Woodchuck Draft Cider

Woodchuck Draft Pear Cider is a very enjoyable alternative to beer. It has a sweet pear taste. The sweetness masks the alcohol and is fooling, so be sure to stop at one until you know how it affects you. There are other flavors available, but I've not yet tried them. You can visit their website here.

Lutheran Carnival XIII

Merry Carnival and Happy Blogidays: Lutheran Carnival of Blogs #13 is up and running at Aardvark Alley. Come and enjoy a vast array of confessional Lutheran posts, including a number on Advent and Christmas.

Carnival Time

Submissions Are Due by Friday Night

Aardvark Alley hosts the next Lutheran Carnival of Blogs. This is the final carnival before the Feast of the Nativity, so Christmas-themed posts certainly wouldn't be out of order. Nor, of course, would any other posts by confessional Lutheran bloggers.

If you're unfamiliar with the submission process, please check the general criteria at the mother blog. I will accept third-part submissions; choose carefully and try to cap your suggestions at two. You may submit two of your own blog posts, as well. The edress for submissions is lutherancarnival AT gmail DOT com.

On the Drinking of a Surprise Beer

A couple months ago, my wife and I were in Winnipeg, which, as some of you are aware, is the only city worth mentioning in Manitoba. (Let's put it this way: it's roughly 15x bigger than the second largest city in the province!) We stopped in at a Liquor Mart, since Kelly wanted to get some Almond Cream type stuff. While there, Kelly happened upon some Duvel, a Belgian beer which is no longer imported to Manitoba due to low sales volume. But let me say that, low sales volume or not, there is nothing wrong with this beer. It is easily my favourite.

So I bought four bottles, at about $3 each (did I mention that this was imported beer?) and brought them home. They were put in the fridge, and, as far as I could remember, consumed gladly and with great enjoyment.

Last night, Kelly asked me to help clean out the fridge. While cleaning out, I saw a short, stubby brown bottle hiding in behind a jar of pickles... and there it was. The Final Duvel. You could ask Kelly about this, but I was all smiles. Not only had my curling team won our match with a steal of four in the final end, but now, a surprise beer. Not some cheap or lousy beer, either, but the best beer.

I'm resisting the urge to turn this into an analogy, but I'll let you do that for yourselves. As for me, I did what was proper. I opened the beer and enjoyed it, enjoyed it greatly, as only the finding of a surprise beer, a good beer that was lost but had been found, can be enjoyed. If anything, it tasted richer and fuller and better than ever (and yes, I checked the expiry on the bottle and it was still fine).

I'm sure that beer was good for me. Other than a little bit of a nagging cough, I feel much more alive today than I have in a few. Thanks be to God for His gifts of barley, hops, and yeast!

How to Spend a Wednesday Night in Holland, Michigan.

Here's my recipe for success. It's tried and true, and next semester I'm going to be more diligent and faithful.

1. Make sure it's Wednesday Night!
2. Go downtown to the.New Holland Brewery
3. Bring your stein, but make sure it's bigger than this one! (even if its less pretty or confessional)
4. Fill up with a Mainstay (I recommend the mad hatter IPA or the Sundog Amber) or a Seasonal (hands down, Winter is best: Poet-the stout!) Beer for 4 bones.
5. Enjoy laughs, conversations, and beer with your pals.
6. Repeat 'till exhilarated.
Continue with any of these options 7-10:
-Visit the Vanderplex and sit in your buddy's 'office' while you discuss everything from religion to politics to girls. Mostly girls.
-Visit some friends at any given dorm, cottage, or house for a "pop in". They always love visitors early in the morning :)
-Continue the party at the Curraugh for a Guinness or two!
-Visit WTHS 89.9 The Voice of Hope College and stop in at Kenny's METAL SHOW for a deafenin' good time *throws up the horns*
11. Between 1 and 2am, make your way to Good Time Donuts. Come to the back door, knock and enter. There you can meet the two guys who work all night. They don't speak much English, but that won't stop you from coming away with a few cheap donuts, fresh from the fryer. Grab a few day-olds from the bag by the door on the way out!
12. Come back to your house or a friends.
13. Maybe treat yourself to a quick nite-cap.
14. Double up with your buddy on the 1-man couch, even though your bed is just a flight of stairs away, and enjoy an uncomfortable night's sleep that will leave you aching and moaning in the morning. Don't worry, it will still be the deepest and most satisfying rest you've had all week. Hope you don't have an 8:30 class!

Though Holland is snowy, boring, snowy, lame, snowy, Dutch, and snowy.... Wednesday Night: Stein Night, stands as the beacon of Hope for us, the poor college students begging for an end to the dull town nightlife and solace from our class-borne misery.

Bowmore Legend

I've recently become quite the fan of Isle of Islay Single Malts. One of my recent finds is Bowmore Legend.

Unlike most single malts, it's not aged. What this boils down to is that it's cheap. I got a bottle for $18. And it's a nice peaty Islay scotch.

Nummy, especially with a splash of water to bring out the smoke.

Oh, and I'm new to the blog. :-) Hi.

Three More sites!

Being as I haven't used my powers given to me on this blog yet by the Swede, I decided to add three more sites to the links. First, we have Modern Drunkard Magazine, a magazine I have linked to in the past on this blog but hadn't put on the links page. All I can say is "Shake Shake!" (If you don;t know what I mean by that, you didn't read the articles I linked to). The second link is Liquor Snob. Dot let the name fool you. From what I have read so far, there isn't a beverage with ethanol that he doesn't like. He also finds weird alcohol-related devices and features them on his blog. For instance, who wouldn't like to have a Leatherman Juice to take care of all the alcohol-related problems you may face like bottle tops and wine corks. The third link is to The Scotch Blog, a site about the only alcohol I like more than beer. Anyway, use these links however you see fit, and know there are other bloggers talking about beer and liquor out there.

Also, the enourmous amount of posts are just too much. I decided to change that too.

The joy of Kokanee

I don't know who was the first to observe this, but Kokanee on the prairies and in BC is not the same as Kokanee in Ontario and East. Here, I like Kokanee. In Ontario... no thanks. I'll stick with Sleeman's.

But I must pass on this anecdote. Last night we had a Christmas party-ish dinner out as church council at one of the congregations I serve. The waitress was taking orders. The chairman orders a beer. One of the elders order a beer. So I ordered one, and everyone on the council looks at me in mock horror. "A pastor?! Drinking a beer?!"

The joys of living in a predominantly Mennonite town... I think of the 20-some odd pastors in this town, only 2 or 3 will own up to having a beer every now and again. There is no place to buy alcohol for home consumption--one needs drive 7 miles to do that. Only three restaurants serve alcohol with meals--the two Chinese and the golf course, and only the Curling Club has a bar per se, and that is extremely limited and for the use of club members (of which I am one) only.

Legalism, I say. If it were weakness of faith, I would give in, but when people take the upper hand and demand temperance (in the 1920s sense) then it is the fitting and proper thing to have a beer, in public, with the church council watching.

And you know, the Kokanee tasted awfully good.