The Dirt Floor

Angie's brother is a pretty cool dude. Lives out in Northern California and is a organic farmer. Lives in a yurt. And he also plays in a pretty kickbutt bluegrass-ish band called the Dirt Floor. They played at Angie's sister's wedding and were awesome. Now I guess they have a CD out that is selling on iTunes and have been ranging ever-farther playing live gigs. They were particularly instrumental for me when I was writing papers at the end of my semester...good music to write to.

Anyway, where I am going with this is: they finally have a good video posted on youtube that I thought would be cool to share. Just wanted to give a bit of back story....check the video:


That's all I got for now...see ya.

&Ry

A Tale of Two (Snowy) Cities

As you all know, the east coast got slammed by snow this weekend. Someone sent along a video clip of what people down in 'wrence's hood deal with snow at football games. Check it:

Now, here is the traditional use of snow at a football game in New England:

I am no chowdahead. I personally can't stand the fans of either team. But if given the choice to live amongst one group or the other, I am going with option 2 all the way.

&Ry

ps - goonies is on encore right now...dope right?

I wonder what kind of lens they used for this...

I also wanted to share this video which is kind of a mind-blow. I feel like this is exactly the kind of thing I would not want to watch if I were stoned:

A wedding and a blizzard

Had a pretty baller wedding to go to last night. It was my best friend from college J'Mann's little brother Mike's wedding. When Mike was a freshman, we used to buy him and his friends beer, leave it in our room, and then go out to do whatever it was that we had going on. We would typically come home to find a slew of freshmen playing beirut and having a pretty solid time. I always wished that I had someone do that for me when I was a freshman. Anyway, we got tight with the little guys and now they are all growed up and getting married and whatnot...so I was happy to get to go.

Food was tight, the band was absolutely kickawesome. They played a bunch of awesome stuff...some Killers, The Cure, The Clash, the Boss, Dylan, etc...definitely not your average wedding band and it was a pretty solid time. As you may or may not now...the big guy decided to cover up most of the east coast with snow and shit this weekend. So all that started while we were weddinging. It is impossible to get a cab in downtown Boston on a good night, let alone in the middle of a blizzard. Add to that, the fact that Angie was in wedding attire and had no leg coverings, so she refused to even be outside. So I walked around Boston like a douche trying to hail cabs for an hour before we resigned ourselves to having to crash on a cot in J'Mann's room at the hotel. Woke up this morning and by some miracle a cab pulls up right behind us as we are walking...so that made life a little better.

I just want to leave you with an image of exactly what the wedding was like. This is the father of the groom, and my own personal hero: William Cyril Cagney Esq. I might be making this my facebook pic for a while:

That all I got for now, I think. Looks like the snow should be finishing up soon. So begins the time-honored process of shoveling out my car and marking my spot.

&Ry

Bob Dylan's wierd Christmas album

It seems like music fans are pretty polarized when it comes to Dylan's Christmas in the Heart. Is it a joke? Is it another sell-out move? Is it merely bullshit sentimentality? The answer I believe is none of the above.

I haven't heard the whole album yet, but judging by this cut, I am in love with it. Dig:

I just want to be at this party. Also, the lyrics (written in

1959 I believe by an old song writing combo I hadn't

heard of) are tight; I love repetition!

______________

It's the sunday after a ripping snow storm here in Philly - totally unusual for this area at this time of year;

apparently it's the largest December snowfall total in over 60 years. I have a short week at work coming up and I'll be driving up to Massholechusetts for the big day next

Friday. More updates to follow.

Peace to all

-Wrence

Holy Shit!

I just found out about THIS and I am petrified with excitement!!!

I hope Santa reads this blog....cause shit is supposed to drop on Decemeber 22nd, and would make a fantastic gift!

Xmas updates soon to follow

-Wrence

The Vault

Just wanted to throw a quick shot out there. I like music. Music kicks ass. Live music kicks even more ass.

I stumbled across this site while i was busy paper-writing and whatnot. They have tons of live awesome bootlegged concerts streaming for free. Just thought people who also think music kicks ass would like to know.

keep fighting the good fight peoples.

&Ry

tree farm happenings

The end of the academic semester can only mean one thing.... a resurgence in postings by me. Last class of the semester tonight...two papers down and one to go. Can't wait till it is all over and i can once again revert to sleeping too late and playing bullshit wii games while waiting for it to get dark enough outside for me to feel the need to actually leave my house lest i slide into an enticing cavernous depression. ahh the holidays.

anyway, i went to get my christmas tree last saturday and something crazy happened....angie and i got engaged. weird huh? i had actually known i was going to do this for some time...since at least the early summer. after squaring away all the parental conversations necessary, i had the green light to go ahead and do it. in the days leading up to our tree-farm visit to cut down our tree (something that I have been doing since i was a kid) i realized that it would be a pretty boss time to P the Q.

so i managed to act like a somewhat normal human being on saturday despite not having slept for two days due to anxiety. we got to the tree farm and picked out a tree in what was for me record time. i commenced sawing as angie videotaped me with her camera. i stopped to "take a break" and i had the ring in my hand. being on the ground to cut down the tree, i was naturally in the position, so i just turned to her and asked. she was pretty shocked, but very happy. and i am as well.

so that should make for a pretty exciting holiday season. just thought i should share my good news on here.

now, to divert drastically, check out how awesome these two t-shirts are.

peace out, ya'll
&Ry

Do you like apples, Russo?

All hands Against His Own, by the Black Keys, as interpreted by El Proyecto Los Jorges (in pajamas)

How do you like them apples?

Confluence of various Blog-esque personae, drinking beer and general good-timery

As I type this I am sitting in The Bones' kitchen drinking coffee. It's 9am in Needham and I've been drinking & eating pretty much non-stop for 48 hours now, and have yet to really be full, nor have I experienced a hangover. I can only conclude that as I age I keep getting better and better at being awesome.

