the typo

The carasoul spins in the dark, its music trailing like peacock feather
The bits collected stick to the parts, the builders of souls sputter with rage
They watch it go, around and around, somehow never leaving its place
And yet, the riders shout for joy and glee and carelessness
Unaware of the pain the builders have

The builders fume and snarl, angry at their bits gone astray
And they do not stop to see that they are whole
They worry and shiver at every lost sliver
At every piece that did them no good anyway
It left through the workings of nature
But every loss is personal and cruel and an act of sabotage
And the carasoul has all the blame

There is no fee to ride, you know
Anyone can jump on
All you need is to make the choice
Take the chance
All the souls together, in joy
But only by their own hands

the mystery!

I had a beer in my refrigerator for a few days, and damn if I don't remember where I got it.  I know I bought it, it didn't appear magically, I just can't remember what store I found it in.  It's La Quince Young Gifted & Black IPA, not a brand that you only find in one or two stores.  Wherever I got it, it'll be good, being a trusted brand.  Black IPAs are a little weird for me, being that they look like stouts but are IPAs in every other way, confounding my tastebuds when I drink them.

It definitely smells like an IPA on opening, but there's that weird contrast of looking like a stout and smelling like an ale that gets me.  I'm not sure what to expect (I think I should expect an IPA, though).  It is citrusy and sharp at first, although not overwhelmingly so, much like most craft IPAs.  Then, suddenly, the aftertaste lights up a little smoke.  It's not just ale bitter, it's a wink at strong, bitter stouts.  I try again, to see if it comes back, or if it's the power of my mind, and it's not quite as noticeable.  I think I've convinced myself that there should be a little bit of stout just because of the appearance, that's a beer that could fool somebody completely.  I can see a blindfolded taste-test driving some poor soul crazy.  If I ever remember where this bottle came from, I'll be sure to raise my glass to them for their stock.

New glass, that didn't get any black beers for its debut

EDIT (5 minutes later!) Supplier: Cervecissimus (definitely deserves the toast)
Price: €3.40 (...it's craft, what can I say?)

waiting on a train to beerville

So, there's a new beer festival in town, Beergote.  I have to admit it took me a couple of times hearing the name before I got the joke.  Like the old beer fairs at l'Europe, this was over a weekend, although with much expanded hours being in an event space rather than a bar.  They had taken over the event space at Chamartín station, which has an indoor area for the beer stands to be and a large patio area for some tables and the food stand.  Also, the DJ.  On cooler days, I imagine more people would have been drunkenly dancing instead of mostly lounging in what shade they could find.  At least the patio ended up completely shaded by about 7pm.

Food stand!

German sausages to be distributed

I wandered around to check out my options and started with the first stand that went out of its way to get my attention.  If they go to that trouble it only seems right.  The brewery was Patanel (of Carabanchel), a local brewery not on my radar as of yet.  They were offering a pale ale, good for beating the heat, and at this point that's the best thing to be drinking.  As much as I love my stouts and porters, there are moments when something lighter has more pull. It's wheaty, citrusy, a good summer drink, only slightly bitter.  Really, a very good mild beer to relax with, more flavorful than the industrial beers, but also not excessively demanding.

The second time around I stopped at Villa de Madrid with their collection of Chula.  The rep proudly told me that their premium pilsner had just won the best beer award in Belgium a month or so ago, which is quite tempting.  Still leery of Spanish pilsners, I asked to try a little first; it's the best thing about craft beer people, they want you to be sure before you get the whole glass.  They understand matters of taste.  It was better than a lot of Spanish pilsners I remember, but still a little strange for my palate, a little too fruity.  I also tried their special #Zita, which was toasted and tasty, but still too heavy.  It was triple digits Fahrenheit, what do you want from me?  So, I went with the pale ale, also fruity, but more to my liking than the pilsner.  It was more identifiably mandarin flavored, which I liked for some reason.  Certainty, I suppose. It had a strong color for a pale ale, like Centennial or Cibeles Imperial IPA.  It makes me think of a sweet cider mixed with beer, actually, with the undercurrent of beer-bitter and bright fruitiness on top.  Towards the end, the beer feels a little foamier, maybe just from getting so warmed up.

