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While by no means an expert on beer or cigars, I am at very least an avid
fan of both. On this page you will find links to sites that are fun
and informative. Contact me here
if you have any questions.
Beer
- Mr.
Beer This is a really cool microbrewery to make your own
beer at home. It's inexpensive, easy and fun. Once you get
the hang of it, you can brew some great beer. I've made a bunch
of beer with it so if you have questions,
contact me. A word of advice:
the
all-malt combos
make much better beer than the regular mixes with
Booster.
The Booster seems to give the beer an almost "soapy" smell and
an overly strong caramel taste. My brother Rob uses the
product and has noticed this as well.
- William's Brewing
Once you get completely obsessed with beer-making, you'll want to move
on to making your own beer from scratch (instead of using mixes).
This is the place to go for everything you will ever need to make
beer. Order their
catalog, it'll make you drool.
- Squatters Pub Brewery in
Salt Lake City. If you're ever here and want some excellent food
and beer, this is one of the best in town (there are many good
microbreweries in Utah, believe it or not). The
Captain Bastard's Oatmeal
Stout is exceptionally good!
- Pyramid Breweries
I first drank Pyramid beer when Peg and I visited our dear friend
Tasso in Seattle. I enjoyed their
Hefeweizen while we attended a Mariners game on my birthday a
number of years ago. Thankfully, Pyramid is available here in
Salt Lake (although you have to buy it at the liquor store).
- Samuel Adams
This is, in my opinion, the best beer made in America. Thanks to
my good friend Kelly
Dazet, I have had opportunity to drink some great German beer.
Sam Adams is the only American beer I've had that is as good as the
German brews. Their site is really cool, and features some neat
wallpaper
and
screensavers
for your computer. Try the Boston
Lager and the
Cream
Stout, you won't be disappointed. They even have
recipes using their beer.
- Welde #1 is
probably my favorite German beer thanks to my friend Kelly and I have
added this link at his suggestion (even though the site is in German
you can still look at the pretty pictures!). Don't forget to
check out their current TV ad (grrr, pretty pictures indeed!).
- Finally, some hilarious parodies of those "inspirational" posters
you see everywhere. Fun for the whole family! Maybe not.
Thanks to Chris Killillay for these. Click here to check 'em out.
Cigars
-
cheaphumidors.com is a good place to start if you're new to cigar
smoking, need a new humidor or both.
Dave Sabot runs the site and has written an e-book which will
teach you everything you need to know about buying, storing, cutting,
lighting and smoking good cigars. A quick registration
on the site
allows you to download the free e-book. If you
don't have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, get a free copy
here
to read the e-book. Dave provides excellent customer service and always
responds promptly to questions or comments. On his site you'll
find a huge assortment of humidors and accessories at great prices.
I have purchased two humidors from cheaphumidors.com and am very
pleased with the quality of construction and overall value.
-
CigarPrice.com
is an incredibly useful search engine for finding the best cigar
prices on the web. Just locate the cigar you're interested in
purchasing and the engine finds a list of online tobacconists that
stock the cigar along with their prices. Join their
Cigar Price Club and you get
even more benefits: "Club members can compare prices from many more
stores, get faster searches, can configure email price notifications,
and get priority customer service". I purchased a
one year
membership and recouped the cost after just two purchases.
Sweet!
-
General Cigar
manufactures some of my favorite cigars, including
Cohiba,
Excalibur,
La Gloria Cubana,
Macanudo,
Partagas,
Punch and my favorite cigar for the money,
Sancho Panza. The
Valiente and the
Glorioso are my favorites and you'll always find them in my
humidor.
Sign up for access to their members only area with reviews, an
online forum and an opportunity to participate in free cigar tastings.
I did and got to sample three fantastic cigars!
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Altadis USA
is another monster manufacturer that makes many
brands. Some of my favorites include
Montecristo,
Onyx Reserve,
Romeo Y Julieta and
Saint Luis Rey. They also have cool screensavers and
wallpaper available for
download.
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Famous Smoke
Shop There are probably hundreds of online cigar suppliers
but Famous Smoke in Easton, PA has by far the most useful, informative
and easily navigated site of them all. Create a
free account on their site and you can set up your own
quick links and
favorites and be
notified when they come back into stock. I especially like
the
customer ratings and the smoker's reviews. Check out their
samplers and try several different cigars at a great price without
having to buy a whole box. Print a helpful
ring & length guide and be sure to order their
catalog. Like their web site and customer service, the
catalog is excellent.
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Lil' Brown Smoke
Shack in Yakima, WA is a favorite of mine due to their excellent
customer service and killer pricing on some of my favorite cigars.
This is where I get the
Sancho Panzas I refer to above because their price is the lowest
and I can get them from Washington in just two days. If you
order cigars as a gift, they even toss in a free premium cigar or two
for the gift-giver. How cool is that?
-
Cigar Aficionado A great online source for information,
reviews, cigar forums and the like. Order the
magazine, it's informative, fun to read and features some great
interviews.
-
Cigar Weekly
is another great "e-zine" with tons of information, forums and
reviews. They have a huge
cigar database with reviews that can be very helpful when
selecting cigars for purchase.
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