Dark Matter Ale, no "Beaver Anal Gland" used to brew this one...

A Mighty Fine Tasting Ale from British Columbia

It's so nice when a Brewer hides nothing about his product while at the same time that product is so top quality, nearing where you are not going to get much better.  I think it's the culture of Canada really that's the cause of all this.   What do they have to do up there... drink beer and ale or just drink and watch Hockey... which when you think about it... that's not a bad way to live and think.  It's a so non-complicated way to get on with things.  Beer and then seeing to things needing seeing to, how friendly can you get?

sub-atomic particles

This "Craft Brewer," that is to say this company is a bit philosophical don't you think... in that what you read on the bottle at first may seem a bit over your head... it took a while for me thinking about it, but now I am clear... Sub Atomic ale particles all through my brain...  yes.

"Deep inside the Hadron Collider physicists hurtle sub-atomic particles with lightning speed on a collision course with each other. They do so in the pursuit of pure science, in the hope of one day being able to unlock the mystery of the elusive unseen fabric upon which our universe is embroidered: Dark Matter."

I say it is time all beer and ale labels say it like it is !

How can one argue with the sensibility of a brewer like our Mr. Hoyne of Vancouver Island, Canada, he being so confident of his product that he is quite clear to tell us as to what are the only ingredients he used, how the brew will taste, and how to get in touch with the company if for some reason you have a question or wish to purchase a truck load, which in my case if I had the money to do so I would.

In Germany there have been "Beer Purity" laws (Reinheitsgebot) openly in practice since 1516.  In other words no bullshit ingredients are allowed added to the beer during the brewing process.  Only water, hops, malt and yeast... that's it.  Not to ever worry (by Law) about artificial food colouring, high fructose corn syrup, artificial carbonation, and other ugly additives when drinking a brew such as those that may be adulterated (for a better word) with Monosodium Glutamate, Propylene Glycol, Calcium Disodium, EDTA, sulfites and anti-microbial preservatives, beaver anal gland, GMO Sugars,Caramel Coloring, Insect-Based Dyes, dried fish bladder and other unnecessary to brew good beer and ale ingredients not listed on can or bottle.  I'm liking this company's products very much.

Our electrician Steve takes on Dark Matter

I don't know about you but at our house we are ridding ourselves of high electricity costs one electric light bulb at a time.  Out with the Thomas Edison era (October 22, 1879) incandescent lamps first to be replaced with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL-"I would have avoided this step had I thought about the mercury") and now we are replacing those with Light Emitting Diode technology.  The LED's cost a penny but are rated at very low wattage and will last 22 years and do not contain mercury vapors nor do they give off any RF if you have concerns.  Look how proudly in the photo above our electrician Steve holds "Dark Matter,"  just look at that beautiful colour.

Water, more Malt, less Hops, Yeast... heaven in a glass...

As you may expect, it warms my heart when a good malty beer or ale comes along.  I found Dark Matter available at the government "Signature" Liquor Store at Langford, on Vancouver Island just off the Trans Canadian Highway about 17 K's north of Victoria at exit 14... just off the Veterans Memorial Parkway, where my ale guide Teresa made time to tell me all about Vancouver Island breweries, insisting I give this one a shot after my telling her I prefer Malty over Hoppy... she understood.

Dark Matter

Hoyne Brewing Co. 101-2740 Bridge St
Victoria, British Columbia, V8T 5C5
Canada
phone: (250) 590-5758

Hoyne Brewery (Click Here)

Busch Beer

Yes, it is clear and Bright

There’s this line out of the song “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin where Robert Plant sing’s, there’s a Lady we all know….”  Who was he talking about?  I didn’t know her…. It’s been bothering me for years.  I could blame my tinnitus on too many front row seats at Led Zeppelin concerts; there he was, Jimmy Page playing that white double necked Gibson EDS-1275, called by many as the “coolest Guitar in Rock,” only for me to return home late night to my own personal banality of suburbia to not be able to hear a damn thing for.  I’m wiser now; I keep the volume on the iPod down to medium-low while my vintage 1960's McIntosh MC 240 power Amplifier with Phase Linear 4000 Series Auto-correlation Pre-Amplifier continues to gather dust in the garage.  Yes, I still have the old Pioneer PL-510A Turntable, can’t tell you the type of pick up on it, and if you are looking to buy a replacement cartridge for your old faithful... there are still plenty of dealers out there on the web to help.  As for the tinnitus, it’s come to pass that many of us supposedly with tinnitus know now that we have mistaken the high pitch noise we are bombarded with for that of outdoor air conditioning units, or from the compressor underneath the family fridge out there in the kitchen... how about all those factories generating high pitch noise that can be heard for tens of miles away, and of course right near your neighborhood there is the noise given off from electrical transformers coming from the local power substation… and the the list real of the real causes continues to grow.

Classic American Lawn Mower beer...

