Beer Review - New Belgium/Brewery Vivant Biere de Garde Ale

New Belgium - Biere de Garde Ale

Beer Type: Biere de Garde

Appearance: Roosters all over this 22 oz printed bottle. Looking good. Beer poured a hazy golden/straw color with a nice creamy off-white head that laced as I drank.     

Smell: Some funky old socks or yeast mixed in with some citrus and grass aromas. A little bit of herbs or spice in the sniffer too?

First Drink: Bitter in a really pleasant way like eating strong citrus quickly followed by a very smooth (almost oily or buttery) malt and hops aftertaste.  

Mouthfeel: Crisp yet smooth? A very interesting sensation and not one I can easily pinpoint. A little sticky on the finish. 

Last Drink: Not getting much of the high 9% ABV but I feel darn good. More citrus and herbs (floral flavors?) coming through now. Quite nice.        

Drinkability: It would be a shame to drink this beer too fast yet I really want to slam it for some reason.         

Notes: The Lips of Faith series does it again! This time around we have another collaboration between two of my favorite breweries!? Fantastic!         

Verdict: 4.25 out of 5. Unique flavor, unique finish, and a one-time brew makes this one to remember. Go go Brewery Vivant!    

Links: Beer Advocate and New Belgium Brewing Co.        

Progress Report 3/25/13 - Stuck between a rock and a lobsterman's hard place.

What the heck!? March is almost over!? Where does the time go...

It has been a very busy few weeks here. Still finishing the new house buying process, still trying to get my Necromunda Goliath gang built up, still working on terrain, and now I have a new Lobsterman themed Halfling Blood Bowl team in the works?! All while trying to pack up all my stuff so I can move it to a new nerd cave? Oh yeah and I played in Headbanger's Ball III last weekend and took something like 5th with my Vampires. That was cool. 

On to the photos! First up we have some primed terrain that I want to paint. Added a couple more pieces since the last photos I posted.

Pretty happy with how they turned out. Can't remember who I stole the idea of staples as ladder rungs from but thanks for that! The super glue "rivets" are passable but not fantastic. Still some areas I could touch up but I am okay with the medium level of quality on these. 

Next up we have the miniature I am painting to add to the Big House! I figure a big dumb Ogre/Troll is just what the stands need with all those drunk Dwarfs hanging around.

Got this guy from Ramshackle Miniatures last year and have been wanting to paint him up for awhile. Didn't really have a reason to until now! Gotta figure out how to work in the Maize & Blue.

"But wait Randroid... you said something about a lobsterman's hard place!?" Why yes... yes I did. On a whim I picked up enough small Lobstermen from Tor to make a Halfling team for Blood Bowl. Got them in the mail and giddily ripped them open and started gluing them on bases.

The bigger Lobstermen are the "Treemen" of the team and they represent what the smaller fellows grow into (assuming they survive that long) later on. I have a special mini coming in the mail to represent Deeproot but I will save that for another day (it's a mini I have wanted a reason to paint since I first saw it). Got them all built and primed so I thought I would do a quick test model too...

Pretty happy with how this looks and it was super quick and easy to do. Might still add a bit of highlights to the back carapace but otherwise I think this is a go! Going to add some water to the bases later on but you can see my attempt at "faking it" with gloss varnish on this one. 

So that's what I have been up to! Oh... and also playing in a D&D 3.5 game too. I'll have some minis for that coming sometime soon. Tonight is the first game in the KUBBL 4 season and it's KRB against... ELVES. There will be blood, oh yes, there will be blood.

KUBBL 3 - Khorne R'backs Season 1 Finish.

Today was the day... the end of the third season of KUBBL. The Khorne R'backs played their last game of the season (to secure fifth place) against the Human powerhouse of the Red Cedar Riots. While the Humans were down an Ogre, and had a few less players due to their playoff games, the Riots beat KRB in the regular season and this time the forces of Chaos were out for blood!

Sadly they brought pillows instead of powerful claws. Though they managed to break armor many times in the first half of the game the KRB only did 1 KO and no casualties during the first half. A short rash of KO rolls came in early on in the second half but the one and only casualty for the KRB during the game was towards the end of the game by "new" player Bloodgutter the Minotaur. 

