First time I’m trying beer from Romania. It’s a very solid Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, aged in Palo Cortado (special sherry) barrels for a year.
Zero head, tastes like sour cherry, leaves you energetic. At 12GBP it’s not cheap, but worth it.
Would try some more Barrel Aged from Blackout Brewing when I get the opportunity.
Asahi and Hasegawa are two main brands that produce cutting boards from synthetic rubber. Those are considered the best for keeping your Japanese knives sharp. I was thinking of getting one when I was visiting US, but there I discovered the cost would be the same if I order in in the UK. I guess because they ship it from Japan anyway. So, after some back and forth, I decided to try one anyway.
If I were told that’s a wooden board made from some light-colored wood, I’d honestly believe that. It is heavy and slightly textured. The real test is in a couple of months of usage, though. And not so much in the board itself, although I’m curious to see how it retains stains and scratches, but more in how often will I have to sharpen my knives.
Usually I dislike lower ABV stouts, but I really enjoyed this one. The head is very tall, had to let it settle for a bit. The taste is smooth, sweet, definitely strong coconut influence.
Finished listening to Six of Crows. My impression hasn’t changed much.
It is an internaining, but flawed book. It is never explained why Inej is such a great assassin if she was trained as a gypsy acrobat. Are all gypsy acrobats great assassins? As she’s seventeen, are do they become more or less deadly with age? Why there aren’t more acrobat gypsy assassins then? Same goes for Kaz: he’s supposed to be a cripple, but then he managed to beat opponents in hand-to-hand combat over and over again 🤷♂️
The whole buildup for Kaz’s childhood story turned out to be nothing. I expected that his brother was killed while assaulting the crooks that scammed farm money out of him, just stabbed or hit on the head. But no, he died from the plague. Now blaming scammers for this to the point that your entire life is a revenge… is a bit too much. Also, how convenient that the head scammer is also the head of the gang. I would have hired an actor instead, but who am I to judge?
For some reason, Leigh unable to hold suspension, at all. At one point she sets up a scene where Matthias traps Nina in a cell, and it’s almost convincing that he’s willing to trade her for his former position in “Inquisition”… but this resolves a couple of pages later. And this happens time and time again. I’m not a fan of cliffhangers, but it’s like Bardugo tried to avoid them proactively.
Also, isn’t it “neat” how the group of thieves is divided into 3 couples (one of them is gay-bi)? 🤡
The ending is fine, there are at least a couple of good plot twists, and it segways into the second book, which is both good and bad: I prefer complete stories, but I don’t suppose author could finish in on anything solid.
A quick rundown on Miyabi knives, main Shun competitors:
Black
– The most expensive
– MC66, 66 hardness
Birchwood / Artisan / Mizu
– SG2 steel, 63 hardness
– Birchwood: wooden handle
– Artisan: Big European handle
– Mizu: slim Japanese handle from Kaizen
Koh / Koya
– FC61 is like VG10, 61 hardness
Only difference is handle
Both with long bolster
Kaizen / Kaizen 2
– FC61 / VG10
Since I already own VG Max Shun Premier, I went for Mizu, and since I didn’t need two 8″ knives of the same shape, I picked 6″. Wish there was santoku available, but there wasn’t.
Now we just need to wait and see how sharp it will be in a month.
I don’t remember a barrel aged beer I didn’t like yet. This Swedish Imperial Stout is no exception. Very smooth and sweet, like a cold brew with maple. With surprisingly tall head, half glass of it. As with most barrel aged imperial stouts, feeling relaxed, but not heavy, despite 12.5 ABV.
I’ve been cooking my steaks sous vide in a slow cooker for a year or so. Finally, I decided to get a proper sous vide. After some research, I settled on Anova. Then I discovered that it is 50% cheaper in the US, so I decided to get one during my trip.
That was easy enough. But then “luckily” coming back to the UK I decided to check voltage before plugin it. And it’s 110V only. If I’d plugged it, it would have fried immediatelly. There’s such a thing as step down voltage transformers. But for 1000W, they cost as much as the cooker itself.
So I ended up buying another one in the UK. I went for a slightly older version than the one I brought from US, but looking at the specs, I’m not sure why I would pay 100GBP more in the UK for it. At first I thought that the sleeve wasn’t removable in the old version, but it is.
The first dish I cooked was scallops. They worked out perfectly. Then I tried poached eggs. I was very excited, as sous vide promised you could cook them in their shells. Two recipes suggested 75C for 12 minutes. It was a disaster. The shells wouldn’t separate, the whites too runny 🤷♂️
Next is cooking a steak, I guess.
For a couple of years I’ve been told that if I like whiskey, I should become a member of Scotch Malt Whiskey Society. After my visit to Newcastle, I finally decided that it’s now or never.
The idea is that they buy whole casks from distilleries, then bottle them under names such as “Dark Fruit Feedback Loop” from Distillery 48. They still have the important stuff like age statemen and ABV, and even processing. The aforementioned bottle they’ve sent as a welcoming gift was fantastic, 17 years old, Oloroso matured. I would happily pay the membership of 100GBP just for that bottle alone.
