Halloween Weekend 2014

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Thursday night & Friday morning at work, we (mostly my coworker Sopastar) made a pumpkin for a pumpkin decorating contest between departments... and here are just some of the amazing examples... you're welcome...

 

Friday night was our first Halloween Party of the weekend… and Izzy & I were providing two 5-gallon kegs of some of our finest beer to date… the Pumpkin Chocolate Porter & the Pumpkin Pie Ale 2.0. Basically we were traveling with about 80 pints of premium homebrew and were ready to get some people f**king DRUNK!!!

 

Now for our costume… the last two years we were basically Waldeaux (the New Orleans version of Waldo) and Carmen Sandiego… but we decided to do something a little different this year… and we went as… obscure cartoon characters from a decade ago. Remember “Drawn Together”? Of course you do… it’s an incredible Comedy Central cartoon… well, Izzy went as Ling Ling, an Asian trading card battle monster… and I went as Spanky Ham, a crass internet download who farts on retards… Google it!!!

 

Saturday morning was our event for National Learn to Homebrew Day… and we actually had a pretty good turnout of about 12 people (pats self on back for guess the other day) and it was a mix of people who had done a handful of batches before & people just interested in the idea but didn't know much about it... so Izzy & I did a great job of answering questions, showing how easy it all can be (as we were hosting a fantastic party WHILE making beer) and everybody brought some great potluck items to share. Basically we made a quick pale ale extract recipe & transferred our imperial stout to secondary. Here are some pictures...

 

Save the date for next's year Learn to Homebrew Day on November 7th, 2015!!! Apparently it's the first Saturday of November annually... which just worked out pretty well this year with Halloween. After everybody left, J-Mo showed up for LTHD apparently forgetting that it was 11 AM, not 5:30 PM... but we caught up and shared crazy stories from the past few months... and apparently, there may be a pretty epic Disneyland trip coming up soon... but details on the way. Good seeing J-Mo though!

 

Saturday Night, we had Izzy’s friend Sid’s Party over in Sacramento… and brought our beer with us too... and it was a HUGE hit! I actually knew about a dozen people at this party this year thanks to seeing them at past parties & random events here & there... but yeah, good time. I know Izzy misses all of her homeys back in Sactown... so I'm perfectly fine with making small talk with random strangers while she mingles... or just sitting back & sipping beer... but yeah, some great peeps she has up there.

 

Anyway, so yeah, pretty crazy busy Halloween weekend... and I don't really have any pictures of me as Spanky Ham... but as soon as some pop up on the internet, I'll share them with you... in the meantime, here's a preview...

 

Happy Halloween everybody!!!

Fury & Foamy

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Monday night, Izzy & I finally tasted our Pumpkin Chocolate Porter, as we couldn’t wait any longer (and it’d had plenty of time to carbonate in the keg) and let’s just say that Halloween party-goers are in for a treat. It’s a nice Baltic style porter with a little pumpkin puree in the malt bill & chocolate malts leading to some interesting characteristics. It’s not too heavy and has a good mouth feel to it… easy to drink all day, or more than likely night. Hopefully there’ll still be some left to share at the Learn to Homebrew Day Party too, but we shall see.

 

Wednesday morning, we also helped brew an East Bay IPA at Elevation 66 Brewing with Big Ben & Don Jon (Super Dave has had some late nights with the Giants’ playoff run) and it was pretty standard. We did share some of our homebrew (Bock, ChocoNut Stout & Cali Common) and got some good feedback on how to improve them in the future, but overall they said they were pretty damn good… and we’d have to agree.

 

Wednesday night, Jackie D & I visited a new establishment called Hopwater Distribution on Nob Hill which boasts a 30-tap selection, all of California-based craft breweries… and it’s actually a VERY nice place. It was much quieter than I would’ve expected with the Giants game going (then again, it might just be because nobody knows of the place yet) and the selection was impressive with everything from a saison to an IPA to milk stouts and everything in between to choose from. They also had some… decent snacks. Not exactly enthralling but… decent. I’d highly recommend checking it out before it becomes super-douchey. It definitely has that kind of potential.