Again, there's sort of an amber ale and a pale ale to choose from; again the pale ale feels like the better choice.  Not that Palecat tostada is bad, but it's a little heavy on the banana for me.  The pale ale, on the other hand, is more Spanish cider-like, with a bitterness that settles and stays.  It's a rather cloudy beer, too, American cider-like in that way.  The rep at Palecat has an interest in country music, but the classical kind, from the '30s, '40s, and '50s.  Darling.

Oh no!  My camera ran out of battery before taking a picture of my last beer with the fries!  I got an amber ale from La Bicha and then I went to get fries to have a little something in my stomach now.  The dude was not especially friendly.  The other reps were very happy to talk about what they had at the fair and other things they were doing, but this guy gave the impression that I was a disturbance.  Maybe he's always like that, but when you're a socially anxious person, those things stick with you.  Even the pin doesn't take it away.

So the amber ale, is bitter-sweet, bracing, typical amber ale in the best way.  The combination with the potatoes does it no favors, unfortunately, it leaves the beer with a sort of musky or skunky smells after you've been consuming typical condiments.  La Bicha Parda is nice and dignified on its own, but I guess it needs to stay on its own.

movie four

When I was browsing for my beer, I thought something festive should be hung on to for the end of the film festival.  Even though it's sad when festivals end, there's always joy that is started.  Schneider Weisse Meine Festweisse has the name for what I'm looking for.  Lemonadey yellow, but resistant white head are the first impressions.  It has an aroma like many German wheat beers, a little sugary but tangy.  There is something special in the taste, though, first it seems a little gingery, but then I get something more like a rauchbier.  Something smoky or bacony.  There's an orangey start before it gets spicy and the meatiness comes out mostly in the aftertaste.  That little carnivorous touch actually fits perfectly with the last movie.

Supplier: La Birratorium
Price: €2.35


spoilers ahead 

The last movie for me was 5 Frauen/5 mujeres/5 Women, which was described as "Hitchcockian".  There are a lot of psychological things going on, and questions that remain unanswered, but I don't think Hitchcock would have mixed up so many questions into a single story.  Well, maybe he would today.  Gotta keep up with the times and all.  The movie starts with four of the women going to meet their friend in her country house, and one of them kicks her man out of the car angrily.  We don't see her very much during the movie.  The other four arrive with their significant others and one woman almost immediately ends up sleeping with the man who got kicked out of the car.  The others realize there's an affair going on and admonish her mildly.  The boys go off to sail for the weekend leaving the girls to their own devices.  One of them goes out to the fields and runs around screaming like a child, which the others observe wistfully, saying they would like to still do whatever they want.  She also picks mushrooms from the ground and mixes them into the salad for dinner perfectly aware that they are hallucinogenic.  She even offers one to the dog in jest, but doesn't give him any in the end.  The women start a kind of wobbly, giggling trip and end up watching an art film while a storm builds outside.  The owner of the house has been depressed and we don't quite know why; it seems like maybe somebody has died, or her relationship has failed, but she has a flashback to a rape during the trip, and that seems to be the reason for her mental state.  She starts wandering around the house, thinking she heard noises and comes across a man in her painting studio.  He attacks her, she screams for help, her friends come, and two of them beat the man to death with their faces painted in the vision she has of the scene.  Once the man is dead they can't decide what to do.  The owner of the house calls the police, but when they arrive one of her friends takes control of the situation and tells the officers it was a mistake, and they leave.  She tells her friends that they are still under the influence and that will look bad if they testify.  The next day a man shows up at the house and wanders onto the property.  He comes across the lake and starts a naked swim.  The fifth woman finally shows up, drunk, and cajoles him out of the water.  Then they have spontaneous sex on the dock.  She brings him to the house to meet her friends, who are understandably suspicious of a stranger just showing up out of nowhere.  Her behavior seems frivolous and stupid, knowing what we know happened, but the day before they all probably would have behaved the same way.  The man says he's looking for his brother and after some back and forth between the friends, the owner offers him the caretaker's cottage for a night or two.  The fifth friends lets it be known that she knows about the affair between her man and her friend, and in the end she just leaves after finding out about the killing.  The four remaining friends think about how to get rid of the body and how to entertain the brother.  Two of the friends take the corpse off to a reservoir to sink it and the owner decides to sleep with the man on her property.  The corpse won't sink and the woman can't allow herself to sleep with the man, because she thinks she sees the tattoo of her rapist on his back.  He actually has no tattoos, but her belief in his guilt for her situation gives her strength.  The next morning she tells him to leave, threatening him with a knife.  He goes back to his car, stuck in the mountain.  The women who can't get rid of the corpse come back to the house and on the way come across a police roadblock.  They police say they are looking for two troublemakers.  The women find the stranger's bag with rope and some kind of projectile weapon in the caretaker's house after he leaves.  They go up to his car and insist he leave immediately, but end up shooting him in the head with the projectile.  At the end of the weekend, the women leave the house, probably for the last time.  The police are very happy to find the two criminals, since the body has been left in the back of the stranger's car.  The owner of the house burns all her paintings, gets in her truck, and drives off, possibly without the dog.  And that's the end.

