I'm Married!

As a lot of you already know, I got married on November 19^th!!!   I couldn’t be happier to be married to my beautiful wife Theresa!!!  She truly does make me happier than any other person ever could!

The festivities kicked off with the rehearsal at the church (Nativity BVM right in Media) and rehearsal dinner (at Iron Hill in Media) the night before the wedding.   It was really great to have some good quality time with our closest family and friends that helped get us to this point in our lives.  It really did mean a lot of have all of them involved, not only in the wedding, but in our lives in general.  For all of you those involved in the wedding, we really would not be the people we are today without you, so I want to give you all a huge thank you!  After a great celebration with all of those involved in the wedding itself, I headed back to the hotel to spend some time with the guys.  It was a lot of fun to see a lot of my buddies and family from out of town and have a few beers.  I don’t get many chances to see a lot of them, so it was really fun to spend some time with them.  It also helped to make up for some of the time we lost at the bachelor party because of Huricane Irene haha. 

The guys at the rehersal dinner (left to right): by buddy Zorro, by best man Tom, my brother Marty, my brother-in-law Harry, me, my brother Keith, my  buddy Matt, and my buddy Veggie.

The wedding day was a gorgeous autumn day and was perfect for a wedding.  Around 2pm, I found myself standing next to the priest in the beautiful church watching Theresa walk up the aisle to me.  I don’t think I’ve had butterflies in my stomach like that ever in my life! :-)  After a beautiful ceremony, we were married and couldn’t be happier!!!  After posing for a few pictures at the church, the party began in the limo on the way over to Penn Oaks for the rest of the pictures and the reception.  After doing all of the pictures, we were able to relax and have an amazing time at the reception with some of our closest friends and family.  And I can honestly say, I really don’t think I’ve ever danced so much, or had such a good time in my life!  It really was an incredible night!  Here are a few pictures from wedding day:

Theresa and I with Father Belle during the ceremony.

Theresa and I walking down the aisle as husband and wife!

Theresa and I dancing in the middle of the dance floor - this is pretty much where we were most of the night :-)

Oh, this happened a few times throughout the night.  Veggie and I just like to get down on the dance floor!

Thank you so much for all of you who were able to get us to this point in our lives!  Thank you to everyone who was able to share the big day with us, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers to those who were not able to make it to the wedding!

On the Monday after the wedding, Theresa and I flew out to San Francisco for our honeymoon.  Neither one of us had been out to the West Coast in our adult lives, and we had heard lots of great things about San Fran, so we decided to go out there for our honeymoon for ten nights (all those Marriot reward points from my consulting days really paid off).  After settling in to the hotel the first night, we set out to see the sights in the city the next couple days.  After hoping on and off tour buses and walking all over the city for two days, we had seen a lot of the main sightseeing attractions in the city itself, including the Golden Gate Bridge.  Next, we got to have a very non-traditional Thanksgiving by doing a Wine Tour of Sonoma and Nappa Valleys.  As it turned out, there were only three wineries open that day, and we got to see all of them – Jacuzzi (owned by the same family that invented the Jacuzzi hot tub), Cline Cellars, and Hagafen (a kosher winery).  We had a blast on the tour and our tour guide, Vladamir, was awesome!  In keeping with the non-traditional Thanksgiving theme, we had a great dinner in Chinatown. 

The next couple days after that were filled with exploring around Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, and riding the cable cars.  We also had a chance to have some really good seafood at the Wharf.  If you ever find yourself around here, I definitely recommend getting clam or crab chowder in a sourdough bread bowl – its incredible!  To cap the weekend off, we did a really cool night tour of Alcatraz on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun to see this historic prison all light up at night (which was also a little creepy in places).  It also provided some of the coolest views of the city from the top of the island.

Monday brought a cool trip up to the ancient Redwoods in Muir Woods and the beautiful town Sausalito.  On Tuesday, we decided to get a little further outside of the city and rented a car to drive down the coast.  Although it was a very foggy day (which there are plenty of in San Fran), we were able to get South of most of the fog and get some absolutely incredible views of the Pacific coast.  I have never seen anything quite like it – the crashing waves against the cliffs really was breathtaking to see! 

