Moment of silence, please

Will you observe a moment of silence with me, please?


Thank you. This moment of silence is due to a most unfortunate event. Imagine, Boulevard's Sixth Glass, freshly poured into the beautiful Smokestack series goblet. Take a sip. Turn around and hear a "Oh no!" and a crash. Only to find your once full goblet lying on the ground...and a once half full bottle of the Sixth Glass lying next to it. The only solace is that there were about six ounces left of the beer.


Back to the brewery to buy another glass. The beer has been replaced too.


Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer is playing right now.

The Great Guitar Solo

I love beer. But I love music more. And the name of this place is Music and Beer…so here’s something about music.

The great debate has been going since before Woodstock. Who’s the greatest guitarist? I’m not going to address this because everyone knows it’s….ME! Thank you, thank you. But seriously, what’s the greatest rock guitar solo?

Jimi is probably the best known by rock guitar fans and considered the innovator by most. Eddie would probably be considered second by the masses largely due to his early works like Eruption. But I don’t believe either of these have the greatest guitar solo. I would choose the work of one very misunderstood, Frank Zappa.

Frank was a phenomenal composer. He wrote everything that every person in his band played. And they had to play it as written. He was always sober and required his musicians to be sober for all rehearsals and performances. He put Steve Vai on the map of top rock guitarists. But I really don’t like most of his music. Not because it’s bad, it’s just not my taste. But there is one song.

A close friend, lover of beer, fine musician, once introduced me to homebrewing. He also introduced me to Watermelon in Easter Hay. This song is a straight forward almost nine minute guitar solo. It’s not filled with lightning fast licks (there are a couple), there is no finger tapping, the distortion is subtle and tasteful, and limited to about three minutes in the middle of the song. It’s just beautiful. It’s filled with emotion. As a musician, I also appreciate the technical aspect of the song. The measures alternate between 4/4 and 5/4 time…the entire song. This is the only guitar solo that has evoked emotion in me. And words cannot do it justice.

If you love music, and love the guitar, I highly recommend listening to this song. And if you do give up nine minutes of your life to listen to it, hopefully you have a quality homebrew handy to enjoy with it. If not, try a Hazed and Infused.

The Real Guinness

I'm back. I know you missed me. We recently moved to a new house and we're still getting things organized. But from the pressure of a good friend, I decided to review another beer.

I recently acquired a 250 ml bottle of Guinness (BRILLIANT!). From Ireland. The real deal. This is and Extra Stout, with 4.2% ABV. Not quite as much as we get here in the States.

Please forgive me for the glass. Most of my glassware is still packed and I've come to really like the Smokestack glass.

There wasn't much head, and the color looks like what I'm used to with the Extra Stout. The smell is strong of the roasted malts, like the US version. The taste is significantly different than the US version though. The first impression is that it's very carbonated, and there is a sharpness. Maybe due to hops, but it's not bitter like I would expect from hops. Maybe it's the roasted barley. I probably should have had a US version to compare it to but that wasn't possible tonight.

Overall, I like the Irish version, but not as much as the US version. It seems to be a weak, dare I say, watered down copy of the one we get here. It's still enjoyable and the bottle wasn't quite big enough for me to REALLY get a good taste.

Dave Matthews Band - Grey Street (Lillywhite version) is currently blasting from the speakers. It's one of my favorite songs from DMB.