One Little Victory

Hit the liquor store today. Beer Guy spotted me and said, "I've got a surprise for you." I followed him over to the cooler and there it was Ten Penny Ale from Olde Burnside. Turns out, Old Burnside petitioned the state to drop their distributor, complaining that they weren't giving them a fair shake or promoting their brews. Amazingly enough, the state ruled in their favor.

Liquor stores open til 9 (from 8), brewpubs can sell their wares outside of their establishments, and now this. Things are looking up here in the Nutmeg state.

So the brewery found a new distributor, and a bigger one at that. Still stuck with growlers though. Definitely a brew one needs to share with friends. I should be able to do a proper review sometime in November.

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Beer In Review: Beer For Fall

I feel some political blogging coming on (with luck, it'll pass) so I thought that I'd throw off a post about beer first.

Autumn has finally joined the ranks of seasonal ales, long dominated by Summer and Winter. Most of the top craft breweries sport some kind of Oktoberfest offerings whose taste pays homage to the Bavarian festivities. Sam Adams' Octoberfest being an excellent example.

Redhook's Late Autumn Harvest Ale is their latest seasonal creation. Compared to their Summer ale, Sunrye, this is much more flavorful. An ample head arises on the pour yielding a hoppy bouquet that'll make you think of Bavaria. The brew displays a amber-caramel color (Redhook describes it as "chestnut").

Although not as hoppy as Sammy's Octoberfest, Redhook doesn't disappoint. They use a mix of Saaz (Czech Republic) and Northern Brewer (an American - English hybrid) hops to give this beer its bite and medium to full body (by my tastebuds at least). The specialty malts are what you'd expect (Crystal, Caramel, Roasted), but the addition of German Smoked Munich malt is what really gives the Late Autumn Harvest Ale more of the Oktoberfest feel. 5.7% ABV.

Beer Guy, down at the liquor store, has informed me that Winter Ales will be out next week so once those Oktoberfest ales are gone, you'll have to wait until next year. The funny thing is, it's been so warm (5-10 degrees above average), I'm just getting my tastebuds ready for Autumn beer.

Beer Guy also informed me of a bit of bad news. After trying to get the Ten Penny Ale in for weeks, he finally learned that Olde Burnside had a fight with their distributor. The latter complained that they wanted the brewery to use a more marketable container, like say 6-packs and 12-packs. The brewer uses 1/2 gallon growlers and refused to compromise. Now the distributor won't carry them. In this battle of the wills, the distributor wins as state law prevents breweries from being involved in the distribution business, and they own the Connecticut distribution rights. Bad move for Olde Burnside.

Today's other candidate is Harpoon's Brown Session Ale. As I mentioned earlier this year, I gave Harpoon a second chance after many years of avoidance and have been pleasantly surprised. Their Brown Session Ale, though not a seasonal, seems appropriate for this time of year, and lives up to its name.

The Brown Session Ale is new to Harpoon's family. On the pout, it provides an ample head over a medium brown body, as is characteristic of an American Brown Ale. The hops are mild (IBU 22) but definitely there. No idea which ones they use though, but I'd guess Cascade.

But the appeal here is the malts. Harpoon claims to use 6 different specialty malts, including a chocolate malt. But even though there's many different kinds of malt, they don't overwhelm the tongue at all. It's not heavy. The 4.3% ABV means that Harpoon didn't overload the wort with malt. It's smooth and finishes neat.

On its web page for the Brown Session Ale, Harpoon states:

While the craft beer industry has seen a growing trend in "extreme" beers, the brewers of Harpoon wanted to create something they could sit down and enjoy over an extended period of time - a session beer.

I couldn't agree more.

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What Housing Bubble?

At least that's the question Toll Brothers seem to be asking. Apparently, they're not concerned about this year's developments and the horrible gnashing sound emanating from the banks as the credit crisis deepens. But houses aren't places to live in, they're assets!

If you're unfamiliar with Toll Brothers, they're a luxury home builder. They have a few developments in my state. Townhouses in dense residential areas are the more affordable places they build with prices starting just under $300,000. When they have the room to spread out, homes double in price.

Back in 2002, they decided that my town was ripe for another one of their housing developments. They informed the zoning commission that they intended to build 129 units on the 22 acre site. Not only did the zoning commission reject them, but the Inland Wetlands Commission did too, due to the fact that the site is wetlands. The road that construction trucks and moving vans would have to take to get to the site is awfully narrow. I can't say that for all the times I've driven that road, and I've taken it quite a bit (it's a shortcut to the Danbury airport, the mall, and I-84 west to NY), that I've ever seen a truck on it.

