Biergartenopolis: A Visit to High Cotton Brewing's Tap Room

Been a minute since we visited the mystical land of Biergartenopolis, and this installment comes a bit late considering the event date, I know, but hey.

Busy.

Doing non blog things.

You can deal with it. You'll be fine.

In the short recent history of Memphis microbrews, my wife and I have grown fond of the standard offerings of one High Cotton Brewing. It started with a trip to The Growler for, well, a couple of growlers for a get together we were having at the house. Whilst looking for a couple of beers that would please a fairly broad audience of beer consumers at the house, one of the beers decided upon was High Cotton's ESB.

 The Growler, as seen in this post last year

High Cotton's ESB on the left, fresh from the Growler.

If you are unfamiliar with ESBs (Extra Special Bitters), here is the low down as given at High Cotton's page on the ESB, in case you didn't read the above:

Strong bitters can be seen as a higher-gravity version of best bitters. Since beer is sold by strength in the UK, these beers often have some alcohol flavor. In England today, “ESB” is a brand unique to Fullers; in America, the name has been co-opted to describe a malty, bitter, reddish, standard-strength English-type ale. Hopping can be English or a combination of English and American.

To put it in a little different frame of reference, ESBs remind me of what would happen if a Belgian ale and an IPA met and politely shook hands.

Maybe they liked what they saw and started making babies, I don't know.

Point being, they tend to be pretty tasty, finding a balance somewhere between the sweetness and brightness of a Belgian with some of the bitter of an IPA.

At any rate, one growler led to another and before long we saw the ESB and a few other High Cotton selections popping up at local restaurants (Central BBQ and RP Tracks, specifically, but there are oh so many more). A few visits to said restaurants and, before too long, we had both sampled the most of the available line of High Cotton's brews and grown rather fond of them.

During this time, there had been breadcrumbs dropped here and there about High Cotton opening their own tap room. As mentioned in a previous post on Wiseacre's tap room, the micro brew scene is fairly new to Memphis, having previously only been open directly to the public via brew restaurants, most (and pretty much only) notably Bosco's. Fast forward a few years and a law or two later, and we get some more local breweries serving the area and distributing to growler filling stations like The Growler and the Madison Growler and Bottle Shop, and tap rooms at the Growler and Wiseacre.

A little late to the game, but highly anticipated, High Cotton had their grand opening on June 14th, year of our lords two thousand and fourteen. And let's be honest, it really hasn't even been a year since the craft beer scene became "public" (check out this article over at the Memphis Flyer site for more deets on the whole thing), so it's not bad at all in the grand timeline of... you know... time.

Supported by live local music IN THE BREWERY, food trucks from Stick 'Em and Rock'n Dough, and a bunch of decent Memphis folks, I would say the opening was a success. The lady wife individual and I went down for a bit, sampled some wares, and had some pizza. Even met and chatted for about 20 minutes with a Canadian metal fan... FEMALE... that works for a well known locally based gigantor business who was in town visiting (and missing the Revocation show, but that's a whole 'nother thing) and her friend.

But surprisingly, saw no one we knew... weird...

At any rate, 'twas good times. If beer's your thing, go and check it out.

And until you do, check out the visual evidence.

The facade, pic from fuzzybrew.com because, for some reason, I didn't get one.

It's what they serve

The early crowd 

The excellent and friendly crew taking care of business 

Grain stores. Homeboy in the lower left is another friendly staff member working a second, smaller tap station

DA BREWERY! The equipment was largely taped/roped off, but impressed they even had the room open. 

 Rock'n Dough Pizza Co truck - when nice Australian ladies with charming accents sell you pizza, you BUY IT. Also, the pizza is awesome.

Cold IPA and ridiculously hot, fire baked pepperoni pizza. Winning combination.

And there you have it. Check out more pics before and during the opening over at ILoveMemphis Blog. Or better yet, if beer is your thing, get yoself down there yoself and grab a pint or a growler.

Do it for yourself. Do it for Memphis.

What?

Weird.

MOST HONORABLE UPDATE:

So, I'd be willing to be that if you're anything like me before we went down to the tap room, you would like to know where it actually is.

