Beer of the Week

The beer: Ice Age Winter Lager

Brewed by: Antietam Brewery, Hagerstown, Maryland

Description (from Untappd): "Beautiful amber color with a light, fluffy head. The aroma of toffee deceptively hints at a malt bomb, but on the pallet this beer is a well-balanced crusher with a soft, creamy body, and just the right amount of hop bitterness."

Would I buy it again? It's a solid, malty lager, which I honestly wasn't expecting. I feel like when you see "winter" affixed to a beer style, it usually means spiced with stuff like cinnamon, orange, or ginger. However, I don't think it passes the Yuengling test. It's just not quite good enough to justify the extra price.

Spongebob Asteroidpants

Credit: JAXA

On the surface, the asteroid Itokawa looks like any other of the millions of asteroids floating around the solar system. About 500 meters long, it's not even particularly big. It's a big gray space potato. But little did you know, this asteroid is actually doing an incredible Spongebob impression. 

Let me explain: Itokawa is a rubble-pile asteroid, which means kind of what it sounds like. It's not exactly solid, more a collection of boulders loosely held together by gravity. A lot of the asteroid is empty space. It's porous and thus, extremely difficult to destroy. Yes, it's absorbing blows like it's made of some sort of spongey material. 

I'm mostly writing about this because I thought the comparison was funny, but there are legitimate reasons for studying rubble-pile asteroids. For one, the material is incredibly old, as old as the solar system itself, basically. Since Itokawa is basically indestructible, of course it's going to be made of basically pristine material. Also, it presents a problem for Earth. Itokawa may not threaten Earth in any way, but what if another rubble-pile asteroid is coming our way? Our strategy for dealing with that involves launching a big, heavy object like we did with DART in September 2022 (and quite successfully, I might add, we shortened the moon's orbital period around its host asteroid by 33 minutes). A porous asteroid probably wouldn't react the same way to being shot in the same way. It would likely absorb the blow more efficiently and would be much less effected. That's a problem, and one we'll have to work out. Maybe we could try a pie made in a bomb factory.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Coocoo for Cacao

Brewed by: Austin Brothers Beer Company, Alpena, Michigan

Description (from the can): "Imperial stout with cacao nibs, chocolate breakfast cereal, chocolate bars, chocolate donuts, chocolate syrup, and vanilla.

Would I buy it again? It's a 15% imperial stout filled with chocolate. Of course it's good. But man, it's thick and heavy. You are not going to drink this one quickly. Or want more than one. It's good as an occasional treat, but I wouldn't go beyond that. Just imagine how many calories are in this thing.

Review: The Golf Course at Glen Mills (Part 2)

It's time to a look at the back nine at Glen Mills, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is a dramatic downhill par 3 over native area and marshland. It's 200 yards from all the way back, which is quite long for a par 3 that's all forced carry. You can at least miss left, and the ball will bounce toward the green. It's quite a difficult (and large) green as well, with the left section separated by a large tier. While you can miss left, if the ball hangs up in the rough you'll have difficulty keeping a chip close, since the green slopes from left to right. Three putting is a real possibility.

The tenth hole.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is where Glen Mills starts to trip over itself. The sixth hole wasn't exactly wide, but it feels like an infinite cosmos, compared to the fairway this hole offers. Squeezed between marshland left and a brush-covered hillside right, you've got at most 25 yards of safe space. It's often less than that, especially where one might be inclined to hit a long iron. And while it's not a long hole, it's 375 yards, which isn't nothing either. If you thread the needle, the green is long and narrow, with more steep hillside right and bunkers left. If you can get through this hole without losing a golf ball, it's an accomplishment. Of course, since life makes no sense, I hit my two best shots of the day here and had all of 18 inches for my birdie putt. Any hole's easy when you flush a 3 iron and a sand wedge.

The eleventh hole.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is a fairly short par 4 at 340 yards and is thankfully not squeezed between the big hillside left and pond right. Instead, the fairway is draped over the slope, with numerous bunkers between it and the tee. The more sand you carry, the better. Bail out too far left or too short, and you won't have a view of the green, not to mention the awkward stance from having the golf ball a foot below your feet. The green is big and open in front, so you can run shots up if you're not comfortable with a standard wedge shot. Considering the big dropoff right and long of the green and the left-to-right sloping fairway, flying a wedge all the way back to the hole is a risky move.

The twelfth hole.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is 450 yards and swings left around a marsh and wooded area. There's a lot of room to bail out right, as the fairway is very wide, but naturally doing so will leave a longer second from a worse angle. The green is angled from left to right and filled with plenty of undulation. 

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is a fairly short par 3, playing 160 yards uphill to a semiblind green. It's a pretty small green as well, and is partially hidden behind a bunker. Interestingly, the green is pretty flat, which is unusual for this course. 

The fourteenth hole.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is 530 yards, and so long as the drive avoids the cluster of deep bunkers in the corner of the dogleg, the green can be reached in two. The fairway is wide and there's more space than it looks from the tee. The second is steeply downhill, and bunkers line both sides of the fairway for the last 100 yards. That makes laying up a tricky proposition, with a long bunker about 50 yards short that juts deep in the fairway particularly noteworthy. Of course, the biggest thing about this hole is the green, which features a Biarritz swale running through the middle. And since the green isn't massive, you really notice that dip in the green. I like this hole, but this is the last good hole Glen Mills has to offer.

