Beer Review - Red Chair IPA

Deschutes Brewery - Red Chair IPA

Beer Type: American IPA

Appearance: 22 oz. brown bottle featuring an illustration of a red chair on the label. Shocking! tan/gold with blue and white lettering. Poured a sort of copper/amber color with a big off-white head that laced the glass quite nicely.

Smell: Wow! A lot of aroma here. Something herbal, something citrus, and something toasty. Smells quite good!

First Drink: Not as much initial flavor as the aroma would have you believe. The first thing I taste is some sour hops and sweet malt.

Mouthfeel: Easy on the carbonation, nice medium body with a smooth finish.

Last Drink: Something a bit earthy coming through along with what might be a mild berry flavor?

Drinkability: I really, really like this brewery and this beer is certainly one I will be drinking again in the future... if I have the chance!

Notes: There is a distinct lack of the bitter finish I would usually associate with an IPA present in this beer. It is replaced with a more upfront and lasting bitterness that makes this pretty easy to drink.

Verdict: 4.25 out of 5. A nice change of pace from the more hoppy IPA brews out there.

Links: Beer Advocate and Deschutes Brewery.

Happy t-day!

 

I'm thankful to have made it through a really hectic few months of work. I'm thankful for a fun group of gamers to play both Blood Bowl and WHFB with in my town. I'm thankful for having the funds and time to paint tiny little miniatures and relax. And most of all I am thankful to all of you for reading my inane ramblings.

Have a great holiday and if you're in the mood to do some shopping tomorrow you might want to check out this list of deals courtesy of The Hopeless Gamer.

Progress Report 11/22/10 - Quick little WIP pic.

I survived the first of three turkey days and I managed to slap together a couple Orcs to boot! Only two more days and 14 or so more models to go...

Black Orc Blocker on the left with your average run of the mill Lineman on the right. Pretty happy with the options on both of these sets and I look forward to playing around with them more to make a couple Throwers and some Blitzers.

Sunday, sunday, sunday!

Stopped by the local game store today to see what the WHFB Sunday folks were getting up to and discovered a slew of new armies and generals playing the game! There must have been 14 people in the store playing Fantasy when just a month or two ago there was only a handful (4 or 5 of us at the most). This is most exciting!

I didn't manage to get in any games as everyone was finishing games in the store's first escalation league (which I wasn't able to participate in due to work and life restrictions) but I did meet some new folks and learned a few things about 8th ed as well. 

For instance... did you know?

• Units fleeing in subsequent turns no longer flee towards the nearest table edge - they continue moving forward until they run into something or run off the board.

This one was new for me... just one example of how I really need to play more 8th ed especially if I am going to attend any tournaments or events in the coming months. 

In the meantime I picked up a couple boxes of models for my next Blood Bowl project:

I'm not crazy about the standard BB Orcs so I will be making my own out of these boxes of 40k Ork Boys and WHFB Black Orcs. For what team you ask? Why for the Trailer Orc Boyz of course!!

This week is going to be really hectic with lots of work and long long days. I hope to get some WIP shots of the Orcs up as well as some pictures of my (mostly) painted Nurgland Germs. Until next time...

Tavern Talk - Rituals

As you may (or more likely may not) know I am a contributor to the Trading Post... or I will be once  I add something to the site. And to make things worse I haven't managed to contribute to any of the "Tavern Talk" articles that have been posted there to date.

Lucky for me a new question just come up! 

Kuffy asks:

"As we all know gamers are creatures of habit.  This extends into the realms of our gaming, whether it be how we treat our dice to how we prepare for a game.  Some place their dice with the 'six' up to "inspire" good luck, while others will not roll the same dice twice in a row.  Some gamers have mascots for their armies - either a specific model or even a cuddly toy.  So the question posed is; what are your gaming rituals?"

Rituals are something I try to avoid in my day to day life. I already have OCD tendencies and I find myself getting stuck in "my ways" very easily when I encourage such things. Having said that... gaming has always been one area of my life where I have allowed myself some small obsessive pleasures, most of which relate to dice:

• Switching out my dice:  I like to have multiple dice available (the same type and design is best) to switch out as needed - typically when a particular dice is "misbehaving" and rolling too low or too high too often.
  
  
• Changing die facings:  This one is very closely related to my first ritual but usually comes before I switch to a different die. When placing my dice on the table I like to turn them so the 1 is not face up and the 6 is showing. Sometimes I will just turn it so the 1 is not facing up and call it a day.
   
