Finally, an alcoholic Ginger Beer that actually tastes like it has ginger in it!
Matso Ginger Beer
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Author Archives: Stewart Smith
Much LOL
At least here in Australia there is this drink called LOL. I saw much LOL on the shelves in the supermarket the other day. I’ve been trying to save this picture up to send to someone… but there hasn’t (yet) been the opportunity.
Innis & Gunn Rum Cask
Smells like rum, tastes a bit like it too. You can certainly tell it’s been in a Rum cask. Nice. I think I prefer the original over this one, although they are both distinctly different.
Brew Dog Punk IPA
This is a delicious beer. The text on the side of the bottle is rather worth reading too. Basically, it has flavour. It’s not a “we’re going to hop your brains out” IPA, rather a “we’re making an IPA with flavour that’s very yummy”.
Orbital
Saturday night, went to see Orbital. Awesome. A two hour set of a whole bunch of fun and a crowd that was really into it. Luckily there was a mirror nearby to capture the stage and the crowd.
Hargraves Hill Extra Special Bitter
I think this has to be one of my favourites. I Â don’t get to have it often, but it has such a wonderful flavour: strong, not overwhelming and a wonderful example of what an Extra Special Bitter should be. I know you can get it on tap at Mrs Parmas in Melbourne, although I swear I’ve found it at other places too – and anyone who doesn’t mind an ESB should certainly give this one a try.
Kiuchi Brewery’s Espresso Stout
My first beer from Japan! This pours nice and thick. This Espresso Stout is black like my heart and is thick like the phrase “Guinness is a meal” would lead you to believe (rather than the sad reality that is Guinness these days).
While I can’t really detect the espresso in the smell of this one (although once it warmed up a bit I could), I can in the taste. Halfway through a mouthful you’re certainly going “mmm… espresso-y”.
This was quite enjoyable. I’m not sure if I could drink more than one (I probably couldn’t), and it doesn’t match the whatever it was I had through a coffee bean filled Randy at Mountain Goat a while ago, but it’s certainly nice.
Yes folks, there can be good beer come out of Japan.
Barons Black Wattle
In which I attempt to make beer photos more interesting by hipster-izing them as much as humanly possible without using Instagram.
This is Barons Black Wattle Original Ale. As far as anyone can work out, there isn’t much of this left. The Barons Brewing website is no more and it seems the company went away after not sticking to their core business – which was brewing beer.
It’s got Wattle in the name as the beer has roasted wattle seeds. The Wattle is an Australian native, that is – to me, this beer is distinctly Australian. It’s not a flavour you’d come up with elsewhere. While it is not my most favourite beer of all time, being something that you simply couldn’t really come up with anywhere else, I hold it in a special place.
Oh, and yes it is true that I’m attempting to bribe people at work (Percona) with offers of me sending them a bottle.
When we heard that the brewery was no more, we stockpiled. If you find any in a store, grab it – you probably won’t get another chance to try this brew.
It’s 5.8%, with a rich amber colour and a good rounding of malt flavours – you can certainly taste the Wattle and that’s what makes it distinctive. I’ve never found this a session beer, but I do enjoy a few of them.
Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Porter
This beer heralds from a craft brewery in Scotland. At 6% and with good strong flavours, it’s strong all around. A good solid porter with (again, as the bottle says) notes of chocolate and coffee (both in smell and taste) and a bittersweet aftertaste that is just perfect on a cold evening like this.
Murray’s Punch and Judy’s Ale
On the back it describes itself as a “New World Bitter” and the word bitter is certainly true – it’s not a floral hoppy flavour but rather a bitter that tastes like a bitter should. I could drink a few of these, although more than that could get overwhelming. Bottle conditioned, only 3.9% and quite pleasant.
Waiting…
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of breaking something that is part of yourself, you’ve probably spent a bunch of times in waiting rooms. Even though the waiting is annoying, when something isn’t going to immediately kill you, you can’t really get too frustrated at having to wait. Well, at least that’s my theory.
I’ve learned the lesson of bringing a tablet or laptop along for the up to an hour wait after the scheduled start of an appointment, although actually waiting in the consult room itself is a new one.
The exposed USB Ports to a computer that can access my medical records does raise a concern. I feel it sad that I now just assume that anybody who does want to read them could. I’ve started to think of possible ways to get anonymous health care. The doctor-patient confidentiality is something that is indispensable to a good health care system.
But here I am, waiting. Nothing interesting to note in this room with no windows (except that window into my medical records)
More photos
I’ve decided to try and take more photos and publish more of them. This means I have to look around for opportunities, including capturing some daily life.
This morning I’m off for hopefully my last appointment at the Alfred after a bike accident about six or seven weeks ago (injury photos posted previously). So, it means taking the train as driving with a brace on my arm doesn’t excite me.
The train is late, the 9:08 in the other direction is even later (twenty minutes). I just missed the previous one, so there I am looking at the mind the gap paint.
Innis & Gunn Original
This was a really nice beer. Sweet with toffee and vanilla (a the bottle says) and you could even smell the oak
. This one was recommended by PatG, and I finally found it at Acland Cellars.
I have their rum cask one and a special Canada Day brew in the fridge.
recovering okay
I’m Currently recovering from bike accident. One arm in a sling, the other in a sling. Managing pain now only with codeine (lots) rather than oxycodone. I can tap on a tablet okay, typing on laptop for short period only. Best way to contact is google talk.
