Snow Cap Ale

This is a pretty tasty seasonal brew. It pours a dark reddish color and is full of holiday spicy aroma. Tastes like a good mellow ale up front but leaves a nice after taste of spices, malt and I think I tasted a hint of apple (some kind of fruitiness). An all around enjoyable holiday ale.

I don’t often drink anything from Pyramid. Their most common beer (around these parts anyway) is their Hefeweizen which, I’m not a huge hef fan. They also have an IPA and a pale, but I don’t think I’ve tried those (or, if I have, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten). I think I might need to refamiliarize myself with this brewery.

Christmas Ale

Not for the faint of heart, this Belgium style dark ale is nothing short of a masterpiece. It comes in a caged cork top bottle with very little carbonation and pours on the thick side with a dark, murky nut brown color (the perfect winter color). It smells of a traditional Belgium tripel with hints of holiday spices. If you like Belgium ales and aren’t afraid of strong dark ales, this is a definite must have for the holidays. It has that wonderful Belgium flavor with nice malty spicy after taste. It leaves a wonderful bouquet of flavors from the time it hits your tongue to the last mouthful.

When I spied this beauty on the shelves of Whole Foods, I had to have it. My first experience with St. Bernardus was at the Tapas bar in Whole Foods with the St. Bernardus Tripel and a cheese plate. It’s not a cheap beer (about $12 for a 750ml bottle), but it’s worth every penny! This is definitely going in the top 5 this year. Highly recommended.

I’m at it again. This time, a nice little Rolleiflex SL35 with some fantastic Carl Zeiss glass; specifically, a Planar 1,8/50. These are supposed to be fantastic lenses (which I don’t doubt, but haven’t shot any film through it yet) and for what I paid for the camera and lens (a whopping $55 shipped), I couldn’t even come close to finding something in this class for my digital SLR. However, it’s not without it’s aged faults. The focusing ring is really stiff and if you’re not careful, it will actually turn past the stopping point and then the m/ft. markers are off.

Either way, this is a tank of a camera. Substantially heavier (and probably better built, no doubt) than my old Nikon Fe. The lens itself adds a considerable amount of heft to the camera. But, for a 40 year old camera, it’s in pretty good shape. Rolleiflex (Rollei) first made cameras strictly in Germany, then later opened up a plant in Singapore where it pumped out larger quantities. This particular camera (and lens) was made in West Germany. I can’t wait to shoot some film through little tank! Especially some of that Kodak Ektar 100 stuff that just came out recently.

Winter Lager

Samuel Adams (or, Boston Beer Co) is the largest American-owned brewery in the U.S. (since the Anheuser-Busch-InBev marriage) but that doesn’t mean they don’t brew a good beer. I have always enjoyed Sam Adams Boston Lager and their seasonal Winter Lager is a fine example of a really decent beer. It’s a darker than average lager (I’d like to give a better description, but it was dark, and the cups were blue [thank you DH]) and certainly heavier in taste. It has a really nice rich malty flavor with a little hint of hops. It’s slightly sweet and has a pretty smooth finish (I’d say this would be a good session beer aside from the slightly higher ABV). Overall, a very enjoyable beer and one that is perfect on a cold winter Sunday on the couch, watching the tube.

Jubelale 2008

From the great brewery Deschutes comes another phenomenal specimen of a beer. This is the third year running I’ve enjoyed their seasonal winter beer that is Jubelale. It has a rich malty flavor with an intense hop finish that warms the soul on a cold winter’s night. It’s really quite balanced and really crisp. This will definitely make it into my top ten for the year, and quite possibly into the top five. Thank you Deschutes for making my evenings just a little bit warmer.

Deschutes is one of the few breweries with which I have never been disappointed. I can honestly and whole heartedly recommend anything from their menu of fabulous offerings. While we’re on the subject, I am desperately seeking The Dissident. If anyone has seen some in Orange County, please drop me a line!

Winterbraun

Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown is one of the best brown ales I think I have ever tasted. While I am not a huge brown ale fan in general, I still very much enjoyed their seasonal Winterbraun. It is a very drinkable brown ale that’s miles away from the average Newcastle. Winterbraun has a very nice malty taste with a slight sweetness. Lost Coast added some nice Saas hops at the end to give it a smidgen of spiciness at the finish. This beer would be good sitting next to a fire on a cold winter’s night, enjoying some Humboldt Fog and TLC.

I really should try some of their other offerings. I can’t say I’ve tried anything else from them aside from the Downtown Brown. I see they have a Pale and Stout that I would love to have a shot at… maybe after the winter push.