At one point, one of the women says they all met in an art class for children with problems, but the problems they had are never elaborated on.  The woman having an affair and the woman who shoos off the police seem to be pretty cold-blooded and end the weekend with a stronger relationship than before.  The woman who collected the mushrooms has a scene where she sings about burning everything and killing everybody.  The fifth woman seems to have a problem with alcohol, and the owner of the house is unsociable and possibly paranoid.  It is implied that the two men are criminals, since the police are happy to find their bodies, but we never find out what crime they are accused of.  They might not even have been violent.  The man who gets killed seems to attack the woman, but she might have attacked him first, out of fear.  Then he would only be trying to subdue her and defend himself.  The "brother" (we don't know for sure if they are) swims naked in the lake and we can see that he has no tattoos anywhere on his torso, so the image the owner of the house sees must be a hallucination.  It's a movie that raises questions about the limits of friendship, the obligations to our loved ones, and our connection to reality.  I found it interesting, even without resolution of most of the questions raised.

movie three

 Somehow a German wheat beer feels appropriate for a classic German movie.  You find Weihenstephaner around, in bars and stores, but it's not one I pick up habitually.  Now that it's all summery and gross at night, it's a good time for a tangy wheat.  Vitus is glowy yellow-gold, cloudy like wheat beers tend to be.  It's a bit sour in smell, but with a little sweet hiding under it.  The taste is classic wheat beer, sweet at first and developing a little tang as the swallow happens.

Supplier: Cervecissimus
Price: €2.80

spoilers ahead!

I don't know if it matters to warm people about spoilers for a movie that's over 90 years old.  Varieté from 1925 is one of those show people movies that seem to have been pretty popular in the early 20th century.  Maybe because live spectacle was so much more important for entertainment then.  It starts in a prison with the warden calling up a prisoner and guilting him into discussing his crime with a letter from his wife.  It seems he was a carnival worker with a piano playing wife and a young baby he adores, but one night a friend of his brings a young woman to him to dance in the carnival.  She and her mother were picked up in an unnamed country and the mother died off of South Africa, so the young woman has nobody and nothing.  The wife doesn't want to hire her but the carnival man says she stays.  She dances for the audience and an attraction develops between her and the man, and he starts to feel like he should return to performing himself.  He had been a trapeze artist until he broke his leg, and when he mentions this to his wife she says if he goes back into performing it will be without her.  He takes her at her word, apparently, because soon he decides to run away with the dancer and start a new trapeze act.  Later, in Berlin, they are seen in a carnival by the agent of the Wintergarten, who has just lost his trapeze artists because one was injured in their last performance.  He convinces the remaining Artinelli to hire the pair for a new act and they begin a successful career with him at the Wintergarten.  Artinelli is interested in the woman, the man's "wife", from the start, but she shows no interest in him until he corners her in his room and probably rapes her.  Bizarrely, but a trope for old movies and stories, she falls in love with him after that episode, but doesn't want to leave her "husband", so as not to break up the act, possibly.  Eventually, the man finds out and lays a trap for the lovers.  He tells Artinelli that he'll be out late and then he waits in Artinelli's room for him to come back from his date with the woman.  He confronts Artinelli, pulls out two knives and demands he defend himself, and finally stabs him.  It was a foregone conclusion, since Artinelli was practically falling down drunk.  The man goes to his room, where his "wife" is pretending to sleep and she greets him happily when he comes in.  He looks at her strangely and she gets nervous, then when he goes to wash his hands, blood flows into the water and she screams.  He leaves the room and she follows him, begging him to stay and possibly explain what happened, but then they pass Artinelli's room and she sees the body.  She runs after her "husband" shouting for help, but then she falls down the stairs and breaks her neck or something.  At the end she's lying immobile on the stairs anyway.  The man turns himself in to the police, and we return to the beginning, to the scene with the warden.  The prisoner feels that God is punishing him for his bad decisions, but the warden assures him that God's mercy is greater than his justice, and the last scene is the prison gates opening.

