Super Bowl L50

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This last week has been pretty crazy at work & at home with the presence of Super Bowl 50 here in the Bay Area. Last Monday, Izzy & I thought that since we were stuck in traffic so often & had to put up with some of the “benefits” of hosting the big game… why not check out some of the festivities? So we went down to the Embarcadero to see Super Bowl City.

 

First & foremost though, Izzy & I had the opportunity to see “Deadpool” the other night… a week before released in theatres. Yes, this is yet another comic book / graphic novel / superhero movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and I know that a lot of you are tired of them. I’m starting to get there… but there’s some great movies out there… if not just for fun. This movie… is f**king AMAZING!!! Now… it’s rated R for violence, sexual references, language & other content… but if you know anything about the comics, then you already know this. Ryan Reynolds plays Wade Wilson… who’s a wise-cracking mercenary with a heart of gold… but when he’s diagnosed with cancer, he takes part in some experiments to overcome the illness by releasing his recessive mutant genes to help combat the cancer cells. Well… he soon finds out that it’s all a shame to make super soldier slaves… but not before they release some of those powers. He escapes the facility… but due to the process, he’s horribly disfigured so he lives with a blind lady instead of his super hot prostitute girlfriend (Morena Baccarin), and spends a lot of his time hanging with his comic relief bartender buddy (TJ Miller). Well… now he’s full of vengeance to take out the guy who disfigured him (Ed Skrein) and that’s BEFORE he decides to kidnap his girlfriend… yes… making this basically a wisecracking superhuman ninja VENGEANCE movie that’s rated R for violence, sexual references, language & adult content. This movie is basically MADE for me… and probably you if you’re an adult. I HIGHESTLY recommend that you go check this movie out… give it all your money. I would do the pros & cons thing… but there’s really not a whole lot of cons that I can come up with. The story is told is a way that it’s an origin story but keeps you entertained throughout… the acting it good… the effects are okay… the questionable actors (Gina Carano) are kept to a few words at most… it’s basically just a lot of fun & Ryan Reynolds is perfectly cast. This movie… is a THOUSAND times better than his first portrayal of Deadpool in that sh*t snack movie “Wolverine Origins” a few years back that I spent more time talking about my brother being “one of those guys” who talks about how the movie is different from the comics than talking about the movie. It just wasn’t good… and it had Wolverine, Deadpool AND Gambit. Sigh… anyway, a THOUSAND times better. Give this one all of your money. Don’t take the kids. Take the girlfriend.

 

Back to football... Super Bowl City was… well… to be honest, it was basically a BIG promotional platform for the NFL’s many sponsors… from Bud Light to Pepsi to Hewlett Packard to Verizon Wireless to CBS Sports to anything else that Peyton Manning forgot to mention in his post-game interview. After getting through the security checkpoint, we wandered around to see what was going on… and there was a lot of stuff to buy… but the interesting stuff was little tents / structures where you could see some new promotional technology for a company… we caught a game-winning touchdown pass with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (that we could then hashtag CBS Sports for a chance to win free junk mail) and there was also a concert venue for free concerts. The night we went, it was a guy named Alomar… never heard of him… not good enough to Google. Alicia Keyes was on Saturday night though… and because it was free, they had to close the doors at 2 PM so that people wouldn’t literally stand on one another. Anyway, here are some pictures…

 

 

Friday night, we met up with Izzy’s mom & aunties for some wine sampling & karaoke at Four Fools Winery in Rodeo (near their homes). The venue is small, nice, and very communal. I really liked it. It’s kind of a wine taproom meets a storage facility for other vineyards… but they’re growing so that they can get their own vines one day. We basically spent the first hour or so chatting up with some of the owners… and yeah, they were pretty great. We sampled their wines, had some snacks, and then it was off to the great room to sing “Naughty Girl” like a f**king boss…

 

Sunday was the big game… so we went to a party with some elderly lesbians (as is the norm most weekends as you may have noticed) but it was hella fun! The party was… not the game… that was actually pretty hard to watch with all the turnovers & sloppy play… but that Denver Defense really took over. Well played guys! That’s really all I’ve gotta say on this game.

