An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this ale comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. At 10,000 gallons each, these are the largest wooden brewing vessels built in America since before Prohibition. It’s all very exciting. We have wood. Now you do too.
From the notes:
Thick head, tannish quickly dissipated, dark colored almost caramel reminds me of root beer. Smells of cut wood with subtle candy sweetness. You can taste the alcohol in this beer. Reminds me of a stout, toasted molasses, malts, and spiced wood tastes. Bittersweet finish.
This is a uniquely flavored beer. I’ve never tasted anything like it. While I was drink and taking notes I kept finding myself searching for words to describe the complex smells an tastes I was experiencing… Woody and spiced came up a lot. But I think both of those words fail to encapsulate what is going on with Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron. In the end I don’t think this beer is for me, despite the taste I don’t see myself drinking this beer regularly in the future. I do recommend that everyone give it a try though!
Why am I talking about a game that came out in 2002? Especially, in a field that is obsessed with the future and has yet to find a way to make its past relevant in any meaningful way? I’m talking about it because one of its sequels recently was released (Skyrim) and before I played that I wanted to, finally, play through this.
Also, D is playing Skyrim right now…
Anyway, Morrowind. Morrowind is the third in Bethesda’s long lived Elder Scrolls series (17 years?!) of open-ended, free roaming, near sandbox level, role playing games. Elder Scroll games are known for their large, rich worlds, extensive backstory, and the player’s ability to freely wander the world, exploring, dungeoneering, smithing, leatherworking, potion making, etc… In general, players can ignore the story line entirely and still have hours of stuff to do!
This is about as good as Morrowind can look, but for 2002 that's damn impressive!
I’m a half a dozen hours into the game and I haven’t really touched the main story line. I’ve been too busy working my way up the ladder in the Mage and Thieves Guilds. I think the story has something to do with an ancestor-god of the Dark Elves who inhabit the island the game takes places on. The Dark Elves are divided into houses, one of which was evil and destroyed a long time ago, but is now somehow coming back. I’m pretty sure that is what is happening. Like I said, I’ve been distracted by other things. What I have been noticing is that Morrowind is an incredibly ugly looking game. I know, I know this game is almost 10 years old and PC power back then was only a shadow of what it is now but, Super Mario Brothers for the NES had a richer color palette than Morrowind. Everything in this game is a shade of brown or gray. The dull color palette is only part of the problem, all the character models in this game are hideous as well. Take a look at this Nix hound:
Ack! it's hideous!
Why is it green, and scaly, and have three weird teeth? I don’t even know how this thing would eat if it was real? Everything looks like this too? Weird boxy, brown, bugs, and strange walking toadstools, and poorly assembled human dolls with off putting faces. It’s as if the artists were trying to offend the players sense of aesthetics… You don’t want to kill things because they’re evil, or attacking you, you want to kill them because their existence is an affront to good taste!
Orcs are supposed to be ugly, I know. But, Egad!
Playing Morrowind has helped me to recognize how spoiled modern gaming is. Oblivion and Skyrim would never let the player get lost or have to figure out where to go on their own. Both of those games have extensive, detailed maps and a quest tracker that always points you in the direction of the quest you’re working on. Morrowind has detailed map and parts of it are even labelled. But quest tracking? Nope. You’ve got a journal that keeps track of your conversations, which is vital, because to get from one place to the next or to find some of the out of the way spots NPCs direct you to you’re going to have to follow their directions. Their often vague and general directions… Flipping between the journal screen, map screen, and main screen will eventually get you there, most of the time. But, I’ve found myself wandering off numerous times, unsure of where I was and where I needed to go. There’s still a dungeon out there I can’t find despite having directions to it…
All in all I’m having fun with the game and I can see why it was such a big deal when it came out. I am looking forward to playing Skyrim though when I’m done.
A beer that has a dominant malty taste. This beer’s origins in a monk’s recipe are reflected in its heartiness. The Pope of Beers, Conrad Seidl, describes it as: “Almost black with a very slight red tone, a sensational, festive foam and truly extraordinary fragrance that at first summons up visions of greaves lard. The first taste is of mild fullness with an accompanying coffee tone, which becomes more dominant with the aftertaste. There is very little of the sweetness that is frequently to be tasted with doppelbock beer.” The Ayinger Celebrator has been ranked among the best beers of the world by the Chicago Testing Institute several times and has won numerous platinum medallions.
From my notes:
Smells like caramel, malty almost like bread. This beer is a rich brown color with thick tan head that sticks around. Tastes of chocolate and again breads, dark ones (rye, etc…) finishes with a gentle, lingering roasted bitterness. This is a smooth, full bodied beer with low carbonation. Good!
Rich, nutty brown color with a creamy, head that laces the glass
I’ve only ever seen this beer at high end groceries and beer shops but it’s well worth going out of your way for if you appreciate bock (and double bock) style beers. Highly recommended!
Brewed strictly according to traditional brewing methods, using only natural ingredients — water, malted barley, fresh whole hops, and yeast. Old Foghorn is based on traditional English barley wines. Old Foghorn is highly hopped, using only Cascade hops. It is fermented with a true top-fermenting ale yeast. Carbonation is produced by an entirely natural process called “bunging,” which produces champagne-like bubbles. Our “barleywine ale” is dry-hopped with additional Cascade hops while it ages in our cellars.
From my notes:
deep, rich, red color. Thick, darkish, head that quickly evaporates. This beer smells of fruit: citrus and maybe plums. Taste starts sweet and malty, then mellows into bitter. Would be excellent except for the subtle medicine/metallic tastes that this barley wine has.
I haven’t drank a lot of barley wines and I felt safe trying Anchor Brewery’s take on them for a first try. This was a decent beer with a nice mix of malt and hops. I’d being recommending it to you right now if it wasn’t for that medicine taste. The last thing anyone wants to taste when their downing a brew is Robitussin! Despite all this beer had going for it that ruined it. Maybe I got a bad batch, maybe there are other good barley wines out there? I just don’t know… If you happen to know of a good one though please recommend it below!
