The Longest Borderlands 2 Monologue

by A.J. Coltrane

We had a discussion last night about what was the longest monologue in Borderlands 2..

There are a few of the quests that, when completed, elicit really really long monologues from the story-central npc characters. (“We must defeat blah blah blah blah blah or else blah blah blah blah. We must go to the blah blah blah and…………..”) And the action isn’t allowed to proceed until they’re done talking.

I wasn’t able to find out *which* monologue is the longest one, but I did find this in the process. It’s a Psycho. Reciting Hamlet. Sort of.

I think it might be even stranger in German:

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Oak Aged Double Redoubt Red

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of my favorite things about NW Peaks is that their brewer, Kevin, is not afraid to take some risks and put out a beer that isn’t exactly commonly found in the Northwest. He took his already tasty Redoubt Red and effectively doubled the malt and hops and made a delicious malt/hop monster. He then decided to take it one step further and aged some of it in a new whiskey barrel and blended it back with the base Double Redoubt to come up with the Oak Aged Double Redoubt.

The beer pours deep reddish brown in color with copious amounts of malt, strong notes of hops and hints of wood and oak on the nose, with the oak really being a supporting cast member rather than dominant as it is in so many oak aged beers. Malt and an almost creamy mouth feel are your introduction to tasting this beer before it moves slowly over to a spicy citrus middle, with very mild hints of bitterness, before finishing with a slight oak character, interspersed with hints of whiskey, malt citrus, spice and resin that lingers for a very long time, and, when it does fade, you wish it would come back. The beer is extremely well balanced – malty without becoming syrupy sweet, hoppy without becoming overly bitter or citrusy, warming without an alcohol burn, and notes of oak that don’t overpower everything else in the beer. This is the perfect beer for a chilly Northwest evening, complicated and rich, but one you could easily go back and have a second of (yes, I did) or switch over to something else and not have killed your palate in the process.

NW Peaks outdoes itself with the production of Oak Aged Double Redoubt Red, erasing any doubts you might have with a perfect 5 stills out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Mild

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There are times when I just don’t want something that has a great deal of hops but I do want something with complexity, especially on a warmer day. That means I am not usually in the mood for a something heavy like a stout or a porter and don’t particularly want something light like a kolsch. Populuxe has that niche covered with their Mild. It has everything that I want from a flavor standpoint – richness and complexity without being overly hopped and is a small beer, clocking in at less than 4% ABV, meaning more than one can be on the menu. Besides, how many other NW breweries do you know doing the old English style of a mild?

The beer pours deep brown in color with a solid foundation of chocolate and malt on the nose. Very light on the palate, almost surprisingly so, with light malt and caramel at the front followed by subtle chocolate in a very long and clean finish that lingers pleasantly. Very easy to drink despite its heavy flavor profile and incredibly complex beer – malty without being sweet, chocolaty without having strong burnt notes and different enough to make me want to drink it when it is on the tap list and I am in the mood for something darker but not heavy.

This is a gateway beer into the realm of darker beers – some of the complexity and depth of flavor that you find in a porter or stout, but restrained enough that those are not all of the flavors you are tasting. A versatile “session” beer that works on both a warm sunny day and a cold wet evening, if you have never tried a mild, you should definitely give this one a shot.

Populuxe Mild eases in with a not so middle of the road 4 Union Jacks out of 5.

The Curley Shuffle

By Blaidd Drwg

Back in my younger days when I was just a pup, they used to play this inbetween innings at Mets games at Shea Stadium. I have absolutely no idea why this popped into my head completely out of the blue recently. I probably have not heard this song in 20+ years.

Beer of the Week: Snoqualmie Brewing Louis Quatorze 14th Anniversary Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have become a big fan of Russian Imperial Stout over the years, so I was excited when loyal reader Annie S. was willing to share a bottle of Snoqualmie’s 14^th Anniversary beer – Louis Quatorze, which she had been aging for about a year. The beer came in a 22oz. bottle and clocked in at 8.6% ABV and 60 ibu.

The beer pours jet black with a tan head as expected. Coffee and chocolate dominate the nose with hints of toffee and what smells like either oak or vanilla, but it does not appear that there was any oak aging on this beer, so it is probably coming from the malt. The initial sip has loads of malt and chocolate character up front with a slight astringency (licorice maybe?) before mellowing out to a roasted malt middle and then finishing with an oddly aggressive finish reminiscent of juniper with a bit of alcohol bite. The initial taste is wonderful, the smell is wonderful, but the finish isn’t the most pleasant I have ever had and is somewhat off-putting. The beer lacks the balance of many Imperial Stouts, and I would love this beer more if the finish was less aggressive and more subdued. Maybe this beer could have used another year of aging to round out the finish.