 

Now for the REALLY BIG NEWS from this week. Izzy & I have FINALLY… recorded a PODCAST!!! Yes, it only took like… three months… but we did it. It’s recorded… and should be coming to the internet in the next day or two… and to iTunes shortly after that. Details to come… but again, it’s called “Everything I Learned From Movies” or you can just hashtag #EILFM and it’ll be trending before you know it. Until then, have a great day everybody!!!

Adventures in Barrel Aging

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Friday, Izzy stopped by Seven Stills of San Francisco, which is a local distillery that makes whiskey by distilling craft beer. Distilling is essentially the process of heating wort (you know, that solution of water, sugar, etc that you get during the brewing process) until it evaporates… and with alcohol being lighter than water, it will pass through the process more efficiently, producing a solution with higher alcohol content. Basically, after a few times, it’ll take about 5 gallons of beer that’s normally about 5% ABV… and turn it into about a gallon of whiskey that’s more like 40% ABV. Then Seven Stills will age this whiskey in a charred oak barrel for a few months or years depending on what they want to do with it. In this case, they had filled these barrels with whiskey distilled from a coffee porter… so on top of the smoked oak flavors from the barrel… and the whiskey portion, there’s also a little hint of coffee & malty porter in there too… but honestly, for my pallet, I’m sure the burn of the 30-40% ABV will pretty much conquer that until it wears off on the back end. I’m curious to try their shine though… and in the meantime, they were offering some of their smaller five-gallon barrels to our homebrewer’s guild to make some delicious brews… and so we picked up one of their barrels to age some of our homebrew.

 

What we decided to do with our barrel is use it to age our Imperial Stout that has been aging for the past few months in my apartment. The result is taking our Imperial Stout which should already have a strong malty backbone with molasses, caramel, chocolate and vanilla notes up front… and then with the barrel aging will bring out some of that smokiness from the charred oak and possible some of that lingering coffee & whiskey notes that has soaked into the wood on the back end… which should make for a great full bodied beer (with about a 10-13% ABV overall) ready just in time for my birthday in April. First though, we have to prepare the barrel…

 

When you get the barrel, because of a multitude of things… like it being made of wood… and bacteria & other things can get into it VERY easily… and frankly, we have no idea where this thing has been other than passed along through a warehouse in the Dogpatch for the past few months/years… we have to do a few things to unsure that we don’t get a lot of living things growing & reproducing in our beer besides our own yeast in the stout. The first step is to clean the barrel up a bit on the outside (luckily this one was pretty well maintained).

 

 Mmm... smellovision... check out the oak layers...

  

Then you’ll usually get enough water to fill up the barrel and let it soak overnight to make sure that the wood hasn’t shrunk a little bit & left gaps between the wood planks that comprise the barrel. Again, luckily this is a fairly fresh barrel so we didn’t have to do the overnight thing… but this brings up another point.

 

Sidenote on Barrel Maintenance: If you’re going to use a barrel for multiple brews (which we intend to) then you never really want the barrel to be empty. That’s to say, you always want liquid in the barrel. If we didn’t have a batch of beer ready to put in it this weekend, then we would’ve put five gallons of water in there. This is to make sure that the barrel doesn’t dry out & crack or just cause the barrel to become less uniform and leak. We plan on having our next batch ready to go when we take our Imperial Stout out in a few months… but to be honest, we have no idea what it’s going to be just yet. Also, just as a rule of thumb, after about three batches of so… your barrel IS going to get a bit of an infection, meaning that some bacteria and/or wild yeasts are going to get into the wood. However, these yeasts that would otherwise just sour your beer (because you can’t brew anything that’ll kill you, just taste unexpected) can also be utilized to make some rather unique Sour Beers or bring out different flavors in an old recipe that you might want to try or experiment with. Some of the world’s most unique & highly regarded beers are from process like this. So yeah, we’ll probably try something like that with our 3^rd or 4^th batch with this barrel… but that’s a bit down the road. For now, let’s continue to prepare this barrel for our first barrel aging batch…

 

