Gulden Draak is one of my favorite beers. Brewmaster is basically Gulden Draak Classic, but barrel aged. Lighter in color than the Classic. Some beers smooth away the alcohol. Not this one, here you just feel it. Wonderful beer, that reminds me why I fell in love with Belgian beers in the first place. The only problem is that I’m not sure I’d take it over Classic.
This is the first miniature I’m painting outside of the starter set.
The single miniatures come without instructions, and I even didn’t find a QR code to open them online. So I had to kind of guess how to put it together. And with those miniatures, there’s much more freedom, as you have to glue the pieces instead of just joining them.
Drybrushing worked wonders on that miniature. Maybe because it’s twice as big as the Skaven from starter set. But two layers of base black paint, and then a single layer of grey and white drybrush (Dawnstone, Longbeard Grey, Wrack White) brougth a gradient I wouldn’t ever manage otherwise.
Also, because the miniature is more complex, I could try more contrast paints. Some of them work wonders, some are still quite shitty: Dreadful Visage and Apothecary White are two paints I wouldn’t buy ever again, they are too translucent to be useful.
Despite having 45 paints, I still ran out of them 😆
There are a few reasons for that. First, a lot of my paints are base/layer paints, and not contrast. And this miniature has much more segments than the smaller ones.
As I’m going through my box of Belgian beers, I must say I’m mostly unimpressed. Maybe I’ve changed. Maybe not going with the “mainstream” is a mistake, and those are mainstream for a reason.
Brigand comes from Van Honsebrouck Brewery, best known for Kasteel.
I rememeber liking Brigand, when it still had a distinct bottle.
For some reason, now they have just a generic label that makes you wonder why it’s even called “brigand” in the first place. It’s smooth and nice, and left me more energised than sleepy. But yet again, not something I would buy again.
The most interesting bit I didn’t know about is that casks used to make sherry can’t be actually used to make whisky, because they are worn down. Instead, sherry producers specifically season casks for whiskey producers. Basically, they keep sherry in them for 2 years, sell them to whiskey distilleries, then make vinegar our of the sherry.
After the Shun Kai knive I purchased has dulled in just a week, I came to a conclusion that maybe knive hardness isn’t the problem, the boards that I use are. For many years I’ve used sets of plastic boards, latest one from Joseph-Joseph.
There are a few alternatives: hinoki wood, synthetic rubber or wood fiber. I decided to start with later, as the cheapest alternative of the three. Not that it’s particularly cheap: a single cutting board of similar size costs as a set of 4 plastic boards.
Does it work? After a week of using it, I’d say it does. Of course it’s very hard to measure: you don’t always cut the same stuff day after day. But after a week, I still can cut paper ribbons with my knife, and that’s already something.
Lately I’ve been trying different Belgian beers I haven’t tried before, and honestly, I wasn’t much impressed with the last few bottles. But Malheur (not to be confused with Melchior, which is also Belgian beer) set me back on the right track. It has some head, but it goes away quickly, leaving you with not very gassy ale that tastes like canned peaches to me, mostly. A lucky find, and now I hope to try Malheur 12.
Finished painting last skaven out of 20 today. All that’s left now is to paint and clean the bases.
I ended up with more than 40 paints. Some of them are a disappointment, especially the Volupus Pink I’ve been hearing so much about. It’s not pink, it’s purple. And I needed pink for the tails, which was the most time-consuming part.
I didn’t have any reason to rush this. A single rat takes between one to two evenings to paint. I also was taking breaks to wait for new brushes and paints to arrive to experiment. And I switched from layer to contrast paints half the way through, which I’m quite happy with.
Huyghe Brewery is best known for its amazing Delirium line of beers, or “the beer with the pink elephant”, but it’s not the only beer it produces.
One example is Averbode I reviewed last year, and another, and maybe better known, is the La Guillotine.
It’s an golden ale, a style that I like very much.
Delirium, in comparison, has the same ABV, 8.5%, but is a pale ale. Pale ales should be generally more bitter than golden ales.
But here’s a catch: Delirium is considered sweet for pale ale, while La Guillotine is considered bitter for golden ales, so all in all, Delirium is sweeter than La Guillotine. Go figure.
In any case, I would pick Delirium over La Guillotine.
I love Belgian beers and love Trappist ales, so I grabbed this Achel Tripel to try. Tastewise, it didn’t impress me much. I was drinking it alongside Grimbergen, and the later has more flavour with less ABV. It does provide tons of sleepiness, though. I was still feeling it’s effect after 3 hours.
Maybe I’d enjoy it more if I’d cool it properly. This one I had room temperature, because it was a last minute decision. But I probably wouldn’t bother buying it again, honestly.
