Satchboogie3

This Saturday marked the day when Belgium finally started to open back up - Bars/Restaurants for outdoor seating, theme parks, etc. I met up with a friend in Brussels to his favorite bar Dynamo and one of my favorite bars - Moeder Lambic. It started a little rainy, but ended up being a great day to finally enjoy beer in terraces! Moeder lambic original in Saint-Gilles Brussels. First draft Cantillon Kriek I've had in brussels in almost two years! Can't go to Moeder lambic without getting a vintage bottle of Cantillon. Cantillon Gueuze with 7+ years is always beautiful. Alright, on to Walibi! Sunday morning I hopped on the train down to my new home park From where I'm living in Leuven, it's a whopping 20 minute ride! After processing my season pass, I headed straight to the back of the park to Kondaa. It was a bit cloudy early, with a little rain in the afternoon, but the sun came out for bits later. Entrance plaza. They did a pretty good job with the theming. It's no Taron, but it's more than good enough. The coaster definitely 'pops' visually. The outer banked turn delivers. I have only ridden a few RMC, but the airtime I would associate with this kind of element is more lateral airtime (with respect to seat position), where as this turn, the airtime is still perpendicular to the seat, while going through the banked turn. And it's straight ejector air the entire turn. It's killer. Of course the first drop reminded me a lot of Expedition GeForce, however I think this is slightly more forceful, especially in the back, as the train hauls up the lift hill. The first airtime hill is classic Intamin, a good 3-4 seconds of sustained ejector air. This hill did have a decent pop of airtime These final three mini-hops left me wanting more. They definitely delivered floater airtime. I just would rather one or two classic ejector bunny hops. Theming was plentiful. The station was pretty intricate with a lot of stuff hanging from the ceilings and there was intense tribal drum music being played. It was a good atmosphere. My Thoughts: I still don't completely have my head wrapped around the non-inverting cobra roll, I feel like it acts a bit differently depending on where in the train you are. The transitions are really smooth and I think there's a little floater airtime as you hit the peaks. Interesting element, but I'm not sure I'm completely sold, however it definitely is better than a regular cobra roll, and I'm probably just nitpicking.The following turns and airtime hills are really really good. In general, all the valleys and turns pull pretty strong positive g's. I was slightly underwhelmed by the finish. Basically from the double-down kinda of thing until the break run, there are all these quick little elements. The train is still flying through here, however none of the transitions are as sharp and forceful as Taron, nor is there really any ejector air from here out, it's mostly floater air. It could also just be it still isn't running as fast as it will once the weather warms up, I imagine just a slight increase could dramatically increase the airtime. I guess my issue is I prefer the 'basic' ejector bunny hops you get on Expedition Geforce to the quick-punch elements in general. Kondaa absolutely blows Taron out of the water though. The claim was also '15 moments of airtime', which I guess isn't inaccurate. However, I'd count it closer to 11 or 12 moments, but that's in my 'ejector air fanboy' opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. There were a few moments I thought might be a tiny bit of floater air, but like hall of fame voting, if I have to think and don't immediately go 'Holy Sh*t! Airtime', I don't consider it airtime . I got maybe 7 or 8 rides in, a few in the back, middle, and 2 in the 2nd row. Hard to say yet if I prefer front or back, the first drop is insane on the back, but I think maybe the finale is better in the front. I was also really REALLY impressed with just how good the middle-of-the-train rides are. My first ride I got stuck like dead center and was pleasantly surprised that the thing was still really intense, that usually isn't my experience. All in all, I think it challenges Expedition GeForce as my favorite steel coaster (and maybe overall). GeForce was my favorite coaster in Europe I'll need to wait to get to ride Untamed (hopefully) later this summer, but I think Kondaa makes a very strong case. And GeForce is a hard one to unseat as it's exactly my ideal kind of coaster and I finally got to ride it two years ago, after almost a 2 decade wait, so it isn't entire objective. I think I'll just need to make another trip out to Holiday Park to compare again. But then we do have the issue of reliability with Intamin.... I spent about half the day at Kondaa and the ride went down 3 separate times, each time requiring evacing a train from the brake run and walking up the lift (manual override?). It appeared there was a sensor issue that was causing the train to sometimes stop before clearing the first break run (at least I think). I get it's opening weekend of a new ride, but 3 times is a bit much... I thought ops did a pretty solid job. Two trains with very little stacking. More often than not, the train was heading up the lift as soon as the other hit the break run. There is also a single rider line, however they had it closed today. After a few hours at Kondaa, I headed to checkout the rest of the park and get the 'credits' Next up was Tiki-Waka, just on the other side of Kondaa. Kinda fun Gerstlauer, but nothing too exciting. Theming in the section was alright. Definitely a 'premium' Six Flags kinda vibe, without the stupid marvel branding and adverts. Then I headed to Calamity Mine, which was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable mine train. Again, not at the level of the mine train at Phatasialand, but still pretty good theming. You actually can get a little wet here! Don't think I've seen this on a mine train before. Great view of Kondaa's non-inverting Cobra roll from the station and viewing platform above. Then it was time to actually get wet on Pulsar! (I didn't actually get very wet, I got the lucky seat ) This was my first water coaster like this, I found the launch and forward/backward idea pretty cool and unique, though I probably would prefer a more traditional style with more theming. The next three credits were all about getting them over with and surviving . Vekoma woodie, SLC, and boomerang. Worst trio ever? I don't think there are any real good ways to get photos of Loop-Garou. I must say, I was actually a bit pleasantly surprised by Loup-Garou. I was expecting a suffer fest with a boring layout, but it actually ended up being not 'that' rough (of course it had it's Vekoma moments...) and the layout was much more interesting. I would actually ride this again, something I usually wouldn't ever say about a Vekoma woodie. That said, this would be a perfect RMC project.... .... .... Next is arguably my least favorite roller coaster of all time - the dreaded SLC! Vampire at least had some theming and very nice gardening and flowers, it looked way better than the typical parking-lot theming SLCs get. As I was approaching, I was praying it had the vest style harnesses.... nope, the old sh*tty restraints. Oh well. I found the first half actually not too rough, the second half was typical jerky though. Needless to say, I have no desire to ride this again. Last of the crappy credit trio Cobra. Another problem with boomerangs, they almost always have similar crappy theming. I forgot to take any photos of Psyké Underground, but I thought the theming was OK. I hadn't ridden a Schwarzkopf shuttle looper in maybe over 2 decades and I think this was the first with any real theming. I look forward to venturing down to Walibi on a semi-regular basis and see how Kondaa continues to grow on me. Not having ridden a decent coaster in over two years prior to yesterday makes it hard to judge Kondaa without recent reference points. I would say the rest of the park isn't really trip worthy, but Kondaa alone lives up to the hype and make Walibi Belgium a must visit.

