Top 10 Beers of Each (Most) Style

I use the UNTAPPD app to keep track of each beer I try. I believe it all started when I couldn't remember what brewer's version of Oktoberfest I liked, and which ones I hated. As of today, I have tasted and rated 562 beers. I rate all the beers on a 5 star scale: 3 is average, 3.5 is good, 4 is great, 4.5 is the best I have had. So here is the list:

IPAs and APAs

4.5 stars

• Furious - Surly Brewing Company
• Pliny the Elder - Russian River Brewing Company

4 stars

• Pale Ale - Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
• Two Hearted Ale - Bell's Brewery
• Unrated Rye IPA - 612 Brew
• Abrasive Ale - Surly Brewing Company  
• Todd The Axe Man - Surly Brewing Company 
• 1349 Pale Ale - Surly Brewing Company
• Wet - Surly Brewing Company
• Stone IPA - Stone Brewing
• Stone Delicious IPA - Stone Brewing
• Stone Enjoy By 10.31.15 - Stone Brewing 
• Stone Mocha IPA - Stone Brewing
• Fresh Squeezed IPA - Deschutes Brewery
• Size 7 - Steel Toe Brewing
• Green Bullet IPA - Dangerous Man Brewing Co.
• Pinner Throwback IPA - Oskar Blues Brewery
• Boneshaker - Amsterdam Brewing Company
• Saga IPA - Summit Brewing Company
• Hopslam Ale - Bell's Brewery
• 30th Anniversary Double IPA - Summit Brewing Company
• Wolf Pup Session IPA - Golden Road Brewing
• Space Dust IPA - Elysian Brewing Company
• Alabaster Woodchuck - Bent Brewstillery
• Grapefruit Sculpin - Ballast Point Brewery & Spirits
• Rebel Grapefruit IPA - Samuel Adams
• Citradelic - New Belgium Brewing Company

Ales

4.5 stars

• Bender - Surly Brewing Company

4 stars

• Fat Tire - New Helgium Brewing Company
• Cacao Bender - Surly Brewing Company 
• Coffee Bender - Surly Brewing Company 
• Newcastle Brown Ale - John Smith's 
• Tour de Fall - New Belgium Brewing Company
• Mourning Wood - Local Option Bierwerker
• Cold Press Black - Bent Paddle Brewing Co. 
• Decadent Dark Chocolate Ale - Atwater Brewery

Sours

4.5 stars

• Pentagram - Surly Brewing Company
• Coolship #2 - Elgood's Brewery
• VanderGhinste Oud Bruin - Omer Vander Ghinste Brewery
• Roselle - Fair State Brewing Cooperative

 4 stars

•  Saint Dekkera Reserve Sour: Flanders Red - DESTIHL Brewery
• Wekken Sour - De Proefbrouwerij
• Aunt Sally - Lagunitas Brewing Company
  

 

 

Porters and Stouts

4.5 stars

• Death by Coconut - Oskar Blues Brewery

 4 stars

• Vanilla Java Porter - Atwater Brewery
• Cutthroat Porter - Odell Brewing Co. 
• Guinness Draught - Guinness
• Chocolate Milk Stout - Dangerous Man Brewing Co 
• Trespass Porter - Jack Pine Brewery
• Darkness (2015) - Surly Brewing Company
• The Abyss - Deschutes Brewery
• Gobias - Oliphant Brewing
• Cassian Sunset - Central Water Brewing Company
• Cinnamon Rasin Commodore - Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits
• 2X Stout - Southern Tier Brewing Company

 

Lagers

4.5 stars

• Grain Belt Nordest - August Schell Brewing Company (Grain Belt)

 4 stars

• Grain Belt Premium - August Schell Brewing Company (Grain Belt)
• First Call - Modist Brewing Company

 

 Others

4.5 stars

• Stiegl Radler Grapefruit Naturtrüb (shandy) - Stieglbrauerei zu Salzburg
  

4 stars

• Strongbow Cider (cider) - Bulmers Cider
• Jack-O Traveler Pumpkin Shandy (shandy) - Traveler Beer Co. 
• Spencer Trappist Ale (belgian) - Spencer Brewery
• The Bennie (bock) - Granite City Food & Brewery
• Delirium Tremens (belgian) - Brouwerij Huyghe
• Saison (saison) - Brasserie St-Feuillien 
• One (belgian) - Surly Brewing Company

2014 Baseball Award Predictions

With the 2014 MLB season just underway, it is time for my award predictions. Here we go:

• Rookie of the Year
• AL: Jose Abreu, 1B, White Sox
• NL: Chris Owings, SS, Diamondbacks
• Cy Young
• AL: Justin Verlander, SP, Tigers
• NL: Zach Greinke, SP, Dodgers
• MVP
• AL: Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Tigers
• NL: Joey Votto, 1B, Reds

Jose Abreu

Chris Owings

 
We will see how I do at the end of the season!

