Monday, September 05, 2005

the monday night lull...

...is good. Mondays are a fairly busy day for me. Sundays are a little hectic, at least this week because I had to read a book for Thursday before today so I could hand it off to another student to borrow because there weren't enough copies. Anyway, on Mondays I teach at 9:30am for an hour and 15 minutes and have my Naturalism and Pragmatism seminar from 2:30pm-5. Today both went very well I have to say. I'm really pleased with the seminar. Lots of participation today (none from me, but not because I couldn't) and Lisa gave a great lecture and John's presentation was really well done. Chris made some great connections between naturalism and pragmatism and I really feel pretty confident in my understanding of their relationship. My teaching was great, I ran out of time again today, which is always a good thing. I'd rather run out of time, making sure my students have a thorough understanding of the material, than go short.

The nice thing is I don't have anything until tomorrow at 4pm. It is Logic, but that's ok. I think that class is going to be quite good for me. Although I have to work on my qualifying paper for a while tomorrow. Anyway, Brian and Grant and I went to Upland for a couple pints and then stopped by Big Red for a couple more bottles. I picked up a Rogue Imperial Stout. But I'll get to that in a second.

Here is one of the reasons why I think Pennsylvania is arguably the best of the best craft beer regions in the US. It's mostly Eastern PA, and really mostly Southeastern PA, but still. PA has 60 different places you can get Real Ale, Cask Ale, traditional english pints. That is the most of any state in the Union. California is second, with 44. Washington state is third with 30. PA has twice the cask ale outlets that Washington does. Wow.



Well maybe it's a major metropolitan area (i.e. not Seattle) is what makes the difference? Well, New York state is fourth at 27. See the whole list here.

So that Rogue Impy Stout is bitter. Not as bitter as their Old Crustacean, but still stupidly bitter. But good stuff. I poured some over chocolate ice cream tonight and it was good.



Until next time, drink some really bitter beer, or at least a real ale,
Mattdunn

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, where can I buy a pint of real English bitter in the western suburbs of Philadelphia? Let me know vjwesq@comcast.net !
Thanks
Oh4aPint

Matthew D Dunn said...

well, Victory's brewpub will usually have either their Uncle Teddy's bitter or their Mild on hand pull. It's usually fresh and tasty. That's in Downingtown.

The Drafting Room in Exton has a hand pull as well. They usually have something big on there, but I've seen Coniston bluebird bitter before.

Other than that, I'm not too sure who serves bitters on cask. There are a lot of cask outlets in the western suburbs, just not sure how many do bitters regularly.

if you find any more, let me konw.