Whoo Hoo Indeed

This may in fact be the last piece of Simpon's merchandise that it is possible for me to own. How is it that the Homer Simpson pajamas were the last?

Bucs @ Broncos (Oct 5th)

Troublesome? Perhaps, I for one welcome my new feminine attributes.

Weel 1: WAS @ NYG (Game Notes)

1st 14:xx - Eli mouths "My bad. Fuck"... on a broken screen. Looks stupid.

2nd 11:05 - Eli throws right to Smoot. Eli looks like crap. Smoot dropped it!? WAS DL/OL also looks like crap.
2nd 11:03 - PEN:Encroachment on FG attempt. Stupid. (still 4th down)
2nd 09:28 - Portis has no seams. The trenches collapse into a ruck every single down.
2nd 06:xx - Manning Man Crush
2nd 05:25 - WAS secondary learns to tackle low on Jacobs. Gave him a 20+ yrd first though.
2nd 02:50 - Get the damn pick! (Carlos Rodgers)
2nd 01:25 - Go Rocky Go! (~50yrd KR)
2nd 01:10 - Campbell completes to Randel El. Jason is taking far too long on his drops. WR's aren't getting separation.
2nd 01:04 - Two PEN on NYG D... do they finally start to unravel? Cuz they suck, they just don't know it yet.
2nd 01:00 - ... uh no. WAS OL still folding like a cheap chair.
2nd 00:13 - Campbell to Moss Moss Moss! 20yrd TD.

3rd 12:54 - Nice catch by Moss. Uses three limbs!
3rd 10:29 - Get the damn pick! (Carlos Rodgers)
3rd 09:33 - First big hole for Portis (15-20 yrd run)
3rd 08:34 - Devon Thomas makes his debut. Good catch, but just short of the 1st.
3rd 06:43 - Jacobs is 260 lbs, but WAS secondary makes him look like he can SAB.
3rd 06:30 - Smoot INT. For the love of God, about time. What a terrible pass!
3rd 04:44 - Portis takes it to Kiwanuka.
3rd 02:14 - Smoot hurt. Ruh oh. (update: Hip Pointer from knee to back by teammate)
3rd 00:36 - 6.6 YPC for Jacobs. WAS has some work ahead of them.

4th 14:18 - Why does Andrea remind me so much of Carmela Soprano?
4th 13:48 - No team should give Eli so much time. Rush him, he'll make a bad decision.
4th 13:06 - Eli overthrows Plax. Feeling torn...want WAS to win...want Plax to score a billion points in BIFL.
4th 12:12 - Portis is going to have to do it by himself. No seam again. Going to wear him out by years end.
4th 10:53 - Kendall is about to own Pierce who is being a bitch.
4th 10:33 - What? Throwing waaaay short of the 1st down to Randel El on 3rd.
4th 07:18 - Get the damn pick! (LaRon Landry)
4th 06:29 - Chris Wilson...finally some real penetration! There was a good sack earlier but it was an all out blitz.
4th 06:03 - Pierce is a neanderthal. What a dumb ass.`
4th 04:50 - They figured out how to beat the blitz - quick slants (seasoned pros should have known that). 15-20yrds to Randel El. Took 4 quarters unfortunately.
4th 03:56 - Cooley, the best possession guy they have, gets his first catch. Makes sense. The play calling is getting better, but it's too little too late.
4th 02:23 - The mark of a team trying to commit suicide. 1st down called back for O holding.
4th 02:20 - Moss drops it. That settles that question, his head is *not* on straight after last year.
4th 02:10 - Another short pass on 3rd and long?!?! That's it, WAS is done. Last in the league. Secondary can't make the big plays when they have to, OL and DL are crap. Campbell looks really weak...taking way too much time and making terrible reads.
4th 02:02 - 4th and long...ain't going to happen. Game over. Winnable in so many ways for WAS.... but they were outplayed and perhaps more importantly out coached. Where the hell was Cooley in the game plan?
4th 01:31 - Short Punt by NYG. There is a crazy outside chance of hope.
4th 01:31 - Madden talking about getting Cooley involved...no shit.
4th 00:40 - Deep to Thrash. Thrash drops it.
4th 00:40 - Outside to Thrash. Pass thrown to far outside. Damn close to a catch though.
4th 00:13 - Ouch... too much time off the clock. Madden is talking about kicking a FG, but what is the point? You need a TD either way.
4th 00:07 - Pass defensed. Good play by CB.
4th 00:00 - Kiwanuka down. Ain't good for the otherwise amazing NYG DL that has been declining due to injuries.

