Northern California Homebrewers Festival

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Last week, Izzy & I went to the California Academy of Sciences for Nightlife… so here are a few pictures from that… always fun…

 

This past weekend was the 19^th edition of the Northern California Homebrewers Festival at Lake Francis… and it was glorious as usual. Once a year, homebrew clubs from across the state meet up, rent out a campground, and basically have a magnificent 36 hours of worship towards Beer!!! This was our 3^rd time attending… and first time that we were actually there for the Friday night portion, including Hoppy Hour (though we got there just as they were wrapping up). Here are pictures…

 

The theme this year was Belgium, famous for waffles, chocolate, all kinds of stuff… but most importantly… monks making beer!!! Well, they’re also famous for… Les Stroumpfs… aka The Smurfs!!! So the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild decided to decorate our booth in the fashion of a Smurf Village… and here are some wonderful pictures of our booth…

 

…and there were plenty of other booths with great designs…

 

So yeah, the event was amazing, the people were great, the weather was decent, camping is fun, beer is yummy, as is greasy food, so yeah… can’t wait to go again next year!!! Until next time, have a great weekend everybody!!!

NCHF 2015

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

So Thursday… I was not feeling well… like at all. However, I still went to work. I figured it was just my body telling me I’m old or some sh*t and it’d be over in less than a day as it usually happens. Well… it didn’t… and by Friday morning, I could barely move out of bed… but was thankfully able to as getting to my bathroom in tame saved a LOT of towels & blankets from being forever stained. Too much information? Sorry… but just giving you the background… as I called in sick on Friday. However, there was one really important decision to be made as well… Northern California Homebrewers Festival!!! I had been waiting for this homebrew beer camp weekend since we went last year… and I’ll be damned if I was going to miss out on that… so I sucked it up & we packed up with enough food & utilities to basically move to the forest for a month… and celebrated a two-day weekend at Lake Francis Resort in Dobbins, California!

 

The weather… was pretty warm… as was expected this time of year. Luckily we didn’t catch much traffic on the way up… but there were a few spots in the Central Valley, and that was unpleasant, especially already being pretty drained of electrolytes & such… but enough about that sh*t, we got there just in time for Hoppy Hour! Okay, a little background, this is the 18^th NCHF but only our 2^nd. The festival is a gathering of homebrew clubs from Northern California, and we all come up, set up booths to share our best & favorite homemade alcoholic beverages, camp out at a beautiful foothill resort complete with a lake (that I’ve never set foot in) and just enjoy ourselves & our fellow homebrewers. It’s pretty f**king fantastic! Hoppy Hour was a bit of a kickoff while people were making their ways up to the resort after getting off work early… and a few club shared their brews. Afterwards, we then had a nice little dinner with the 24 other members of the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild who made it out for the event…

Saturday was the big day with booths & drinking all day! The theme this year was Prohibition, so there were a lot of speakeasy themed booths & garb… but for our booth, we did something similar to our NHC booth were it was prison themed (Alco-traz?) and we did pretty good (after cutting off all of our sleeves) but here are some pictures of booths found at big event…

 

 

Saturday night, we had a wonderful meal of pulled pork and played board games and drank beer all night… well, until about 10 PM when we just couldn’t take anymore… but then we slept like babes in a tent… and then we woke up the next morning, helped pack up the booth, and then headed home. Fantastic times!!! Can’t wait to go again next year!!!

 

Anyway, I know that’s kind of a brief summary of the festival, but hopefully the pictures speak thousands of words… and feel free to check out last year’s event as well. Lots of great stuff coming up the next few weeks with the start of Oktoberfestivities!!! Have a great week everybody!!!

Drinkin' with Dr Bamforth

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Saturday, about a dozen members of the SF Homebrewers Guild joined up at our VP’s house to build our booth for the Northern California Homebrewers Festival… and spoiler alert, it’s a prison theme similar to our NHC booth… but it’s called Alco-traz… and here are some teasers…

 

Sunday was the return of professional football… and I have the NFL Sunday Ticket… so I spent seven hours of my day watching the Red Zone Channel & drinking homebrew… like a f**king boss. Jealous? Well, swing on by the crib next time & we’ll do it potluck style.

 

Monday night, Izzy & I met up with Big Ben, Lone Cicerone & Li’l Jon and we attended a special event at Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo Room in Berkeley where the great Dr. Charles Bamforth (UC-Davis professor) was giving a special talk about beer, the history of beer, the chemistry & science of beer, and of course… each chapter in the talk was complimented with an appropriate beer. He discussed many thing like yeast, the chemistry of taste, nitrogen, foam, malt preparation, hops, attenuation of hops and a slough of other things… and a great night was had by all. Here are a few pictures…

 

Tuesday night was softball… and we fell into a bit of a hole early… I believe we were down 8-1 after the 2^nd inning, just a few fielding mistakes but in softball those things add up quick. However, a few innings later, we started clicking at the plate again… and we ended up winning 9-8 in a nailbiter. We’re 4-0 now… and I’m not one to brag… but I’m literally batting 1.000 this year still. 6-for-6 with two walks… I make it to the plate, son. I’ve even ran in about half of them (I’m near the end of the batting order). Anyway, great game everybody!!! Let’s keep this stuff going… and let’s get back to the blowout victories. They’re easier on my heart.

 

Well, that’s really about it for this entry… the next few days we’ll be getting ready for the Northern California Homebrewers Festival this weekend… and hopefully the wildfires here in California won’t ruin the festival… but seriously, my hearts go out to all of the people REALLY affected by the fire & those heroes that are out there putting them out in hellish conditions. God’s speed everybody! Have a great weekend!!!