Walkin' on my Hands

I'd stand on my hands for a good drink too.

Here we go.  Ready for Memorial Day weekend.  Now we are not your average Memorial Day weekend party-ers.  We take it to a whole different level.

Sitting back and consuming large amounts of quickly produced beer called american lager with no flavor, or drinking from the dogs water bowl.  That would be a hard one to decide.  It may depend on if the dogs eat anything today.

Well all funny business aside.  Good and Great Beers are no longer in short supply.

Back in college, the only good beer at Tiger Town Tavern was Bass Pale Ale, before it got bought out by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2000.  We would have to drive to downtown Greenville (some distance for poor college students) to the new small Brewing Pub to find some good beer.  If you are going to drink beer, then drink good, or better yet, Great beer.

When I moved to east Texas in '99, I discovered Fat Tire at the local Kroger.  Oh my, but they would only get a few in.  I would always leave one 6-pack, for the next great beer lover.  Now I rarely drink Fat Tire because they are so many more choices especially our local Saint Arnolds which I loved the DR13, quadruple Belgian-style Ale (I still have the empty bottle) and Karbach.   Little Woodrows introduced me to Chimay blue, I believe.  Hopefully one day I will have a Quad from Brouwerij Westvleteren Belgian monks which is viewed by many as the best.

Plus to add to my good fortune, I have a husband who loves to craft beer at home.  He made me a christmas ale that is still delicious.  Yes I still have it.  I do space my beer consumption out.  Way too many calories and alcohol brain clouds in every bottle.  1 or 2 is good for me, once or twice a week.  That is really the only thing that my body and mind can take.  I fortunately or unfortunately found this out at 18 in greek life, better then than now. (Not a cheap date because I drink expensive Beer.)

6 true Trappist beers (Belgium)

1. Achel
2. Chimay
3. Orval
4. Rochefort
5. Westmalle
6. Westvleteren

Pumpkin Beer:  @rateyourpumpkin

1. Shipyard Smashing Pumpkin Ale *
2. Wasatch Pumpkin *
3. Post Road Pumpkin (real pumpkin puree) *
4. Karbach Krunkin Pumpkin Ale *
5. Saint Arnold Pumpkinator (stout) *
6. Southern Tier Pumking *
7. Elysian Night Owl
8. Uinta Punk'n, Tröegs Master of Pumpkins
9. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin
10. Steven's Point Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale
11. Samuel Adams Fat Jack
12. Dogfish Head Ale Punkin
13. Redhook's Pumpkin Porter
14. Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (real pumpkin puree) *
15. Heavy Seas The Great Pumpkin (Maryland) *

not Shocktop pumpkin wheat ale (little flavor)

The Republic, 7219 Fairmont parkway, Pasadena,TX

Where I find the best selection of beers to take home, besides the chains of Specs or Kroger in the Clear Lake area.

• Rowdys 2 Liquid Express, 8320 Spencer Highway (corner of Luella Blvd, next to San Jacinto College), La Porte, TX 77571 281-542-1200 6A.M. to Midnite M-F til 1A.M. on Sat, walk in cooler, with lots of bombers, and buy individual beers from the 6 pack. (Drive thru snow cones too)
• Nobi Public House, 241 E Nasa Rd 1 Webster, 832-932-5111, bring your growler to fill
• Corner Food Mart Shell Specialty Beer &Wine, 3698 FM 528, Friendswood, 77546, 281-996-4106 

For nearly 100 yrs our schools taught about taste buds.  Remember the different parts of the tongue that tasted bitter, salty, sweet, and sour, well apparently that was junk science.  There goes the old adage, (at least paraphrasing), repeat something enough, it becomes the truth.  Now finally all those students who questioned the teachers lesson, you were right.

Nature magazine, volume 444 published a study in Nov.16,  2006, that shows the proof that all our taste buds can taste 5 different tastes.  So it doesn't matter what size glass you drink your beer or wine in.   Now I did not read this from Nature (too expensive since my L&A loss and Cruising Outpost mag), but I watched it on the Harvard online lecture series On Science and Cooking on ITUNES U.  Plus they find a new taste bud that the asian community had identified years ago called Umami (aka savoury or L-glutamate by Kikunae Ikeda 1909), which means delicious in Japanese.

Our tongue and nose can sense umami (savory), sweet, sour, bitter, salt, fatty acid, and purity of water.

The old saying of never trust a skinny chef because they do not taste the food. 

 This recent study on the differences in taste sensitivity that if you are skinny then do not trust the taste of an obese one either, because obese "subjects could identify taste qualities less precisely than normal weight." 

I know from a friend who stopped smoking to not trust the taste of an active smoker because their taste buds are less precise.