Archive for the ‘Brewing’ Category

Let’s Recap, Shall We?

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Apple Crush… GOOD! Lots of food and plenty of good homebrew. Everyone dug my beer, even the people who beat me at the Chelan Fair. Did I mention tons of apples? We brought back about 7 gallons of freshly crushed cider and a whole box of apples in which to make all sorts of applely things like pie and crisp and sauce. Want an apple?

Politics… Sigh… Is it frickin’ over yet? I’ve watched the debates, I’ve read the stories, I’ve reviewed the various SNL skits. Stop telling me how important this is. If it was, then the LAST time it was so important, why did nothing change? And how can I be focused on “The Most Important Election In The History of The Universe”(tm) if I’m also supposed to be scared shitless over the economic collapse of the entire planet, which apparently both candidates caused?

Beer… Dean clued me into a new brew competition coming up. Turns out it’s on November 1, and I’m entering. I brewed last Monday Night, and while it might still be a bit young, I have just barely enough time to get it fermented, bottled, and conditioned before they open them up on 11/1. I tried to do the same recipe as “Stranded Hiker”, but I had to substitute the yeast and 1/3 of the malt with other things. I still don’t have a name for it. I will have more bottles this time, so if it’s good I’ll have plenty to share.

Dodgeball… Team Meatballs is ripping it up not. I roped Goob into the team, along with Ace from work and 5 people from Blue Steel, and just got Chuck’s lady drafted this weekend. We lost our first matches last week, so we’re 0-2. It was tougher than I thought it be, and much more exercise. Last week we played for the 1st time in 20 years so we had an excuse. This week we don’t have that excuse. We’ll have to come up with a new one. WOOOOO!

Titan’s getting his winter coat in. Suddenly he’s shinier and thicker. There’s a lot more furry doggie there to grab onto and rough-up. Good thing that coat never covers up his goofy face. He’s had some food weirdness lately, like not eating everything. He’s OK though, so either he’s just not that hungry or he’s getting picky with his kibble. He visited his new vet last week for a check-up and he’s healthy and happy.

Oh…. did I mention that Stacia hit the board on a dive during her diving meet Saturday? Yep. She broke her big toe on her left foot, plus strained it a bit. She also sprained her 2 middle toes on her right foot. Thankfully, she’s fine and never hit her head or anything, but she’s done diving, is on crutches and has limited mobility. It’s hard to walk on crutches when you have 2 bad feet. She’s going to try hard to recover in 4 weeks because she’s got gymnastics coming up. We’ll see. Today was her first day back at school, and first day not just sitting on the couch getting iced and rested.

We’re still kinda looking around for a companion for Titan. I have a couple of very different leads in very different directions, but am waiting to see how they pan out. In the meantime, I have to email the local Berner group and see if there’s some Berner folk close by that we can arrange some playdates with. He needs a buddy. I have thought about not even doing another Berner, but I didn’t think that for long. I’m a Berner dude.

Tomorrow is Shayna’s 38th birthday. Well, it would be, if it wasn’t for that rather unfortunate death issue. Tommorrow I will spend the day trying not to think about that. I’ll distract myself with Presidential debates and dodgeball.

I think that’s it. If it’s not, well, that’s it anyway.

Assorted Miscellaneous Flotsam With a Accidental Peppering of Haphazard Random Chance

Friday, September 12th, 2008

16 verra-nice pictures have been updated in the gallery. Mountains, wet tree bits, and puppies abound!

I got the review forms back on my beer from the Chelan County Fair. It’s a helpful review, it kinda shows me where I fell down in my attempt. Or, at least compared to how it’s supposed to be according to the style. I wasn’t intending it to be true to a style, I was going for drinkability. That’s the first step; make something drinkable, then worry about style adherance.

I realized I haven’t posted any trail reports from the few that we’ve gone on lately. I’ll sum them up: Long. Cloudy. Upwards. Titan cute, then tired. Foggy. Too crowdy, use frash.

I played my last game with my kickball team on Tuesday. We lost, but it was a good game despite the buttheads we were playing. Seriously, it’s kickball. Get over yourself. Anyway, we’re at 2-3, but there’s one more game so I hope we can end up at .500. Good luck Blue Steal! Next up? DODGE BALL!

Centralia is all but done. Just waiting on final confirmations of payments and whatnot, and then it’s all over. Coming soon : More babbling, and some numbers.

I heard a rumor about me being on a sailboat this Saturday. Curious. Maybe I’ll unveil my latest brew on the boat with Scott & Bernie. ‘Stranded Hiker IPA’. It’s a hoppy, fresh hoppy brew. Fresh. (Fresh) Exciting.

Next week I am in Vegas for the VMWorld Conference. It will be 100 degrees and fake, all week long. Hopefully I learn something. Hopefully I don’t get fitschaced and bet the house on craps. I come back Thursday night. I haven’t flown anywhere since February. I haven’t gone on a business trip since March 2006.

Next Thursday is our anniversary. Four years. WOO! But, I’ll be in Vegas. That’s ok. Goob’s supposed to be wrapping up this crappy project that has consumed and wasted her for the last 6 months that week. Then, we’re taking the next weekend off and doing a ton of hiking, including an overnight up at Goat Flats. I’ll need a week off just to recover from the vacation!

First weekend in October is a big one. Dean’s Apple Crush Festival is on the 4th, and there’s tons of apples to squish and drink, homebrew to drink, and food to eat and people to laugh at. Plus, I’m bringing both of my beers there, and hopefully lots of people will give it a try and maybe even some will dig it. I’m really looking for feedback, good or bad. After that, there’s a home Seahawks game on Sunday. And I think Monday is the Overkill show. Not sure if I’m going or not.

New Metallica CD is suprisingly good. You can’t expect it to be like the stuff they did almost 20 years ago, but it definately sounds more like them than the last few records did. It’s growing on me. I got the concert tickets and will see them on December 1st. First Metallica show since the one I saw with The Zonies at America West Arena in Phoenix on the Black Album tour. 1992? Have I mentioned the 5 Nine Inch Nails shows I’ve seen since then?

Speaking of, they’re coming back this December to Victoria and Portland. We’ll go to the Victoria show. That’s two this year. Hella cool.

Check out this place. Perhaps Titan digs it? www.campbigpaw.com

Next beer : A porter. Nice and dark and roasty and smokey. But… ’smoooooth’, just for the Goob.

That’s all I got right now.