Long Overdue Beer Reviews

Hi folks
Don't worry, Terry's Beer Tour of the World is still going strong: here are some new brews reviewed for your edification and enjoyment:

Rolling Rock
http://www.rollingrock.com/#/landing/
Ultra-pale lager but don’t let that fool you.  Actually does have a punch.  Reviews on the beer sites are almost all derogatory but then, they rave about strawberry notes and lemon airs of India Pale Ales, which are all the rage here.  Reminiscent of some Bavarian light lagers, a bit sour (which I like) and a little fizzy but not like from a major brewery’s carbonation.  Large cans or green bottles.  A lot of history from an old Pennsylvania beer.  I don’t mind it at all.

Yuengling Traditional Amber Lager
I’ve had this in draft from the Crab Deck.  This is from a pint can and is very nice indeed.  I’ve spoken about Yuengling before and it’s now become my firm favourite.  Until I get a new firm favourite when I can’t find Yuengling in the shop any more.  I buy this by the carton – $14.99 for a 12-can pack for the 370ml cans.

Fullers Ale
http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=3
Good, honest English Ale.  Served cold by a very charming Irish waiter west of Washington DC in some part of Virginia.  I think.  Where George Washington University is.  Had a few while lunching with our friend Jane from Sarasota.  Our waiter, John, gave us a few tips for the west coast of Ireland, including his brother-in-law’s restaurant in Country Clare.

Natty Greene’s Old Town Brown Ale
http://www.nattygreenes.com/
Had this in the Church Street Inn on Swansboro North Carolina.  A North Carolinan beer from Greensboro.  Nice.  No sharpness at all, not overly hoppy.  Smooth but the alcohol sneaks up on you.  Definitely worth a drink or two.
Tried the Circus Boys ale while I was there but didn’t think much of it – hops and nothing else.
http://www.magichat.net/elixirs/9#/elixirs/circus_boy

Key West Sunset Ale
http://www.floridabeer.com/0_home.html
Well, the tossers in the ‘’trendy’’ beer review sites give this (variously) 4/10, 5/10 etc.  They are bigger dickheads than those stereotypical wine-wankers.  Wine reviewing seems to have stabilized a lot since those early days of pretentious twits, but they abound in Beer’s first forays into classifying and reviewing.  Probably moved across from the wine review groups when wine drinkers called their bluff and now we beer drinkers have to put up with them.
Seriously, I had a couple of these in the Tailgate Sports Bar on Daytona Beach.  Good beer.  You would expect the heavy hand of excess in this land of bigger, better, faster etc but apart from a little fruit sweetness at the end, this is very easy to drink.  Of course, it helps that accompanying the beer were 2 ½ pounds of Cajun Crawfish, Banana Pepper Calamari and French Fries, all surrounded by 27 tv screens showing Football, Basketball, Baseball and Men In Black II.  What a Christmas Lunch!!  Your Crawfish comes in a beer jug and is dumped out on your table onto some sheets of yesterday’s newspaper.  Peel, eat, put shells back in beer jug, drink, roll up paper.  Where’s the hard bit? We rode along Daytona Beach on Xmas Day after this, amid thousands of holidaymakers.  In the water?  Kids.  Can you ever keep them out?

Dixie New Orleans Slow Brewed Beer.
Dixie Brewing Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Brewing_Company
A bit too sweet to taste much more.  No bitterness.  Very old brewery (1907) almost destroyed in Katrina.

Old Thumper.  (A Beast of a Beer)
Shipyard Brewing Company, Portland Maine.  From their Ringwood Brewery.
http://www.shipyard.com/taste/
5.6%.  Strong, heavy.  Not caramel tasting and not too bitter.  OK for a couple but not a keeper.  Would be excellent with winter casseroles and pies and the like.

Genesee Cream Ale. 
http://www.geneseecreamale.com/home.php
Very nice.  A bit of caramel in it that makes you think of it as a lolly but there’s kick in there too.  Not something you could drink a lot of but would be good with a casserole or Shepherd’s Pie.  You wouldn’t actually need to drink a lot of it – a few and you’d be done.  A New York tradition.

Ellie’s Best Brown Ale
http://www.averybrewing.com/our-ales/54
Had dinner in “Social Wine Bar and Restaurant”  in Charleston last week.  This was on tap and I’m glad I tried it.  Very nice with tapas-style dinner.  From Colorado.