Last night the Bones & I took the T into town (which was actually pretty convenient considering he really lives in the suburbs) and went to CBC to meet some friends. The place was almost disturbingly empty at first on this black Friday, but the relative calm and quiet gave me a chance to catch up with some of my friends who work there before they got too busy to talk and before we got distracted by our people showing up...

Among whom was none other than the the Toymeister himself (the guy in the picture to the right, who used to post on here often) replete with his usual array of idiosyncratic humor and jokes that really only HE can get away with. This may include sending text messages of cock drawings to us before he arrived, but I can't confirm that.

Today the Bones plans on brewing something (once he wakes up, that is); we still have the house to ourselves and plan to pretty much just chill here for the day/night. We picked up a mic yesterday to complete the "band" and are tossing around a few song ideas. Hopefully we get some tracks down at some point in the day, all the while knocking off a righteous Pale Ale. And oh yea, there's turkey, too.

Peace

-Wrence

Judging, Beering, Awesoming

It's been a busy November already, and we're only half-way through.

Two weekends ago I was in Needham MA (see below post if you want to have your face rocked off), and then this weekend I drove up to upstate NewYork.

I accomplished 2 things whilst up there. Well, 3 really.

1: I served as a judge at the Knickerbocker Battle of the Brews, which was held at the C.H. Evans brewpub in Smallbany (aka The Pump Station). It was interesting, though "fun" is a word I guess I am not ready to apply to the situation. Judging is definitely hard work; it requires a lot of mental focus and concentration over a long period of time, which sucks. Plus, the slowly acquired buzz you pick up (unless you spit your samples like a little girl) adds to the mayhem. After arriving and registering I found out that I was on the Strong Beer panel. Which means I ended up judging 14 Bocks, Barleywines, and Imperial Stouts. Wait, I guess that part was fun.

When I mentioned all this to the Bones a few weeks ago, he decided to contribute by sending in a couple entries of his own. I specifically tried NOT to know what he was sending in, so on the rare chance I got a category he would have been in, I wouldn't have realized it. In fact, I was very much dreading the thought of judging one of his beers, simply because the entrants all get mailed to them the very score sheet I fill out, replete with my bullshit commentary on their beer. Who would want to brutally dissect their friends/brother's homebrew?? Not me.

Well, guess what: I did end up getting one of Kevin's beers in our flight. And guess what again: we all liked it. And guess what again: we gave him third place in the flight. Thank balls! I didn't even know it was his until I read the results the next day. I called the Bones to revel in the hilarity but he didn't seem to find it amusing as did I.

2: The other thing I wanted to do was rack my Brett Beer. It was still sitting there full of yeast & crap from the main fermentation. I racked it off, cleaned the carboy, and racked the beer back in, along with some oak chips. It tasted great; dry, a touch of the brett coming through, hoppy (love those styrian goldings) and still estery from the primary yeast. Win.

3: Ate lots of food and dranks tons of booze.
________________________

I apologize for not having some sort of photo in this post, as damn they do spice up the posts...oh well.
________________________

Back in Philly, this week at work is a short one, as we are only in production for 3 days...Thursday will be our normal Friday clean-out day as Friday we open our doors to our internet fans for a party. I'll be there for 8 hours (ON the clock) pouring beers and bullshitting with our customer base. The only bitch of it is that I have tours there the very next day...so it's sort of another busy week after all, I guess. But the following week is thanksgiving week, my goddamn favorite holiday of the year. I simply can't goddamn wait to get up to Boston for 4 solid days. Especially seeing as how I missed Thanksgiving last year, and almost missed it again this year. The Bones and I have so much drinking, James Bond watching, and basement shredding to do. Also we should see RyToy at some point, and definitely log some hours at the bar @ CBC. Don't worry, there will be updates on this stuff....

love

-Wrence

New Rock Band from Needham

Video of the Bones & I taking out some aggressions via Rock and/or Roll. It felt good to play again, and I think we brought the thunder pretty well.

More Needham

The view from the summit of Noanet peak, in Dover MA. Had a nice quick weekend up there and the weather cooperated.

Peace

-Wrence

The Needham Landfill; What a Dump!

So a few weeks ago. Wait. So a few MONTHS ago (jesus!) I accompanied the Bones and H&K to the town dump. It was far less impressive than I was hoping. What was I hoping for, exactly? I don't know....I guess I was imagining a giant mound of garbage, thousands of feet high, and some sort of cliff or ledge from which one hurled garbage out into the abyss.

It was more like a parking lot with like 6 different colored dumpsters. Shit, there weren't even any diseased seagulls around. What a gyp.

Anyway, there is this part where people leave old stuff they don't want any more, and I scored a Moka.

I did not know it was called a "Moka" until two days ago, when I finally dusted it off and tried using it. Unsure of the correct technique/procedure, I googled "Italian stovetop espresso maker," and that wikipedia entry popped up, answering any and all questions I could possibly ever have regarding said instrument of caffeination.

It worked well. Even though I lost the rubber gasket which came with it (the thing would have needed replacing anyway), a basic 1.5 inch tri-clover gasket from the brewery fit it just fine, and the thing worked with minimal leakage.


It tasted pretty much like percolator coffee. Which makes sense as this is in no way an espresso machine but really just a fancy Italian percolator. Unfortunately it didn't make the trademark crema I was hoping for, but it was a fun change all the same. There are now three different weird coffee making things in my arsenal, and for that, I shall not want for caffeine.

Monster Engery Drink vs. Rock Art Brewery

Some of you may have heard about this unbelievable bullshit that a small brewery in Vermont is currently struggling with: a baseless copyright infringement lawsuit that could potentially bankrupt them. I am outraged to the point of actual physical anger here....watch this great interview with Matt Nadeau and check out the links below, please!



Facebook group

Send an angry email to these DOUCHES here

Brewery's support webpage

Thanks

Back on the Hombie Horse

I finally got past that bullshit summer hangup I had, got off my ass, and got back on the Homebrew train. Actually, let me re-phrase that. Not only did I get on that train, I did it with a neckerchief tied around my mouth, and proceeded to hijack the bastard and send it straight to Awesomeville, Kick-assia.