On our last full day there, we did a brewery tour of the very famous and traditional brewery at Anchor Brewing Company.  It was really cool to tour the historic brewery and to see the equipment they use to keep with traditional brewing methods (including using open coolships as the primary fermenter for all of their beers).  For our last dinner in San Fran, we went out with a bang and went to an awesome Italian restaurant called Zingari (a big thanks to the Director of Operations at the JW Marriot who hooked us up with the reservation and a complimentary bottle of wine with dinner!).  After a long day of travel back home the next day, Theresa and I were both ready to be home and relax for a few days before returning to the work grind.

We went to some very cool places when we were in San Fran and I figure I should sum up some my favorite restaurants, breweries, and wineries that we had a chance to experience while we were there, in case you ever find yourself in San Fran looking for a solid place to go or drink to have.  Here they are in no particular order:

·         Zingari Restaurant – Probably one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.  And I love steak.  The service and food were incredible.  The bruschetta we had as an appetizer was incredible, and both of our entrees (the filet and the seafood ravioli) were perfect.

·         Nick’s Lighthouse – A delicious casual seafood restaurant right on the Bay.  The oysters and the chowder were awesome.

·         Jacuzzi Winery – A really nice boutique winery in Sonoma Valley.  It is owned by the same family that invented the Jacuzzi hot tub and a bunch of other patents.  Since they produce smaller quantities and focus on quality, their wines are incredibly flavorful and aromatic.  I highly recommend the Merlot, the Nero D’Avola, and the dessert wine in a chocolate shot (not included in the tasting but definitely worth the $2).

·         Tropisueno  – An awesome authentic Mexican restaurant in San Fran.  Their carne asada and pollo asada were both incredible.  If you’re looking for a really good Mexican dinner and a restaurant with a really cool vibe, check this place out.  The margaritas are great too!

·         Franciscan Crab Restaurant – This place has some outstanding food and has a very nice atmosphere.  I highly recommend their tureens (which is kind of like a seafood stew in a tomato broth) and the sizzling seafood platter. 

·         The Stinking Rose – If you like garlic, eat at the Stinking Rose.  The whole menu and theme of the restaurant is shaped around it.  Their garlic humus is really good (hope you don’t mind garlic breath) and their Italian meatloaf and lasagna were incredible.

·         Anchor Brewing Company – A vacation wouldn’t be complete without a brewery tour, and Anchor Brewing is definitely a cool one to check out.  They use some different equipment (like coolships) than a lot of other breweries do because of their more traditional nature.  One of the other cool things about this brewery is the fact that it is their main production brewery so you get a chance to see pretty much every part of the process, including the bottling line.  While in San Fran, don’t just restrict yourself to their most popular beer, Anchor Steam (which is relatively easy to find in other parts of the country), and branch out to some of their beers that are less-widely distributed.  Make sure to check out their Liberty Ale and their seasonal (I liked their Christmas Ale a lot).

·         Speakeasy Ales and Lagers – A San Francisco brewery.  I had a chance to try a couple Speakeasy beers while out to dinner in San Fran – Prohibition Ale and Big Daddy IPA.  I particularly enjoyed Prohibition Ale.  Check these guys out if you get a chance.

Here are some pictures from San Fran:

Theresa and I at Jacuzzi Winery.  This place had some awesome wines!

Anchor Brewing Company had an awesome tasting room with all sorts of old beer signs and brewing memorbilia from, not only their company, but from a bunch of other old breweries from all over the country.

The jellyfish all lit up in their tank at the aquarium at the Academy of Sciences.  This place was really cool with an aquarium and a self-contained rain forest.

One of the butterflies in the rainforest section of the Academy of Sciences.

Me in front of one of the old walls on Alcatraz.



Alcatraz at night while we were approaching the dock on the ferry.  This was definitely one of the coolest things we did while in San Fran!



 

Desert wine in an edible chocolate shot glass at Jacuzzi Winery - well worth the extra $2!



Me in one of the ancient redwoods at Muir Woods.  I've never seen trees so tall and straight in my life!



The Golden Gate Bridge on one of the foggiest days we were there. 



This is one of the gorgeous views that we had when we were driving along the Pacific Coast.

Theresa and I on the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was on one of the beautiful afternoons that we were there.  The fog would usually clear off by the afternoon most days that we were there.