• Replacing dice:  If I was honest with myself (and had the disposable income) I would probably buy a new set of D6s every few months or so. As it is now I tend to just rotate through the several sets of different colored dice I have (although I do really want a set of Game Science D6 dice).
   
• Using themed dice: I like the colors of my dice to reflect some attribute of the models I am using or the game setting. I don't like goofy symbols so it has to be the color of the dice or the pips that get this across.
  
  
• Only one color at a time:  The dice I am using have to be the same color unless I have no choice at all. When I played more tabletop RPGs I spent many hours getting together new sets of dice that all matched - D6, D8, D10, D12, D20.

That's probably enough... I don't want to get too carried away detailing my own descent into gaming OCD madness and I think you get the picture. How about you? Are there any particular gaming rituals you preform before/after or during the games you play?

Beer Review - Full Sail Pale Ale

That's it!! I haven't been adding enough beer reviews to the site - mostly because I have a hard time finding "the right post" to include them on. Not anymore! Starting now I will be putting them up as there own separate entries. I'll try to get a new one up each week but I there won't be any hobby information with them. This week we have a "classic" beer from an equally "classic" brewery...

Full Sail Brewing Company - Full Sail Pale Ale

Beer Type: American Pale Ale

Appearance: 12 oz. brown bottle with the tell tale Full Sail label - tan/gold with blue and white lettering. Light amber in color with a thick off-white head and some slight lacing.

Smell: Something grassy and green with some sweetness to it. Can't really smell much hops.

First Drink: Really sweet but not in a cloying way. Initial sweetness gives way to a bit of malt and some banana/citrus flavors.

Mouthfeel: Not as smooth as I normally like, a bit of carbonation gives this a bite.

Last Drink: A little more of the hops comes through at the end and as the beer warms but not nearly as much as I would expect from a Pale Ale.

Drinkability: Easy to drink but not a lot going on here.

Notes: This beer has a pretty loyal following but I doubt I will be going back to this one when I want a pale. Reminds me a bit of the Alaskan Pale Ale I had last year but I liked that one a little more.

Verdict: 3.25 out of 5. Not bad but not outrageously good either. A good pale for those who are afraid of hops perhaps?

Links: Beer Advocate and Full Sail Brewing Company.

Progress Report 11/11/10 - Changing weather.

Sunday's BRAWL was a bust for me and the Nurgland Germs. In classic tournament form I went straight from a win in my first game to a low scoring tie directly to a loss in the championship game on table one. Ended up 5th overall with a 1-1-1 showing. On the plus side I did get a shot of my partially painted models on the BB pitch!

Beast of Nurgle and his babysitting Rotter buddy. 

First match was against a bash heavy Orc team coached by Rusty - the majority of which had Block and Mighty Blow. I managed to sneak in with a TD to win the game and avoided any long lasting casualties. This game was my one and only win for the day. 

Second match was against my up and coming arch-nemesis Thom and his team the Maynooth Gits (the Underworld team that beat my Ogres in the KUBBLII playoffs). It was a hard fought game on both sides, and a lucky turn 8 score from Thom kept the Germs from taking the win.

That put the Germs in a tie for overall points for the day and having to face down coach Beaux and his dirty Cantina Killers - a Chaos Dwarf killing machine. The game strarted off uphill and stayed that way the whole time. The Germs didn't manage to do anything at all. It was a classic case of two teams so unevenly matched the only way the lower value team can win is great luck or star players. I don't have great luck, nor good luck, and star players were not allowed... so a loss was had by all (my players).

The good news is the Germs have skilled up enough to be a pretty decent starting team for KUBBL III which starts next month. All the Nurgle Warriors have Block and two of the Pestigors have Wrestle which makes them excellent in a safety capacity. We'll see what happens...

In the meantime I am still trying to get the team all painted and ready to go. I've been slowed down by work and a puppy but I did manage to apply some water effects to their swampy bases.

This is the first time I have ever used water effects on a miniature and overall I am quite happy with the results. Once I finish adding some small details I will seal the model and get some photos of the finished results. Until then...

Progress Report 11/6/10 - Preparing for a BRAWL.

Due to circumstances beyond my control I no longer have access to quality image editing software. In the meantime I am trying to make due with GiMP... the results have been less than spectacular. 

 

The colors aren't perfect but they are as close as I could manage with my current experience using this program. I've added a few highlights since this picture was taken but overall I consider him pretty much done. Going to be taking him and the rest of the Germs to a small one day "tournament" style event against other KUBBL teams (called the BRAWL). Should prove interesting!