from the twisted minds of snm
Pours dark opaque parctically black with moderately heavy head but quickly subsides. Smoky aroma that also evokes shoyu for me. Fairly sharp bitterness, but then there is a sour middle note, and then a bitter finish. There is a bit heavier mouth feel than your average fair, but this lacks the creamyness of something like Guinness. Not bad, but there are many other darks that I like much more, I don’t care for the sourness.
2.5 out of 4 stout swigging monkeys.
Next up in the pack is the Coastal Wheat. Pours with a cloudy light yellow with a weak head. Clean aroma, the citrus peel adds a brightness and goes with the dry initial taste. There is a slight bitterness that dissapates quickly and then leaves an almost nutty finish. A pleasant crisp beer, easy drinking. I’d give it a 3 of four weissen drinking monkeys.
Having dropped off the AE86 Corolla for alignment at Pacific Automotive in Mapunapuna, I found myself with time to kill with my bike. Dave had suggested an interesting idea, I should go check out the Moanalua Valley trail that had within the past couple years turned into an open public DLNR trail. What the heck, just as good a place as any to go riding! I did end up taking a bit of a road detour by going to Toyota parts in Mapunapuna for a part for the Corolla, and ending up riding to Sand Island to go get it. I’ll call it a warm up. On my little side trip, I ride past a white civic stranded jammed up on high sidewalk by the veteran park entrance, and later an unaturaly gleeful shoping cart pushing lady. Ah the adventures of riding on Nimitz.
Continue reading ‘Solo Recon, Moanalua Valley March 27, 2010’
Now open for a few years in Honolulu, the claim to fame for this small Japaneses restaurant is that they serve fresh housemade soba noodles. Location is on S. King Street on the left just past Punahou St. For the oldtimers, it’s where Dairyu used to be, go past where Cinerama used to be, in the small group of stores that includes the Obama Baskin Robbins. It’s a small space with about six tables and a counter, cozy, you won’t have any problems flagging down service. 
Visited twice, first time had the tenzaru soba, a standard that should be good to judge by. Noodles correctly “al dente”, tempura crisp and light, side dishes nice, tokyo negi for your noodles, the wasabi looks to be high percentage of real wasabi. Not the usual mystery mostly mustard/horseradish green paste. I don’t think it’s fresh grated, but it might be the 100% real from tube wasabi. Second visit I had the Battera Gozen with the upgrade to standard size noodle portion of the hot soba. The battera is wonderful, just the right amount of vinegaring.
Pours with moderate head, a dark amber. An interesting ale. Distinctive aroma that I have a hard time describing. Smoky flavor coming from the featured peat smoked hops. Bitterness that tapers, an almost astringent middle, then lingers. A pretty robust brew, but not thick like a porter or stout. I’d give it close to 3 of 4 peat smoking monkeys.
Pours with a medium head, medium amber with a red tint. Aroma of hops detectable, but not strong. Likewise a fairly strong bitter element that does linger for a bit. Also a touch of sweet feel, but not to the point that I find objectionable. Perhaps not my favorite of the pack, but still pretty smooth and drinkable, although I prefer it with some food rather than drinking it alone. 2.5 out of 4 monkeys.
Sam Adams has become so ubiqitous that it now often gets passed over in the search for more “exotic” brews that I haven’t had. However this variety pack perked my interest as it had many varieties, almost all I haven’t had, in one convenient case. And I’m happy to say, it was a good thing! 5 of the 6 varieties I have now sampled and all get my thumbs up, and the final one is the Boston Lager which is a known good quantity.
I’ll start with the last and most recent that I just had. A seasonal, the Noble Pils. Pours light yellow with at most a moderate head that quickly dissapates. Pretty strong floral notes, as expected since it’s a Pils and the whole tagline is that it is made with all 5 Noble hops. It also gives it a good citrus note, without really having any citrus adjuncts. I’m not a huge fan of Pils and strong hops, but it works quite well here. Could it be that my love of Wernesgruner has given me a taste for hops now? Regardless, the SA Nobel Pils is nicely balanced, crisp, and clean. The hops emphasis give it a fairly high bitterness, but it does not linger. Mouth feel is light and clean. I have to give it a 3 of 4 tipsy monkeys.
This past wednesday I scooted out of work as soon as I could, but the drive to Sand Island took almost 40 minutes. I decided not enough time to make pulling the bike out and getting all my gear on worth it. Instead I spectated and snapped off a few shots. There were frequent passing showers, some heavy enough to get the track muddy, but soon after would be perfect. I can’t exactly say I’m reliving youth since I never was in the BMX scene “back in the day”, but I’ve signed up since I had fun last week busting a lung playing on the track. Just a few other pics here.
What a long day. My weekend scavenging plans were thrown for a loop when I drove out to ABC used auto parts out Pearl City way on Saturday, to see a dumpster truck and HFD ladder truck in the road. Looks like the dumpster had snagged the lowest cables on the overhead powerlines and pulled it down. I think those are typically telephone and cable TV, no tazer sparks flying, but they weren’t taking chances. I wasn’t going to be hitting that SR5 AE86 I had spotted earlier in the week when I spun by on a lark. So now what ended up happening is I woke up early on Sunday, headed out to Aloha Stadium, and signed in for the SCCA Solo II autocross. Once that was taken care of, I then headed of to ABC. Continue reading ‘Scavenging’
What? More beer? This time another Hitachino variety I haven’t had yet, the XH. Labeled as matured in sake casks. Pours cloudy dark brown with extremely strong head. Sorry, I passed out before I could write a review so my thoughts are a bit cloudy on it. I blame the high 8%ABV. I didn’t really detect the cask flavors. I recall the sweet then sourness. It reminded me again of drunk juice malt liquors that I do not like. I can’t say I’m having a very good track record with the Hitachino’s, 2.5 out of 4 booze sleeping monkeys.
