As Duke commencement finished today, let's talk about this year's senior class. Duke basketball's senior class this year comprised of Nolan Smith (@NdotSmitty), Kyle Singler (@KyleSingler), and Casey Peters (@Casey_Peters). Yes, I know their twitter accounts. The truth is, I never thought I would get involved with twitter and really had no desire to do so. Liz (@Jrsygrly) told me she had an account but I still wasn't sold until I found out that Duke home basketball tickets could/would become available via @DukeTickets. I never ended up getting any tickets from the account's few posts, but oh well. I still followed some of the basketball players' lives.
This senior class contains Nolan Smith, a guard who, after two years, was considered somewhat of a bust because of his lack of point guard skills. He was never recruited to be a point guard. He never claimed to be a point guard. He was thrust into that position because he was a better player than Greg Paulus. He apparently even thought about transferring after those two years. I think everyone, including Nolan, is happy with his (non-)decision. It also contains Kyle Singler, a forward who came in tied with Mike Dunleavy as the most pale Duke player ever. I guess there isn't much sun in Oregon. I still remember, while sitting in the UNC alumni section at the Dean Dome my freshman year, a UNC fan yelling, "Dunleavy, you look like a ghost!" as we proceeded to completely dismantle them to the tune of a 30-point blowout. Kyle was talked about as a First-Team All-American this year and unfortunately didn't have a great season. Perhaps an All-American season would have gotten his jersey retired but I doubt it will happen now. He still ended up with one of the best careers for a four-year duke men's basketball player. His legacy is set after winning Final Four MOP en route to Duke's fourth NCAA title. Casey Peters, who might be a coworker of mine soon, was once a student manager who worked his butt off to make the team as a walk-on. Not sure if he ultimately got a scholarship, but nonetheless, he was said to be a great teammate, and he had to have been with a work ethic like that.
By my recollection, this year's seniors won three ACC Championships but the NCAA tournament is where a Duke player is judged. This group also won eleven NCAA tournament games. To put that feat into perspective, eleven wins was more wins than the class that contained JJ Redick and Shelden Williams (ten total wins). It was more wins than the group of Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, and Mike Dunleavy (also ten total wins, though they all only stayed three years). Johnny Dawkins and company only won 7 NCAA games. Laettner, along with his class, won twenty-one games, but that is by far the most of any Duke player and perhaps the most of any NCAA men's basketball player. Kareem won three titles but back then I believe you only had to win four games to win it all so he won twelve NCAA games, just one more than this year's graduating class at Duke. In addition, any class that can claim a national title necessarily has to be boosted above most others. How could you be more proud of a team than you were last year with the 2010 Blue Devils, with two huge contributors being in the 2011 graduating class?
Thank you, Seniors, for your hard work and four thrilling years.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Eternal
I was going to write about NCAA tournament selections, not who to pick but who not to pick. I'm not great at picking a bracket, though I did come within a Michigan State win in the Final Four last year from winning the bracket made up of friends from my freshman dorm, comically called Aycock. The interesting thing is that I watch more basketball than anyone else in the pool and arguably more than all of the other participants combined. What I believe ends up happening is that I know too much about the teams and thus over-think each game. The truth is that no matter what the seeds are and who the teams are, it is too hard to predict who will win even if you have seen both teams play and know a decent amount about the players' abilities. Given that I could but should not make a case for whom not to pick without some sort of research, and I really don't have time to research before the tournament starts early Thursday afternoon, I decided not to write about whom I believe usually chokes in the tournament, even though it is likely these are the teams that usually choke. Instead I decided to make a case for who should win National Player of the Year.