Unrelated to Beer....

....but I can't stop laughing

You Were Always Taught to Share

I always liked this picture.... but this video takes the same theme to the next level whilst pulling it together with the beer theme. How can you go wrong with that?

Because You Can Never Be Drunk Enough

IV's are too druggie, kegstands to social, and shotgunning requires crappy aluminum cans. So sidle up with your Chimay Blue and forget your problems, your name, and your bladder control...

The Bier Stick!

Bulking Up Your Trivial Pursuit Repertoire

A review of a book on drinking. Filled with many a fanciful quip to be sure, a peek at the review:

The star of the book is ethanol, alcohol’s “chemical soul”—a clear, sweet, volatile, nutritive liquid that’s produced naturally when yeast attacks fruit, and which inhibits our central nervous system in all kinds of entertaining (though occasionally fatal) ways. Gately doggedly traces its ancient roots, from a fermented concoction of rice, honey, grapes, and berries scraped out of a 9,000-year-old Chinese pot to Egyptian wine connoisseurs who rated their drinks by stacking up the word nfr, meaning good (the best was nfr nfr nfr). Alcoholic tastes, throughout history, are surprisingly diverse. The Greeks drank wine (mixed with water, spices, and honey) constantly, a tradition the Romans inherited and spread to the far corners of their empire. The barbarian tribes that eventually ruined Rome were binge beer drinkers. Huns drank fermented horse milk; Anglo-Saxons drank mead and ale. Aztecs liked fermented sap, but had a legal drinking age (52) higher than their average life expectancy—although every four years they’d hold a New Year’s festival called “Drunkenness of Children,” at which all citizens, including toddlers, were required to drink. Before Europeans arrived, many Native Americans didn’t even have a word for drunkenness. (The Anglo-Saxon word for “plastered,” if you should ever need it, is beordruncen.) For most of its history, alcohol has been considered as much a food as a recreational beverage. The pyramid builders got a daily ration of one and one-third gallons of beer. In medieval Europe, every child, parent, and grandparent “drank every day, and usually several times each day”; even monks were allowed up to eight pints. While Christianity adopted wine as a central holy symbol, the Koran banned liquor entirely—and yet it was Arab chemists who perfected the science of distillation, which produced a liquid they compared to mascara—in Arabic, al-koh’l. During Prohibition, American moonshine-makers didn’t have time to age their spirits, so they faked the effect by adding dead rats and rotten meat. A single louse from the species that decimated the vineyards of nineteenth-century France could “produce 25.6 billion descendants within eight months.” In sixteenth-century Japan, it was an insult to your host to stay sober, so guests who couldn’t drink would pretend to be drunk and even hungover “by sending thank-you letters deliberately late, written in shaky characters.” Elizabethan England had a pub for every 187 people. (By 2004, the country was down to one for every 529 people.) The Pilgrims’ Mayflower was actually “a claret ship from the Bordeaux wine trade,” and a group of settlers who came over to join them brought 20,000 gallons of beer and wine but only 3,000 gallons of water.

Another Happy Customer!

Undoubtedly a reader of Passt Genau!

A Handy Guide

For all your pronunciation needs. You'll never have to apologize to a Belgian bartender again when you order a beer and your mangled words translate to invectives banned since the 16th century.

REEB (力波啤酒)

How awesome is this beer? I shall have to purchase some post haste in the hopes that such a wonderfully named product will perpetuate.

Ommegang Abbey Ale - Belgian style dubbel

"The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it." - Ommengang label

The opening - resounding pop from the corked bottle. The pour was easy - on the label the beer is listed as "part of the Duvel family of fine ales" - not sure I agree with that assesment - Duvel isn't a double nor is Corsendonk or Judas, etc... so, I'm going to disagree - someone please correct me if I am wrong by calling them out!

The pour - as noticed in the picture (30 seconds after pour) the head is okay - not extensive which also does not fall in line with a Duvel style beer - more like Chimay but the head is still not as significant.

The smell - minimal - the label says to serve at 50deg but it was in the fridge - probably a little colder than 50deg.

The color - dark with an amber and brown hint.

Carbonation - good - very good carbonation which creates a lighter taste; of course, I just finished drinking my own poorly conditioned pilsener that lacks good carbonation.

