Legend Lager, Legend Brewing Company, Richmond, Va.

Now here’s a good beer! Look how clear and gold it pours. It is deceiving, it appears to be a pilsner style but it is a Marzen. I don’t know how Legend did this but there’s a definite malty flavor that is leaning toward chocolate in this clear golden beer. I guess most folks don’t associate the full body of Oktoberfest beers with chocolate flavor but in the beer world, I’m tellin’ ya, that’s how we describe that rich malty flavor. This beer really surprised me right off the bat.

Legend Lager even smells malty. As the beer warms the flavors thin a bit and it takes on the subtle malt flavor of a cream soda. I only have one of these because it is the one they snuck into the Starr Hill mixed twelve- pack. Legend Lager has all the qualities that were missing in the Love Wheat Beer, rich malt body with fruity flavor elements.I will definitely buy more of these beers very soon.

The Legend Lager gets a 5.1 out of 5 pints, the highest score I have yet to award a beer.

Four Weeks of Wheat Beer on Tuesday

The last of the wheat beers for this month is In Heat Wheat from Flying Dog Brewery. It poured with plenty of carbonation and a foamy white head. The first sip is a mouthful of clean malty refreshment. There is plenty of malt sweetness to balance out any would-be hops sourness.

As the drink warms the flavor becomes more pronounced and a bit of citrus bitterness comes to the flavor foreground. This is a much better balanced wheat beer then some I have had recently and I recommend it highly.

Score: 5 out of 5 pints.

The Beer of the Day Calendar recently had a wheat beer review, it explained the three basic categories of wheat beers: Bavarian hefeweizen, Belgian Wit and American Wheat. In Heat Wheat is a great example of the American Wheat style.

The Rock n Roll shirts begin & more Deeper Thoughts

At least a small majority of my T-shirt collection are shirts for rock n roll bands. Two bands dominate this section, Widespread Panic and the Grateful Dead. I have a few Phish shirts too. Here’s one shirt for each of these bands to make the shirt count 38 with 327 shirts left to display.

Last week we had Melville, this week we have Jack Handey's take on D. H. Lawrence;

"Marta talks about sensuality, but I don't think she'd know sensuality if it bit her on the ass."

There are those contractions again and who is Marta anyway?

Starr Hill Brewery, The Love Wheat Beer

This beer poured clear and golden with plenty of carbonation. It smells like vinegar. The first sip tastes of vinegar and lemons and it is difficult to distinguish these two flavors. The carbonation settled down quickly and the best I can say for the flavor is, it tastes like a margarita mix without sugar.

I can't help but wonder if this beer has been sitting in warehouses and supermarkets for too long? The "best by" date is September, could this mean September 2010? The Love has an overall score of "B" at the Beer Advocate web site, that's out of 97 reviews. This beer has a bit more sourness than I can appreciate in any beer, Belgian or microbrew, but maybe Starr Hill is on to something?

I have to give this one a score of 1 pint out of 5 pints. I believe this is the lowest score I have yet to award.

The Glory of Their Times

A friend of mine loaned me this book;




I read it in about two weeks. It is a compilation of interviews with Major League Baseball players who played professionally before the first World War. The book concludes with interviews from men who played before and during the first World War and the Depression. This was a time when the Giants and the Dodgers both played their home games in New York State and a team called the Braves played in Boston. Each chapter, an interview with an individual player,begins with a quote from another book or publication which is revelant to that player. The chapter on Fred Snodgrass begins;

"Often I have been asked to tell what I did to Fred Snodgrass after he dropped that fly ball in the World Series in 1912, eleven years ago. Well, I will tell you exactly what I did: I raised his salary $1,000." John J. McGraw, My Thirty Years in Baseball

John McGraw, Mr. MaGraw to his players, was the manager for the New York Giants. This book is a great window into another era, and to as many errors as well.