Time to start reviewing beers so I don’t forget them. I plan on using the Ratebeer scale – 10 points for aroma, 5 for appearance, 10 for flavor, 5 for palate, 20 for overall impression, then summed and normalized to a scale of 0-5. I use the mid point as 50% percentile (i.e. 5/10 for aroma is, to me, an average-smelling beer).

Name: Norwegian Wood
Brewery: Haandbryggeriet
ABV: 6.5%
BJCP style: 21A – Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer
Country of origin: Norway
Serving temperature: ~7C (45F) warming to ~13C (55F)
Glass: Ordinary pint glass

Aroma: 8/10. Nose dominated by peat, smoldering alder, hot burning juniper wood. Intriguing medicinal overtone, perhaps juniper berries. Not much of the base malt aroma makes it through, however. Brings back fond memories of warming my bones around a brush-fueled campfire in the desolate wilderness of the eastern Cascades.

Appearance: 3/5. Dense, persistent brownish head with no lacing to speak of. Deep brownish ruby color with some chill haze.

Flavor: 7/10. One of the better smoked beers I’ve tried. Clean, moderate bitterness with no hop flavor; dominated by peat, black patent or other roasted malt. Smoke much more evident on the nose than on the tongue. Slight wooden overtone and an equally small amount of fruitiness. Dry, woody finish.

Palate: 3/5. Heavy on intake, heavy on the tongue, heavy going down. Not a whole lot of carbonation to speak of, generous head notwithstanding. Slight alcohol warming. I think the ABV of 6.5% is understated.

General impression: 14/20. A fine small batch artisan beer. I was hoping for something a bit wackier, but Haandbryggeriet instead delivers a smoked beer of unusual refinement (if there is such a thing). Drinkability as well as complexity increased with temperature, with some of the roasty edginess giving way to a well-rounded heartiness; recommend leaving it out for about 10 minutes before pouring to get its temperature into the 10C range. By no means a session beer, but certainly an interesting treat.

Overall: 3.5/5.

Flemish brown ales (like the aformentioned Liefmans Goudenband) pair beautifully with nutty cheeses like Gruyère, Beaufort, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.  Especially when they’re accompanied by the sweet taste of victory, namely over 14-page memoranda of law.

I’ve been asked repeatedly how I’m able to retain my sanity as a full-time professional and a nearly-full-time law student.  The answer, in short, is that said sanity retention is almost a forced chore.  Let me take that back.  It is a forced chore.  However, I find that I still have plenty of time to avail of my many hobbies … more time, it seems, than many of my non-working classmates.

Not surprisingly, it all boils down to time management, and it’s actually made somewhat easier by having to work during the day.  I am by nature an expert procrastinator, and quite easily distracted by shiny objects and beer.  But when confronted with 40+ hours of work and 30 hours of school per week, I quickly realized how unbelievably valuable time is to those without enough of it (namely, myself).  For the first couple weeks of this arrangement, I was probably sleeping 4 or 5 hours per night, and my stress level was through the roof.  I think that it was during one of these frantic episodes that I, quite literally, slapped myself repeatedly and asked myself WHAT THE F#*& I WAS DOING.  

After calming down from these mild histrionics, I reflected upon my inner nerd and popped open Excel.  After a bit of numerical finagling, it became obvious that with optimal efficiency, I could easily get my 7 hours of sleep, and have Friday night as well as an entire weekend day to do whatever I felt like.  Doing so, of course, would require a strict regimen of ignoring distraction and finishing whatever homework I started.  I only had to force the new schedule upon myself like for a week before it just became normal.  I admit, it is somewhat unnatural for anyone to claim a 70-80 hour week as normal, much less manageable, but it really isn’t as bad as it seems if you actually look at it:

Weekdays, except Friday:

• Alarm: 0730
• Shower, etc.: 0730-0800
• Work from home: 0800-0930
• Take the train to work: 0930-1000
• At work: 1000-1745
• Take the train home: 1745-1815
• Drive to school: 1815-1825
• Class: 1830-2030 (or 2130, depending on the day)
• Drive home: 2030-2040 (or 2130-2140)
• Make and eat dinner: 2040-2130 (or 2140-2230), half of which I’m eating and studying simultaneously
• Continue studying: whenever I’m done with dinner until 0000
• Whatever: 0000-0030
• Bedtime: 0030

Friday:

• Same as above, except I get home around 1800 and don’t study at all

Saturday:

• 8-12 hours of studying, more if necessary (i.e. a paper is due)

Sunday:

• The joy of doing as little or as much of nothing as I feel like.

I mentioned that having to work makes time management easier.  It’s counterintuitive, but true nonetheless; having to get up at the same time every day, and knowing that work always takes up a certain amount of time per day helps with scheduling what’s left against what’s left to be done.  

One last important note:  I find it crucial to continue doing stuff I like whenever I can, especially when it involves physical exertion.  The only time I went two weeks without hiking, going for a bike ride, working out, or even just heading out for a quick jog was at the start of the school year.  At the end of those first two weeks, I don’t think I could have even written a summary of Green Eggs and Ham, much less properly brief a case.

Ok, I’ve moved on to a St. Bernardus Abt 12 and it’s time for me to focus on that rather than this silly post.