Bottling Bitters & the Apple Spa

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This past week, Izzy has been helping out Seven Still Distillery with bottling their latest large shipment of their one-ounce bottles of Bitters. Because they are such a small operation that’s basically ran by a handful of people, they’ve needed a little help to make the timetable… but luckily Izzy has had some free time so she was able to help out. Wednesday night, I was even able to help out… and let’s be honest, bottling is kind of the monotonous & tedious part of just about everything involved in… really any industry, not just beer and/or spirits… but owners Tim & Clint were great and we were able to crank out a few thousand bottles in just the two hours that the four of us were there. Here are some great pictures of their modest setup…

 

 

Afterwards, we had both had a long day… so Izzy decided to make us some fantastic “Old Fashioned” cocktails using Seven Stills’ Fluxuate Whiskey which is distilled using Coffee Porter and Flux Cold Brewed Coffee. The whiskey itself is of course 47% ABV but even after the initial burn, you get some great coffee flavors… and notes of vanilla which are quite smooth & pleasant. This is probably my favorite whiskey from Seven Stills. For the cocktails, we modified the recipe a little bit… so it was essentially ice cubes, Seven Stills’ Fluxuate Whiskey, Seven Stills’ Cocktail Bitters & Maple Syrup (instead of simple syrup) and… it’s f**king fantastic. I highly recommend it…

 

My mom, stepdad & grandma are actually on a wonderful cross-country trip to see a lot of the major monuments in the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Starting in Buffalo and going through places like Kirtland OH, South Bend IN, Nauvoo IL, Omaha NE, and ending in Kansas City to see some of the Mormon Temples, the Mormon Trail, and a slew of other sights & sites. I have to say… I’m a little jealous. Not necessarily for checking out a bunch of temples… but I remember when I used to be able to go on vacation without… you know… being absolutely necessary to every single aspect of my job. It’s been a good… six years or so since that was the case… and it f**king blows… and frankly I’m not fairly compensated for it… so yeah, changes are definitely on the horizon. You’ve been warned/notified that there’ll be EVEN MORE trip pictures coming soon. I’ve already bugged my mom to send me a pictures of Rick James’ grave (in Buffalo) but we’ll see if she can even operate her text messages any more. Love you mama…

 

Thursday night, Izzy & I watched a few… questionable movies. First up was “Death Spa” starring… well, they weren’t the stars but I did notice horror icon Ken Foree and the lovely ladies Chelsea Field (“Masters of the Universe”) and Karyn Parsons (“Fresh Prince of Bel Air” & “The Ladies Man”). This movie was recently reviewed on the How Did This Get Made podcast… but it’s an interesting story in 1980’s filmmaking… where apparently the story was written in the early 80’s when health clubs were all the rage (featured on Time Magazine) but the movie didn’t get funded or made until 1989… and then was released in like 1991, when nobody cared anymore but it has ALL the 80’s that you could ever want. The story is about the Starbody Health Spa… and there are mysterious deaths happening… like someone being nearly steamed to death by chlorine gas in the sauna… split in half by a pec machine (that one’s particularly odd) and others… and the police are baffled… there’s a theory that it’s this super advanced (80’s) computer system that operates the machinery, but that doesn’t hold water… so a paranormal expert is brought in… because the place may be haunted. Throw in a story of betrayal and alleged man-whoring… and you’ve got yourself a flick. Now… the movie sounds ridiculous… and it really is… but it’s the best kind of ridiculous. PLEASE watch this with your friends! The deaths are super campy (and a little confusing at times), the acting is right on par with what you’re looking for in a good laugh scare, it’ll just be a good time with your friends… and it’s so confusing & contradictory of its own rules that you can easily just shut the brain down & enjoy it. There’s really no mystery to be solved. I feel like me telling you that now will save you trying to put the pieces together… because the writers didn’t both with it either.

  

Next up was “The Apple” which is a 1980 musical from Cannon Pictures starring… well, again not really people that you’d really recognize in anything. Now… as you know, musicals are not necessarily my thing (even though I have a Musical Movie List from years ago) but… this movie… well, I’ll be honest… it’s not as horrible as I thought it was based on the preview. It might actually be even worse. Okay, anyway… the story is about a young man & woman who go on a VERY popular singing contest in the far distant future of 1994 where the world is… well, very colorful… and you know, it’s a lot like 2015 in Back to the Future clothing wise… and they don’t win the contest (due to some rigging) but are invited to party with the winning band & Mr. Boogaloo (who looks like Ming from Flash Gordon but apparently runs the music industry & therefore the world?). What follows is a big psychedelic kind of retelling of the Garden of Eden story (hence “the Apple”) and just incredibly outrageous outfits and musical dance numbers and… it’s definitely an interesting watch. If you like musicals and can get through the music… then by all means check it out. Spoiler alert: Mr. Topps / God arrives at the end… and he’s played by Joss Ackland with a magnificent blond wig. Who’s Joss Ackland you ask? Well… you may know him as the bald antagonist Denomolis from “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” or I think I can give you the image in two words from “Lethal Weapon 2”… DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!! Now picture that man with hair in the fashion of John Schneider from Dukes of Hazzard… and rolling up in a heavenly gold Rolls Royce… f**king roll credits.

