Dr Homebrew & Prison Shakespeare

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

So the other nights, Izzy had to watch an Italian movie for her class (almost graduated) and she had a list to choose from… but only 2-3 were on Netflix, so we chose a movie called “Caesar Must Die” which was about Italian prisoners who put on a performance of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” during their incarceration. Now, this was billed as a documentary… but the details are a little shady as… if you’re watching it, the movie looks like it’s a legit movie with real actors, lighting, camera angles, etc. Basically, my understanding from checking the internet is… the movie is staged, scripted & shot like a film… but the majority of the actors were real prisoners in an Italian maximum security prison (with cells bigger than my apartment, but I digress) so it’s… kind of a documentary, but not really? Anyway, the movie is only about 72 minutes long, so it’s a good, quick one… and it’s actually very interesting. It’s interesting how these very proud Italian men take to this story of their Roman heritage, as told by one of the great English writers, and the parallels in that story with what happened to some of them… and how some of the decisions made in both realms are come to… and overall, it’s just really well acted & I really enjoyed it. I highly recommend checking it out if this sounds at all interesting… and trust me, it sounds a thousand times better than other Italian movies that we had to choose from.

  

Sunday night, Izzy & I watched a movie that I had never seen before… and being a fan of good horror movies, Izzy couldn’t believe it. The movie was 1979 horror classic “The Amityville Horror” starring James Brolin (Mr. Streisand) & Margot Kidder (not the 2005 remake starring Ryan Reynolds or the slew of other movies that threw ‘Amityville’ in the title to get watched accidentally). It’s the classic tale of a young family (husband, wife, 2.3 children) who move into a house where a year earlier, there was a gruesome murder where a young man killed his parents & four young siblings in a fit of rage. Well, apparently that greatly affected the resell value, so this young family moves in on a bargain… and soon find out (I think it’s over the course of the first three weeks they’re in the house) that the house is A) Haunted; B) Bloodthirsty; and C) Possibly a gateway to Hell. This movie was… what I found out by watching… basically the original that a LOT of movies borrowed a LOT from in regards to not only getting jump scares & establishing tone… but one of my favorite horror movies of all time “The Shining” came out a year later… and it’s pretty f**king similar… like, maybe Kubrick should’ve taken Take #4 instead of #37 on some of the scenes and released this a little earlier so he wasn’t accused or ripping this movie off by critics of the day. Regardless, the movie was pretty impressive… and if you haven’t seen this movie, you’ve probably seen some of the iconic images already in other things like the bleeding walls (referenced in “Ghostbusters”), father figure going crazy with an axe (“Shining”), flies signaling the presence of evil (“Poltergeist” & many others) or all of the above (Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” #2 I believe). I highly recommend checking it out. Great flick… no wonder everybody wants to try to steal its thunder.

 

Also Sunday night, Izzy invited me to an event that she was helping out at for the Safe House for the Performing Arts in the Mid-Market area of downtown (corner of Crack & Cocaine?). Basically it’s a community group that rents space where available for various classes & projects that otherwise couldn’t be done in the area due to… well, ridiculous real estate costs. There were some great snacks, art being displayed, opportunities for writing & photography classes, and there were even some demonstrations by virtual artists & flamenco dancers… which I personally LOVE ever since my visit to Barcelona back in the day. Anyway, great event, great cause, here are some pictures…

 

Tuesday night, I also had the special opportunity to be part of the Brewing Network’s Dr. Homebrew podcast. Through the guild, the producers were looking to get a few in-house guests & I volunteered… that’s really about it… nothing like “Oh, we heard that you kicked ass at the Napa comp…” or anything like that. Then again, half of being successful is being there, right? Anyway, the podcast is actually done at The Hop Grenade Taproom in Concord, about 45 minutes away without traffic… but this was brought to my attention while at work… when Rush Hour was about to start the day of the show… so about a two hour drive later, I was in Concord… and checking out the taproom while I waited to pop my podcast guest cherry. First & foremost, the taproom is pretty legit. They have about 24 taps with a wide variety of local and national brews on tap so you can try a little bit of everything. There’s also a bottle room where they have even more to choose from… basically just about anything that you could be looking for in a beer, can probably be found there… or at least something similar. Here are some pictures…

 

 Beer Lacing - I see the United States in this one...