The taste - hints of caramel, an aftertaste of coffee - a strong coffee; its tasty with most of the taste at the front end and a hint of bitterness on the outtake... of course, I'm a beer drinker - not a beer taster - so I don't have the skillz necessary to properly explain what I'm tasting! So there it is...

Grade - 7/10 - I lik-eh!

Like a Duck

Weird, if not somewhat entertaining, blog to display things that look like ducks. Beer foam got a cameo...which makes me wonder if things other than avian images might appear to a dutiful observer of glass of beer's head.

Might the mysterious of the universe unfold in the gentle release of CO2? Only time will tell...

A Rose by Any Other Name...

... or in this case a stinking pile of offal. I wouldn't have thought that being drafted into a the NFL as a 1st year starter would have incited feelings of patricide, but having never been drafted into the NFL myself I suppose this assumption was based on a shaky foundation.

Dogs Like Beer Too!

And someone is considering their right to enjoy a frosty brew. I salute them, and if it weren't $20 for a six pack to order from the internet I'd actually consider treating Kobe. Instead I think I'll just keep giving him raw eggs in his dry food.

Steamworks Kölsch

Pour is crystal clear, good head. Smell is nice and crisp; my smell might just be bad but I couldn't smell any hops. Taste is pretty thin with a small bite of bitterness to the back. That bitterness might be what I have seen others who have reviewed this beer refer to has acidity. Being that I am more of a beer drinker than a beer taster, the nuance of acidity versus bite is quite likely lost on me. Great carbonation though...tickles the throat nicely.

Ours will no doubt be better. No where near as clear or as nicely carbonated...but taste trumps all.

45/100

Next Up!

Your next beer to rate....or I suppose your first beer to rate. We could just give a quick redux on your Chainsaw tasting and say that it tasted a lot like Westvleteren, Hennepin, Orval, Batch #6, and some other Ale (Metro?). There was lots and lots of alcohol in it apparently and you don't remember much else. Is that about accurate?

ratebeer reviews weren't all that kind to the Colorado Kölsch, but it's still a good lead in to our own.

Chiller #1 Done

A straightforward immersion chiller. Had to use 1/4" (O.D.) copper instead of the 3/8" I had hoped to use because Home Depot only had 10' or 50' runs...and I didn't want to spend $50 on the copper. This is a 20' run of copper, we'll see how it does. I found some discounted (not sure why...) 3/8" at the Ace near us though so chiller #2 may be coming...

I had never used a torch before for soldering so the first few connection points where, plainly put, terrible. The picture on the right illustrates the atrociousness of that; I wasn't taking the flame off the connection point when I was pushing the solder in so I kept ending up with a "cold joint". Then I'd add more (stupid) solder and it'd run all over. It's a simple enough process...just take the flame off for a moment and test the metal to see if it's hot enough: the picture in the middle shows that the lessons were learned.

Batch #8

Bound to be the best batch yet... this authentic smelling, looking, and (prior to fermentation) tasting Belgian Dubbel should tantalize the senses, flood the tastes, and warm the belly... I look forward to the first taste of liquid heaven to be available in 5 more weeks.

More pictures of this beauty to come!

No Words

Beer Bread

So we have some extra beer yeast....shouldn't go to waste should it? Courtesy of Brew Monkey:

beer breadmaking 37 easy steps:

1. Put your yeast in some warm water with a little flour
2. Wait like 15 minutes
3. Put a bunch of flour into a big mixing bowl
4. Mix in some of the yeasty water
5. Stir this with a big spoon or whatever until it is a sloppy mess.
6. Cover with a damp cloth
7. Put in the fridge for somewhere around 16 - 24 hours
8. Mix up some more yeast water with a little flour.
9. Mix in some flour with the new yeasty water so its a soupy mess.
10. Combine both of these together. A teaspoon of fine sea salt too.
11. Add some flour to this madness and knead slowly
12. You should have a nice satin like ball of dough
13. Put a little olive oil in a big bowl, but not too much.
14. Slather your dough ball so that all sides are covered
15. Put it somewhere warm preferably around 70 degrees
16. Let it rise for like 4 hours.
17. Punch it down and let it rise again until it has doubled again.
18. Slide the dough out of the big slightly oily bowl
19. Make it land on a cooking sheet of somekind with deflating.
20. Take a good pair of kitchen shears and cut it into two halves.
21. Form a couple good country style loaves
22. Leave at least 4 inches between them.
23. Slide a small pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven.
24. Preheat the oven to about 375F.
25. Put your bread into the middle rack of the oven.
26. Spray some water in there for good measure to make some steam
27. Set the microwave timer to 17 minutes and bake.
28. Do not open the oven or it will deflate from change in temp.
29. 17 minutes is up. Turn off oven. And open it slightly.
30. Let the bread and the oven cool for 3 minutes.
31. Slide the loaves of bread on a grill like surface for cooling
32. Wait like 5 minutes.
33. Tap the loaves with your thumb on the bottom so that it drums.
34. Get a serrated bread knife.
35. Holding the bread on its side not bottom slice a few.
36. Eat.
37. Don't burn your mouth.