Let's begin:

Last weekend, I ended up in Saratoga NY - basically a last minute trip I needed to take, mainly to grab some music gear from my Dad's basement for eventual transfer to The Bones' new basement Rock & Roll studio. More on that sweetness later.

Anyway, while I was there I decided to follow through on an idea I had been mulling ever since I left Boston: to brew my first Brett beer and allow it to simmer away in my Dad's basement for a year or so and see what happens. I found a new homebrew shop in 'Toga and had a good time hanging there with a couple local homebrewers. Actually, because of this random meeting I got hooked up with my first judging gig, which is something I've always wanted to do. More on THAT sweetness later.

After procuring the necessary 'ients, My Dad & I mashed and boiled a half batch of a Belgian Pale Ale.

5.5# Briess 2-row Malt
.5# Aromatic Malt
.5# Dextrine Malt.

I mashed it pretty high, around 154 or so. I wanted to create some dextrins for the Brett to work on (a trick I picked up from Vinnie Cilurzo). We hopped it modestly with Styrian Goldings, and started the fermentation off with some of the Belgian yeast we use at the Fish. (It's White Labs 530, for you obsessive types) I probably used too much, because the fermentation was a crazy mess, blowing crap out of the carboy even though it was only half full of wort. 36 hours later the krausen was dropping and I pitched a packet of Wyeast's Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. For the uninitiated, Brettanomyces is a type of wild yeast, this particular strain cultured from the indigenous micro-flora inhabiting the Brussels region. Brett is a slow working organism capable of surprising complexity and intensity given enough time and the proper conditions. Some people describe its characteristics as "sweaty horse blanket," but I think that's the most god awful disgusting thing you could say about a beer, and to be perfectly honest I've NO IDEA what a horse blanket smells like, let alone a sweaty one. So, I prefer to use words like: musty, earthy, barnyard, sour fruit, spicy. But that's just me. Gravity was 1.054 - a little lower than I wanted.
____________

Tonight:

12# Rahr 2-row Malt
.25# British 60L Crystal
.5# Dextrine Malt
1# Dextrose sugar

This is going to be another Russian River-esque IPA. I've attempted these in the past, but was never satisfied. I had always used whole flower hops, and with my system (boiling on the stove) I just don't think I was getting the hop utilization needed for a beer like Pliny. Tonight I'm using pellets in the hopes of finally getting that hop profile I have been looking for. Also, I'm treating my water with Gypsum to help lower my mash pH and to accentuate the hop flavor. Hop schedule is crazy...here goes

Bittering addition:
1 oz Summit 16.7 AA%
1 oz Simcoe 11.9 AA%

Followed by 3 late additions:
1 oz Columbus
.75 Simcoe
.75 Centennial

1 oz Centennial
.5 Columbus
1 oz Simcoe

1 oz Centennial
1 oz Summit
.75 Columbus

Also there will be 2 Dry additions, using similar hops.

I'm hoping to get the gravity in the low 1.07's -fermenting with my old favorite American yeast.

More details to come...I'm about to come up to a boil now.

James Brown on the computer speakers

Cyser in the glass

Life ain't too bad sometimes

Love

-Wrence

Brooklyn Fail

So I drove up to NYC this past weekend for some good times and adventure. Some things went well, some things did not. Here is a brief re-cap in list format.

Fail#1 -Arriving late and parking too close to a fire hydrant
Fail#2 -Keeping my car there overnight even though I was warned by Nikki about it, and even after noticing a ticket had been affixed.
Result: Two tickets and a towed vehicle

Fail#3 -Attempting to visit my friend who works at the Sixpoint Brewery on Saturdays, only to arrive in Red Hook about an hour after they had closed up shop for the weekend (partial blame on the group I was traveling around with)
Fail#4 -Attempting to reclaim awesomeness with a tour at the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg, only to again arrive just after they closed (again the group dynamic made it difficult to proceed with my normal levels of kickassitude)
Result: Incredibly thirsty

And now some good things:

-Having an El Salvadorian girl make an amazing paella from scratch
-Having an Italian girl cook an amazing pasta dish from scratch
-Having my clothes forcibly removed, being oiled up and massaged by a woman I had known for all of 7 minutes.
-Evaporator hits
-Breaking up a fight in a Williamsburg bar
-Drinking a crap-load of great Oktoberfest beers all weekend.

All in all, one can't really complain about that, no?

Love,
-Wrence

Blind Pig & New Routines

After all the traveling I did in the last 5 weeks, it was nice to have a weekend to relax in Philly (yea, I just said that). Saturday included a weird pattern and some very welcome happenstance.

First, I ended up covering for someone at work and had to come into the brewery for tours Saturday afternoon. I don't mind doing this at all, in fact I actually really enjoy it. Anyway, that morning I was thinking of calling up Snotty as I hadn't heard from him since like July; on my way out to the brewery he actually called me. Vague plans were made to meet up later for beers. I had a few errands to take care of before tours started, and while I was driving around swearing at New Jersey traffic I realized that each of the other 2 times I worked tours at the brewery I ended up meeting Snotty afterward at Justin's Restaurant. (1) (2) Since we are both piss-poor foodies, we ended up back at the Key this time as well. 3 for 3 for me. Also, now that I think of it, I ended up writing about each visit on here as well, so that's part of the routine now as well I guess.

This visit was another delight for the face, as Monkey sent us out a few special dishes he had prepared from a whole suckling pig that he had picked up that day. I never knew someone to confit a pig, and it was HEAVENLY.

OH: the best part - when I first arrived and started perusing the beer list I came across Port Brewing's Hop 15 and quickly ordered one. The bartendress informed me that they unfortunately just kicked that keg, and would be replacing it with "Umm...(she looked down at something written somewhere)....Russian River....Blind- "YES," I emphatically interrupted.

That's right, I was there as they put on a fresh keg of Blind Pig IPA, a beer I brewed back in my apprentice days at the beloved NorCal brewery. See above photo. Me So Happy! I had about 15 of them. I don't think I even bothered to drink anything else the whole night. Damn.

