Stone Enjoy By 05.17.13 IPA

I missed the April edition of Stone Enjoy By [DATE] IPA so I was a little giddy to find a bottle of the May edition. Last night I cracked the top and poured the beer and immediately began to wonder why I needed to slug this so soon. I’m sure Stone wants everyone to have the experience of a fresh double IPA, but to me this beasty boy needed a little time to mellow. The hops were assertive and tasty with a citrusy character and a bit of cattyness. The malt tried to keep up the pace, but was soundly defeated by the hop charge. I’d actually like to see this one again around July to compare the hop level weeks after bottling to months after bottling.

Now my understanding is if you want your area to have the next release you must fight for it so go to the Stone website and enter a like through Facebook or tweet about it (note: I have no idea how to tweet) and that is how you can be sure you are in line for the next release. There is also an email method. Click “Vote Now” and then select option 2 “Vote with your email address” and you can select for the email to only be used for voting purposes. So help bring this back to NC in the future by voting.

 

Do you really want to post that no firearms sign?

I happened across the story of a store in Salt Lake City, UT, which happened over a year ago on April 25, 2012, where a shopper purchased a knife and then on his way out of the store began to stab people in the foyer. He stabbed one person in the stomach and another in the head and arms. A person with a gun told him to drop his knife or he would shoot him and the attacker dropped his weapon and complied. The police were grateful the person with the gun was there to stop the violence.

This made me wonder why anyone would desire to exclude a legally concealed firearm from their premises. If this happened in NC at a business with a gunbuster sign law-abiding concealed carry permit holders would have either not been present or would have left the gun in their vehicle and the stabbing would not have stopped with only two injured. Let’s assume the police arrive within 5 minutes. The knife wielding attacker could have injured many people in that timeframe, perhaps dozens. He injured two between the time he left the register and reached the foyer of the store.

I rarely hear of a person with a CHP discharging their firearm and even rarer for the news to admit someone with a CHP stopped a crime in progress. I’m sure some might like to label the person who stopped the crime a “vigilante.” People who think like that are ignorant and believe the police will be there to protect them. I would label this person as prepared and responsible. The firearm was not discharged, and the threat was stopped. Three cheers for the actions of this individual last year!

Splain how a .357 Magnum can shoot .38 Special ammo

It’s actually pretty simple, but the names make it a bit confusing.  Let’s start with the bullet which as it turns out is the same and is part of why the magic can happen. Typically the diameter of the bullet is 0.355″ to 0.357″. Now you are probably wondering where the 38 Special name came from when the bullet is actually smaller. Well it actually comes from the casing which is 0.379″ in diameter or rounded to 0.38 for the loaded brass casing. I believe at the time it was created, several other cartridges had a 38 designation so they called it “Special.” Now the diameter of a .357 Magnum loaded casing is the same as the .38 Special. Most people would then wonder why they didn’t call the .357 Magnum a .38 Magnum or a .38 Special a .357 Special. I really don’t know why the .357 Magnum isn’t a .38 Magnum since the .38 Special was created in the late 1800’s and the .357 Magnum in 1934, but I suspect it was to differentiate the two cartridges.

A .357 Magnum revolver will chamber a .38 Special, but the reverse it not true. The casing of a .357 Magnum is 0.10″ longer than a .38 Special. So if you have a .357 Magnum you can chamber both cartridges, but if you have a .38 Special you can only chamber .38 Special ammo. If you are regularly firing .38 Special ammo in your .357 Magnum be sure to clean the cylinders in the revolver since you can end up with deposits in the chambers where the .38 Special ammo casing ended and that may cause difficulty in loading .357 Magnum ammo due to the longer casing.

I hope that helped clear up why a .357 Magnum can shoot .38 Special ammunition. If you are shopping for a revolver and both a .357 Magnum and a .38 Special are available in a particular model, I would suggest you purchase the .357 Magnum to have the added flexibility of chambering both cartridges.

When in Rome

Last night we went to a Thai restaurant and all beers were on sale so I decided to have some beers I normally do not gravitate toward. First off was a Sapporo and to be honest it wasn’t quite stellar. It was winey and had a definite mercaptan characteristic despite arriving in a brown bottle. Note to self if having this again to be sure it comes in the can. I thought a nice crisp lager would accentuate the Thai food, but this Japanese brew just wasn’t the cat’s meow.

So I asked our attentive waiter what Thai beers they had in the back. He said, “Singha is the best-selling beer in Thailand.” Of course I was sold. He arrived with a cold glass, not frozen which held about 8 ounces and a 12 ounce ice-cold bottle of “The Best Selling Beer In Thailand.” I poured a glass and immediately understood why it claimed that title. I’ve had Singha before, but honestly never paid much attention and certainly didn’t have it with the food from the same country. The crisp and refreshing beer was just the ticket to cleanse the palate of some of the spice without competing with the flavor of the food.

Last night I had an epiphany. From now on I will ask for the native beer in ethnic restaurants. You never know, they might be on to something!

Blanton’s Original Single Barrel

As always I was tooling around with some time to kill and stopped into an ABC store to window shop. I remembered several Bourbons were on sale this month in NC and decided to check out the prices. While looking at the shelves I remembered I was only a few miles from South Carolina and liquor stores are not run by the county/state there. So into the car and down the road to see what the pricing was south of the border. In most cases the sale price in NC was still slightly elevated above the normal price in SC. That is slightly disturbing, but not really surprising. At any rate instead of coming home empty-handed I snagged a bottle of Blanton’s. Well, not just any bottle, a bottle from the batch dumped on 1/29/13, Barrel 60, stored in warehouse H, rack 14! I went to mix with a little ginger for my litmus test and as always tasted before the mix and decided I won’t ever be mixing this one again. This Bourbon is amazing. There are many which I enjoy and I know many would not mix, but to mix this one is really a crime. It is so tasty and smooth I won’t be doing that again to this magic elixir. The was the Original Single Barrel and just like the website says, “Best served neat or on the rocks.” If you have been itching to try a premium Bourbon this would be the one to try. I don’t think you’ll look back.

