Midweek Mirth

Hehe, sounds about right, same for ghost and UFO sightings too..

Fanning the flames

I've been reading (with dismay) about the raging wildfires happening in the South West of France at the moment, very scary stuff, I shudder to think what might happen if the flames manage to get through to the outskirts of the densely populated suburbs of Bordeaux itself. I also shudder to think about the pristine chateaux and vineyards of the Medoc and Pessac, it would be a national disaster if they could not be saved, not to mention a wine lovers worst nightmare! 

I recall our holiday to Crete last year, one evening on our way back from town to our hotel we passed a raging wildfire going on about half a kilometer from our residence, I managed to snap a rather blurry photo of the fire from the roof of the building (see above) We were all relieved that the Greek fire service were on top form that evening and around 6 fire engines managed to extinguish the flames within an hour or so but it was still quite scary to watch whole olive trees be consumed by flames within a few seconds before jumping to the next tree etc.., such was the dry state of the brush surrounding our little enclave. Fortunately no buildings were destroyed in the fire and it seemed like no one was in too much danger once the firemen got control of things, I can only imagine what it must be like in Southern Europe at the moment, I wish them the best of luck and more pragmatically a little rain in the forecast?

Reverb

So this one (tried on Saturday) is from Elusive and is called "Reverb", it's a newer style pale WCIPA and is made with Amarillo, Talus and Krush hops, Krush being fairly new to the hop scene and providing tropical fruit and citrus aroma and flavour. I liked this beer, there's a lot going on, a little bit like drinking a bag of wine gums, very fruity but also with a decent bitter finish, particularly good with cheese (which by chance I was eating at the time!) - good effort!

For reference I downloaded the flavour wheel for Krush hops, as I previously mentioned, there's a lot going on with this one, particularly orange flavours complimented by Amarillo which also delivers orange and tangerine flavours, a citrus smorgasbord!

Oldskool WCIPA

 

Had one of these on Friday evening, it's a West Coast (WC) IPA collaboration from Indie Rabble (Windsor) and Siren (Finchampstead) both Berkshire brewers. Not your usual WCIPA, more a blast from the past, malt forward, bitter and what tasted like old skool C-Suite hops (Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Columbus etc.), not your usual citrusy pale westy, very nice for a change although it took a few sips to get back in the groove..

Reviewing Westys

My local brewers seem to have a thing for West Coast style beers at the moment, not that I'm complaining as I love it however I thought it reasonable to try out the current offerings (in the interests of science of course) and to see which one I liked best, individual reviews and summary to follow!

Friday Smirk

The lads discussing the inappropriateness of irony meters when it comes to religion. I can't say I disagree, I always smirked at the "big" claim of Christianity that Jesus died for our sins, but apparently only for the weekend.

Berlin Memories

Here's me looking thoughtful to the horizon at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin last year, it was a powerful (physical) monument but I have to be honest, like a lot of modern art, I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret it intellectually.