 

Then it was my time to set the internet on fire with my sexy voice… so the producer led me to their soundstage and I met the stars of the show (JP, Lee & Brian) and they gave me a quick run-through of the show and how to properly make sweet love to the microphone, etc. The concept of the Dr Homebrew podcast is there’s the MC named JP who kinda leads the show & operates the equipment… and then Lee & Brian are two master BJCP judges who break down styles of beers sent in by homebrewers from all over the world… and in my case, who are willing to bring them in personally… and then they’ll break down how their beer would be scored by the BJCP standards, whether it’s a good/great beer, and offer a few tips to make it better the next time around so that you can take your brewing to the next level. Of course, along the way, they also make a few jokes, have a few laughs & just have a good time talking about beer with their bros (and I assume broads from time to time). I had only heard about it a few days prior, but the two episodes that I listened to beforehand where pretty helpful, so I was obviously intrigued.

 

Anyway, they invited me in… and I brought my offering… my newly bottled Raptor Red!!! The information they were about to provide would be very useful as… well, because it was newly bottled, I hadn’t really tasted the finished product yet. It hasn't been posted yet, but you can listen to the entire episode HERE!!! If you’d like… and it’s free of charge. I think it'll be Episode #44 or #45. Basically they did a quick intro, and then we poured a sample for each of us… and then they break down everything from the appearance (absolutely gorgeous, clear red ale if I say so myself), malt & hop characteristics, head retention, possibly brewing errors, tastes that seem out of place for the style, all of that. Granted, we weren’t making this beer to the specific styles that’s in the BJCP guidelines… as we were really making a beer that we’d love… but there were definitely some flaws in the beer as we were tasting it… and offered me some great pointers on how to make the next batch better that I’ll definitely try. I also got to stick around, crack some wise, throw in some questions that I thought the listeners might want to know (not just myself) & also got to try this wonderful imperial stout that a gentleman named Garrett sent in from Minnesota and… damn… it was just fantastic. Kudos to Garrett! Their scoring of his beer made me feel a LOT better about my low score… but it was definitely a great time! Hopefully they’ll invite me to come back when our Barrel Aged Imperial Stout is ready… or maybe whatever we make next. That’s right, I’m down for being a repeat guest… and with proper planning I can make it out to Concord a little easier too. Thanks for having me, guys!!!

 

Aside from that, it’s been a pretty relaxing weekend… still doing the smoothie thing. Obviously I’m not living exclusively on smoothies… but basically just replacing Mountain Dew with smoothies… and so far it’s been going great. I’ll keep you posted, but so far I’m recommending it. Fresh fruits & vegetables instead of high fructose corn syrup and… extreme? Not really sure what’s in Mountain Dew but I assume crack-cocaine has similar qualities. Anyway, have a great weekend everybody!!!

Erdbeer Hefeweizen Machen

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Last week, Izzy & I watched a movie recommend by Filly called “Horns” starring Daniel Radcliffe (yes, “Harry Potter”) and a decent ensemble cast including David Morse, James Remar, Kathleen Quinlan, Heather Graham & Juno Temple. Basically the movie is about a young man named Ig Perrish (Radcliffe… and seriously, who the f**k names their child Ig? Even if short for Ignacious? Iggy? Whatever…) whose girlfriend has died brutally & mysteriously… and he’s the chief suspect… but is found Not Guilty. Shortly after, he starts… growing these goat-like HORNS out of his forehead… and starts to get some superhuman powers… so he starts to look into who REALLY killed his girlfriend… but he may not like what he finds out. Have you ever wanted to see a foul-mouthed alcoholic Harry Potter? Well, this is the movie for you. I’m going to warn you… it’s rated R… and deals with some pretty delicate subject matter like murder & rape among the top ones… but I highly recommend this movie. There are some parts of the movie that slip into the “indie” moments & drag on, or the pacing is just off, or there are just some “what the f**k? Nobody would ever do that” moments… but overall, director Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes” remake, “Mirrors” & “Piranha 3D”) keeps you guessing & does a really good job of building tension & dealing with perceptions of the characters and stuff so… you genuinely feel intrigued in the story. It’s a tough thing to do on a fairly low budget horror flick when most nowadays are just slasher gore porn… but yeah, I’d say check this movie out. It’s on Netflix. Foul-mouther alcoholic Harry Potter… I’ll say it again. David Morse is a badass character actor too… he should be in even MORE stuff.

