Hermano!

Grandsons tend to have as much fun by having their grandfathers being with them on football and bowling, as grandfathers have being so.

Have cut my own online-time aswell, and parted it in to more evenly between military vs non-military things. Am concentrating even more on matters involving whisky and whiskey. Not just the actual fluid itself only, but also distillery-history, current and future projects of those. This industrie is "booming" all over the world as of a few years back now, and it is very interresting to follow this process, also "world wide". World map "outskirt-regions" such as Tasmania, is when it comes to the whisky-community Not "outskirt-region", but instead a well markt area on the worldmap on the wall. And due to that fact, journalists goes there, writing stories about not just the distillery, but also about a lot of other things aswell of the island of Tasmania (including history). In other words, reading "whisky magazines", is actually educational in many aspects, and not just about actual distillingprocesses and other "more nerdish subjects"! For example... Names of historic people, whom has nothing to do with distilled fluids at all, are suddenly having their names read across the world, instead of being left in historical oblivian. I think this is "pretty neat", to use an old fashioned way of frasing myself.

The same thing can be done in USA, regarding its current beer-brewerys actually. Not thinking about those big ones now, but small "micro" brewerys and medium sized such. A brewery by that size, not seldomly tells a story of the people settling in that local region. Sounds odd? Well, let me give you an example...

European settlers/imigrants, not seldomly tended to settle in areas in USA, which to various degree resembled "the old country", or at least the specific area of the "old country" they emigrated from. So? Well, how many micro and medium sized brewerys in USA, holds "Pilsner" in their more or less regular stock of production? Pilsner is a certain own type of beer, just as "lager" and "stout" for example is. Now, "pilsner" is originating from the Tjeck town/city "Plzen". Look at a more or less topographical-displaying map of the area of Plzen in Tjeck republic, and then compare it with a same such for the area of where the USA brewery of "Saranac" takes its water for its production.... (Adirondack mountains, upper NY state. Actually, where the 1980 winter Olympic games were held by the way. "Lake Placid" if you remember...). Then check breweries websites, and among those you will discover that particularily "Saranac" is one of few which does brew "Pilsner"!

Another example of interresting migrational history, is to check "Sierra Nevada Brewing Company", located near the small town oc "Chico" in NE-ern CA, by the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountainrange. CA, when it comes to beverage, is perhaps most known for its wine-production. Wine mainly being by descendents of French/Spanish/Italians... Beer in those countrys, and traditionally consumed by their later descendent US imigrants, is to a large degree (not sohly of course, but to large degree), more in line with "lighter" beers. "Lager" and so on. By this, then "how come" one of the big sales of/from the "Sierra Nevada Brewing Company", is actually "Stout", which traditionally is a "British/Irish" kind of beer.... Is not That interresting? Answer lies in the building of the very first transcontinental railway in/of USA! The one that was built from 2 directions simultniously, and "met" outside of town of "Provo" in UT. Well, when the part being built from the westcoast side reached the Sierra Nevada mountains, that when hisotry of it will have a connection to why "Stout" is a regular production in a regional brewery called "Sierra Nevada Brewing Company". Check that part of history out, Hermano! Very interresting indeed, also if not being interrested in actually drinking beer. (I actually do Not drink much beer at all myself. I have just found that certain productions in USA, in a very clear way, displays local regions "ethnic history" so to say, and with that, not seldomly very interresting other historical stories connected with that! In other words, I read about beer, more because I am a "history-buff", rather than liking beer tastewise...).

Ooops! Post-reply became lengthy and a bit rambling. Best end here. T G C Hermano!


Sincerely
A.B