Karibrew
http://www.cafekaribo.com/karibrew.html
You’re not going to find this in a liquor store near you any time soon.  All they have is three tuns of about 200 gallons each maybe.  In them are the Pilsner, the Stout and the Red Ale.  I had the Pilsner first.  Home brewed? Almost. There’s that typical hint of sharp sourness you get in stuff you make at home.  Nice.  Could drink this for a night or so.
Then I had a Nut Brown Ale.  Not one of the tuns?  No, you mix Pilsner and Stout into the glass and serve it.  Very nice.  Knock you on your ear stuff.
This pub is part of the adjacent Karibo Café.  In the pub, they have a Tuesday night Trivia Teams (quiz) night – these are popular in small taverns all down the East Coast (can’t say for other areas), Wednesday night is Pad Thai night and Thursday night is Curry night. 
So, given that they don’t bottle anything, next time you’re in downtown Fernandina Beach, Florida, stop into the Karibrew pub and try this.  Preferably on one of the nights mentioned above.  See Jess behind the bar.  Damn I love this country.  Imagine if someone did this in a tavern in Dalyellup.  Place would be full night after night.  With 27 tv screens, of course.

Holy Mackerel Special Golden Ale 8.5%
http://holymackerelbeers.com/
Obviously from the number above, this is quite powerful but it doesn’t have much in the way of flavor going for it.  I let it warm up to see if it released anything but no. Just OK.

Playa de la Cruz
http://www.playadelacruzbeer.com/
From Guatemala.  Absolute knock-off of Corona, down to the packaging and bottles.  A bit light on, seems like there’s been some extra carbonation done to sparkle it up.  Still, better than Landshark and not as good as Corona.  The know-it-alls in the beer review groups give this 2 out of 5 and complain about “corn smell”, “mouthfeel” and all sorts of bull that used to belong exclusively to wine tossers, but they are full of it.  It’s not a bad beer when you consider it’s $5.99 for a cold 6-pack at Walgreen i.e. a buck a bottle.  At that price, this stuff is a great hot afternoon drinker, which is what it is here today in Fort Lauderdale.  Thunderstorm threatening, bbq on cooking steak and onions, cold bottle to drink.  What’s not to like?

Tona Cerveza
http://www.cervezatona.com/en/
A Nicaraguan beer.  Enough to make you forget the Sandinistas, the Somozas and any other dictatorial dickhead family in the country and emigrate.  The surf there is A1, the food is first class and this beer is something you could drink forever.  The website is a bit limited but interesting for the cultural information.

Non-beer aside:-
I bought a bottle of Absolut in Publix (the supermarket) liquor offshoot, like Coles and Woolies offshoots.  1.75litres for $29.95. (Australian price - $42 for .7liters)  You can buy beer and wine in the supermarket, but not hard liquor.  Depends on the state – some you can, some you can’t.

Interlude in Southern Florida

We've been reading all the posts from home about the relentless hot weather in Perth and Bunbury, and feeling really fortunate to be in southern Florida in the winter time. No wonder those with the means retire here - mild days 28 - 32 degrees, nights with a gentle cooling breeze. And speaking of means, there is some serious wealth in these parts in the form of palatial homes and unbelievable luxury boats. Fort Lauderdale is largely built on a system of rivers and canals, so there are miles and miles of water frontage and every waterfront mansion seems to have a substantial yacht or powerboat on its dock. You wouldn't want to have a big psychological investment in the size of your boat here. Even Spielberg's $200 million yacht is overshadowed by one across the harbour belonging to a Russian 'businessman'. Apparently this guy has so many assets around the world that he doesn't even know where his boat is.

As we kick back on the deck of Common Sense here in Cooley's Landing, there is an endless parade of craft up and down the New River; game-fishing boats, water taxis and ferries, megayachts being towed by tugs, tiny skiffs, party boats, yachts from all over the world - it's endlessly fascinating. This marina is right on the New River, a very deep waterway which was created by an earthquake in the recent geological past. Many people live aboard their boats along the river and the endless canals that branch from it, adding to the energy and colour of the waterfront area. We are right on the 'riverwalk' within an easy walk of the performing arts centre, the science museum, some good bars and restaurants and the Las Olas shopping district.