Well that about sums up the wedding and honeymoon, and now its back to reality (returning to work after being out for two weeks is not fun haha).  I am hoping to be updating this blog a lot more in the coming months and hopefully finally get around to posting some brewing recipes and other goodies up.  I have some brews coming up that I am very excited about and I am planning on brewing like crazy the next couple months (I desperately need to re-stock my supply of homebrew), but more on that in the next post.  Until next time, stay frosty.

Song of the Day: “Stand by Me” by Pennywise

Beer of the Day: Namaste from Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales

There Is, In Fact, Life Outside of this Blog and Beer

Sorry folks, its been awhile since I’ve had the time (or, probably more accurately, the energy) to update this blog.  Considering I’m getting married in a little over a month (very excited!), it probably won’t come as a surprise to any of you that I probably won’t have many posts in any sort of consistent frequency until December.  However, I figured I needed to throw a post up here to at least attempt to update you all on my life the last month or so. 

Life in General:

Wedding plans have been coming together well, and we are getting closer to the big day.  I’m extraordinarily excited to get married to my incredible fiancée Theresa!  I can’t wait to finally tie the knot and go on our honeymoon to San Fran!  We have heard lots of great things about San Fran, and can’t wait to get away for 10 nights just the two of us! :-) 

Other than activities for the wedding, my life has also stayed busy from work.  We just got through a “go-live” where we switched a lot of business units onto the new SAP system we have been configuring and testing.  This is always a hectic time for any IT professional.  However, overall, it has gone pretty smoothly for my team.  Last week I was down at a major plant of ours in Texas to support the users as we switched over to the new system.  Although we did have some issues, there were certainly no more than a typical go-live.  Just enough issues to keep me busy enough to not really be able to do much in Texas other than work-related activities, but not so busy that I was working crazy hours.  It was definitely nice to get through this milestone.

Homebrewing:

So I haven’t really provided much of an update on my oatmeal stout or the pair of single-hop pale ales that I did a while back.  The end results of all three beers were very good.  The two pales gave me a good idea on how the two hops that I was trying out would work.  Of the two, I like the Calypso Pale Ale better (a nose of pear and apple with solid bittering and flavor capabilities while the Sonnet gave a profile more like a UK Golding).  I will probably not use either of these hops again in a single-hop beer, but I think they would both play well with others.  In fact, I am planning on using the Calypso again in a rye amber I am planning on brewing this weekend.  In the future, I will most likely use the Calypso for bittering and dry-hopping, and the Sonnet mostly for finishing and dry-hopping. 

I was very pleased with the way the Fork ‘N Knife stout came out for a first iteration of a house oatmeal stout recipe.  The roast flavor and aroma came through very nicely, the appearance is exactly the opaque black I was looking for, the head retention is great, and the mouth feel is solid.  Definitely some room for improvement though.  I would like to see it have a bit more body with a little bit more chocolate flavor rather than the coffee-dominated roast profile that it has now.  It also seems to be missing something in the middle of the taste.  The roasty finish is about what I want but there isn’t as much of a presence in the middle of the palate.  Overall, I am very pleased with this iteration, but I think it would be even better with a little tweaking to the grain bill.

Although I haven’t had all that much time to brew lately, I have been working on several recipes.  In fact, I will be brewing my first crack at my house rye amber this weekend (named Bulldog Brew).  I’m really excited to brew this one because I’ve been craving a solid amber ale to have on hand for awhile now and this will be the first time I will be brewing with malted rye.  Should be a very tasty brew.

By piecing together spare bits of free time at home, on train rides, and on flights, I’ve also managed to develop several new recipes and concepts that are all ready to brew when I get back from the honeymoon.   I’m basically planning on doing a whole lot of brewing this winter to test out a bunch of these recipes.  Among these recipes, I am also putting together a couple new series of beers that I am very excited about.  One of these will be an annual installment series, while the other will probably be a themed release every few months.  More on those later, but for now, here are the beers that I’m most excited about that are coming up in the next few months:

·         Ruination Clone – I originally did a clone of Stone Brewery’s Ruination IPA last December.  My version of Ruination and Theresa’s Ale are the two beers that I am most proud of the outcomes.  These beers are also the ones that got the best feedback from friends and family that tasted them – by far.  I figure, that pretty much means its time to re-brew this clone and try to improve on it with new techniques and equipment that I have acquired in the last dozen or so brews that I have done since I brewed Ruination last winter.  This time around, I am also planning on doing a double dry-hopped version (probably in a Party Pig), similar to Stone’s very limited double-dry hopped releases that they have done recently.