Back to Led Zeppelin, I had to Google to find out for sure, “It's just a spring clean for the May queen,” in order to correctly remember the lyrics as that’s another line to the song that’s bothered me for decades… and what exactly is a  “May Queen?”  Today I found out she’s the girl who must ride or walk at the front of a parade on May Day, an ancient tradition in the UK, and not a tradition at all over here in the States.. as it just wouldn’t fly at Wal-Mart because we Americans associate May Day as a celebration in "Communist" countries, which partly is true.  But… at our local Wal-Mart we find Busch Beer… for really cheap.  You know Wal-Mart?  The mega company that moved in locally, pretty much shut down your “Down Town” and then hired the folks they put out of business… to work for them… for really low wages.  Low wages mean in general all you can afford to drink is low priced beer... of which at Wal-Mart we find quite the variety.  Low priced beer also means you can drink a lot more of it which in turn can lead to a nasty drunk, spousal abuse, headaches and a really bad attitude towards your fellow man because you have been done wrong all your life; a subject for another posting.

Go ahead... pop another one...

Really cheap priced American Lager has received a bashing over the years mostly through very bad ratings posted on the internet by inexperienced beer drinks, like college kids and teenagers.  Some of these comments are deserved, other comments are unfair.  Terms like lawn mower beer come to mind, which lawn mower beer is of a great utility, it is a sacred ritual of the suburban American husband for it provides opportunity for excuse to start drinking early on a Saturday Afternoon.  “Honey, it’s really hot out there, get me a Busch will you?” Busch will quench your thirst on an unforgiving afternoon mowing the artificially irrigated lawns of high American desert suburbs… there you are with mower in one hand in the dead of summer heat, a Busch beer in the other to save the day!  As Eric of the “Horse Thief Gun Company of Kansas” has said on more than one occasion, “pond water will also quench your thirst as will water from a stream;  just be certain to drink upstream from the cattle.”   Good advice! When we Google beer ratings for Busch we find remarks such as, “started to gag with the first sip…” “Light beer that taste like water…” “Not for rednecks or hillbilly’s…” and from the Urban Dictionary, “B.ecause U. S.ave C.ash, Homey!!”

Brewed from six row barley malt

There is not much to say different to you about the beginnings of Busch Beer.  German Immigrant arrives, builds a brewery, and starts making lager beer, makes money, the business grows.  The most notable fact I could find about the founder of the company is John B. Busch served as a 1^st Lieutenant in the Union Army during the American Civil War.  He died, son’s continued with the business, the Prohibition period nearly killed it off, and today there’s cheap Busch Beer you can by in the beer cooler section of most supermarkets across America that I will bet you tastes nothing like the original brewed way back in 1848.

Remember Me?

I found Busch Beer, even way cold… to have practically “No Taste.” Then again I was drinking a Busch just last night at the evening meal … we were dining on the joys of one of those COSTCO prehistoric monster size spit roasted chickens you can get for $5 Bucks’. .. The bird we have all come to love for the economy of it all… Here I was smothering every bite with their new Mango/Coconut/ Habanero blend Chili sauce that as far as I am concerned, made the Busch taste just like water... as my mouth continued to numb down... to a major league Jones on fire… the classic hot chili "critical mass," which at the time was a good thing... as anything you eat with Habanero peppers today.... will guaranteed creep up on you on the way out tomorrow?  Yes it will... Admittingly, it was nothing like the aftermath we have come to expect from a fine  “Vindaloo” Indian curry dish... so  popular from the region of Goa, India.  To take matters to hand.. where in preparation for a tomorrow that will certainly come… one should place the toilet paper in the freezer overnight ready for tomorrows suffering; and my advice would be to dab... not wipe.   I have five more 16 ounce cans of Busch Beer to get through. Would you like one for I am troubled these cans of bland beer might last way past recommended shelf life?  I could try some humor and serve one to a guest or I could just slam them all down next weekend mowing the lawn…

Touring the old Busch (John B. Busch) Brewery Click Here

Busch Beer originally was First Class rated

More photos from the 1800’s and a short story Click Here

Olympia Beer, like my daddy used to say, "Son ... it's in the Water!"

My Friend Mac said, "Why don't you Blog about Oly?"

Why not?  I agree... well the first thing I like about it is that it is owned by the Pabst Brewing Company.  Pabst is keeping alive light traditional American larger beers, the working man's beers, one of the beer's of yesteryear that made Mel Famey Walk us... I know you know the joke... if not, it's a play on "The beers that made Milwaukee Famous" and you can click the hyper link for more of that at the end of this posting. Today "Oly" remains a Pacific North West Hipster favorite... it's a beer for guys like me who wouldn't be caught dead shopping for a present for the wife in Switzerland... say for a $48,000 dollar handbag... it's a beer I can afford.  Excuse me...  you are telling me our Oprah was insulted because the lady got bitchy with her about the colour of her skin color... OK, I understand... it ain't right... it's gotta stop... and I hope the sales lady gets fired for not knowing who Oprah is and what's she's worth (some serious bucks) ... but me, I would have had a mild heart attack because of the price they were asking for the bag... are you kidding me?  Someone out there somewhere is selling a blue dyed leather bag hanging in a shop obviously where I don't shop... for folks who have more money than they know what to do with... for $48,000 dollars... for real?