PS: If you like Woodford Reserve, which I personally detest, you will find this too smooth and refined for your palate. 😉

 

House Bill 937

A bill is moving through the NC House at the moment which would create some sweeping positive changes to the current concealed handgun law in North Carolina. House Bill 937 emerged from the House Judiciary Committee unscathed and would allow concealed firearms in non-posted establishments where alcohol is sold so long as the permit holder was not consuming and had no alcohol in their system. This is an awesome change if it eventually makes it through the House and Senate. Currently if alcohol is served you cannot conceal in the restaurant. So McDonald’s is fine, but Applebee’s is not. You are good to go in Golden Corral, but no dice at Fat Daddy’s (is that place even still open?). Another positive change would be allowing the firearm to be locked in the vehicle on a higher education campus. That doesn’t help people taking their kids to school, but it does help someone who works on a campus and allows them to leave the firearm locked away while they are at work and the ability to return to the vehicle. Of course they are a target while on the campus outside the vehicle, but it would help prevent someone driving through the NCSU campus from inadvertently breaking the law.

So keep your fingers crossed that this one passes. No matter how much negative spin the media tries to inject, this is a good bill with good intentions.

Scratching my head

I was tooling around this week and popped my head into a few businesses to see how their ammo shelves appear. I went into two Gander Mountain locations about 30 miles apart and the selection was night and day. At one all the ammo on the aisle shelves probably wouldn’t have filled a shopping cart. At the other plenty to go around only missing some of the short supply calibers. I just don’t understand why a business would load up one location and let the other sit like a one-eyed red-headed stepchild. I had to go into a WalMart for something else and the shelves in this location appeared as barren as ever.  Despite this small sample of locations I do see signs things are improving. The question now becomes when will the ammunition be back in stock and if this is any indication it may be late summer or early fall before you can stroll down to your local sporting goods store and pickup a brick of .22LR.

The Big O

The Big Operator is another of the Big Boss brews I opened over the weekend. I had this when it was first released a few years back and it went off tart and sour and I did not care for it very much. Then I had it on draft a year or so ago as my last beer of the night and it seemed boozy and so I didn’t finish the glass. Fast forward to this little 12 ounce bottle of heaven I had stored in the fridge and this is a force to be reckoned with. The chocolate flavor and the raspberry flavors are truly magnificent and the alcohol, 8% ABV, so well hidden as to enhance the flavor and add complexity and IMO that is the holy grail for any beer above 6%. The cocoa is from a local Raleigh chocolate company and the raspberries from the Pacific Northwest. If you do see this latest release of this beer you absolutely need to grab it. It was truly outstanding.

The Countess

Last night was the second time I had tried The Countess from Big Boss. The first was draft at the brewery and I just couldn’t smell what they were cooking with this one. Last night I came to the same conclusion. I do like the idea of a low alcohol light bodied refreshing ale, but the flavor needs a kick in the pants. This is a raspberry ale and to me it either needs more raspberry or more diversity in the malt bill. Perhaps this was a happy accident, but if it were more of a mild instead of a pale it would be more interesting. Anyway, I won’t be making a beeline for a sixer anytime soon, there are many more flavorful offerings in the Big Boss lineup to enjoy. As with most things Big Boss this one will probably evolve over time. If I hear the recipe has shifted I will certainly be first in line to give it a go once again.

Dropped the ball

Back over the Christmas holidays I had a FFL drop the ball. They received a firearm transfer on a Wednesday and it was not available for pickup until Sunday. To this day I have never understood what their deal was and always wondered if that was even an acceptable practice. I’ll expand on the story and you can be the judge of whether I should have been outraged or kept my cool. The package was an instructor firearm and I had used this particular FFL before for these transactions and they had went flawlessly. So with this order they split the order into two with one shipping immediately and the other when the firearm was ready. The firearm was a long gun and arrived at 1:04pm on a Wednesday. I called about 3pm and asked if they were ready for me to pick it up and they said they would call when it was available. On Thursday I received no call and so I emailed and received no response. On Friday I decided to go by and was told, “Everyone is backed up like this,” which I know to be a bold faced lie. They did locate the box with my firearm, still unopened and not checked in, but there. They said it would be at least Sunday before it was available. Sure enough, late Sunday afternoon I got the call. I just don’t find five days to be acceptable and certainly not two full days of the package just sitting there unopened.

Fast forward to the second shipment of the order which shipped earlier this week. It arrived at the FFL on Friday at 11:23am. I had actually called and tried to get the FFL changed for the order, but that would have required cancelling the order and I did not want to deal with all that headache. So I did not receive a call on Friday, the phone didn’t ring on Saturday and here we are on Sunday morning and I wonder if the phone will ring today or will it be like last time and sometime next week I’ll get a phone call at a time where it is impossible to go pickup the gun. I am confident this will be the last FFL transfer this business will ever receive from me and I will ensure everyone I meet who asks about a transfer will be told to steer clear of this business. I just cannot believe the ATF allows firearms to be received and stuck in the back for days at the time without being logged in to their bound book. Stay tuned.