·         Smoked Porter and Hopbursted American Pale Ale – I am planning on doing a pair of ales for one of the themed series that I mentioned earlier.  I am planning on doing a smoked porter and a hopbursted (a technique where most of the hops get packed in towards the end of the boil) American pale ale.  These beers will be meant to be themed together and, as such, I am also planning on taking half of each batch and creating a blended beer in the secondary.  The result will be each beer alone and a blended beer.  Much more on these beers to come in a couple months.

·         Imperial Stout – Imperial stout is one of my favorite styles of beer and I figure its about time I take a crack at one.  Wait, I’m doing two?  Kind of.  I’m planning on brewing a full batch of imperial stout and splitting the batch in half during the secondary fermentation.  I will ferment one half out as a standard imperial stout, and the other half will get an alternative treatment.  I haven’t landed on a specific treatment yet but I am getting closer.

·         Chipotle Ale – I have been meaning to do a beer with hot peppers for quite some time now but just haven’t had the right timing to do it yet.  This summer I managed to let some of my homegrown jalapeños stay on the plant until they were red and grilled them up to get them nice and smokey and roasty.  I have four or five of these babies in my freezer right now just waiting for a malty home.  I have a recipe together that is rough clone of Rogue’s Chipotle Ale.  I’m very interested to do this beer and can’t wait to see how it turns out.  This is definitely one of those beers that has a chance of either being great, or really terrible.

Other Beer-Related Matters

As always, I have had some great beers over the last few weeks, but the craft beer highlight for me since my last post was definitely a Stone Brewing Company event that Pinocchio’s hosted in late September.  For the event they had a bunch of Stone kegs on tap, including a couple very limited edition kegs – a double-dry hopped Ruination, and their 15^th Anniversary Ale (both of which were incredible!).  In addition to the tap take over, they had a great special where you could buy a limited edition Stone Brewing/Pinocchio’s swing-top growler filled with any of the Stone beers for $25 (except the rarities which were a little more)!  Given the quality of the growler (which on a normal day would retail for $20 empty) and the quality of the beer, this was a great deal!  I also picked up a couple bottles of the Anniversary Ale. 

To go along with these great Stone beers, I also recently got a copy of Stone’s new book The Craft of Stone Brewing Company, which was co-authored by the two main founders of Stone and one of their PR guys to celebrate their first fifteen years.  The book contains four main sections: beer basics, the history of Stone including a beerography (pretty sure that’s not a real word, but oh well) of their releases from the last fifteen years, food recipes from their bistro, and a bunch of clone recipes for some of their beers, including some limited releases and collaborations.  I am through about half of the book and am about to get into the food recipes section.  The book is very interesting and entertaining and I am very excited to read through the recipes section and give a few of the dishes a shot (the ones that I have peaked at so far sound really good!) and try out a couple of the clone recipes.  This book is definitely a must for any Stone fan – especially if you like to cook and brew.

Perfect drinking and reading pairing - both in celebration of 15 years of brewing excellance from Stone Brewing Company.

Video Games:

I have also managed to piece together some time to spend on my other major hobby – video games.  I finally finished up Mass Effect 2 just in time to start playing Gears of War 3.  I just beat the single-player campaign a week and a half ago and I was very impressed with the game.  This is easily the best of the Gears of War trilogy and is a great conclusion to the series.  The story has a great pace to it and the gameplay mechanics are very smooth.  Additionally, the multiplayer modes are all a lot of fun.  Horde mode (where you and your buddies have fend off increasingly difficult waves of Locust) makes a triumphant return, as well as a new mode called Beast mode (basically Horde mode in reverse where the player is the Locust).  Even the Versus mode (their version of standard matchmaking which I was not a big fan of in the first two games) is a lot of fun in this installment.  All in all, Epic created an incredible capstone to one of the Xbox 360’s flagship game franchises.