 

Anyway, busy weekend coming up with Learn to Homebrew Day (we’re not hosting this time), a new brewing of a Belgian Quad, a baby shower for Izzy’s sister, and most importantly… The California State Homebrew Competition at Anchor Brewing on Sunday!!! So yeah, I’ll fill you in on the activities soon… until then, have a great weekend everybody!!!

Furious $teven

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Wednesday night, Izzy & I finally watched “Furious 7” which is the 7^th installment of the Fast & Furious “film” franchise… and at this point in time, the 4^th highest grossing movie OF ALL TIME!!! The soundtrack was #1 in 59 countries… and yes, they mentioned it on the DVD… and yes, I wanted to slit my wrist listening to choice clips from it throughout the movie. I’m assuming that because it IS the 4^th highest grossing movie of all time, that you’ve probably all seen this movie at least once in theatres… or maybe even in the last month since it’s been out on DVD… so there’ll be some spoilers. I’ll tell you what’s not a spoiler though… Paul Walker does die… in the movie anyway. Too soon? No, it’s not. It’s an ironic tragedy. Moving on. Fun game to play though… pretend that you don’t know that Paul Walker’s going to make it in the end because you’ve been awake the past six months or on any form of social media… and watch the movie with every scene as a “Is this where his character gets killed?” mentality… it’s actually pretty intriguing. Is it the scene where he’s getting dropped out of a f**king airplane in a car? Is it when his buddy Dom (Vin Diesel) is holding up a sports car by himself like a man-jack stand for a few minutes while he tries to delicately remove a microchip that has been inexplicably placed under it? Is it during one of the many shoot-out scenes with apparent armies of international criminals and/or cyborgs? All I’m saying is… that if ANYBODY died in these movies, there was ample opportunity for that to happen… unless it’s all the odd homoerotic dreams of various fanboys… which it absolutely is. This movie is people (directors, producers, actors, etc) playing with action figures. Pure & simple. That being said… it can totally be fun. Is it the 4^th highest grossing movie of all time fun? Of course not… but yeah, adjust for inflation or something and it’s still worthy of making some cash on the side. I ain’t gonna hate… it’s not like “Pitch Perfect 2” grossing more than “Mad Max: Fury Road” or something like that. No, I still haven’t forgiven you for that yet, America!

 

Anyway, this 7^th installment picks up where the last one left off… at the end of “Fast 6” the “good guys” brought down Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and beat his ass good into a coma… well, apparently all that did was piss off his older brother Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) who’s even MORE dangerous (because he’s basically a Terminator apparently) and wants nothing more than to just kill the “good guys” and already killed the Japanese one from the 3^rd installment that nobody watched. Well, to protect his family, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) basically joins forces with a secret ops guy named Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) who may or may not be government sanctioned… and they have to find a McGuffin known as “The God’s Eye” which basically uses all technology in the world to locate somebody anywhere in the world. It’s just that easy. Even easier than… say… standing around and waiting for Deckard Shaw to find them? Not quite… but otherwise there wouldn’t be a movie. Basically from there, it’s just one global jetsetting trip to another to do things like drop vehicles out of airplanes over Azerbaijan, drive from tower to tower in Abu Dhabi, introduce cameos from Ronda Rousey, Tony Jaa, Djimon Hounsou, Iggy Azalea, T-Pain… and let’s face it, Jordana Brewster’s character is basically a cameo in those movie too… and I think Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was on set for MAYBE a week & over half of that was the fight with Deckard Shaw. Anyway… it basically takes all the craziest scenes from every other ridiculous action movie ever made… and puts them all into one… with a lot of gun butter, Vin Diesel mumbles, waify girl asses, ridiculous situations, one liners that don't really say anything… all the stuff that you want in one of these movies. Do I think that anybody associated with this movie will be nominated for an Academy Award? FOH, of course not. Was it fun to watch? Absolutely… and absolutely infuriating when you try to use the laws of physics or rationality… but hey, you get what you want from it. I’d say check it out… and there’ll be plenty more of these movies… don’t you worry about that either.

