2009 Connecticut Craft Brewers Beer Festival

Last Saturday was the 15th Annual Connecticut Craft Brewers' Beer Festival outside Jesse Camille's restaurant in Naugatuck, CT. It was a bit of a gloomy day. Although the much needed rain held off (we're down 7 inches), the cloud cover remained solidly in place.

Besides myself, this year's group consisted of Cooper, Bob and his brother, Ethan. I covered the malt end. Cooper had the hops. Bob is all about Belgians and Ethan loves Colorado brewers. He lived out in Colorado for a while so he had some favorites he wanted to revisit.

With Spring here, I thought a mai bock was in order so I went over to Smuttynose to try their Maibock. It's part of their big bottle series and weighs in at a hefty 6.2% ABV. I liked it a lot. It was medium bodied with a hint of a floral bouquet and a fruity finish. I'll have to look for this one in the store.

I decided to go for another maibock. This one came from Willimantic Brewing. Their Mail Carrier Maybock came across as hoppier than Smuttynose's. It too was really good. When I asked the brewer why he spelled it differently, he said it was because he used American ale yeast instead of lager yeast. I'd say it worked.

I spotted Bluepoint Brewery and decided I needed a palette cleanser before moving on to a different style of beer. They were also selling cobalt blue pint glasses. Since the free sample cups just don't cut it for an adequate tasting sample, and I'd left my other brewfest cup at home, I bought one. Rewarding me for my purchase, the Bluepoint rep filled my glass with their Blueberry Ale. It's a refreshing little beer that stands up to summer heat and won't leave you parched at a picnic.

Cooper recommended Brooklyn's Intensified Coffee Stout as he knows I'm a stout fan. Well, this beer certainly lives up to its name. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was drinking coffee. Really, the taste is that strong (as is the alcohol content: 8.0%). Unfortunately, I hate coffee. I don't drink the stuff. In years past, the smell alone would make me nauseous. Fortunately, that didn't happen here. Still, I didn't like it. But if you like coffee and stouts maybe this is the beer for you.

Silly me. I went and tried the Coffeehouse Porter from Berkshire Brewing. While it wasn't as strong as Brooklyn's offering, it was more of the same. I don't know why I did it. I shouldn't have.

In dire need of a good dark beer, I went to the Hartford Better Beer Company to grab some of their Praying Mantis Porter. Still good and I only get to have it at brewfests.

With my tastebuds back on track, I went over to Olde Burnside to try their Ten Penny Ale Reserve. Since they're stubbornly sticking with their growlers, I don't get to buy them too often. The Reserve is different. It's 10% ABV and mercifully sold in swingline bottles. But unlike some high alcohol beers, it doesn't knock you on your ass. Instead, it gently helps you down to the ground to sit on your ass. In other words, a great tasting ale.

I wandered over to Otter Creek to find out if their beers of the world series was going to come back. Indeed it is so if you're a fan of that line. Keep your eyes open. Anyway, I had their Russian Imperial Stout which was another high alcohol (10% ABV) concoction. Really good.

I was on a roll at this point. I went with another Imperial, Sam Adams' Double Bock. I could get this 9.5% ABV any ol' time but it's expensive and I shy away from expensive beer unless I know it's good. Wouldn't want to spend a lot of money on a beer that would make me cringe, right? That's where beer fests come in handy. Well, fear not. Sam Adams Double Bock comes through.

I finally broke out of the Imperials. I went over to the homebrew supply store, Maltose Express to try their Smoked Maple Wheat. It was like drinking smoky pancakes. That's meant as a compliment.

Ethan pointed out that Rogue's Mom Hefeweizen was good, but I didn't get around to trying it.

Instead I had Trout River's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. Very good. More my kind of stout as opposed to the coffee flavored kind.

Bru Rm @ Bar has always come through with good beer in the past so I gave their BruMaster's Rye a shot. Cooper had this one early in the day and I was intrigued by it. It was good.

