Friday, April 28, 2006

May Day

Wife thought I should explain the ratings again so here is an excerpt from my book.. the blog for it is http://nofilterbook.blogspot.com ...

Tim thanked the gentleman and kept going. He gave the Porter a 90 and the IPA a 92, on the Wine Specatator/Cigar Afficiando scale, 90-95 being excellent, 95-100 superb, 85-89 very good, 80-85 good, 76-80 above average, 70-75 average, 65-69 fair, 61-65 not good, under 60 horrible…. He didn’t think there would be too much under the 80 range today… for Tim a bud might be a 72, a coors a 76, a Guinness a 92, 95 in Britain, he hoped to find some beers he would be happy to get in the 94+ range, such beers were rare and wonderful.

Enjoyed some Bass Ale (86), Stone Coast Knuckleball Bock (87) and Casco Bay Riptide Red (83) tonight ...

It was nice to meet some alums of my wife's high school -- Foxcroft Academy, in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine ...

And happy May Day ... the days are only getting longer from here.

edmund davis-quinn

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Sunday, January 01, 2006

Brooklyn Sampler Present

My dad gave me a very nice gift for Christmas ... a Brooklyn Beer Sampler ...

Sipping a Brooklyn Brown Ale right now (88) .. its nice and quite tasty ...

I also have one of my favorite beers Brooklyn Chocolate Imperial Stout (93) .. although this years is more bitter then I remember ...

There is also some Brooklyn Lager (87) .. which is an absolutely outstanding beer with pizza ...

The sampler also has Brooklyn Monster Ale (94) ... Which is a 10% alcohol neo-Barleywine ... Its yummy stuff but very, very rich... realize you are drinking 2 beers not one.

Great gift and a great brewery (too hard to find in Maine unfortunately.) ...
Cheers and Happy New Year!

edmund davis-quinn

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Monday, December 05, 2005

Great Lost Bear-- 30 November 2005

Maine Beer Notes


11/30/5

4 tasters (5 oz) .. Great Lost Bear, Portland, ME ….

First one is one I reviewed highly earlier on bottle …. Smuttynose IPA (NH) … 92 … very yummy, clean, nice hoppiness .. .. quite lovely beer ….
Would recommend on tap or bottle….

Second is another I have had before .. Sheepscot Pemaquid Ale (ME) … pretty good stuff … 88… good stuff … pretty rich …

Third … Anchor Steam X-Mas Ale (CA) … very distinctive taste … its growing on me ..… generally a big fan of Anchor Steam … I think I prefer on memory now Anchor Steam (90) and the Porter (92) .. … Not sure how to rate it … I think it’s in the 85-86 range … I will go with 85.5 ….

Fourth …. Harpoon 100 Barrel Stout .. Pretty Good stuff .. 87 … yummy .. drinkable … Nice rich taste .. good stuff.

I like it …

The best of the Group is the Smuttynose :)P

2nd Group of 5 ... The first was Cape Ann's Fisherman's Brew (MA) ... Clean, good very nice taste .. nice beer .. 86

Allagash White Beer (91) ... very distinctive, yummy beer .. like it better on tap than on bottle (85) . Had some in the bottle on Saturday and it was nice but not spectacular ...
Very nice, very distinctive beer .. it is a white so has an almost sour taste.

Allagash Double Brown Ale ... Yummy, very, very good rich .. gave at 89 at the Bear but will give it an extra point for a 90 .. Allagash is a great brewery and I will try any of their beers ...

Stella Artois. .not bad .. 81 ... to me a very, very overrated beer .. some call it the Bud of Belgium ... a little sour .. its OK .... I am not in the cult of Stella .. prefer most other Belgians or American Trappist-style ale

Atlantic Bar Harbor Blueberry ... To me this was the best of the night. I really like this beer, there are blueberries in the beer and it gives it a sweet quality, very, very yummy. A nice ale with blueberries in the flavor. Very Good/Excellent .. 93

I also had a round of 3 Cask Conditioned Beers .. One really surprised me....

The Shipyard Old Thumper Ex. Spec. Ale (cask-conditioned) ... Pretty good ... yummy ... maybe 2 points better then non Cask .. 86 .. Its nice .. not spectacular...