I haven't ridden Untamed yet, but I'd easily put this above Wildfire. It's challenging Expedition GeForce for my top spot.

I've gotten in 2 rides so far today on Kondaa and can confirm that Intamin nailed it! I'll post a full report on my first visit to Walibi later

I think I lucked out on the crowds (it was a Wednesday) and the app really helped pick lines when they were short. I pretty much power-walked everywhere and if I wasn't on a ride, I was in a line. That said, if I had 2 days, I would have taken at least an hour out of the day for food/snacks/beer, but I was on a mission to get to Switzerland!!! I shouldn't go overboard about Silver Star, it's still not an Intamin Mega , but it was far better than what I was expecting and really enjoyable. I'm definitely being harsh on Wodan. It was pretty out-of-control fun, I just am obsessed with airtime. As for Kronasar, as mentioned above, I loved it, but Colosseo was really impressive to. If you have already stayed in Colosseo, definitely book the Kronasar. If you haven't, flip a coin or go with the cheaper option. You can't go wrong either way. Wodan was wild, I shouldn't say it wasn't intense. It's just the lack of air is all. Yes, Expedition GeForce is out of this world.

It's definitely a trade off. As you mentioned, it's not inconvenient as the shuttles run often and until midnight and it's only a few minutes down the road. But you don't have quite the same immersion as the other hotels being next to each other/the park. That said, the fake harbor is REALLY nice at night and I'm sure it will only improve as the water park is finished. But if I did it again, I might opt for the Colosseo hotel. (The Bellrock was really cool, but being from New England... ) So I guess my feedback would be: if you like the Scandinavian vibe/food, stay there. Personally it was the cheapest of the hotels when I booked and having stayed there, I made the right choice I think.