By now, my taste buds were no longer reliable. My notes say that I had Farmington River's Brown Ale, Sierra Nevada's Porter (all good of course), River Horse's Triple Horse Belgian Tripel (Bob must've talked me into that one), and SBC's English Brown Ale (Notes say "sucks" but no explanation).

Don't worry. It sounds like I drank more than I did. Bluepoint was the only pint I drank. The others were smaller samples. However, I was beered out by the end of the night. In fact, I didn't have a beer all week (until tonight, but it was just one).

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My Music Library - 1970

1970 marked the end of the Sixties in more ways than one.

The Beatles released Let It Be and announced that they were breaking up.

Hendrix's new group, Band of Gypsies, crumbled just after it began. Hendrix stopped a show two songs in and apologized, "I'm sorry we just can't get it together." His drug use escalated and impaired his performances. He ultimately died of a barbiturate overdose.

Joplin follows suit with heroin just a couple of weeks later.

The Who took a break from touring to record Live At Leeds. I have the original 1970 version on cd, but it's full of clicks and crackles. I may as well be listening to a worn out vinyl copy. I understand that the 1995 remastered and extended version is better as is the 2001 double cd. I should probably pick up a copy of one or the other as I find the 1970 version is lacking. While it's a good album, I've always come away from it feeling that it lacked cohesion.

Jim Morrisson further retreated from his rock god persona, seeking to re-invent himself as a blues shaman. Morrison Hotel marked the return of The Doors from suckiness.

"Roadhouse Blues" kicked off the album with a blues rock stomp. "Waiting For The Sun" followed with an emphatic call to join the Lizard King's rebellion. Morrisson drew on elements from his own life with "Peace Frog" over a funky beat. The song segues into "Blue Sunday," a mellow love song that only Morrisson could get away with. "Indian Summer" complements it.

The happy jazzy beat in "Ship of Fools" belies Morrisson's lyrics:

"The human race was dying out
No one left to scream and shout
People walking on the Moon
Smog will get you pretty soon."
"Land Ho!" continues the happy beat and it sounds like a sea shanty. "The Spy" is a sinister slow burn blues number. The album isn't perfect, however, as "You Make Me Real," "Queen of the Highway," and "Maggie M'Gill" seem lacking. Overall though, it symbolized a return of the band.

Led Zeppelin, who were already living in the rock god self-indulgence of the 70's, released their third album, Led Zeppelin III. The album took a lot of flak for its varied musical direction, but I think it's unfair. Zep were trying to expand their sound and I think III is a precursor to Physical Graffiti. "Immigrant Song" is still my favorite (I learned the words from this video) though later versions of "Gallows Pole" really captured the full potential of the song.

But nothing quite said the Sixties were done than the rise of Black Sabbath. Although they looked like all the other hippies out there, their sound thundered across the sky threatening to bring hail and brimstone down on the flower people. They were the anti-hippies. Their music proclaimed doom and gloom with war machines, insanity, horror and mysticism. Heavy Metal was born.

They arose from the industrial wastelands of Birmingham, UK, and could easily have lived dead end lives. Ozzy dabbled in burglary while Iommi lost the tips of two fingers in a machinery accident. But Ozzy's brief stint in prison scared him into finding another avenue of escape from the drudgery (music) and Iommi fabricated two thimble-like extensions for his fingers so that he could properly hit the frets.

Their self-titled debut opens with their eponymous song. A church bell rings in the distance as a thunderstorm rages. The next thunderclap is Tony Iommi's guitar, Geezer Butler's bass and Bill Ward's drums. The song carries on with a menacing diminished fifth chord progression while Ozzy reels in terror as a "figure in black" stalks him (though apparently it was Geezer Butler). The song crescendos towards the end as the protagonist meets his fate. While some might interpret this song to be the band's love of the occult, it's rather a warning not to mess with it.

Harmonica announces the arrival of "The Wizard," a rocking homage to Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. "Behind The Wall of Sleep" is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's "Beyond The Wall of Sleep." "Bassically" is Geezer's bass solo intro to "N.I.B.", a song written from Lucifer's point-of-view on deceiving humans to follow him.