This compensates to some extent for the fact that we are pretty much stuck here for the next couple of weeks while we fit solar panels and a self-steerer, and purchase a few essentials for the upcoming trip across to the Bahamas and the big one from Bermuda to the Azores in May. I have done a lot of Bahamas research and planned various passages, feeling just a bit frustrated that we can't yet take off for the part of the trip that we've most been looking forward to. Oh well, that seems to be part of the cruising life; we've met lots of boaters stuck in various places awaiting parts, repairs and family complications, some of them with very little prospect of moving any time soon, so I guess we're OK from that perspective.

Once again we've met some terrific people, catching up with Canadian friends Russ and Suzie from Opportunity, and meeting experienced Aussie cruisers Jennifer and Michael Gough from  Mahili, who invited us to a delightful Australia Day dinner, complete with vegemite for appetizers, pies and sausages, banana splits and plenty of cold beer. And of course all the friendly folks right here on our dock, from overnighters heading to the Bahamas to our next door neighbour Sheldon, aged 91, who has lived here aboard his boat for years.

This interlude has given us time to do some of the planning and paperwork for the ARC Europe rally in May, so we're now fully subscribed and paid up members. We've bought our life-raft, a thing of beauty and fine engineering that we hope never to see in action, and we're stocking the various spares and supplies we are likely to need. Most importantly, we're very much looking forward to meeting Padraig, who will be joining us as a crew member for the rally!

Ocean Passage to Fort Lauderdale

Well you'll be pleased to hear that this was a much happier sail than our previous ocean leg from Charleston to Fernandina Beach. We listened carefully to the weather report, which wasn't perfect (northerlies and 4-5 ft waves) but we wanted to be further south and felt we could manage OK. Once we made our way out of Lake Worth, conditions proved much better than expected. The wind was north westerly, making for comfortable sailing, and we didn't see any waves more than about 3ft - and they were assisting us. It was coolish, but not freezing - all in all, a very pleasant day's sailing/ motor-sailing at around 7 knots on an uncomplicated southerly route.

Things became a little more exciting as we neared Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale's inlet to the sea. Massive container ships, yachts, powerboats, tiny fishing skiffs, luxury liners - and a line of tiny toy yachts sailed by six to ten year olds being herded like ducklings across the main channel by minders in rubber dinghies - all negotiating their way through the maze of channels, canals and bridges. Slowly and carefully we made our way up the New River, calling up each of the four bascule bridges which opened obligingly on demand. The New River is narrow, but extremely deep as it runs through an earthquake faultline that opened up only a few thousand years ago. Cooley's Landing is an ideal (and very reasonably priced) small marina right in the middle of the downtown area. The slips are right on the river so there is a serious current running at times. We did not judge this well and faced a bit of a challenge getting Common Sense safely docked. Fortunately the local live-aboards are very familiar with the problem and come out in force to assist whenever a newby arrives while the tide is running.

Once recovered from a long day's sailing and a hair-raising conclusion to the passage, we were able to enjoy a hot shower, a good meal and a comfortable night's sleep, things for which I have a new and growing appreciation. I'll post a full Fort Lauderdale blog soon, but as a taster here is a picture of Steven Spielberg's 200 million dollar yacht Seven Seas.

Whimsical and Ridiculously Oversimplified Comparisons

Things That are Better in America:

• Newspapers. The important ones, at least, like the New York Times and the Washington Post, are always a good read, even when you don't agree with the views presented. The writers can write. At the risk of sounding a bit morbid, I really like the obituaries. Everyone's story is told and honoured, their contribution acknowledged - it's not just a litany of relatives' names and bad poems.
• Restaurants - an incredible range from fabulous and expensive to very very cheap (ie $1 specials at Maccas). You really can get anything you want, service is almost always friendly, courteous and well-informed - I guess because the wait-staff rely on tips to make a liveable wage. A good main course, which they inexplicably call an entree, averages about $15 - way better value than in Australia. There is a definite pattern to the restaurant industry - a guy starts a successful small restaurant, then opens another one, then it goes to franchise, then there are 342 of them across the country, all pretty much the same.
• Toilets. Seriously, they flush like the Maelstrom and public toilets are clean, functional and everywhere.
• Philanthropy. Anyone who achieves anything in their life expects to give back to their community. As a result, endowments support universities, art galleries, theatre companies, public artworks, sports facilities, gardens, scholarships, museums, community building, all types of research, environmental projects, concerts, events, you name it. The result of this is a very visible enhancement of the quality of life, and individuals are admired and remembered for what they have done.
• Waterfronts. There are some great ones. Marinas and waterfront living make places more interesting, energetic and prosperous. Bunbury should learn from this.
• Live music. Almost everywhere - some great, some not so much, but it's really good to see musicians getting a chance to be heard.