I found Switzerland to be about on par with Scandinavia when it comes to pricing. Hostels were pretty cheap, hotels looked reasonable, and the food reasonable considering these places are pretty touristy now. What got me was all the transportation prices: 3 day travel pass + all the add on's for different trams/gondolas added up really fast. I definitely think you can do a hiking trip in Switzerland without spending too much money if you plan it right.

To be fair, I did at least have dinner, drinks, and breakfast at the park hotels. Plus I pretty much spent the prior week and a half eating and drinking the best of Belgium/France. And knowing Id probably eat my body weight in alpkase the following days (maybe a slight exaggeration), skipping park food was probably for the best. Next time I'll definitely try some of it though!

I haven't been much of the coaster/theme park enthusiast the last decade, with the exception of last summer visiting a few parks that fit my Eurotrip (Grona Lund, Kolmarden, Liseberg, and Tivoli Copenhagen). Literally 3 weeks before I was to leave on this summers Eurotrip, found myself back looking at coasters when it dawned on me: A whole bunch of awesome parks are within driving distance. My original desire was to squeeze in 5 parks: Walibi Holland, Toverland, Phantasialand, Holiday Park, and Europa Park. I realized once I landed in Brussels that there was no way I was going to fit in 5 so I cut out Toverland in favor of hanging with friends in Brussels instead. It was going to be over a week until the theme park blitz, beer and lambic in belgium, North coast of France, and a few beer festivals between Gent and Oostvleteren. My number one mission on the trip though, to finally get to the alps, specifically in Switzerland. As my theme park part of the trip neared, the weather window for the following days in Switzerland looked worse and worse. I decided then to cut out Walibi and move up my Switzerland trip a day, so now 3 parks into 2 days! Doing this side-trip solo, I figured I could get pretty crazy. Day 1: Phantasialand. Tuesday July 9th I arrived at the park around 9:30 and after a lengthy line to get a ticket, I was in the park right at 10:00. Taron was running empty trains with a huge growing line, so I got a quick ride on Raik (single rider line was a walk on). Interesting family coaster which I had no idea was a 'boomerang' style!! After that I head for Black Mamba. After getting turned around a number of times I made it to the ride. Lines were already a bit longer than I anticipated, but I managed to get a front row ride in before 10:30am. Black Mamba was as good as I had anticipated. I had always wanted to ride this as a kid, as I'm a fan of good B&M inverts and the theming was just amazing. Not the most forceful ride ever, but still really fun. I made my back over to Taron and at this time it was running with people. The line had died down (60 minutes was the noted wait, though it was more like 45). I got in a front row ride which impressed me quite a bit! A really good mix of elements, though of course I could use more airtime, bust still really awesome. I noticed that they were occasionally letting in single riders, so I jumped over into that line, which may have been a mistake! I'm pretty sure I waiting even longer in the single rider line for another ride. Oh well, can't win them all. With Taron out of the way, I headed over to Colorado Adventure. To my luck the line, which was immense at open, had died down to maybe a 20 minute way. I was really impressed by the scale of the ride (3 lift hills!) and the interaction with the log flume. It might just be my new favorite mine train!!! Next up was Chiapas - ADIE Wasserbahn. This was hands down the best flume I've ever ridden. Very unique, long, the theming was unreal. Not the most intense or biggest, but definitely the most fun! I ended up leaving the park around 2:30pm. I definitely wish I had a full day to enjoy the park as there were a number of things I skipped and I definitely was in 'rush' mode. That said, 4+ hours was better than skipping the park! I was real impressed by the theming, the use of building down instead of up, and really awesome and fast ride ops. The autobahn drive down to Holiday World was pretty exhilarating. It was my first time driving on the autobahn and I went for broke renting a brand new Audi A5. Limits were tested, new top-speeds achieved My