Sheepscot Boothbay Bitter (Cask) ... rich, nice body and flavor ... Quite good, tasty stuff .. 88

The real surpise was the Geary's Hampshire Special Ale .. I am not a huge fan of this in bottle (80) ... But the cask tastes much, richer and smoother .. .its a totally different beer and a very, very good one ... 90 ... Its a full 10 points better on Cask then in bottle... I was really surprised how much I liked this ...

Most likely to order the Allagash Double Brown, Atlantic Bar Harbor Brewery Blueberry (highest rated of the night) and the Geary's Hampshire on Cask, all are very good beer... I was also a little surprised how much I liked the Allagash White on Tap....

Always love going to the Bear, hopefully the internet will work next time.

edmund davis-quinn


edmund

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Thursday, November 24, 2005

MMM Old Rasputin

So my dad picked up some beers for Thanksgiving.

One was absolutely excellent .. the others were mediocre/old/not so good ...

First I went to Rookies and tried some of the Shipyard Prelude Ale (ME) ... It was pretty yummy stuff and a very solid winter ale ... 85 ... My dad would give it an 82

My dad had some Shipyard Old Thumper Special Ale .... Which is one of the better Shipyard brews .. I would give it a 87 and my dad special guest reviewer an 85 ...

The real star of the weekend so far has been Old Rasputin: Russian Imperial Stout from North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg, CA ... This is one of the yummier beers you will find anywhere.. It is full rich and quite yummy ... It is very strong at 9% alcohol by volume... and very very good ... I would give it a 95 and my dad would rate it similarly ...

Really, really good .. .I also had some Cole Porter by Atlantic Brewing in Bar Harbor, ME yesterdy which was very good but not as rich as the Old Rasputin .. 92

My dad also picked up some DeGroen's beers by the Baltimore Brewing Company in Baltimore, MD. ... I couldn't tell if this variety pack was old or just not very good ... The Marzen tasted not terribly fresh and a little flat .. It was OK but I would expect a lot more from a micro .. 71 ...

I also had some Pils which was quite mediocre today .. 75 ... It was OK and I would drink some more ... I am wondering again if the case was a little old .... Its possible the turnover was not very high in Allentown, PA where I picked the stuff up.

I passed 50,000 words yesterday and am now in the 51,200 range ... The novel is going very, very well.

Thanksgiving was great and I really enjoyed having the family come up, my parents from Allentown, PA and my sister and brother-in-law from Stony Brook, Long Island, NY ...

Its great to spend time with family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

edmund davis-quinn

p.s. In really bizarre news there was an Edmund Davis (no relation) who shot his brother today in Portland, ME ...

http://wcsh6.com/home/article.asp?id=28938

This is beyond weird .. I wish the Davis family well for this tragedy on Thansgiving.

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Wednesday, November 23, 2005

I passed 50,000 words!!

I'm a Winner!!!

I am at 50,813 words right now....

Right now I am enjoying a Cole Porter from Atlantic Brewing Company in Bar Harbor, Maine...

This is one of the better breweries in Maine. Its a thick porter full of coffee notes and richness.

I quite like it ... 92

Yesterday I had a ....

drinking some Smuttynose IPA (NH) ..
its pretty good but not as good as was hoping for . hoppy .. pretty nice .. 84 ...
I would expect more from Smuttynose

I really like both of these breweries and would try anything from each .. If your curious a section of the book follows...

check out my other blogs at:

http://nofilterbook.blogspot.com (the book blog)

and my main blog ... http://edmundcquinn.blogspot.com

Cheers!

edmund quinn . a maine beer guy ...

50,300 words With a 1,000 words today I am well past 50,000 words. I will even cross it on the Microsoft Word, Word count in 300 words ...

Of course I have been cheating with Author's notes but that doesn't add up to too much.

Lord Edmund, Mathilda and Timothy Higgins have now met. Here is my most recent excerpt ... Chapter 13, where I passed 50,000!!

Chapter 132:45 pm, The Fitzgerald Group, London

Wow, Tim thought, I am actually going to meet the head of the multi-billion dollar firm, Lord Edmund Fitzgerald.

Even stranger I was invited by my current girlfriend, and his second wife.

He called Mathilda on the phone 45 mins ago, and she said to meet her in the lobby about right now. It was nice to be able to talk to her on his cel phone and be in reach. He wasn’t sure if this was an interview or just a discussion, he had a feeling it was both. Tim didn’t always interview well, he was sure this was going to go much better then Birmingham.