After scoring to secure a skill up for the Chaos Warrior Gutsqueeze Gnarloc, the KRB had to fight the Riots back in order not to tie. A last ditch effort on the part of the Riots almost allowed them the score but the final pass was inaccurate and scattered out of bounds leaving the KRB with the 2-1 win and only 1 casualty for the entire game. The KRB finish their first season in the league with a 5-1-3 record and a total of 24 casualties for the mighty KHORNE.

On to KUBBL 4... hopefully this time with more SKULLS and BLOOD. 

Beer Review - Three Floyds Blackheart IPA

 

Three Floyds Brewing Co. - Blackheart IPA

Beer Type: English India Pale Ale

Appearance: This is one bad ass bottle. I will let the photos tell that story. Bad ass. A slightly hazy golden straw color with a thick white head. This looks like a BEER.     

Smell: Banana and malt and some woody aromas. Not much in the ways of hops aroma but a lot of sweetness coming through.

First Drink: Bready malt and grassy hops at first. The finish is a bit sweeter and has a little of the banana/tropical fruit notes to it.  

Mouthfeel: The carbonation is very nice. Beer keeps on fizzing several minutes after the pour. It's pretty smooth considering that amount of carbonation.

Last Drink: The toasted wood/oak flavors are more pronounced now. Still getting a good amount of bread/biscuit flavors and now a bit of the high ABV.       

Drinkability: Not exactly what I expected but an interesting take on the classic English IPA style.        

Notes: First brew I have had from Three Floyds and I would like to try some more!       

Verdict: 4 out of 5. I'm glad the awesome label led me to having a pretty darn good beer.   

Links: Beer Advocate and Three Floyds Brewing Co.

Progress Report 3/11/13 - Necrowhat?

Busy! Still busy. Did I mention I am buying a house? Things are looking 99% likely at this time and we are hoping to hear something concrete this week. If everything goes as planned I will be moving at the end of this month!? What?! Gotta keep packing...

In the meantime I have decided to not paint anything too outlandish while I work on gathering my meager belongings and moving them all to a new space. The regular KUBBL lads are still interested in playing some Necromunda so things are moving (again) on that front. Been bit by the "terrain bug" a bit and having fun slapping some stuff together out of what I have laying around. The results so far..

A bunker of sorts.

The back side (and access ladder) of the bunker.

Slapped together bandit tower.

The other side of the tower with sludge pool.

A crater with debris and a crumbled wall section of sorts.

Pardon the dust on the top of my cabinet. Just moved some clutter off in an attempt to begin the "move" and didn't clean it off before photo time. The horror!!

Also spent some time getting together my Goliath gang. It's strictly out of the box type stuff so far. Thinking about adding a bit of detail stuff still. Gotta break out the green stuff. In the meantime...

Behold! The Skullkrushas!!

Gangers - Arak Jawcrusher, Nazagut Limbripper, and Ragreth Boneshaker

Gang Leader Sergat Leadbelly and Gang Heavy Bozutt Ironjaw

Juves - Yuzong the Baited and some guy we don't know yet...

Still have a handful of weapons I need to magnetize for options and some details to do on most of the bases, but I think they are coming along nicely. Looking forward to painting them! I think this will be the first "40k like" thing I have ever painted??

That's all for now. Dropped out of the running for the KUBBL 3 playoffs after losing to the league leader due to a dismal showing of dice disaster. Playing a consolation match against Elves again today. Is there a better consolation prize than the the opportunity to kill some Elves!? I think not.

Beer Review - Goose Island Night Stalker Imperial Stout.

Goose Island Beer Co. - Night Stalker Imperial Stout

Beer Type: American Double/Imperial Stout

Appearance: Big ol' black labeled bottle full of dark black beer. This beer poured a solid black. Very dark! Nice lace head that hangs around.    

Smell: No booze in the nose for this 11.7% brew, plenty of dark malt and a bit of piney hops come out.      

First Drink: Gonna sound odd but I get some Indian food flavor first? Dark complex spicy flavors? Again, no booze coming through which is great and a bit concerning.  

Mouthfeel: Smooth like silk and a bit warming (happy).

Last Drink: Coffee and cocoa comes out more now as well as some of the booze in a sort of bourbon way?       

Drinkability: This is a big beer with a lot going on. Good but you can't pound things like this. Sippy cups all the way.        

Notes: I believe this is an annual brew. My bottle was done 11/19/12 so it hadn't aged much but the time I had it in December.      

Verdict: 4.25 out of 5. Hits a lot of the right notes but there is something I can't describe which holds this back a little for me.  

Links: Beer Advocate and Goose Island Beer Co.