The carnival man is Emil Jannings, a staple of these old German films.  When he goes in for the kill, he looks like an incredibly dangerous man.  His eyes seem to glow with the fires of Mephistopheles.  He's a jerk for abandoning his wife and the baby he seems to love dearly, but he's also a good partner to the young woman while they're together.  She seems to be following the policy of ingratiating herself to the most important man around.  Probably, this is just a survival strategy learned in a life of hardship.  Still, she doesn't seem to be disgusted by either of the men we see her with in the film.  Artinelli is the villain for sure, deliberately trying to destroy a relationship for his personal enjoyment, even if it might hurt him professionally.  In the end, of course, it hurts him both professionally and personally, since he's dead.  There are a couple of scenes where signs are in English, a reminder that the images for this restored version were taken from a copy in Library of Congress.  Like most 1920s films that are still available, the cinematography is excellent and the framing of the scenes is fantastic.  The story barely needs the intertitles, since the images practically speak for themselves.  The people next to me even commented that it was truly impressive how well they filmed different angles and movement with the technology of the time.  I'm only minorly irritated by the piousness at the end, but again, it's a common theme in those early films.

I think Stephan looks a little disapproving...

movie two

First I had to find another German beer.  Somehow, there are fewer in the shops than I remember, but I got me a couple for the rest of the festival.  Andechs is in the better bars, but I don't think I've brought it home.  Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel seems like just the thing for a sort of sci-fi movie, you know, to go with those dark, German twists and turns.  It has the color of a nice red ale, actually, brown but with a ruby tinge.  The smell is not particularly strong, but typical of German beers.  It tastes very much like German lagers at first, but without the sort of grassy aftertaste I often find.  It's a bit sweet, but also very smooth.  It's a happy taste, something I'd have enjoyed in groups around the Kneipe table, yelling out trivia and waving down servers for more onion rings.  It's a lot happier than the second movie, it turns out.

Might be wanting a drink after

Supplier: Cervecissimus
Price: €2.70

spoilers ahead!

