Terrapin W-N-B Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout

When I was a younger beer drinker I preferred porter nearly exclusively to stout but our tastes are prone to change and I now love these microbrew dark beer styles. This one pours with slightest head and smells like coffee. The first sip is like coffee ice cream. The head quickly disappears but the carbonation is still hiding in this creamer liquid to tickle your (my) tongue. Each sip seems to sweeten with definite hints of lactobacilious malts.

There’s really no hops flavor that I can detect. This beer’s just full bodied roasted oatmeal malt. Near the end of the drink the Imperial alcohol throws an 8.1% abv curve ball to my head. The "W-N-B" in the title stands for "Why not beer" and the contents of this beer answer, "there's no reason why not." A very strong five out of five pint rating.

Paperback Friday: Jo Clayton & more

What’s the purpose of Paperback Friday? It’s a feature where I share with the readers of Fanatical Recycling the mass market Fantasy and Sci-Fi paperbacks which, literally, spill out of my bookshelves. My interests focus mainly on the more notorious Sci-Fi writers like Jack Vance, Brian Stableford, E. C. Tubb, Poul Anderson and Michael Moorcock. Of course, when shopping the various used book bins across America, I also pick up random mass market Fantasy novels. I feel that the cover art for these novels is worth preserving, as relics of these respective genres, this is the purpose of Paperback Friday.

Jo Clayton: Maeve
Copyright 1979 by Jo Clayton
First Printing: June 1979, Daw Books

Theodore Cogswell: The Third Eye
Copyright 1968; Theodore Cogswell
A Belmont Book – Sept. 1968
This is a collection of sixteen episodes published in various pulp ‘zines from 1952 to 1962.

Jarrod Comstock: These Lawless Worlds; #1 The Love Machine
Copyright 1984 by Jarrod Comstock
First Printing: April 1984, Pinnacle Books

I purchased all three of these at McKay Books in Knoxville, Tn. I’m currently reading These Lawless Worlds.

Barley Wine for Monday

I have not had a lot of experience with the Barley Wine style of ale and recently found a seven ounce bottle of Rogue’s Old Crustacean and brought it home. I did look up an explanation of the style in a few of my various beer books and learned that Barley Wine is to ale as Malt Liquor is, supposedly, to lager. (Malt Liquor is no longer a higher gravity version of lager as the name once implied.)

The Old Crustacean pours clear and coppery. It looks like southern sweet tea but smells of hops and nuts. The first sip is all Rogue, full of hoppy flavor. The sour, alcoholic taste reminds me of the citrus hops flavor of Stone Brewery’s Arrogant Bastard Ale. I can feel the alcohol, 11% ABV, after the first few sips.

This seven ounce sample of Barley Wine is just enough to reintroduce me to the style. Barley Wine is not an everyday beer style, rather an untraditional beer to be reserved for more traditional special occasions. I give Rogue Old Crustacean a five out of five pints as a drink to celebrate weddings, holidays, promotions, births or political over throw; Viva Egypt!