I do a lot of reading. One of my favorite subjects is history. There was this feller by the name of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, went by plain Rasputin to his friends. As a kid Rasputin and his younger brother were out swimming in a river and he saved his kid brother from drowning. Folks in the town attributed it to mystical powers. By the time he was a teenager, Rasputin had a harem of prostitutes and was a bit of a deviant you could say. Life was going pretty good for him and he started rubbing shoulders with the Tsar and his gentry up in Saint Petersburg. Rasputin was something of a shaman, and as such he did not keep clean facilities about himself. Folks did not take kindly to him. One night a rival of the Tsar up and decided to kill old Rasputin. Here's where it gets interesting. They invited him to a party and poisoned his tea and cake loaded up with enough cyanide to drop an oxen to his knees, but dang if Rasputin didn't flinch. So like any good assassin, they shot him in the back. C'ept that didn't kill him neither. When the killer went to get his coat, Rasputin got up and cold cocked him one. So they stabbed him, clubbed him, and shot him in the back three more times and cut off his unmentionables for good measure. Thinking the job was done, they wrapped him in a shawl and threw him into a frozen river. Course when the autopsy came back... he had water in his lungs, so the official cause of death was drowning. Anyway I digress. Since this supposed to be a beer blog about beer, I thought my sorted story would relax what ails ya, and prompt you to pop a cold one. I'll leave you with two pictures up above. One Rasputin BEFORE a six'er of Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, and one is a picture of him AFTER.
ery Dogfish Head. This brewery was named after a point in Maine, and if you asked anyone where Dogfish Head was, they would surely tell you about two feet from it's ass! In all seriousness, this is a solid brau, spicy, meaty, with tons of flavor. Mad scientist and Keanu Reeves stand-in Sam Calagione created this beer by incorporating ingredients from all seven continents, a homage to the all powerful super landmass that existed back in the days when Jesus rode dinosaurs. The Dogfish Head site suggests the beer be consumed with food. Since they're not specific as to "which" food, that leaves billions of possible pairings to choose from. Being a bit of an eccentric mad scientist myself, I paired this beer with a kale and garlic salad, 3 grain wild rice with apples and Panko encrusted woodcock and partridge breast sauteed in bacon grease. NOM NOM. Sam was right, this beer pairs well with any food. I finished the rest of the bottle in front of a fire and watched satellites buzz overhead, endlessly circling the fractured Pangaea below.