 

Monday night, we watched an episode of “The Rockford Files” and saw that legendary actor Martin Kove was in this particular episode (Reese from the “Karate Kid” movies), and we looked through his IMDb page to see if he had ever been in a romantic comedy… as many people have done, I’m sure. You know, like I asked about Michael Biehn back in the early, early days of this blog. Answer: Not really… from what I can tell… but he’s been in nearly 200 movies and TV shows… though the last you’ve probably seen is 1994’s “Wyatt Earp” and even then it’s kind of a bit role. Seriously… check it out… what can I say? I like character actors… and Sven Ole Thorsen is still a titan among them in my opinion…

 

However, we then read about a movie that he WAS in… from 1977 called “White Buffalo” that stars Charles Bronson and… well, here’s the IMDb description of the movie:

“In this strange western version of JAWS, Wild Bill Hickok hunts a white buffalo he has seen in a dream. Hickok moves through a variety of uniquely authentic western locations - dim, filthy, makeshift taverns; freezing, slaughterhouse-like frontier towns and beautifully desolate high country - before improbably teaming up with a young Indian named Crazy Horse to pursue the creature.”

 

Now, along with this amazing poster, do you see why we HAD to watch it? I thought so… and yes… Wild Bill Hickok is played by the great Charles Bronson… then 56 years old… and yes, the real Wild Bill died at the age of 39… so it’s basically like having John Wayne play Genghis Khan… but that would never hap… oh yeah. Aside from that, there’s a decent cast featuring 44-year old Will Sampson (“Poltergeist”) as the “young Indian named Crazy Horse”, Jack Warden, Slim Pickens & even a 44-year old Kim Novak (“Vertigo”) as the love interest. Also, let’s not forget the titular character of the movie… the ferocious White Buffalo!!! Though being in 1977… it’s basically what kinda looks like a Muppet reject with a built in fog machine… but still, I highly recommend that you check out this movie. It’s just so… weird. Yes, the plot is a little thrown-together like a LOT of movies that were trying to be JAWS during the time… and the special effects are almost hilarious in this day & age… but yeah, it’s still good fun… the acting isn’t horrible… and there are even a few random enjoyable scenes like Wild Bill awaking from his dream and yet again unloading his six-shooters, then Kim Novak throws him out of her house… but to him, it’s like this is a normal thing. If you know you’re prone to fits of blasting off hot lead while sleepwalking… then I suggest you keep your guns out of your holster, away from you pillow, or basically on the same side of the rooms as you. That’s just common sense. Anyway, check it out… if you can find it. Oh… and Martin Kove has a small part in it… but yeah, that’s how we got around to this movie.

 

Wednesday morning, Izzy & I helped out for a few hours at Elevation 66 Brewery… but there were five other people there working… and we had school / work so we only stayed from about 5 AM to 7 AM… still fun though. Big Ben shared some of his brews & we shared SF Beer Week stories. Good times.

 

Friday night, Izzy & I went to Slim’s to see a rockin’ all-female cover band double feature of Zepparella (Led Zeppelin) and Hell’s Belles (AC/DC)… and it was pretty f**king amazing... always a great show... and I could just live my life with the riff from "Talkin' About Love" playing on constant repeat personally... but yeah, check them out if they come to your town... period... pictures...

 

Saturday, Izzy & I started up a Hefeweizen where we intend to add a bunch of strawberries in secondary... so here are some pictures of our... well, in German, it's an Erdbeer Hefeweizen...

 

We also transferred our Torpedo Clone that we started two weeks ago... lots of trube in this one...

We've also been eating a lot healthier... so we've been doing green smoothies this past week... and some delicious chipotle burgers that Izzy made... she's so amazing...

 

More to come this week, have a great weekend everybody!!!

SF Beer Week 2015

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

SF Beer Week has come upon us!!! Wait… that sounded weird… this past week was SF Beer Week… and there were HUNDREDS of events going on all over the Bay Area. However, because I’m not independently wealthy & have to work for a living, I didn’t get to just go from place to place experiencing drunkenness through craft beer… but Izzy & I did hold our own… and here’s how…

 

First, I want to show a wonderful piece

of art that Izzy made for me... a watercolor

of my favorite dinosaur, Anklyosaurus

Saturday, February 7^th – We brewed a batch of my award-winning “PentaceraHops” IPA at my house (the Batcave) with my girlfriend Izzy & her aunts, while one of Izzy’s friends’ husband videotapes us for his series of articles on Homebrewing… yes, I’ll be a beer celebrity soon enough… but only later did I find out that he’s actually a Walter Kronkite Award winning journalist. Yeah… so it’s legit… not just a weird guy with a camera. Basically this was a pretty simple partial mash recipe that we’ve done before (with a few tweaks to the hops to meet what we had available) but here are some pictures…

 Mid-brew walk...

 Back to brewing...

