The Visit with Keanu

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This weekend was pretty relaxing involving mostly horror flicks & finding out I needed a few more things to pull off the podcast… but here are the highlights…

 

First up, we watched one of director Eli Roth’s new movies called “Knock Knock” starring legendary thespian Keanu Reeves as a married architect whose home working& burning the midnight oil one weekend night while his wife & kids are playing at the beach (like five miles from his house?) when all of a sudden, during this rainy night, two young attractive ladies dressed in see-through party clothes are at his door saying that they got dropped off at the wrong place by their Uber & they’re looking for a party… can they use his phone? They’re not getting a signal. NOPE!!! Slams door in their face… roll credits. It was more of a short film. Of course that’s not what happens… he invites them in being a nice (stupid) guy… they start flattering him… long story short, Keanu pulls a three-way with girls who are younger combined. Well, he wakes up the next morning… and they’re still there… and just making themselves at home… like, completely… and long story short… sh*t gets out of control. Now… the premise of the movie… pretty good. That’s why I wanted to watch it originally. The atmosphere & everything built is a great little horror flick… tension is built… but then sh*t just gets f**king stupid. The second half of the movie is just one plot convenience after another… and yeah, it’s just kind of frustrating and hard to watch towards the end. Would I recommend seeing it? Sure, why not? I like Eli Roth movies & it’s not “Hostel” levels of gore (though there are moments Izzy had to turn away) which I support. That being said… there are definitely flaws. It’s basically the story of a stupid architect being outwitted by two attractive teenage chicks.

 

Next up was “Annabelle”, the 2014’s prequel to 2013’s “The Conjuring” with this installment detailing the “true” (documented) story of a doll possessed by an evil entity of some sort. So… a young married couple Mia & John are in a quiet neighborhood… and then there are some Manson Family murders next door… and because they went to check out the noise, they bring it to their house… and Mia is hurt while the assailants are gunned the f**k down! Well… apparently the soul of one of the attackers gets transported into her (already creepy f**king looking) antique doll and… look, I’m going to stop right here. This movie is “Child’s Play” meets “Rosemary’s Baby” or some crazy sh*t like that…  and occasional appearances from the dark demon figure borrowed from the “Insidious” movies. By the way, am I the only one that REALLY gets “Insidious” & “The Conjuring” confused because it uses the same actors (Patrick Wilson) and most of the storylines? I can’t be right? Anyway, if you’re okay with the whole killer doll thing & suspend your disbelief, then the movie’s pretty good. Tension is built, there are a few great creepy scenes, VERY ominous tone, you don’t really know what’s going on half the time… and I always thought that there may be a twist that somebody was just losing their mind… and maybe there are a few twists like that… you’ll just have to see to find out… but when you get down to it… it’s about a killer doll, right? I’d say check it out. The director did a decent job… and the only other major release movie to his credit is… “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” aka the pretty bad sequel. I’d say check it out if you want… but not mandatory.

 

 

Lastly was this year’s “The Visit” from infamous director M. Night Shyamalan who has made some real stinkers in his recent history… but everybody is apparently on board that this is his best in well over a decade. Well, this is the story of two teenagers (documentarian sister & younger cracker rapper brother) who go on a visit to their grandparents in Monroeville, PA (farm country) whom they have never met before… as their mom basically disowned them when she was 19 & pregnant… and there’s elusion to another event that led to them parting ways. The kids are there for about a week while the mom is on a cruise with her boyfriend… and they’re documenting the event with video cameras (found footage film) and things start off well enough… but their grandparents have some VERY unusual habits… that seem to be getting progressively worse… and creepier. Now, I thought this movie was pretty damn good. There are a few things that just irritated the hell out of me (mostly the dialogue from the kids sounding REALLY contrived and obviously from a writer/director/occasional cameo actor… and especially the kid rapping… and a few ‘found footage’ shots where I questioned who was videotaping… and a few scenes of “WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE???”) but overall, yeah… it’s a pretty good scary flick. I’d recommend checking it out. Is this the Return of the Shyamalan? We shall see…

 

Sunday morning, Izzy & I also started our first New Brew of 2016… and it was our 2^nd attempt at making a Russian Imperial Stout!!! That’s right, $teve’s Birthday Cake 2.0 has officially begun!!! You may remember from last year that this particular brew requires a LOT of fermentable sugars to get the high alcohol content that we’re looking for… and because of a few things we’ve learned the past year from getting proper attenuation from the grains, etc. we were able to increase our original gravity (basically sugar content) enough that it should be 1-2% MORE alcohol than our original… which after barrel aging was already 11-12%. Anyway, we’ll keep you posted obviously… but here are some pictures of the process…

 

 

The next morning... so much activity it blew off our bubbler...