My second film was part of the Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk cycle the festival is running this year.  One of the cycle was actually a classic 1920s film, but my schedule just didn't allow me to see it.  Oh, well.  Wir Sind die Flut/Somos el diluvio (there's no English title, apparently) is about a modern natural mystery, in a world where the sea pulled away from a small town on the German coast in 1994.  Nobody can explain why this happened, and even stranger, why all the children but one disappeared from town that day.  Now the town is under military guard at the outskirts, but tourists are allowed in to sea the empty coast and marvel at the strangeness of it.  A physics student at Humboldt University has made up his mind to figure out what happened by taking painstaking measurements and calculating some kind of gravitational anomaly.  He's so set on doing this that he leaves with a forged permission for his study, equipment stolen from the lab, and the help of his advisor's daughter, who was once his classmate.  They find the town quiet and creepy.  The owner of the pension they find a room at is suspicious but takes their cash payments, one man mistakes one of the students for his son, and another man tells them angrily to leave town.  Then they meet the last child, who is now about 20.  She wishes the feeling in the town would change, go back to normal, but she seems to have accepted that the other children are safe in some other place.  The students try to get measurements from a radio tower that was once in the sea but is now in the middle of restricted mudflats.  Somebody smashes the transmitter on the shore so they put on hazmat suits and walk out to the tower like astronauts on a mud planet.  Strangely, they don't seem to leave any footprints, but looking at the photos they took, the determined student sees a barefoot human footprint in the mud.  He runs back to the flats, takes off his shoe and steps in the mud.  Suddenly, a small boy appears in front of him.  He's distracted by people shouting on the shore and the boy disappears, but now he's obsessed with finding out who the boy is and how he can be there.  Meanwhile, his friend is talking to the last child and the man who mistook the student for his son.  She says she understands what it's like to lose somebody before you should, which is later clarified as an unplanned pregnancy, although we never learn if she had an abortion or gave the baby up.  She did go to Portugal, which doesn't sound like the place to get an quick and easy abortion to me, but what do I know, fortunately.  The last child starts filling the old swimming pool in an attempt to make things the way they were, and they notice that the water isn't level, even though the pool is.  This discovery excites the woman tremendously and she's ready to continue the investigation now, when she was ready to leave before talking to the last child.  The other student is now less interested in the water than in the boy and he discovers that the man who yelled at them before was the boy's father.  This boy did not disappear with the others, he died of some long illness the day all that happened.  The student goes to the man's house to get more information and sneaks into the boy's room.  He is shocked and delighted to see that the boy had the same toys and books that he did as a child, and had even made the same calculations about the anomaly as he did, before it happened.  There is some dust-up with the soldiers since they find out the permission he gave them is falsified, the pension owner is afraid they're causing trouble, and the confused old man kills himself.  The student takes off his shoes and walks out into the mud, where he sees all the children waiting for him.  The angry man finds a cassette in his son's room and plays it; the boy says he feels bad that his father doesn't know what to tell him when he asks, "Why?" - why he's going to die, I suppose - and he's figuring out a way to freeze time.  At the end of the tape he says he's going to take all the children to a place where nothing will change and nobody will ever die.  The adults listening to the tape all sit down in the bar and have shots.  Before they drink, the angry man says, "Maybe the children are in a better place now."  The student has disappeared and his friend returns to Berlin with her father, but when she goes to her apartment he is sitting out side the door to the building, where she said he wasn't the day she left for Portugal.  And back in the town, a wave washes up on shore.

I enjoyed most of the movie, but the ending bothered me.  First of all, it seems too magical.  Even though the boy supposedly calculated the way to access a place where time is frozen, now all you have to do is step in the mud with bare feet to find it?  And if he's with the children, how did he get to the woman's building?  Just zapped there?  Maybe he's a ghost, or a hallucination.  Also, despite the glowing treatment the boy is given in the film - he's a mathematical genius, he's a poor, sick boy, he has a heart of gold etc. - the fact that he just up and took all the other children with him without any explanation makes him a little asshole.  To a place where they won't grow up and die?  Little Peter Pan wannabe jerkass!  And the connection between him and the student is never explained, since the student made his calculations before he ever set foot in the town, and is too old to be a reincarnation of the boy.  It's too bad the director cancelled his visit to give us a talk about the film, because I had questions and I'm sure other people did too.

movie one

It's Beer Week and German Film Festival, together again!  To celebrate, I sought out a good German beer for my first film.  Ayinger seems to be around in bars, although I don't think I've taken advantage of its presence.  I guess I'm a little behind in the month, but I'm sure it's still perfectly ready for drinking.

It's one of those straw yellow, bubbly German beers, a little more bitter in aroma than many such examples.  The taste is reminiscent of Spaten bock, although much lighter and more spring-like, doing justice to the name.  It's bitter, but with a sweet finish that complements the beginning.  Maibock is like a little sibling to Spaten bock, with the same basic structure, but something a little more playful and shy where Spaten is confident and center stage taking.  Ayinger Maibock is pleasant and almost uplifting, a good all-arounder, but I don't know if I would use it for, say, a beer float.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €3.10

