65skylark

^ I'm jealous! Last month you were running a marathon at WDW and this month your in SoCal. Nice to have a new poster in the beer thread though!

Matt's funny.

Glad you finally got your pictures up Eric, it was worth the wait. That was such a fun weekend. I always enjoy seeing everyone elses pictures on a trip that I was on to give a different perspective. Good times. So, Paul.................?

Cressida - The Low Miffs.

Awesome BTR Derek! I'm glad at least 4 of them made it to you safe and sound. I'm sure the beer will wash out of the shirt OK Getting caught up here. I'll start with another selection sent to me from Derek. Beer perfection yet again. A nice hazy amber orange color with a sweet malty taste. Citrus hops help balance everything out. Another 9 out of 10 on the Justin Beer Scale. And staying with Stone, last night I tried their '08 Old Guardian Barley Wine. Wow. Arragant Bastard = Great. Oaked Bastard = Even better! All the great hoppy IPA goodnes of the original with an added smooth wood flavor that makes this one great beer. 9 out of 10 on the "Justin Beer Scale". Now for some Stone Oaked Bastard. I have been a big fan of Arragant Bastard ever since my visit to Stone Brewing last year. We'll see how this compares. What can I say? Just one really great IPA as most of you already know. Scores an 8.5 out of 10 on the "Justin Beer Scale". Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA.

So we had to make a quick detour to the tire shop and then it was off to the pub. I'm going to explode. Kill me now! And with that, we hit the road again. It was a great little day trip and we all had a lot of fun. I will let Derek post the first "official" Abyss review, since he has had many more beers to compare it to than me. I will say this, it lived up to the hype for me and is certainly my new number one beer. Thanks for reading! Our server was kind enough to surprise me with some more Abyss when she over-heard me telling Sandi that I wanted to get some more Abyss, if it weren't for the fact that I should probably try a few of their pub exclusive beers instead, since we can't get them at home. Sandi just got some water with lemon, but her fish and chips were great. And Chad got some of the home brewed root beer. Probably the best root beer I have ever tasted. Ellie went for a mixed drink instead of some beer. Roy Rogers, on the rocks. I went with their Bachelor Bitter to drink with my dinner. It was one of Deschutes' original three packaged beer that you can only get at the pub now. A real nice bitter ale. Perfect for drinking with a hamburger and fries. Finally the food. I had their hamburger of course. It was great! I started off with their Cinder Cone Red. A nice rich malty flavor with some caramel notes and just enough hops to balance it out. Very good. The beer list. Inside the place was packed but had a real nice atmosphere and the 45 minute wait wasn't too bad at all. Where it all started. Finally! Super exiting shot of our super awesome '91 Accord. Don't hate me because my care is cooler than yours. Save you money and one day you, too, could own an early nineties Honda.

So with the flat tire we just barely made it in time for the brewery tour. The staff was great though. They didn't have anyone else there for the tour and would have normally just cancelled it, but we had called them a few times throughout the day, (1: to make sure they still had some Abyss left and (2: to let them them know we just had a freakin flat tire and would be there as soon as we could. Goodbye Deschute Brewing. Next up, Deschutes Public House and Brewery for some pub exclusive selections. Time to load up. Derek, Heath, and Ted, you should be seeing yours any day now, if it hasn't come already. On the way out they had all of the original label art work from every year of Jubelale. You guys still awake? Actually Chad and Sandi enjoyed the tour a lot. Ellie, not so much. And finally, the bottling area. I was a little dissapointed we got there too late to see all the bottles going threw, but, oh well. There it is. Some of the equipment they are sending to Portland to open their second pub! They will be brewing everything there in house as they do at their pub here in Bend which means pub exclusive brews are going to be available in Portland. It should be open by this spring Heath! No, it isn't all the overflowing beer. I'm told there is something in this section that will make me happy. And the lab. No we didn't leave the brewery to go visit uncle Vinie in jail. This is the tasting room. What a job. You must wear head phones so you can't talk to the other tasters and bewcome infuenced by their comments. They take their tasting veery seriously. I see you 2006 Jubelale I thought it was interesting they had the large tank on the left imported from Germany in one piece. They had have a police escort from the airport as the tank took up two lanes. Ooooh.......aahhhh. Drain full of hops. Now the new section of the brewery. No Chad, you don't smoke it. There's the good stuff. Our awesome tour guide shows us the hop room. The smell was amazing! A quick look into the large section of the brewery with the fermenting tanks. You didn't know they made Mt Dew? So we started in the older section of the brewery. This is all they used for many years. Show-offs. And this is what is left. There will be one less case here when I leave. Sandi decides she isn't too into the imperial stout thing. Oh well, more for me. How about a sample of the 2007 Abyss to compare with the 2008! They actually keep a limited supply each year so you can sample both the current year and previous year. Let me tell you guys, this stuff ages well. The '08 was a bit better, but not much. Curently the number six beer in the world, The Abyss. What we drove all this way for. What could be better? Part of the tour............FREE SAMPLES!