I narrowed the field down to the five who were named First Team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), Jimmer Fredette, JaJuan Johnson, Nolan Smith, Jared Sullinger, and Kemba Walker. I wanted to use statistics to judge each player's merit, the way an engineer should. I charted six offensive stats and two defensive stats (steals and blocks). I don't consider rebounds a defensive stat as they could be offensive or defensive rebounds). While keeping your opponent from making a basket is just as helpful for a team as scoring a basket, there is no way exactly to judge how good a player is defensively so the offensive stats will lend the most weight in determining the best player. Plus, blocks and steals are not the only things that make a good defender, they are just the easiest to count and could as much inflate the defensive perception of a player that takes a lot of risks rather than is a great defender. Now I could develop a sophisticated scoring system giving certain weights to different statistics to really judge the impact a player has on the game, but the truth is that I don't have Excel on this computer nor do I have the desire to calculate all of that by hand. Looking at the stats though shows that overall there aren't huge differences in the players' numbers (guards have more assists but bigs have more rebounds, and so on) so an elaborate scoring system probably won't shed too much more light than simply ranking the players in each category, 1-5, and adding up their overall rankings. The statistics, taken from espn.com, are seen below:
I narrowed the field down to the five who were named First Team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), Jimmer Fredette, JaJuan Johnson, Nolan Smith, Jared Sullinger, and Kemba Walker. I wanted to use statistics to judge each player's merit, the way an engineer should. I charted six offensive stats and two defensive stats (steals and blocks). I don't consider rebounds a defensive stat as they could be offensive or defensive rebounds). While keeping your opponent from making a basket is just as helpful for a team as scoring a basket, there is no way exactly to judge how good a player is defensively so the offensive stats will lend the most weight in determining the best player. Plus, blocks and steals are not the only things that make a good defender, they are just the easiest to count and could as much inflate the defensive perception of a player that takes a lot of risks rather than is a great defender. Now I could develop a sophisticated scoring system giving certain weights to different statistics to really judge the impact a player has on the game, but the truth is that I don't have Excel on this computer nor do I have the desire to calculate all of that by hand. Looking at the stats though shows that overall there aren't huge differences in the players' numbers (guards have more assists but bigs have more rebounds, and so on) so an elaborate scoring system probably won't shed too much more light than simply ranking the players in each category, 1-5, and adding up their overall rankings. The statistics, taken from espn.com, are seen below:
When I tallied up all of the rankings, Jimmer and Nolan were tied for the best player, both with a 2.8 average ranking. In order to break the tie I decided to rank the players solely on how their shooting percentages, a subset of the overall rankings, stack up in order to account for shot differential. They are also really the only stats that are independent of pace and team offensive style. While all five candidates, save Kemba, are above the national average in FG% (43.6%), and all of them are above the national average in FT% (69.2%), Jimmer and Nolan are the only ones of the five that are above the national average in 3PT% (34.8%). When only shooting percentage rankings are added up, Jimmer comes out ahead of Nolan, with a shooting percentage average ranking of 2 versus 2.3. The truth is that Jimmer's PPG are much better than Nolan's in a game where scoring more is required to win and there is no definitive statistic on points denied; Jimmer's FG% is slightly worse, but his FT% and 3PT% are much better.
As much as we Duke fans would have wanted Nolan's stats to be the best, the truth is that Duke has more players around Nolan that take shots and thus points, as well as other stats, away from him. He's Duke's best player, but he isn't the focus of the team's offense every possession like Jimmer is. If we were honest with ourselves we really would not have thought Nolan's stats would be better than Jimmer's. It is likely that Jimmer will win many of the Player of the Year awards. When the nation's top scorer also plays on a Top 10 team, he is very likely to get many of them. JJ Redick and Adam Morrison, with his child-molester mustache, are recent examples of this.
Jimmer is really a shooting guard while Nolan has been more of a point guard this year. Perhaps it is fair to say that Nolan is the best point guard in the nation, as he beats out Kemba in this study. So there you have it. Nolan has and will continue to win his fair share of awards, but the stats would suggest he isn't the best player this season.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Southern Tier Raspberry Wheat
Southern Tier is a brewery in Lakewood, New York, not far from Lake Erie. I've had a good number of their beers such as their Creme Brulee Stout and Jahva Stout, both as interesting and bold-flavored as they sound. As I've said before, I am a sucker for oak-aged beers so I even tried their Oak Aged Unearthly Imperial IPA, a really strange blend of flavors, which I don't recommend. I should have remembered that not all oak-aged beers are good, after trying the Weyerbacher Insanity, an oak-aged barley wine, which more than anything was just strange. Aging in oak bourbon barrels tastes good when you are drinking a porter or stout; leave the other ones alone. My favorite Southern Tier brew is their Pumking, a fall seasonal pumpkin beer. Southern Tier pushes the boundaries of flavor much like Dogfish Head, though they mostly push the limits on traditional styles of beer as opposed to creating "off-centered" beers.
