from the twisted minds of snm
Found also at Marukai, the Kolsch from Kizakura brewery. Pours a slightly cloudy yellow with moderately strong head. Fair amount of hop aroma, but not strongly flowery. There;s abit of tanginess in the middle, abit of bitter, then a grain finish. Mouthfeel is crisp. As would be expected of a kolsch, its pretty easy drinking.
Just makes 3 of 4 monkeys
This years Octoberfest entry from Samuel Adams. Pours clear medium dark amber, medium head. Hop but not flowery aroma, with roasty tones. A bit of tang ending with tapering bitter. Not incredibly complex, I much prefer the Sierra Nevada rendition. Still fairly hearty and drinkable.
I’d say it just makes 3 out 4 October monkeys..
The big ticket item I ordered from SKD was this, from Refactor Tactical they call it the ASO bag, Advanced Special Operations bag. It’s kind of a glorified duffel, but a very well made tactical duffel. Main compartment has a large opening flap and is devoid of anything else leaving maximum space to stuff krap in. Continue reading ‘Tactical Anvil Shaped Object?’
Next up in the variety pack is this blonde ale. Pours clear medium yellow, weak head. Smoke aroma, not a terribly complex peaty smoke, just a straight smoke your bacon smoke. Hop tang and touch of citrus, clean finish. Medium mouthfeel, weak carbonation.
Just makes 3 out 4 smokey monkeys.
In the Samuel Adams Fall Variety Pack, pours a very dark amber with small head. Dark roast aroma, bitterness in the middle gives way to a controlled sweetness. A nice nuttiness sneaks in on the finish. The sweetness along with the carbonation that goes quickly away does give it a moderately heavy mouthfeel.
Not as heavy hitting as some bock’s I’ve had, this is pretty nice drinking. Still it’s more appropriate to slow drinking than sessioning.
I give it 3.5 out of 4 goaty monkeys.
OK, SKD wrangled me with their Ninja school promo discount and a bought a couple things. One is this bag from Hawkepaks they call the recon rifle bag. No, it’s not a tactical man purse, it’s going to be my tool bag for work!
The gray bag on the left is what I’ve been using. It’s a $5 NAPA bargain bin special, but I like it because it has tool pockets that my tools kind of fit into. It’s a touch too small sometimes and the cheap fabric is falling apart, but at $5 I just buy another, this is my second.
So now I have this new made in USA bag. It’s clearly made of more robust Cordura and features more compartments and a nicely padded shoulder strap. It also came with additional MOLLE pouches, one for water bottle and other three magazine pouch to attach as desired, and a holster doodad. Looks like I can make use of all of the parts except for the waist strap. I think that’s going to become spare parts.
So the question is, is this new pack worth 16 times more than the bag I was using? We shall see.
New at Marukai, looks like they are importing this Kyoto craft brew that Dave earlier reviewed. Pours a cloudy medium yellow with moderate head. Doing the swirl with last quarter of pour churns up some pretty chunky bits. Despite the name, mild initial aroma, citrus and hop. Even bitter that fades to a nice grain finish.
A good example of a Weiss.
4 of 4 white monkets
after all these years of visiting Whistler Blackcomb, I finally ate at Mongolie Grill. I guess before you make a judgement, you have to try it. My judgement is I do not need to go back. It’s not awful. Let me take a step back and describe it. You pick out your own ingredients from a self serve salad bar type layout. Selection of noodles vegetables and meats. Ladle on a sauce. Then take it to cooks manning a giant grill where they stir fry your selections while you watch. They occasionally will entertain with some teppanyaki style juggling and food tossing. You are charged by weight, which quickly adds up. In fact, this meal ended up being my most expensive meal in Whistler! So not worth it. In fact, Build Your Own Bowl that just opened in Hawaii Kai does the same thing but Ina casual dinning setting for $10 a bowl that tastes almost as good. True it doesn’t have sockeye salmon, scallops or ribeye, but then it doesn’t cost $35 either.
2 out 4 Mongolian Monkeys, the value isn’t there.
Final day was a iffy weather day so we decided to stay in the Whistler area instead going down to Squamish like we wanted. Rode Deliniator, Sh!t happens, Big Kahuna and back. Weather turned out ok, overcast no rain. Trail pretty technical, a few rock slabs, fun but I was totally tapped on the way back and riding in survival mode. No amount of bars and energy gels was doing any good.