And that's fair.

Check 'em out at 598 Monroe in Memphis, just down the street from Kudzu's. The back door is about a stone's throw from the old 616, if'n ye hung out down there as a whippersnapper. Lots of good shows happened there back in the proverbial day.

And since I neglected to give you a location before, I'll even give you a map now. Thanks, Google!

Training Sesh plural (again) 6/17, 6/19: Time to rise and shine, y'all

It has happened.

Morning training has begun.

And by morning training, I mean

early

morning

training.

Like alarm goes off at 4:30AM, in the gym by 5:30AM kind of early morning training.

Like needs a little Thy Art Is Murder and two scoops of Magnum Serum to raise an eyebrow kind of early morning training. Whenever anything less than about 120BPM came on the ol' Xbox music this morning on the way the jamesnasium, it was unceremoniously skipped.

Yeah, yeah, I've posted it before. Watch it anyway.

All over reactionary drama aside, it's not that bad. I used to train early mornings exclusively about two years ago, but it definitely takes some getting used to.  First early morning back, thankfully, was during deload. I contemplated skipping deload lifts altogether and just taking a few days off, but after having already taken the weekend off and some previous contemplation on the matter, I decided to go ahead and take the first early morning session as a deload to play with some stuffs and keep the hips working.

Here is what occurred in the first of probably many morning seshes:

• Warm up - 10min
• Squat - 2x5xbar, 5x145lbs, 5x195lbs, 5x235lbs
• Deathlift of the semi sumo variety - 5x135lbs, 5x185lbs, 4x5x225lbs
• Band pull aparts - 4x15 w/EliteFTS moderate Onyx band
• Reverse hyper, heels in/toes out - 3x10x95lbs
• JM press - 3x10xbar

Aside from having the weakness of the morning, not a bad sesh overall. Squats felt way heavier than they were, but didn't look awful. As you will see in the videos for the next sesh, still working on the hips- need to open just a little more to consistently hit that parallel.

Belly.

At any rate, as mentioned in the last sesh report, I decided to change up deathlifts just a little, but it may make a big difference. In a nutshell, decided to play with emulating a set up by ol' Ed Coan, via a video from about 20 years ago.

As a refresher of the awesomeness:

Someone brought up the technique last week at some point- what looks like a more narrow sumo. I have been enjoying the sumo lately, but I was formerly a conventional puller, and while I have been reasonably happy with my sumo progress overall lately, there is still room for improvement.

Is this that one weird trick that makes personal trainers and/or doctors hate him? That one weird trick to losing stubborn belly fat?

Hint: No. No, it's not.

It's a slightly alternative method of deadlifting, demonstrated above by one of the best powerlifters in history.

I am also intrigued by it as, though I may have three inches of height on him, much like the Coanator (I just made that up, but you can have it) I have short little legs. Despite my shorter arms and longer trunk, his makes sumo a fairly logical choice but there is always room for tweaking.

Not that kind of tweaking.

At first blush, I like it. Need to see what it is like under working weights, and I need to get my hips set back a little better to get my shoulders more in line with the bar and figure out the drive a little better. Seems that the drive through the legs should be less "spreading the floor" and more driving through the heels, closer to a conventional pull.

You'll have to forgive the hips on that one, apparently they were not awake and my right flexor was causing me some pain.

Will work on it more, but the stance seems to have some of the benefits of sumo while maintaining similar drive to a conventional pull. I have always been a stronger conventional puller than sumo puller, but I like some of the benefits of sumo- chiefly that it does not seem to tax the back as much as conventional and there is a shorter range of motion.

More updates as they come as I try it next time with working weights.

Let us now flash forward two days to the next morning sesh, on Thursday, 6/19. 4:30AM alarm, throw stuffs in bags, and on to business.

Get it?

Here is what occurred:

• Active warm up - about 10min
• Squat - 5xbar, 5x145lbs, 5x195lbs, 5x235lbs, 5x285lbs, 5x325lbs
• Lat pulldown, wide grip straight fat bar w/pause - 3x8x110lbs
• Leg press, wide/low stance - 10x315, 405, 495, 585, 675
• Cable crunch - 4x10x120lbs

So while squatting at 5:45AM or so is not my favorite thing in the whole world, it wasn't too bad. Definitely felt weaker than normal but I got my prescribed reps. But no more. Will try for more on the three day coming up.