Hope you all are enjoying your September.

Peace

-Wrence

Shmeptember

Latest in the series "Wrence Taking Weekend Trips to Various Places He'd Rather be Living" - some shots from Portland, OR & Pink's wedding.

(thanks to Dea & Sarah for the photos)





Love to all

-Wrence

The Damofest Effigy

After Damien told us we could definitely NOT have a bonfire on the lawn, Garvey inquired about burning an effigy. Diesel said "sure, you go ahead and do that." -partially because he didn't think we'd actually follow up on it, and partially because he didn't know what an effigy was. Hell, I don't even think what we did qualifies as such, however it was large and we burned the shit out of it just the same.

Here is a photo essay for your enjoyment. For whatever reason I ended up being the point guy on building this thing. I think it worked pretty well.

(Thanks to Garvey and Rosario for the pics)














-Wrence

DAMOFEST `09

Ok, I am back from Vermont, but am in such a deep state of culture shock that I don't think I can really get into the details of the last 5 days yet. Perhaps another post may come up later to handle some of that stuff....perhaps not. I am not quite sure how to get on with my life again this morning, but I'll leave you with a photo I took in my car just before I arrived.

I sincerely love you all,

-Wrence

Pee Town

So the busy part of my summer came graciously to a close last Tuesday. For the next four weeks or so I will be working very little, although i will be in the office, and will be doing a decent bit of traveling on the weekend. This past weekend saw me head on out to Cape Cod. It's been something of a yearly ritual to make at least one trip out there every summer, and I was loathe to let this year be any different.

After waiting far too long to book a place, Angie and I settled on a decent, although pretty 'spensive" hotel right on the North Truro/Provincetown line. We were walking distance into town, which made it nice and easy. Friday night we hit up this place called Lorraine's, a pretty tight non-cheesy Mexican place that takes food and tequila very seriously. Angie had some kind of margarita, in keeping with the theme, while I opted for a Dos Equis...a favorite of mine since my days of chasing underage Jersey girls in Cancun. The menu was pretty legit and we ordered two specials...a roasted yellow beefsteaktomato stuffed with cous cous with some kind of awesome sauce that i can't even describe. Then I had grilled swordfish with lime-cilantro ajo and some kind of otherwordly potato dish that continues to make my mouth water. Angie had some kind of flautas or something. Solid place, and definitely recommended. Then we went off to get shitfaced...which was no hard task. I found a bar called Waydowntown, which may have been some kind of gay reference that was lost on me. But they were showing the Sox game, so it seemed like a decent place to hang out. They had a bunch of decent brews on tap, but I stuck with the Cisco Whale's Tail Pale Ale...and got sufficiently sloshed. After the game the drag show started, but this dude was the worst drag queen I have ever seen. If i had been a bit more sober I think I could recount better why he was so awful. Suffice it to say, I was looking forward to a funny little drag show, but this guy killed it....and I think the other four people in the bar would agree with me.

Saturday we had a fucking glorious beach day during which we drank beer on the beach and eavesdropped on the conversations of those around us. The blanket next to us awas a bunch of late 20s/early 30s gay dudes who were hilarious. They were seriously all over the spectrum from fat messes to WWF style bodybuilders, but they all seemed to get along fabulously and were pretty funny to listen to. The blanket in front of us was a group of five dudes who were at least in their forties...also funny but for different reasons. Apparently one of these guys never gets laid when he goes to P'town, and they were giving him shit for it throughout. Bros will be bros....not much really changes when you come to think about it.

Saturday night we hit up Cafe Edwige, which was one of the better meals I have had in a good long while. Roasted quarter chicken, with roasted potatoes garlic, and asparagus. I really can't do it justice other than to say that it was one of the better cooked pieces of chicken I have ever had...which doesn't sound like it is saying very much, but it is. Angie had a corna nd lobster bisque followed by the special which was pan-seared striped bass. All reports were overwhelmingly positive.

Post dinner we grabbed a beer at The Squealing Pig, which also has a dope beer menu (including BBC Coffeehouse Porter) and then met Angie's friends who are an older couple of gay dudes who also had some friends with them. All in all, it was areally solid time and I managed to stumble back to the hotel without getting hit by a car, a dramatic success in and of itself.

Next weekend I am off to visit my Moms in NJ. Looking forward to seeing their new house and such.

Keep it reals ya'll.

&Ry

Your Mother Was a Hamster

This post is probably going to be boring, as I begin typing without knowing what exactly I'm going to type about; the feeling is akin to buying a scratch-off lottery ticket, you might actually win some money, but most likely the ticket will be a crumpled up piece of garbage on the floor of your car for the next 3 weeks until you get the free cleaning with your next oil change at the Spring Garden Car Wash. And so:

The last week was another cluster-fuck at the brewery. In case you don't know what a cluster-fuck is, it's basically a junk-show on crystal meth. We are still playing catch-up, brewing like crazy: this week we got in another 14 brews (as opposed to our normal 10 brews). Again, it's just me and one other guy doing all this. Oh yea, we also filtered 7 batches during this same time period. Not to complain or anything, but I have woken up each morning so sore that I can barely facebook my email internets.

Normally Friday is our slow day, instead of brewing we just clean up, and usually it's a 6 or 7 hour day (to make up for all the 9 hour days earlier in the week). Oh, but not this friday - we brewed and filtered again. Hotter than satan's crotch in a wool jock strap. Luckily I got to stay late last night breaking down the filters and reloading them for Monday's filtrations. Nothing like working a brutal 10-hour shift to wind the week down.

When I finally got home, around 8pm, carrying a couple cases of beer, my sopping wet work clothes in a bag, and my pre-prepared dinner from Whole Foods, I noticed the apartment was really warm. Baking, in fact. Our building is about 100 years old and made completely of brick. It once was a furniture factory and as such has few windows, so they central aired the hell out of the place. My air conditioning was busted. I did what anyone would do in my situation: freaked out momentarily, and then resigned myself to fate, took a cold bath, and got cross-eyed drunk in my underwear. A few hours later the a.c. sort of fixed itself. Weird.

