Tuesday Beer Review: Southern Tier IPA

I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 3 years I think. I haven’t really been keeping track but I’m pretty sure I was closing in on 3 years. For about 4 months I’ve been having a struggle in my head as to why. I was never really a big meat eater, although I would occasionally enjoy different meats, but not very often. So when I had decided to become a vegetarian, it wasn’t very difficult for me to make the transition. For about 4 months I’d been wondering to myself why I am vegetarian. It had become more of a religion to me and had gotten to the point where I really didn’t know why I was doing it. Tonight I have decided to toss out the label that I assumed years ago and I cooked a blackened salmon dinner. This isn’t a gateway into the world of meat addiction, I really don’t see my diet changing all that drastically. Instead of chicken, I’ll always prefer seitan or tofu, its delicious. That part of me has not changed, and I will not be eating fast food like Whoppers or Big Macs because I don’t want to die when I’m 50 or weight 400 pounds. Tonight I wanted a piece of fish and that’s exactly what I made. I am declaring myself no longer a vegetarian, but a healthy eater. With that being said, lets get to some beer.


The Southern Tier IPA won’t blow your mind, but its a decent quick beer to drink when there’s limited selection.

Tonight I enjoyed a glass of Southern Tier IPA from the Southern Tier Brewing Company of Lakewood, New York. I have had a few beers from Southern Tier and my thoughts remain the same after each one. Southern Tier makes a decent beer. Its not amazing and its not awful. It’s just plain decent and its a beer that I will get if I’m out at a bar that has a limited selection. The beer has a decent helping of citrus and hops and doesn’t leave an undesirable, lingering bitterness in your mouth. This is actually a beer that I thought tasted a little better as it got warmer, becoming sweeter but still maintaining a decent malty flavor. I poured the beer into a standard pint glass where it displayed nice color and mild carbonation.


A loyal companion to a blackened salmon.

Overall, the Southern Tier IPA would be more of a casual beer that I would keep in my fridge. It goes well with spicy food and is reasonably priced.

ABV: 6.9%
IBU: 65

May 3, 2011 0

Monday Beer Review: Hercules Double IPA

I’ve decided that because every single one of my weekends is spent drinking fantastic beers, Monday will be the perfect day to review beer. Buffalo is turning into a great city for beer, with great places to get fantastic beverages like The Blue Monk, Cole’s, Pearl Street Brewery, Village Beer Merchant, Pizza Plant, and many more. There are plenty of places to go out for great beer and plenty of options to bring some home, such as create a six pack or filling up a growler. This weekend I drank a few beers, one being the Hercules Double IPA a fantastic treat brought to us by The Great Divide Brewing Company out of Denver, Colorado. Up until Saturday my favorite double IPA was Southern Tier’s which i still highly recommend especially if you can get it on tap. The Hercules was a fantastic blend of citrus, hops, with enough bitter to bring a smile to my face and a nod of approval. This beer would go amazing with pizza or any food that can come “Buffalo” style.


At about $5.75-$6.00 a bottle, the Hercules Double IPA does not disappoint.

ABV: 10%
IBU: 85

May 2, 2011 0

Enjoying the Weekend.

The weekend has been nice so far. We got our closing date on the house which will be June 3rd. So basically we will sign the papers, get the keys, and we will run right over and start doing things. I can’t wait to clean that back yard out, I’m totally ready. Friday night we went to our friends house to play some board games. One game in particular was probably the best/worst game I have ever seen. The game was called “Heartthrob” and was totally ridiculous. Three cards are drawn with three dudes, all insanely attractive. They are presented on the table so that everyone can see how hot they are.


Pictured here are Peter, Dex, and Chip. We knew it was going to be tough with how hot these dudes were.

Each of us is handed a paper where we write down which dude we think is the hottest. Then we write down which dudes we think the other players think are the hottest. The object is to guess who everyone is going to choose and for each one that you guess correctly you get one point.


The picture is a bit blurry but clearly you can see that Dex is by far the most awesome. I mean come on, he has a duster.

In the second round we are to lay out some of the personality traits which are random cards placed onto the board with really amazing facts about each dude.

Again, after this round of personality traits, Dex was by far the coolest. Lets think for a second. A duster, nicknamed “Tiger”, really wants to dogsled across the Arctic, signed up for cooking classes to meet women, and dyes his hair a new color every month? Is there really any doubt who the best is. Clearly its Dex.

We only played one round of this game for the simple fact that all of us except one chose Dex and at the end of the game all of us had the same amount of points so there was no winner. A terrible game, but it was good for a laugh. Why didn’t we at least give it a second chance? Well if Trevor was one of the dudes in the next round, I’m pretty sure it would have been the same result.


Trevor.

May 1, 2011 0

Slow week…

Business has been good here at supersweetshirts.com but I have been slowing any new designs, etc until after my trip from California. The Dirty Harry shirt is defiantly next on my list and have already started working on the image. In the mean time, here are some trailers for some things that I want to see coming out!

Its been a while since we have seen Zach Braff in anything. He looks pretty rough in this but the film looks pretty good.

This movie looks decent also. “Hanna” is a 14 year old trained killer raised by her father and is sent on a mission across Europe while being tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent.

And now for a terrible movie that I will need to see:

This movie looks so bad that I have to see it. The groundbreaking premise of this film is that this kid is bullied in school. Stone Cold Steve Austin plays a Janitor that saves the kid from being picked on one day. He notices that the kid is carrying a boxing magazine and from there they pretty much seem to recreate “The Karate Kid”. Amazing.