Apparently this beer I'm drinking is a Raspberry Wheat Beer Malt Beverage. I'm not really sure what that means; I feel like malt beverage necessarily means it is not a beer but whatever, let's move on. I poured the whole bottle into my Southern Tier glass from Steal the Glass night at Capital Ale. I'm believe I went with Patrick to this Steal the Glass night. It might have even been one of the afternoons where we left work at 2pm to go downtown and drink. Yes that's how much we mattered where no one would notice if we left shortly after lunch. It sorta made up for some of the nights we had to drive to Sandston in the middle of the night to get the manufacturing line going. We didn't leave that early often, and I think at least once was after the company announced we were shutting down so our motivation was pretty low.
So this "beer" is decent. It has a more subtle raspberry flavor than I would prefer. Mostly the flavor doesn't linger. If you read my last beer posting, you know that sometimes that's a good thing. When it comes to fruit-flavored beers, I want the flavor to linger. At first I really liked the beer but teh more I drink of this bottle, the less impressed I become. I do taste a slight chocolate flavor which I was not expecting but I guess is a pleasant surprise. I'm not really sure where that is coming from as I would expect any chocolate introduced to change the color of the beer, which is not evident here. If you're in the market for a raspberry beer I would go with Clipper City Oxford Raspberry Wheat from Baltimore. I has a bolder flavor than the Southern Tier, one that hangs around long enough, but doesn't stay past its welcome. My all-time favorite raspberry beer was the Weyerbacher Raspberry Imperial Stout, which was a dark beer as opposed to a wheat. Unfortunately that has gone the way of my all-time favorite beer, also a Weyerbacher, the 10th Anniversary Decadence. Neither are available anymore and after talking to the brewmasters at Weyerbacher, there is no chance they are coming back. Fortunately for them, er me, they still make what is my new favorite beer, Heresy, an Oak-Aged Imperial Stout (naturally).
Verdict:
Don't buy the Southern Tier Raspberry Wheat. If you want Southern Tier, which I do recommend as a brewery, go for something else like their Robust Porter.
Apparently this beer I'm drinking is a Raspberry Wheat Beer Malt Beverage. I'm not really sure what that means; I feel like malt beverage necessarily means it is not a beer but whatever, let's move on. I poured the whole bottle into my Southern Tier glass from Steal the Glass night at Capital Ale. I'm believe I went with Patrick to this Steal the Glass night. It might have even been one of the afternoons where we left work at 2pm to go downtown and drink. Yes that's how much we mattered where no one would notice if we left shortly after lunch. It sorta made up for some of the nights we had to drive to Sandston in the middle of the night to get the manufacturing line going. We didn't leave that early often, and I think at least once was after the company announced we were shutting down so our motivation was pretty low.
So this "beer" is decent. It has a more subtle raspberry flavor than I would prefer. Mostly the flavor doesn't linger. If you read my last beer posting, you know that sometimes that's a good thing. When it comes to fruit-flavored beers, I want the flavor to linger. At first I really liked the beer but teh more I drink of this bottle, the less impressed I become. I do taste a slight chocolate flavor which I was not expecting but I guess is a pleasant surprise. I'm not really sure where that is coming from as I would expect any chocolate introduced to change the color of the beer, which is not evident here. If you're in the market for a raspberry beer I would go with Clipper City Oxford Raspberry Wheat from Baltimore. I has a bolder flavor than the Southern Tier, one that hangs around long enough, but doesn't stay past its welcome. My all-time favorite raspberry beer was the Weyerbacher Raspberry Imperial Stout, which was a dark beer as opposed to a wheat. Unfortunately that has gone the way of my all-time favorite beer, also a Weyerbacher, the 10th Anniversary Decadence. Neither are available anymore and after talking to the brewmasters at Weyerbacher, there is no chance they are coming back. Fortunately for them, er me, they still make what is my new favorite beer, Heresy, an Oak-Aged Imperial Stout (naturally).