So this weekend is my first actual 2 days away from the brewery since....early July. See past updates for my last couple weekend re-caps - they all involved work of some kind. I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing for the next 48 hours. There are just two things on my agenda: pick up a CO2 cylinder to complete my keg-readiness for Vermont*, and get my dimensions professionally measurisized for Pink's wedding uniform**. The likelyhood that I get even those tasks accomplished is meek, to say the least.

I take heart that today is the first day of August and soon enough the heat will begin to subside, work may eventually become tolerable again, and the possibility of me cooking and/or brewing something in my own home becomes more and more palpable.

Enjoy your August, folks!

-Wrence

*August 12-15 will see me in my beloved state of Vermont for this year's DAMO-FEST
**August 31 will see me in Portland Oregon for Pink's wedding

The Power of Beer

A quick bit I noticed on the whole Henry Louis Gates/Cambridge PD/Obama's mouth menage-a-trois. I will refrain from any sort of commentary on the very real institutionalized racism which still exists in our country or the possibility of a belligerent Harvard Scholar, but I did want to point out this quick little blurb I saw on NPR:

"After a phone call from President Barack Obama urging calm in the aftermath of his arrest last week, the black professor said he would accept Obama's invitation to the White House for a beer with the president and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley."

They are totally going to crush a few beers and easily work this whole thing out! I love it...I'm sure things might be heavy and a little awkward at first, but by the time they are all on their 2nd glass of barley juice, they will probably be talking about baseball and tits, making prank calls to Iran, and having such a good time they won't even be able to remember why they were there in the first place. Michelle will totally have to throw them all out of the house 8 hours later after they trash the blue room.

The Power of Beer.

-Wrence

Tours at the Fish/Kite & Key

Holy Junk-show did we have TON of people in the brewery yesterday! I was there from 1-4 giving tours and I seriously think we got 100 people through in that time. Poured MANY a free sample and put a few into my own face as well. My last group was huge and I was actually starting to lose my voice by the end of the tour, which was a first.

Snotty showed up at the brewery, along with a couple of his bros. It was good to see some familiar faces there. We shot the shit & drank little cups of beer for a few hours. I think they enjoyed seeing the brewery, especially since I brought over a bunch of our beer last weekend to Snotty's BBQ and they were naturally curious to see where it was brewed.
____________

After shutting things down out at the brewery, I drove right back into town to meet Snotty and his crew at Monkey Boy's restaurant (last mentioned here). Well, it's not actually his restaurant, but he has been executive-cheffing things up there for the past 9 months, and totally rules at it. Seriouslyforeals. Last time we met there, he just started sending out courses and we basically died from awesomeness. This time was no different, except for the fact that I had my phone with me and decided to take pictures of each plate before I ate the Jesus-punching shit of it.

I now offer you gratuitous food-porn for the remainder of this post:

Course 1
Spicy home made kimchi with
chillis and basil oil

Justin fermented the Kimchi himself, and it was impressive.

Course 2
Escargot with bacon over English muffin
bread with poached egg

The last time we were here, Monkey sent us out something very similar to this, and I loved it - even though the idea of eating snails is still something I can't quite wrap my head around. Though it is not nearly even close to the most disgusting food item I regularly eat, it is just weird, right? Maybe it's the name...let's just start calling them "land-clams" - I think more people could get down with that. I thought this dish was awesome the LAST time I had it, and this time he added BACON. Enough said.

Course 3
Prawn with corn/shrimp nugget
& kick-ass sauce

This dish was really a life changing moment for me & Snotty. I realized quickly that I had never been served a prawn with the head still attached. I obviously knew that this was the way to do it, intact body usually translating to freshness, but I had NO IDEA. Biting into this guy was like biting into fresh corn on the cob in summer: crisp, juicy, sweeeet as all hell. Like super sugar sweet fleshy prawny goodness! Did I mention how sweet it was? I couldn't believe it. This bore ZERO resemblance to those pre-be-headed pink rubbery shrimps I had been served all my adult life. When Snotty and I stopped to think about that fact, we became incensed! He put it best when he said "I've been paying people to shit in my mouth all this time."

Course 4
Marinated tomatoes on toasty
bread with goat cheesy goodness

There's not much to add about this dish other than it was awesome.

Course 5
Sliced steaky bits over beans & bread
crumbs, with some sort of reduction sauce

Same here.
_________
All in all, a strong showing for the day. Also I should note that this place has great beer. Among my quaffed were: Elysian's Jasmine IPA, Ommegang's Hennepin, and a few others. I got crunked and walked home around 9pm. I awoke in the middle of the night in my bed, but on top of my sheets and sporting a large ice cream-colored stain on my tee-shirt. Sweet.

-Wrence

Ry's Saturday

It's been a crazy weekend for this little guy right here. To start, I had a ticket for Frday' sox game. So we went and I got loaded....thing is my cousin on my mom's side was at the game because she was up in Boston for a wedding this weekend. I regretfully met up with her at Game On. The place sucks, and that's the bottom line.

So, today rolls around. and after I finished creeping Angie out with my excessive hungoverness we went downtown. You see, I had another cousin in town. This one from my dad's side. So I met up with her, her husband, and their three kids guess where???? game on. Yes, twice in two days I went to this place more than I have been there since it opened.

After boozing at Game On, we stopped into the Pour House where our friend Eric was. Plowed through some wings and nachos there and then finally made our way home.

Once home, I realized that I needed to bottle my hefe and move my pale ale to secondary or risk drastic consequences. Well, I hate bottling, but I decided to make this time worth my while and so I plugged my ipod in while I got the work done. There really is nothing like listening to The Last Waltz under any circumstance. Earplugs plugged...I bottled my beer and did whatever else I had to do and it has never been so epic. As I type this right now I still have the plugs in my ears and Van Morrison is going through his Tura Tura Tura Tura Tura Tura Lura....it's so dope. You are all jealous.

