Right Before Christmas

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Okay, here’s the catch-up from the last week or so… this last Friday, Izzy’s cousin Amy celebrated her 21^st birthday and she had a Barbie theme… I went as Ameri-Ken (pretty much my usual clothes) but here are some good pictures…

 

 

Saturday, Izzy & I had a booth at the Holiday Stroll event at Noman Coffee, and it was pretty sweet. It’s a pretty small venue now, but there’s definitely some great potential out there & a LOT of great artists joined us out there. Here are some pictures of that…

 

Sunday, we met up with headbrewer/owner Kevin at Ferment.Drink.Repeat to brew our own recipe (well, a variation of it) to fit his system! A few years ago, I contributed to his jumpstart campaign and this was one of the benefits… and he’s a good friend & fellow homebrewer, one of the founding members of the SF Homebrewers Guild, and just an overall great guy & retired military man. Basically we helped with most of steps in the process, milling the grain, mashing, lunching (some great Bahn Mi sandwiches), transferring, cleaning, all that stuff. It was a lot of fun… but here are some pictures of it…

 

Our Saturday at Jack of All Trades Festival involved a LOT of rain… and the show being cancelled… but we stuck it out for most of the event anyway (cancelled about 10 minutes before start so we were already set up) and there were a few lucky patrons / passerbys who were able to gladly purchase some of our wares, even in the rain!!! No pictures of this one though…

 

Sunday, we drove up to Lincoln (near Sacramento) to attend Izzy’s nephew Everett’s 1^st Birthday Party!!! It was actually a lot of fun to see the family up there & that baby is just so damn cute and happy!!! Here are some pictures…

 

Aside from that, we’ve just been really busy obviously… but things have been great!!! The Everything I Learned From Movies podcast has been really taking off… and we’re really focusing on making it the best that we can. On that note, this isn’t quite time for the Stevies… but my New Year’s Resolution for 2017 is to REALLY set time aside to focus on the podcast & make it better and better each week… and with that in mind, I ask a BIG favor of YOU!!!

 

This year, instead of going out and buying me a present for Christmas, don’t make a donation to a charity in my name (although OK, that’s cool too), but please feel free to go to patron.podbean.com/eilfm and Become a Patron of our EILFM Podcast instead!!! That way, not only are you giving us a gift… but you’re getting a gift in return, in the form of a great podcast PLUS plenty of great rewards to take advantage of such as mailed gifts for our Fan Club, guest hosting episodes, all kinds of fun stuff!!! Anyway, please give it a look & let us know what you think!!!

 

Until next time, have a great day everybody!!!

Bachelor(ette) Party

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This past weekend was my Bachelor Party… well, sort of. Originally it was going to be a gaggle of us (male & female) just having a wonderful weekend in Santa Cruz… but unfortunately one guy hurt his back, others had work & other real life stuff happen… so essentially it was just a wonderful weekend with my future wife, her best friend Flea, and her cousin Amy briefly. TEAR IT UP!!! We had dinner at Lazy Dog in Cupertino Friday night, then spent the Saturday checking out breweries in the area & the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

 

First stop was the taproom for Santa Cruz Aleworks where we had some pickled eggs, chips & salsa, and some of their beers on tap including an Oatmeal Stout, Kolsch & their season “Rye Like An Eagle” IPA. Good stuff, check them out…

 

  

Second stop was Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing about two miles away. Their taproom had a REALLY cool copper tree growing behind the bar… and their drink selection was pretty impressive as well. I personally loved their People’s Porter. Here are some pictures…

 

Then we stopped at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk to have some lunch, play some arcade games & take great pictures…

 

The third brewery of the day was Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola about ten minutes from the Boardwalk. He had visited this location a while back and… frankly weren’t that impressed with the selection. However, our beer buddies informed us that apparently we must have hit them on a bad weekend where they were doing a bunch of festivals or something because they have DOZENS of distinct beers available typically… so we tried them again. This time, there was definitely more selection with about a dozen different brews that were essentially a variety of IPAs, saisons & porters… and yeah, they’re pretty damn good. Check them out if you’re in the area. I wouldn’t make it a destination brewery just yet… but definitely worth a stop along the way…

 

The fourth & final brewery of the day was New Bohemia Brewing and… frankly this was our favorite of the entire day!!! This is the first time that I’ve heard of them, but the taproom is on point… their beer selection was low in variety but great in quality. They had a beer called Queen Bee which was an “Imperial Honey Lager” which is a style-bender kind of beer… but it was very malt forward, very potent with nearly 10% ABV, and extremely delicious. Check THAT out! The others were really good too, including a Dunkelweizen. They even let us bring in some badass burritos from down the street to the bar. Best of all though… they had LIVE bluegrass playing BEHIND THE BAR!!! Check out Wail Aways online!!! Definitely check them out if you’re in Santa Cruz… heck, I saw check their schedule for live performances & coordinate a trip to go see them. Great place… here are the pictures…

  

So yeah, not your typical Bachelor Party… and honestly it was just a wonderful weekend hanging with my fiancée & her best bud… but yeah, absolutely fantastic weekend! Can’t wait to do it again!