Verdict:
Don't buy the Southern Tier Raspberry Wheat. If you want Southern Tier, which I do recommend as a brewery, go for something else like their Robust Porter.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tha Crossroads
I just completed a two-week stint in car hell. I already knew I was going to have to shell out a lot of money for my car, with both routine and non-routine maintenance. I needed to send my car in to the dealer for the 120K checkup, my left taillight had been out for a few weeks, the oil change was coming due as was my state inspection/registration, and my tires were starting to wear thin after at least 50,000 miles. Well early in the two-week period I noticed my left headlight was out and then on my way to the gym two Saturdays ago I realized my right front tire was completely shredded, thus forcing my hand to go ahead and get new tires. I've never bought tires before so I had no idea how much they cost. Trust me, they ain't cheap. Then naturally when my car is at the dealership they find a bunch of (expensive) things wrong with it. Things that I can't exactly just let sit in their condition like rotors, brakes, and transmission fluid. Time to pony up some more money.
Not considering leaving my car overnight at the dealer, I leave them my keys including my house keys. I usually think about this since I'm usually going home and of course need to get in. However, on Friday I was going straight to work. When they tell me I need a part that is on order and need to leave my car, I don't even think twice and just go on home only to realize I don't have my keys AND the dealership is closed for the night. To top it off the apartment emergency maintenance won't come let me in. How is being locked out of your apartment not considered an emergency that the crew responds to? I feel that if you can't sleep inside, that's a problem, nevermind that it was 30 degrees outside.
On the sports front, we'll move right past that Wednesday performance in Tallahassee. For some reason UNC fans think that losing on the road to an unranked team means you suck. That didn't even dignify a response. Way to get spanked by GT, Heels. Hell of an effort. I was able to get into the Duke vs UVA game Saturday afternoon. As many Duke fans, I was expecting an utter blowout, not just because we were coming off of a loss but also because we usually just beat the tar out of UVA at home. Before the game I told my parents that the crowd and excitement for a UVA game in Cameron on a Saturday afternoon isn't frequently very amped up. I think it's partly the opponent not being a fierce rival nor an ACC contender and partly that they don't often compete against us in the house the Rose Bowl built.
My brother Jim was in town. He got to sit behind the bench as a friend of a player. Even though he was hella close to the team and sat in padded seats, I'm guessing he would have preferred to be standing across the court jumping and screaming. My seat (view seen below), although much less illustrious, was fondly known by my seat neighbors as the "Coat Seat." Apparently this was the first time, thirteen home games into the season, that someone actually sat in my seat. It admittedly seems odd that there is one random season ticket floating around.
This was my parents' first ACC game in Cameron, my first of the year. The first half was a continuation of the FSU game: shooting 3s, missing 3s, turning the ball over, making an inefficient offense look somewhat efficient. FSU on the road is one thing but UVA at home? That's just not good. They were beating us by more than FSU ever was. UVA had fallen apart in the second half against UNC earlier in the week, but we were just getting outplayed by a vastly inferior team. We do NOT have 6-minute droughts at home; it just doesn't happen. The students also could have stood to be more into it as they can help fuel the team when they are struggling. Ultimately, though, UVA's play kept the crowd at bay. They were consistently getting the ball to the basket and hitting their open jumpers. That was the first half.
Before the ball was even thrown in on the first possession of the second half, the students were starting to come alive. At that point it was around 3pm and all those students, still tired from having to get out of bed before noon to get to the game, had awaken. The second half was pretty exciting. Apparently UVA forgot about Dre as he continuously hit 3s. However, Cameron completely came unhinged when Nolan threw down that dunk. Meeting him at the Dillo after the game, Jim said his ears were still ringing from the crowd on that dunk. "That was Cameron!" We proceeded to pull away down the stretch and ended up with a comfortable win.
