SF Beer Week 2016 - Part Two

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Wednesday night, Izzy & I continued our mild SF Beer Week adventures with a visit to Fieldwork Brewing in Berkeley. This brewery is HIGHLY regarded within the brewing circles that we keep, both professionally & amateur… and for good reason. They always have a wide variety of brews on tap (usually at least 12 different options) and they are CONSTANTLY changing… and some very unique options made in-house. For example, when we went on Thursday, they had options such as:

 

·         Mandarina – Tart Saison

·         Good Conduct - Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

·         Olde Dubliner - Imperial Dry Stout

·         Black Thai – Thai Tea Espresso Porter (very nice)

·         Chocolate Milk – Brown Ale with lots of TCHO chocolate & lactose (milk sugar)

·         Amarilloweisse – Dry Hopped Berlinerweisse

·         Coconut Milk – Double IPA with LOTS of hand-toasted coconut & lactose

·         5-6 different versions & levels of IPA with different hop characteristics

 

So yeah, I recommend checking them out if just for the fresh options & variety… and they also have Crawlers now, which are basically 32 oz aluminum cans of their fresh beer that you can take home in addition to their growlers.

 

Thursday night, Izzy & I visited Seven Stills Distillery’s Taproom for a special release of… BEERCEPTION!!! See… it’s a beer within a beer! How you ask? Well, as you may remember, Seven Stills specializes in making whiskey from distilled craft beers. Well… for Beerception… they barrel aged their Whipnose IPA in a Whipnose Whiskey barrel… and dry hopped the barrels with Chinook & Citra hops. Nice little spot… right over by Laughing Monk Brewing too (will check another time, private event Thursday) in the Dogpatch… go check it out… well, in a few months… they’re still getting things put together… it’s a work in progress…

Saturday, we did a new first… and that’s a DOUBLE BATCH!!! What’s that mean? TEN GALLONS of beer made… in ONE BREW. BOOM!!! SCALING IT UP!!! Well… sort of… see…this is how we did it different. We basically just doubled the grain bill ingredients (malt extract mostly in this case) to make a SUPER strong wort… and then diluting it down so that it’s ten gallons of wort instead of the five or so that we started with. Why? Because we wanted to make ten gallons of Stout to run a few experiments with… including some souring… and we wanted to cut the time in half (maybe more since we used cold water to dilute at the point where we were trying to cool the hot wort). Here are some pictures from our double batch of Chocolate Stout…

 

Sunday was the day of the big SF Homebrewers Guild / Seven Stills Barrel Aging Competition in which Izzy & I BOTH had entries of our delicious beverages. We had both a barrel-aged hard cider… and a barrel-aged Scotch Ale… and there were over 30 other barrel-aged beers there to try… and a few dozen others… so times were good. Food was provided by Casey’s Pizza Van… and yeah, EVERYBODY had a great time!!! Here are some pictures of the event…

 

Towards the end, they announced the winners for the Top 3 in the Barrel Aging Competition… and top for all of the other homebrew shared… People’s Choice, of course since there were almost all of the beer styles involved & with unique twists like Mexican Chocolate Imperial Stouts and all kinds of stuff. Well… the winners were announced… and some great beers won…

 

 

The Barrel Aged winners were announced… and we didn’t win for either beer… so we were mildly bummed… but then, the non-comp People’s Choice was announced… and somehow… we had won!!! Even though both beers were part of the competition…

 

Does this sound incorrect? Well… it should… apparently when you get a bunch of drunken hipsters together to tally up votes, math goes to the wayside. It’s a mix of Steve Harvey & a Hanging Chad… but when all was said & done… apparently Tricera-Scotch actually won 2^nd Place in the Barrel Aged Competition… and we don’t have a picture with the 2^nd place ribbon because… well, they just took our ribbon & didn’t replace it with anything… so yeah. Then again, I’m pretty sure that everything was just tallied wrong… and based on our feedback throughout the event… I’m pretty sure that we ACTUALLY won… even if it won’t show on the official ledger… regardless, LOTS of great beer & LOTS of great people!!! Even taking home 2^nd Place is pretty f**king amazing… and we’ll take it!!! WOOHOO FOR TERRIBLE LIZARD BREWING!!!