Form felt reasonably good. Don't even mention the hips. They need to open up to get down a hair more. I know this. Also looks like I might be able to get my feet a tetch wider if my hips can tolerate it.

• Set of five at 285lbs:

• Set of five at 325lbs:

• Full set of Fantomas in Switzerland:

You get the picture.

Pretty good volume on the accessory work, higher poundage than I have gone on the ol' leg press in quite some time, if that means anything. This early in the morning, I think it means something.

Also- when you are unloading your squat bar, you probably don't want to empty one side and leave more than a plate on the other side. It makes the bar tip over and fall off the rack in slow motion.

I was there. It happened to me.

Sorry about that, David.

Yay.

Yay for morning training.

Yay for Magnum Serum (thanks again to Al at CaptainJacked.com) before morning training.

And yay for you.

I'll keep trucking on as normal and hit the bench and deathlift next sesh this weekend and see how the recovery goes with morning training, not sure at this point if more warm up time is going to be required or not. I don't want to go to a three day split just yet, but I will if I need to.

Oh, and yay for Revocation, who is coming to town next week. Good times shall be had.

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh (plural) 6/10 and 6/12: Squats and bench and deads

Heading into the last couple of seshes before deload has seen some busy work time leading to later gym times. More and more I am contemplating starting to do morning training.

Ah, balance in life. That mythical beast.

At any rate, here are some occurrences:

6/10 - Squat day, 5/3/1

• Warm up, stretch - about 10min
• Squat - 5xbar, 5x145lbs, 5x195lbs, 5x235lbs, 5x280lbs, 3x315lbs, 3x355lbs
• Wide stance good mornings - 3x10x155lbs
• Band pull aparts - 4x15 w/ EliteFTS red mini Pro Band
• Band hip abduction - 3x20 w/ doubled over red band

As planned, went for a couple of extra on the last working set, kept it to just a pair of extra reps. I am trying to lock form in a little better on squats and still working on parallel. One of the things that ol' Jim Wendler states in 5/3/1 (and I am sure other trainers and lifters have) is that he defines failure in a set as breakdown in form, not a true mechanical failure. I have hit this weight before for more reps in the past, but with my personal concern with my squat, I felt like three was the cut off on this set. Reinforcement of good movement patterns and all that.

Again, video of the last three working sets (forgive my apparently drunk videographer on the first set):

• 5x280lbs:

Went ahead and just set up a box and plate for the next few sets.

• 3x315lbs:

• 3x355lbs:

It was hard to tell from the first video, but second and last working set appear to be a hair high, definitely not a convincing parallel if they were parallel. 

Speaking of, there is this website: Depth Privilege: End Squat Shaming

I made lols with my face. 

AND speaking of making lols with my face, I apparently accidentally tapped the camera "active" before actually being ready for a squat. Normally, this would just get deleted BUT in this instance, I captured David doing some hard coaching at the NBS.

In case you are having a hard time making out what happened, that is Bigfoot, I mean David, owner of NBS, air guitaring while he is waiting on a client to wrap up their set of planks or similar.

Boom.

and then there was Mastodon.

6/12 - bench and deathlift, again 5/3/1 day.

Occurrence:

• Warm up/stretch - 10min
• Bench - 2x5xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x115lbs, 5x140lbs, 3x160lbs, 5x180lbs
• Deathlift - 5x135lbs, 5x185lbs, 5x225lbs, 5x275lbs, 3x315lbs, 5x350lbs, 2x350lbs

And that's about it. Another day of getting out of work late and hitting the gym late. In and out.

The bench reps all felt pretty good, really. A little bit touch and go, but all good nonetheless.

The deadlifts, however, felt like ass. Going back and watching video, I think my set up was inconsistent from set to set and I was getting a little out of position, and I was not getting slack out of the bar before pulling. Technique is paramount in sumo deathlifts, and mine was not there.

Last set vid, you can tell I was unhappy with it.