spoilers ahead!
The first movie of the festival was Gleißendes Glück/El éxtasis/Original Bliss.  I had wanted to see the movie shown at 5, but schedules can change in a moment, and this was on my back-up list.  So, at 9:40pm I was waiting with a good 30 other people at the door.  The movie was supposed to start at 10.  We didn't even get in until quarter after.  It seems the movie before had a question session after and the half-hour before our movie wasn't enough.  Poor planning, Palacio de la Prensa and Cine Alemán!  At least the movie was interesting.  It's the story of a middle-aged woman having a slow emotional breakdown, mourning her lost faith and suffering from insomnia.  Her husband seems patient but sometimes frustration makes him explode.  He slams her hand in a drawer after a fight and calls their family doctor to fix her up instead of taking her to a hospital, then insists, compassionately it might seem, on staying by her side to hold her other hand.  That should probably be a red flag.  The woman hears a psychologist talking on the radio about changing reality through the power of your mind, and she goes to meet him at one of his conferences.  They hit it off, going out to dinner, for drinks, he even moves to the hotel she's staying at "to hide from his fans".  When she goes to his room she sees a laptop with porn on the screen.  He explains that he's studying porn addiction to find new treatments, but it soon becomes clear that he is an addict himself.  The woman goes back to her husband, but she and the psychologist start exchanging letters and eventually he has a conference in a city near where she lives.  They meet and discuss their problems some more.  She had been sleeping well in the hotel, but at home her insomnia comes back.  The psychologist tries to quit porn and writes postcards to the woman about his progress.  Her husband finds those postcards and gives her a beating that causes her to go to the psychologist's apartment in Berlin for a few months.  They become closer, eventually, possibly, having sex.  The day after she decides to return to her husband, but insists on her own space in the house.  He fixes her up a sleeping area in the attic, like the one she says she had in her grandfather's house.  It's one of her happiest memories.  But, the first night she goes down to her husband in bed and shows her newly bald crotch.  As she returns to her bed, he leaps out of the darkness like a monster in a horror film and tries to beat her to death before killing himself with what looks like sleeping pills.  The human violence is not shown, but plates fall, windows shake, furniture breaks, and the house looks like a hurricane and an earthquake hit at the same time.  Somehow, she survives and wakes up in the hospital with the psychologist at her side.  They are about to start a loving and emotionally fulfilling relationship.

Although I'm not sure the abusive husband was a necessary part of the story, it's an interesting contrast to see an ostensibly respectful and normal man as the beast while the porn user is less a misogynistic pervert and more a considerate partner who can tell the difference between fantasy and reality.  The woman seems to be looking for emotional connection throughout the film, and her husband scoffs at her previous attempts to find peace in religion, saying she never had any faith, she just wanted to whore herself to God.  She does try to contact some divine being at different points in the film, kneeling in church or by her bed.  Mostly she asks what she should do.  Then she makes decisions that end up causing her pain.  But, her relationship with the psychologist wouldn't have prospered without those decisions, so the ends justify the means I guess?

mmm, cake

Oh boy, oh boy, I got the last bottle on the shelf of the so-called Mugcake Stout!  Now, I wonder if it's supposed to be "mudcake", or if they're making a pun of that and "mug".  Either way, the shop guy praised my selection and said it was a fantastic, full flavored, sipping beer.  Lots of chocolate, he said.  Good enough for me!  I am not familiar with Drunken Bros, but I'm willing to give Ripley a shot.

In honor of a new movie out, maybe?

Yep

It comes out beautifully, rich and dark in color.  The scent isn't very heavy, but stouty beyond a doubt.  I get licorice before chocolate at the first sip, but only a whisper of it.  Then there's a smoky dark chocolate flavor, wrapped in bitter.  There's another snap of sweet licorice at the end, but again just a teasing hint.  Not being a fan of licorice, this is about all I would want.  It does add a nice twist to the overall flavor, lightening it when one might expect a heavier, cake-y mouthful.  It's not as substantial as some stouts are, but has a presence, and feels like a beer that wants to go with something.  Brownies or actual cake would be nice.  The just-sweet-enoughness of the beer could make it a good companion for a meaty main course, too.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €4.48