*I might suggest using a mix yeast of bread and beer yeast.

There are no doubt a million ways to do this, but this particular step-by-step was dumbed down to our level.

For the Wish List

A breathtaking (literally, it could kill you) 13.6% ABV Double IPA .

My favorite double IPA scores a touch higher, but if the Dark Horse is anywhere close I'll inevitably love it.

Review: Lefthand Chainsaw

The Bottle. The Glass. The Pour.

Now my descriptions won't be as flowery as some of those that I read, but that's probably a good thing. The color was red/brown...burgundy would be too red, even rust might indicate too much red...eh, just look at the picture. Smell was light, maybe even a touch sweet. Initial taste was quite sweet on the front; I could have sworn there were cherries and peaches in there...but after that there was a full hop flavor w/o too much bitterness. Surprisingly well balanced and easy drinking. I fully expected something with a bit of a bite from the raw kitsch that seemed to permeate the packaging.

Now we haven't figured out just how we are going to categorize and rate each beer, but on overall of 0-10 is probably a safe bet. We simply won't be able to appreciate the nuance of another order of magnitude so I am simply going to give it an 8. If I were hard pressed to take that to the 0-100 level I'd probably settle in around 81 or 82.

Quadrupel

Per the question "what is a Quadrupel", Compliments of ratebeer.com:

Abt/Quadrupel

Abt, or quadrupel, is the name given to ultra-strong Trappist and abbey ales. The name Abt was pioneered to describe Westvleteren and the beer that would become St. Bernardus. Quadrupel was pioneered by La Trappe. Abts are the darker of the two, with more rich, deep fruity notes. Quads are paler, with corresponding peachy notes. Neither have much in the way of hop, and both are very strong and malty. Though both are bottle-conditioned, abts trend more towards yeastiness. Alcohol is very high (10+% abv) for both.

Butterscotch Schapps Anyone?

Oh my! Climate change limiting access to barley, and by extension, malted barley. Let's see what a few people have to say about it.

A Short Dialogue...

Excerpt of the message log from our recent chess match:

goldcorb Move 10
Excellent... you are coming over to the dark side... say it with me... the night time is the right time... the night time is the right time...

DJCM Move 11
the night time is the right time...the night time is the right time.... what now? do i get to throw people with my mind and wield a light saber?


goldcorb Move 11
umm... no weirdo... you get to worship the dark one - all hail Lord Westvleteren!


DJCM Move 12
Don't forget Prince Rochefort, The Duke of Duvel and Duchess of Corsendonk, Sir Bernardus, or the humble Father Unibrau.


goldcorb Move 12
SAINT Bernardus and Sir Westmalle... and how could you ever forget Count Chimay?


DJCM Move 13
I lost a shit ton of money to Count Chimay during a booze fueled night of heads up poker and cone Olympics. He is not forgotten, but we aren't on speaking terms at the moment.


goldcorb Move 13
Do tell more...


DJCM Move 14
It all began innocently enough, I had meant to ring up my old pal The Count (as in *THE* Count, my cohort on Sesame Street)...but I had simply dialed the wrong number; the correct number was understandably juxtaposed in the phone book to 'Count Chimay'. I apologized for the error, stating that I was intending to invite my poker buddy over who loves to compute the expected value of various hands with different flops over and over and over. Well Count Chimay jumped at that, telling me just how avid a poker player he was and how a lively game would really brighten his evening. I saw no harm...he was from Belgium and promised to get me drunk. Gotta be a good guy right? What's not to like about a dude named the Count who wants to play poker with strangers and provide good beer?

I was fairly excited but slightly apprehensive with the activity I had now committed to so I took refuge in a bottle of Jameson and a Quaalude. In hind site this was a poor decision. But I digress.

