Sunday Musings and the Spanish GP

 

It's a race day!  My favorite day of the week, but before we get to that a few other things to write about.  Firstly coffee!  Today I am using beans from a bookstore, well kinda.  Iconic Houston book store, Murder by the Book purchased another iconic place, Houston's House of Beans which is next door.  House of Beans was probably Houston's first non chain coffee shop. They have been roasting and selling beans since 1973!  When the owners wanted to sell, their next door neighbors stepped up because what's better than a book and coffee.   Recently when I went in to the book store, I saw this specific blend, Brew-Dunnit and had to pick it up.  Mystery themed bag of beans, why not!  Made a pour over this morning, and this is a slightly darker roast than I normally brew.  But it's full of dark dried fruits, raisins, dark chocolate, cinnamon.  Some acidity, some sweetness.  Well balanced for a more darker roast.  Very enjoyable.

I have two recommendations today, the first is the book in the picture that I picked up during my visit to Murder by the book.  A fantastically fun thriller.  Imagine John Wick going to an AA type group for reformed assassins, and then having folks go after him, but he can't kill.  That's the book.  And it's a ton of fun, so highly recommend.

My second recommendation is a new documentary on Hulu, Brats.  The story of the 80's group of actors the Brat Pack.  Directed by brat pack member Andrew McCarthy it shows the impact that one single story and one label had on this group.  Some never got out from under being called brats and being labeled as not being serious actors.  As a child of the 80's this was really interesting and full of nostalgia.  Andrew did an outstanding job of directing and pulling in as many of the members and near members as he could.  Well done and worth a watch for sure.

Formula 1

This week the paddock went to Spain, specifically Barcelona for the Spanish GP.  The weekend started off well for McLaren as Norris captured pole position ahead of Verstappen.  Although it wasn’t a perfect day for the papaya team as Piastri was at P10.  But it still set the team up well for the race.  Unfortunately it was not a great start as Lando gets pushed to third with Russell and Verstappen crowding him out and the Mercedes driver jumping to first, Verstappen staying in second.  By lap 3 Max had passed Russell and moved into P1.  This stayed fairly consistent for the next handful of laps, Norris, stayed very close to Russell, with Verstappen able to open up a couple of seconds gap.

Around lap 16 drivers started to pit around lap 16.  At lap 18 Verstappen pitted allowing Norris to get back in P1.  The McLaren drivers waited as long as possible to pit, a very different strategy than other drivers.  Piastri ended up pitting at lap 22.  Went in at P4, went out at P11.

Lando pitted at Lap 23, in P1, good pit at 2.4 seconds came out at P6 just behind Sainz.

Lando doing a good job of climbing back up, and moved into P4 as of lap 27.  Piastri back in the points at P10.

Lando made an outstanding pass of Hamilton to get into P2, but Verstappen had opened up quite a gap, at this point it comes up to pitting strategy and tire management.

Based on lap times, it is obvious that the McLaren has pace as it consistently gains on Verstappen chipping away at the lead.  

Verstappen took his second pit stop at Lap 45, great pit stop at 2.8 seconds, switched to the soft tires that will need to last 21 laps.  The pit allowed Norris to move into P1.

Piastri takes his second pit at Lap 47, out at P8, with a new set of Soft tires.  Lando pitted at lap 48, he came in at P1. Unfortunately they had what looked like a slow pit stop at 3.6s, but he still was out at P2 ahead of Russell and Hamilton.   Gap to Verstappen is 8 seconds with less than 20 laps left.  Lando may have enough time to track down the Red Bull driver as he initially gained 1.5 seconds in the first couple of laps after the pit.

Over time however, the race balanced out and Norris wasn’t making as big of strides as he once was, only getting within a coupe of seconds of Verstappen, but couldn’t close the gap more than that even though he was constantly getting fastest lap.  I wouldn't say the race was boring, but there was a surprising lack of back and forth outside of around the pits.  Everyone finished the race and there wasn't a lot of thrilling over takes which I didn't expect.  

For the finish Verstappen gets P1, Norris gets P2, Hamilton, for the first time this year gets a podium finishing in P3.

The other Mclaren driver finished in P7.  So another race with double points, should help in constructors especially now that  Norris is now P2 in drivers championship.

So for the season the drivers championship looks like: Verstappen 219; Norris 150; LeClerc 148; Sainz 116.

Nice to see Lando for the first time in his career in second place in drivers championship.

Constructors Championship: Red Bull 330; Ferrari 270; McLaren 237; Mercedes 151

McLaren keeps slowly gaining on Ferrari and Red Bull, Its going to be a fun second half of the season.

Book Review: Southern Spirits

While I enjoy writing about spirits, beer, and wine, and of course I rather enjoy imbibing in them as well, what I truly love, is educating myself on those things.  I have a voracious appetite for new books on booze, cocktails, and beer and every time I go to a book store, the first section I head to is the food and spirits.  A couple of weeks ago, in visiting the wonderful Brazos bookstore downtown I ran across this book: Southern Spirits by Robert Moss.  Now here's a book that combines drinks and its role in southern culture, sounds like a book right up my alley.  I must say I was not disappointed, this is truly a tremendous book, capturing almost everything you could ask for in a book about about history, the south, and spirits.  The book reads as part history book, part spirits history, travel guide, and cocktail recipe book.  Its extremely educational as well as book that keeps your attention, and doesn't drag on.  I found it to be a relatively easy read, and not overly dense.  As someone with a large collection of books on spirits, beer, and wine, there was still quite a bit I found to be educational so I think this one is a good pick up for folks with all different levels of knowledge.
The book follows an easy linear pattern, starting off with the founding of the new world, and the first alcoholic beverages made on this land.  Each chapter starts off with a recipe based on a spirit that is the focus of said chapter.  For instance the 2nd chapter that focus on the early 18th century starts off with a recipe for Rum Punch which leads into an in depth discussion of Rum's place in the new world. A later chapter concerned with the golden age of the southern cocktail starts off with a recipe for the classic Sazerac.  All the recipes are great, some are easier to make than others, some are single servings, while others (the aforementioned Rum Punch is one example) are for larger groups of people, some of these cocktails are fairly standard fair familiar to most consumers of craft cocktails, but there are some that stand out or at the very least unfamiliar to me. Another thing I enjoy that this book does is it highlights new produces of spirits.  For example in a brandy drink they call out Carriage house brandy which is out of North Carolina.
The book wonderfully captures the rich history of drinks in the south isolating each spirit to a specific time frame.  Brandy, Madeira, Whiskey, Rum, beer all have a very specific place in southern history.  Yes of course there is some overlap, but I believe the premise still holds, and this book does an exceptional job of highlighting that.  Southern Spirits also pulls no punches in debunking well spread falsehoods on the birth of your favorite cocktails.  From drinks like the aforementioned sazerac to the mint julep, Mr. Ross goes in depth on the history of how these drinks came to be, which is one of the strengths of this book.
If I had to highlight a weakness of this book it would be that it finishes too soon. While this book does an outstanding job of highlighting where southern spirits have been, I think it could have done a little more to highlight the resurgence and where southern spirits is going.  While I understand this isn't the primary purpose of the book, I think its a small miss in an otherwise amazing book.
This is a must add for anyone that enjoys southern culture, spirits, or like me, both.