Up next: Descutes Jubelale 2008…

So, the biggest down side of this Minolta Electro Shot (aside from the location of the battery compartment) is that it’s fully automatic. Fully automatic is another way of saying, battery dependent. Most of the old cameras that had electrical bits powered by batteries used old mercury cell batteries, which, if you didn’t know, are not sold in the US anymore (something about them being “bad” for the environment… or something). I tried to jimmy-rig (yes, that’s a technical term) a modern battery I could find at Radio Shack, but, it wouldn’t work. I had to order one from the interwebs (Batteries In A Flash if you must know). So when I finally got the correct replacement for the battery (a Malaroy RM-1 to which an A1PX matches in size), I popped it in and click, nothing. Shutter still would not work. So, I opened up the camera to see if my (inexperienced) eyes could spot something.

Looks like the old mercury battery was in there just a tad too long. The corrosion had weakened the connection between the wires that connect to the negative post of the battery and battery compartment. In fact, when I really dug into it, there was this white, creamy substance on the back I had to swab up with a Q-tip. After I got it all cleaned up, I pulled out the $7 soldering iron and tried my best to solder it back together, but couldn’t make it happen. I think the tip was too big (thatswhatshesaid) on the soldering iron.

So, c’est la vie I guess. I still have the Yashica Electro 35 GSN (and a Yashica Mat-124 on the way). It still looks good on the mantle.

UPDATE

Well, I managed to get the connection fixed on the battery compartment. The battery test button on the side makes the little light come on in the viewfinder. The light also comes on in low light situations. Now, there is a new problem. The shutter still will not fire. I took off the bottom plate and checked out the winding action and it appears that there’s a “switch” that’s not making contact at the right time. Either that, or the return on the wind is bad. I could get the shutter to open if I messed with it, but alas, still not working. I think I’m at the point where I’ve spent sufficient time and effort to try and get it working. It only cost me $1.04 + shipping. Hell, I spent $2.95 (+shipping) for the replacement battery!

I think I’ve always liked taking pictures. Even as a kid, I can remember the feeling I’d get when using my dads “great little 110 camera.” Not knowing what the end result was going to be for weeks until he got the film processed. Naturally, most of the pictures I took were either out of focus or blurry, but, it was fun nonetheless (maybe not so much for my dad when he got the pictures back from Longs Drugs and realized I had “taken” a few shots of my own).

Digital is an awesome medium, don’t get me wrong, but I think that the instantaneousness of it takes a lot of fun (read: thought) out of what photography is all about: the image. With a digital camera (be it SLR or point-and-shoot) you can always rely on that little button on the back of most cameras. You know, the one with the trash can icon. You begin to take things composition and exposure compesation for granted and the next thing you know, you’ve just turned your fancy new DSLR into an expensive point-and-shoot. Especially since they all have that nice Auto mode where the camera does everything short of pushing the button for you. There’s a lot of things to consider when taking a picture aside from what you see in the view finder. The digital revolution has made it easier for people (myself included) to do the Ron Popeil.

I haven’t owned a lot of cameras, really. Certainly less than Matt Denton. But I’ve had my share. From the fantastic Olympus Stylus (Mk I) to the cheap Chinon to an awesome Nikon FE (which I miss dearly) to my current digital SLR. I gave up my Nikon about a year or so ago and now I wish I hadn’t (especially when I sold it for like $75 on eBay and if I wanted to get another I’d be looking at $150+).

Speaking of Mr. Denton, I have him to thank for this newly renewed fascination with film cameras. His site is chock full of wonderful images and information on lots of good, old, quality cameras that can be had at a relatively little expense. They certainly don’t build cameras like they used to and the glass that came on some of these old timers is truly impressive. Even more so when you paid a fraction of the cost of an equivalent lens for your DSLR! I can also blame e for a lot of my impulse buys and obsessions.

Here’s a list of the latest goodies I’ve picked up just in the past couple weeks:

1. Yashica Electro 35 GSN (c. 1973)

This is a fantastic little rangefinder! It’s an aperture priority, manual focus camera with a really good Color Yashinon 1:1.7 f=45mm lens. It’s sharp and contrasty. This camera is really quiet to. Just a tiny little “click” when it fires. Picked it up on eBay for about $40 shipped. Plus it came with a cheesy, burnt orange leather case filled with goodies (flash, light meter, original manual and a polarizer). Bonus! I’ve managed to shoot two rolls (3 if you count the tester) film so far and working on my third. See my Yashica Electro 35 GSN set over at flickr for some samples.