I am gonna go now, the caravan is painted red and white after all.

&Ry

New Thom Yorke Song

So I just today found out that Thom played a solo set, somewhat unannounced, at this festival in England somewhere the other day. I love the Thom solo shows; watching him glide from piano to guitar to organ, backed only by his samples, loops, and angelic voice, is a sight to behold. I swear if I ever have a chance to see him play in the states, I'll be all over that shit like a fat guy on pie.

He played a new tune that is thought to be called "The Present Tense." It follows along his other somewhat Neil Youngy pieces, strolling along pleasantly enough, but picking up steam after the 3-minute mark. A nice song, to be sure, but still in its infancy. After following this guy and his band for so long I can recognize it as still more of an idea, which will undoubtedly appear in a completely different form on a Radiohead album in say, 3 or 4 years from now.

Give it a listen if you wish:



Which reminds me, last summer, when Radiohead was touring, we were treated to great new song called "Supercollider" which pretty much rocks the mustache right off my face. Check it out below if you wish:


__________________

Anyway, that's what I'm up to today. About to head into work, where we are finally wrapping up an epic 10 day blur of production. Normally we brew four days a week, typically 10 brews. For several reasons, we have been playing catch-up lately, brewing 8 out of the last 9 days, the only exception being Saturday. 24 brews in 10 days. And I won't even get into the filtrations we've done each day as well. I'm being rewarded with Friday off from work (though I still have to show up Saturday to give tours, so I am essentially stuck inside of Philly with the New Jersey blues again).

Enjoy your humpday, all

Love
'Wrence

Brewreport

I brewed the pale ale I was planning today. It went relatively well with only a few of the minor fuckups that my brew sessions have come to be marked by. I continue to suffer from mediocre efficiency...and my attempts at doing a protein rest and raising the temp through a decoction didn't pan out exactly as I planned. Either way, I am certain this will still be a very tasty brew to be enjoyed be many in just a few weeks.

I also racked my hefe to secondary today...and I cheated a little taste as I was siphoning....this shit is gonna be delicious. If it turns out as planned, it will be the third hefe I have made that I have sweated the shit out of. Let's hope. I don't think it is done yet because the grav came in at about 1.015....I think it probably has another couple of points to go before it is fully finished. Looking at bottling this next Saturday....cross your fingers for me.

I am trying something new today...more for fun than for any other reason. I have been fucking around a bit more with ProMash and I also have been diddling a bit with GoogleDocs. As such, check the brew report for today's attempt. Thoughts?

See ya...
&Ry

Say Cheese!

Just a quick hit here....I figured that there may be people who might have missed this like I did and might find it equally infuriating.

Apparently, as a last act of antagonism, the Bush administration raised the import tarriff on Roquefort cheese to a level that essentially made it impossible to buy in the states (read about it here). I guess the Obama administration eventually removed the ridiculous tarriff, but it still makes me mad that it ever happened in the first place. I mean....I can't say I eat it that often, but it's good to know you can get a good hunk of Roquefort when the mood arises.

Here's to cheese!

&ry

My week so far

So after all that busyness described below, I am in a very enthralling period of latency at the moment. I have basically had this entire week off and have been spending a good deal of time at home. I recently decided that I no longer want to be overweight and have used these days to concentrate on reading my latest book, eating right and going for runs.

Boston Organics has made the former a lot easier. I can't remember if I have mentioned them before, but Angie and I have been getting deliveries from them "on the reg" for the past few months. This week's bin had an assload of awesome shit in it. Kale, collards, three zucchini, a big ass bunch of red leaf lettuce, the biggest fucking cucumber you have ever seen...I mean seriously...THE BIGGEST CUCUMBER EVER. So far I haven't been able to get myself to chop it up and saladify it...I am afraid it is going to try to run away or start begging for its life or something. Did I mention that it is fucking huge? So, yeah...Boston Organics makes it easier for me not to eat like shit.

I took advantage of the time and brewed a batch of beer on Sunday...a hefe...and will be brewing again on Saturday. I am giving the hefe a short primary because I usually wouldn't give it a secondary at all. However, since I need the big boy carboy for my next brew I am cutting the primary a little short and will give it a short secondary. The next brew on the horizon is the first one expressly designed and brewed for Angie's sister's wedding on 9/5. I am planning on pitching onto the cake of my summer blonde ale that I brewed 6 weeks or so ago. I also have enough hops left from recent brews to bitter with those. So my LHBS trip this afternoon was solely for the purpose of grabbing some grainage. Psyched to see that they got themselves a fancy new persian-style runner-type rug on the grain/fridge side of the shop. Classes the joint up a bit. Anyway....the 'pe looks a-like this:

8# British 2-Row
1.5# Munich Malt
1# Crystal 20
.75 oz Saaz 6.8%AA (60 Minutes)
.75 oz Tettnang 5.1% AA (30 Minutes)
I might throw some whole leaf Palisades in there for dry-hopping but I am not sure yet.
The cake I am throwing it on is Wyeast 1272

Anyway, I do most of my computing on Angie's lappy...but ProMash is on my desktop (yeah I still have one). So I was feeling lazy and googled "brew calculator" and came up with this place. It's not perfect, but I am willing to give it a shot for a bit as I simultaneously keep up with ProMash. I made a profile and stuff, so I think it will be easier to access and share my recipes as I go along. Give it a try, maybe we can be beerfriends.

&Ry

What RyToy's been doing....

