January 24, 2012 - State of the Union or 4 More Beers!

January 24, 2012 - State of the Union or 4 More Beers!

In honor of the State of the Union address tonight - we have here "Four More Beers!" Hopefully this should be amenable to folks from either side of the aisle, give or take the teatotallers party, which I'm not too concerned about.

The beers pictured here include the 80 Shilling from Mad Fox - shown here ensconced in a Outer Banks Brewing Station Growler, Oude Kriek from Hannsens's, La Trappe Quadruppel and Winter Solstice from Anderson Valley. Yes, these are "just the beers in my fridge" at the moment. Or, rather, some of them. Some are local, some aren't. In the spirit of bi-partisanship, we'll drink each of them.

Photo was taken with my Canon 5dII and the Zeiss 28mm lens. Used flash - mounted on a light stand, to the right of the photographer. Shot the flash through a white "shoot through" umbrella, which you can see clearly if you look at the reflections on the bottles.

January 20, 2012 - Victory Headwaters Pale Ale

January 20, 2012 - Victory Headwaters Pale Ale.
Victory Brewing Company of Downingtown Pennsylvania is, in my opinion, one of the best breweries in the country. Their beers are always well crafted, flavorful and very fresh. The subject of today's picture is a bottle of Victory's Headwaters Pale Ale. This is a fairly recent addition to their lineup - hoppy and refreshing. At 5.1% ABV it falls into what I'd consider a sessionable beer - you can have more than one without needing to consider dialysis. So many beers these days have adopted the "imperial" moniker and thrown in more of everything. This isn't one of those beers, rather, just a well made drinkable pale ale. Would that more breweries could concentrate on making quality styles, versus trying to outdo the other guy. Cheers to Victory!

Photo details: Canon 5dII, Zeiss 28mm f/2.0 ZE lens, hand-held. ISO 100, 1/60th second at f/7.1. Used a canon 430exII flash off to camera right, gelled with 1/4 CTO, triggered with an ST-E2. Retouched slightly in Lightroom.