Gose Beer

Before a few weeks ago I had never heard of this style of beer. Then it started popping up everywhere. I have already tried three! If this is a new beer trend, I am totally digging it. 

Gose is a sour beer that was first made in Germany in the 1600's. It uses lactobacillus in fermentation, just like yogurt and kimchee! Sour over bitter any day.

Sierra Nevada's Otra Vez was the first gose beer I tried. It's like a tart lemonade with a little cactus flavor added in. It seems like it would perfect to drink on a hot summer day. I liked it so much that I knew I had to try more beer in this style.

I tried this Chicago brewery's version next. It was least favorite so far, but still tasty. It is very mild and a little sweet, but still has that lemony flavor. There was a hint of moldiness to it, which I really don't like in a beer, so that is why I was not totally into this one. 

I have a bad habit of tearing the labels off the beer, but I thought it was interesting to note that this label is silver on the inside. I'm guessing that it is for insulation, which is pretty cool.  

Anderson Valley's Blood Orange Gose was my absolute favorite. It might even be my new favorite beer. It tastes like the outer coating of a sour Warhead candy. It wouldn't be very good to drink with a meal, but on its own it absolutely delicious. I really hope this beer will stick around and not disappear like some of my other favorites.

New Polish

I haven't bought new nail-polish in at least 2 or 3 years. Last winter messed up a bunch of my old stash because the air was so dry. I don't know how it made my nail polish thick and goopy when the lids were tightly secured, but it did. So I kinda needed to buy some new polish. I looked at water-based ones, that I might try them someday, but they just seemed to complicated. So I just picked out a color that seemed cool at the health-food store.

Anyway, I love this new color! It's called Abalone and it really does look like the inside of an abalone shell, but it's not made from them because it's a vegan polish. It can look green in the sunlight, purple in the shadow, and grey at an angle. It's like all my favorite colors in one polish! And it matches my favorite summer shoes.

And it doesn't chip at all, really. I wore it for two months of hiking, yard work, and general debauchery and the only place where my toenails were showing was where they grew out. 

It is called "7 free" because it is made without parabens, phthalates (dibutyl phthalate), toluene, xylene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, and animals. I don't know about you, but I am always looking for a good formaldehyde-free nail-polish. I'm not ready to be embalmed yet!

And did I mention the cool nautilus shells on the cap? I am a sucker for anything nautilus related, so that's why I got it in the first place. It's just so golden-ratio! 

You can get it here, if you want. 

As Below so Above

Down below the city streets are networks of tunnels making sure flood waters recede. I do not really have a problem with closed spaces. It's more what might be lurking behind the bends in the tunnels that bothers me. And yet I love to explore such depths anyway. 

One time I was exploring a tunnel and the water started rising up over my boots. I was sure a wall of water was going to come at me from around a bend and thrash me against the steel walls of the man-made cavern. When I made it to the entrance it was only drizzling. I never set foot in a storm-drain anymore if rain is in the forecast. 

You never would think about it, but sunglasses are a good idea if you are emerging in unfamiliar locations. You never know what's lurking in the sunlight.

I am wearing an American Apparel unisex tri-blend track shirt in black, which is more like a really dark grey.  It is very soft and the cut is perfect for me: I love long t-shirts. It is one of my favorite shirts, even though it suffers a bit of tiny pilling after a year of use, and it doesn't seem that much cooler than the cotton version.

  I also have on black Levi 511 jeans that are slightly too big... ah, the evil of clothes that are 75% off. They offer nice ease of movement without being too bulky.

 Both these garments make me happy that unisex clothes exist. Even if the Levis aren't billed as gender neutral, I think they qualify.  

 photos by MM