The month of June was a crazy one for yours truly (RyToy)...here's a quick refresher since my last update:
June 14-16th - Orientation Session 1 (out of 7) at a Boston area university where i am currently a student and also hold a position as a staff member for the office that does freshman-y type of stuff.
June 18th - Bus to NYC -- took my mom to dinner at Craft which is one of Tom Colicchio of Top Chef fame's flagship establishments. Righteous dinner...to say the least
June 19th - took my Dad to the Mets game at CitiField wearing my blue "I'm Calling It Shea" t-shirt to rave reviews from fellow Mets fans. They won the game...which is a rarity these days and the stadium is pretty tight. It lacks a lot of the flavor and memories of the old place and I am never going to be ok with it having a corporate sponsorship, but it makes up for that in some small way by having pretty bitching food, comfy seats, good sightlines, and a ballpark that you can actually walk all the way around.
After the game, I met my buddy J'Mann at David Copperfield's in NYC...pretty tight laid back beer-bar;. If I lived around the corner from a place like this I would likely have my own toilet and/or urinal
June 20th - bus back to boston and dinner with angie
June 21st - Orientation Session 2
June 22nd - Angie's gramps dies at the age of 93. He'd been failing for a while and it was really a matter of time. Nonetheless, the family, and Angie, were very affected by the loss. I however was not allowed to leave campus even to take Angie up to NH , so she had to drive herself up after leaving work. I will probably hold that grudge for a while.
June 23rd - Session 2 ends, I leave that night to go up to NH and hang out with the fam.
June 24th - Drive back to Boston to put in 5 hours at work then drive back to NH.
June 25th - Gramps' burial
June 26th - Gramps' memorial service
June 27th - Back to Boston
June 28th - June 30th - Orientation Session 3
June 30th - Drove home post-session, packed a bag and drove myself to Hyannis to catch the fast ferry to Nantucket
June 30th - July 3rd - stayed at Angie's family's time-share in Nantucket and enjoyed island life/the beach. Went to an amazing Spanish restaurant that had just opened up. We liked it so much the first time that we made it our last dinner on the island before leaving. Here's a write-up...no official site.
July 4th - Plumb Island Beach for the 4th then picked up some lobsters and steamers and had a little clambake type thing at my house for dinner. watched the fireworks on TV and lamented the loss of Neil Diamond
July 5th - brewed my Hefe at long last
July 6th - Work
July 7th - Bottled my summer ale....at long, if not longer, last

I'll put something together to discuss brew stuff, but just wanted to catch you up on that nonsense. Until Sunday July 5th, the last time I had spent two consecutive nights sleeping in my own bed was June 12th and 13th. Suffice it to say, I am grateful to have a little respite.

&Ry

July 4th weekend in Massachusetts

After finding out at the last minute that I actually had Friday the 3rd off from work, I decided to take up the Bones & Amanda on their invite to 4th at their new place for the weekend.

I caught them somewhat off-guard by showing up Thursday night instead of Friday (the day of the actual invite) and they were still finishing up unpacking and setting stuff up for a party they had planned the following night. I thought the place looked amazing, but they were visibly stressed about the condition of things. Hell, I would have slept on a pile of rusty pipes in the basement, but they seemed to think that I required an actual bed (which they just bought new) complete with sheets AND a pillow. I must say, I was put up extremely well. The house is unpretentious, 19th century New England perfection; good size, detached garage, front & back yards, nice front porch and a huge back deck. I am officially jealous as I type this in my stupid faux-modern yuppie hut in the Northern Liberties. But I digress.

I also was excited to discover that the house is a 20 minute drive to Walden Pond, one of my favorite places on earth. I got there both Friday AND Saturday morning, and the early summer water was perfect. Score. We also grilled the hell out of all sorts of stuff on Kevbones' new Weber charcoal model. Add to that a shit-ton of his homebrew and my Jerseybrew and you have a yourself a classic summer weekend. I could see myself heading up there a lot were I not so busy for the rest of the summer, and the drive not so unbearably sucky.
Happy July from Philly,

-Wrence

Wheat love/hate at the South Philly Taproom

So I'm not a huge fan of wheat beers these days. Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say that I just don't find them particularly interesting and tend not to gravitate towards them; the main exception being Allagash White with breakfast. So a festival featuring all wheat sounded weird. Anyway, it turned out to be pretty cool. We were not really pouring any of our beer (though they had it on tap in the bar) so I ended up hanging out with some of the other brewers & drinking all their stuff for the afternoon. There were 3 bands that played and they were all pretty solid, too. Not too shabby a way to spend a nice June day.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer

-Wrence

Weekend Wheat Beer

More on this later...

-Wrence

Of Books & Beers

Last night, while out at one of my locals, having a few & watching the visiting Redsox play the Phillies, I was subjected to text/picture messages from both RyToy AND The Bones. SO, tonight as I sit at home avoiding the rain, watching game 2 of Boston's visit to Citizens Bank Park, I feel compelled to type stuff. Bear with me. Wow, the Sox just went up 5-0 in the first inning.

So, Ry & I talk a lot of smack on here

Excuse me...I just need to mention that it really started raining here just this second

So, Ry & I talk a lot of smack on here about beer, food, and partying; but what I think has failed to come through is how much into the printed word are we. In fact, that was one of the first things that the Toymeister & I had in common when we met all those years ago. I still remember him coming to me in the bar and asking how I liked "the Brothers K." So unto the bookage:

Those loyal followers may remember that I was in brew school for 6 months or so (starting about this time last year) and I admit I didn't read much while busy with school. I am curious if that is not also the case currently with Ry, as he has been grad-schooling the hell out of stuff lately. However, one book I did manage to get down last summer was The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, by Haruki Murakami. Gena handed me that book and said only "Lawrence, you HAVE to read this" -otherwise I may never have even heard of this guy. Wind-up Bird Chronicles is single-handedly the craziest, most mind-blowing thing that I have ever read. For reallys. You HAVE to read this. So today I picked up Kakfa On The Shore, which is supposed to be just as good, from what I've heard. And judging by the first 34 pages, it has the same dreamy, mind-fuck quality of its predecessor. Maybe I'll follow up on this with some sort of review at some point. Eh, on first thought no I won't be doing that on here.

So now they are rolling the tarp out onto the field at Citizens Bank Park. It's really coming down. My plan to stay in tonight & sip beers whilst watching inter-league ball on TV is suddenly not looking too promising. What IS promising is the beer in my glass.

