The Past Three Weeks

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Been a few weeks huh? Yeah well… insanely busy. However, here are a few things that have happened in the last (sigh) three weeks. First off, a while back we checked out Old Devil Moon, which is operated by one of our buddies from the SF Homebrewers Guild… great beers on tap… and the location is pretty sweet with some kick ass po’ boys… so what’s not to like? Check it out here…

 

We also celebrated Oktoberfest at Spiesekammer again with Big Ben & Lone Cicerone and a few other friends… beers, meat, cheeses & fruits were had… but mostly beer, all paired with polka music & good peeps!!! Here are pictures…

We snuck in a last minute Giants game against the Padres at AT&T Park… big thank you to the Riegelsbergers!!!

 

Then there was Oktoberfest at Ferment.Drink.Repeat owned by another one of our buddies from the Guild… again, great beer, they had brauts, and good times… and a test of endurance & strength…

We also started two batches of beer on our own! First was our wedding gift from Big Ben & Lone Cicerone, who gave us the ingredients for their WONDERFUL California Common recipe…

 

…and the other was called the Black Death Porter kit from the Oak Barrel, which will be put into our oak barrel at home… so that we can FINALLY bottle (and drink) our 2^nd Imperial Stout recipe that’s been in the whiskey barrel for nearly 9 months now… yeah, damn!!! Here are some pictures of those…

 

 

My Lady also got the first of her Purrmaid stuffies… and it’s amazing…

 

Gretchen reached 119,000 miles… two years to the day from when she hit 90,000 miles…

 

Lastly, we helped sort & organize about 50 cases of beer for the California State Homebrewing Competition… and that was exhausting… but yeah, good times & for a good cause!

 

That was all in between working overtime & the usual hum-drum… so now you see why I’ve had a hard time keeping up with this thing… but hey, you can catch up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yahoo, telephone, text and any other means so… hit me up!!! In the meantime, next update will include our next trip later this week… to Disneyland, Knott’s Scary Farm, and a cruise to Catalina & Ensenada… so yeah, busy busy.

 

Have a great weekend everybody!!!

Guardians & Their Duties

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Saturday, Izzy & I went to El Cerrito Theatre for the first time & hit a matinee of “Guardians of the Galaxy” starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, Benecio Del Toro and the voice talents of Bradley Cooper & Vin Diesel. It’s the story of a group of five space misfits who find themselves teaming up to not only escape prison but to save the universe from destruction. That’s about it… and if you want more specifics, I’m sure you can get them online. It’s through Marvel studios… and one of their less popular entries (for example, I didn’t know squat about it until they announced it a year or so ago) but let me tell you… this movie… was AMAZING!!! The effects are great… the characters are… well, some are kind of cliché but still very interesting, funny, exciting… the bad guys are badasses… it’s just an amazing time in the theatre to share with others… and the soundtrack is absolutely thrilling… but then again, I was kinda raising on the hits of the 70’s & 80’s rock. Not only do I recommend going to see it in the theatre… I’d probably go with you if you invited me. It’s worth the price of admission… and not too many movies out there can say that. GO SEE IT!!! Solid frontrunner for Movie of the Year in the $tevie Awards!!! The role that Vin Diesel was born to play… and he should be nominated for an award that Bradley Cooper wins!

 

After the movie, we made our way back across the bay to my place & we did a few homebrew related activities starting with transferring the ChocoNut Stout from the primary fermenter to secondary…

 

Then we kegged the Cali Common brewed at Motobrewer & prepared specifically for unveiling at the Northern California Homebrewers Festival in about a month…

Then we cold crashed the keg in the kegerator and took out the Bock to let it warm up slightly… so that Sunday morning, we could bottle it & get some great carbonation (and then some)…

 

We also got to taste test all three during the processes & checking the gravity, etc. The ChocoNut Stout tastes like an excellent chocolate stout (coconut added later), the Cali Common tastes like a strong Cali Common (which makes sense because it was 8 points high in brewing) and the Bock… is a little more bitter than I was expecting but still VERY good and that may mellow out a bit later on. We also used the Chocolate Malt instead of Black Prinz, which in future batches using the Black Prinz will reduce the bitterness. Either way though, we’ve been making some very good beer.

 

Izzy has also made some wonderful meals for me this weekend… including pineapple & kiwi (that we also dehydrated), turkey burgers, bagels with smoked salmon & capers, and boar burgers with bleu cheese slices… BEHOLD!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To work off some of those delicious meals (and beer) we hiked the Bay Area Ridge Trail of the Presidio… which was about a 4-5 mile hike… and gorgeous views along the way. Of course, my phone was dead so I didn’t have a camera to show you some pics… but I think Izzy will on her blog later… or maybe I will the next time we hike it which will probably be very soon as it’s pretty convenient to my house & a nice 90 minute or so walk.

 

Anyway, that'll do it for this entry... GO SEE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!!! And most importantly, have a great day everybody!!!

Collab Release Party & Honey Amber 2.0

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

We had to do a little running around Saturday to make sure we had all of the ingredients for our next batch… and that delayed it a day… but in the time we did have, Izzy made some amazing Teriyaki Jerky & Healthy Chicken Enchiladas… BEHOLD!!!

 

By the way, check out our hops...

 

Saturday afternoon, we headed over to Mikkeller Bar for the SF Homebrewers Guild-FreeWheel Brewing Collaboration Release Party of the Ruby Mild batch that we “helped” make… really just had a party there & picked the brains of the brewers… but still, this was the release party for that batch. Now, for those who haven’t been, Mikkeller is a world-class drinking establishment. Like… they have some of the best (and most expensive) beers in all of the world, their taps are all regulated to the perfect temperature for each particular beverage, the atmosphere is a little on the contemporary yet appropriate side, but definitely worth a try if you like beer halls. As for our Ruby Mild, it seemed a little light as it should… but still full of flavor. Not the best I’ve ever tasted but definitely not the worst… I’d go try this rare brew while you have the chance. Who knows the next time you’ll run into a ruby mild designed & crafted by a brewer who specializes in cask ales? Get it while it’s still around at Mikkeller or FreeWheel.

Sunday morning, we woke up, had some breakfast & now with the ingredients for our next batch… our award-winning Honey Amber Ale recipe. This is our 2^nd time doing this recipe… and about ¾ of the first batch was entered into competitions, given away at guild meetings, $teve-toberfest, and other celebrations… but what we did have was delicious & probably our best batch that we’ve made yet in my humble opinion. This batch… will be kegged… and shared with my family & friends as well… but I’ll be sure to grab a little for myself & Izzy though. For this batch, we made sure that we used the proper amount of honey (forgot to use it for priming the last time) and replicated Izzy’s happy accident of doubling the hops used. That seemed to work very well for us in creating a full bodied flavor. Here are some pictures…

 

Our new cooling setup... actually works a LOT better too...

 Even within just a few hours, she's bubbling away...

We also bottled OUR Cali Common batch that we made from JJ’s recipe… not to be confused with the large batch that we made of her recipe at Motobrewer to take to NCHF in September… that will be kegged next week. Got it? Cool. Here are some pictures of that process too…

 

Anyway, that was basically the weekend… pretty low key but we got some good things done & are ready for another busy week coming up… including Jay-Z & Beyonce in concert, random tidbits from the week, a few movie reviews, and of course more kegging, bottling, transferring & brewing next weekend. Have a great day everybody!!!