^ You rang? So.........yeah, on on Jan 15th Deschutes Brewing decided to release their 2008 Abyss. Derek actually PM'd me a month or so in advance letting me know just how rare and coveted this beer actually is. So, after placing an order with my local distributor and being told I would be put on the already huge waiting list, I decided not to take any chances and just to go right to the source. I thought I'd just do this as a full PTR since it is about a 3 hour drive from Portland to Bend, so if you want to just skip to the beer pics, go right ahead. Lets cruise! Next stop, Deschutes Brewing. Since this is a Deschutes Brewing PTR I thought I should get a picture if the Dechutes River for which the brewery was named. Flat tire, yay! No Matt, not Fat Tire, flat tire. Flat tire is even worse. Took this picture driving down into Warm Springs when............ And now we are in Central Oregon which is completely different that Western Oregon. A lot less trees. On the way down the other side. This is about as bad as the roads got so it really wasn't that bad of a ride. The kids take a few minutes to play in the snow while stopping at a gas station. Up the mountain and into the clouds. Bring on the road. And the snow, since we will be driving over the Cascade Range (or Mt Hood to be exact). First stop, of course, would be Starbucks. Sandi seems ready, too. You guys do know we have a working heater in this car, right? Kids are bundled up and ready to go.

^^^ Same here, Hector. I have always liked X and this should make it even that much better. I am really excited about all the changes taking place at SFMM. Looking forward to my next visit.

Great pictures Jahan. I remember visiting Hearst Castle when I was 11 years old with my family. We probably took the same tour as I remember seeing both pools and that insane dinning hall. Looks like you all had a lot of fun.

Sandi just picked up my order of Stone Old Guardian 2008 Barlywine and Stone "Oaked" Arrogant Bastard. I'm curious to see how their oak aged Bastard compares to the original. Pics to come. Oh, and I will get that PTR up from Deschutes one of these days.

I can back up Elissa on both accounts. I also had very good luck using Priceline and DO NOT use a hotel in Sylmar. I made that mistake once. Never again.

^ I did, infact, make it to Bend, Oregon yesterday. We made a nice family trip out of it. We all had a lot of fun taking the brewery tour and then later heading over to the Deschutes Public House for some pub exclusive brews. Oh, and I happened to score one of the last cases of one of the highest rated and rare beers in the world while I was there, too. Let me just say, WOW! I will have a full PTR up in the next day or two. But, for tonight, I opened another selection sent to me from Derek and the one that I was looking most forward to trying, Mad Elf from Troegs. Wow. This beer is really something else. The cherry flavor really comes through on the first drink. Smooth and sweet, this beer is one you want to take your time with. At 11% abv the alcohol content is well hidden. I enjoyed my one glass over the course of about 45 minutes. The Mad Elf Ale. Nice copper color and wonderful aroma.

Well I didn't make it to Deschutes Brewery today for the first pour of The Abyss as I was hoping. I have just been way too busy at work. I did call up the brewery today and talked to the manager of the gift shop. He said they weren't set to get anything in until Wed or maybe even Thursday and that if I were to get there on Thursday I would probably have a good chance of getting a case. So, the plan is to make it down there on Thursday, but we'll see. Either way, I have six bottles reserved through a local distributor Derek led me on to. Three of them are Dereks, the other three are mine. Anyway, speaking of Derek, I got a nice little package yesterday from him with four different brews that I have never had the pleasure of drinking. One of them I had never even heard of. So, of course, that is the one I started off with. Very nice. Advertised as a red ale, this one had a red cloudy color and a nice strong hop presence. Tasted more like an IPA with nice grapefruit citrucy notes. Got better with each drink. I'd probably give it a solid B+ rating overall. Looking forward to the next! Hedonism Ale from Legacy Brewing. One of the local brewing companies in Derek's area.

