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Franziskaner appeared to pour a hazy brownish and amber color with an initial fruity and flowery smell of cloves and bananas. The first mouthful was surprisingly spicy with a slight taste of bananas. The aftertaste was a wonderful taste of spice and cloves which I really enjoyed.

I will definitely put this at the top of my “beers to drink again” list. Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse was refreshing and delicious and set the bar high for my future tastings of this style German beer.

Ken Block was on my favorite automotive show Top Gear recently with his friend Ricky Carmichael and they had a chance to take James May for a little joyride.

Just in case you haven’t seen his previous videos I posted, you can check them out here and here.

Shock Top Belgian White is a Belgian style wheat ale produced by the Michelob Brewing Company. Recently I have been tasting quite a few Belgian style wheat ales and I must say that for not knowing much about beer,  I am really enjoying this style of beer. So, when I saw this beer the other day I thought that I would give it a taste.

The initial pour was bright golden but soon went to a hazy yellow color. There is an obvious citrus aroma with hints of spice and coriander. The obvious citrus smell is due to Shock Top being brewed with orange, lemon and lime peels. I thought that immediately I tasted citrus with a dominant orange and lemon taste. I found that the spice was hard to detect but overall it was light and went down very smooth.

I think during the spring and summer seasons I could put back a couple of these for sure. It is drinkable, but overall the  excitement of the initial aroma faded with a slightly watered down taste.

The new year is only a couple of hours away and that made me think about the type of year 2009 was. As far as photography goes, 2009 was a year in which I developed the skills I learned in 2008. We were fortunate enough to travel to fun and exciting locations around the world which resulted in several truly fascinating photographic opportunities.

My biggest photography resolution for 2010 is to try new things and push my creative limits to the max. In addition, I want to really develop new techniques in 2010 and grow as a photographer and learn.

Below are some of my favorites pictures from 2009…enjoy!

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Here are some of the pictures from Connors first Christmas. He is only three weeks old, so he could have cared less about what was going on. Too bad Brittany and I had to dress him up in a Santa outfit to take pictures. Poor guy is really going to hate us for taking so many embarrassing pictures when he is older.

What are parents for though? If we weren’t embarrassing our children all of the time, what would we do? Haha!

[Show as slideshow]

I am not a big fan of drinking cider and maybe that is because I generally do not come across it often back in the states. However, I have noticed that many of the pubs here in England offer at least one kind of cider on tap.

That got me thinking and because my beer store always carries Strongbow Cider, I decided that I would finally buy a four-pack of the 500ml cans and give it a shot.

Strongbow is a dry cider and at first glance appears to be apple juice when poured in a glass. To me it taste like a tangy/bubbly apple juice with a kick. Coming in 5.0% ABV this cider can really sneak up on you after having a few.

I can only drink about one or two of these before my taste buds have to take a break though. As I stated earlier, I am not a big cider fan, but I do enjoy the occasional glass.

So far, Strongbow turned out to be better than what I was expecting in a cider. I will be tasting a couple more ciders in the future, so stay tuned.

Leffe Blonde is a Belgian Pale Ale and at first I must admit that I was not that into the taste of this beer. However, after my second time tasting this beer I began to really enjoy it.

It pours a nice clean golden color with an aroma of spice and fruit. The initial taste was sweet and spicy with hints of clove, yeast, and banana.

It seems that after drinking a couple Belgian beers now, I have noticed that each beer recommends a special type of glass. Apparently almost every Belgium beer has its own special drinking glass.

Overall, I would definitely drink this again.

This is my first “beer post” so I figured that I will start with my new favorite beer…Hoegaarden Witbier. Hoegaarden is a Belgian white beer brewed in the town of Hoegaarden.  Although this is considered a summer ale, I am just now enjoying it for the first time in mid December and must say that it is just terrific.

At first glance, I think it poured a hazy golden yellow color with an  initial aroma of yeast and pepper with a slight hint of cloves and orange citrus. The taste was a very mild and pleasant peppery/citrus taste leaving no aftertaste. Also, the beer feels light and creamy on the palette and overall I find this to be one of the best beers I have ever had. A little disclaimer though, this is my first beer review so I hope in the future that new beers will surprise me and take over the number 1 position.

As I have stated before, I started this photo/beer project because I absolutely enjoy drinking beer and taking pictures. So, I figured I would take pictures of the different beers I try while living in Europe and share those experiences with others.