Somehow.

Coming up, though, some deload. The other day someone brought up something I want to give a go- apparently the ol' Ed Coan used to deadlift with something of a narrow sumo, somewhere between conventional and a "standard" sumo. I did a little research, and found this video.

I warn you, it is pretty awesome.

Merica.

I realize he's not a tall man, but it does appear that his legs are inside of where we normally think of a sumo stance set up to be.

I'll play with it next time and see what happens.

That is also what she said.

We'll also discuss the joy that is early morning training.

And metal? Yes. Good ol' rock and roll metal. Stuff. And things.

Dave- if you're reading, add that one to the playlist. Boom.

Go forth and destroy.

Training Sesh X3 - 6/2, 6/4, 6/8: bench and deathlift and squat and bench and deathlift and Captain Jacked

It's been a minute, eh? I have been a busy feller of late with work, etc, so get set for a long one.

That's what he said.

Despite being a busy, busy bee I HAVE manged to get into the jamesnasium on at least a semiregular basis, still hitting my desired 3x minimum with some random band work on off days- mostly sets of pull aparts with some rehab/PT movements thrown in for good measure.

Monday and Wednesday were short days, too much talky not enough lifty.

Here's what occurred de la Monday:

• Stretch, warm up - 5 min
• Bench - 5xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x135lbs, 10x155lbs
• Deathlift de la Sumo - 5x135lbs, 5x225lbs, 5x245lbs, 5x275lbs, 10x315lbs
• OHP, strict - 10xbar, 3x5x95lbs, 5x115lbs

Video of the last deathlift set-

Yay for me.

I actually screwed up the programming/prescribed weight my last set of bench- should have been 160lbs, did 155lbs by mistake. Got ten on a five day. Yay.

Deathlifts were good as well, ten on a prescribed five as well. It was an odd set- the first few reps felt kind of rough, then ended up finding stride and getting going. Didn't look rough, just felt that way I guess.

Not bad.

Did a little military press after, which were subpar, but as expected. Talked with Jason, one of the guys up at the gym that also happens to do physical therapy and chiro work, about my whole back/shoulder deal. He agreed that yes, there is definitely dysfunction there (not a surprise, right?), that my previous rehab was good, just needed to keep it going regularly. I need to get up and see him one of the Saturday he is up there and get his input/work done in an official capacity- apparently missed him this past Saturday.

Next, Wednesday's skeewatts.

Absolute poo.

I was getting warmed up, etc, and just could not get my hips and back loosened up. What occurred, you may ask? Well I will tell you:

• Warm up/stretch/mobility - about 15min
• Squat - 2x5xbar with pauses, 3x145lbs, 3x195lbs, 3x235lbs, 3x260lbs, 3x300lbs, 3x335lbs
• More squat - 5x5x205lbs
• Leg press - 3x10x495lbs 

Along about that set of 260lbs, I still wasn't feeling my hips opening up enough, so I had Austin do me.

A video of my depth. Meh. Poo. Both it and the set at 335 were high, the 335 worse. Come on, dude.

3x300lbs -

3x335lbs-

About an inch or two high on the last set, fo shizzle. I could feel the high hip, pissed me off and I decided not to push that last set past the prescribed three. Did a 5x5 at around 50%, paused and with a little active stretch at the bottom, then leg pressed it and called it a day.

That's about all there is to say about that.

Fast forward a few days (during which I actually got to spend some decent time with my lovely family), and we bench and deadlift again, this time for threes. Yeah, this is a repeat of a sesh last week, but it's all good, doggie dog. You ain't gotsta worry none.

I went into this one with the idea that I was going to get a bit more than the last time I did it, and I was going to get all my scheduled accessory work in, gosh dern it.

