beverage season

maybe it has something to do with the fact that i was born on halloween, but i really do love the fall. it's got quite a few things going on for it... cooler weather, football, free candy, columbus day (my favorite holiday of them all), did i mention my birthday? but none of these things are the subject of this particular blog entry. no, today i am going to write about all my favorite fall beverages.
	we'll start with one of the more common ones. the starbucks pumpkin spice latte. some might argue that the winter seasonal gingerbread latte is superior. i would argue that those people are idiots. when starbucks is making the pumpkin spice lattes, i would estimate that my weekly starbucks expenditure goes from something pretty close to zero to something pretty unreasonable.
as delicious and comforting the pumpkin spice latte is, nothing beats that warm feeling that a few pints of beer can give you and there is no better and socially acceptable time (with the possible exception of st. patties day) to get totally shitfaced than oktoberfest. the sam seasonals are always good and the oktoberfest is no exception. oh, and did i mention their brewery is in boston and laura and i are going for the tour on saturday?
	you might remember when i blogged about the jack's pumpkin spice beer. it's pretty good, but the shipyard pumpkinhead is damn good. it's hard to find around DC. in fact, i've never seen any shipyard stuff around DC. lucky for me, i happen to be in massachusets right now, just one state away from the shipyard brewery and found a six-pack in the local grocery store. we'll be visiting their brewery in portland, maine next week. hopefully i can get them to ship me a keg. you know how some guys like to go on a road trip and see a baseball game in every stadium? i'm thinking beer brewery road trip.

tinfoilhats.com

now, i'm not trying to say i'm a genius or anything, but those of you who talk to me on a regular basis know that i pretty much crank out ideas (of varying quality) for new products, businesses, websites, companies and other money making schemes ventures on a fairly regular basis. it seems more and more that about six months to a year and a half after i hatch up my ideas and fail to do anything with them, they turn up as reality, making someone other than me rich. since i don't share my ideas with everyone and none of my friends seem to be getting any richer, the only logical conclusion is that they have somehow tapped into my brain. today, i bring you the two latest examples: banana flavored beer & and a diet incentive program.

i'm not going to lie. i'm into fruity (in whatever context you prefer) beers. pyramid apricot, sam adams cherry wheat, blue moon with a big slice of orange are some of my favorites. laura and i frequent capital city brewery in shirlington or rock bottom brewery in ballston. i'll usually give whatever new beer they have a shot. it was on one of these trips that it occured to me that a banana flavored beer would probably be pretty awesome. turns out i was right, when i found this. it's not for everyone, but if you're into the fruitier beers, give it a shot, and then send me a dollar 'cause it was really my idea.

my second idea (which is directly related to beer consumption) was a way to 1) help people lose weight and 2) capitalize on their inability to do so. i've always believed that the best way to get people to do something is to make them want to do it. for the majority of people to want to do something, it has to be in their best interest. the easiest and quickest way to make something in a persons best interest is to use the thing with which the most people will immediately recognize as being in their best interest, money.

the premise: potential weight-losers would go to my website, set some personal weight loss goal with a deadline, then send me some money to hold hostage until they either meet their goal at which point they get their money back (possibly plus some extra) or the deadline passes, at which point i get to keep their money. it's pretty much infallible (except for the part where i have attempt to verify some random person's weight loss over the internet). i stash their money in a high yield money market account while it's in my possession and in the end probably keep more than half of it.

apparently it took a contract law professor and a behavioral economist from yale to come up with the same idea. only they are a lot dumber than me because instead of keeping the money for themselves, forfeited incentive money goes to charity. dumbasses.

why bloated government sucks and why you should care

the federal government is out of control. true to its people, it spends way more than it brings in. early projections for this year are $250 billion (or put more scarily, $250,000,000,000.00). if you're like me, you're wondering how long this can continue. more and more americans are learning what happens to you when you can't pay your bills anymore. you lose your house. just wait and see what happens when the so-called credit crunch hits the federal government and the federal government can't get loans to pay its bills (here's a hint). then we're in real trouble.

it's not much better on the local scale. maryland's projected 2008 budget deficit is $1.7 billion. when you have a budget deficit there are two things you can do 1) spend less or 2) make more. if you live in maryland you probably already know the answer is not "spend less", and to prove it, you already got shafted once this year. sales tax went from 5% to 6%. that means you just got 1% poorer. now your elected officials are at it again. maryland senate bill 232 is on the table and it calls for

Increasing the State tax rates for alcoholic beverages in Maryland from $1.50 to $4.50 per gallon for distilled spirits, from 40 cents to $1.20 per gallon for wine, and from 9 cents to 54 cents per gallon for beer; expressing the State tax rates for alcoholic beverages alternatively as 89.1843 cents for each 0.75-liter container of distilled spirits, 23.7825 cents for each 0.75-liter container of wine, and 5.0625 cents for each 12-ounce container of beer; etc.

this is a 600% increase of the tax on beer and a 300% on wine and spirits, not including the increase in md sales tax. people, if ever there was a time to act, the time is now. write your elected officials.

high expectations - update

i drank it. it was pretty good.

side note, some of my favorite beer stores in the area:

• corridor wine & liquor - 3321 fort meade road laurel, MD 20724
• astor wine & liquors - 364 domer ave, laurel, MD 20707
• chevy chase wine & spirits - 5544 connecticut ave nw, washington DC

high expectations

high expectations are generally a precursor to disappointment. a little over a year ago they had this jack's pumpkin spice ale on tap at the green turtle and i really liked it, though unfortunately they didn't have it this fall and i'm not sure why. i tried in vain to find a six pack of this stuff and hit all the beer stores i know that have really good selections and came up empty and i stopped actively looking.

then, on one of my many trips to florida, i went to a piggly wiggly or peebles or something to get some dinner, and there in the middle of the floor was a stack of cases of the stuff. of course, being in florida, it would have been pretty inconvenient to try and bring it home, and i figured, hey, if it's just sitting here in some random grocery store, i should be able to find some at home, right?

when i got home i renewed my search for the brew, and again, after trying a number of different stores came home empty handed. as all the seasonal brews changed from fall to winter ales, i gave up. and then it happened. saturday. after christmas. laura and i went to cuba de ayer (get the empanadas!!!) for dinner. afterwards, i popped into the liquor store next door to grab some beer for later that evening and there it was. hiding on the bottom shelf of the cooler. the last six-pack of jack's pumpkin spice ale. i grabbed it without hesitation and headed to the counter. i asked the clerk if they had anymore but he said that was the last one.

i tried so hard to find this beer, i'm now concerned that is has become over hyped and that if i drink it, i'll just be disappointed. the beer has been sitting in the fridge for three days now, unopened.

on a side note, if anyone knows where to get shipyard brewing company caramel lager (had it on tap once in hilton head and never heard of seen it again) or their pumpkinhead ale around washington dc, please let me know.