The next step is to disinfect the inside of the barrel. We do this by heating up enough water to fill the barrel (in this case, five gallons) to somewhere between 140-180 degrees Fahrenheit. Water this hot will kill any bacteria and other organisms that it comes into contact with. In this case, we were on the high end of 170 degrees because better safe than sorry. I’ve read that the higher the water temp, the more stuff is taken out of the oak (in this case whiskey) but it’s probably just a miniscule difference between 145 & 175… and we just don’t want bad things growing & then dying in our beer. This also takes the place of other sanitizers such as StarSan or One Step because the chemicals in those are bad for the oak from what I understand. Anyway, you leave the water in there for about 45-60 minutes… and then you drain it… pulling out what appears to be heavily diluted whiskey from the barrel as well as any floaty things that you don’t want in your beer…

 

Once the water has been drained… now your barrel is ready to receive your brew…

 

From there, you just transfer it into the barrel, plug the top with a bung & stopper, and set in a cool, dark place for a while. Well, technically you probably don’t really need it to be that dark since it’s surrounded in oak & light won’t get through… but don’t put it in sunlight or anything, that’ll dry out that oak REAL quick & cause cracks. We put it in our brewery corner. Also, as far as how long you want to leave it be… there are a few trains of thought, but it’s really up to you. Some just give it a set amount of time… and then bottle or keg when the time has passed, of course checking periodically to make sure that the pressure release stopper on top is still bubbling periodically. Others test the beer periodically through a little sampling port or just scooping some out of the barrel… but that can obviously lead to more infection from the open air or the vessel used to get the sample. It’s your barrel, do what you want… we’ll be keeping an eye on the bubbling… and probably checking and/or bottling around the first part of April, depending on the activity. That way we can get a LOT of whiskey out of the oak… and it’ll have to be quite a lot of be noticeable in the Imperial Stout… and we have some high gravity yeast in there anyway (had to repitch a little bit just before Christmas) so it’s still working pretty good.

 

 Cleaning out the carboy with PBW...

We also sampled some of our Imperial Stout as is… and it’s f**king delicious. Like I mentioned earlier, very rich, malty, molasses & caramel notes, hint of vanilla… and you get a little bit of burn as well because… if my calculations are correct going from 1.088 OG to 1.010 gravity reading right now… it’s already about 11% ABV and now it’s being soaked in a whiskey barrel… and still bubbling away… so it should be pretty potent… and have a LOT of different flavors giving it a full body flavor (hopefully not too dry since it’s turning a lot of the sugars into booze, but so far so good). Anyway, we’ll obviously keep you posted.

 

Since we had everything out, we also transferred our Ramble Tamble Red Ale into the secondary fermenter… and thanks to being an all-grain recipe, dry hopping AND remembering the Whirfloc tablet this time… there was a lot of trube to be cleared out… but the beer is looking great…

 

After doing beer stuff, we headed a few houses down to J-Mo’s Smash Party… you know, setting up old Nintendo gaming systems (N64 & GameCube this time) and playing games of our youth? Well, I never had an N64 or GameCube, so this was my first time playing games like “Goldeneye” & “Super Smash Brothers” but I’ve obviously played similar games… apparently these were the original 4-player first person shooter & battle field style games… and honestly, they held up pretty good. Of course the 1997 graphics from “Goldeneye” are nothing compared to 2015 ANYTHING but for being almost 20 years old… you can definitely tell who is who at least… and the gameplay is pretty good too. I can see why this is always on the lists of Top 25 games of all time. We of course also played some “Super Mario Kart” as that’s just a fun f**king party game… so yeah, good times.

 

Sunday was the Super Bowl Party at Izzy’s Aunts… and we brought some beer… and some beer muffins… and it was just amazing fun… and of course my predictions were really, really, really, really close. I was one point off the final score (Patriots scored 28 instead of 27) and the game did technically end on an interception by the Patriots Defense… but it was their 3^rd string situational corner instead of Darrelle Revis. That’s pretty close… and let’s face it, Katy Perry was the real winner of the Super Bowl.