Snoqualmie Brewing’s Louis Quatorze 14^th Anniversary Stout rises to power with 3 sun kings out of 5.

What are the Seahawks?

by A.J. Coltrane

Expectations for the Seahawks have been sky-high this year, but are they a great team or just a good team? Popular opinion says “Great defense, great running game, great quarterback, they added a stud wide receiver in Percy Harvin, the young guys are maturing and improving … Super Bowl here we come!”

As the season has rolled on, the team health has been less than ideal. Most people I’ve talked to feel like the offense and defense will get a *lot* better when the starters return from injury. That remains to be seen, and it assumes that the collective team health actually improves and that nobody else gets newly hurt.

Bill Barnwell at Grantland offers this opinion:

Are the Seahawks a good team or are they the caliber of the best team in football? So far, it seems like the former. In the best-team pocket, they have that blowout win over the 49ers at home. In the other, they have narrow victories over the Panthers, Texans, and Titans, and a close loss to the Colts. I think they have the talent level to be the best team in football, and they’re only going to get better as their injured/suspended players (Chris Clemons, Bruce Irvin, and soon Percy Harvin) come back and get back in the swing of things. But the results haven’t been there yet.

Concerns: (As a refresher, there are now 32 NFL teams)

1. The Seahawks are 24th in passing yards per game.

2. They’re 5th worst in offensive sack percentage (Sacks divided by attempts.)

3. They’re 28th in offensive 3rd down conversion percentage. (link) (Or 5th worst again.)

4. They have the 5th most penalties on the year, and they’re 3rd in penalty yards. (same link as #3.)

5. Last year the Seahawks had the 4th healthiest team in the league. They’re not nearly that healthy this year.

The Good Stuff:

1. They’re 2nd in rushing yards/ game.

2. They’re 8th in rushing yards/ attempt.

3. The defense is 2nd in yards allowed per game. It breaks out to 2nd in passing yards allowed, 11th in rushing yards allowed.

4. They’re 3rd in points allowed per game.

I’m of the opinion that the Seahawks have a great defense, a good running game, and a fringy passing game. Overall I’d go with “good” or “very good”. We’ll see if that’s enough.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Cask Kolsch

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Kolsch is a style that you normally would not find done in a cask, so when Reuben’s decided to give it a shot, I of course had to be there to try it.

The beer pours pale yellow in color and surprisingly cloudy – reminds me of a hefeweisen, with lots of grain, slightly floral notes and hints of grapefruit and citrus on the nose. The initial taste yields a significant amount of very mild grapefruit with hints of spice and grain playing hide and seek among the hop flavors. The beer fades in a long and subtle finish with very little bitterness and just a touch of sweet grain and yeast character. Very easy drinking and smooth, probably more hoppy than a light beer drinker would enjoy but a pleasant hop character coupled with the subtlety of the kolsch make this a beer which you could be happy with drinking all day on a warm summer afternoon.

Reuben’s Cask Kolsch surprises with a refreshing 4 summer winds out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Kyes Kolsch

By Iron Chef Leftovers

We are into October, which usually means Fresh Hop and Pumpkin beers, but there are still a few straggling summerish brews out there, one of which is still on tap at NW Peaks – their Kyes Kolsch. I am not a huge fan of kolsch, it is fine, but it is rarely my “go to” style of beer as it lacks much of what I love about beer – bold flavors and complexity. Would NW Peaks change my mind, we shall see.

From the NW Peaks website:

The name. The mountain. Kyes Peak is a lesser known peak located in the Monte Cristo group. It is rises from one of my favorite lakes in the North Cascades: Blanca lake. Blanca lake offers a wonderful day hike on nice trail with Kyes and the other mountains in the Monte Cristo group offering some nice scrambles of varying difficulties and exposures.

The beer. Like the mountain, the kolsch style is lesser known amongst the US audience, but gaining popularity. Our interpretation is light, refreshing, and contains some fruity notes from the yeast fermentation on top of a very bready backbone. Compared to other examples of the style, Kyes is slightly lower in alcohol and strength, and hence the lighter fruity notes from the yeast. This is a light, refreshing, crisp, straw colored beer, perfect for quenching the thirst on a hot summer afternoon. Original gravity: 1.043. Finishing gravity: 1.008.

ABV 4.5%. Malts: pils, wheat. Hops: Hallertau.

The beer pours very pale yellow in color, almost clear but with a heady amount of yeast and grain on the nose interspersed with touches of lemon. The beer is surprisingly bold for such a light beer – plenty of yeast and grain at the beginning before transitioning to a slightly fruity middle and finishing off with light hops and a slightly sweet/bitter slide of bread, yeast and hops. The finish is long and delicious and slightly Belgian as the beer warms – there were very light notes of cloves and banana that were barely detectable. The beer has a great deal of complexity and layered flavors and could stand up on its own on either a warm summer day or a chilly rainy one.