Count Chimay shows up in this crazy ass blue jump suit; said it was his "strong" suit. Whatever. We hit it off pretty good anyways and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly as the hopped beverages flowed and the cards kept turning. He talked a pretty big game about having something to do with some dude from St Sixtus but I was willing to give him that. He had kind beer, who am I to call him out? The night started to turn sour however when I started yelling "BONZAI" each time one of us dealt the flop. He got a bit annoyed by it but I had stopped caring about social foibles. It was probably because his kind beer was a hefty 9% ABV....though the Quaalude certainly hadn't helped matters any. His consternation only encouraged my self serving disposition and "BONZAI" turned to "CHIMAI". When I won a hand it was particularly bad and he became visibly vexed. I was, as you say, 3 sheets by this point. Count Chimay was regretting his decision to deal with such shennanigan's and yet could not shake the adolescent need to "put me in my place".

It was after his exclamation that I "was a very poor sport" that I suggested a change in competition. Cone Olympics was only natural. Naturally. It's the only pure competition left, the only true modern manifestation of the ancient Olympics.

The events didn't vary much...we ripped out a "Hillary 08" sign from one of the neighbor's yards and used it to create the Sling-of-Death event wherein the projectile must be thrown further than your opponents while also being lodged into some organic matter to provide a metaphor for the bodily decay that would occur with a succubus as a president. But I digress... The Count, Count Chimay that is, has a crazy awesome throwing arm. 100 bucks a throw was a bad idea.

I had to get unstuck...so I wagered a double or nothing that I would eat cat shit. I remember eating cat shit and owing nothing....Count Chimay remembers me placing tootsie rolls in the cat box then eating them. It is hard to say who is right, but my Quaalude and Belgian Beer induced euphoria had dissolved into a Belgian Quaalude induced fuster cluck and I ended up giving the guy all of the money I had set aside for opening our brewery. It's fair to say that I was pretty pissed off in the morning.

The dream!

Now the question becomes... how do we take the next step from skulking cellar dwellers to proud keggerator owners? The distinction may be slim, but the outcome is pure nirvana!

Cowboy Up!

There is something wrong with kids today. What the hell is going on here? This "too much" nonsense is, well, nonsense. Can you have too much ice cream? Can you watch too many sports? Can you peer into too many windows of Hollywood actresses? "Too much"...such silliness...

The Perfect Pour?

Is this it?
Or is this?
Perhapes this?
It's definitely not this. Another opinion.

We know this thing pretty much works like crap.

A different method; can't say I approve of it though.

Summary: the perfect pour is the one I pour and imbibe.

New Holiday!?

There's no reason not to have another one. While there is not particular logic behind this it makes sense doesn't it. Maybe its so logical to simply be a self evident truth!

It Takes a Hero

Batch 6 (Irish Stout): Tastes Lovely

Cap comes off ...



... one beer for you ...



... and one beer for me.

I *heart* Beeradvocate

They love beer, what's not to love? They also give a very easy to disseminate explanation of alcohol by volume versus alcohol by weight.

"Respect Beer." I'm witcha.

Dude, Where's My Title?

Nostalgia - such feeling, such emotion, such memory! Bitte ein Bit! I miss the Stubi!

Moving Lines

Mich St +4.5
Louisville -3

I like Louisville on the money line...but not with 3 points. Mich St was obviously better at +5, but I still like this line.

Brouwerij Westvleteren

Wherefore art thou Braumeister Halbe? I thought I'd lure you to post with a bit of nostalgia. Does the Abbey look familiar?

Via the Netherlands, courtesy of Brewpics

ATV = Always Time for Vun

Well that was pretty much awesome. Too bad we didn't have more time and less snow. But seriously, how do those yokels short of Jamestown drink before/while operating these things. That is definitely a -EV move...

Pitt Broke My Heart, and My Bracket

But I have no problem enjoying the games still. I still like Mich St over Memphis though the current line is Mich St +5. I'm not buying it.

A couple interesting lines:
West Virginia -1
Davidson +5
Louisville -2.5

March Madness!

Gawd I love March Madness.

Right now I am watching Cal State Fullerton taking it up a notch against the Badgers. Even when it's boring March Madness is still awesome. At it's absolute worst it is better than 99% of my days.

Duke pulls one out of their ace at the end to avoid total humiliation.

Beasley made USC just look silly. Ball goes up, Beasley comes down. Beasley shoots, Beasley scores. Rinse and repeat.