 

Also, we brewed a Honey Amber...

 

...and we tested our Cheese Fountain for the wedding... spoiler alert, it works lovely.

 

Since then, I’ve been… experiencing some unpleasantness. My work has been accusing me of completely ridiculous things… I assume to get a rise out of me (or keep me in the company as long as possible for as little pay, which is a poor method of retaining exceptional talent). My former roommates are trying to extort money from me too. Basically when I moved out, upon their request, I left them a couch and gave my stereo to a roommate. Well… six weeks since the last time anybody has contacted me concerning… anything, they send an email requesting that I pay half of a trash pickup bill for those items (and stuff from another roommate who wasn’t officially on the lease so good luck proving that SHE even lived there… dizzy cunt). For many reasons, this is ridiculous. If they didn’t want the stuff, gladly would’ve taken it or disposed of it back when I did the rest. Also, there’s a free service with the apartment that takes care of all of that. ALSO, send me a text & I can take precious time and effort out of my day to remove my items for you. Nope. Just send an email saying that I owe them hundreds of dollars because… they decided that they didn’t want the free stuff six weeks later. Yup, I told them that it was completely ridiculous & wished them the best of luck with their new living arrangements. Drop mic.

 

The “Event Horizon” episode is up at eilfm.podbean.com on the Everything I Learned From Movies Podcast, but coming up in a few days… the next episode will feature a fairly similar movie, 1998’s “Sphere” starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone & Laurence Fish… NOPE, SAMUEL L. JACKSON!!! You may want to listen to the podcast to find out why I specifically had to point that out. Beers were involved… as is always the case on EILFM. Until next time, have a great weekend everybody!!!

Family Reunion & Anchor Brewing Tour

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Well, this past weekend was our EPIC four-day weekend trip to Utah and… it was over 1800 miles & a lot of hours in the car… but hey, it’s what you do for Adventure& Family. We drove up to Reno Thursday night after work (and a taste of the ChocoNut Stout at Elevation 66) and then continued the rest of the way across Nevada to my family reunion in Delta, Utah (central Utah desert). Now… the drive across Nevada… isn’t terribly usually (unless it’s triple digits in summer or flash flood or something) but… it’s definitely not the most entertaining either. About every hundred miles, there’s a little town with gas stations and stuff like Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko & Wells… but the rest is mostly the high desert landscape you’d expect. Izzy has a lot more pictures of this (because I was driving) so feel free to check out her blog for some great pictures of Nevada along I-80.

 

We got to “The Compound” around 4:30 PM, about ten minutes after my mom & cousin Alicia got there, so we helped them set up the camper… and then made our rounds to see the rest of the family… and then set up our homebrew station. Basically, we brought a five-gallon keg of our award-winning Honey Amber, a five-gallon keg of our Pale Ale, and a few bombers of our Bock, Cali Common, ChocoNut Stout & Torpedo Clone to share with my family. Needless to say, when you bring free beer to a party of rednecks, it goes pretty quickly… even if most of the people drinking are now in their 40’s & 50’s. As far as feedback, we make some pretty damn good beer… especially for people who don’t know much about craft beer. There were even some potential investors in the bunch… but probably not exactly multi-million dollar endorsements.

 

Saturday, we basically enjoyed each other’s company in the heat (high-80’s?) and played games… made ice runs into town… and even The Wingman stopped by for about two hours to say howdy since he lives about two hours away, so we caught up for a bit… and are already planning our next meetup… hopefully bringing his new wife and their NINE kids to the Bay sometime. I told him… “maybe just the two of you for a honeymoon… leave the kids with the dogs or something” but he seems REALLY happy & healthy so I’m glad about that. He’s had a rough year thus far…

 

Saturday afternoon, I headed to Salt Lake City to hang with my dad… but I had gotten some bad news just before we drove up there when apparently my stepmom’s dad had… he too has had a rough year since his wife died and… basically he called all of his kids in for… basically his last words. Yeah, I know… kinda of a kill buzz… but that’s what happened… and this was after I found out that my dad’s work schedule got flipped again… so he was going to work all day Sunday instead of hang out & watch football or something… but hey, obviously after my stepmom’s dad’s situation, that was kind of the least of our worries. Grandpa W was a great guy (spoiler alert, he passed away Monday while we were driving back) and basically the sweetest man you could ever hope to meet. I know a lot of people say that about people after they’ve gone but… I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it a few times while he was still around. Every Christmas he would have a family get-together and read the passages from the Bible about the Nativity Scene (until I took over this year) and the Birth of Christ… and you could just see him light up every time he saw one of his family members. He was just a treat through & through… and hopefully he’s in a happier place with his wife again. That’s about all you can really hope for. If anybody deserves to be “up there” then it’s Grandpa W.

 

So yeah, Saturday night, we watched some TV while catching up with one another… my dad was pretty sick (as he tends to be whenever I come to visit, which concerns me but… you know… he’s a guy so he brushes it off… pretty much like I would too) and we had a good time before we all turned in pretty early.

