Today's March 31st, making it the 4th week of the 52 week project of my Flickr Beer photo project. Today was such a beautiful day as it is currently sunny and 15C, the PERFECT weather for a light lager on the patio while relaxing with friends.
I was lucky enough for my parents to visit the caribbean island of Grenada a few weeks back and bring me back an assortment of various Caribbean/Grenadan beers. For this week's project, the beer is Carib Lager from Grenada.
As I was saying, the weather is beautiful today, absolute gorgeous! So it was only right to crack open a Carib. Carib Lager is available at almost any beer/liquor store across Canada and beyond. However, here in Manitoba the Manitoba Liquor Commission sells theirs from a Trinidad based brewery. The Carib Lager I am trying out today is from Grenada.
This is a very tropical influenced beer as expected, not anywhere near as skunky as say Corona, but definitely light enough to enjoy while on the beach while tanning or on a patio while hanging out with friends. I'm not a fan of light tasting lagers like this, but either way, light tasting beers have its purpose, like days like today! The Carib is 5.2% alcohol/volume which surprised me (expecting it to be 4.8% or so), so it's higher alcohol % than the average North American domestic, and lighter tasting than most beers with a comparable percentage. Great for a hot summer day on the patio where you want a beer that satisfies the thirst, but not a beer if you want a flavour kick from. The bottle is also smaller than the traditional North American style beers, with having only 275ml of beer (as compared to 330-355ml here).
Flickr Link
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
La Quatrième Bière/52 Weeks! - Carib Lager
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Trois/Fifty Two! - Fort Garry's Folklorama Ale
I can't believe it's already week number three of the 52 week beer project, it seems like I was drinking the O'Hara only two days ago!
This week's beer is a seasonal specialty beer by Winnipeg microbrewery Fort Garry Brewing, which is owned by Vancouver brewery Russell Brewing Company.
This Fort Garry Folklorama beer celebrates the Winnipeg summer festival "Folklorama", which takes place each and everywhere around Winnipeg.
The beer comes in a 473ml can and is 5% alcohol/volume. When I bought this, I expected it to be a classic Canadian style lager as it doesn't mention what style of beer it is at all on the can. I was surprised when pouring it to find out it's a reddish/brown Ale. The taste is a bit boring, I definitely get the aftertaste of a regular ale, but I just can't really taste it, a bit watery for my tastes. Also, it has this grittiness (reminds me of sand) that's left in my mouth.. what in the world? Not a great ale, but then again I'm personally not a fan of any of Fort Garry's beer. Would be a decent beer for the average Manitoban as it is certainly not overpowering in any way. Would I buy this again? Probably not, unless if I happen to go to a Folklorama pavilion in the summer. I purchased this for about $2.50 Canadian, so it's cheaper than some other beers at the ~500ml size.
Flickr Link
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Deux/52! Happy St Patricks Day! O'Hara's Leann Folláin
I'm not a fan of stouts, but I drink them from time to time, especially thanks to the Half Pints taster pack (Stir Stick Stout). The first wiff of aroma I get is a bit of a nutty/molasses sort of aroma. The very first taste, to me was kind of a coffee taste, but after a few sips, it no longer tasted like that. Not really a good stout, sort of bland, but drinkable. I have an aftertaste similar to the taste of sesame seeds now. I would rather be drinking a Guinness right now, as it is St Patricks Day, but I'm glad to be drinking something Irish today as I haven't celebrated it beer wise since oh... 2005? Wow.
I bought it for about $2.80 Canadian as it was on sale here in Manitoba (but then again the best before date was for a week ago). The bottle is 355ml, I like the label but it's just a lackluster stout.
Link
Monday, March 15, 2010
Goals for the next nine months
- Get a job. Simple as that. I would prefer a full time job, but even a part time job would do. I just need a regular source of income coming my direction.
- Get out of this dump. I have been living here for 6.5 years (wow) now and this building probably has reduced my life expectancy by a decade or two. It's disgusting.. mice are roaming free, mold everywhere (not to mention black mold), a room mate saw asbestos, plus there are water leaks in the building every spring. I need to find an apartment for myself, finally a place where I don't have to share the TV or deal with peoples dishes or anything (or people stealing my food).
- Save up. Save up money for a rainy day, for a trip, anything. I want to do something such as go to SxSW in 2011, or even a hot vacation.
