Zeta Rauchbier & Amber Ale review

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I just barely got to taste these two beers from the Zeta Brewery while they were presenting, so this post will be a brief brush up on both of them.

The first of the two beers I tried was the limited edition Rauchbier called the Zendra.

Brewery: Zeta
Brewery Location: Alboraya, Spain
Alcohol: 7.8%

Carlos, the co-founder of the Zeta brewery and who was the one presenting the beers, said that this was a bit more salmony, but I didn’t quite get that. I am familiar with rauchbiers, though, which is maybe why I wasn’t surprised by the smokiness. For reference, “rauchbier” means “smoke/smoky beer” in German, and when you drink one, you definitely get a sense of smokiness. I love them, but they aren’t for everyone. Continue reading →

Zeta Hell Review

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Brewery: Zeta
Brewery Location: Alboraya, Spain
Alcohol: 5.5%

This was one of the beers that I tried during a recent beer event. A Meetup group that I recently joined was hosting an event where the co-founder of the Zeta brewery came and talked about their beer, as well as offered some samples. I will talk more about that in a dedicated post to come later.

While I hate to admit that I wasn’t so impressed by this beer, I hope the folks at Zeta can rest assured that I liked their other beers that I sampled a lot more.

In any case, the Zeta Hell is a German style helles beer. For the record, helles just means light in German, as in the opposite of dark. As such, the name of this beer (hell) isn’t referencing the raging inferno where Satan lives, but just pointing to the style of beer that it is. It differs from other helles by having some American hops thrown into the mix. Continue reading →

Seattle Part II

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The second part of my trip (first part here) involved us checking out some other interesting things in the Seattle area over the next couple of days.

I am not sure of the exact order because I actually spent time naming all of my photos based on the content of the photo. While this was a nice idea at first, it took way too much time, and it completely messed with the ordering of the photos. Continue reading →

Трехсосенское бархатное Review

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(I don’t have the faintest idea how to pronounce that)

Brewery: Trehsosensky Plant (Завод Трехсосенский (ООО))
Brewery Location: Somewhere in Russia… I am struggling to find out.
Alcohol: 4.9%

I was walking around my neighborhood and I found a polish market. In the search for poppy seeds rolls (which I used to get at the polish market where I lived in Chicago), I went inside to see what they have. Continue reading →

Dolden Berg Amber Lager Review

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Brewery: Rhein-Ruhr Getränkspezialitäten GmbH
Brewery Location: Essen, Germany
Alcohol: 5%

This was simply a 3-pack that I saw for sale in the store here in Germany and I decided to buy it on a whim. As far as I could tell (based on the bottle), the brewery and location are as I indicated above, but I seem to find conflicting information online. It basically seems like a private craft beer brand for certain grocery stores in Germany, and I am not even sure if it’s done by one brewery or not. Continue reading →

Tech Class To Microsoft’s Campus

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When I was in high school, I partook in a tech class, learning about computers – how they work and how to fix them. It was quite the insightful course, and somehow or another we luckily were able to fly out to Seattle as a small class to visit the Microsoft campus in Redmond. I can’t recall if we got a grant or if we did some fund-raising (this was almost 10 years ago), but it was made possible for our smaller class of about 10 students to go out to Redmond to see Microsoft.

Our teacher somehow knew an employee who worked there, and I guess he managed to arrange a tour of sorts for us so we flew out to Seattle! After a short trip from Wyoming, we arrived in Seattle, and shortly thereafter, we went to Redmond for a tour of the campus. Continue reading →

Strong Suffolk Dark Ale Review

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Brewery: Greene King
Location: Bury ST Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Alcohol: 6%

This was just a beer that a friend picked up for me when she went to the Netherlands. I half jokingly told her to get some beers for me since she was going to a beer store, but she came back with this, and a few others which I have and will write about! Continue reading →

Christmas in Chicago

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During the winter of 2006 I flew out to Chicago from Wyoming to visit my (then) girlfriend who lived there. I was only there for about a week or so, but it was cool because it was my first time there, and I flew by myself at the ripe age of 16, without anyone else guiding me along the way (no unattended minor this time).

I drove out to the Jackson, WY airport and parked my car at the edge of the parking lot because the parking lot was completely full with other holiday travelers’ cars. You weren’t supposed to park there, but I did it anyways and hoped for the best. Shortly thereafter I boarded the plane and flew to Chicago.

After flying to Chicago, I was greeted by nothing less than a limo driver. My girlfriend’s mom wanted to make sure I arrived in style, and she had a limousine pick me up, so that was pretty fun. Continue reading →