Things That Aren't so Great:

• While everyone is very courteous and friendly, the actual service, in terms of getting things processed, delivered, authorised etc is often hopeless. This seems to be particularly the case with postal services and phone companies - Telstra and Australia Post look efficient and professional from here.
• Sugar. Everything is sweeter - bread, crackers, soup, biscuits, drinks; marinades fror meat are all sweet - baked beans (yuck!) - I think there's some kind of conspiracy to support the corn and beet growing industries. The sugar OD is clearly reflected in the national waistline.
• More is better. This belief applies to all sorts of things - four different toppings on a baked potato; five kinds of cheese on your pizza; supersize it, add fries, add three kinds of sauce; put flavoured syrup in your coffee and serve it in a gallon bucket... There is also a surfeit of cheap junk designed to make you consume throughout the calendar, especially on fake festivals like Hallowe'en and Valentine's Day.
• Television. Loud and frequent advertising, evangelical channels, lamer sitcoms than the ones that make it to Australia. Drugs, medical procedures and legal services are all advertised, which is interesting initially but wears thin very quickly.

Peck Lake and Lake Worth

Peck Lake, through which the Intra Coastal Waterway passes, was one of our favourite anchorages so far. Though we spent the first three hours there lodged firmly in a sticky mudbank until the tide rose, things improved significantly from then on with another wonderful sunset, families of manatee moseying along the channel and great schools of fish chopping up the water in a frenzy of silver fins and tails. A short dinghy ride across to a long thin strip of sand named Jupiter Island puts you right on an apparently endless white Atlantic Beach. Better yet, it was actually warm enough to go for a swim! It was all so pleasant we decided to spend another day there, using the dinghy to explore the various canals and mangrove-lined streams that feed into the lake. This proved to be a real surprise: what looked from the water like a wilderness in fact hid marinas, private clubs, a park with a busy boat ramp and many of the other trappings of civilisation. At the ramp we met the chap pictured below. He was launching this pedal-powered craft, with a sail, which he said was especially designed for those getting on in years but still wanting to keep active and enjoy the water. I don’t know how old he was, but he looked amazingly fit – and what’s more, he had pedalled the boat to Florida from the Bahamas!

On the next leg of the journey we started to experience the ‘bridge problem’ that the southern section of the ICW is infamous for. One bascule bridge after another, some of them opening ‘on demand’, but others on a schedule which often meant trying to stay put waiting in a busy channel with a strong headwind and a current taking us right where we didn’t want to go. The bridge tenders, however, were unfailingly friendly and helpful, contrary to some of the stories we had heard. It was a relief to pass through the last bridge and make our way into the north-eastern corner of Lake Worth – the bit that is outside North Palm Beach boundaries and therefore does not incur an anchoring charge.  Not surprisingly, there were twenty or so yachts anchored here and none across the border! There is probably more to Lake Worth, but the bit we saw just seemed to be a lot of condos and malls with all the usual franchise restaurants and stores. We stocked up on groceries and had a pleasant evening with our neighbours Bob and Andrea aboard their lovely Island Packet. Next up, a thirty-five mile ocean passage to Fort Lauderdale, thus avoiding twenty-one bridges!

Fort Pierce - an unexpected gem

The marina in Fort Pierce was meant to be just another stop along the way, where we intended to do some laundry, pick up some supplies and fix up our shower drain pump, air conditioner and do various things to make the dinghy safer. The first surprise was the marina, which is good value for a full service marina and is located right at the downtown waterfront, where everything happens. We just missed the Christmas light show, but did get to an evening fair and the famous farmers' market where we bought top quality fruit and veges (you should see the strawberries and avocados here!)  and ate totally delicious Jamaican pastie things for breakfast.