April 28, 2011 0

Guilty Pleasure

I have a new guilty pleasure as of late. Months ago I had seen a trailer for MTV’s new TV show “Skins”. The preview looked so unbelievably terrible that I momentarily became fascinated and decided to look up information about it online. I found out that it was actually a remake of a version that aired for multiple seasons in the UK. The reviews that I had read said that the UK version was edgy and would never be able to be aired in the US because of the content. So I decided to watch the first season on Netflix. As soon as I had finished the first episode, I knew that there would be no way I would ever watch the watered down US version, there would be no reason to.
The show is based around a group of kids, each of course loaded with their own problems and getting into their own ridiculous “real life” situations. Doesn’t sound like anything special right? As I got more and more into the first season it hit me as to why the show is so awesome. Nicole was on the couch next to me as I was watching. She was on her laptop not actually watching the show but peeking over at the TV occasionally and finally made a comment that pretty much summed up the show. She said that the show is basically an R-rated Nickelodeon show. That description is dead on. If you ever wondered what a Nickelodeon show would be like with drug use, violence, strong sexual content, and low brow humor defiantly give the U.K. version of “Skins” a watch. It is bloody brilliant.

I finished another model pic for the site that I thought came out well. This one is for my Hemingway shirt where I have done some Photoshop stuff with a picture I shot of Nicole.

April 26, 2011 0

New Photo stuff for site.

A few days ago I wrote about a video I watched from threadless.com about the original stuff they do with their model pictures to bring the shirts to life. I started doing things with the model pictures on my site hoping to give the site a little edge. Last week I posted a few and today I have two others that I recently just finished.

There probably won’t be much news on new designs in the next few weeks as Nicole and I are headed to San Fransisco with my family to visit sister and to kick back. I am looking forward to drinking plenty of hoppy IPA’s including the long awaited Pliny the Elder rated one of the10 best beers in the world and extremely hard to come by. Excited? Indeed.

April 25, 2011 0

Easter weekend!

Easter has arrived and what a weekend it has been, especially if you are a Sabres fan! The Sabres pulled off a win Friday night to put us in a position to take out the Flyers today on Easter Sunday. Saturday morning we went to the Broadway Market located in one of Buffalo’s most unflattering parts of town. Normally people wouldn’t go near this area but the weeks leading up to Easter, this place is loaded with some of the best Easter food around. Amazing home made candy, breads, perogies, and meats, this is the place to go before Easter Sunday.
Saturday night we went to Brodo with some of Nicole’s good friends. Brodo is an overpriced restaurant that makes average food. Its not terrible and its not great. Nicole had a mushroom gorgonzola ravioli and I had a grilled cheese sandwich with fancy cheeses. I’m a sucker for grilled cheese and as long as t hey have a great beer that I can drink with it, I’m a happy camper. I washed it down with a Victory Hop Devil, which is one of my favorites. Minus the overpriced average food, the night was fun and I enjoy being the only guy amongst a group of babbeling yentas.

Fancy Grilled Cheese

The most simple thing can bring a smile to my face.

We went to the Broadway market to get some perogies for our Sunday Easter dinner, something I wanted to bring back as a tradition. Easter was always huge in my family growing up with a Ukrainian grandmother. We would always have the best food Easter Sunday. So this year we got fresh perogies and Nicole and I made home made vegetarian cabbage rolls using some vegetarian ground beef.


Ukrainian Cabbage rolls!

Nicole’s nephew Jake in his Easter outfit. 5 minutes later he tore all of his clothes off because he insists on being nude all the time.

Happy Easter from Supersweetshirts.com!

April 24, 2011 0

It’s Friday! Go Sabres!

The weekend has finally arrived and its slam packed full of things to do. My parents get into town today for an overnight visit which usually involves drinking, good food, and fun. Tonight is a huge playoff game for the Sabres as we try to pull ahead in our series with Philly. When they get here we will be going to the blue monk for an afternoon treat that I am looking forward to.
Also I started on some of the model pictures for the site. I think they came out pretty awesome and look forward to doing some more.

April 22, 2011 0

Going to try something new.

Nicole has sent a video to watch a few days ago made by the people at threadless.com which is a pretty large and successful T-shirt company. I don’t have an issue plugging them on my blog because they do really awesome things over there and our shirts are completely different. The video focused on the creative ways that they portray the models that are wearing the shirts. I am by no means a professional photographer but one of the little things they would sometimes do is stick the model in an alternative universe using Photoshop which I am good at using. I’m going to do a test run hopefully tomorrow.

April 22, 2011 0

The Killing Machine

Dolph Lundgren returns with his newest masterpiece “Icarus” or in the states “The Killing Machine”. Dolph plays “Icarus”, real name Edward Genn, an assassin who is struggling with the balance of being a ruthless killer and a father to a little girl. Some past mistakes end up haunting him as eventually an onslaught of trained killers tries to murder him and his entire family. If you like Dolph Lundgren then this is a good one. The film is full of action and some brutal ass kicking. Dolph directed this film and does a good job in making this look like a film with a decent budget. This film isn’t going to win any awards and sometimes lacks common sense but that is what makes it great. Dolph at one point is trying to save his daughter and brutally kills someone by ramming his face through the barbell of a weight set. Long term trauma for the little girl? Not when your Dolph’s daughter! Super Sweet Shirts recommends this movie if you like things that are awesome.

Dolph’s total kills: 26
Methods used: Guns, pitchfork, barbell, explosive, and bare hands…