Words That Begin With "R"

It only took one day for Greenspan's recession concerns to have some impact on the global stage. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.8% today. Its biggest drop in a decade. It was also reported that durable goods orders fell 7.8% in January. While they were marginally higher than a year ago, it was the lowest tally since then. As I write this, the ripples have found their way to Wall Street. The Dow has dropped by over 250 points and the Nasdaq by 75. Even my speculative portfolio is down 6% today. So is it self-fulfilling prophecy, a market correction, or an excellent buying opportunity? Take your pick.

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And once again the administration is dabbling in revisionist history. The Saddam - Hitler comparisons just never die. On Sunday, Condoleezza Rice either displayed ignorance of the facts regarding World War Two or decided to just be a team player and follow the revised edition. Keith Olbermann corrected her last night.

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10 PM Update: Cramer wrote a brief piece entitled: "How The System Failed Us Today". I'll have to tune in to the midnight re-broadcast of his Mad Money show to hear what else he has to say. No, I don't trade on Cramer's whims, but I do find what he has to say interesting, unlike his former co-host Larry "Curmudgeon" Kudlow.

Solar Snake Oil

Fear not, friends. I haven't turned my back on alternative energy. If you check out this blog, you'll read about a company that's literally promising the sky to homeowners looking to get solar panels installed on the cheap. The author's criticism of the company totally makes sense. Since I'm invested in a solar panel manufacturer, some industry news passes my way so I have to agree with the points he brings up in his post.

Thanks to Matt for forwarding the link my way. Sorry, Bob. But you can still get a wind turbine for $10,000.

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Ethanol

It's pretty well established that Bush doesn't think things through, Iraq being the most well known example. But there's other things he hasn't thought through. He gave NASA a mandate that it put a man on Mars. Being an advocate for space exploration, I'd ordinarily say that it was a great idea. But he left out a very important detail: funding. NASA has been forced to cut funding to other space projects in order to meet W's goals.

In last year's State of the Union speech, he declared America was "addicted to oil" and should pursue alternative fuels, primarily ethanol made from corn and switchgrass. Once again, on the surface it seems like a great idea, but once again he (I'd say his advisors, but he's The Decider after all) didn't think it through. Discover did a fairly in-depth article back in August on it. Then there's this piece on Peak Oil that pulls out excerpts from the Atlantic Planners' Institute's "The Ten Principles of Post Oil-Peak Planning". Part 2 is here.

I got a few things out of them. There are technical hurdles, but these will probably be overcome in time. The sad fact is that we can't grow enough corn to meet out automotive needs. Of course that's where the switchgrass and other plant waste comes in. I can't remember if even that's enough, but it's besides the point. Farmers use all that plant waste. They mix it back into the soil and it becomes fertilizer for the next round of crops. Without it, we'd be looking at serious soil depletion.

But ultimately, there's the morality question. With regards to corn as a source for ethanol, can we really look ourselves in the proverbial mirror as we use it to feed our cars while millions of people starve in other parts of the world? There's got to be another way.

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Cheney's Fund Manager Attacks ... Cheney

I love this article. If only more people had a clue back in 2000, we'd have been spared this nosedive into ruin.

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Beer In Review: Porter Party

We finally got a measurable snow fall! After several attempts with flurries, typically dustings, sometimes 1/4 to 1/2 inch, we actually got about 2 1/2 to 3 inches. No, it's not much, but I'll take it.

The folks at the Boston Beer Company held a contest last year to let their fans choose which flavor to bring out of retirement. The Samuel Adams Honey Porter (5.45% ABV) was the winner. I looked forward to this one. Here's the description from the website:

Samuel Adams® Honey Porter is a full-flavored, full-bodied English porter with a substantial roasted malt character, offering a smooth, rounded finish. This beer is brewed with traditional English Ale hops and is dry-hopped with East Kent Goldings, known for their spicy aroma and distinctive, earthy flavor. We brew Honey Porter with Scottish heather honey which balances the spiciness of the hops.

Samuel Adams® Honey Porter is brewed with a complex blend of five varieties of malt including pale two-row Metcalfe and Harrington, Munich, Caramel and Weyermann Carafa®. This unique blend of malts imparts a full body and full flavor with substantial roasted character. The sweetness in the malt is complimented and enhanced by the unique sweetness and floral notes of the Scottish heather honey. We balanced all of that malt and honey with traditional UK hops: Fuggles and East Kent Goldings.

Sounds impressive, doesn't it? It did to me, but when I drank it, I wasn't impressed. It had more of a clove aroma to me and the mouthfeel was more like a lager than a porter. Don't get me wrong, this is still a well crafted beer but it wasn't what I was hoping for. As for the Kent Goldings and Fuggles hops, well I homebrew with the former all the time and I just used the Fuggles in Batch 15. I don't find Kent Goldings to be "spicy" at all, but the quantity I use them is probably alot lower than what Boston Beer does. And I haven't started dry hopping yet and I understand that alters the flavor quite a bit.

The other beer in this entry is the Road Dog Scottish Porter from the Flying Dog Brewery. Shortly after it's launch in 1995, the brewery was told to remove the beer from store shelves by the Colorado Liquor Board due to its slogan, "Good Beer, No Shit." Ralph Steadman came up with it. Thanks to help from the ACLU, they were able to keep the slogan on the label. Unlike Ridgeway Brewing, this is not a case where the marketing hype overshadows the beer itself.

On the pour a nice head develops on top of a solid dark beer. Although there's Black Malt and 120 Loviband Crystal Malt in here, a bright light will reveal a deep rich red color. There's also Chocolate Malt in here which you can definitely pick up, but there's a little something extra. The website says that it's (black) licorice I'm tasting and that seems right. I think that there's some of that in their Imperial Porter too. I couldn't place the mystery flavor before but that seems to be the case.

Yes, there's hops in there, but like most porters, they play second fiddle to the malt. The Flying Dog brewers inform us that they use Yakima Golding, which I think is a North American offshoot of Kent Golding but I don't know for sure, and Cascade hops, which I know for certain is an offshoot of the English Fuggles. The Cascade variety is mild hop, good for mellow bitterness in your beer. It can imbue your beer with a citrus aroma.

This is a yummy beer that has a unique taste to it. I don't know if the fact that these guys are calling it a "scottish porter" means that it's their contribution to a new class of porter because it's definitely not a brown, though it could qualify as a robust porter. It's good either way. It clocks in at 5.5% ABV.

So if I had to rank all of the porters that I've reviewed in this blog, I think that it would go like this:

1. Anchor Porter
   
2. Stovepipe Porter
   
3. Coal Porter
   
4. Road Dog Scottish Porter
   
5. Gonzo Imperial Porter
   
6. Santa's Butt Porter
   
7. Saranac's Caramel Porter
   
8. Samuel Adams Honey Porter
   

While #5 and #6 are next to each other in ranking, they're a bit of distance apart in quality. There are a couple more porters I haven't reviewed yet. One is Redhook's Blackhook Porter. I have to nag the beer guy at the liquor store to stock this one so I can pick some up. I wish that I'd reviewed Sam Adams Holiday Porter when I had the chance. That was good too. And Magic Hat's Ravell is no longer made which is a crying shame. So, I'll update this ranking system over time.

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As I mentioned on my home page, I'm going to attend the local writer's workshop again. I've got short stories to work on, and since the class starts Monday, I'm going to need all the time I can get to make the most of the class. By my posting frequency of late, you can probably tell that it's already started, but it's likely to become worse. Don't be surprised if you don't see much happening here for a while.

Until then, have a beer.
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