- Travel more. I'm a bit of a travel bug and in the past year or so, the furthest I've been was to Winnipeg, and that's only 3 hours away. I need to do road trips more.. go to places like Minneapolis, or even Quebec, Edmonton or beyond!
- Take more photos. This is something I work on every day. I need to take more photos of my surroundings. If I see something of interest, take a photo of it! Also need to remember: landmarks on the prairies don't last long, while they may be here one day, they may not be there the next.
- Lose weight. I've been doing an alright job counting calories/carbs/etc lately, I need to be more outgoing, maybe need to go for a walk/whatever more. I've been doing not bad for that lately. Walking to Timmies and back is a decent walk (2km each way).
- Make new friends. I've always had problem making friends. I need to make new friends who are more than just random acquaintances that I may bump into once a year type of thing.
- Stop being as stubborn when it comes towards cleaning up after myself. If I need to take out the trash, take it out, instead of letting it build out. Etc. I've always been bad at this. I guess it's because I was used to being cleaned up after when I was young.
- Treat myself a bit. I don't mean by splurging on going to Timmies on a day I shouldn't be. Treat myself with stuff when I am able to do well for my life. If I save up a large sum of money and meet my goals, get a brand new TV for it, but nothing too fancy. If I'm able to reach my goals, I should be able to have a bit of fun with my life! Also that means (as part of #2/#3), I should travel more, but make sure I can afford anything I do. If I have to second guess myself, then the answer will be no! So if I am wanting a car say 9 months from now, it will all come down to: "will I be able to afford it?", "is the bus system that horrible?" etc, if the answer is no for either answer or if I have to think, then it's not worth it.
- Be more positive. I worry too much, I complain too much. Need to stop thinking that people are saying shit about me. Chances are, it may be happening but the people who say that need a life and they don't matter, their problems are probably worse than mine.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Fifty Two Beers Project Begins! Un! - Ožujsko Pivo Beer
Hey everyone! I've been wanting to try out a Flickr 52/365 project for nearly two years now, but never had an idea what I should try out. Around Christmas I thought it would be a great idea to do a 52/365 project dedicated to beer. Since I don't want to seem like an alcoholic, and force myself to try a new beer each and every day, I decided that a 52 week project would be best. This way it would give me the ability to try A NEW (to me) beer each and every week! Ranging from beers I have never tried in my life to beers I may have not tasted in years.
The first beer in this 52 week project is a 500ml can of Ožujsko Pivo from Croatia. I've never heard of this beer, so I thought it would be perfect to be the first beer of the project.
A quick review, a beer that's similar to a North American styled golden lager, a very smooth tasting beer, it kind of reminds me of beer such as Molson Canadian, however the aroma is much more similar to Heineken or other European style lagers, but the taste is certainly more North American influenced, but that may just be me! As it being my first beer in the project, I was very pleased with how the photo turned out and how the beer tasted. Not a bad deal money wise, but it's not a beer I would have on a regular basis.
It is also 5.2% alc/volume
Link
Photo of the day - March 10, 2010
Time again for photo of the day! This will be the last photo of the day for a while because frankly, I'm bored. That and I've been having a hard time choosing photos lately. So enjoy this photo, it's titled "Lines"
Stuff Cody Hates - March 10, 2010
- Maple Bugs. They're disgusting and they're EVERYWHERE on the farm in the late fall, every year. They're ugly, they fly around and they get on you and annoy you. They freak me out, Bluehfhsahfsa!
- Beer price increases. On monday the Manitoba Liquor Commission increased the price on almost all the beers sold in Manitoba. What irks me about this is that the Commission states that we have among the cheapest beer in Canada - Sure, if you don't count Quebec and you don't count Ontario when they have sales. Check out BeerDeals.ca, which is a site dedicated to showing the beer deals in Ontario, better deals for the most part compared to Manitoba. $29 for a 24 of Blue, INCLUDING deposit? That's nearly $40 here. Also, they state that this is the first increase to beer prices in SIX years, that's bull because around 6 years ago was when the "value brand" beers came to Manitoba with Minhas Creek. Molson Dry was sold for $5.52 around then for a 6, now it's $7.28. Also, all the big brands such as Blue, Canadian and Kokanee have ALL gone up in price within the last year alone. So that's BS.