I never did see any at the local stores in my general area, but honestly, I didn't go out of my way to find some, either. Next year. In other news..........I got a very cool package in the mail today from PA. I'll post some pics over the next few days.

^ Thanks for reminding me. It's been a while since I have been to the Rock Bottom here in Portland. I keep telling myself I'm going to get over there and sign up for the mug club so I can at least get my free pint glass after 5 trips.

Had a couple of Deschutes' finer ales this last week in anticipaton for the release of The Abyss. Very nice. Lightly hopped and at first it was almost too biscuity tasting, but it got better with each drink. Very smooth finish and a nice refreshing, easy drinking ale at only 4.8% ABV. Last night I enjoyed another of Deschutes seasonal ales, Buzzsaw Brown. My favorite winter ale so far this year. I may have to pick up one more pack before it's gone for the year. My last bottle of Jubelale.

I'm actually thinking of making a trip to Bend, OR to visit the brewery the week it comes out. I'll have a PTR up in this thread if I do.

^ You're welcome! I'm glad to hear it wasn't too bad. I have never had it bottled before, as I live about a mile away from one of their local brewpubs, so I was hoping it wouldn't be horrible after the trip to PA and who knows how long in the bottle. I'm sure they keep their stock pretty fresh though. It is one of my personal favorites from McMenamins.

That's because you haven't been to Portland yet! Yes you do . Great pics Lou! (and Paul)

I always forget about this thread until it re-sufaces again. Last one for me was Gold Rusher at SFMM. Because really, who wouldn't want the last ride of the day to be something as awesome as Goldrusher?

^ I'm really not sure if anything you said makes any sense whatsoever. Especially the part about your opinion falling somewhere in between Rich's and Joey's since they have the EXACT same opinion. And just to be very clear to anyone reading this thread that thinks the teacher over-reacted. You most certainly ARE in the minority. I can not for the life of me understand why some of you don't get it. It really isn't that difficult to grasp. You can't have students bringing knives to school. Period. It DOES NOT MATTER if the student who brought the knife just wanted to cut their food with it. Surely, if you try really, really hard, you can understand why. The police were called because they had to treat this in the exact same way they would treat a scenario in which a knife was brought to school for violent purposes. Again, this has been very logically explained by many of the posters in this thread who are in the MAJORITY opinion that the teacher responded correctly. You can not bend the rules for one student and not another. Especially a rule that is in place for the safety of everyone (students AND faculty) in the school. Even the teenagers reading this thread should have enough real life experience to understand that. If you don't, then you are in for one rude awakening sometime in the not too distant future.

My daughter is ten. If she saw someone from school bring a STEAK LUNCH and a knife to cut it with, I guarantee it would be the first thing she told my wife when she got off the bus. I just now got done reading this thread for the first time and my head literally hurts. This is not even a debatable issue of weather the teacher reacted properly. The student brought a knife to school. YOU CAN"T DO THAT! It is irrelevant weather or not the student knew this or not. It is irrelevant weather or not the student had any intention of using it for any other reason than cutting their food. The teacher was ONLY doing their job. I have two kids in school. From a parents standpoint, I do not want any knives of any kind for any reason being brought into the school by another student. The teacher not only did their job, they did the right thing. Once the knife is there, any number of things could happen. It isn't about the girl being treated like a criminal, it is about not allowing a weapon on school grounds. That is the issue. I HOPE that the teachers at my children's school would have done exactly the same thing. Justin "The world could use more teachers like Rich, his wife, and Nicole" Saxe.

Are you SURE Larry. Because I don't know if you know what you're talking about. I'm no CPA, but keeping the park open and loosing a LOT of money every year sounds way better than selling it and making money. Not only selling it and making money, but selling it and no longer LOOSING money. Sounds like a bad deal to me. But again, I'm no expert.

^ Well at least the Steelers can get the job done when it comes to opening bottles