The fifteenth hole.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green from behind.

The sixteenth hole is another fairly short par 3, a few yards shorter than the fourteenth, but obviously it looks and plays a lot differently. A pond lines the entire right side of the hole, coming within a few feet of the edge of the green. So there's no room to miss right. There are a couple small bunkers left, but for the most part you can bail out if you're not comfortable tackling the water head on. However, the green undulations do make chipping from the left side difficult. Not impossible, but tougher than you might hope. I don't dislike this hole, but it doesn't really fit in with everything else. This is the only pond and the only truly flat hole at Glen Mills. It feels out of place.

The sixteenth hole.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is a short par 5, only 480 yards, but don't think this is an easy birdie opportunity. The tee shot is over a marsh to a very narrow and blind fairway with marsh left and dense forest and tall grass right. You'd be crazy to use driver on this hole. If you're lucky enough to thread the needle, you'll need to do that again on the second shot. That's about it, there's no interesting hazards, just more marsh and tall grass. The green is long, narrow, and reasonably undulating, with a pot bunker short left. It's not as narrow as the eleventh, I suppose, but you have to play the hole so carefully to avoid the big number, and that's just no fun.

We were standing on the seventeenth tee for 10 minutes and I didn't get a picture. There wasn't much to see. This is from about 150 yards out.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole may not have a pond, but it's a stereotypical long par 4 finisher in every other way. It's a little bit wider than the previous hole, but the fairway bends and twists enough to make hitting it very challenging, especially with a driver. And if you don't hit driver, you're almost putting this green out of reach in two. It's not like you can miss the fairway either; that's an automatic lost ball. So this is essentially another short par 5. Safe long iron, safe long iron, pitch into the green. The green's not even particularly interesting or well defended. It's a really boring and needlessly difficult finishing hole.

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

The front nine at Glen Mills does quite a bit right, and it's generally pretty solid throughout (though I'm not a huge fan of the sixth). The back nine does a lot wrong. Several holes are just way too narrow and on the verge of completely unplayable. Presumably environmental regulations were to blame, because there's no way anyone reasonable would design holes like the eleventh and seventeenth unless they had no choice in the matter. But of course, they didn't have to put a golf course here. No one put a gun to Bobby Weed's head and forced him to route needlessly narrow golf holes through completely unsuitable terrain. Maybe less people would come to Glen Mills if it was only a 9-hole course, but the course would be more worth visiting. I don't think the bad holes on the back completely erases the good Glen Mills offers, but it does make this a course I wouldn't really be interested in playing again. Once is more than enough for me.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Demon Core

Brewed by: Rusty Rail Brewing Company, Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania

Description (from Untappd): "A big red ball of cinnamon fire! Expect just enough sweetness with a finish of cinnamon candy and whisky. Perfect for warming the heart of any beast."

Would I buy it again? It's the best nuclear accident–themed beer I've ever had. Of course, it's also the worst. Not too many beers named after accidentally critical plutonium out there. Your enjoyment of this beer really depends on how much you like cinnamon. If you love something like Fireball whiskey, you'll love this. If you haven't had Fireball since college because it's the bottom of the barrel in terms of liquor, then you won't like it so much. I can appreciate Demon Core, because it's well made, but it's not the beer for me.

Review: The Golf Course at Glen Mills (Part 1)

If you've got connections, you can hardly beat Philadelphia as a golf destination. Merion and Pine Valley may hog the glory and rightfully so, but Philadelphia has an enormously deep bench of excellent private golf courses. It's arguably behind only New York City in terms of sheer quality and quantity.

Of course, if you don't have connections, a golf trip to Philadelphia isn't quite so spectacular, but last October my brothers and I took our annual golf vacation there anyway. We did gain access to one particularly good private golf course, which we'll get to later, but for the most part it was public golf for us riff-raff. And yes, I am aware that I just reviewed Jeffersonville, a very good Philadelphia-area golf course, a couple months ago and if I'd planned these reviews better I would have thrown that review in along with these, but I didn't. Oh well.

We start off our Philadelphia swing at the Golf Course at Glen Mills (yes, that's their official name), a newer course west of the city, off in the outer suburbs. Designed in 2000 by Bobby Weed, Glen Mills certainly gets a decent amount of attention by the golf publications in their rankings of top public courses. It's fourth in Golfweek's listing of top public courses in Pennsylvania, for example. 

The first hole starts things off in a relatively gentle way. The fairway is one of the widest on the course and at 374 yards, it's certainly not a long opener. The tee shot plays uphill, with four bunkers lining the right side. However, while you can hit your drive pretty much anywhere, the green is protected by two bunkers left, so you're definitely better coming from the right, taking on the fairway bunkers. That will leave you with a nice downhill wedge or short iron from a good angle. The green is pretty undulating, as are most at Glen Mills, so don't expect too many easy putts.

The first hole.

The first green.