Bill Ward opens "Wicked World" with an up tempo beat. The rest of the band follow suit with some rocking blues only to abandon it for a more serious rhythm change in time for Ozzy's dire vocals. The guitar solo towards the end of the song is odd in that the rest of the band has stopped playing.

"A Bit of Finger," "Sleeping Village," and "Warning" are merged together as one track as part of a grand 14 minute suite. "Warning" is a blues cover about loving someone a bit too much. There's all sorts of jamming going on. There's a part where it's just Iommi noodling around showing everyone what he can do. It's just him. No other instruments. It's like they took a cigarette break or something. But they come crashing back to continue with the jam and close out the song.

Amazingly enough, the band recorded this album live in one day. They only had two days in the studio and needed one day for mixing and pre-production.

But in case people didn't get the message the first time, Black Sabbath followed up with Paranoid.

"War Pigs" opens the album with a slow progression as air raid sirens build. It all comes to an abrupt halt. Staccato notes punctuate Ozzy's anti-war lyrics like mortar fire eventually crashing into another theme to carry the song into the jam. The outro, "Luke's Wall," is more melodic and elevates the song into a musical triumph.

I never get tired of "Paranoid." Everything about it kicks ass. It's got the now classic chunka-chunka-chunka rhythm punctuated with the quick Iommi riff and the solo wails. Ozzy's vocals stay within a fixed range as if he's straining to hold it together but at times completely loses it. And the lyrics are all about alienation and isolation and knowing that he's messed up and can't do a thing about it.

And the funny thing is, the song was an afterthought. The record label thought the album was too short and insisted Sabbath go back into the studio and record one more track.

"Planet Caravan" is one of those hidden gems. It's a mellow, psychedelic trip through space. The song also gives the listener a chance to rest after the first two tracks.

Then comes "Iron Man." Everyone knows this song. It had nothing to do with the comic book character (though the movie would reverse this). It's a sci-fi tale about a man who travels into the future and sees unbelievable carnage. When he returns to his own time, something goes wrong and he's turned into "iron man" by the "great magnetic field." He's unable to explain what he saw and people turn their backs on him. Furious, he exacts revenge upon mankind and unleashes the very carnage he tried to warn them about.

And the song rocks! Once Ozzy's vocals are done, the rest of the band stampede along to convene to the listener images of Iron Man's destruction.

"Electric Funeral" plods along with it's tale of nuclear war. It picks up the pace in the middle of the song with a brief funky rhythm and guitar solo. It then slows back down to its original pace and fades away.

"Hand of Doom" is about the dangers of heroin abuse. It starts slow as the Geezer's bass walks along with Ward's quiet backbeat. The chorus brings a swell of volume along with reverberating riffs. Two minutes in the guys rock out while Ozzy sings his warnings. "Your mind is full of pleasure. Your body's looking ill." A stomp kicks in, simulating a heart pounding in the user's chest. "You're having a good time baby, but that won't last. Your mind's all full of things. You're living too fast." The last two minutes of the song document the demise and death of the heroin user. "Now you know the scene. Your skin starts turning green."

"Rat Salad" is downright happy compared to the previous track. It's a short instrumental that showcases the musical prowess of each of the band members. Drum solo!

"Jack The Stripper" is the name of the instrumental introduction to "Fairies Wear Boots." It's slower in tempo than "Rat Salad" and serves as a warm up for "Fairies..." There seems to be some disagreement as to the origin of the song. Even the band is split on it. Some say it was reference to skinheads who were harassing the band others that it was a hallucination. Irregardless, the song is primarily a heavy blues jam that is just fun to listen to until it fades away.

These two albums from Black Sabbath cemented the foundation of Heavy Metal. They would serve as the inspiration for a flood of bands, especially in the next generation.

From this point on, hard rock and metal were defined by two bands: Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Successive bands in these genres could trace their lineage back to either one or the other. Sub-genres would arise that enhanced the listening sphere, taking the music into incredible new territory. Others would be detrimental, leading to fads that blew up fast, crowding out everything else and (like all fads) died, threatening to take the parent genre along with it.

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