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Category: Beer Cocktails

Friday Musings: Composition

Friday Musings: Composition

This Christmas, I received what I think is going to be the most amazing bottle of beer ever from my son Connor’s equally amazing girlfriend, Morgan. Technically speaking, Dialogues, made by The Referend Bier Blendery in Kutztown, PA, is a spontaneously fermented ale that has been aged in oak barrels along with various grapes, juice, and pomace. Wow, right?? That’s what I think too. To make matters even more interesting, there is a Pablo Neruda quote on the back of the bottle that is part of a poem called “Ode to the Dictionary:”

…words
as slippery as smooth grapes,
words exploding in the light
like dormant seeds waiting
in the vaults of vocabulary,
alive again, and giving life:
once again the heart distills them.

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Friday Musings: Love Storm

Friday Musings: Love Storm

Valentine’s Day is on Monday, and so I confess that I may have spent a minute or two reading love poems over the course of the past week. Research is, after all, a required activity for someone who blogs. I came across a poem by David Whyte called The Truelove that I’d never seen before. It made me think about the movie, The Perfect Storm, which may sound a bit odd to you, but I promise that I’m going somewhere with this. There is a certain scene that happens midway through the film when Captain Billy Tyne brings his crew up on deck and has them look across the ocean so they know what lies ahead of them. We see it too. It is my favorite moment because the look on their faces perfectly captures everything they would have been feeling: fear, awe, the sense of inevitability, the subsequent resignation. There is no way out; the only thing they can do is push on and face what is about to happen. On a smaller scale, we’ve all experienced similar instances. How many of you have stepped outside to take down the patio umbrella, ahead of a thunderstorm, and stolen a glance at the sky just to see it coming? I know that I have. What is it that we feel when we look up? Power and raw energy, for sure, but there is definitely more. For just a split second, we feel alive, really and truly alive. We are ready for the storm to unleash its power because we are certain that we can withstand it. The first flash of lightening may send us tearing back into the house and straight towards the basement, but for that instant we believe we are invincible.

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Friday Musings: Tu Me Manques

Friday Musings: Tu Me Manques

In my last post, I talked about the idea of a certain balance point filled with potential that exists between movement and stillness. Since then, I made a promise to myself that I would diligently try to watch for examples of such moments in my own daily life, however I think I may have picked a bad week to get started. What was I thinking? I’m sure that most of you will agree with me in saying that there’s no problem finding movement during the holiday season, but stillness can be somewhat elusive. It was a little discouraging, but then I remembered that there is an almost magical moment of calm that descends upon my world every Christmas Eve. Have you had that same experience? It happens late in the afternoon, just as the sun is setting, right before dinnertime. Up until that point, we have been rushing here, there, and everywhere, shopping, and working, or finishing up school or exams, but we’ve finally reached the end. The stores are closed, we’re on vacation, and all the grades are in. It’s time to get started on the Seven Fishes, or whatever your family’s tradition may be. In recent years, this moment usually finds me just pulling up in front of my son Zach’s house. His street is oddly quiet, and the sky is that shade of chilly pink that belongs only to a winter sunset, but there are lights on in all the houses, and there is woodsmoke in the air.

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Music and Cocktails: Walk in Silence

Music and Cocktails: Walk in Silence

For most of my Music and Cocktails posts I’ve looked to different sources to gain background information about the particular song, or artist, or band about which I was writing. I began researching Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” in much the same way as I always do, yet I quickly realized that most interpretations of the song, as well as its importance to the band in general, were written from the standpoint of lead singer Ian Curtis’ depression and subsequent suicide. It’s

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Wednesday Beer Cocktails: Twisted Collins

Wednesday Beer Cocktails: Twisted Collins

I wasn’t sure of the direction I wanted to go in for my final beer cocktail of this series, but I met a Dogfish Head sales rep last week and had the opportunity to taste their SeaQuench Ale. I was so impressed with it that my wheels immediately began spinning to find ways to work it into a drink. Hailed by Men’s Health Magazine as possibly “the world’s most thirst-quenching beer,” things like margaritas and mojitos immediate came to mind. SeaQuench is a session sour, which means that it is a beer

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