worth the wait

Finally, I get my porter-chocolate beer float!  It's Founders Porter, so it's gotta be good.  The ice cream is frozen solid as usual, but it's a hot day so it should soften up quickly.  It has a very milky, frosty look as bubbles and ice cream meet in the glass.  The scent of chocolate is strong, and there's typical float foam, a mix of foamy ice cream and disappearing carbonated suds.  The pastry can't battle the bitter head at first, but sugar pops up in the end.  The beer ends up looking like chocolate milk, but with foam on top.  It has a very dark chocolatey taste, a little bit bitter/sour as it goes down, which is what you can expect from the porter.  The ice cream has chocolate chunks, tiny ones, so it's a good thing I got a spoon today.  The chocolate is more resistant than the mango was, maybe it has a heavier consistency, or maybe All Day was warmer than the porter to begin with.  Seems like a porter shouldn't be as chilled if either one isn't, but it's definitely cool now.  And smooth, and bittersweet, and wonderful.  As I expected, there are lots of chocolate bits at the bottom, but they taste like chocolate liqueurs when they get fished out.  Tasty!

all day, every day

I expect this float to be sweeter than the barleywine concoction, even though All Day is a tongue squeezer itself.  On the other hand, mango isn't always as sweet as it is tangy, so maybe my expectations are off again.  What I certainly don't expect is something I don't like at all.  It looks like the mango ice cream is more malleable than the vanilla, so it comes out pretty quickly.  No spoon this time, though.  The ice cream seems to kill off the foam, and give the All Day a darker color than it normally has.  A quick stir with the pastry brings back some bubbles.  The scoops of mango ice cream look like egg yolks, floating helplessly in the drink.  There's a very identifiable citrus taste, which is probably due entirely to the beer, but it's also a little fruitier than normal.  I can only assume that's the mango.  The pastry still adds that sugar when you take a bite, which enhances the bitterness.  As I got the the bottom, I saw that actual bits of mango were sitting on the bottom of the glass.  Presumably they came from the ice cream, I don't think those were added separately.  I pondered getting the porter-chocolate, since the day is threatening rain, but I had already decided on that All Day mango!  Heart set on it!  I have the rest of the week for that last one (maybe they'll have even more if they switch the beers up too).

sweet treats

I'm actually not sure which beer I ended up with for my first beer float.  The bartender said it was barleywine, but I've only heard them say Dirty Bastard since then.  Maybe he made a mistake, or maybe they decided to stick to the Scotch ale later.  The vanilla ice cream came out of the freezer solid as a rock, so it took a few minutes for things to take shape.  I get a pastry straw along with the spoon, just like in a soda fountain.  It's an interesting bittersweet, sugary but with a strong bitter orange flavor.  Maybe that's the pastry talking.  The beer itself is very cloudy at first and the foam is quite bitter.  The ice cream tastes more like vanilla walnut than plain vanilla, but I don't see any nuts in there. 

It stays foamy for quite some time, so it's hard to get a sip of actual beer at first.  When I do, there's a hint of bourbon or rum in the background, but mostly just bittersweetness.  Once the foam incorporates into the beer it gets very light and creamy, even easier to drink.  Possibly a dangerous thing, considering how strong both barleywine and Dirty Bastard are.  It's a noticeably more bitter drink than I expected, but maybe more refreshing for that reason.  Could be a year 'round float.

yakka it up

It's the first day of Beer Week and I feel like I should be drinking local.  Or at least national.  The only really national beer left, it seems, is Yakka Mare Nostrum Ale.  Good enough to start with!

The label invokes the calm of the seaside, with the design as much as the color scheme - until you take a closer look and see what ugly fish those are.

Yikes

It's definitely beery beer: right color, right suds, although maybe a little light on those actually.  A little aley in smell, but not too much.  I think I detect a hint of the sea in the flavor, just a hint of salinity, but otherwise it is, as I said, a very beery beer.  In spite of being an ale, it's only mildly bitter and slightly sour in the aftertaste.  I'm told to be on the lookout for citrus notes, but All Day might have burnt those taste buds out.  There is some mild fruitiness that develops as the glass empties, but I don't identify it as citrus.  Although seafood is the recommended accompaniment, the flavor is mild enough to go with anything, really.  Not a walloping start to Beer Week, but you don't want to run out of steam too early, do you?