The site lies between two small ridges and water collects in the valley. Except for this year, due to the drought, the area is typically marsh. During years we have above average snow or rain, flooding occurs. No one ever thought that anyone would try to build on it.

Unhappy with my town's decision, Toll Brothers took it to court. And won. The town recently went for a compromise and got Toll Brothers to agree to half the number of units (That's the best link I can provide. The newspaper just redesigned its site so old stuff has been truncated).

It doesn't matter that the "National Association of Home Builders said its housing market index, which tracks builders' perceptions of conditions and expectations for home sales over the next six months, fell two points to 18 in October, the lowest level since the index began in Jan. 1985."

It's not like my town needs more luxury townhouses. I didn't think that it needed any, but a similar development is about halfway completed about a mile and a half away in a non-wetland area on one of the main roads (Route 53) into town. That site was owned by a construction company, for as long as I've lived here, and was an eyesore, though trees hid it from view.

The good news? If Toll Brothers is successful, it'll mean a larger tax base for the town. I don't think that makes up for the bad news though.

While they claim to respect the environment, I have to wonder how Toll Brothers will explain away this latest conquest.

UPDATE: The first graph, here, is very telling.

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Relief

Last week, we finally received some much needed rain. Unfortunately, 2.5 inches of it came in one day. Stamford, a city 20 or so miles southwest of here got twice that amount. Streets flooded, blocking off access to the I-95 on ramps and forcing some drivers to abandon their cars. My wife said that she saw people headed for safety from knee deep water.

Anyhow, it took a large chunk out of our drought. Autumn has slowed down to a more normal pace. After bottoming out at an 11.25 inch deficit (28% of our total), we're now down a mere 8.8 inches (21.6%).

Other parts of the country aren't so lucky, in particular southern California and the Southeast. While Kentucky and Tennessee are forecasted to receive rain this week, Alabama and Georgia may not. Last week, it was announced that the city of Atlanta has only 90 days of water left. Lake Lanier might even run dry, a truly frightening prospect.

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Drought Watch

The normally soggy New England continued its abnormal dryness through September. Well, at least around here. Now I realize that other parts of the country are suffering from worse drought (the South and West come to mind), but that doesn't diminish what we're experiencing here. It just underscores how bad things are on a national level. Residents of Texas and Oklahoma are certainly welcome to take exception, considering the way above normal levels of rain they've had this year.

In my area, we received less than 3/4 of an inch of rain last month. Normally, we get over 4 3/4 inches of rain in September. For the year, we're down over 10 inches of precipitation, which amounts to a 26% shortfall.

One silver lining to all this is that my wife is actually interested in getting rain barrels. She proposed the idea a couple of months ago. It's something that I've always wanted to do but didn't think she'd go for it. I always thought she'd dismiss it out of hand. We're a little bit like "Living With Ed," though neither of us is as "polarized" as the Begley's.

After I wrote about the possibility of an early Fall, we received the forecasted rain. But since then, I've watched storms drive west and north of us. The mere pittance of rain that fell wasn't enough to get past the leaves on the trees and hit the ground. And we've got sunny skies forecast for the next seven days.

How has this played out in my yard? The beds are so dry that I was able to pull a dead azalea out of the ground with my bare hands. Lawn mowing continues to be down (a good thing), though the grass is certainly hurting. I may mow it this week just to mulch up the leaves. Maples, birches, and beeches continue to showcase their colors, with the smaller trees leading the way. The larger ones are still able to tap moisture reserves. The cottonwood and hickory trees are joining this group. Fortunately, the oaks remain resilient.

Surface root plants like moss and weeds are dead or severely wilted. Small scrub is all showing some form of wilt. A fire would easily take hold and wipe out the understory. There's plenty of fuel available.

Over in the evergreens, conifers seem to be doing ok. I think that they're better adapted for dry conditions that the others. While the fir, cedar, and hemlocks are unscathed, the black pines have yellowing needles. It doesn't look widespread so it just might be seasonal shedding.

The Japanese Andromeda are extra thirsty and have shown leaf wilt and some loss. I'm trying to keep up with watering them and the hydrangea.

The rhododendrons and pachysandra aren't looking so good either. During the winter, the colder it gets the more the leaves curl up to prevent water loss. I'm seeing the early signs of that behavior, despite the fact that temperatures are nowhere near freezing.

All of my extra watering is akin to deficit financing. I'm taking the water out of the aquifer now in the hopes that it will be replenished with rain and snow over the next few months. So far, so good. The well seems to be holding up and I won't have to keep watering for long as the plants will be going to sleep soon. I wonder though how many will wake up next Spring.

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