 

Anyway, that’s about all I have for this weekend… but plenty more fun still coming up this next week… including a batch of Cider, making another batch of “Damn Good Beer” with Izzy’s Aunts, and a wonderful dinner at Elevation 66 Brewing coming up next Monday. Have a great day everybody!!! Oh… and one more thing…

 

Super Bowl Prediction XLIX

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

I caught my attention the other day that I hadn’t done a lot of movie reviews since Christmas… so here are a few that I’ve seen while catching up with everything else the past month or so…

 

First up is “The Equalizer” starring Denzel Washington, which is basically a pseudo-reboot of the Ed Woodward TV series from the 80’s… but it brings Denzel back together with “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua to establish him as a veritable badass in a day where the biggest action stars of our day… are in their golden years (yes, Denzel is 60, and black don’t crack). Robert McCall (Washington) is a quiet man who works at a Home Depot knockoff and is trying to put his mysterious past behind him… but then he stumbles upon a young Russian prostitute (Chloe Moretz) and before you know it… he’s up to his eyeballs in badass Ruskie gangsters. Luckily, his mysterious past involves Mr. McCall as some kind of super CIA agent or something… or in other words… he has a certain set of skills to help him destroy his newfound enemies. Basically the movie is kind of what you expect, lots of slow-mo action between long bits of tense moments… and a lot of jabbering in between too… you know, gotta fill in the full two hours-plus. Denzel is awesome of course… and I actually want to give a shout-out to Marton Csokas… who you probably know from a bunch of other movies, but he’s basically got the evil Russian badass typecasting on lock (he’s in “XXX”, “Aeon Flux”, “Bourne Supremacy”, “Kangaroo Jack”, and a few others that you probably wouldn’t recognize him… but you know him). Aside from that though, there are quite a few points in this movie where… they basically just lost me with a LOT of things that simply wouldn’t happen in real life. Overall though, I’d say check it out if you like the genre… of either secret agent stuff, or badasses of a certain age, or just action directors trying to be artsy. Check it out.

 

Next up was “The Interview” starring Seth Rogen & James Franco as a TV show host and his producer who stumble upon the opportunity to interview the most reclusive world leader in the world, Kim Jong-un… and then are recruited by the U.S. government to assassinate him… apparently because he has nukes at his disposal & they thought this was their best bet. Now, a lot has been made about the Sony hackers getting a hold of this movie… and then the threats… and essentially all the free marketing that came from it… and the (alleged) loss of millions in revenue from the fallout of it… but let’s be real. Sony didn’t lose money on this movie… and if so, somebody is fudging the numbers. Even with a very limited theatre release, basically everybody I know has seen it… and it’s already on Netflix about a month after it was officially released… so stop with that. The movie is obviously not supposed to be taken seriously… but you can see where some might take offense to the material. I don’t care. I think that if there was a North Korean team of stoner stars that could come up with a funny enough script, they’d probably fire back with their own spoof on action films… but they don’t. This movie was actually a LOT better than I was expecting. Yes, Seth & James play their usual kind of loveable f**k-ups with plenty of poop jokes & all that… but beneath all that, there’s actually a little bit of miniscule character development… and the guy who played Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) was probably the best part of the whole movie. At times, he’s absolutely loveable & heartfelt… and at other times, he flicks the switch onto evil… and through it you sense a little bit of the character… and that’s kinda what acting is, right? Then he sh*ts himself & you’re back to the movie… but overall, I’d say check it out on Netflix… and I really liked the soundtrack too (especially the Isaac Hayes intro as they approach Kim’s palace).

Aside from that, I’ve been basically playing catchup the past few weeks/month. You know… trying to come from behind like the f**king Seahawks in that NFC Championship game a few weeks back. So on that note, I thought I’d help break down the Super Bowl for you. Now, I know that a LOT of my readers don’t know a whole lot about football… and care even less… but basically in the end there’s a prediction… but before that, the reasoning… behind my Super Bowl XLIX pick of the defending champions Seattle Seahawks (still sounds weird) and the New England Patriots!!!