I also ended up going to the Duke vs State game where I sat behind an utterly hilarious State (female) fan. Apparently she believes everything is a technical foul, but only against the visiting team. Whatever. What really bugged me about her though is when she lumped us into the same group as those in sissy blue. Too far, crazy lady. Get back in your cell, don't make me get the hose.
Anyway, we played incredibly well against State in what might be the turning point in the season for the offense and perhaps the defense, starting with the second half against UVA and continuing through the State and Wake games. Ryan Kelly had an incredible week. I'm proud of him. He's Jim's favorite player and had been struggling with his shot the previous few games. If he can stay hot and Dre can re-find his shot, we'll be in good shape. Nolan hasn't been shooting well either lately but I'm not worried about that. He'll get it back by the end of the season. Better to struggle now than in two months.
Big games coming up the next two weeks with BC, Maryland, State, and UNC.
LET'S GO DUKE!
------
By the way, how does Malcolm Delaney have any room to talk about Maryland having bad fans. I agree they are pretty horrible people but VT basketball fans have proven they can match the sheer nastiness once only seen in College Park.
P.S. Apparently I missed a bar fight between two girls after I left this past Saturday night. Some neighborhood I live in.
Not considering leaving my car overnight at the dealer, I leave them my keys including my house keys. I usually think about this since I'm usually going home and of course need to get in. However, on Friday I was going straight to work. When they tell me I need a part that is on order and need to leave my car, I don't even think twice and just go on home only to realize I don't have my keys AND the dealership is closed for the night. To top it off the apartment emergency maintenance won't come let me in. How is being locked out of your apartment not considered an emergency that the crew responds to? I feel that if you can't sleep inside, that's a problem, nevermind that it was 30 degrees outside.
On the sports front, we'll move right past that Wednesday performance in Tallahassee. For some reason UNC fans think that losing on the road to an unranked team means you suck. That didn't even dignify a response. Way to get spanked by GT, Heels. Hell of an effort. I was able to get into the Duke vs UVA game Saturday afternoon. As many Duke fans, I was expecting an utter blowout, not just because we were coming off of a loss but also because we usually just beat the tar out of UVA at home. Before the game I told my parents that the crowd and excitement for a UVA game in Cameron on a Saturday afternoon isn't frequently very amped up. I think it's partly the opponent not being a fierce rival nor an ACC contender and partly that they don't often compete against us in the house the Rose Bowl built.
My brother Jim was in town. He got to sit behind the bench as a friend of a player. Even though he was hella close to the team and sat in padded seats, I'm guessing he would have preferred to be standing across the court jumping and screaming. My seat (view seen below), although much less illustrious, was fondly known by my seat neighbors as the "Coat Seat." Apparently this was the first time, thirteen home games into the season, that someone actually sat in my seat. It admittedly seems odd that there is one random season ticket floating around.
This was my parents' first ACC game in Cameron, my first of the year. The first half was a continuation of the FSU game: shooting 3s, missing 3s, turning the ball over, making an inefficient offense look somewhat efficient. FSU on the road is one thing but UVA at home? That's just not good. They were beating us by more than FSU ever was. UVA had fallen apart in the second half against UNC earlier in the week, but we were just getting outplayed by a vastly inferior team. We do NOT have 6-minute droughts at home; it just doesn't happen. The students also could have stood to be more into it as they can help fuel the team when they are struggling. Ultimately, though, UVA's play kept the crowd at bay. They were consistently getting the ball to the basket and hitting their open jumpers. That was the first half.
Before the ball was even thrown in on the first possession of the second half, the students were starting to come alive. At that point it was around 3pm and all those students, still tired from having to get out of bed before noon to get to the game, had awaken. The second half was pretty exciting. Apparently UVA forgot about Dre as he continuously hit 3s. However, Cameron completely came unhinged when Nolan threw down that dunk. Meeting him at the Dillo after the game, Jim said his ears were still ringing from the crowd on that dunk. "That was Cameron!" We proceeded to pull away down the stretch and ended up with a comfortable win.
