Beer Review: Green Dragon/OBC Bière de Garde, KING GHIDORAH

When I took my first sip of Green Dragon's King Ghidorah, on Saturday at Rogue's Brewer's Memorial Ale Fest, I had no idea its namesake was a three-headed flying beast who is Godzilla's bitterest enemy. I'm not sure who Green Dragon's version of the monster - a Bière de Garde, or French/Belgian style of beer similar to a Saison farmhouse ale - was intended to attack, because my nose, tongue, and belly loved it. Maybe this means I belong on the side of evil, and if that's the price of enjoying King Ghidorah, I'm totally fine with it. This beer was so good, if King Ghidorah is one of the bad guys, screw the good guys. This beer was tangy, fruity, fragrant, intense, complex, quizzical, and old-timey yet futuristic. I wanted to drink it while reading handwritten letters scanned into an iPad sitting on a vaguely mildewed bale of hay surrounded LEDs, candlelight, and the sounds of Titus Andronicus.

Unfortunately, King Ghidorah is destined to fade into a dreamy memory like the mythical creature it's named after. I will probably never drink this beer again, unless I track it down next time I'm in Portland. But all is not lost! I looked up Green Dragon - some Portland peeps had heard of this pub-turned-brewery - and though they don't yet have a real website*, they do have an elusive facebook page. There, I found information from the King Ghidorah release party (which already happened, dang), which included these tidbits:

"We formulated and brewed this with Brad Winter of the Oregon Brew Crew; it is quite unique and we took the unknown path. The majority was fermented and aged in a used Rogue Dead Guy whiskey barrel then blended with a portion fermented in stainless to smooth the whiskey and oak contribution - 87% barrel and 13% stainless. Within find hints of oak, vanilla, apricots, clove, cinnamon and whiskey with firm mouthfeel and subtle lingering flavors.

King Ghidorah
Bière de Garde
OG 20P ABV ~9.2% IBU 25 Color ~10 SRM
PCTBB Yeast / Wyeast 3726 Farmhouse Ale"

So the breadcrumbs have been dispersed. Maybe one day, once I've cut my homebrew chops, I'll be able to recreate it (or some equally progressive and otherworldly** Bière de Garde).

*Green Dragon folks, if all the beers you make are as good as King Ghidorah, I will so build a rad website for you - the only compensation I would require is enough beer to get me through the build process.

**The real (and by real I mean fictional) King Ghidorah is actually a dragon-like alien. Awesome!

P.S. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it -- they wouldn't have turned out very well anyway because the Brewer's Memorial cups were plastic and opaque. Anyway, it was a slightly cloudy orangish/amberish color with a good head.

Image is from Flickr user bweisner shared with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license

Early European Exploration of the Lower Colorado River

This semester, I honed by map-making, graphics, and web design skills (err, hone may not be the exact right word...) by building a website from scratch:

Early European Exploration of the Lower Colorado River

Here's a glimpse:



Now go explore the rest!

(And then report back with all your criticism -- which should be extensive.)

Friskies won't get out of my brain, and I like it!

I have a new obsession:



You think I'm crazy? Well, I do too. The first time I saw this commercial, I had a thoroughly "WTF?!" reaction. "This crap is ridiculous!" I told myself. But then I realized this is exactly what is going on in my cat's mind every time I open a can of food* for him. (*The fact that he is a Fancy Feast snob who wouldn't touch Friskies is irrelevant.)

Yes, cartoon turkeys, cows and flying fish dance, frolick and glide through his brain. (At least, he sure acts like it.)

I can't get the song out of my head. And you know what, I really don't care because I love it so much! Friskies, what have you done to me?

Here is the transcript (confession - I am transcribing it because it gives me an excuse to watch the commercial one more time):

What if one little pop could open a world of wonder?
So sensory. So satisfying.
The discover never seems to stop.
A journey to delicious and beyond.
Exciting your cat day and night with endless enchantment.
It's the magic Friskies makes happen every day, in so many ways.
Friskies: Feed the senses.

Update: Seth Stevenson at Slate covered this commercial in "Advertising Deconstructed":

I asked Friskies marketing director Susan Schlueter to explain. What followed was a fascinating glimpse into the world of feline feeding rituals. (Perhaps you knew this stuff already. As I lack a cat, or any experience tending cats, it was new to me.) Apparently, dry food is left out all day for cats to nosh on. Kitty will take a few desultory nibbles, but then go back to chasing dust motes or clawing at upholstery—leaving the remainder of the desiccated food in the bowl for later. By contrast, wet food is a once- or maybe twice-a-day treat. When that can of wet food peels open, kitty hops up onto the countertop and eagerly slurps until she reaches the final drop of yummy slop.

"Feeding wet," as Schlueter calls it, can for some owners be a highly ritualized and intimate pet interaction. The pop of the can primes kitty for excitement. The scents that escape set feline nostrils aflutter. This is a time for cats and owners to bond over a heap of moist, processed meat. And, according to Schlueter, many owners like to imagine what their cats are feeling and thinking during these moments of culinary ecstasy. This trippy ad, which is for wet food, is meant to capture the altered consciousness of the cat—the sensually heightened bliss it derives from chewing on a pile of damp Friskies.

So so true. The marketing team at Friskies knows me and my cat so well.