One sad note… was that our Belgian Quad that we started before Christmas… apparently got an infection, probably due to poor sanitization on our part… so unfortunately we ended up dumping the batch. We’ve also been trying to completely sanitize every piece of the FastFerment conical fermenter that it was in. With the fermenter being made of plastic, it’s easier to get some things in the microscopic nooks & crannies… but hopefully we can still salvage it. Worst case scenario: We have a new souring fermentor… but we should be able to get it back to prime. Dumping the entire five gallon batch is sad of course… but since this is the first batch that we’ve really had to dump in about 50 attempts over the past 2.5 years… apparently that’s REALLY good luck & preparation on our part. Still… it would’ve been nice to try out that quad… oh well… soon enough I’m sure…

 

Izzy also made some jerky... with secret ingredients... okay, it's Mountain Dew & Adobo... and it's delicious...

 

Monday night was the Annual Party for employees at Elevation 66 Brewing… and we were invited!!! YAY!!! Big Dave remembered!!! No, seriously… Super Dave honestly just forgot to invite us last year… but this year, he took everybody to Albany Bowl for pizza, beer & bowling!!! It was awesome!!! I showed up after work so everybody was WELL into the festivities by the time we got there… but we had a great time with Super Dave, Lady E, Big Ben, Lone Cicerone and everybody else.

 

Later this week, Izzy & I will be heading off on a nice little getaway to my former mistress… Las Vegas, Nevada (as opposed to Las Vegas, New Mexico). What are we going to do while we’re there? Wouldn’t YOU like to know? Well… we’re still kind of figuring all of that out since I’ve been there MANY times and she hasn’t really been there as an adult… but if you know us, you know the kind of crazy stuff we’ll end up stumbling upon… oh and my Wingman will be meeting up with us too!!! Musicals? Possibly. Brewery tours? More than likely. Drinking? B**ch, please!!! EPIC PARTY WEEKEND ALERT!!! Have a great weekend yourselves, everybody!!!

Experimental Ale & the Start of Pumpkin Season

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Saturday, we started off the morning with a good breakfast… and then we kegged our Honey Amber & Pale Ale batches that were ready…

 

Next up was setting up our Quad Core Kit with the 2^nd batch of Pale Ale, placing about a gallon in each container… along with their special ingredients for secondary fermentation… pineapple, kiwi, strawberries & Willamette hops...

 

We also filled a few bottles with the Pale Ale as well as some of Izzy’s Basket of Fire Jalapenos…

 

Later, we started up our first beer in preparation for Halloween & the Fall Season, a delicious Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Porter… which sounds a LOT sweeter than it will actually be… but it’s basically something along the lines of a Baltic Porter… but with additions of cocoa powder & pumpkin puree… and some special seasonal spices from our spice rack to really bring it home. Yes, it’s experimental… and hopefully just produces a wonderful full-bodied beer with a little twist… and yes, we’ll also be making another batch of our Pumpkin Ale (from last fall) but that’ll be a few weeks later so both are ready for Halloween get-togethers. Here are some pics from setting up the Porter…

 

Izzy also made us some jerky for the road trip to Utah next weekend... and we got some badass shirts for the SF Homebrewer's Guild...

 

Izzy has also made an entry for the NCHF Logo Competition but I'm going to hold off until the competition entry date to show you... it's pretty f**king awesome...

 

Sunday night, we were interested in going to see "Ghostbusters" in the theatre as they've been rereleased for their 30th anniversary... but they were asking more than $15 per person... so we said f**k that & watched both Ghostbusters movies back at my home theatre. Fantastic! I highly recommend it.

 

This week will be getting set for our road trip to Utah... so that'll be a lot of fun... Happy Labor 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!!!