First Tasting and Two New Brews in the Can

Monday marked the brewing of the first beer I have brewed on my own and the first of two clone brews that I am doing this week.  I brewed up the Ruination IPA clone and everything went pretty smoothly.  Its sitting in my fermenter in my second bedroom bubbling away as we speak.  This was probably the smoothest brew yet (process-wise) - the final temperature was right in the proper fermentation range and the OG was right on the money at 1.075.  The one thing that I realized I have to work on is the initial steep of the grains.  I usually end up overshooting the proper steeping temperature when I am heating up the brew pot on my electric range.  If I can get the steep temperature to go smoothly, I will pretty much have the process down.  After the batch is done with the initial fermentation, I am going to dry hop it with another 2oz of Centennial hops for a few days, then bottle condition it.  All in all, I think this brew will come out very solid.

Tuesday was another brew day.  My buddy Keith and I brewed up the Ubu clone and got that into a fermenter.  Similar story - the steep temperature was a bit high but everything else was very smooth.  Should be another solid brew once we get it fermented and bottle conditioned. 

We also did our first tasting of our Tripel that we brewed up towards the end of November.  I was quite pleasantly surprised with this one.  Although it seemed more like an Abbey than a Tripel, it was still a really solid Belgian ale.  Very smooth and made you feel nice and warm inside. 

All in all, Mission: Solid Week of Beer has been a great success with two new brews in the can without a hitch, and good initial results on our first tasting of the Tripel.  All I need now is for my Stone Brewery glassware to get here tomorrow! 

Now its time to shift gears a little bit and get geared up for the holidays! :-)

Song of the Day: "Pardon Me" by Incubus (the acoustic version)
Beer of the Day: Fade to Black (Porter) by Left Hand

Let the Synapses Groove

Finally on break for the holidays!  Took Thursday and Friday off this past week and am taking all of this coming week off for vacation. :-)  I will also be working from home the week after that.  What does all this mean?  Johnny finally gets a nice 2.5 week break at home with Theresa for the holidays!

Thursday was Theresa's birthday so this weekend has been/is an awesome weekend with a good mix of hanging out just the two of us, hanging out with friends, and hanging out with her family.  Its nice to be home to celebrate with her!  Happy birthday baby girl!

Since this is also the busiest time of the year at work for Theresa, I will also have some time to kill during my time off at home.  So naturally, I'm going to fill the time with brewing a couple beers, hanging out with Abby, catching up on some stuff around home, and playing video games (mostly Halo: Reach).

I picked up the ingredients to do two new brews last weekend.  Both of them are clone recipes of existing brews - Stone Brewery's Ruination IPA and Lack Placid's Ubu Ale.  I'm really excited to try both out.  This will be my first venture away from doing brews from packaged kits where the ingredients are already paired together.  I figured doing a couple clones next would be a good stepping stone to transition to doing some original recipes.  Both brews will also get me to try out using some different techniques and ingredients that I haven't used before.  I'm planning on doing the Ruination on my own on Monday and cooking up the Ubu on Tuesday with my buddy Keith.  Tuesday will also be the day Keith and I do our first tasting of the Tripel we brewed up about a month ago.  All in all, should be an awesome week on the beer front!

This past week had a few highlights of its own on the topic of beer.  I watched a documentary on Netflix called Beer Wars - if you are into beer and have an opportunity, definitely check out this documentary.  Its about the beer industry and the struggle between the big breweries (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors) and smaller craft breweries, shown from the perspective of the smaller craft breweries.  Definitely an interesting film if you are into beer and the business behind it.  In other beer highlights for the week - I picked up and ordered some solid Stone Brewery products.  Picked up a bottle of Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale and Old Guardian (Stone's barely wine) last night and drank the Sublimely.  I was really excited to drink this bottle because it was originally brewed as Stone's 11th Anniversary Ale in 2007.  I had a bottle of it about three years ago when my friends Mark and Mike came down to visit for new years.  I loved this beer then, and I loved it when I had it again last night!  To go further with the Stone Brewery kick I have been on lately, I ordered a couple sweet glasses from Stone's website - they are supposed to get here on the 23rd - just in time for a Christmas gift to myself. :-)

This is one of the glasses that I ordered.  This one was designed for Stone's Vertical Epic brews.