Well folks, that’s basically the abbreviated version of the highlights of the last few weeks in the world of John Maynard.  I don’t really expect things to slow down until about December.  So, until next time, cheers!

Song of the Day: “Good People” by Jack Johnson

Beer of the Day: Stone Brewery’s 15^th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA

Happiness is a Beautiful Fiancee, a Warm Puppy, and a Cold Beer

Been way behind on posting here, so here’s a big post to entertain your eyeballs:

Life in General

Life has been pretty solid the last month or so.  My new job is going pretty awesome and I am settling into it nicely.  I am becoming more confident and am working more independently each day as I get more familiar with my new environment.  It is definitely a nice change of pace from the consulting gig that I was doing prior to this new job.  The best part of this job is the fact that I get to come home at night rather than getting on a plane every Monday and Thursday.  This is allowing me to spend a whole lot more time with my incredible fiancée Theresa!! :-)

Now that the weather is getting nicer, I have also been able to spend a little more time hiking with Theresa and Abby at the local parks.  The park we have been going to the most is Smedley Park (just the other side of 476 from us off of Baltimore Pike).  This park has a lot of good trails including several solid hills and a creek that makes for some very scenic spots.  It is not a massive park but seems to be pretty jam-packed with a lot of fun trails that are a good work out and a lot of fun.

A small waterfall on the creek at Smedley.

As mentioned earlier, I have been able to spend a lot more quality time with Theresa now that I am home a lot more - which I very happy about!  Just this past weekend, we went to see Super 8 and were both very impressed with it.  The kids that acted in this movie did an awesome job of convincingly portraying a tight-knit group of friends growing up together.  The movie basically is about this group of kids that are filming a film in the late ‘70s for a film festival.  In the middle of this, increasingly bizarre events start happening, starting with an extremely destructive train crash in the beginning of the movie.  Not going to say much more about the plot because I don’t want to give anything else away, but it is definitely worth seeing.  The special effects in the movie are awesome; but by no means is this movie about the special effects – it has a much heavier emphasis on the characterization of the kids and plot of a military cover-up.  It is very nice to see a movie use special effects and CG for right purpose – a tool to fool the viewer into thinking that something is real and believable.  Too many movies, especially big blockbusters, get lost in the special effects and forget that they still have to tell a great story.  Go see Super 8!

Wedding Plans

Wedding plans/activities have also been coming along very nicely the last few weeks.  Earlier this month, Theresa and I attended Pre Cana (a requirement for getting married in the Catholic Church).  I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it was actually fun to go to.  It really was not as much of a lecture, as it was an informal discussion around practical aspects of marriage.  All of the couples came from different backgrounds and were all very nice.  It was nice to hear different couples’ perspectives that have been married for various lengths and situations.  All in all, it was a fun night.

Each month we seem to be knocking off more and more things off of our list for wedding planning.  In the last few weeks, we picked out the tuxedo style for the guys, Theresa picked out her flowers, most of the bridesmaids got fitted for their dresses, and most of the groomsman got fitted for their tuxes.  Things are moving along nicely!  The big day is coming up quick and I can’t wait to be married to my incredible Theresa! :-)

Brewing Competitions

BUZZ Off Homebrew Competition – A few weeks ago, I entered in my first homebrew competition.  The BUZZ Off Homebrew Competition is an annual BJCP-sanctioned event hosted at Iron Hill West Chester by BUZZ Homebrew Club.  As posted earlier, I entered three beers into this competition – English Pale Ale (which started out as a Bass Clone and got tweaked and turned into an EPA of its own), Batch X (a barley wine with Special B malt), and Banana Bread Ale (basically an old ale with bananas in the steep and spiced with cinnamon and vanilla).  I had a great time hanging out at the competition with Theresa’s cousin Stacy and her husband Jeremy (who also is another homebrewer that entered this competition).  Stacy’s brothers and parents also came out for the competition.  I always have a great time hanging out with Theresa’s family!  When the dust settled on the competition, I ended up taking home the blue ribbon on the English Pale Ales category!  I was really excited to take first in the category for the EPA that I brewed with my buddy Keith, and got to take home a Party Pig (a small keg alternative that uses a pressure pouch to maintain pressure in a 2.25 gallon bottle with a nozzle for dispensing) for the win.  My other two beers did not place but I was able to get my score sheets from the judges after the competition, which provided me with some great feedback on all of the beers that I entered.  All in all, my first brewing competition was a big success.  Here are the full competition results of the BUZZ Off Competition.