 

Anyway, so a great SF Beer Week 2016… and now we just get ready for the Super Bowl… and the clusterf**k that will be upon the Bay Area for the next few weeks. More on that to come… until then, have a Happy Groundhog Day everybody!!!

SF Beer Week - Part One

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

The other night we watched… an interesting movie called “The Ice Pirates” starring Robert Urich, incredibly young versions of Anjelica Huston & Ron Perlman… and I’ve now found a movie that stars that Bruce Vilanch guy you used to see on Hollywood Squares. This story is set in the far far future… in space… where water is the most valuable substance of all... which makes sense in a way. Well, a pirate crew led by Captain Jason (Urich) goes around stealing ice (cuz you know… water) and they stumble upon an adventure involving a space princess… and they try to help her find her father… and there’s a lot of robots, bad jokes, time warps, space herpes, swashbuckling, random N-bombs, more robots, space prairie dogs, a steamy “sex” scene in a Holodeck & more. Seriously though… the steamy sex scene… is apparently in a Holodeck that rains a torrential downpour… so essentially making it the most expensive make-out session of all time… you know… in this future world where that’s the equivalent of dry humping in liquid platinum or something. Anyway, this is billed as a space comedy (a few years before Mel Brooks proved it can actually be done with “Spaceballs”) but… it really isn’t funny. Like… I’m not even sure where you’re supposed to laugh half the time. I mean… it’s interesting just from a “What the… What am I watching? Was coke really THAT big in 1984?” kind of viewing… or “Holy sh*t! Is that Ron Perlman?” but other than that… might wanna pass on this one. It’s 80’s crap… but then again, maybe that’s your thing. If so, have at it. Probably not going to be watching this again.

 

Next up was a pair of superhero movies from last year… with vastly different public reactions. First up, I finally watched “Ant Man” starring Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Michael Pena, and others. This was the Marvel movie that seemed to be in development limbo for the longest time with the likes of directors / writers like Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead”) and Adam MacKay (Will Ferrell’s career) all being involved… but then backing out. Same with the star that would play the titular role… so there was a LOT of questions in whether this movie was going to be worth a watch. Rest assured, it totally is. So the story is about a sort of Robin Hood-esque bank robbing character named Scott (Rudd) who has just been released from prison… and is going straight… and wants to see his young daughter… but it’s hard to get a job when you’re a convicted felon apparently. Well, while doing a heist at the home of a mysterious rich man (Douglas), he stumbles upon a special suit that allows the wearer to shrink in size, yet retain their strength & abilities… maybe even enhances them (that part was very vague & inconsistent throughout the movie). The man who owned/developed it had used it during the Cold War… but feared that it would get in the hands of the wrong people. Well, smash cut to the technology getting into the hands of the wrong people who have taken over his company in the meantime… and now he has to recruit Scott to wear the suit & save the world. I’ll admit, it’s kind of an odd story… but what really sets this movie apart is the GREAT banter between the characters & how it’s executed… and there are also some very interesting (borderline nauseating) action sequences while using the suit and switching between the sizes. I would HIGHLY recommend checking this movie out! Yeah, I’m sure you’ve probably seen it already… but yeah, check it out if you haven’t. I was late to the party… and this will NOT be the Death of Superhero movies.

 

 

 

 