The second hole plays parallel to the first and is a much stronger test. At 431 yards, it's a fairly long hole, and the challenge off the tee is to carry a veritable sea of five large bunkers. Doing so will provide a solid angle and view of the green. There is plenty of space out to right (plus you'll see your ball land), but that will leave a slightly longer second and pretty much no view of the green, since it'll be blocked off by mounding and more bunkers. That said, the second shot is tough no matter what, since the green is slightly domed and falls away slightly at the back. You definitely need to be precise with your iron to hit this green in regulation.

The second hole.

Approaching the second green.

A slightly better view from the second fairway.

The second green.

The third hole is a mid-length par 4, just under 400 yards. It doglegs left, with two large bunkers in the corner. If you want the best angle into the green, you'll need to carry those bunkers, or at the very least get pretty close to them. Bailing out right is certainly safer, but it'll leave a longer second over a fairly deep bunker. The green is not especially large and tilted very significantly from back to front. This is one hole in particular you don't want to be putting from above the hole.

The third hole.

The third green.

The fourth hole is the longest hole at Glen Mills, weighing in at 570 yards. It's a wide and sprawling hole, the fairway weaving back and forth over the landscape around bunkers and native areas. The fairway bends left about 300 yards out, and you can run out of space if your drive isn't far enough left. The second shot is over a large native area with numerous scattered bunkers, and the challenge here of course is how much of that space do you feel comfortable carrying? The grass in that native area was short enough to find golf balls for our round, but obviously that may not always be the case. The green is pretty large and open in front, but there are four small bunkers left and right, and a decently steep falloff into brush and forest lurking just beyond.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

After four holes playing in a largely open space, the fifth moves into dense forest. A 180-yard par 3, that length is mitigated by the 30-foot descent down to the green. This is not an easy tee shot, and not just because of the forest encroaching in left and long. The green is decently sized, but it's shallower than you might expect, and a large bunker short means you need to fly your tee shot the whole way. No running shots on this hole. Precise club selection, successfully judging both the descent and any wind, is the name of the game on this hole.

The fifth hole.

The fifth green.

The fourth may be the longer hole, but the sixth feels every inch of its 545 yards. The hole is cut through dense forest, with the fairway partially obscured by trees. If you've got a big fade on command, you can hit driver, but 3 wood or even a long iron is probably the smarter play. Obviously, that makes this a three-shot hole, with the second shot complicated further by the steep left-to-right tilt of the fairway. You do get a flatter stance if you can find the very right side, however. The green is pretty undulating and guarded by three deep bunkers to the right; this means you'll want to favor the left side of the fairway on the second shot. I did not do that, and I had basically no chance of keeping my third shot (from about 60 yards away) anywhere near the hole.

The sixth hole.

Approaching the sixth green.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is a long, uphill par 3, which doesn't sound like a thrilling combination, but this is one of Glen Mills' best holes. The tee shot is obviously dicey, with the green hanging over a group of very deep bunkers right. The green is the star of the show; it's long and puts one in mind of waves on the ocean. Lots of humps crossing the green. That makes putting quite tricky. Your best play is to aim out left and fade in the tee shot, utilizing the hillside to bounce the ball toward the hole. It's a tough hole, but unlike some holes on the back (spoilers), it's completely doable and not overly punishing.

The seventh hole.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is the shortest par 4 at Glen Mills at 320 yards. It's an awkward hole, with a gigantic ridge dominating much of the right side. There's only a sliver of fairway left between the hill and forest. However, the fairway does widen beyond the hill. There is space, despite some looks to the contrary. A good fairway wood or long iron, favoring the right side, is likely the best play. Driver is certainly possible and some people may have the length to reach the green, but this isn't really a drivable par 4. The green is elevated and extremely shallow. You won't be running up a shot into it. Better to lay a bit back in the wide part of the fairway and leave an 80- to 100-yard wedge second.

The eighth hole.

Approaching the eighth green.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is fairly long from all the way back at 430 yards. The fairway starts well left and swings right for a couple hundred yards before turning back left near the green, avoiding a low spot filled with trees. You'll want to favor the right side; that will leave a better angle into the green. I think if you stray too far left on the tee shot you may also be blocked out by trees. Much like the previous hole, this green is wide and shallow, with a steep dropoff short left that you really want to avoid. The hole location we saw, all the way left, is one you want to be very careful off. Miss on the short time and you'll have a real hard time making par.

The ninth hole.

The ninth green.

That's it for this week, next week we'll take a look at the back nine.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Fall to Pieces

Brewed by: Social Project Brewing Company, Bentonville, Arkansas

Description (from Untappd): "This single hazy is loaded with all the Mosaic goodness (Mosaic incognito, and DH w/ Mosaic)! This decadent juicy treat is bursting with dank grapefruit. The midpalate and finish is incredibly juicy with notes of citrus. Incredibly crushable for its ABV."

Would I buy it again? I think I'm appreciating IPAs more and more, because I really enjoyed this beer. It's juicy and citrusy and pleasant to drink. And it's simple. It's a solid beer, and I'd consider buying it again if I ever come across it. Which I won't. A shame, but Arkansas is a long way away.