Really looking forward to Christmas and New Years coming up!  Not making it up to Rochester for the holidays this year, but holiday get-togethers with Theresa's side of the family are always a good time!  Can't wait to see everyone and celebrate the holidays together!  New Years is also going to be awesome this year.  This will be the first year that Theresa and I will be going to a formal event for New Years - complete with dinner, dancing, champagne, and fireworks!  Should be a really good time and I can't wait to get dressed up and celebrate the new year in style!  It will be really fun to do something special this year. :-)

Anyway, that's all for now.  I will probably post a couple more times over the next couple weeks since I will be home the whole time, but if I don't post again before the Christmas ....

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

As always....
Song of the Day: "Elias" by Dispatch (the live version from the All Points Bulletin album)
Beer of the Day: Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale by Stone Brewery

November = Gone

So November is done - about that .....

Its been awhile since my last post - things have been pretty busy lately.  Pretty much every weekend we had something going on.  Overall, things are pretty good - just looking forward to the holidays coming up and a nice break from work.  Here's a little recap of the highlights of November.

November kicked off with a fun weekend in Philly at Theresa's cousin Stacy's wedding.  The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a blast.  It definitely turned into the heaviest drinking night of the month haha.  Family get-togethers with Theresa's family are always a good time :-).  The day pretty much consisted of the ceremony, drink a few beers with the family before the reception, cocktail hour, dinner/drinking/dancing/cigars at the reception, some more drinks at the hotel bar with the family, and finished the night off with an always-satisfying late-night Wawa run.  It was nice to relax and do nothing the next day once we got home :-).  The only downfall to the day was that we missed another wedding the same day for our friends Aubrey and Josh.  Congratulations to both couples!

Theresa and I hanging out with the family before the reception.

The weekend after that was pretty relaxing - just hung out for a lot of the weekend and took a breather.  One of the highlights of the weekend was Theresa's brother Harry's surprise 30th birthday party.  It was a good time and seemed pretty happy/surprised about the whole thing haha.

The third weekend of the month brought a pretty fun-filled day Saturday.  My buddy Mark was in town for the weekend visiting his brother in Philly, so I went into Philly in the afternoon and hung out with him and had a couple solid beers.  Later that night, my friends Keith and Fran had their house warming party, which was also a very good time!  It was really good to see some friends that I haven't hung out with in awhile and to help Keith and Fran break in the house a little.

Thanksgiving week was very nice - worked from home Monday - Wednesday, and had Thursday and Friday off.  We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving day hanging out at Theresa's dad's house.  Lots of turkey and all the other Thanksgiving goodies.  It was very nice to have a day with Theresa and her family where we could just relax all day :-).  Thanksgiving week was overall very solid.  It was nice to hang out with Theresa all week and unwind a bit.  Even had a chance to squeeze in a decent amount of Halo: Reach.

Found a puppy all comfy cozy in the bed last week :-)

Finally, Keith and I had a chance to brew our tripel that we have been meaning to brew for awhile now.  We brewed it a couple weeks ago and bottled it this past weekend.  It will be fun pop this one open in a few weeks when it is done bottle conditioning.  Thinking about doing a clone brew next - maybe a clone of Ruination IPA or Ubu ale.

Looking forward to bustin the next couple weeks out and getting to Theresa's birthday and a two-week project shutdown!  It will be nice to be home for  a couple weeks straight to enjoy some time with Theresa and our family!

Song of the Day: "Passerby" (All Points Bulletin Live version) by Dispatch
Beer of the Day: Sawtooth by Left Hand Brewery

Soup, Pulled Pork, Halo, and a Busy November

How the hell is it November already?  It seems like it was summer just yesterday, and now its been in the 30s as a low the last few nights.  I love this time of year.  There's something about walking the dog in that cold, crisp, morning air with the leaves falling that just makes me feel more alive.

