My Pale Wheat Beer

A mellow malt wheat taste with caramel hints. Fuggle hop aroma. Refreshing when chilled. Would be good in the summer.

Last orders for Guinness? What! Wait! Hang on

I managed to miss 25 minutes of the money program (the horror, a show about business and finance). I noticed the word 'Guinness', which I have a talent for, in the sky TV guide. Curious why the program was called 'Last orders for Guinness?' I pressed to view.

Interestingly it was pointing out that Ireland and the UK Guinness sales have dropped over the years. So their introduction the much talked about Guinness Red.

From the BBC article:

Guinness is one of Britain's best loved brands, yet sales of the famous black stout have been falling year after year both in the UK and Ireland.

But with nearly 250 years of history behind it, Guinness is not about to go quietly.

It has launched a fight back with a new lighter, sweeter version, Guinness Red, and a much hyped multi-million pound advertising campaign.

Will it be enough to reverse the decline?

Aimed at lager and bitter drinkers, it's a sort of cross between bitter and stout (or maybe a Irish Red cream ale?). Claiming to be somehow more smoother, which is hard to believe since Guinness is smooth as hell compared to most commercial drinks. I'm looking forward to trying the Red. Guinness is my favorite beer and it always has been (I think Guinness Original was my first real beer) so I don't think ill drop the black for the red.

In the UK you can find a pub with the pub finder on the Guinness Red website
www.guinness.com/gb_en/guinness_red/home.htm

This isn't a sports blog right?

After watching england lose to Croatia. I thought I would write a short post about the state of English football. I wont be mean, or negative, or even write several hundred lines of curse words damning Steve McClaren to the depths of hell and beyond (like most blog posts iv seen). But, a BIG BUT, I didn't know Steve McClaren was that useless. All he had to do is win or draw. Thats all!

I know he's overrated. Not that it's his fault. The media seems to hype up any, and I mean any win. The F.A would be stupid to keep him in the job. Jose Mourinho is the bookies favorite at 5/1. Now that would be interesting! The man is a football genius. Martin O' Neil at 11/2 would also be interesting.

In england there is a lot of discussion (mainly pointless) about capping foreign players. The idea being that the england team needs improving and theres a lot of worrying about the lack of players coming through the "system". I haven't made my mind up yet. Maybe the F.A cup should have so many English players?

Brewed A Wheat Beer

Brewed a 3 gallon all grain. A wheat beer for family (me, myself and I) at Christmas. 1kg of maris otter, 1kg wheat malt, some carahell malt (German lager malt), bit of rice and barley. Fuggle hops.
The original gravity was 1080 (10.7%) with the finished gravity around 1020 (2.6%) so it should be around 8% strength.
Ill upload a picture when its done bottle conditioning.

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Made in Freising, Oberbayern, Germany by Weihenstephan.

Pours really well with a nice head that just seems to last forever. It's a golden yellow colour. Like most wheat beers, the body is cloudy/hazy. Aroma is sweet clover and a little floral hops. Has a complex wheat taste but not overwhelming with its light and smooth body. 5.4% strength. Very German styled beer. I like it.

Brewey website: www.brauerei-weihenstephan.de

Rating: Very good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Classic example of a wheat beer.


Note: My favourite wheat beer is by the schneider-weisse brewery.

Blade Runner Final Cut

Finally, finally, finally, finally there is a Blade Runner final cut with extras and commentary. After 25 years and 1 re-release, Ridley Scott has put together the FINAL CUT.

If you haven't seen it. Its a dark neo-noir sci-fi about a cop hunting replicants (genetically manufactured human like beings).

I don't mind the directors cut. It is better than the original with there being no voice over narration. Deckard's dream of the unicorn in the directors cut obviously shows he is a replicant himself. Also, to back that up, when Rachael asks Deckard if has took the test himself there is a pause to make you think.
After years of debate, Ridley Scott in 2000, ended all debate when he finally revealed that Deckard is a replicant.

It comes out on DVD on 3rd of December. With a new trailer. If you haven't seen this film were have you been?

Have a look at the trailer...

Bye bye ubuntu

I happily loaded ubuntu gutsy gibbon until it came to start x. Nothing happened with no error. Okay I thought, ill try the alternative text install. Installed fine but still the same problem as the live cd. I even tried the fluxubuntu spin-off. After hours of playing with xorg with different settings I gave up.

No linux on the hard drive I set out to look for a new distribution to try out. What I really want is debian but its 3 cds (I cant be bothered). So I put it down to debian based. In the end though I just burned a cd of SimplyMepis 6.5 which is ubuntu/debian based, using some ubuntu repositories. It comes with KDE 3.5, bundled with beryl. No offense to the kubuntu team, the mepis KDE is much better. Iv noticed its faster too.

Its not bleeding edge using the dapper repositories yet it just works. I wish it had the debian repositories. I don't know much about it but I understand that mepis 7.0 will be using the debian cycle. In that case I would be very happy to use mepis 7.0 over ubuntu.

The default blue SimplyMEPIS KDE desktop:

Beer after sport is good

A beer after playing a game of football, a long run, or a strenuous round of golf can be good for the body, scientists say.

In a rare piece of good news for those who like a pint, Spanish researchers say beer can help someone who is dehydrated retain liquid better than water.

Prof Manuel Garzon, of Granada University, also claimed the bubbles in beer help to quench the thirst and that its carbohydrate content can help to replace lost calories.

Prof Garzon asked a group of students to do strenuous exercise in temperatures of around 40ºC (104ºF). Half were given a pint of beer, while the others received the same volume of water.

Full story at telegraph.co.uk

All hail the 'Spanish researchers'. To the track! Or maybe run (or at least get a taxi and say I did) to the pub!