The town itself is attractive and interesting, with some good shops and the famous Sunshine Theatre where upcoming acts included Roberta Flack, Gordon Lightfoot, Diana Ross, The Platters, Bill Cosby … sadly, our few days didn’t coincide with any of these shows, but it was good to see that this lovingly-restored old place could pull the big names into a small town.

Fort Pierce is suffering the effects of the downturn that we’re seeing everywhere, but whoever is in charge is trying very hard to bring in the visitors with a pleasant waterfront that includes a couple of tiki bars with live entertainment, the Manatee Centre (mysteriously visited nearly every day by families of manatee – I think they must have warm fresh water running somewhere), a riverwalk, a museum dedicated to A E Backus, Florida’s most famous landscape artist and the ‘highwaymen’ school that he founded, and lots of excellent public artworks. We didn’t get to the Navy Seals Museum over on the ocean side, but it’s supposed to be very good.

Terry continued his practice of catching up with his long-term on-line cruising mates. We met up with Skip and Lydia who are living on their boat Flying Pig on the hard while she undergoes major repairs and refit. Once again we were regaled with stories both inspiring and scary as they recounted their cruising adventures over a shared pizza lunch, and again as we ate tacos aboard Common Sense. Skip is clearly one of those people with a passion for machines and fixing things – he had to have a look at what was producing the funny sounds in our air-conditioning – but of course it wouldn’t produce the sound while he was there!

We used the marina time to replace and repair the shower drain pump, and to make some improvements to our dinghy arrangements. By the way, the Honda outboard is now working famously – all the problems were due to bad fuel: algal growth in the gasoline as a result of the addition of ethanol to all the fuel here. We learnt our lesson the hard way with both this and the diesel motor, and now add biocide religiously whenever we refuel.

While strolling along the sailboat dock we spotted another Australian flagged yacht, and sure enough it wasn’t too many hours later that we were hailed by a familiar Aussie cricketing chant. Peter and Gail on board Salty Susie were actually heading north to Brunswick (Georgia), where they were planning to leave to boat and head home to NSW for the births of two grandchildren. We enjoyed boat drinks with them a couple of times, once on each of our boats – it was lots of fun and wonderfully relaxing to be able to speak our own language again for a while! Honestly, you don’t realise that you’re always having to edit, rephrase and explain things to Americans until you have a little holiday from it.

Well, Fort Pierce was a very worthwhile stop, but it was time to be movin’ on, as they say in all the country & western songs that dominate the airwaves in these parts. Enough of marinas, we were heading for Peck Lake where Common Sense could anchor out under a full orange moon with the sound of waves crashing on the Atlantic shore to lull us to sleep.

Sarasota

Our three day stay with Jane in her lovely condo in Sarasota was a little interlude of unaccustomed comfort and luxury. With her background in art and design, and her extensive travels, Jane's home is a kind of shrine to the beautiful, the exotic and the quirky. Every time you look around there is another lovely piece of glass, a picture or just an interesting arrangement of things that you hadn't noticed before. Amongst Jane's many other talents is her gift for event management, so the itinerary for our short stay was packed with fun and adventure! Here are a few highlights:

• Watching a training session of the Lippizaner stallions, descendants of the horses that General Patton rescued in Austria at the end of the Second World War. In addition to dressage, these beautiful grey horses still learn battlefield manoeuvres, rearing up (so commanders could view the field) and striking out with their rear hooves.

• Myakka State Park, where we took a cruise on an air-boat to see a marsh teeming with wildlife, including alligators.

• The extraordinary home and estate of John Ringling, of Ringling Brothers Circus, now the Ringling Museum. Here we strolled through Mabel Ringling's rose garden which was in full bloom, and checked out the art collection which is famous for its Rubens pictures in particular. I really enjoyed the special exhibition of old circus posters. With their luridly exaggerated depictions of wild animals, freaks and exotic foreigners ('savage Blackamoors and Chinamen') they provide a fascinating insight into the social perspectives of the time.
• A great dinner with Jane's friends, including Stephanie and Julius who shared their stories of ocean cruising that were both inspiring and a little terrifying.
• Our first experience of a polo match - fast, exciting, skilful, and a very enjoyable social event as well.

We hope that some day we have the chance to repay the kindness and hospitality of the great people we've met here.