I can’t believe that Saturday’s freak snowstorm on the east coast has left thousands of homes in the dark STILL! With over 19 inches of wet and heavy snow falling in parts of Northern New Jersey over 600,000 homes were impacted, and this includes my better half on this blog,Jim. He didn’t have power Saturday night, and I’m not sure he has any now, as his presence this morning has been non-existent. In some parts of the state they are saying it could be anywhere from 2 to 8 days before power is restored! Man, I’m glad I live in a place with a really sound infrastructure like Ida…wait, I though the East had all the power, roads, beers, etc. Perhaps this is an omen of things to come and the states with good infrastructure will get the beer! Lets hope so.
Anyway, if I lived out there I certainly would be raiding my stout inventory! And I have some great ones that would be fantastic straight from the garage! No refrigeration required! I have a Bourbon County Stout Rare that I have been aging since this time last year! That’d be a good one, or perhaps my Odell’s Bourbon Barrel Stout! I’m looking forward to that one too, but I probably would start with some more pedestrian offerings first, I have an Alameda Stout that has a BEAR on the label! That would be a good one to crack open first since it was just about $6. I also have a Ninkasi Oatis. This year’s version is bigger and stoutier than previous years, and it is an absolutely wonderful beer this year. I also have a Sam Smith’s oatmeal stout, the beer that drinks like a meal! I have some other’s too, so I wouldn’t go beerless in the case of a power emergency!
I have lived in my home in Idaho for almost 9 years now, and in those years, we have had plenty of weather related events, and I can count on one hand the number of time my power has gone out, and then never for more than about 2 or 3 hours at a time. You guys out east, need to get with the times, and cut back those trees around the powerlines! Here is a helpful hint, you can cut off a limb of a tree, and it won’t die! Go ahead trim those suckers, it will save you a lot of headaches later, or you can buy portable generators and connect them into your homes for the next big snow or wind. Hopefully you all have a lot of stouts on hand!
So if you were stranded for days without electricity, what would you drink? Let us know in the comments.
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
you guys have the greatest picture meme’s… 🙂
Thanks Clayton!
btw, I think the east coast has 2 main problems… 1) archaic infrastructure (power, water, etc)… and 2) LOTS of trees… we may be the city of trees here in Boise, but damn we don’t hold a candle to most of the northeast. 🙂
This is true Clayton, we tend to cut down our trees and burn them or build stuff! Out East, they have trees everywhere. In the malls, growing out of roofs, in the roads…they’re everywhere!
Mad Elf. Lots of Mad Elf, which helps if your back happens to be out like mine is. 😦
Still no power – hopefully by Wednesday. WTF, 21st century?!
Sounds like you need to get that dog on a treadmill and hook it up to your circuit breaker box! Poodle Power, the newest form of sustainable energy! WEDNESDAY???!!! Sheesh! hopefully you don’t have a lot of meat in the freezer. What did you do to your back this time, and how are you recharging your phone and iPad?
I love the utility companies out here in NJ. Across the street from my house there is a HUGE tree, and the brain surgeons who ran the power lines decided it was a good idea to intertwine them between branches instead of trimming the tree or running the line a different way.
Needless to say I watch 3 branches come down high atop the tree and bounce off said power lines. Still have power though as of this morning, and a fridge full of Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout (a fave of mine) and some cans of Ten Fidy.
Sounds like you are ready for widespread power outages or the zombie apocalypse! which ever comes first! And since when does vegetation rule over people? that’s just crazy that the power company would keep a tree on its own property that is in the middle of things! crazy stuff.
I hate to say it, but I don’t think Jim can survive without power. How is he going to run his blowdryer or better yet, how will he get to his bi-monthly mani-pedi?
For a metrosexual, this metrosucks. I can just see him now crying in a corner, goodluck it’s water free mascara.
good thing*
In a real irony of all ironies, Jim recently came into (like friday night) a brand spankin’ new, outta the box 55 inch Samsung 3D TV! He got to enjoy it for a couple hours and then the power went out! Its been sitting in his family room mocking him since Friday night! 🙂
So the TV and his family have some commonalties?
Oh yes! Not to mention he is flat on his back because it went out on him, so I’m sure they are all standing around him poking him with sticks and making fun of him! 🙂
That same storm hit the Denver metro area pretty hard leaving me with out power for about 24 hours. I had a Victory Storm King mixed with a Stone IPA…….. at my parents house that had power!
Hey Matt, that is like making your own collaboration brew! Good combo!
The power outages were hit or miss here in Denver, my brother’s family lost their power for a day, while we were nice and toasty. Had a nice DIPA from Kick Ass, which I probably would’ve drank if the power was on or not. 🙂
Nice, Ijust saw on Facebook that Jim’s power is finally back on after the better part of three days! At least he didn’t miss the Jets game!
Living in MI we can typically rely on at least two or three major storms to knock us out for a day or two. I work in retail and I kid you not, the night before an impending snowpocalypse hits, half of MI is out buying canned chili and beer. It is a great thing to see.
Thing is most craft beer lovers keep a supply on hand for just such an emergency! Canned Chili huh? Does that back up the sewers a couple days later? 😉
It’s not just the number of trees, it’s the type. Deciduous trees aren’t equipped to deal with snow before they drop their leaves. Back in 1984 there was a similar storm in Upstate New York with similar effect. Power was out in some areas for 6 weeks. At the time I drank Guinness. Please note that it was 1984 and there was no craft beer industry. Today I’d tap a keg of DogFather, put my feet up and wait patiently. I might ever suggest the local power co. leave me till last.
On a side note; Jim is a Jets fan?
He drives a mini, WHICH IS COOL! …and he’s a Jets fan?
J-E-T-S, J-E-T-S, Go JETS!
Jim is winning the favorite brother contest!
🙂
Ok, ok so I guess they are off the hook for now, but what a mess! I heard today, some places might not get power back for 2 weeks! That just seems really strange to me, given how developed that whole area is. And I’m very comfortable with Jim as a Jets fan. I’ll put my packers against his jets any day of the week! 😉
Yay! I TOTALLY out-metrosexual Don!!
That’s not hard to do Jim! That is like me saying I totally out redneck you…
Hey Don; Its not quite as simple as that. It seems as though we’re getting all that precip that’s skipping the S.W. Here in central MD we’re something like 16″ ahead of normal in terms of annual precip. What that means in re the two hurricanes we went through is that the ground was so wet that the trees no longer had root purchase (its called “soil failure”). Thus, large old trees that were well back from the wires fell over and took a lot of stuff with them. The only kind of trimming that will effecticely deal with that is at ground level. In re the recent snow storm, we got a lot of wet, sticky, snow at the same time that many/most deciduous trees were in full leaf. Trimming would help in some cases but it still isn’t the answer.
Finally, each area has what is called “climax growth”. That’s the type of flora one can expect after a suitable period of time with little or no disturbance. Examples of such categories are short grass prairie, tall grass prairie, temperate rain forest, etc. Our climax growth is temperate deciduous forest with the dominant trees being oaks. We don’t have to plant trees to get forest. Let a field lie fallow and it just happens–first the “pioneers”, i.e., choke cherries, black locusts and red cedars, then the longer-lived trees.
Yeah, I get it. I guess when trees fall over out here, there usually aren’t that many power lines to take out! Let’s face if a fir tree falls over on the side of a mountain, it probably isn’t going to create a state of emergency. Just glad I live out here with all the power I need! 😉