Here's what occurred:

• Stretch/warm up/traction - 15min
• Bench - 5xbar, 3x95lbs, 3x115lbs, 3x135lbs, 3x155lbs, 8x170lbs
• Sumo deathlift - 5x135lbs, 5x185lbs, 5x225lbs, 3x265lbs, 3x300lbs, 7x335lbs
• Back to bench - 3x12x135lbs
• Tbar row, paused, 3x8x55lbs
• Revers hypers, heels in toes out - 3x10x95lbs
• Shoulder series - x2 w/EliteFTS moderate Onyx Band

So still not super exciting (it'll be a while so cool your jets, hoser) but everything was feeling pretty good overall. Bench was a little loose - I know because I hit the safety arm on the right side twice in that last working set - but overall felt good, probably one of the better "feeling" bench sessions since starting rehab back in earnest on it.

Deathlifts were good overall, mechanically still not anywhere near perfect but they felt plenty fast, lumbar felt like it stayed in pretty good position, etc, AND I achieved my goal of pulling one more rep than last time I did this training sesh. Maybe could have even squeaked out one more but my right pinky was catching the inside of my knee and started slowly opening my grip up and I am apparently too stubborn now to reset a rep set of deathlifts.

Also, watching the video now I have no idea what the hip reset is all about, but that should probably kept minimal to nonexistent. Need to work a little more on getting that lumbar arched and locked out. Read through some of the suggested queues, etc. in EliteFTS's recently posted FREE deadlift manual that I found interesting and want to give a shot next deathlift sesh. And as always - hips, hips, hips.

By the way, em effers, if you didn't catch that, the manual is FLIPPING FREE. FREE, damn it. That's part of what makes EliteFTS (let's go ahead and say it) the best company in powerlifting. Good products, good people, and a great business philosophy.

DEW IT.

Speaking of good stuff from good companies, recently got in a new preworkout from Al McDonough at captainjacked.com. Note that the website is not fully up and running yet, but if ye are to visit that link and submit your email address, you will get on the mailing list for launch, etc. Al hasn't been running Captain Jacked for long, but he has been around in the business for a minute and has already garnered a handful of very good lifters and figure/bodybuilding athletes (and just good people) in the Captain Jacked family, and the company is built on a lot of the same principles that make companies like EliteFTS and NBS Fitness great - they all offer good products and service, stand behind it, and support good people and good causes.

I had seen CaptainJacked.com being touted by various powerlifters I follow on the ol' FaceSpace, started following Al's posts, and decided to send him a message enquiring on some of his products after running into the aforementioned "mailing list only" version of his site. What transpired was some good conversation on the products and life in general, a little motivation, and finally, an order.

I am sad to say that Magnum Nutraceuticals, the product line offered by Captain Jacked, currently only has vanilla and chocolate flavored proteins, I have somehow become a primadonna with protein flavors, having gotten pretty well burnt out on straight chocolate and never really having trusted anyone's vanilla.

We went back and forth a little on preworkouts and settled on Magnum's Serum, for which I placed an order along with the pictured lovely hat. A Florida powerlifting meet and a few days later I had my product in hand (Al is currently covering shipping on his products, and it was only about two days from shipping notice to a box on my doorstep). Even had a small order mix up, which Al took care of promptly. Good customer service is important, too, eh.

For contrast, I ordered some protein from a company who shall not be named (but it rhymes with True Nutrition Dot Com), and despite ordering a standard offering, will take approximately a week to get to me. Ordered last Saturday, supposed to be on my doorstep this Saturday.

Wah wah wah waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

And of course, while I was writing this blog post up, Elite released this article, a big part of which discusses supporting those that support the sport. Boom.

Not to mention that Al has a sweet beard.

And it's a curly beard, not a straight beard. Those of you amongst our ranks know of what I speak.

CURLY BEARDS UNITE!

So how is the product, you may ask? I got the fruit punch flavor, and according to directions, you are supposed to take too scoops on an empty stomach. First time through, I did not pay attention to directions (I am a man, after all. It's science.) and took a couple scoops of whey in milk beforehand, but it still seemed to work pretty well- mixed well, tasted decent enough (still a little of that "back of the tongue bite" one can expect from a lot of preworkouts, BCAAs, etc), and had more of a sustained energy effect. As I overheard recently, "do you want a stimulant effect or an endurance effect?" The Serum was a little of both, upped energy but without jitters and no crash, lasted for an hour or so. Took it again on an empty stomach yesterday before squatting, and it seemed to punch a little harder (more of a hyped/stimulant effect) which lasted for about the same length of time, maybe a little more short lived.