The morning had gone pretty well, the Mirror had a page 40 story saying that Math’s new love was an American, basically a repeat of the Sun story. Other news with David Beckham, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Julia Roberts had trumped the Math Fitz story. He had a feeling this wouldn’t hold forever.

“Hi Math, nice to see you here. How do I look today.”

“Tim, you look great, give yourself two long breaths and we will go upstairs. How is your morning going so far? Nice to not be the cover story in the tabloids.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t make lunch with you, I had to eat at my desk so we could spend this time with Lord Edmund. I had more work then I thought I would, what have you been up to.”

“Well, I made it over to the British Museum for a few hours and looked at all the things the British Empire stole from the world. That place is wild. Its too bad the British Library is in that boring building though.”

“How are your feet doing?”

“Pretty good, I have been soaking them a lot. Thanks for letting me sleep in at your place for a few hours. Its nice that the tabloids are less interested too.”

Mathilda then gave Tim a kiss and said, “Well, Sir Edmund is waiting for us. He always thought the title of Prince was too much anyway.”

Tim and Mathilda went up the elevator to the 35th floor. They needed a key to get up to the executive offices, which Mathilda already had. “Tim, I love you. Be calm and you will be fine.”

When they reached the top, they saw Lord Edmund was waiting for them. It was 2:55. “Wow, Mathilda, you are a little early. This must be Timothy’s doing. You were never on time with me.”

“I assume you are Timothy Thomas Higgins… I quite like your suit. Mathilda has told me a lot about you, so try to be calm. I am Lord Edmund Fitzgerald, the Duke of Edinburgh, and ex-Prince when I was married to the Lady Quinne. The Queen didn’t like it very much when I divorced his niece.”

“Shall we go into my office.”

Mathilda whispered to Timothy, “You are doing fine so far, just keep your composure. I love you, keep smiling, and laughing and you will do great.”

Lord Edmund Fitzgerald’s office had an absolutely commanding view of the Thames and the City of London. “So what do you think of the top of this old building. When you have been in business as long as the Fairchilds and DeBeers, and other such holding companies, you accumulate some things.”

Tim thought it was like going to the British Museum again. So many amazing antiquities and early stock certificates. “Sir, I must say this is a beautiful office. And a most amazing view of the city.”

“I agree Mr. Higgins. I especially like viewing over St. Peters and the City of London. People thought we were crazy to make a 35 story building in 1890, but there are many higher buildings since.” Lord Edmund pointed to the Docklands and all the cranes building even more throughout the Eastern end of London to Greenwich. “Its quite amazing how London has grown as a banking center.”

“When I was a young lad, this was one of the higher buildings of London, and most of the financial district was near the walled City of London. Its amazing how much the financial district has grown eastward. And how much the Fitzgerald Group has made providing those loans.”

Tim couldn’t help but be impressed. Everything was immaculate, everything was perfect.

So there it is Edmund Charles Davis-Quinn ...

Novelist!

ecq
I passed it around 11:55 today here in snowy Maine.

This is quite amazing ... I am at around 50,700 now ...

Its been a blast and I still have a bit to do .. I do have around 2,282 words in author's notes ...

Check out my book blog at http://nofilterbook.blogspot.com

ecq

mmm beer

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Monday, November 21, 2005

2 more very nice beers

2 nights ago I tried ...

Having a lovely beer tonight ...
Smuttynose Winter Ale (Nh) .. quite spicy and yummy ...

I really like it 92 .. It is a slow drinking beer though .. wouldn't surprise me if its higher in alcohol ...


Right now I am trying one of my more favorite beers, Butte Creek Organic Porter (Chico, CA) ...

Its very rich and very yummy ....

There are some strong coffee notes and a strong taste.

This one is not as good as some others I remember though .. 90 .. I would have given it 94 in the past.

Maybe not a great bottle this time.

Always fun to try more beer.

edmund



http://mainebeerguy.blogspot.com

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Thursday, November 17, 2005

Fisherman's Brew

This is a beer from Cape Ann Brewing Company in Gloucester, Mass, an amber ale.

Yummy stuff ... very good .. very clean ... 88

There is a number of good New England brews.

Up to 41,000 in my book ....

http://nofilterbook.blogspot.com

edmund

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