NH book group books 2018 - 2019

Another year of books all planned out....

Our annual Rhode Island weekend was a success! Eight of our group members gathered together at Ruth & Stearns's  beautiful home near Westerly, RI. It may not have been a sunny summery weekend but spirits were high as we had our beach walk and began to relax and wind down.

On the way back to the house we took a detour to a brewery...

The pear ginger cider was a big hit. I got a flight to try a few different brews. A nice little side trip.

We always have lots of wonderful food and drink! I didn't take too many pictures this year. But I do have this photo of the delicious salmon and grilled vegetables. Simple recipe - mix the salmon in a zipper bag with a tablespoon of melted butter and two tablespoons of olive oil. Add 2 lemons sliced (the ends that are not nice slices discard after squeezing the juice into the bag). Finally add some salt & pepper. Mix all up and marinade for a few hours. Cook on the grill on top of foil (do not make packet of foil - we are not steaming this fish) at about 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Yum!

After a lovely dinner and before dessert, we finished our planning of books. book group hosts, and dates. In some cases the host & the book discussion facilitator are the same person. (when they are different they are listed as such). Here is what our 2018-2019 looks like:

Monday, October 22

Pat's house & Ann's book

Tuesday, November 27 

Cindy's house & book

Tuesday, December 11

Holiday potluck and Yankee Swap ($20)

Naedine's house, Marjorie's book

Tuesday, January 15 

Marjorie's house, Ruth's book

Monday, February 25

Jeanne's house & book

Tuesday, March 26

Jin young's house & book

Tuesday, April 30

Ann's house & Sequella's book

Tuesday, May 21

Sequella's house (possibly MA back-up) & Naedine's book 

Tentative Monday June 17

this date is subject to change - it's our end of the year potluck

Susan's house, Pat's book

Pumpkin Love Again

When visiting our son in upstate New York this past weekend (Sept 27-28) we visited the Fingerlakes Beverage Company and were astounded by all the brews they had. We noticed a bunch more pumpkin beverages and decided to do a "2014 pumpkin tasting part 2". We picked up 9 different brews.

We decided to do our tasting "flight style", where we poured 4 different types and tasted one at a time. We then could retaste any of those four in determining which was best for the round. 

Our first round had Post Road Pumpkin (Brooklyn 5%), Wolavers Organic Pumpkin Ale (5.35%), Wilhealm Scream Pumpkin Ale (Magic Hat 5.4%) and Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale (5.5%).

 At first taste we were leaning towards the Wilhealm Scream - it had a distinctive rich caramel taste but wasn't too sweet (as we found the Post Road to be). 

But in our "retasting" we found that the Wolavers edged ahead - the flavor really popped as the brew warmed a bit. The decision was the Wolavers would win this round. 

Our next round would include Harpoon UFO (unfiltered) pumpkin ale (5.9%), Hudson Valley Fall Hornin' Pumpkin (6%), and Ithaca Brewing Company Pumpkin Ale (6.3%). The later two had unimpressive flavor. The first was very well received - a nice balanced taste with good carbonation. 

Our final round was two heavier brews - Red Hook "Out of Your Gourd" Pumpkin Porter (5.8%) and Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout (7%). 

This was an interesting round. We found the Red Hook was quite heavy and stout-like with a smoky taste. The stout was lighter, more porter like and initially the flavor did not impress. But we found the stout did get better as it warmed up - but the porter won this round. 

Then we went back and revisited the winners of each round.

 After much discussion, it was decided that the Harpoon UFO pumpkin was the clear winner of this tasting.  This was a delicious brew that merits a second look and definitely would be purchased again by our tasters. Check out the particulars from the Harpoon brewery people. Harpoon Brewery

**a footnote - we had earlier tried a pumpkin ale at a local brew pub in Ithaca NY - Bandwagon Brew Pub Pumpkin Ale. It was excellent and we wish we had some to include in this tasting. It might have possibly edged out the UFO. It did have the advantage of being very fresh and on tap. It was delicious! We highly recommend a visit to this pub if you are in Ithaca. Bandwagon Brew Pub

Many thanks to Phil, Nick and Teodora for their tasting expertise in this tasting event. xo

Pumpkin Love

We had our official math department "Pumpkin Tasting" Friday Sept 19th. We sampled autumn themed snacks, cider and most importantly - a wide variety of pumpkin ales!

At 3 PM we scurried around assembling our snacks and organizing the tasting.

Steff made a very delicious pumpkin bread with cream cheese filling.

We organized our 13 different contestants with a detailed poster, listing the types and percent alcohol.

Let the tasting begin! We all sampled small amounts, paying attention to nose, color, front, middle, and finish. 

We individually rated each brew.

Although there was some variation in taste,we came up with two clear front runners and a clear third place.  First place goes to both  Weyerbacher Pumpkin Ale and Two Roads "Roadsmary Baby" (the later definitely wins best name!).

The imperial pumpkin ale by Weyerbacher was a rich strong brew with a good balanced pumpkin flavor. 

Roadsmary's Baby had a distinctive spiced taste with good carbonation.

Third place goes to Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. Another strong brew (7%) - a brown ale with strong pumpkin, brown sugar and spice flavors.

The full ranking is as follows (out of 40 total points - 8 tasters, scale is 1 to 5).

1st & 2nd  Roadsmary's Baby by Two Roads (6.8%)  27.8 points

3rd  Dogfish Head Punkin Ale (7%)  25.8 points

4th Wachusett Pumpkin (5.2%)  25 points

5th Blue Point Pumpkin Alg (6%) 21.1 points

6th Sam Adams Fat Jack Pumpkin Ale (8.5%) 19 points

7th Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (6.35%) 18 points

8th Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale (10%)  14.5 points 

9th  Woodchuck Hard Cider Private Reserve Pumpkin (6.9%) 14 points

10th Harpoon Imperial Pumpkin Ale (10.5%) 13.5 points

11th Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin (9%) 10.5 points

12th Sarnach Our Pumpkin Ale (5.4%) 9 points

13th Southern Tier Imperial Pumpkin Ale (8.6%) 7.75 points

A fun time was had by all, even though we are not professional tasters, it was interesting to see ther wide variety of pumpkin brews that have entered the fall market and all the interesting styles and tastes. 

Many thanks to our hard working tasters and support personnel. A special thanks to Matt & Steff for providing the brew samples, Jeff for his superior hotdogs and everyone for their snack contributions and general enthusiasm for this even. We missed you Alison.