completely unreasonable ride for the week I got to Holiday Park about 3:45pm and was on my way to Expedition Gforce by 4pm. My mission was simple: get in as many quality rides on Gforce as humanly possible before 6pm. No other rides, no food, no breaks. As an intamin airtime junky, EG had been near the very top of my bucklist coasters for well over a decade. There were very few people in the station and I managed to get in 15 rides over the coarse of the 2 hours. A few front, a few middle, and whole lot in/near the back. My personal favorite is back left. Insane first drop, unbelievable airtime, great layout. The onride POVs absolutely do not do this ride justice. Easily catapulted in my top 3 coasters. Just amazing! I went in with extremely high expectations and it still blew me away!!! I have zero regrets about skipping Sky Scream. I already know I"m not a fan of those kind of coasters and considering I may never end up getting back to Holiday Park, I had to get every drop of EG I could get!!! First glimpse!!!! Goosebumps! Airtime bunny hop!! More Best drop ever???? Seriously, straight up airtime machine I then boogied down to Rust and spent the night outside the park in town. I had dinner at Gasthaus zum Oschen. The food and local beer was fantastic and the locals were so nice! The place was absolutely packed, so a local couple who were waiting for a table ahead of me insisted I join them for dinner. Seriously good Pork Schnitzel. Known for their meat (opened years ago a butcher shop), steaks delivered and plated table side. Also the local Pilsner is REALLY good. Day 2: Europa Park. Wednesday July 10th I got up early to make my way over to hotel Kronasar, where I would be staying for the night, got checked in, and then headed into the park. I missed 8:00am shuttle though, so I ended up taking the 8:30am and getting into the park about 8:40am. BlueFire was one of two rides with the early open for hotel patrons, so I headed first there. I waited for the front on the first ride and managed to get it in just before 9am. I decided to hop back on using the single-rider line, which yet again, turned out to be a longer wait than anticipated. BlueFire was a lot of fun, though I think I slightly preferred Taron. At this point, Wodan, which was running empty trains initially, was supporting riders, so I made the short walk over. Again I employed the single-rider line. Yet again, I also think I may have waited longer than the regular line. My first ride was in the 3rd row and left me completely disappointed. While the speed, pacing, and moderate rumble (I like a wooden coaster that has some shake, but not jackhamering pain) were awesome, I was really disappointed by the complete lack of airtime. The POVs made it seem like there would be a lot of little pops, but they were non-existent for me. To make a long TR short, I used the app with wait-times to try to optimize line-waiting and distance between rides. I loved the app!!! Displayed times varied from on point to longer than reality. For instance, my wait time for Silver Star was usually 10-15 minutes where as the displayed times where usually 20-30 minutes. I ended up spending just 1 day in the park: ~8:45am to 7:40pm and fit everything in that I wanted. Granted, I didn't stop to eat or dilly dally (Got some water here and there of course), so it was a 'long' day, but I sometimes enjoy the hustling. All in all I got in all the coasters except the kiddie coasters and Pegasus. I was originally in line for Pegasus, but it broke down and I decided to bail. I would have gone back if the wait dropped below 20 minutes, but it didn't, so I skipped it. I did manage a number of re-rides to (6 total on Silver Star, 4 Blue Fire, 2 Wodan). Volatarium was pretty fun and worth doing, probably the best of that type of ride I've done. First ride of the day. Solid fun! Wodan does look impressive! I wasn't sure what to expect from Euro Mir, but boy was it awesome!!! Unique, quirky, unexpected, great music, interesting theming, surprisingly finish. What more could you want!!! The Mir replica is definitely worth taking a few minutes to walk through and explore. Most photogenic park in the world? I just couldn't believe how beautiful the park was. Station of Poseidon. Just when I thought the theming couldn't get any more impressive... it did! My favorite ride at the park. Not the best themed by any stretch, but I really love the airtime, layout, and