My brother came to California this past Friday, and I was pretty geeked up about it. For that reason, I contacted Sage from the Lost Abbey to see what sort of semi-sunken treasures were available for our visit. I wrote him about two weeks prior to our visit and two days before our visit. Of [...]
The sad refrains of ten thousand “lost love” songs ringing in my ears could not match the sadness I feel when I hear uttered the kindred language of Mordor speaking that ever so vile and unsubstantiated phrase, “I really don’t like beer.” What the phrase has done to my life-span and psyche tongue cannot tell. [...]
One of the many important steps to proper brewing is crushing one grains, ESPECIALLY for the brewer who bypasses extracted malts and brews all-grain. You see, the all-grain brewer must extract sugars from the starches hidden inside malted barley. To access this treasure trove of future beer, the husk of the barley must be cracked [...]
As I am certain many fellow beer drinkers, bloggers, and brewers can attest, life can be brutal sometimes. Sometimes it can be brutal in the sense of cruel, but I am speaking more along the lines of breakneck, no rest, drooping eyes type brutal. Perhaps busyness, clutter—whatever you choose to call it—most aptly describes how [...]
Today on my lunch break, this newspaper article from Luzene County, PA newspaper Citizen’s Voice jumped out at me: From Bibles to Beer. Perhaps it was so intriguing because it seemed to be an abstract of my life, but also because I…and everybody needs an uplifting story these days. As Mike and I tirelessly plunge [...]
I really want to know. Lay the facts on me as to why this is the oldest beer in your collection. Below is a picture of the oldest beer in my beer cellar. I actually picked it up at a antique mall in Toledo, Ohio for just a few dollars. The beer was brewed by [...]
Sometimes the phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” can truly hit home. Andrea and I have some friends near San Diego and went to visit them this past weekend, which led to me obtaining some seriously nice oak barrels. How did it happen? Well, our friend has started growing grapes on his property [...]
Why do people eat a hamburger rather than Spam? Why do people like a Ferrari better than a Pinto? It seems the answers to these questions is somewhat obvious (cost prohibitive aspects to the Ferrari aside). Quality, quality, quality. It is intriguing when those who are unfamiliar with craft beer ask the question, “What’s fueling [...]
Every day it seems like another electronic, real time, internet based forum/community is born. Myspace, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., and the latest…Untappd. Untappd is much like Twitter, but less schizophrenic in nature. Instead of telling the world what you are doing at any given moment, you merely tell them (other Untappd members) what beer you [...]
Home brewing. What can I say, I love it. I love making it, I love thinking through my recipes and learning new tidbits about it. My current tradition has been to not really care about peeling labels or making my own. This shouldn’t be mistaken as merely a utilitarian use of beer. I just have [...]
