Economy Size Geek

Sorry to the home town viewers - this beer is not available in Texas. I
picked it up while I was in Chicago - which is where it is brewed.

It’s a Weiss (wheat) beer. It is hefe - which means with yeast in - so
it is very clody.

Read more at
ratebeer or the website

He said:

Appearance: It’s a that wonderful golden cloudy color that means Hefe -
goodness. It doesn’t seem overly carbonated so the head is actually
already going down.

Aroma: There is a serious yeast funk to the aroma. I’m not sure Annie
was all too excited about it - but for me - that yeast smell just tells
me that it is fresh and going to be full of flavor.

Taste: It has a thick mouth feel to it - almost velvety. The mixture of
cloves, vanilla, and banana as well as some honey. The bottled version
is good but the one I had on tap was even better. Truth be told this is
the closest thing I’ve had to the beer we brewed for our wedding (So if
Happily Ever After Ale isn’t available in your area get some of this and
you will have a good approximation of what it tastes like). There is a
slight bitterness at the finish - but that is kind of nice because it
sets you up for the next round of tasting. The more I taste it the more
I wish it was a little more carbonated - but that’s a small nit to pick
on an other wise fine beer.

Overall: Once I tasted it I had to bring some home - if for no other
reason to than to compare it to our home brew. There is no disputing
the sweetness of this beer. For some that is a bit of a turn off. For
me, there is definitely a place in my fridge for this.

My Vote: Damn shame I had to go all the way to Chicago to get this.
It would be nice to be able to have it as back up in the event that a
batch of Happily Ever After went haywire. If you are in the Chicago
area, get some and raise a pint for me!

She Said:
On Dirk’s recent trip to Chicago, he called me from a bar to tell me that
they were drinking what tasted like a clone of our wedding brew on
draught.

He brought a six pack home and it turns out that it is a hefeweizen brewed
by Two Brothers out of Chicago. When we first opened the bottle, I noticed
a faintish funky aroma. Once poured, the color was beautiful. A murky,
golden, yellowy orange. The head disipated quickly and the nose is still
not pleasant, but the first sip was a surprise! It is a very nice sweet,
malty taste on the tongue that quickly turns to almost a citrusy sour.

The funny thing about this beer is that it truly does taste a little like
homebrew, which is not what one expects from a commercial beer. As it
warms, the yeast is becoming more apparent.

I would love to try this on draught — I think it would be much better.
From here, I will give this to Dirk: it could easily be mistaken for our
wedding brew.

Bottom line: Smooth and easy to drink with that little something (yeast?)
that makes any homebrew interesting. Like our wedding brew, I could drink
this all day. :)

On the set of the film of ‘osso buco’ in Chicago. They had to bring in a snow machine for this scene

This is two brothers weiss beer. It is the closest thing to sip o honey that i have ever had - it’s great

I would have to say the ratio of Macs to non Macs at Railsconf is probably 20 to 1 (maybe even 30 to 1) I’ve seen the rise of Macs at technical conferences over time - but this is insane!
The lesson is - if you use rails - there are a lot of people using macs - so you should think about it. On the other side I wonder - if you use a mac does that mean you should start using rails?

Ahh back in the midwest - enjoying chili at steak n shake - good times

I finally got my DD-WRT VPN working. So I can back haul to home and access my home network from here in Chicago. I never cease to be amazed at how many smart people out there are releasing great code that lets me more every day.

So if you have a linksys - I can’t praise DD-WRT enough!.

Dave Thomas basically put three challenges out there for the community. I’m most excited about the idea that deployment is complex for everyone - especially because there are a lot of different ways to do it - and no truly blessed option. He is advocating the seperation of system administration and development - which believe me I totally agree with. Especially if that means it will get easier for everyone to deploy rails apps!

Here are the highlights - sorry I’ll clean this up later.
Big problems that need to be solved

PDI - Please do investigate
permission and encouragement - without over committing
the core team is the gate keepers - more like editors - so the outsiders have to contribute

3 Areas

Data Integration
make sure that schema respected - why doesn’t it protect against null and varchar limits

Auto add validates_numericality_of :price , :only_integer => true
true support for Foreign keys -automatic - support in migraiton
primary key support - Non-integer keys,composite primary keys
Distributed transation - 2 phase commit
attribute-based finders (using keys instead of condition array)
better support for non-database models - jms/mq

read world Crud

should support inter table relationships
configuratable - be able to set what you want to show and how
in browser validation -with server backup
Some AJAX in it
not 3270 style fill out form - band submit - reload
cross application skining - skin scaffolding.
bring simplicity of ActiveRecord to controller - and views

Deployment

capistrano is awesome
push model
in the real world - developers choose what is ready for deply and sys admins figureo out
ohow and when and where to deploy
co-opertive deployement - decouple app requirements from server environment
application config - with what gets pulled - and lib requirements
deployment config - server/roles/where the files land, userid/password
cap –deploy-on cap://server.com
Isp s could setup standard environment - and be able to deploy to an isp
be able to deploy from gems -instead of just source
gem deploy name –on cap://server.com

All developers deserve to be happy

Brett talks rails with dhh

Landed in Chicago - time to get my rails on

This is a bit unusual. It’s called the “Brut of Flanders”. It merges the traditions of Belgium with the traditions of France. Basically they make a very strong golden ale and then age, riddle and whatever they call it when they remove the yeast plug.