2014 Superbowl Memes

KanYe West's Best Tracks

I ran into a list of KanYe's best songs by Complex Magazine. While they got all of the songs right, I feel they got the top 10 order wrong. Below are Complex's top 10, and then my top 10 (you can see the whole list here).

Complex

10. Heatless
9. Through the Wire
8. All of the Lights
7. Stronger
6. All Falls Down
5. Diamonds from Sierra Leone
4. Niggas in Paris
3. Runnaway
2. Flashing Lights
1. Can't Tell Me Nothing


My List

10. Otis
9. Gold Digger
8. Homecoming
7. Never Let Me Down
6. Touch the Sky
5. Heard Em Say
4. Monster
3. Runnaway
2. All of the Lights
1. Jesus Walks

Death of the Mixtape

If you were born in the 90's or after you might have missed out on a cultural phenominon in music: the mixtape. A good mixtape could be a lot of things, from creating roadtrip memories to professing your love to your highschool sweetheart. The existence of the mixtape really started with the cassette tape.

I spent my childhood waiting by the stereo waiting for my faviorite song to come on the radio. When the right song started, you had to be on your A game to make sure you hit record fast enough to get the intro. If you were lucky enough to not have a DJ drop or  talking at the end of song, you had a decent copy of a song. Then you wait for the next song....and the next.....and the next. As you can see, mixtapes were very time consuming, but rewarding.

 Life got a lot easier when MP3s and CDs came along. CDs allowed you to rip songs off of other CDs or download MP3s to make the perfect mix. One of the more fun things I did in highschool was being apart of the mixtape club.We have about 12 people that would exchange names each week and would have the duty of making a mixtape for that person. Sometimes the theme would be favorite songs, sometimes rock ballads, sometimes worst boyband. All in all, it was always fun to get home and hear what your friend felt you needed to listen to that week.

My First Hi-Fi System

It has been on my wish list for years, and now I finally bought my first Hi-Fi stereo system. I was budget so it definatley isn't as impressive as some people's but I love the results. Here is my setup:

• Sony STR-DN30 7.2 Channel Receiver
• Whafedale Diamond 10.1 Speakers (pair)
• BIC America 10" 350 Watt Sub-woofer

Overall, the whole system cost less than $1000 but sounds amazing! I will update with more details later.

2013 Super Bowl Memes

Top 10 Led Zeppelin Songs

With the number of hits they have its difficult to narrow down this list but here I go, top ten Led Zeppelin songs:

1. The Rain Song
2. Dazed and Confused
3. Over the Hills and Far Away*
4. Stairway to Heaven
5. Since I've Been Loving You
6. Ramble On
7. D'Yer Mak'er*
8. The Ocean*
9. Fool in the Rain*
10. Whole Lotta Love*

The interesting thing about the list is only 5 of the 10 songs charted when originally released (*). 

My New Favorite Band: The Black Keys

Like many people, I got through phases in the music I crave. I will listen to KanYe and J Cole for weeks, then I will break out my Led Zeppelin and Steely Dan albums. Right now there is no band hotter for me than the Black Keys.

When I am listening to rock music, I rarely am looking for the hard-hitting, catchy tunes (AC-DC, the Killers); rather I prefer creative, skilled, progressive song writing (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead). Very rarely will you find music that covers both of these attributes. The Black Keys know how to blend their unique still with melodies that you can't get out of your head all day. (If you haven't read this article about why pop music is addictive, its a must read.)

If your new to the Black Keys, I would suggest starting with their newest album El Camino. It is the easiest album to get into because it is the most "mainstream" of any of their albums. After that, move to their best album Brothers.

Top 5 Christmas Hip-Hop/Rap Song

According to corporate America and whoever else is trying sell us stuff, its never too early to start thinking about Christmas. Instead of fighting the man like I should, I am just going to give in and add to the problem; here is my list of best Christmas hip-hop songs. You may be asking: why hip-hop songs? I really wanted challenge myself this year instead of taking the easy route and pick the top pop Christmas songs, which really just means pick any 5 songs off of John Tesh or David Hasselhof's Christmas albums.