Sessions at the Percona Live MySQL Conference that interest me
For the past many years, there’s been a conference in April, at the Santa Clara Convention Centre where the topic has been MySQL and the surrounding ecosystem. The first year I went, I gave a talk on the new features in MySQL Cluster 5.1 to a overflowing room of attendees. For me, it’s an event that’s mixed with speaking about something I’ve been working on and talking to other attendees about everything from how a particular part of the server works to where we can escape to for nearby good vegan food.
So, I thought I’d share some of the sessions that I’m really looking forward to. My selection is probably atypical, but may be interesting to others. I’m not going to list the keynotes, although they are often of a lot of value. I’m also going to attempt to avoid listing a few really awesome well known speakers simply because there are other really interesting sessions that also need exposure!
- Starring Sakila: Building Data Warehouses and BI solutions using MySQL and Pentaho
I need to base decisions off data, not simply a gut feeling (I’m not Stephen Colbert after all). I ran into a bunch of stumbling blocks when trying to work with Pentaho a couple of weeks ago, and I’m really hoping that this session shines some light on how to use it to better and more easily make arguments based on evidence to others in the company. - Testing MySQL Databases: The State Of The Art
I’ve worked with Patrick for several years now, and he’s currently a valuable member of my team at Percona. For those who are interested in the state of the art of open source database testing, this is the session to be in. - Getting InnoDB Compression Ready for Facebook Scale
This session is on at the same time as I’m speaking, so I probably won’t be able to attend (people keep coming to my sessions so I usually can’t sneak out). I’m really interested in how they’ve modified the compression code to help with their (large) workload. - Backing Up Facebook
I hear that Facebook has a couple of database servers, a few dozen users and a few floppy disks full of data. This should be a fun story :) - Introducing XtraBackup Manager
Being responsible for XtraBackup development at Percona, the XtraBackup topics really interest me. Lachlan has been working on a simple backup manager for XtraBackup to help create something that is a more complete backup solution than a tool which simply creates a backup. - Extending Xtrabackup – A Point-In-Time System
Another good case of using XtraBackup as part of a comprehensive backup strategy. I have to be honest, I’m looking for ways in which we can improve XtraBackup to better fit the needs of people. It may be that there are a few small things we can do to make it easier for people do deploy and use. - Getting Started with Drizzle 7.1
We’re about to do the 7.1 release of Drizzle! If you’re interested in having a SQL database that is designed to be used in large scale web applications and cloud environments, come along to this talk. - MySQL Idiosyncrasies That Bite
I have to admit, I’m interested in Ronalds talk here to basically ensure we didn’t miss fixing anything in Drizzle. I do promise not to at any point yell out “Fixed in Drizzle” though.
Go here to register:Â http://www.percona.com/live/mysql-conference-2012/Â (early bird pricing and discounted hotel rooms end March 12th, so you want to register sooner rather than later).
Drizzle Day 2012
Henrik has already posted it over on the Drizzle Blog, but I thought I’d give a shout out here too.
We’re holding a Drizzle Day right after the Percona Live MySQL Conference and Expo in April. So, since you’re all like me and don’t book your travel this far in advance, it’ll be easy to stay for the extra day and come and learn awesome things about Drizzle.
I’m also pretty glad that my employer, Percona is sponsoring the event.
MythRemote – a MythTV frontend remote
So, neither being someone who has remotely recently written any bit of software involving a desktop GUI and really not being much of a Python hacker, the obvious solution to being annoyed by having to reach for the remote for MythTV when hacking in front of the TV was to grab Quickly, Python, Gtk and go for it.
So, here it is:
- Project on launchpad: mythremote
- My PPA (if you just want to apt-get install – for when the builders get around to building it :)
- bzr branch lp:mythremote
Maybe useful to (edit: the word “you” should go here, which I amazingly forgot to write before hitting publish).
TextSecure – secure SMS for Android
So… having secure SMS really isn’t hard. Onec upon a time you may have been forgiven to think that your SMS messages weren’t recorded forever by telecommunications companies or various government agencies, but those times have long passed. At the very least you should be concerned about somebody getting hold of your phone and going through all your SMSs (phones no longer just store 20 messages).
TextSecure (Free and Open Source Software up on github) does both local encryption (messages are encrypted on your phone) and over the wire encryption. That’s right kids – you can send encrypted text messages to each other.
It’s a drop-in replacement for the built in Android text messages application, so it all “just works”.
This is the app that Jacob Appelbaum mentioned in is Keynote at lca2012.
MySQL and PostgreSQL Cloud Offerings – linux.conf.au 2012 miniconf talk by myself and Selena
Selena and I gave a talk on the various issues of running databases “in the cloud” at the recent linux.conf.au in Ballarat. Video is up, embedded below:
Cold Brew Coffee Experiment #3
So, I did what I said I’d do – 1/3rd cup ground coffee + 2 cups water, overnight (about 18-20hrs) in fridge. Tasted really nice.
I think I’ve found the combination that works when I’m just making one.
Filtering out the grounds is certainly annoying… I guess this is what the Toddy is meant to solve…. because what I most certainly need is yet another way to make coffee.