I also ended up going to the Duke vs State game where I sat behind an utterly hilarious State (female) fan. Apparently she believes everything is a technical foul, but only against the visiting team. Whatever. What really bugged me about her though is when she lumped us into the same group as those in sissy blue. Too far, crazy lady. Get back in your cell, don't make me get the hose.
Anyway, we played incredibly well against State in what might be the turning point in the season for the offense and perhaps the defense, starting with the second half against UVA and continuing through the State and Wake games. Ryan Kelly had an incredible week. I'm proud of him. He's Jim's favorite player and had been struggling with his shot the previous few games. If he can stay hot and Dre can re-find his shot, we'll be in good shape. Nolan hasn't been shooting well either lately but I'm not worried about that. He'll get it back by the end of the season. Better to struggle now than in two months.
Big games coming up the next two weeks with BC, Maryland, State, and UNC.
LET'S GO DUKE!
------
By the way, how does Malcolm Delaney have any room to talk about Maryland having bad fans. I agree they are pretty horrible people but VT basketball fans have proven they can match the sheer nastiness once only seen in College Park.
P.S. Apparently I missed a bar fight between two girls after I left this past Saturday night. Some neighborhood I live in.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Dominion Baltic Porter
Here we go. My first beer review.
With the temperature being a balmy 44 degrees, I decided to try the Dominion Baltic Porter in my refrigerator as I watched Packers vs Bears. As I searched for a glass in which to pour it, I could not find my Dominion glass, so I looked for my Olde Richmond Brewery glass. I chose the Olde Richmond glass as it is a Virginia brewery as Dominion is, or so I thought. It turns out that Old Dominion is brewed in Dover, Deleware. What a disappointment. This whole time I thought Dominion was a Virginia brewery. Why wouldn't I? Old Dominion is the nickname of the state of Virginia. We have a university with the same name, a freight liner, and many other things sharing the name. Apparently it started in Loudoun County in VA so the name made sense then. However, I still feel cheated by the name now that it is no longer a Virginia brewery.
Anyway, the Olde Richmond glass I had was for a brown ale, and I like to use a glass that says porter on it if I'm drinking a Porter, so that and the lack of a current Virginia connection, struck the Olde Richmond Brown glass from the list. Yeah, I know it's weird, but if you know me, you should not be shocked. I settled on Redhook's Blackhook Nitro Porter glass (a porter glass). Nitro Porter is a beer I had on my second visit to Capital Ale House with Jonathan. Our first visit was for Murphy's Steal the Glass Night while on spring break 2004, barely a month after we turned 21. The second visit was a little more memorable, not only because I got a cool Nitro Porter glass and first tried a very good Nitro Porter beer, but because Jonathan got a Redhook growler which we still reminisce about today. I can't remember if it came full of Sunrye Wheat or just said it on the bottle, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. I think it was my first Porter but surely not my last. Note: With the exception of later that year and maybe a year later, I have never again seen Nitro Porter on the shelf.
Baltic Porter is only the second Old Dominion beer I've tried. I like the Oak Barrel Stout they provide, which is a combination of good taste and a reasonable price. I'm a sucker anyway for anything that has been aged in oak or bourbon barrels so it's not a surprise I jumped all over it. However, this entry is not about the Oak Barrel Stout but about the Baltic Porter.
I actually was not expecting great things. My first sip had some chocolate notes usual for porters and some stouts. I slightly cheated by first reading the bottle where it says "hints of chocolate," but I swear I really did taste it. I have a good sense of taste. It's my third best sense only outdone by my sense of hearing and smell. But seriously my mom made chicken salad once using mayonnaise of a different brand than we normally use and I called her out on it even though she wouldn't admit there was anything different.