Preston and Steve Homebrew Competition - About a week and a half ago, I entered my Angry Rhino Ale (Black IPA) into the first annual Preston and Steve Homebrew Competition with Triumph Brewery.  This competition was a much different format than the BUZZ Off competition – instead of having certified judges score each beer against its respective category, this competition was open to pretty much all ale styles (excluding wood-aged, lambics, and sours) and would only crown one winner for the whole field.  Basically, it just skipped the whole placements-by-category concept and went straight for the best-in-show.  The other very different part about this competition was the first round of judging was done by a peer-review of other homebrewers.  Basically, about eight homebrewers were assigned to each table and moved to another table to judge another groups.  The first and second place from each table moved on to the final panel of judges, which consisted of Preston Elliot from the Preston and Steve Show, one of the Eagles, a beer journalist, and a few guys from the crew at Triumph Brewery.  Of the twenty or so beers that made it to the final panel, they crowned one winner and one runner-up.  My brew did not place but it was voted as the best beer at my table, and went to the final panel (along with beers from around 20 or so other brewers), and was met was some very positive remarks.  On top of the good performance from my beer, I was also able to do a little networking (we had about 2 – 3 hours of downtime between the first round and the final panel) with a few other homebrewers and came away with some new ideas and a few brewers that I hope to run into and/or brew with in the future.  Second competition = great success! 

New Brews

As always, I have been keeping my free time pretty well occupied with brewing up some new beers.  My supply of everyday session ales was actually getting a little low so I churned out a quick hefeweizen.  I also have been enjoying the occasional bottle of my black IPA now that is ready, and even tried my hand at a small batch of mead.

•  Theresa’s Ale (Hefeweizen) – This Spring, Theresa and I have been drinking a lot of Sierra Nevada’s Kellerweis (a traditionally brewed hefeweizen).  This beer really pulled me back into hefeweizens and is probably my favorite of the style.  Inspired by this beer, I decided to take my own crack at something similar.  I started with some pale and wheat malts and malt extracts, added one bittering hop addition of Tettanger, and fermented it with a traditional hefe yeast strain (Wyeast 3068).  To try to keep with tradition, I partially open-fermented (fermenting the beer without a lid/airlock for part of the time) this brew during the primary and racked it to the secondary just before the krausen fell, and closed it with an airlock for the remaining week and a half.  I also put the zest of four oranges in the secondary fermenter.  I popped open one of these this past weekend (a week after bottle day).  It was already carbonated and tasted delicious.  The final product came out a bit lower in alcohol than I was shooting for (probably a result of either my first attempt at partial-mashing, or me topping it off with too much water, or a combination of the two), but it definitely came out full-flavored and very close to the flavor profile I was going for.  The yeast definitely adds a nice velvetiness and flavor to the beer, so don’t be bashful – pour it all in!  I have a feeling this one will go quick in the summer months.  For those that are interested in the techniques or ingredients that I used in creating this, or any of the rest of my beers, I will be posting recipes up to this site soon – stay tuned!

My hefeweizen in the secondary fermenter before getting transferred to the bottling bucket.

• Angry Rhino Ale (Black IPA) – I have been meaning to do a black IPA for awhile now, and when the Preston and Steve competition came along, I decided to pull it ahead a couple months from when I was originally going to brew this.  Angry Rhino started off using a rough clone recipe of Stone’s Sublimely Self-Righteous (and still has roughly the same ratios in the grain bill).  However, I did not want it to be exactly the same hop profile.  Instead of doing a citrus-hop bomb, I opted to switch it up with using Centennial and Magnum as late kettle additions and dry-hop additions.  The ending beer came out very good, and I am looking forward to sharing and drinking my remaining bottles of this hop batch (I gave up a six pack to competition and ended up with only 13 other 12oz bottles after the whole leaf centennials sucked up some beer in the secondary).  The hop profile is still not quite where I want it, but it is close.  I may tweak the hops a little the next time (and there will be a next time) I brew this. 