overall ride. Layout. I like it. Could be longer, but still great. Mercedes World theme was pretty cool though Station theming was unbelievable (barn animals/etc) and I had no idea how cool the lift was!!!! The rest of the ride was a meh, but completely worth it for the station/lift alone! Switzerland was a very small, tight section, but very cool theming nonetheless! Great views from atop the Euro Tower Arthur. Probably the single greatest themed coaster/ride ever. I thought it looked pretty cool from the outside... But walking into to the building... mind blown. Just unreal. I'm not sure which section I like better, this Atlantis Supersplash area or the Poseidon section. Both are just gorgeous. Back to BlueFire!!! 12-player foosball table!!!! First time seeing this in person. I'd love to setup a match!!! My impressions of the park: The ride ops are the most insane I've ever seen. This park should definitely be the model for fast, efficient, and professional operations. Arthur was unreal with how quick they were! And the theming! It's been a long time since I was at Disney World, but the theming here is the best I remember ever experiencing. Complete immersion throughout the park. Very clean to. My favorite ride at the park was definitely Silver Star. I'm an airtime junky so it's no surprise, but as someone who usually pokes fun at B&M hyper 'floater air' and prefers Intamin, I was really impressed. I managed 6 total rides, all in the last row! Blue Fire was probably my 2nd favorite, followed by Euro Mir (sooooo fun and unique!). Wodan was definitely a huge disappointment, though that isn't to say it isn't good, just my priorities for wooden coasters is like 95% airtime, 5% everything else. OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration (The Beast is still an alltime favorite of mine), but the point remains. I did only get 2 rides on it, but with 1 in the back towards the end of the day, I feel like it was optimal for best ride conditions. The hotels there were also stunning. After the park closed I grabbed dinner at Sala Santa Isabel, which was pretty good, though not outstanding. I then wandered around the other hotels in the area. The Colosseo was absolutely stunning. Hotel Bell Rock was surreal! Being from MA and living in NH (and a frequenter to ME), it was unbelievable the detail (like seagull noises over the fake harbor). I had nice surprise exclusive bourbon at the Spirit of St. Louis bar there before making my way back to the Kronasar. Hotel Colosseo Lobby This would get my vote as the coolest hotel patio ever. Hotel Bell Rock Did I just teleport back to NE... what the... More impressive than the team this year.... Pretty solid Oak-stave selection and a neat surprise My hotel for the night, the new Kronasar. Impressive at night. Yeah, nothing impressive with that. Nothing at all... From the 2nd to top floor (couldn't figure out how to get to the top, it was a bit confusing with the elevators/stairs). Coolest balcony/lobby ever? Pretty cool and colorful at night. I just wish they didn't turn off the 'wave machine' after close, as the water splashing would have been real nice to fall asleep to with my window open. Really does look a lot like Denmark!!!! Just massive! Europa Park was pretty magical, even with being solo on the day. I would absolutely love to go back and spend a few days with friends there. So if doing these parks during the week, it's totally possible to cram them in and still enjoy it. I'd 100% go back to all 3 parks. In fact, I'm going to try to convince my friends from Brussels to make a trip out to Phantasialand with me sometime, maybe Europa park, though that would be a more difficult sell considering the distance!!!! Expedition GeForce was without a doubt the best coaster on the trip, and a top 3 overall, but considering there isn't much else at the park and it's kinda a pain to get to, I doubt I'll get there again. Switzerland is pretty awesome to 2 days at Europa would have been great, but zero regrets... Lauterbrunnen, my first two nights in the Jungfrau region of Berner Oberlin. Like a painting My reason for skipping day 2 of Europa, trying to beat the clouds moving into the region. Jungfraujoch. Bachalpsee lake. Not as spectacular as with a clear sky, but still pretty stunning Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau Lauterbrunnen valley from Lauberhorn Brienzersee Views from Schilthorn