Back to the beer. It's actually not bad. I'd probably order it again if there were no Breckenridge Vanilla Porter or Stone Smoked Porter. It doesn't have the aftertaste that lingers like some porters and even more stouts, but that's a good thing. Some tastes you like to linger, a chocolaty beer taste you don't. It didn't really warm me up like it said it would but that might be due to its paltry 6.8% ABV. I've gotten to the point where most of the darker beer I drink are Imperials so I'm used to them having quite a kick. A 10.5% Bluegrass Brewing Company Jefferson Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout, on the other hand, will warm you up, and it'll get you drunk.
Verdict:
I'd recommend it as a single-beer buy. I don't think I'd want a sixer of it.
With the temperature being a balmy 44 degrees, I decided to try the Dominion Baltic Porter in my refrigerator as I watched Packers vs Bears. As I searched for a glass in which to pour it, I could not find my Dominion glass, so I looked for my Olde Richmond Brewery glass. I chose the Olde Richmond glass as it is a Virginia brewery as Dominion is, or so I thought. It turns out that Old Dominion is brewed in Dover, Deleware. What a disappointment. This whole time I thought Dominion was a Virginia brewery. Why wouldn't I? Old Dominion is the nickname of the state of Virginia. We have a university with the same name, a freight liner, and many other things sharing the name. Apparently it started in Loudoun County in VA so the name made sense then. However, I still feel cheated by the name now that it is no longer a Virginia brewery.
Anyway, the Olde Richmond glass I had was for a brown ale, and I like to use a glass that says porter on it if I'm drinking a Porter, so that and the lack of a current Virginia connection, struck the Olde Richmond Brown glass from the list. Yeah, I know it's weird, but if you know me, you should not be shocked. I settled on Redhook's Blackhook Nitro Porter glass (a porter glass). Nitro Porter is a beer I had on my second visit to Capital Ale House with Jonathan. Our first visit was for Murphy's Steal the Glass Night while on spring break 2004, barely a month after we turned 21. The second visit was a little more memorable, not only because I got a cool Nitro Porter glass and first tried a very good Nitro Porter beer, but because Jonathan got a Redhook growler which we still reminisce about today. I can't remember if it came full of Sunrye Wheat or just said it on the bottle, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. I think it was my first Porter but surely not my last. Note: With the exception of later that year and maybe a year later, I have never again seen Nitro Porter on the shelf.
Baltic Porter is only the second Old Dominion beer I've tried. I like the Oak Barrel Stout they provide, which is a combination of good taste and a reasonable price. I'm a sucker anyway for anything that has been aged in oak or bourbon barrels so it's not a surprise I jumped all over it. However, this entry is not about the Oak Barrel Stout but about the Baltic Porter.
I actually was not expecting great things. My first sip had some chocolate notes usual for porters and some stouts. I slightly cheated by first reading the bottle where it says "hints of chocolate," but I swear I really did taste it. I have a good sense of taste. It's my third best sense only outdone by my sense of hearing and smell. But seriously my mom made chicken salad once using mayonnaise of a different brand than we normally use and I called her out on it even though she wouldn't admit there was anything different.
Back to the beer. It's actually not bad. I'd probably order it again if there were no Breckenridge Vanilla Porter or Stone Smoked Porter. It doesn't have the aftertaste that lingers like some porters and even more stouts, but that's a good thing. Some tastes you like to linger, a chocolaty beer taste you don't. It didn't really warm me up like it said it would but that might be due to its paltry 6.8% ABV. I've gotten to the point where most of the darker beer I drink are Imperials so I'm used to them having quite a kick. A 10.5% Bluegrass Brewing Company Jefferson Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout, on the other hand, will warm you up, and it'll get you drunk.
Verdict:
I'd recommend it as a single-beer buy. I don't think I'd want a sixer of it.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Da Introduction
Ok, so here's my first stab at blogging. In the past, I was never against the concept of blogging but never thought I had anything worth talking about. Well after many an encouragement from close friends, they convinced me to write about the stuff I so passionately speak about on a daily basis.