Rate Beer gives it a 92 - which is very respectable. You can visit the brewry site. I couldn’t link directly because they use flash :(

We actually had a 2002 verision. Annie was able to score some from a friend cellar. I’m not sure if you normally age Deus - since the yeast has been removed. We’ll have to try a “fresher” bottle to compare accurately. Also, the bottle specifically tells you that it should be served very very cold and in champagne flutes. I’m not sure if they just want to re-enforce the idea that is it barley champagne or if it really makes a difference. Personally I tend to prefer my Belgian strong ales a lot warmer than 32 F

He Said:

Appearance : It is a beautiful golden color. It has some cloudness - but not too much. In the Belgium tradition, the head pours big and stays around (unless you have a glass malfunction like Annie - and then the head evaporates immediately).

Aroma:It has a light fruity aroma. There is no doubt of its Belgian nature. I would say a lighter version of a Chimay Triple (White) would be a good aproximation.There is something else in the aroma that I just cannot put my finger on. It has no hint of alcohol in the aroma.

Taste: The taste is wonderful. It glides smoothly across your tongue. There is a medley of flavors - I’m guessing there is some corriander in there - but I could be wrong. There is a bit at the very end. It gives it a bit of a bitter finish but it is not harsh in a hoppy way. To be honest there is almost no hoppiness to it at all. There is a light fruit/citrus flavor that is very satisfing.

I would never have guessed that it was an 11.5% beer. The taste is simply so smooth. The only complaint I have is the way your tongue feels afterward. It is like a thing coating has been applied. This doesn’t seem to impact the flavor but it is an odd sensation.

Overall: I’ll admit I came into this very skeptical. The bottle was $20. That is a lot for 750mL of beer. They were obviously targeting people who are into champagne but looking for a little adventure. I’m willing to forgive the marketing.

In case you didn’t know, I love tripels and saisons. This seems to be a big brother of both. I don’t think this would be a regular selection - it has the alcohol but the flavor is too subdued. (I actually blame the serving temp on that - I mean how much can you really taste if it is 36F). On the other hand, you could serve it and non beer drinkers would have to take notice - it would be hard for them to comprehend that it was made with barley instead of grapes.

My Vote: Get a bottle - keep it around for a special occastion and enjoy with people you love! I think it is very nice - but truth be told - I would save your pennies and buy as much Dupont Avec les Bon Voeux as you can get your hands on instead. (Mostly because it is truly amazing and it is not ashamed to be called a beer).

She Said:
I’d been meaning to pick a bottle of this beer up for a while, but the $25
pricetag is a bit shocking (although compare it to what people pay for a
great wine or champagne and it’s nothing — go figure).

It comes in a beautifully crafted, rounded, heavy glass bottle and is
available at only one store in San Antonio that I know of (Whole Foods).
So when I called on Double Dave’s for work today and Adam told me about
his new “rare bottled beer list” and the DeuS was on it for $20, I told
him that I’d take one.

One side note: I noticed Adam gave a pronunciation guide on his list (”say
it: DAY-ews”), which I thought was funny. Until I was walking out of the
store and one of the employees said “Hey, Annie! Enjoy that DEUCE!”. Heh.

Ok, I’ll get on with it. This is a remarkable beer. I have to admit that
although I LOVE beer, I’m slightly skeptical of any beer that compares
itself to champagne. The first taste was sweet, dry, and tart. Very
refreshing. The only thing I could think to compare it to was the Dom one
of my girlfriends brought (my first Dom) for us to drink on the morning of
my wedding. Though I’d had Veuve Clicquot several times before, I’d never
had Dom before that day and was surprised by the slightly sour taste it
left on my palette. When I say sour, I don’t mean it as a negative either
– it’s a very refreshing sensation.

I’m not going to get too technical in this review because at somewhere in
the neighborhood of 11% ABV, I’m pretty sure the DeuS has gone to my head
already.

Bottom line: This is a beer for celebration and that deserves celebrating.
If you have an occasion that calls for Dom Perignon, but only have $25 in
your pocket, DeuS is definately the way to go.