Thursday, December 8, 2011

Review follow up: shoes, jacket, beer


DZR GMT-8 SPD-compatible sneakers
Original review here.
OTM review here.
Did I buy it? Yep

The upshot: good shoes. I'd buy them again. We're a solid 6 months into this shoe and it's holding up great. I'm pretty surprised actually. As noted in the OTM review, there is a bit of a steamy funk factor with these. But that's not really the fault of the shoe... you know what you're getting when you buy a canvas shoe. So if you bite on this one, pull the inserts out every couple days and air them out for best results.

Ibex Breakaway Hybrid 2
Initial review here.
Did I buy it? Nope. It was provided by Ibex for review.

The upshot: this is the best one yet. I really had to wait until it got nice and cold to make sure the jacket was suited for sub-freezing weather. It is.

It's lighter in feel than the older Hybrids, but the front of this jacket does a great job of blocking the cold wind. My commute in the morning is straight down hill for 4 miles. It was 17 F this morning on the way to work and as my face and fingers froze, my core was happy.
That's the shoulder-section of the jacket that I landed on. I washed the jacket and there's no trace of the wreck.

And just like the other Ibex stuff, this jacket is tough. I was wearing this jacket when I was Eberlized, which tore open my knee and scraped up my back to draw a bit of blood. There's zero impact to the jacket -- no rips or pilling or even a unstiched little thread. Crazy good stuff here.

This pricey-ass jacket is totally worth the money.

Sour beer #2
No prior reviews.
Did I buy it? Nope. Dylan gave it to me.

Dylan brought me a pile of super awesome sour beers a few weeks ago. Noted here.

The Russian River Supplication was the first one I tried, and it totally lived up to the hype. That's one of my all time favorites now. I have one bottle left and I'm not sure when I'm going to drink it.


The second beer from the Dylan stash that I tried is called "Monk Cafe Flemish Sour Ale."

The upshot: great beer. The sour is there, but it is a tad too fruity for me. These Flemish sour beers appear to be made in the same way: by mixing an older cask-aged beer with a younger fruitier beer. In this one the fruit is too aggressive for me, but it's still a great beer that I'd happily drink any day. It's just not the pure bliss that The Supplication and La Folie are for me.

6 comments:

Riding in Reno said...

Glad to hear you got yourself a bottle or two of Supplication! It's still my top of the list too. Just got back from the Holiday Ale festival in Portland. Here's the top sour xmas beers we tried:

Cascade Brewing Barrel House
Soured Baltic Porter (2007)

Cascade Brewing Barrel House
Sang Noir (2009)

Deschutes Brewery
Sour Crown

New Belgium Brewing Co.
Eric's Ale (2009)

I'm not riding just so I can balance my beer calorie intake!

Andy
ridinginreno.blogspot.com

Riding in Reno said...

Sorry....that should be "I'm now riding just so I can balance my beer calorie intake!"

Jonathan Eberly said...

Five instances of "Eberlizer" on your blog now. You really want this to stick.. Bring it on.

John Speare said...

Andy: thanks for the initial tip. And for all these. This gives me a lot to obsess on.

Jon: I'm just getting warmed up. When I invent a word that good, I over-use it verily.

Pat S said...

Jonathan, I'm afraid it's already stuck. Without even knowing, people needed this.

D. Scott McSpadden said...

Wow, you've covered some serious ground since the Duchess de Borgonne. How does the Duchess hold up after having tried all those other Flemish beers?