Christmas, New Years, 3 More Cases of Beer, and a Few Goodies from the Beer Garden

Christmas was a lot of fun, and very relaxing this year.  I had a great time hanging out with Theresa and her family during Christmas Eve and Christmas! :)  Although I didn't make it up to Rochester around Christmas, it was pretty nice to not have to worry about traveling all over the place during the holidays.  Got some awesome new gear this year.  I added the four Saranac pint glasses from Theresa and the three Stone glasses that I ordered to my glassware collection.  Also got a couple new scarves, a new Saranac t-shirt, the Tenacious D Complete Masterworks DVD, a pack of Omaha Steaks Filets, and lots of other goodies.  All-in-all, it was another great Christmas with Theresa!

The week after Christmas, I worked from home.  There was definitely work to do, but the pace was pretty relaxed and I was able to spend another week of quality time at home with Theresa and Abby. :)

Abby and I at the park before the snow we got a week ago melted.

Last Thursday was bottling day for the two clones (my Ruination clone, and the Ubu clone that I did with my buddy Keith).  When all was said and done, the Ruination was pretty much right on the money with the final gravity and yielded about 2 cases (one in 22oz bottles, the other in 12oz bottles) plus a 4-pack of 12oz bottles.  I also had enough to draw a little out into a tasting glass and taste the Ruination in its uncarbonated form.  It tasted about what I expected - pretty much exactly what an IPA should taste like.  I am very excited to taste the finished product and to see how it ages.  I think this one should age very well and mellow out a little with age.  The 2oz of Centennial hops that were used during dry-hopping really came through in the taste.  The Ubu ale came out pretty successful too - the FG was a little off but I think the finished product will still taste like a solid English ale.  This one yielded 3 bottles shy of 2 full cases (one case fro me and one for Keith).  After getting through these two clones, I know am out of empty beer bottles and have a little over three and half cases of home-brewed beer (2+ of Ruination, 1 of Ubu, and about a half case of Tripel) conditioning in my second bedroom.

My Ruination clone in the fermenter before I transferred it over to the bottling bucket.  Definitely had a lot of sediment with this one.

Bottling bucket and empty bottles ready to be filled.

Now, onto New Years!  This was the best New Years I've ever had!  Theresa and I had a really nice dinner at the Moshulu in Philly followed by an awesome fireworks display at Penns Landing (which could be seen from the Moshulu).  The dinner was awesome - the two best dishes in mind were the tuna tar tare that Theresa had as an appetizer and the diver scallops that we both had for an entree.  This was the first time Theresa and I had done anything like this for New Years.  It was really special to be able to just relax with Theresa and have an awesome night out just the two of us! :-)

Penns Landing fireworks on New Years Eve, as viewed from the Moshulu.

With New Years marking the end of the holiday season, I am now shifting gears and enjoying one last day off (today is the day that IBM gives off as a holiday for New Years) before heading back into the normal work routine.  I have mostly just been relaxing the last couple days and I decided to run down to Pinocchio's Beer Garden and pick up a mix-a-six pack and a 22oz-er.  My favorites from this beer run has been Stone's Lucky Bastard and Left Hand's Black Jack Porter.  

Some goodies from the Beer Garden: Acme Pale Ale, Lake Placid's Ubu Ale, Stone's Oak Aged Arrogant Bastard, Left Hand's Black Jack Porter, Victory's Hop Devil, Pilsner Urquell, and Stone's Lucky Bastard.

Song of the Day: "Tribute" by Tenacious D
Beer of the Day: Lucky Bastard by Stone Brewery

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