 

Later, we were invited to a special preview of the new blockbuster “Fury” starring Brad Pitt, Shia LeBeouf & Michael Pena… directed by David Ayer (“Harsh Times” & “End of Watch”). It’s a pretty simple premise, set during the closing days of WWII in the German front, there’s a five-man team of tank operators with a tried & true leader (Pitt), three men who’ve served years with him, and then the new kid who’s only been in the army for two months & is an innocent soul. Well, War is Hell as you might’ve guessed… and from the harsh director of “Harsh Times” comes a pretty gritty & grimy yet realistic story about this team going through the last mission when Germany is absolutely desperate, and to save thousands of lives, these men have to protect a major crossroads to the Allied trade route… and German tanks are FAR superior to American. Basically, the atmosphere set in this movie is pretty f**king amazing. You feel like you’re in the tank with them. It’s always dirty, grimy & gray (save for one scene that starts out pretty damn clean… and then ends as grimy as it gets, you’ll know when you see it). The personal conflicts going on with the leader & the noob are done pretty well… and the other three main characters have their own minor things… but they’re essentially there for exposition & showing what noobs can turn into after three years in the sh*t… and Pitt’s character trying to save the new kid from that… but also realize that until he’s sent back home, their lives depend on them being focused Nazi killing machines. The movie is intense. If you liked “Saving Private Ryan” but thought it had it’s moments of being a little too Spielberg-y, then this is the movie for you. It’s definitely a guy movie… lots of blood & guts… but Jackie D enjoyed it as well, just mentioned that it was really harsh. I highly recommend that you check it out if you like the genre… but be warned, don’t take the kids… even if tanks are pretty f**king cool.

  

Thursday night, I received a few goodies in the mail… more books about homebrewing!!! I obviously haven’t read through them yet… but first up is “Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Beer from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery” which… as is pretty self-explanatory, a book about Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione (star of the briefly ran show “Brewmasters”) and his adventures in turning a hobby into a multi-million dollar business venture that’s ever expanding & lessons that he learned along the way. Obviously I’m a little interested, though I’m sure things/laws have changed since he started out. The other two books are “CloneBrews” by Tess & Mark Szamatulski & “Brewing Classic Styles” by Jamil Zainasheff & John Palmer, both of which are essentially recipe books for making nearly 300 different beer recipes ranging from standard stuff you can find in any supermarket to award-winning homebrews to exotic & experimental recipes that the experienced authors just tried at home. I’ve taken a quick glance through some of their offerings… and you may be seeing them made on this blog pretty soon.

 

Well, I’ve got some reading to do… so until next time, have a great weekend everybody!!!

Harvesting Beer

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This weekend I got around to getting some new shoes for Gretchen… the old ones weren’t horrible but they weren’t getting any better either, so she should be good for at least another five years. Happy early anniversary, Gretchen! Now we just need to get you some new brakes & spend a small fortune so that I’m allowed to insure you & drive you on the streets of California so that bikers that don’t pay ANYTHING can get angry when I use the roads. YAY!!! And f**k you, bikers!!!

 

Saturday morning, Izzy & I went through her garden and… basically she’s got a bit of a green thumb. Apparently our Chinook hops popped up over the last few weeks & are now tangled in the nearby fence… and our Mt. Hood hops haven’t sprouted (probably started them late) but we have some good garlic growing in the barrel bucket for now… and she had a nice harvest of sweet potatoes & regular potatoes… and BEETS!!! Behold!!!

 

Next up, we headed back to my place to start our Pumpkin Ale #2, which was our 2^nd batch ever made last September/October, and it was so damn good that we thought we’d do it again… and because it’s Pumpkin Beer Season! This particular Here are some pictures…

 

 

 

We also kegged our Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Porter so it should be ready for drinking in a few days… and if the test sample is any indication… it’s gonna be pretty good… but we shall see…

 

Izzy sampling from the hydrometer...

mmm... so hot...

We also tasted our Experimental Batch of Pale Ales and... they're pretty fantastic. The strawberry & kiwi pale ales especially... like we may need to do a whole batch of combining those two. The jalapeno pale ale had a nice burn, but not too much. That was with two little chilis per 12 oz bottle. Even the pineapple was good, the dry hopped wasn't my bag, but still pretty good. Very similar to our Torpedo clone. Here are some pictures... but trust me, they're all good...

 

Well, that was this past weekend… and this next weekend is OAKTOBERFEST!!! It’s a celebration of German beer & the beer community in the heart of Oakland… and I’ve been excited about it for many months now. Can’t wait to show you all… have a great day everybody!!!