I haven’t been shooting much as of late, so sorry for the lack of new pictures. I’ve been busy living briefly in NYC…selling most of my belongings, hanging with family, making a book, printing promos and meeting with some wonderful people in the indu…

“The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer”–Ancient Egyptian Wisdom

Near the town of Rochefort, there is a brewery inside the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy that has been brewing beer since 1595. The 15 resident monks are extraordinarily secretive about their brewing techniques. The brewery is not open to the public, and therefore knowledge about the establishment is very limited.

There are three beers produced at Rochefort, each from the same recipe with the difference being the alcoholic content. The water used for the brews is drawn from a well inside the walls of the monastery. The beers can be cellared for 5 or more years while maintaining excellent quality.

In congruence with all other trappist breweries, the beer is sold only for good causes and to financially support the monastery. There is a very limited availability of the brews, as the monks refuse to increase production based on profit motives or demand. Of the beers produced, the Rochefort 10 is the most difficult to find.

NOW IN STOCK – Rochefort 10 (blue cap, dark beer, 11.3% ABV). Indulge yourself in the rustic, reddish-brown color, with a very compact head and the aroma of figs. Smooth and supple, the brew feels like honey in the mouth. Rich and warming, this beer was meant to be sipped and savored.

Available today at both William Street and Plank Road locations…but don’t linger! It will sell out very quickly…

Here’s an interesting article in the New York Times about eating better and why it’s not synonymous with eating more organic food. The central point seems to be that if you want to eat healthier and also eat stuff that doesn’t mess up the environment, you’re much better off switching to more plant-based foods than eating everything organic. And it hasn’t been proven that organic foods are more nutritious. I still like buying organic when I can, not necessarily because I think it’s healthier but sometimes the quality is better.

I also try to eat local when I can. That’s hard in the winter months, but I look forward to the farmer’s markets opening up again soon. I think eating local whenever possible is the biggest thing Americans can do to promote health and the environment.

I just got notice from the University that the back gate to the Sunken Road parking lot will be open on April 3rd for the inaguration ceremony of the new university president. We will probably be seeing an uptick in traffic there that afternoon.

I’ve been toying with Mahalo.com for the last few days, and specifically with the web site’s special feature: Mahalo Answers. It’s a very interesting concept. According to the Mahalo site, “Mahalo is a human-powered search engine that creates organized…

The College Terrace Association will have a meeting on Wednesday, April 1stat 7 PM. The topic will be general city business and our featured speaker isour ward city council representative, Mr George Solley. It should be a greatopportunity to get your…

St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow, and if you’ve been looking for some good Irish beer you may have found that all you can get are the usual suspects: Guinness, Harp, etc. These beers are pretty good, but if you’re looking for something special or different it is very difficult. That is because many Irish brands, especially the smaller ones, are not exported or not exported to the U.S. If you’ve ever been to Ireland you might have had the pleasure of having a fresh pint of Kilkenny Red Ale from one of those nitrogen taps that makes the creamy head. Good stuff. We can’t get you that, but we do have the next best thing. Moylan’s Irish Red Ale is domestically made but better than any imported, mass-produced red ale you can find. And since St. Patrick’s Day is really an American holiday anyway, there’s no shame in drinking American beer.

Also, don’t forget about the Fred Red ale from Blue & Gray. This beer is also very similar to Irish Red Ales, and it’s local and fresh.

Both beers available at both kybecca stores.

The March FABTS meeting is this Saturday, March 21st at Kybecca on Plank Road.  We are on our 3rd installment of Big Beers.  The January meeting focused on the Dark Big Beers.  Think Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot or North Coast Russian Im…

On Tuesday, 3/17, the University will be participating in a tornado drill.This is scheduled to start at 9:20 AM. In addition to the loudspeakers this time, you may also see EMS and Fire personnel rehearsing a simulated tornado strike on the campus.

Here’s a great article in the New York Times about California Pinot Noir. It explores one of the fundamental divides in wine preferences: people who prefer wine with food and those who prefer it on its own. Those who prefer wine with food tend to like fresh, lively (ie higher acid) wines with some earthy flavors, and those who prefer wine on its own prefer fuller, fruitier wines (I’m talking about red wines mainly). The author, and myself, are in the former camp. To me never having wine with food is missing out on half of what makes wine fun and interesting.

It’s telling, too, that the Pinot producers who opt for the big, fruity style have to “play chemist”, as one winemaker once put it to me. If you pick the grapes when they are super-ripe the acidity is lower and much of the water has dried out, so you later have to add tartaric acid and water to the wine to make it palatable. In my view, if you have to mess with the wine to make it good you’re not making it the right way.

Incidentally, if you like your wines big and fruity, you should opt for a California Zinfandel or a Syrah, which naturally are able to achieve that style better than Pinot.