Next up was this year’s re-reboot of “Fantastic 4” starring Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara & Jamie Bell as the titular group… and Toby Kebbell as Victor Von Doom… spoiler alert… he’s the bad guy. You TOTALLY wouldn’t have seen it coming based on the name. Even if it was an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Instead this movie was directed by Josh Trank (“Chronicle”) and… apparently this movie flopped SO F**KING HARD in theatres… and there was SO MUCH TURMOIL through the production of the movie & his interaction with the actors… that he may never have a big Hollywood movie ever again… and apparently he seems okay with that. It was odd hearing about the development of this movie… but yeah, regardless. You try to watch this movie with fresh eyes. I mean… could it really be worse than the two previous Fantastic Four movies? Or that late 80’s version that I’ve also seen? Both are hard to imagine. Well, the story is about these four SUPER smart teenagers from different background coming together with a sort of government braintrust to develop teleportation technology that… apparently two of these high school kids figured out on their own working in junk yards & stuff. Okay… so they come together to develop it… and there’s this mysterious dirt that comes back on things that are teleported… and it goes to a planet in another dimension (wait… stay with me). Then the government wants to step in to take over the project… because it’s risky. Fact. Well, the kids are unsupervised… have a few beers… and decide that THEY should be the first people to travel to the other dimension… so they start up the teleporter, go check it out… lose one of the team members there… HUGE fiasco… that leaves them with superpowers. The story goes from there… but honestly, the movie wasn’t as bad as everybody made it out to be. Was it enjoyable? Not really. The effects were kind of cool. Probably the biggest problem… was that some of the character motivations & decision making… is just f**king stupid. Also, I REALLY think that Kate Mara was FURIOUS throughout the making of this movie (and given the director’s challenges, very possible) because there is ZERO charisma or chemistry from her AT ALL in this movie. She’s basically a b**ch throughout… and I’m not sure that’s what her character is supposed to be? In the comics, Sue Storm was the binding agent that held the team together, right? It’s been a while… but yeah, stupid decisions being made by supersmart teenagers… but I’d still give it a glance. I don’t see them popping up in Avengers or any crossovers any time soon… if ever. Still, for the subject matter… what can you REALLY expect? Fantastic 4 has always been… a bit of a fantastical stretch for disbelief (GAMMA RAYS!!!) so trying to set it in a live-action true-ish atmosphere is gonna be tough. If this version didn’t do it… then I don’t see it really doing a Christopher Nolan reboot type of reimagining… and after losing tens of millions of dollars, I don’t see it ever getting funded either. Oh well… Marvel will be just fine… as will the respective actors & actresses in this movie. Probably not the director though… sorry Josh…

 

This weekend was also the start of SF Beer Week 2016 (scheduled a little early due to the Super Bowl clusterf**k over the next two week, BTW congratulations to the Denver Broncos & Carolina Panthers!!!) and Izzy & I are taking it pretty low key this year. See… almost everything involved with SF Beer Week is either SUPER expensive considering what’s being offered… or LOTS of people in a little space… but we’re trying to get involved in a few key, fun things. We stopped by BevMo to get some beverages to enjoy throughout… and that’ll be elaborated on our podcast later this week… but there were a few others things.

 

Our first adventure was going to Sessions at the Presidio on Sunday experience the Battle of the Guilds, where professional craftbrewers from San Francisco, San Diego & Los Angeles all came… set up their jockey boxes with some special beers… and basically for $4 per 10 ounce pour, you get to try their beverages… and vote for the city to win… the Battle of the Guilds. We met some great people, tried some great beers… it was a little odd where it’s essentially professional quality beer in a very homebrew presentation with the jockey boxes… yet also in a fairly elegant environment at a nice place like Sessions. Overall, I highly recommend it… and we made it out of there for about $20 for two of us & had a great time.

 

Later on Sunday, we FINALLY kegged our Barrel Aged Scotch Ale for the upcoming SF Homebrewers Guild / Seven Stills Distillery Barrel Aging Competition this coming Sunday. Basically, after trying this… and trying some of Izzy’s Unicorn Drool (barrel aged cider from a month or so ago), we’ve basically decided that everybody else is playing for 3^rd Place… because we’re going to win this thing. We’ll show off the trophy next week… but in the meantime, here are some pictures of the kegging process…

 

We also transferred our Imperial Stout to the then-vacant barrel… so in a few months (possibly around mid-to-late April, wink wink) we should have The Return of $teve’s Birthday Cake!!! Until then, we still have about a case of our first batch from last year to please our palettes. Mmm… come on by & we may share some…

 

Well, a busy week still going on… but plenty of great things to report on in the coming days. Stay tuned! The San Francisco Homebrewers Guild / Seven Still Barrel Aging Competition is going to be hella fun!!! Also, a GREAT way to end SF Beer Week!!! Let me know if you’d like to check it out. I think we may have a few extra tickets. Have a great day 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!!!