 

Sunday, dad went to work & my stepmom went to see her dad… so Izzy & I ended up going to a newly opened brewpub called “The Annex by EPIC Brewing” which is basically the gastropub for EPIC Brewing up in Sugarhouse. They serve the great beer that I briefly touched upon when I visited the brewery in December… and they had brunch offered this Sunday morning, which was actually pretty good too. From their fall selection, they had a Pumpkin Imperial Porter… and it’s pretty f**king fantastic… but then again, most of their beers are that way… and we sampled most of them during the meal. I highly recommend checking them out if you’re in the Salt Lake area… either at “The Annex” in Sugarhouse… or at their brewery downtown. They specialize in higher alcohol beers… but they also have a great selection of average-alcohol too… like their Festdevious Maerzen, which is among my favorites. There’s also their Brainless series which is their Brainless Belgian style ale… but barrel aged with other things like raspberries, peaches, cherries, or extra hops. They also have a relatively new Double Skull Dopplebock which… being a fan of bocks, I really liked. Definitely check them out if you get a chance.

 

After watching some football during the day, Izzy & I met up with some of my former coworker friends at Red Rock Brewing downtown to share a few beers, catch up on happenings… and basically just have a good time. It had been a while since I’d seen a few of them… but we reminisced about the “good ol’ days” and everybody had questions about things they’d read on Facebook… which I think is a pretty standard thing now. As for the beer at Red Rock, I don’t believe I’ve mentioned much about it before… but about five years ago now, I used to live across the street from there… and it was one of my first experiences with craft beer right after my few months in Denver. Basically my apartment was between Red Rock, another microbrewery called Squatters, and the Utah State Liquor State… the three places in downtown where you can get alcohol over 3% ABV. Not a bad spot… especially when I would go over to Red Rock and try their Amber Ale& Honey Wheat mostly… and they’ve also won a number of awards like Brewpub of the Year 2007 at the Great American Beer Festival & recently the Gold Medal at the 2014 World Beer Cup in the Experimental Category for Paardebloem (Belgian style ale with dandelions in place of hops, but unfortunately they were out of it). This time though, I tried their 20^th Anniversary Imperial Red Ale (very good, my kind of beer) and a Honey Wheat along with a personal pizza & some hot wings that I shared with Izzy. Great spot. Check it out if you’re in Salt Lake City.

 

That night, we came home a little early to watch football with my dad… but he wasn’t doing any better so he went to bed early & we did too as we were heading out at 6:30 AM or so the next morning for a long drive back to San Francisco. We made REALLY good time… and we were about to hit rush hour in Sacramento… so we decided to do an impromptu meetup with Izzy’s sister & her boyfriend at La Fiesta for tacos. Since we were early though, we stopped at Sierra College’s Natural History Museum because Izzy said it was badass… and it certainly was. Do you like DINOSAURS??? HISTORY??? SKULLS??? TAXIDERMY ON SAFARI??? FOSSILS??? Then this is the place for you… and bring the kids too. Behold the pictures of me having a full-frontal nerdgasm…

 

Tuesday night, I had the privilege of a special behind-the-scenes tour of Anchor Brewing which… is basically the grand/godfather of Craft Beer in the United States as far as I’m concerned. With over a hundred years of history behind them, constant expansion into nearly every bar in America & now overseas too… and looking to double their production in the next few years with another brewery in the Bay Area… this was truly a treat… and as part of the SF Homebrewer’s Guild, I can hardly believe that they allow us to have our monthly meetings there. If you’re willing to arrange it 4-6 months in advance, get the tour! Did you know Anchor is also a distillery? Me neither… it’s called Old Potrero & apparently their limited supply made (especially compared to their beer production) is so popular that you’ll rarely see their spirits on the shelf. Anyway, here are some pictures from my little tour that might stimulate you to go check it out first-hand… but keep in mind, this is just a camera phone so… it’s not going to be the best…

 

Another thing about Anchor… is I’m finding that their beers are among the best in the world… and if you haven’t tried them, then I suggest you try their lineup on almost any chance you get. In my humble opinion… the following samples are basically my benchmark for their respective style:

 

·         Anchor Steam – California Common (of course)

·         Old Foghorn – Barleywine

·         Christmas Ale

·         Anchor Bock – Bock (but I hear they’re discontinuing it?)

·         Anchor Porter – Porter (also rumored to be discontinued?)

·         Anchor Saison – About the only Saison I actually like a little

 

The rest of their lineup is also incredible like their IPA, Big Leaf Maple, California Lager, Brekle’s Brown, etc. but the ones above are basically what I judge other beers upon when they claim to be the same style. Yes, I know different recipes produce different results… but again, my humble opinion. I highly recommend checking these guys out if you haven’t (for some unknown reason).

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this week’s adventures… plenty more coming up this weekend. We start a new batch of Pumpkin Ale, transfer our Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Porter to secondary, sample a variety of pumpkin-based beverages, and even non-pumpkin related activities. Have a great pumpkin everybody!!!