 

Coaches: You REALLY have the two ends of the spectrum here. Patriots coach Bill Belicheck is the grumpy-looking, short-answering three-time Super Bowl Champion coach who will apparently do anything to win, even if it means bending the gentlemen’s agreements rules a bit. He’s the Gregg Popovich of the NFL, except I’m pretty sure Popovich has a soul. Why is Bill so willing to bend the rules? Well… probably because HE GOT KICKED OUT OF CLEVELAND!!! Seahawks coach Pete Carroll will also do what it takes to win… as he’s proven by throwing out the rulebook while coaching the USC Trojans dynasty a decade ago… and with all the PED suspensions the past few years… and basically daring the NFL to change every rule in the book defensively. However, he’s also charismatic, fun-loving & boisterous… and basically lets his other coaches & players kinda do what they feel to build a team… which may be the future of the NFL, where the players have more pull than the coaches… and Bill actually replaced Pete in New England shortly before the championship rings started coming… hmm… Advantage? I’ve gotta go with three rings over one (and anybody can coach USC to a national championship, let’s face it… you’re convincing the best 18-year olds in the nation to go to Hollywood to f**k starlets during their prime f**king years… and you can throw cash at them? Come on, son).

 

Advantage: New England (but close)

 

Quarterbacks: Sigh… these mother f**kers are just too damn handsome. I mean… let’s be honest, the good-looking quarterback has been around since the beginning… but these guys are both literally GQ model handsome… and supremely talented at the most difficult position in the most difficult sport in the world… and from what I can tell they’re both f**king SAINTS!!! Patriots QB Tom Brady is the late round draft pick from the Bay Area with a chip on his shoulder for the past 15 years… whose married to a Victoria’s Secret supermodel… has sired progeny… and from what I can tell is pretty f**king nice to everybody who’s not talking sh*t on him. Then you have Seahawks QB Russell Wilson… who’s a 3^rd round draft pick… who’s too small to play in the NFL (under six feet tall) so he’s also got the chip on his shoulder… but he’s also the nicest guy you’ve ever met… and literally visits hospitals every Tuesday to say hi to kids… and currently makes about 3% the salary that Brady makes… for the reigning NFL champions. He’s almost TOO perfect. Basically, Wilson is what Brady was 12-13 years ago when the Patriots had their dynasty. He’s the “game management” QB who does what he can, but not too much, just avoiding turnovers if at all possible to give his team the best chance to win. Brady has kinda morphed from that into the pass-first superstar that he’s paid to be… and has done it well… but is he on the downhill of his career? Is Wilson the next Brady? Is this game the 2015 Patriots vs. the 2003 Patriots if they had twitter? Maybe… but that’s not the question… or is it? No it’s not. Wilson may be the future… but is he this Sunday?

 

Advantage: New England (3 rings versus 1 again, though dollar-for-dollar, obviously Seattle)

 

Running Backs & Receivers: Seattle RB Marshawn Lynch has become the most dominant running back in football (even if by default thanks to Adrian Peterson& Ray Rice taking the year off for… personal reasons). He works hard, he plays hard, he doesn’t do interviews. Over the next year, if the NFL makes him speak, I want him to transform into Clubber Lang from “Rocky III” and make a pass at Roger Goddell’s wife during Media Day at the next Super Bowl. I love his silent treatment… and the self-promotion that he’s doing… but the NFL can’t have things being promoted that they’re not getting a cut (or a monopoly) on… so that has to go. The Seattle receivers though… I can only tell you that Doug Baldwin is one because of his hilarious press conference… no real stars, mostly role players. Patriots backs? Basically a running back by committee but LeGarrette Blount is a bulldozer… and he’s almost made me forget when he sucker punched that guy after losing a game in college. The Patriots receivers… they’re marginally better than the Seahawks… but Rob Gronkowski pushes them well above.

 

Advantage: Seattle (BEAST MODE!!! Stop the run if you can…)

 

The Big Guys: Football games are won in the trenches… at least they were until every passed 75% of the time. Every single play you have 5-7 men averaging about 300 pounds each, lined up against 5-7 men of similar size… basically playing tug-of-war but with a football & no rope. Sadly, most people don’t even pay attention to it unless they’re checking the replay for “holding” or watching NFL Films’ super slow-mo battles on a documentary… but it’s literally half the people on the field all jammed up in the middle while we’re fixated on the people with the ball. It’s quite remarkable.