 

Tuesday night, Izzy & I went to Local Brewing near AT&T Park for the SF Homebrewers Guild’s monthly meeting. Local Brewing opened up about four months ago & is already getting a great reputation around the Bay Area as a fantastic brewery. They have a 10bbl system and are very savvy with social media & technology to essentially “give the people what they want”. They started with four beers on tap… and are now up to 16 beers and essentially the beers that make the cut at a particular time are those that patrons want, like & let them know. I mean… it’s a pretty simple idea of giving the people what sells & what they want… but they use the technology to their benefit since things like size & storage of their location are limited. Brewmaster Regan & head brewer Patrick talked about their process & answered questions from the guild… and it was a great experience. Here are some pictures…

 

A HUGE thank you to Regan for letting us host our meeting at her location & for the samples of their wonderful beer. Check them out if you’re in the SOMA area!

 

While this was going on, the softball team was wrapping up our undefeated championship season! I had a migraine starting up, so I didn’t make the games but they pulled out two victories in this doubleheader playoff situation… and we just crushed them! I’m incredibly proud of our team!

 

This past week, Izzy & I also had the opportunity to help out with a brew at Elevation 66 Brewing… and as usual, it was a lot of fun & very interesting… and not a bad way to spend about 8 hours starting at 5 AM. I have to keep thanking Super Dave, Big Ben & Li’l Jon for allowing us to help out and learn the intricacies of big league brewing… and apparently, Li’l Jon may have his own brewery that he’s in charge of soon enough in his hometown… but I’ll obviously share those details as we get a little closer to opening. Hopefully next year.

 

As for our own brewery (Terrible Lizard Brewing located entirely within my home at this time), we also are making an Apple Cider that we may let sit for a while and become an Apfelwein… but that was basically just putting apple juice & some brewing yeast in a carboy…

 

Also, we’re getting a 2^nd five gallon whiskey barrel from Seven Stills Distillery… so we’ve started another Scotch Ale to barrel age for a competition that they’re doing with the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild. Details will be coming soon regarding the release party during SF Beer Week… but in the meantime, we’ve started the base beer Scotch Ale… so that it’s ready for a moment’s notice when we get the barrel. It should be fantastic…

That should do it for this entry… as this weekend will be pretty full with the Bay Area Mashers’ Sacramento Brewery Tour & then the SF Homebrewers Guild taking over the bottle sort for the California State Homebrewing Competition… but more on that later. Until then, have a great weekend everybody!!!

Brewhaus Blewz

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Wednesday morning, Izzy & I met up with Big Ben for some Big League Brewing at Elevation 66… and it was just the three of us doing the brew. Well, Super Dave was there observing but… yeah, it was pretty fantastic. Before when I’ve been able to spend the whole day there, six or seven people were helping out… but here’s the thing… two of those guys are now starting jobs at other breweries (where they actually get paid) and the others have kind of feathered out… so yeah, a lot more hands on learning & I love it when I get a chance to help out.

 

How did I get away from the job to help out? Well… it was because I had to take the day off (and Thursday) for a Quick Trip to Utah… for family estate stuff involving my recently deceased father. Yes, “recently” means just over six months ago… but yeah, not going to lie… it’s been a little rough. Most of the time I’m pretty good… and then I’ll wonder if I’m being absolutely heartless by not having it be a huge deal in my daily life. Then other times, I’ll start tearing up over stupid sh*t that I see in a movie that I’ve even seen before… and then it’s like, “Where the hell is this coming from?” So yeah… fun stuff… but I’m doing fine…

 

As for the trip, I’m not going to go into details or anything… but basically there were only a few hours that weren’t completely occupied by stuff I rather wouldn’t have been doing & could’ve been resolved via email… I didn’t sleep well because the AC kept kicking on VERY LOUDLY at the hotel… and the last few hours I was in town, I got to spend some time with my brother for his birthday, C-Rock & Isaiah. They’ve been doing… not so good… but it was good to hang out with them & catch up. I also go to have gelato with my mom, niece & nephew. So yeah, for a 26 hour stay in the Beehive State, a lot was done.

 

Saturday, Izzy & I spent the day pretty much relaxing and playing video games… which may sound lame… but it really wasn’t… it was pretty awesome.

 

Saturday night, I met up with coworkers for a dinner & drinks at Roam Burger and then going to The Fillmore to see Anjelah Johnson a.k.a. Bon Qui Qui from “Mad TV” for a comedic musical performance that was actually pretty amazing. The comedy was tight… and the music with her husband’s band was pretty damn catchy and hilarious as well… I highly recommend to check them out on the Bon Qui Qui Tour… possibly coming to a town near you. Now… there’s only one picture… and it’s of us… boom…

 

Sunday morning, Izzy & I started our newest brew… the belated batch of Strawberry Hefeweizen for Clarissa & Andrew as a wedding present (married last month). This is the 3^rd time that we’ve made this fairly easy recipe so it’s been explained a little more in past entries… but basically it’s only a few pounds of wheat dry malt extract, one ounce of hops, and then strawberry puree in the secondary fermentation.