I am simply amazed people have that kind of money to burn... never mind paying that kind of flow for a stupid handbag?  For goodness sake... that's a years salary for the working Joe these day's if he is lucky to find a job in his local area... that is if in his local area our American bankers and industrialists didn't shut the factory down for dividends to the stockholders ten years ago and then then ship the machinery overseas... say over to an authoritarian state not too concerned with human rights issues but is a rising world economy (take your pick as there's a bunch)... where people who live there get to work very long hours for very low wages and have no health benefit plan... OK...that's a story for another day... back to Oly beer!

Olympia Beer got it's start as a Pacific Northwest favorite at the turn of the last century.  The company successfully weathered prohibition periods both state and federal, economic down turns and disasters, and the top guy in the company sometime in the mid 1980's...compromised the company reputation... when he was caught in most embarrassing situation in a public mens-restroom... not cool and we have never heard of such things happening in modern times... have we?  This story about the top dog has nothing to do with the beauty of the beer as much as sales at the time went negative profit and stayed that way for a decade or more. 

Salvation came when the Miller Brewing Company took over Olympia Beer and then Pabst later on got involved...both companies saved the Olympia Beer name but eventually shut down the independent brewery when they moved the whole lot to the present day Miller-Coors brewing facility in Irwindale, California. 

Many older brand larger's are brewed at this facility... and today differ little in taste from the other and for me that's a sad thing as I bet at one time when they were locally brewed where they came from... there was an original taste they built a good reputation on.   Times change... production consolidation is the reason why they survive today at all... and at a price for a 6 pack so low, well... at the end of the day, as my pen-pal  "Pauline" from Australia... who just finished trekking about South America for months on end says... "a light larger after a long hot day can't be beat for Beer O'Clock..." and it's always Beer O' clock somewhere in this beautiful world of ours...she's right you know and at $5.50 for a six of tall boys...

Mac, "I think I shall have an Oly tonight! "

Impact of shutting down the Olympia Brewery on the local Economy

Brewing coming back to the Tumwater Facility

Leave the Bigfoot's alone !

A nice long story about Olympia Beer

The Beer that made Mel Famey Walk us 

What's a Hipster?  Explaination... or  Hatred of...

Bear Wiz Beer on You Tube

Back to My Happy Eye

Rainier Beer @ "Beer O'Clock" !

A very low priced larger and quite tasty

Pauline said to me it was a Larger she quite enjoyed during "Beer O' Clock." This was a new tradition she adopted touring South America all by herself at the age of 61... as she said "between jobs."  Imagine capital city after country after country staying with Friends, Parents of Colleagues or at Youth Hostiles... as I said in different countries where she often found herself adopted by younger people staying and often would be invited out for "Beer O' Clock..."  a tradition she brought with her to the states when she came to visit this past June.  The URL for her Blog about her recent adventure is listed at the end of this posting.  Now I am a huge fan of Traditional English Cask Aged Ales... which you cannot find here in the states and makes for reason a trip to the UK... a pilgrimage you see... to smaller villages and towns where it is all the worthwhile... as that is where you will find them there... trust.  These past few weeks I have been trying different commercial off the shelf American low end Larger such as Rolling Rock, Pabst Blue Ribbon (my favorite) and this week Rainier Beer.

There's beauty in them bubbles

Rainier Beer has always been low priced, a favorite of Pacific North West college students... so I am told... I can't be sure... but when you visit the states and are in this part of America... give it a shot.  I found it light, tasty, and at $4.18 at our local food warehouse a real bargain.  The photographs are mine, set to 125 DPI so there's a wallpaper here for the taking as I have put these specific photos on the Public Domain.  For me next time I pass the brewery, I'm going in.

Pauline's South American adventure 2013 Click Here

Rolling Rock

Received a text tonight from Eric of Jetmore: "I was plenty damnit hot in my pickup when I drove to the store to get Rolling Rock Extra Pale (APV 4.2) and a 6 pack of "Shiner"...   I immediately did the same on my way home from work tonight, couldn't find any Shiner... but let me tell you... Rolling Rock larger beer in the 16 ounce can is an American Treasure when it comes to drinking a cold pale larger beer on a hot summer evening in Kansas... or anywhere USA.

Better luck next time looking for the Shiner but... perhaps you can answer this.  The reverse side label on the "Pale Rolling Rock" which I must tell you is a super pale larger... and quite tasty... say's "33".

And what's the "33" mean ?  "33" refers to the founding year of the Pittsburgh Steelers


Thanks Eric... FIDO!