 

Advantage: Draw… until one of them gets to do an awkward Big Man touchdown dance, it’s just an unsung integral part of the game.

 

Secondary: Seattle of course has been called “The Legion of Boom!” which I love as an old wrestling fan… and they don’t disappoint. Is Richard Sherman too cocky for his own good? Well, he got f**king paid… and he probably wouldn’t have unless he was… so I’ll allow it. Earl Thomas & Kam Chancellor have been boss since college. New England though… they only have probably the best corner of our generation Darrelle Revis& last year’s legion member Brandon Browner, who signed on this year specifically to try to strengthen their secondary is this pass-happy league.

 

Advantage: Seattle (but don’t sleep on New England, pick sixes win championships)

 

Special Teams: The kickers in this game… are Steven Hauschka & Stephen Gostkowski… need I say more?

 

Advantage: STEVES IN GENERAL!!! WE F**KING RULE!!!

 

Experience/Luck: The NFL is weird… because as soon as you gain enough experience to be taken as an undeniable force of nature, you’re a 30-year old has-been and you’re inevitable going to end your career in a year or two. Basically experience = destruction. The trick is finding that sweet spot… and a LOT of luck. As much as I love to give the coach & quarterback props for being three-time champions… the last one was a decade ago… and I think Vince Wilfork is the only other Patriot from those teams (see big guys). Seattle has almost everybody from last year… neither team really has any glaring injuries… they both seem to be on incredible streaks at the right time in the right circumstances… and that’s all through teamwork & preparation… so what’s the deciding factor then?

 

Advantage: Seattle (Did you SEE how they won the NFC championship?)

 

Cities They Represent: Both are beautiful cities that I’ve had wonderful vacation at these links (Boston) (Seattle). I can’t stand the Bostonian accent, but they’re tough blue-collar people that I respect… and they have guys like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and half the comics in the world representing them… very loudly. Seattle is the clean, progressive hippie metropolis of the future… but they lost their basketball team to Oklahoma City just before they peaked. As far as representatives of their city, they have… like… Dave Grohl, Ed Begley jr & Macklemore. Hmm… maybe a push isn’t too far off.

 

Advantage: Seattle… because the games are actually played in the city of Seattle, not 30 miles away in a suburb

 

Media / Public Relations: “DeflateGate” is the latest for the Patriots… Marshawn Lynch doesn’t want to talk to reporters, but apparently has to, but even when he does, the NFL fines him… is it really that slow of a newsweek? Isn’t there a missing airplane or war we’re not supposed to know about going on? What’s that? Only a fairly-bad storm on the East coast far away Arizona? Okay… I guess you can keep talking about footballs being a little flat or an athlete not wanting to go through the motions with the press…

 

Advantage: Katy Perry is going to be the Halftime Show… with “special guest” Lenny Kravitz… and everybody’s going to watch in hopes of a “wardrobe malfunction” that will never come… thanks America!!!

 

Overall: God I hope this is a good game… last year’s was supposed to be & it made me hurt to watch… thankfully my buddy beer was there to help Jackie D & myself through that debacle. Basically, my breakdown above has a final tally of 4 for Seattle, 2 for New England and 3 as basically a draw. So with that in mind…

 

Prediction: Seattle 24, New England 27 (thanks to a Darrelle Revis pick-six) What’s that? It doesn’t make sense? It doesn’t f**king have to!!! This is American Football, baby!!! Yes, Seattle looks like it has the makings of a veritable dynasty!!! So did Denver!!! So have the Patriots for the past 15 years!!! So have the Colts for just about as long (except that one year where they kinda pulled a Spurs in ’96 drop to get that #1 spot)!!! So with that in mind, I gotta go with what my gut tells me… and my gut tells me that Seattle may have some nice microbreweries like Elysian or Pike or Pyramid… but Boston has the ORIGINAL CRAFTBREW JUGGERNAUT in Samuel Adams!!! So that’s what I’m going with…

 

Have a great weekend everybody!!!