Angry Rhino Ale in one of my new glasses from a glass set that Theresa got me for my birthday :-)

• Mead – As I mentioned in my last post, I took my first crack at mead this past weekend!  The process was very easy and really didn’t take that much time.  Since this is my first time (and I really don’t know much at all about mead), I kept the recipe pretty simple – no fruit, no spice, no honey-barley hybrids – just straight-up clover honey, water, yeast nutrient, and Red Star champagne yeast.  Started my mead experience with a small, one gallon batch for a few reasons – 1. It could very easily turn out like crap since I don’t know what I’m doing, 2. I want to try doing a few small batches with different types of honey to get a feel for the different flavors I can get, 3. I really don’t have the space to have a full-sized carboy dedicated to fermenting mead for a couple months at a time (a one gallon jug is a lot easier to stash away as a secondary fermenter than a 5 gallon is).  Aside from adding some more nutrient to the fermenter a couple days after brew day, I will just be transferring it to a one gallon jug in about a week or so to sit and clear out for a couple months before bottle conditioning.  More to come on this batch in a few months. 

Foreground: Barley wine fermenting in one of my glass carboys (more on this beer in the months to come).  Background: Mead fermenting away in my bucket fermenter.

Looking Forward (A.K.A. Other Miscellaneous Stuff)

So it has been a very long time since I’ve talked about video games on this blog, and to be honest, it has been a very long time since I’ve even played video games.  But with the E3 2011 Convention that just wrapped up a week or two ago, came some new trailers announcing some very cool games that are going to be coming up soon.  The ones that I am most excited to get my hands are Gears of War 3 (September 2011 release), Modern Warfare 3 (November 2011 release), Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition (a remake of the original Halo for the tenth anniversary of the game due out November 2011), and last, but certainly not least, Halo 4 (due out late 2012 – damn, I don’t want to wait that long!).  I’m also excited about the upcoming Mass Effect 3 but I’m holding off my excitement on that until I get through the first and second games in the series (I’m about halfway through the first).  I am trying to make more of an effort to get back to playing video games on a casual basis to spend some time hanging out with my friends who I don’t get to see often, and to enjoy another big passion in my life.  With the summer months coming, I will most likely be less tied up with brewing, so I am hoping to get some more gaming time.

Well now that you’ve read a bit over 2,000 words on this post, I suppose I should wrap it up.  I’m really looking forward to the nice weather coming up now that summer is finally here!  I can’t wait to spend some time outside barbequing and having some beers outside!  I’m also looking forward to a few more moments like this one:

Abby resting in the grass after a hard day of playing with her soccer ball - what a hard life she lives!

Until next time (hopefully these updates will be coming a little more frequently), cheers!

Song of the Day: “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash

Beer of the Day: Rogue Ales’ Chipotle Ale

Baseball is Back!!!!

Baseball is finally back!  The Phils finally back on TV, rescuing cable from its increasingly annoying mediocrity.  And to top it off, they Phillies are off to a great start! :-)  No one was really surprised that their pitching was very solid.  What really got me excited though, was the offense.  The Phils were doing great at putting the ball in play and taking smart at-bats, despite a couple key injuries.  The offense seems to be focused more so on putting the ball in play, rather than out of the park.  I hope the first three games are a good indicator how the rest of the season is going to go. :-)

In other news, I had a little break from the normal travel grind and was able to work from home last week.  It was nice to be home with Theresa and Abby for the week. :-)  It also allowed me to get a lot of stuff done around the apartment.  Among other things, Theresa and I picked out our wedding bands!  They look really nice and I can't wait to wear mine and put Theresa's on her finger. :-)

I also finally got around to getting to the eye doctor - apparently Johnny's getting glasses!  This was not exactly a surprise - my eyes haven't been very good the last year or so.  As it turns out, I have an astigmatism.  I can't wait to get my glasses and not have to strain to read text on the TV screen.

That's all for now - I'll hopefully be posting again soon on the Banana Bread Ale, Blueberry Wheat, and Bass Clone and other homebrew goodies.

Song of the Day: "Dolores" by MxPx
Beer of the Day: Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale

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)