That's too bad to hear that the day didn't go as well as planned. I can understand the single-rider frustration. I'm used to US parks where the single rider lines move quickly, however I think the reason they don't at Europa Park (same goes for Phantasialand) is the fact that a lot of the rides you are assigned seating and the crew is very good at filling empty seats that way. It's definitely more of a crap-shoot, especially on 2-per row rides.

There was definitely some rattle on Silver Star, but that doesn't phase me. The airtime was pretty good, and that was after riding Expedition Gforce a whole bunch the day before, so the bar was high, lol. I dont mean to rip Bluefire, it is quite fun and really good, just wonder why so many look past Silver Star. Then again I'm all about the airtime and blackout G-forces.

Thanks! I got a Kronen Pils (never had it before), it's ok. Best beer is probably outside the park at Gasthaus zum oschen. Their local pils is fantastic as is their local German/Austrian food. Ok,can we now talk about Wodan and Silver Star... How is Wodan so highly rated? I rode it in the morning near the front and last row in the evening. There's no airtime... not figuratively, it literally has zero airtime... sure, its fast. Great... Now about Silver Star. This IMO is easily the best coaster in the park. I got 6 rides in the last row. Loaded with airtime (even not bad for B&M airtime), forceful throughout. Might be my new favorite B&M hyper. I get Bluefire has a launch and is new and Euromir is unique and fun, but how those get into top 50 steel rankings and not Silver Star baffles me. The park ops was as spectacular as I've heard.

Anyone have any tips on where to get the best beer/whiskey/etc in park/restaurants? I'm staying one night in the park

I'm glad you are enjoying your trip!!! I'm going to be in Europe in July and I'm thinking of doing the Europa-Holiday Park-Phantasialand-Toverland-Walibi (with maybe an added German park or 2). One question I have... do the parks really close so early? (websites all mention 6pm during the week, even sometimes weekend). Last summer I went to Grona Lund, Liseberg, Tivoli Gardens, etc and they were all open really late. I know Europa park is pretty huge... but if I just want to hit the show-case coasters and skip everything else, is Europa and Holiday World doable in a single day (early/mid week)?

Has anyone had issues getting an error when trying to buy tickets online? Im trying to get an allinone pass for Friday May 5th and it keeps giving me an error. They cant be sold out, can they?

Canned Heady Topper. Holy jumping Jesus on crutches. The only DIPA that even COMPETES with Heady Topper is Hill Farmstead DIPAs (Galaxy and Abner). Sorry Pliny, but even you, at the 3-week peak, can't compete. Unbelievable beer. The hops just don't ever fade. I mean, ever. This isn't a "soft, light citrus hops that fade, but is clean and drinkable" this is a "soft, but intense citrus hops with perfect depth and balance that last forever and ever, that's also as clean and drinkable as it gets.". I'm practically speechless. I should have expected this from the Alchemist, but it just continues to blow my mind. For an 8% beer, it drinks easier than most 4% session beers. Yeah, it's unfair and quite frankly, dangerous! That it's, I'm moving to VT.

It did end up being the Black Butte XXI. I was expecting it to be the better of the two, but I actually preferred the XXIII. The orange added a nice dimension (though not too obvious) and it had a much more full/rounded flavor. The XI was probably awesome when released, but the coffee completely faded and it had a old/stale light coffee finish and just a bit of an 'old' taste. Still was pretty darned good. I'm getting pretty darned excited for trades right now, got a bunch of great stuff lineup, mainly DIPAs. I might have to throw a big DIPA tasting, not sure I can drink it all myself before it's no longer fresh.

It was good, but I kept expecting James Franco to come home stoned to Lithgow bludgeoning a father... Oh how different roles can haunt an actor. I can't wait for The Thing Prequel.

Yeah, I forgot about the 22. I guess he just meant black butte XXI. Don't worry, I'm certainly going to hook people up with Heady topper. I plan on getting a case the weekend it's released, and probably half of it will be traded. I'm sure I'll get more down the road as well. I actually haven't had it yet myself, so I'm wicked excited too. I've been on a crazy IPA kick, Soon all I'll need is PtY, Hopslam, and Dreadnaught and I can die a happy hophead. Send me a BM if you are interested in trading for some heady Topper in the next few months.

Tried some test-run Sam Adams beers earlier (oak aged old ale, maple pecan porter). Right now I'm drinking a 21st Amendment Hop Crisis DIPA. Just completed an order for a bottle of Kern River Double Citra (Yeah baby!) as wells as their Just Outstanding DIPA, Pliny, and some Hair of the Dog beers. Next up this weekend will be a little tasting, probably a 2-year vert of Black Butte (22,23) and perhaps a Dark Lord and stuff. And Heady Topper cans are just around the corner. It's getting crazy!

Chick Corea's Return to Forever. Really great show.

Got my box with Westy 12 and De Struise goodies today! And some Hill Farmstead Goodies for me and trades, Double Galaxy is perhaps the best DIPA I've ever had, which is exactly what I said about Abner before Shaun brewed this lasts DIPA. The guy's stuff is just ridiculous.