NW Peaks Kyes Kolsch alters my perceptions of the style with a strong 4 mindbenders out of 5.

When Steve Carlton was the Strikeout King

By Blaidd Drwg

I recently decided to buy back a small piece of my youth and purchased a 1984 Topps complete set. It was fun reliving the memories of the 1983 season and my 10 year old self putting together the set. Living in NJ in 1983, there was excitement over the big rookie in NY that took the league by storm – Darryl Strawberry. His rookie card is in that set, along with another NY rookie who wouldn’t really make an impact until the next season – Don Mattingly. There are also cards of a very young Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg, a very old Pete Rose and my all-time favorite name Doug Gwosdz (pronounced GOOSH, had the nickname “Eyechart”).

One of the cards that caught my eye was a highlights card that had Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry on it. I had forgotten this, but 1983 was the year that Walter Johnson’s 55+ year old record for strikeouts in a career fell, and 3 pitchers managed to pass the total of 3,509. Here is the way things stacked up going into the 1983 season:

Player	Age	Strikeouts
Walter Johnson	n/a	3,509
Nolan Ryan	36	3,494
Gaylord Perry	44	3,452
Steve Carlton	38	3,434

Obviously Nolan Ryan was the one who was going to break the record first give he was just 15 behind Johnson going into the season. Ryan was starting to look like it might be near the end for him – he had been good but not great for a couple of seasons, so 4,000 strikeouts looked like it might be his upper limit. Perry was a bit of a longshot to catch Johnson because of his age and general ineffectiveness over the previous few seasons. Carlton, despite 1983 being his 38 year old season, had come off this 1982 season:

Cy Young Award
295 IP
23 Wins
19 CG
286 K
5.5 WAR

Ryan passed Johnson first and then Carlton and then Perry. Something strange then happened at the end of 1983. Here is how Ryan and Carlton pitched that season:

	W-L	ERA	IP	SO
Carlton	15-16	3.11	283.2	275
Ryan	14-9	2.98	196.1	183

Carlton again led the league in IP AND SO, at age 38! So despite being the first pitcher to pass Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan was not the all-time strikeout leader at the end of 1983:

Player	Age	Strikeouts
Steve Carlton	38	3,709
Nolan Ryan	36	3,677
Gaylord Perry	44	3,534
Walter Johnson	n/a	3,509

Carlton was not nearly as good at age 39 in 1984 (nor for the rest of his career) and Ryan was about as good as he had been the previous 4 seasons, allowing Ryan to finish up 1984 as the all-time strikeout leader, a spot from which he never looked back, adding 1840 strikeouts to his career total after age 37. Since Johnson’s record was initially broken, 5 other pitchers passed the 3,509 total. For one brief season, Steve Carlton was baseball’s all-time strikeout king.

Beer of the Week: Speakeasy Double Daddy IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Living on the west coast means an abundance of double and imperial IPA’s tend to be available and it also means that I want to try any new ones that enter into the market. When Speakeasy became available in Seattle and one of the available beers was their Double Daddy IPA, a beer which I have tried and liked in previous trips to SF, I figured it was time for a review. The beer was from a 22oz. bottle.

From the Speakeasy website:

Doubling down on malt & hops, Double Daddy raises the stakes. With its good looks and no-limit style, DD takes the pot every time.

Style: Imperial India Pale Ale

Release Date: January, 2003

Alcohol Content: 8.5% by volume

Malts: Pale malted barley, English Munich Malts

Hops: 4 Varieties of Pacific Northwest Hops, 3 hop additions, including dry hopping

Yeast: Speakeasy Ale Yeast

Tasting Notes: Copper color. Huge hop aroma. Bitter, hoppy and warming alcohol on the palate. Finishes incredibly dry and clean for such a big beer.

The beer pours amber in color with a white head. Lots of citrus and grapefruit on the nose with grain and some floral notes hiding in the background. This beer is a major hop bomb – slightly bitter with juicy grapefruit and orange peel dominate with a long finish that contains hints of grain in addition to the hop character. Some green hops and resin become present in the middle of the finish as the beer warms, which was surprising but not unpleasant and an nice addition to balance out the citrus a bit more. The alcohol is well integrated and not noticeable, making this an easy drinking beer for any hop head.

Double Big Daddy is a find double IPA, and one that will hold up in the crowded NW beer market.

Speakeasy Double Daddy IPA slides into the party with a solid 4 zoot suits out of 5.