- Birthdays. Birthdays effing suck, it's just another day of the year, but apparently my friends/family have better friends than I do here in Brandon. I get random invites to surprise parties for random people I don't talk to or even my sister's big 1-8, but nobody has ever done something of that nature for me. I don't care either ways, this town is an effing shithole, and I have never felt welcome here in either way.
- This town.
- Unemployment
- Ice on sidewalks. There's a business here in town that has their eves trough/water flow pointing directly to the sidewalk. So all winter long, there's 4 inches of ice on the sidewalk, I've slipped and hurt my back on that specific spot several times each winter, now I avoid that street completely. I wish they would effing atleast do something about it so people can walk, that's not a place to allow your drainage of melting snow runoff, it's a public sidewalk.
- Telemarketers
- Greyhound. I effing hate greyhound, well that's obvious, since this whole piece is about stuff I dislike. I wish Brandon had a Via Rail terminal
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Photo of the day - March 9, 2010
The photo of the day for March 9, 2010 is titled "Farm Town Graffiti." Usually I'm a believer that graffiti is just wrong and disgusting, but its times when very artistic graffiti like this deserves to be noticed.
Monday, March 08, 2010
Photo of the day - March 8, 2010
As someone who remembers the weird things about growing up, I miss being around glass bottles. They were the staple of life back growing up in the late 1980s, early 1990s around when they were being discontinued for plastic bottles (boo!)
Today's photo is Glass Bottle Mountain Dew from the 1980s.
Hamburquesa?
I may be a hamburger purist, a person who enjoys a hunk of beef, someone who grew up on a beef farm, or just plain obsessed.. or.. Picky! I like to have my hamburgers done a certain way. I absolutely detest mustard, onions and processed cheese on my hamburgers. I have been like that my whole life.
If I do want a hamburger at a restaurant, I always tell them in a friendly tone "I would like x burger plain with nothing on it." but what's weird, quite often I will end up with a Burger that has all the toppings, or atleast at minimum, processed cheese slice. Blech. Some restaurants are good for catering to my needs, but others screw up each and every time. Wendy's manages to screw up more often than any other restaurant (diner, fast food or upscale). Their burgers are yummy to eat, but it seems 80% of the time, the burger will come with cheese, even if I go "no cheese please!" the best restaurant for catering to my needs is actually A&W. The last time I remember A&W ever screwing up on the burger was back in 2005. Wow!
I have no clue why I am so darned picky about the staple item of the fast food universe, but it's just one of the million things food-wise I am picky about. Well I do have a right! Anytime I go to a restaurant with a friend, family member or colleague, they like to comment on my eating habits. I get it already! Heck I've done it to people who I didn't know were vegetarian/vegan.
At a restaurant sometimes, I feel like I should be paying a bit less if I don't want cheese/trimmings on it, but I will never go to a restaurant and ask for say.. A bacon mozzarella burger with fried onions and mushrooms and ask for it just as burger plus bacon, and that's it.. That's just wrong!
Perhaps I'm just very anal about how I like my food, or I just know what I like. I've had such pickiness since I was an infant and haven't been able to grow out of it. I HAVE discovered new foods, but for the most part, I still won't eat alot of food. I don't eat fish, wild game, most pork and alot of other stuff. I'm just a picky person, I hear it every single day of my life and I will be a picky person til the day I die.
Whats your thoughts on this? Am I being weird about it? Or do I have the right? I believe I have the right, if vegetarianism, raw veganism and meatatarianism all exist, I should be picky in my beliefs too!
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Photo of the day - March 7, 2010
Today's photo of the day is titled "Devil's Punch Bowl", any of you who have ever visited Carberry, Manitoba should know about the Devil's Punch Bowl!
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Photo of the day - March 6, 2010
Today's photo of the day is "J'aime la biere! I love beer.. whatcha expect!" I was hogging quite a few beers one time because they were free!
Friday, March 05, 2010
Photo of the day - March 5, 2010
The photo of the day for March 5, 2010 is titled "Ugly, old, uncomfortable chair". A chair that simply, sucks.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Photo of the day - March 4, 2010
Today's photo of the day is titled "Let's Dance." Taken at a Crystal Castles show in Quebec City I saw a few years back.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
Photo of the day - March 1, 2010
It's March and yet another day for Photo of the day! Today's photo of the day is "Roll up the rim to uh.. lose?"