Anyway, haven't updated in awhile so I figure I would do a new post.  I have been working from home the last couple weeks but am now back on the road in Detroit.  It was really, really nice to be home with Theresa and Abby for two straight weeks!  Its sooooo nice to be able to come home to the best girl in the world and the best puppy in the world! :-) It also gave me a good chance to relax at home and cook and do some other hobbies.

I love being able to cook when I am home!  This past weekend I made a sweet potato and chipotle soup that came out really tasty.  It was a Bobby Flay recipe from a cookbook that my parents got me.  I served it with some cornish game hens and Theresa made some tasty green beans :-).  On Sunday I threw a pork shoulder in a crock pot with apple cider, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, made some stovetop stuffing, heated up some leftover soup.  It turned out to be a pretty tasty hearty meal.  The pork came out pretty good - I think next time I may season a little differently - maybe add some more brown sugar, but overall it was a pretty solid meal. 

Being home for a couple weeks, also gave me a chance to play a decent amount of Halo: Reach.  The game is a lot of fun to play and is very well done.  I have been a huge fan of the Halo series (including all the games and the books) since I played the original game when it was released with the original Xbox.  Halo: Reach marks the last installment of the Halo series, and I feel like Bungie did a really good job on it.  I really feel like they did an awesome job incorporating some solid new game play mechanics while still remaining faithful to the original feel and style of the Halo series.  The campaign is very engaging and challenging (but not frustrating), and ties into the rest of the Halo storyline very well (it is effectively a prequel that immediately precedes the original Halo).  The multi-player match-making is really fun and addictive.  Bungie did a good job of including a game type for everyone in this installment and has been doing a good job so far of making updates and tweeks to improve the games.  The armory and credit system makes it a lot of fun as you earn enough credits to get new armor items.  However, the biggest highlight of the game is that it gives me something to do with my buddies that I can't be with physically.  Its been nice to be able to play Reach with Zorro, Veggie, Tommy D, Chewie, Matt, Corey, and others over Xbox Live.

I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to fly by.  Theresa's cousin Stacy is getting married this Saturday which should be a really fun time!  Unfortunately, our friends Aubrey and Josh are getting married the same day down on the shore, so we won't be able to go it.  But I am really happy for both couples and I'm sure both weddings will turn out great! :)  We also have a couple parties the couple weekends after that which should also be a lot of fun.  Before i know it, its going to be Thanksgiving!

Song of the Day: "Punk Rawk Show" by MxPx
Beer of the Day: Labatt Blue Light (wish I had one in hand now haha)

Beer and Ska ....

... make me happy :-).  Drinking through my IPA that my buddy Keith and I brewed still.  Bought the stuff to brew a Tripel, which naturally put me in the mood to drink a homebrew.  Here's a picture of my IPA in a cool glass that Theresa got me as a gift - its basically a double blown glass with the inner shape looking like an upside down bottle:

Looking forward to brewing the Tripel sometime in the next week or so.  Should be an interesting one to brew.  After this one, I really want to try and branch out and try brewing some beers that are a little more out-there.  I want to try to experiment a bit more and find something interesting and different.  I'm sure this will result in a couple batches not coming out as expected, but it will be fun doing it and I think I will learn more about brewing by doing that.

Mark reminded me something in a text message today - ska rules (to quote Mark, "Hooray ska").  Been mostly listening to ska lately with bits of metal sprinkled here and there.  Downloaded Streetlight Manifesto's album "99 Songs of Revolution" a few weeks ago - it really reminded me how much I love Streetlight and how talented they are.  The album is a bunch of covers of songs (for the most part), some of which are obscure, others not.  My favorites on it are their version of "Me and Julio", their cover of the NOFX song "Linoleum" (which they have actually been playing live for a long time because one of their horn players used to be in NOFX), and "We Provide the Paint" (which is originally by Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, who is pretty much just acoustic Streetlight with some string players, etc.).  If you like ska, and especially if you like Streetlight, its definitely worth picking up.  If you like ska, and don't really know Streetlight, check out the album "Everything Went Numb" also - definitely my favorite Streetlight album, and probably in my personal top 5.