Xavier gave me a good heart attack. Only in March Madness can give you "good" heart attacks....it's definitely an indication of some kind of masochistic streak in me. Which is a big red flag; I should probably avoid those types of emotional accelerants so often associated with addiction: gambling, beer, spicy food, picking the best March Madness brackets again and again and again, winning Fantasy Football leagues, etc.

With college hoops there is this air of youth/inexperience that permeate the tourney. Once you get to the professional levels the players are no longer playing, they are going to work. March Madness on the other hand encompasses all of that naive passion and uncontrollable excitement you felt when you didn't know any better; when a game was still pretty important to your world view. So taking the ups and downs vicariously is a quickening of sorts...maybe...

....or just another excuse to drink beer. I can't decide. But it's still fun to watch and still a good escape.

I miss the hot wings though. Oh Barrel House why have you forsaken me? Whatever that crappy joint is now is fully crap-diddly-astic.

Batch 5 (Pilsner)

Aaaahhh... the most recent pilsner... though it had its many issues (and some of the same issues over and over again) it is still enjoyable after the first liter (as I suppose any beer would be); however, I am more willing to be lenient with the taste considering this beer happens to be the first and only brewed in the Corbett household as opposed to the Spencer household! Long live the Pilsner...

and it was good.

Better Attenuation

This would be good idea as well. A couple batches have had great fermentations and others, not so much. Temperature control is likely in play along with several other factors; the better we can control the environment for the yeast the more consistent our (awesome) results will be.

*** Update ***
Three different options here.

Chilling the Wort

I'd love to get that wort chilled to pitching temp sooner on subsequent batches. This does the trick, but they seem to be asking a bit too much for such a simple solution. Here is a simple DIY for building one from basic supplies.

Both the retail version and the DIY version require chilling directly by placing the copper into the wort... so sanitation of the tubing must be managed. It would be nice to chill indirectly after the wort is in the carboy. The glass insulates so the chiller has more work to do; however, not having to sanitize and store a big coil of copper could be worth it.

A 5 gal paint bucket with ice+water? It would work better if the carboy is spinning, but automating that portion is definitely too much trouble. Manually spinning it for 30 mins isn't worth it either.

Something to think about.

In the middle (In the beginning continued)...

"Beer: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."
- Homer Simpson

**** note to all you Simpson's fans - I took a little literary license with the quote ****

But the story does not end with brackish water and gleeful farmers. Beer transcended the Osirian Myth and was passed from generation to generation not just through written and verbal accounts but in practice. That practice found its way from Egypt into the heart and souls of the European population decimated by depression during long winters and rainy springs. And so when these people migrated across the ocean to a new continent, beer was there. When a new country was formed, beer was there. When independence was claimed, beer, not tea, was there. And we strive to honor this living institution by continuing its story, and potentially saving our marriages in the process, by passing on our skills, knowledge, and drinking prowess to the next generation. Yes, our pursuits are not selfish; our pursuits are to honor all the past generations from the first sip of brackish water to the cool, crisp, refreshment of each and every tasty brew currently available. And most important of all, our pursuit is for the children and the next generation of braumeister 1/2.

And it was good.

Oh Danny Boy...

We are so S-M-R-T

If we had bottled the stout back when it was done fermenting instead of sitting on our thumbs we could be enjoying our very own Irish Stout on St Patty's Day. Eh, what are you going to do...

Caed Mille Failte!

**** Marcus Addition to Jeremy Post *****

Since I have the ability to edit your posts, I decided to take the liberty and pass on an Irish Proverb that was quoted to me by a server at the Mitchell Hall Dining Facility during my days as a wayward KAY-det at USAFA, "You are not drunk until you have to hold on to a blade of grass to keep from falling off the earth."

Let's knock another one back - I'm not there yet!

Batch 6 (Irish Stout) Successfully Bottled

....of course I did get an eye full of beer when Marcus began racking to the Ale Pail which was hella funny for him; a successful venture none the less. I still hate you.

In the Beginning

"It.....begins.........."

- The Gospel according to Barney Gumble

Now is the time, our time, to embark upon the mystical journey that began not with us but with some poor lazy sod back in the day who was too damn lazy to bring in the barley when it rained. The journey that continued with another poor lazy sod was too damn lazy to bring in the now malted barley yet again when it rained. The journey that remarkably still hadn't ended but plodded forward when some stupid arse sod decided to drink some brackish ass water with malted barley in it that had been sitting around for God knows how long. And it was good.

Brewing beer might just save our lives; of course it might just ruin them too. Either way, here's to you Brother!