Overall approved, and I would like to try some of their other products  - Rocket Science and Opus come to mind immediately. If Magnum expands their flavor selection a bit, I would be interested in their protein as well. I have heard good things about it, but as I said, flavors matter to me when there are a plethora of options out there. Hell, I'd even be tempted to try strawberry.

So there you have it. Overall decent training. Good products. Good people. Good times.

I might even have last night's squat session written up before next week.

Might.

Go forth and destroy.

Oh, and metal.

Training Sesh 5/30: Getting on track, metal playlists, protein, and new Godlfesh

Alrighty, so I got my shizzle (mah nizzle) together together and got my programming straightened out for this sesh. Like I said, I won't lay it all out for you- go buy the damn book- but I think I have it together now.

Here's what occurred:

• Warm up, stretch - appx 10min
• Squat - 2x5xbar (Texas Squat Bar), 5x145lbs, 5x235lbs, 5x285lbs, 7x315lbs
• Lat pulldown, wide fat handle - 3x10x110lbs
• Leg press, wide/low - 3x10x405lbs
• Good mornings, EliteFTS SSB to pins - 3x10x132lbs (bar + 50lbs)
• Cable crunch - 3x10x120lbs

Decided to push the last working set on this one for a few extra reps, back started getting fatigued so I shut it down at seven. Need to keep working on the ol' back as I know I should have been good for another rep or two in that set.

No worries, more back work to do, more work to do in general.

That's why we call it training.

And don't cry, I'll get video next time. Sorry, pookies.

I did try to cycle the work a little faster this go round so as to try to decrease my session time, eventually (sooner than later) I need to work conditioning in. Ten or fifteen minutes of HIIT should be doable.

And in the ongoing music skirmishing about the gym, David (owner of the gym) put on a playlist while we all trained for the night, the game being that with every new song David would check if I liked the songs or not.

David contends that I only listen to death metal, I contend that Nickelback and Trivium are crap.

While I must say that not all the songs were crap (there was some Crowbar and Lamb of God in there), many songs did get the thumbs down from yours truly. It was hard for me to tell if one of the songs was Trivium or Avenged Sevenfold, but then I realized that there wasn't an overabundance of noodly solos, so it had to be... well, it was Trivium.

Sigh.

It's okay, he's young. He's learning. He just better be glad he's strong(er) and bearded.

Randomly, this has been on TV a bit lately and I caught this pic/link on the sidebar of the book face or myfitnesspal, one of the two. The add campaign is kinda brilliant, even if the product is a bit lackluster and more expensive than a scoop of ON gold standard whey...

A lot of companies jumping the protein band wagon, which is awesome, but I think they come from a bit of a sheltered or siloed perspective and trying to push their already existing product, or a very slightly changed version of it, for lackluster results. They are trying to fit into the new(ish) "fad" of high protein diets, but they aren't taking into account that they're really selling is just a

Lunchable

(tee em)

and subbing the crackers for a small handful of almonds.

Taco Bell seemed to be on the right track if they would ever actually release their "Power Protein" menu items to the general public. Or they may have. It's Taco Bell. I try not to keep up with them too much.

I'd pay five bucks for a burrito. Not so much for a Lunchable (tee em).

And at last, we have a new track from Godflesh.

Fucking Godflesh, god damn it.

It has been 13 years since we last got new material from one of the original propagators of lovely electronic nihilistic doom and gloom but at last, we have been graced with new material.

This track popped up on soundcloud last week (?). Behold, and cower in your own insignificance.

If you are really into it, Godflesh released their new EP, Decline and Fall, this morning on bandcamp.com. I don't want to sound biased or anything, but I listened to it on the way into work and it's freaking brilliant. For a comparative basis, it seems to fall somewhere in between Us and Them and Pure, then dialed up a bit. The years have been good to Godflesh, and one of my chief complaints of early Godflesh - production quality - has been rectified in spades, with more consistent low end. Makes me wish for a bigger sounds system with subs in the ol' Crosstrek. The title track crushes all.

Do it. DO IT.

Go forth and destroy.