I watched Green Lantern: It was decent, but I thought the film climaxed way too soon. The villain was a bit lame I thought. I also recently saw Scream 4: Wow. Nothing against those who like the style of Scream films, but it was one of the worst and least enjoyable movies I've seen in a long long time. I couldn't tell if the bad acting was intentional or not (thinking intentional), but if it was, it wasn't in the least bit funny, it was rather obnoxious. The plot: nowhere. Scares? none. Creepy setting? So overdone and glamorized it had no effect. Comedy? Really comedy? no. So bad it's funny? Yeah!!! um... NO. Just a really frustrating, head scratching movie.

Bobby Mcferrin and Richard Bona duet: Music can go places nothing else can. Amazing.

Went back to Armsby Abbey the other day: Highlights were 2008 Avery Mephestopheles. Weighing in at 16%, it's a GIGANTIC beer with maybe the most intense, complex, darkfruit soaked-rum port wine finish awesomeness flavor profile I've had. They also had fresh Avery Maharaja on tap... EASILY the best DIPA I've had to date. It's on a whole 'nother level on tap. Also made a pretty good little mini-haul: Found 2 bottles of 2010 Stone IRS, 2001 JW Lees vintage harvest ale, 2005 JW Lees harvest ale aged in port barrels, Ballast Point Sea Monster Stout, Avery Czar, and Dieu De Ciel Corne de Diable. Also found a nice stash of Lost Abbey semi-rares I might start trying. I can't wait to try one of the Stone's IRS. I also picked up a 2008 750 of Rogue's Imperial Stout. Should be at it's peak.

I just had a CRAZY weekend of beer. The Armsby Abbey in Worcester MA (almost 2 hours from me) kicked off a Stoutfest this past Saturday. 22 constant taps with a total of over 35 different stouts available over the course the week. Saturday I got to try WAY too much goodness. Founders: Canadian Breakfast Stout, 2010 KBS (2009 on tap yesterday), Black Biscuit, Imperial Stout. NEBCO 2011 Imperial Stout Trooper, 2008 Port Santa's Little Helper, Haandybryggeriet Odin's Tripple, De Molen Heaven & Hell (yes, on tap!), Black Albert, Black Damnation II, III, IV, and Dieu Du Ciel Aphrdite. The standouts for me were Heaven & Hell, and the Black Albert/Damnation series. Founders Imperial stout and Black Biscuit were fantastic, the 2010 KBS I liked better than the 2011, and the CBS I was a bit disappointed with (prefer KBS). Imperial Stout Trooper seemed rather basic compared to the lineup, Santa's Little Helper was insanely harsh and unpleasant, Odin's Triple had a harsh astringent Finish. I'm seriously considering head back down later this week: Really want to try the '08 Mephistoopheles, De Molen Disputin, Bitches Brew, Peche Mortel, Dark Force, Black Hole, and maybe more. Just an insane lineup they have this week. Of course, it didn't end there. At the bar I met a beer manager from a store that was right on the way home and lucky (or unlucky for my wallet) for me, he had a ton of limiteds/rares sitting on shelves, including a huge selection of Belgians/imports. He wasn't lying. It was a gold mine. Passed on some hard stuff (Cantillion, some J.W. Lees Vintage Harvest Ale's dating back to the early 90s, etc). I'm thinking I need to pick up some 90's J.W. Lees the next time I go there. My haul: 1x Fade to Black 2 1x Firestone Walker Double Jack 1x Firestone Walker Reserve Porter 1x Allagash Odyssey 4-pack '09 Bourbon County Brand Stout 1x Port Mongo DIPA 1x Port OldER Viscosity 3x '08 Pannepot Reserva 2x Dieu De Ciel Peche Mortel 1x Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast 1x Uinta Crooked Line Labyrinth Black Ale 1x Maharaja I had the Mongo DIPA last night and was VERY impressed. While not actually balanced, to me it was the perfect "Pine IPA" balance where there was a balance of tropical fruit and pine with just enough malt and sweetness to keep the palate from completely shutting down. While I don't mind malt-bomb DIPAs, they can take away too much of the hop punch.