So I'm minding my own business wandering through the various forums here to pick up whatever information I can from the collective knowledge about audio, speakers and Axiom stuff. All of a sudden......BAM - BEER THREAD. Yeah, this works!

I live in Rocheter, NY and this is where they make Genesee beer. (Genesee is an old celtic word that loosely translates to "aardvark sweat"). However, I grew up in Pittsburgh. While I saw mention of that fine pilsner Rolling Rock, I have seen no mention of Pittsburgh ambrosia - Iron City Beer. The beer of the Steelers. The nectar of the Ohio Valley. I grew up quaffing this by-product of the Monogahela River and it is a little known treasure.

I should also mention that ordering surf & turf in Pittsburgh will get you a plate of Kielbasi and Carp. No matter, the Iron washed the steel mill pollution away. It also does a nice job restoring a pitted or rusty paint job on your car.

It's funny how the mid-west calls them "kielbasi" despite there being a large Polish population there.

(Polish was my first language. Kielbasa is the singular term for Polish sausage, and kielbaski is the plural.)

Now you've got me crav gowompki (stuffed cabbage rolls) or a nice bigos (hunters stew). drool...

Whenever you feel like cooking, I'm there. Just no borscht. Unless it's your grandmother's.

I'm not crazy about those kielbasa, but a good linguica is sublime. Either BBQ'd, with scrambled eggs, or on a pizza... mmm yummm.

Right on, Peter! That sounds like comfort food, to be sure.

Thanks sincerely for the language lesson. I love stuff like that. Especially when it's about sausages.

I'd like to nominate Ray for best Axiom newcomer or some kind of fluff nonexistent award. He came to the right party, IMO. Ray, is Rochester close to Albany/Troy? I was at the Brown and Moran Brewery in Troy some years ago and had a truly memorable meal with some great beers.

Regarding the Old Crustacean - you're right. That is a big, big, beer. And, as Rogue was one of the pioneer craft breweries of the Northwest beer renaissance of the 1980's, it set a standard of sorts. But not a standard without controversy; barley wine is a traditional english ale type, but the West Coast versions are much more aggressively hopped than their progenitors. So much so that, like IPA, many beergeeks favor connoting a completely separate style (American IPA, American Barleywine, etc.). The only other recourse is to fight continually about whether beers like Old Crustacean are "overhopped for the style".

Rogue's brewery is on the scenic Oregon coast in Newport. Great place. Great beers.

Tom - my entire life is built on a solid foundation of fluff! Thank you for the nice welcome. Troy/Albany are about 4hrs. away by car. I haven't heard of the brewery, but I try to frequent micros when I can. They usually put out a good product. I also notice the beer gets better the longer I sit there testing it.

As for the rest of you guys, while the linguistics exercise was very fulfilling, I have reached max salivation levels reading your posts. In the final analysis, I'm usually less concerned with how to say/spell it as long as there are seconds available!

From a philosophical perspective, I've always felt that the question of which came first , the chicken or the egg, was too esoteric. The more important question to be debated there should have been "was pizza or beer first".

Excuse me, I am going for a snack.

Beer to the resuce!

This evening my wife was rushing to complete a stir fry before she had to head out. She read the label on the suace she had bought and saw that it made 4 servings, so she dumped the whole bottle in. She realized too late that for 4 servings you're only supposed to add a half-cup. Beer cuts the salt quite nicely.

my wife uses beer as the starter for beef stew. beer seems to tenderize the beef as well as adding flavor.

It is entirely possible that the only beer worse than Iron City is Iron City Lite.

Unfortunately, I can't muster an argument to this statement. I will say however, the IC Light is not quite as effective at removing barnacles from the barges that ply the Ohio River.