This is my first Madeira cask whiskey. It has surpring level of peatiness to it, which I didn’t expect. At 52%, it is sweet, but not as sweet as some sherried whiskies, and it leaves a nice warmth in your throat.
Aeropress Go Plus is almost everything I wanted from Aeropress Go. It is slightly bigger. The plastic is clear and feels more robust. Actually, the entire thing is more robust. The cup is metal and thermal, and has a storage compartment at the bottom for extra paper filters. And it all fits very nicely.
The only downside for me is that you can’t fit the lid with the pressurized filter cap on. Aeropress Go had a rubber lid, so you could still stretch it, but Go Plus has a plastic lid. Still, I prefer this version much more, and I didn’t plan to use the lid anyway.
I purchased a can of this beer simply for the gorgeous art.
First thing that comes to mind it is how smooth that beer is. Guinness level of smoothness, but at 7% ABV. They use both coffee beans and cacao nibs, and both are blended very well.
And believe it or not, it does put you in that lightly-sleepy state for a very long time, I was still feeling it after 3-4 hours, which is uncommon for such a low ABV.
My knife philosophy, that has developed over the years, is that I have a pair of chef’s knives, 6″ and 8″, and a pair of santoku knives, also 6″ and 8″, and I slowly upgrade them year by year. I started with Arcos and OXO, and now I’m creeping to Japanese brands.
This year came the time of 8″ to be upgraded. Since I was traveling to the US, I decided to fulfil my 2 years long dream and get a Shun Kai knife in the form of 8″ Premier Chef knive.
European knives usually come at 58 Rockwell hardness. This claims to be 61. But here’s a hard truth: no matter how hard your steel is, you still need to sharpen in. Horl for the win.
Here’s an example on even harder Miyabi knives, which are on my list as well:
Also, I’ll admit to what everyone else was saying. Those hammer dimples don’t have any effect on food adhesion to the blade. They just look nice.
I’d like to say that I didn’t like this whiskey, and the only reason I tried it is that it comes in 5cl bottles. And that would be partially true. I didn’t like the taste, a bit smoky, a bit tarty, a bit sweet, it is almost as if you chew on biltong. Later I read that it is bourbon, PX Sherry and Oloroso sherry. But I wouldn’t associate it with sherry much, I would lean more into some wine casks, even.
But I must admit, it is complex. And it does numb the mouth, and gives a bit of warmth, and a suprising amount of lightheadiness for a 43%. And all that for 45GBP. Not something I would buy, but not because it’s not interesting, but because it isn’t my style.
Beautiful bottle, with a was seal. Tastes like triple IPA, but without the gas. Nice, as I like when a beer doesn’t taste like a beer anymore, but the aftertaste is bitter, and I probably wouldn’t buy it again.
This whiskey literally made me laught out loud, as it doesn’t even taste like a whiskey anymore. It’s like they got the oloroso sherry casks, and decided to squeeze every bit out of them. It’s like drinking madeira, if madeira came at almost 60%. Probably sweetest whiskey I ever had. It’s delicious. Numbs the tongue, warms the mouth. Buying a bottle before trying is always a risk, but this time, I was spot-on.
Another one of 50ml tasters I bought separately, Glenallachie 12. It’s a surprising one. Very smooth for a 12 years old Speyside. Sweet, but more into apple crumble sweet. A bit of numbness on the tongue, no warmth in the throat, but nice warmth in the belly.
For 55GBP, it’s a great find.
I bought myself an Artis Opus S 00 brush. Surprisingly, it’s better than Rafael. Surprisingly, because it cost the same, more or less, and I thought that Rafael are more “professional”. But it holds the tip slightly better out of the box.
Now I’m experimenting with contrast paints. It’s like painting with acrylic versus watercolors (not that I painted with any in the past 30 years). One one hand, it’s kind of amazing how the model “paints itself”. As the contrast paint dries, it sets into recesses creating natuaral shading. But if you skrew up, it’s harder to fix. You can’t just put another color on top of it anymore.
I think I’ll end up mixing both techniques. As even now I paint metal parts still with metalic paints.
I thought I had Bunnahabhain 12 Years Old, but turns out, it was their Toiteach A Dha, which is peated. While regular Bunnahabhain 12 is just down my lane. It’s very sweet, Aberlour levels if not more, and leaves a nice numbness on the tongue, although no warmth.
This is all thanks to the fact that they release it in 50ml bottles. After great success with Tamdhu tasters and now this, I wish more distilleries would do the same.
Another beer I brought from Zurich, this one brewed in Latvia, not a country you associate with beer usually, but then some of the best beers I had were from Norway.
It’s a “German dobblebock”, but at 15%, it’s more of a “qudruperbock” (term that I just invented). Deep amber and opaque, it reminds of classic Gulden Draak. But I’m not sure that extra 5% alcohol adds anything in terms of taste.