Which activities in life brings you the most fun?

[LC]

On 2/6/2026 at 11:00 PM, Ver said:

I've found surfing and skiing to be most conducive to thinking clarity and energy management while being insanely fun. Hawaii for surfing, Hokkaido for skiing. Both scale reasonably well with age so there's a long runway.

winner winner! Do you live in either location? This winter I dream of leaving Colorado for Japow…

[Ver]

On 2/8/2026 at 11:09 PM, LC said:

winner winner! Do you live in either location? This winter I dream of leaving Colorado for Japow…

I live in Hawaii. Excellent place for clarity of thinking but can be isolating.

 

This winter for the Rockies sounds brutal. Japow always delivers though, even if its getting annoyingly popular. Hope you can get some good runs in this season.

[SharperDingaan]

Making good 'out there' beer ...

 

Our little craft brewery has an experimental customer/brewery funded barrel program, where we try for the 'out there'; based on customer specs. One of our calls for specs was shortly after Robbie Burns night .... A lot of work later, and the barrel was piped in amid candlelight, and tapped last week.

 

A tasty wee little Porter, at just under 102 degrees proof, that could sustain a lit flame for almost a half minute  Truly a thing of beauty! but doubtful we'd ever be allowed to sell it, in any quantity outside of the brewery itself.

 

SD 

Edited May 9 by SharperDingaan

[Red Lion]

55 minutes ago, SharperDingaan said:

tasty wee little Porter, at just under 102 degrees proof

How is this possible? Wouldn’t it need to be distilled? 

[SharperDingaan]

5 hours ago, Red Lion said:

How is this possible? Wouldn’t it need to be distilled? 

 

Multiple fermentations with different yeasts. First two as bottom fermentations, feeding off of malt and then molasses, and using the yeast to primarily flavour the brew. Last ferment done on cane sugar, using specialized yeast, oxygen injection, and vacuum extraction. Add back a caramelized sugar solution to dilute the finished beer to 90 degrees proof, and carbonate as normal. Serve in something slightly bigger than a shot glass, light it, and charge a fortune!

 

At an initial 45% ABV, the carbonation helps throw off a continous stream of vapour that burns off over time. What you'll actually drink is only around 20% ABV after all the fireworks, and only around 2/3 of a shot.

 

Done primarily to see if you can actually do it. Given a choice over a good scotch .... take the scotch 

 

SD

 

Edited May 9 by SharperDingaan

[Red Lion]

34 minutes ago, SharperDingaan said:

 

Multiple fermentations with different yeasts. First two as bottom fermentations, feeding off of malt and then molasses, and using the yeast to primarily flavour the brew. Last ferment done on cane sugar, using specialized yeast, oxygen injection, and vacuum extraction. Add back a caramelized sugar solution to dilute the finished beer to 90 degrees proof, and carbonate as normal. Serve in something slightly bigger than a shot glass, light it, and charge a fortune!

 

At an initial 45% ABV, the carbonation helps throw off a continous stream of vapour that burns off over time. What you'll actually drink is only around 20% ABV after all the fireworks, and only around 2/3 of a shot.

 

Done primarily to see if you can actually do it. Given a choice over a good scotch .... take the scotch 

 

SD

 

Wow that’s incredible. Would love to try it. I used to dabble in brewing, but this is perhaps better described as alchemy! 

[brobro777]

Looking back on the good calls that I made in the past is pretty fun 

 

like in my fidelity HSA I bought a lot of VOO on March 31 2020 at $239.30!! Haha yes

 

[SharperDingaan]

11 hours ago, Red Lion said:

Wow that’s incredible. Would love to try it. I used to dabble in brewing, but this is perhaps better described as alchemy! 

 

There are a lot of people who can make very good beer; and most of them, a lot better than me! The fun bit is in assembling the components ... the can it even be done, how, what's required, who do we talk to, is it legal, etc, etc. We all know what we should get .... but reality always remains a mystery!   

 

The holy grail is a pear sour beer, that smells like violets, producible at volume  .... bench marked against the smell of 20 year Dom Perignon champagne. Small bottles, sold for a good price, and drunk primarily by women of all ages instead of the sweet mixers (diet friendly). 

 

That's alchemy!

 

SD

Edited May 9 by SharperDingaan

[Whensthepaintdry?]

@SharperDingaan Sours for some strange reason are my favorite. I’ve never see a pear one. Do you have a recommendation?

[SharperDingaan]

22 hours ago, Whensthepaintdry? said:

@SharperDingaan Sours for some strange reason are my favorite. I’ve never see a pear one. Do you have a recommendation?

 

Couple of different styles of sour; work up to the kettle sours.  https://www.thirstybear.com/best-sour-beers/

 

Google search 'pear kettle sours'  'country X'. Within Canada, one of the better brewers is Tinhouse Brewing, Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada  https://www.tinhousebrewing.ca/about/ They do two pear sours. 

 

You need to contact the brewery months ahead, and commit to a fairly large volume, in order to both prompt a new batch, and make the costs of delivery reasonable. May require creative shipping as well; if you're trying to ship across provinces (trade barriers), or into another country  Easiest to just prepay and have the brewer put it aside, until you can vacation through the area later in the year and bring it home with you.

 

Brewing sours pretty much requires dedicated equipment, typically in a different location, as the yeast is very hard to kill, and the more normal cleaning procedures aren't up to it. The pear flavours have to be retained/concentrated in a higher alcohol solution, and the wort typically brewed twice on different flavouring bottom fermenting lager yeasts; then blended into the sour. That trademark Dom Perignon violet aroma comes from age related breakdown of the yeast; technology is still working on it.       

 

Most craft brewers will have a growlers club, with first call on the small runs of a local group of brewers; ask around. Those with bigger clubs often bringing in speciality beers around the bigger festivals.

 

Worth looking into.

 

SD

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by SharperDingaan

[Whensthepaintdry?]

Some of those Tin house beers sound great. I have had a few of the ones on the thirsty beer blog. Seasquench and Westbrook are very easy drinking summer beers. Sour monkey packs a punch and is decent for an off the shelf beer. One of the only breweries by me with mostly sours is the Funkatorium by Wicked Weed. Their sours are great. They have a decent bottle selection as well. 

[SharperDingaan]

Funkatorium would be a great start!

 

Go with a friend and try both the White Angel (9.1%) and the Peach Morte (6.0%), along with some pretzels to clean the palette, and something oily to line the gut. Both are sours, both contain peach, but White Angel has 50% more ABV, and some other goodies as well; start with the Peach Morte, take a break, then move on to the White Angel.

 

1) Did you taste the peach in both of them?; was the peach taste stronger in the White Angel? 2)) Did you taste the sour in both of them?; was it stronger in the White Angel? 3) White Angel also had Grape/Lychee/Pear; were you able to taste it beyond the peach? 4) Were you able to smell the difference between the beers? 5) Did you taste any bitterness?

 

Typically;

The higher the ABV, the more aroma's and the more complexity (multiple aromas).

The higher the ABV the more taste and sourness, but the sourness tastes different (alcohol property). 

You should not taste any hops (bitterness), though you may occasionally smell it.

 

Hops is primarily used as a preservative, one of the alternative preservation methods is high ABV and sourness. Hence, if kept out of the light; sours can be aged for a long time, and have a long shelf life.

 

Enjoy!

 

SD

 

[Whensthepaintdry?]

Thank you for the information. I’ll be looking forward to my next visit.