 

 

The main difference with this time… was the yeast. With every single batch that we’ve made before, we’ve used a vial of yeast from a brewshop… but this time, thanks to our FastFerment conical fermenter, we had a good batch of already active yeast from last week’s Dunkelweizen that we just pulled from its… I don’t know, “reservoir tip” at the base. Why do I mention this? Because it’s pretty awesome… previously with the vials, the reaction in the wort would take about 12 hours or something… and so it would start really doing its thing in the middle of the night & then we’d wake up to a mess of activity upon the carboy… but this time around… it was already blowing off in about two hours… pretty impressive. I think I’m really going to like this FastFerment thing…

 

So currently in our Brewhaus, we have this new batch of Strawberry Hefeweizen, Dunkelweizen in the FastFerment, our Cyser that’s probably ready to bottle soon, and we have our Chocolate Porter in the Whiskey Barrel. Not bad if I say so myself…

 

Another fun tidbit… about a month ago, a brewshop was handing out hop rhizomes that they had… and they were basically either expired or possibly diseased in all honesty… but we took some Columbus hop rhizomes to try planting in my backyard, just to see if they would work (and I had an open bucket) and… well, it’s sprouting pretty good…

Anyway, so it was a pretty busy weekend for being “quiet” but tune in next time… as there are a few movie preview screenings this week… and a trip to Tahoe this weekend coming up… so yeah, until then, have a great day everybody!!!

Dark Wheat Duck

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Wednesday morning (4 AM) was the start of an early, exciting brewday at Elevation 66 Brewing and despite Izzy being under the weather still, we had a full house with owner Super Dave, lead brewer Big Ben, and four volunteer brewers (me, Li’l Jon, Black Jack & new returner Easy E). With six brewers, the work was fairly easy when spread out… so during the slower times (waiting for water to boil) Big Ben’s wife was also there studying for her BJCP/Cicerone certification… and she conducted an Off-Flavor Tasting. What’s that? Well… it’s basically a taste test where you take a basic beer (in this case, Trumer Pilsner) and you basically add some off-flavors to it… and see if you can identify the off-flavor. Oh… there are some tricks in there too… as there are some placebos… and you’re just drinking the base beer… so it puts your senses to the test… especially if you don’t really have an amazing sense of smell like me. It’s a great way to test your senses… learn what might cause these kinds of off-flavors… and basically I was drinking some beer with my friends at something like 6 AM. Here’s some pictures…

 

 

After the brew day, Super Dave offered to take us out to T-Rex for some barbecue and brews… great restaurant to check out if you’re in the neighborhood.

 

A few hours later, Izzy headed back home and we headed out to the city of Concord to visit the MoreBeer homebrewing shop (warehouse level selection) and then we headed to downtown for some beers & snacks at the Hop Grenade, their neighbor E.J. Phair Brewing, and just down the street is Ale Industries’ Pig & Whistle location. All three have some pretty fantastic offerings. Hop Grenade has a more “connoisseur” level selection of brews… and of course, the elaborate podcasting area for the Brewing Network (which I WAS finally a guest on). E.J. Phair has some great brews including my personal favorite Shorty’s Revenge which is an English style Amber… and they had some great prices for their beers and decent snacks. Pig & Whistle seems like a nice place to check out after watching a movie late night across the street. Just a nice little area… congrats to Concord!

 

Here's a picture of a sunset & our hops growing up now...

Also, Izzy is graduating in less than a week! Yes, the amazing woman who has been joining me on these many, many adventures over the years… is finally graduating with her Illustration degree in mere days… and I couldn’t be more proud of her. She’s truly an amazing woman & I’m lucky to have her in my life. Feel free to leave your congratulations below… she checks everything (though I think the last REAL comment that wasn’t her… was probably over two years ago). Congratulations beautiful!

 

Sunday morning, we also started a Dunkelweizen recipe… that we’re affectionately calling Darkwheat Duck (Dunkelweizen means “Dark Wheat”) and it was a pretty standard recipe… but here are some great pictures…

 

We also kegged our Taddy Porter from Learn to Homebrew Day… it’s a little lighter than I expected, more like our English Pale Ale but more of an amber color… but still pretty delicious. More pictures…

 

So yeah… a good week of beer enthusiasm… and there are plenty of movies as well… until then, have a great day everybody!!!