Let's start at the beginning. I'm an Electrical Engineer from Duke ('05), now living in the Triangle after spending my whole non-college life in Richmond, VA. Growing up my family was always big into sports, mostly college sports. When I say my family, I don't mean just my dad and I. My mom is one of the most passionate sports fans, and we'd even go to football games with three generations of the family. My uncle went to UVA and many of my mom's cousins went to UNC, so we had lots of ACC ties, in addition to living in an ACC state. I got accepted to Duke in December '00 and immediately started following the Duke basketball team in their run to the 2001 title. The first game I remember as a Dukie was against Stanford, watching the Cardinal (awful mascot, by the way) hit a game-winner. Not being a huge Duke fan before then, it didn't really bring me down as much as future Duke losses would; we'll likely get to those stories in future postings. *Side note: Many of my friends growing up were big Duke fans. I was never much for consummate winners, which aside from Duke, is still my stance in most sports.* In basketball, we followed mostly the CAA, with my parents both being UR Spiders, and some ACC basketball as it related to UVA. However, I'd say our real family passion was college football. We'd either go to a UR football game or watch college football all day (noon-10pm) each Saturday. Many weeks we'd do both.
Many of my posts will center around Duke basketball, especially during the season. I will also cover other sports, but with the football season fleeting, the other sports might decline. I end up watching a lot of college basketball in general and don't mind talking on it. I'll use the blog as my running commentary on the world of sports, sprinkling in some of my other interests: beer, music, and travel. Hopefully you readers will find this interesting. If not please let me know so I can stop wasting your time. It's not really wasting my time because I can type and watch TV at the some time. Yes! I'm the consummate multi-tasker. This blog is not going to be funny in most instances, either because I'm not good at creating funny or because nothing funny happens to me. If you want funny, you should check out Grace Thoreau's blog (http://fumblingwithgrace.blogspot.com/). She's not only a funny person but a good story teller and writer. I'm an engineer so I will have to get by on that. I hope you enjoy your time spent on here and I encourage feedback, including proposed blog topics.
Your humble blogger,
Natedevil
Let's start at the beginning. I'm an Electrical Engineer from Duke ('05), now living in the Triangle after spending my whole non-college life in Richmond, VA. Growing up my family was always big into sports, mostly college sports. When I say my family, I don't mean just my dad and I. My mom is one of the most passionate sports fans, and we'd even go to football games with three generations of the family. My uncle went to UVA and many of my mom's cousins went to UNC, so we had lots of ACC ties, in addition to living in an ACC state. I got accepted to Duke in December '00 and immediately started following the Duke basketball team in their run to the 2001 title. The first game I remember as a Dukie was against Stanford, watching the Cardinal (awful mascot, by the way) hit a game-winner. Not being a huge Duke fan before then, it didn't really bring me down as much as future Duke losses would; we'll likely get to those stories in future postings. *Side note: Many of my friends growing up were big Duke fans. I was never much for consummate winners, which aside from Duke, is still my stance in most sports.* In basketball, we followed mostly the CAA, with my parents both being UR Spiders, and some ACC basketball as it related to UVA. However, I'd say our real family passion was college football. We'd either go to a UR football game or watch college football all day (noon-10pm) each Saturday. Many weeks we'd do both.
Many of my posts will center around Duke basketball, especially during the season. I will also cover other sports, but with the football season fleeting, the other sports might decline. I end up watching a lot of college basketball in general and don't mind talking on it. I'll use the blog as my running commentary on the world of sports, sprinkling in some of my other interests: beer, music, and travel. Hopefully you readers will find this interesting. If not please let me know so I can stop wasting your time. It's not really wasting my time because I can type and watch TV at the some time. Yes! I'm the consummate multi-tasker. This blog is not going to be funny in most instances, either because I'm not good at creating funny or because nothing funny happens to me. If you want funny, you should check out Grace Thoreau's blog (http://fumblingwithgrace.blogspot.com/). She's not only a funny person but a good story teller and writer. I'm an engineer so I will have to get by on that. I hope you enjoy your time spent on here and I encourage feedback, including proposed blog topics.
Your humble blogger,
Natedevil
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