5. Christmas Is by Run-D.M.C.

4. Merry Motherfuckin' Christmas by Eazy-E

3. Christmas Rappin' by Kurtis Blow

Great Music Article!

6 Classic Songs that Were Suppose to be Jokes

Dude, I Hope You're Not Getting a Dell

A few years back I bought my first laptop, and at the time, Dell was the popular choice and I didn't know nearly what I know now about laptops. Without having anything to compare it to, it seemed like a great laptop at first; then the problems started. A couple months in my battery failed. I was still under warranty so I sent it in and they sent me a replacement. Of course it wasn't the nice 9-cell battery you buy with the laptop, it was the cheaper 6-cell. Well then about a year after I got my laptop, I had issues with the power-supply. The cord was undamaged but I must have been getting surges or amperage issues, which destroyed my battery again. So I bought a new power cord and bought an off brand battery instead of shelling over $150 for the Dell brand. Things were ok for about another year until my hard drive failed. I am always very careful to power off my laptop before transporting it (unlike many college students) and used several advanced programs to protect my computer from things that could harm my computer from the software side. That didn't really matter because it was a physical issue anyways. So I bought a new HD and even upgraded to Windows 7 (a great decision). My laptop worked for several more months until the screen started to flicker. I was worried so I backed up all my data and a couple days later the bottom right corner of the screen stated to turn black and very hot. Soon I smelled and saw smoke coming from the screen. It was an issue with my LCD inverter, which can only be replaced with the whole screen. This was it, my laptop was completely done, but I actually felt a little liberated from Dell. Although it was an expensive lesson, I did learn not to buy a Dell. Those were just the major issues I had, not to mention tons of driver issues that Dell was very reluctant to help with. I am on the search for a new laptop and I think I have settled on an Asus, which is a relatively unheard of company, but has been putting out some really solid laptops lately.

How to Make a Panoramic Photo

I just recently was on a vacation and took in some breath taking views. Like many of you, I thought to myself: I wish I could capture this moment. While it can't take the place of the real thing, panoramic photos are a good start. Here's any easy way to make a panoramic photo on your computer with any digital camera. Some photo editors such as Ashampoo do a great job with creating these wide view images, but its not free. Here's the easy way to do it for free:

1. Using a digital camera, "paint" the view you want by taking many pictures of what you see. Keeping the camera level, take side by side pictures, overlapping them by about 1/3. Don't get stingy though, pictures are free, but if you miss a gap you will have to start over. I have made good pictures from just 3 pictures, and some from 20 snapshots, as seen below (for that I had to take pictures from side to side and up and down).
2.  Upload the pictures from your camera onto your computer. Download the free Window Live Photo Gallery.
3. On the top bar under the "make" menu scroll down to "panoramic". You will be asked to select your pictures, then click "go". In a couple seconds to a couple minutes, depending on the amount of pictures and megapixels of your camera, the software will stitch together the photo.
4. You now have a photo that has uneven edges due to the pictures not all being exactly in line. You just need to crop off the black edges. You can just use Microsoft paint or an editor such as Gimp (which is the best free editor out there).

As you can see, the end product is worth the time, and just makes you want to make more creative photos. Scenic photos like this go great in custom frames. Here is my latest attempt, with final dimension coming out to be 12834x3538!

Why Lady Gaga Sucks

 

Everywhere you turn Lady Gaga is there and making news. With her singing career just underway, she already has 7 Billboard Top 100 songs to her credit, and her popularity is just getting started. I do have to give her credit, she has taken her hype and made the most of it for herself. Lady Gaga started off by writing songs for Britney Spears, Fergie, Akon, and the Pussycat Dolls, and then launched her music career. While I generally just ignore people like Lady Gaga, it is hard to when she, along with her fans, are so in your face and convinced oh her greatness. Her songs are all based around weak lyrics and catchy hooks, much like Akon, who signed her. Of particular annoyance is the song Telephone, which intentionally is an offbeat song, which is the look that she loves to embrace. Lady Gaga tries her best to be as far out there and "original" as possible.  She, along with her fans, equate unusual as creative and artistically inspired, but they aren't the same thing. Those of you familiar with the Fountain by modern artist Duchamp know the difference:

 

A urinal is a urinal, even if you place it on its side and call it a fountain, it's still just crap; but somebody just might fall for it and believe you. Not to mention she must likely is just a copycat anyways.