Funny quote by Theresa from tonight: "It should be 'Joe Horse', not 'Joe Buck'."  Its true, he does kinda look like a horse haha.  Coincidentally, he also has the intelligence of a horse.

Still trying to figure out what to be for Halloween.  I was going to be Dwight Schrut from "The Office", but then i realized I would have to shave my beard so that ain't gonna happen.  So, the search continues for a Halloween costume idea.

Looking forward to another relaxing weekend filled with hanging with Theresa and the Abby the bulldog, video games (mostly Halo: Reach probably), and perhaps brewing a new batch of beer.

Song of the Day: "Better Place, Better Time" by Streetlight Manifesto
Beer of the Day: Homebrew IPA (brewed by my buddy Keith and I)

Side Note: Weebles wobble but they never fall over.  What should we learn from this?  Don't get in a wrestling match with Weeble.

Weekend Recap

Weekend was pretty superb/relaxing :-).  Here's a little recap on the weekend goals:

• Relax with Theresa (Great Success :) )
• Watch the Phils kick some ass in a couple games (Phils won one and lost one)
• Play video games (mostly Halo: Reach) (Success)
• Make some bangin chili dogs on Saturday (Dominated the hell out of those chili dogs)
• Organize a bit around the apartment and run errands (Made some progress)

So I am working from home for at least the next couple weeks, which I'm super psyched about! :)  Its nice actually being able to be home and relax with Theresa every night :-).

In nature of supporting the Phillies' effort of kicking ass in the NLCS, here is a couple pictures of Theresa and I in our Phillies t-shirts after a couple of the games :-).  Looking forward to seeing Hamels dominate tomorrow night!

 

Another highlight of the weekend was waking up to the pup in bed staring up at me :-)

Should be a pretty solid week - chillin with Theresa, watching a couple Phils games, cooking up some good food, brewing with Keith on Thursday night (not sure what kind of beer yet - possibly some sort of holiday ale), doing some more organizing, and a smattering of video games sessions here and there.

Song of the Day: "Linoleum" by Streetlight Manifesto (cover of NOFX)
Beer of the Day: Oak Aged Yeti Ale by Great Divide

Hooray Beer!

Beer is good.  Went to Pinnochio's Beer Garden and picked up a few goodies today.  Main mission: find and purchase a bottle of Stone Vertical Epic 10-10-10.  Mission status: Fail.  Apparently they will probably get it in the next couple weeks sometime.  Bunk.  Oh, well, got some other goodies, including another bottle of 09-09-09 (to age).

Theresa and I split the White Birch Tripel.  Pretty delicious - good start to the weekend :-).  Abby (my bulldog) even wanted to partake haha.

Abby loves beer ... no seriously, she does haha.

Weekend Goals:

• Relax with Theresa (In Process)
• Watch the Phils kick some ass in a couple games (Not Started)
• Play video games (mostly Halo: Reach) (Not Started)
• Make some bangin chili dogs on Saturday (Not Started)
• Organize a bit around the apartment and run errands (Not Started)

Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.

Song of the Day: "Beer is Good" by Psychostick

... Joined the Club

So I decided to do this whole blog thing recently.  Figured it would give me something productive to do with some of my thoughts and entertain those bored enough to read.  Anyway, I'll probably be talking about everything from my daily life, to video games, to music, to beer, and pretty much everything in between. 

A little about me.  I'm a 24-year-old living in the Philadelphia area (Media, PA) and recently got engaged to an amazing girl named Theresa :-).  I currently work for IBM as an SAP Consultant.  Some of my interests/hobbies include my dog, video games, playing guitar, listening to music, cooking, hiking, fishing, baseball, hockey, and cross-country skiing.  I went to college at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY (middle of nowhere in the Adirondacks of New York ... pretty much Canada for those not familiar with the area haha) and graduated in May of 2007 with a degree in Information Systems and Business Processes.  I grew up in Penfield, NY (just outside Rochester, NY). 

Anyway, that's all for now - if all goes well I should be updating this fairly regularly with what's going on in my life.  Hope you enjoy!