As a kid, I had to do some soldering, and I hated it. But people change, purposes change, and technology changes as well. Now we have cordless USB-C charged soldering irons.
My ultimate project is to resolder a SATA connector that is broken on my laptop motherboard. Not that I need the laptop, but it’s a goal.
But in the meantime, I got myself a practice project:
I don’t plan to solder all of the components, but it’s a good practice. Also, helps discover stuff that you’re missing. Like the flux that came with the solder is completely crystalized, and not very useful. Same goes for the wire.
I now also understand why people pay 70GBP for a soldering iron, and not 20GBP. While my soldering iron shows temperature, it’s the target temperature, not the current temperature. And it cools very quickly once you start soldering.
I model I was planning to paint for a few months, so I bought it as soon as it was back in stock.
It’s again a step up from the previous model in terms of complexity, 30 parts. But assemling it is slightly easier, because they added groves and indents on the parts you need to join.
Drybrushing it was still tiresome. I think it took me an hour just to do a layer of Dawnstone.
The amount of detail on this model is incredible. Someoen went wild. I had to create a list just to keep up with my plans for all the “characters”.
I know I’ve been complaining about Belgian beers a lot lately. But this blonde beer is honestly very good. Feels stronger and sweeter than stated 8.5%, and doesn’t leave any heaviness behind. The closest I could think of is Delirium Tremens, and that’s a high praise from me. I wanted to stay that still, I don’t plan to buy this beer in the future, but actually, I’d buy their Triple
An Estonian Imperial Stout I’ve brought from York. A wax seal is a seal of quality for me nowadays. I don’t remember yet once being disappointed by a wax sealed bottled.
This is an amazing barrel aged Imperial Stout, one of the best I’ve ever had. Like drinking a Guiness chocolate cake, with the smokiness, but also the sweetness. Funny, but I felt less drunk from its 13% ABV than from some 6% beers. Go figure.
I kind of grew to be dismissive of everything sold in the UK, and appreciating only what I bring from abroad, but this is an exception for sure.
Imperial stout from Iceland. Icelandic beers have won a few awards over the years, but that’s the only award winner I managed to find, and only by sheer luck.
Has the ABV, but surprisingly not the sweetness. First I tasted rye bread, almost kvas, then a bit of smoke, but not too much. Definitely pleasant,
Goose Island is something I remember from Boston as common piss beer, excuse me, I mean pale ale.
But during my last visit to California when I failed yet again to procur Russian River, I did get a bottle of this 14.7% goodness
It’s amazing. Although I don’t remember if I ever had an Imperial Stout or a barley wine that wasn’t.
Very dark, with no head whatsoever, smooth, and tastes like Madeira wine, and honey, and coffee.
I’d buy it again for sure, if I ever find it.
Vault City specializes in “dessert beers”, and this one is no different. It’s delicious, although it doesn’t even taste like a beer. It is not just opaque, but kind of lumpy, with no head whatsoever. Definitely sour. Not sure about “dutch pancakes” or “chocolate”, but it does taste like a strawberry punch alright.
A beer I brought from Denmark when I wasn’t sure if I’d find any better beer in Denmark.
It’s a good triple. Has a tall head initially, but it dissipated quite quickly. And the taste is smooth and honey-like. Head is light, but quite focused. Better than a lot of Belgian triples I’ve had this year, but not something I’d go looking for in Denmark again.
I’ve heard about coffee getting stale over time. And here I am, returning after 10 days of vacation, and deciding to make a couple of flat whites from the beans I had left in the hopper.
First two shots ran at 3 bar. That’s for a coffee that usually runs at 7-9 bars. Only after purging the coffee, putting the beans from the bag and pulling another shot or two the pressure recovered.
Needless to say, I didn’t feel the need to taste the result of 3-bar coffee.
Lochlea is a distillery that likes to experiment with their cask strength batches. Apparently, Batch 3 is a peated one.
This is Batch 2, which, without me knowing, is sherried. How lucky.
At first sip I was skeptical. But over time, it actually grew on me, and now I consider this whiskey to be good value for money. Oloroso and PX casks at 60% ABV are really brought to life.
As I was visiting Newcastle, we ended up in a gastropub that had Springbank 10 and 15 on the menu. Of course I had to try one of them out, and since the difference between 10 and 15 was just 5GBP, I went for 15 years old. Paid 17GBP for the priviledge.
It’s a nice whiskey, I can’t deny it. It is smooth, a bit sweet, a bit smokey, and leaves a nice warmth in the throat. It just doesn’t worth 200GBP for a bottle. For contrast, Benromach 21 costs 136GBP.
Instead of experimenting with Belgian beers, which mostly failed, I now decided to experiment with British and American beers.
This one is a solid Imperial Stout, at 13% ABV, almost black and without any head. The distinction is the extra warmth from chillies and the smoky aftertaste. Still sweet, though.
“Ghost” is in reference to “ghost chillies” used in the process. Those chillies grow in Bhutia, North India. “Bhut” in the local language means “ghost”, so the name caugth up.