I also got to star in this video… Check me out…

 

Sunday, February 8^th – Rainy day sampling of fine beers from our collection including Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine & Narwhal Imperial Stout from last year, and other high octane beers. Other than that… nothing much… pretty relaxing… watched movies (more to come later)

 

Monday, February 9^th – We had lunch at Marin Brewing on the way out to Izzy’s house… had a sampler of their beers on tap… took a Dopple Weizen home with us… enjoyed one of their little pizzas & some buffalo wings… good times…

 

That night, Izzy & I had a wonderful five-star dinner with beer pairings at Elevation 66 Brewery in El Cerrito with Big Ben, Li’l John & others… here are some pictures of the food…

 

… and during that wonderful time, we discussed a great many things… including the mysterious art of Beer Lacing… which apparently is when you look into the residual head on a beer glass… and see shapes or figures, not unlike gazing into the clouds on a summer’s day. Here are a few that I found in my beverages… and yes, if you thought that fancy ice pictures during brews was kind of odd… this may be a repeating thing… what do you see?

 

Tuesday & Wednesday, I pretty much spent the evenings catching up on house work & playing my new PS4 with NBA 2K15 and starting MyCareer mode in this basketball game. You may remember in the 2K13 edition that I was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, led them to a few championships, then signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Well… this time, I wasn’t drafted (GASP!!!) so I had to work my way up through ten-day contracts with the New Orleans Pelicans, then get signed for the rest of the year… and we won the championship!!! YAY!!! That’s right, the Pelicans won an NBA title!!! Then it was time for me to hit free agency… so I signed a maximum contract… with the Los Angeles Clippers. Yup… CP3, Blake Griffin, DeAndre “Putback and/or Alley-Oop” Jordan, Coach Doc Rivers & his son Austin riding the bench, and me leading the way on a max contract. Boom! There’s also a general manager, league mode, etc. but yeah, it’s like most basketball games from the past 25 years… with better graphics, some odd and fairly repetitive commentary, some cool dunks… but yeah, mostly the same stuff. Still… I like it because there’s usually some great strategy involved… and I heart basketball. Yippee! Check it out if you like those games…

 

Thursday, February 12^th – After work, I headed over to the Hops for Housing Charity Event, where a lot of the major local homebrew players and microbreweries-to-be volunteer some of their exquisite beverages for a modest admission donation that goes towards the SF Tenants Union who have been fighting for the rights of tenants and for the preservation of affordable housing in San Francisco (so obviously they’ve been either dropping the ball or are severely underfunded since this place is the most expensive f**king city in America now). Anyway, the event was held at BeatBox SF here in the city, and it was a nice little space that… frankly got packed pretty quickly, but the beer was great & the company was great too with plenty of SF Homebrewers Guild members in attendance. Here are some pictures…

 

My only complaint was the music… not necessarily that it was dance music… I’m like whatever, it’s background… but the fact that it was TOO F**KING LOUD!!! I’m not an old man or anything either, everybody at the event agrees with me… or I’m pretty sure that’s what they were saying… they kept covering their ears like they knew what I was talking about… anyway, great event! Hope to go to it next year… and maybe I’ll offer my DJ services to run the music too. I got a few mixes on my iPod I can pop in.

 

Also, wanna see what I got Izzy for Valentine's?

 

...but she had to one up me with this handmade card...

 

Saturday, February 14^th – Valentine’s Day – For a romantic Valentine's Day, I took Izzy to a luncheon at the world famous Anchor Brewing as they were having a celebrating for the California Homebrewing Club of the Year - The Maltose Falcons, based out of Los Angeles. Congratulations to them... and we're coming for ya next year. Here are some pictures of the area and some great barbecue...

 

Afterwards, I spoiled her with a Taco Bell 12 Pack... cuz I'm a f**king boss... she loved it...

 

Sunday, February 15^th – Finish off the “week” with a  Homebrew Share sponsored by the guild that I’m on the board for at Pi Bar in the Mission… and we also raffled off some prizes & announced our Homebrewer of the Year...

 

Afterwards, we also stopped by Rare Barrel for the first time. The Rare Barrel is a brewery in Berkeley that specializes in barrel aging and sour beers... which is an interesting & acquired taste for most beer drinkers... but if you're ever in Berkeley, check them out...

 

Monday, February 16th - President's Day - We celebrated this day off work with bottling our Red Ale... and kind of being the unofficial end of SF Beer Week... but here are some pictures of the process... and the ale is delicious...

 

Anyway, next year, we may hafta REALLY go into SF Beer Week (if we can get over the costs) but beer week is great for getting access to a lot of different special kinds & expanding knowledge of the craft of beer... but then again, it really helps when people are interested in it too... but hey, if you're willing to learn, I'm willing to teach. Have a great week everybody!!!