Cranberry Gose, Vienna Lager, and Gold Leaf Lager. Colleen had the Stout while I ordered a pint of the Triple IPA.

Kabong is a strongly flavored beer but still has a nice balance of sweet malt and oily citrus hops. The flavor finished on the sweet side but otherwise it had a very clean finish for such a rich flavor profile. Surprisingly, I was able to detect very little aroma from the beer. This strong beer checks in at 11.1% ABV, so slow sipping was the order of the evening as I enjoyed a fish & chips platter.

Even though we got seated at the bar just 20 minutes after the 6:00PM start of the Steal the Glass event, my Devils Backbone beer came out in an O’Conner Brewing pint glass, and Colleen’s Stout in an Adventure Brewing glass. Our server informed us they were already out of the Devils Backbone glassware. Apparently a large “private party” downstairs claimed all the glasses. Although that would save us from paying the premium price to “steal” a glass, it was disappointing as we did like the glass being offered. (Fortunately our server did manage to find us a couple of glasses to take later in the evening.)

Making do

I would have like to tried the Devils Backbone Gose as well, but after the high ABV Kabong, I opted for just the one beer; it was a “school night” after all.

My planned Monday range outing turned into a Tuesday range outing thanks to the winter storm that started off the week. In typical Virginia fashion, the day after we had snow, the temperature rose into the 50’s the next afternoon. Despite the sun outside, when I got to the indoor range folks leaving were complaining about the indoor temperature and their cold hands. (Suck it up, it’s not always going to be a sunny day.)

Last week I came across this 50-round drill from Julie Golob. It’s shot from low ready which works for the indoor range. In addition, shooting rapidly, but safely, is allowed here in a welcome switch from the outdoor range rules. I set up an IDPA practice target at 7 yards and ran the drill strings. Overall it was a good run; I think I’ll store that one away to run again.

Finishing the 50-round exercise, I put the target at 10 yards. I ran through most of my second box of ammo putting one or two hits to the body, followed by one to the head zone, each string from low ready. The purpose was simply to work on that quick transition between the two zones. The lesson learned here was that I tended to shoot low on the followup head shots. I’ll do that drill more in the future as well.

More quickly than I would have liked I had used up my ammo; shooting these drills takes very little time. Knowing how much I enjoy shooting, and how quickly shooting indoors burns ammo, I purposefully put only two boxes of ammo in my bag when I packed the night before. I know that if I bring it I’ll shoot it, so that’s my attempt at self-discipline. (It is Lent after all.) The short and fun range session set me up to handle the rest of the afternoon behind a computer screen.

The Blue & Gray brewpub reopened this weekend after some renovation and under new ownership. The brewery is under transformation into a new home for Adventure Brewing. The new owners are still getting things in place at the new location, but e…

Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice, dies at 79If obama gets to pick a third justice, the next sound we hear will be the sound from the shredding of the Constitution.Requiescat in pace Justice Scalia.”Justice Antonin Scalia was a man of God, a patrio…