2. Minolta Electro Shot (c. 1965)

Another great little rangfinder. Too bad I can’t get it working. It’s in good condition and everything appears to function, but the shutter seems to be stuck. The lens on this little guy also appears to be impressive; Minolta Rokkor-QF 1:1.8 f=40mm. I’ll have to take it apart and see if I can un-stick it. I pick this on up on eBay as well. I wasn’t really serious about buying this one, so I bid low (something like $3 USD) figuring someone would out bid me. Well, no one did. Winning bid: $1.04 US. Shipped to my door cost me less than $8. What a bargain. Even if I can’t get it working, it makes a nice $8 mantle piece.

3. Yashica-Mat 124 (c. 1968 ~ 1971)

This is a medium format TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) camera modeled after (read: copy of) the tried and true Rolleiflex TLRs but at a fraction of the price. A true impulse buy. I just won it today (again with eBay, that site is going to ruin me) for $100 US shipped to my door. I could be questionable, but at $100, I don’t care. Even if it costs me another $50 to make it new again, it’s still a fantastic camera, and 120 film… need I say more?

If you’re thinking of shooting film (either again or as new) think about getting a nice working older camera. Matt Denton’s site has a very nice list of lesser known (in amateur circles) cameras that usually come with exceptional glass (see Konika and Yashica SLRs) that can be had for very reasonable prices. I’ve been watching eBay (I know, I know) and you can usually pick up a used Konika Autoreflex T3 with either a Hexanon AR 1.7/50mm or the even better Hexanon AR 1.4/50mm lens for between $10 and $50 depending on the condition.

For now, I’m done buying cameras. Not necessarily because I want to, but because I don’t want to get overwhelmed with a bunch of cameras and have no time to shoot. Well, there’s that… and my financial advisor has instated a moratorium on camera purchases for a while.

Last year, a good friend of mine presented a challenge to me; try 20 different holiday beers between Thanksgiving and New Years. I gladly accepted, of course, but the task was harder than it sounded. By the middle of December, I lost count and come New Years Day, I don’t really know if I reached 20 or not. He assures me we both made it to our goal, but I still have my doubts.

This year he has upped the ante; 30 holiday beers. This time, though, we are getting a head start on the competition and kicked it off tonight. So, between now and New Years Day (we might extend that to the 5th of January though, not sure) the goal is to seek out and try 30 different holiday brews.

From now to the end, I will be logging my adventures in the hop-filled land of malt and barley. I’m calling it my Holiday Beer Report. So, without further ado, here’s #1.

Celebration Ale

The long, cold nights of winter are a little brighter with Celebration® Ale.

Could not be further from the truth. This is a really good holiday ale. It’s dark, and crisp with a nice hop and hint of woodsy pine after taste. It hits the back of your throat with a little tingle and then goes down smooth and warms the soul all the way down. If you like their Pale Ale, you will love this beer. Heck, even if you don’t like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (read: you have no taste buds) you should try Celebration Ale. You’ll thank me for it later.

After a couple of days with Chrome, I’ve decided to abandon it. Why? Every time I used it, I always experienced some kind of slowness, delay, or complete freezing. And not just with Chrome. It would lock up my entire machine for several seconds at a time. Now, I’m not working on the latest and greatest hardware, and it’s been several years since this particular machine had a fresh install of XP so it could be something else causing the conflict with Chrome. Nonetheless, it was painful to use on a regular basis.

Does this mean it’s a bad browser. Absolutely not. It’s certainly better than Internet Exploder and when it was working, it seemed to render a little faster than Firefox (perceptual, no hard evidence of this). Chrome’s UI is far better than IE and even a leg up on Firefox (at least the default theme for the Windows version). It will definitely take some wind out of Firefox’s usage numbers.

Until I get a new machine and/or fresh install of the OS, I’m going to stick with Firefox for everyday use. Waiting for my machine to wake up from a Chrome coma while shopping at the Gap is seriously hindering my productivity at work!

Update 1: I just got around to installing Chrome at home and there must be something on my work machine conflicting with Chrome. It’s considerably faster on this machine (AMD Athlon 64×2 4200+ / 2GB Ram / XP SP3) and doesn’t experience the hangs like my work machine does. Very queer. I wish my work machine wasn’t such a turd.

Update 2: I don’t know what exactly Chrome does behind the scenes, but I hear an awful lot hard drive activity when it’s the only application running. Interesting.