I have been a fan of Yards Brewing since I arrived here back in March. I have since gotten to know some of the Yards guys and have seen the brewery as well (it's actually a hop, skip, and partial jump away from my apartment). Recently I came across their new seasonal, a Saison, in the store. I must say I am really impressed. It went well with my Greek salad I can also add. For some reason those reviews on BA are only mediocre, but the picture of the bottle does not match mine, and they also list it as a year-round offering, which is not the case. I suspect that once again BA dropped the ball with this. The beer is delightful, trust me.

More beers await in the fridge but I am not sure how many I want to go through and how many I want to save for next weekend, when the Bones & I plan on meeting up in Saratoga to celebrate Dad's day (and the old man's birthday, which is only a few weeks later).

Thanks for reading & stay dry.

Night,

-Wrence

'pe

Back from the LHBS...trip wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The dude working was one of the few normal ones remaining and as such he didn't try to talk to me at all. Here's the recipe for the Go Heffe Yourself which will be brewed this coming week (possibly Wednesday):

6# White Wheat
5# German Pilsener Malt
1/2 oz Tettnang hops (5.1% AA)
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephaner Weizen Yeast

It'll be the most traditionally "German" heffe I have made so far and I am interested to see how it comes out.

Oh...also...bbq'ing tomorrow. Doing a full rack of baby backs slow cooked with a dry rub. I am looking forward to eating the shit out of them. More on that as it progresses. Carry on.

&Ry

Heffe the Third

So, I will be brewing a Heffe for the third consecutive year in the days ahead. I have had pretty solid success with the style my previous two times and I hope that today is no different.

Angie has a friend in town (we'll call her Sharon for the sake of anonymity) who is to be attending the Fletcher School at Tufts in the fall...so she is checking out apartments today in the Davis Square area affording me the perfect opportunity to run into the LHBS and see what kind of trouble I can cause/nerds I can run into. I have to choose very non-descript clothing for days like this because if I somehow wear something that can serve as a conversation starter I may immediately find myself in the middle of a very awkward and unwelcome conversation. For instance, the guy whose back hair connects straight up to his head-hair seems to like to talk about sports with me oddly enough...which means I should probably leave all Mets paraphernalia at home. The guy who wears the leather biker's vest, on the other hand, seemed enamoured with my assless chaps last time I was in there...so I think those are a no-go as well. I am sure I will be able to settle on something that will allow me to go in, crush the unclesniffingbullhonkey out of some barley and wheat and get the fuck out of there as soon as possible.

Oh...the name for this bad boy will be Go Heffe Yourself. Surprised I didn't think of that one last year.

Bon Tidings.

&Ry

Manayunk Bike Races & Sunburn

Another weekend of strong summer weather; another trip to the State Forest in the Jerz where this time I accumulated 2 TICKS. One was found on my wrist during the drive home, another found much later and in a much more disconcerting place. I'll leave it at that, suffice it to say that I have since thoroughly examined and showered my person & clothing from the day. Thrice. Saturday was also the 2nd annual Roots Picnic, to which I could not afford a ticket, but was staged close enough to my house that I meandered over and was surprised to be able to hear and SEE the last 4 songs of the Black Keys' set. Bonus.
_____________

Yesterday was the Manayunk Bike Race, which was a much bigger deal than I had guessed it to be. One of the legs of the Triple Crown, the race comprises "10 laps of a 14.4-mile circuit that links the majestic Benjamin Franklin Parkway with the hillside community of Manayunk, site of the legendary Manayunk Wall, named by Pro Cycling Tour’s David Chauner and Jerry Casale, a steep half-mile cruncher that has become a Philadelphia icon and favorite spot for race watchers."

The Wall is where most of the partying goes down. The police turn a blind eye to public drinking for the event, so the whole Manayunk area pretty much turns into Bourbon Street for the day. We started drinking around 11am. I got out of there by 3 or so, once I started to feel my skin crispening up. The crowd had thinned out considerably, but those who remained seemed steadfast in their determination to get totally bombed on a Sunday. Anyway, be it from the beers, jello-shots, or sunstroke, I seemed to accomplish my modest goals.

-Wrence

A Long Day

So part of being a student involves me simultaneously gaining experience working in an office on campus. I have been working for the past year with the office that facilitates a variety of programs for freshmen, including the summer orientation that all freshmen must go through. The experience has been really positive. Integral to the orientation program are the orientation leaders...43 upperclassmen who have distinguished themselves in a lot of ways and want to devote their summer to helping ease the transition into college that freshmen face.

Anyway, a lot of my time is spent with these orientation leaders during the summer...especially during an intense three week period of team building and training. We're right in the middle of that now. In an effort to build a supportive team atmosphere, we do an exercise that is modeled on the "This I Believe" series introduced by Edward R. Murrow in the 60s. The gist of this thing is: in 600 or so words, talk about a belief you hold or something that you have come to find to be true. Each of these 43 leaders is asked to share their beliefs and their stories with the whole group. The result is a series of long long nights that help foster a real awesome feeling of community and honesty...but they are also a series of extremely emotional nights. Lots of intensely personal experiences get shared and there are lots of tears shed. As a staff member, I am not immune to this myself. I sit through each talk and empathize with the student leaders as if they were my own friends telling me their stories.

Tonight was a rough night...a lot came out and there were a few very raw emotional reactions as a result of some of what was talked about. It was a long day full of a lot of training and the subsequent talks and such after dinner. I didn't get home until 11 after leaving home this morning at 7:45. Despite the fact that it was long and that it was an emotionally difficult day for me to get through with its own tragedies and dramas requiring my attention, I found myself coming home tonight to the realization that there is nothing else I would want to be doing. A year ago I was finishing up at Fidelity and now I have a year of this work under my belt and am really building up towards a point where I feel confident to handle whatever comes to me through the course of this job and the ability to be for these kids what they need when they need it. It's a great feeling...and one that I felt I needed to put into words. Thanks for listening.

&Ry

A place in Jersey I actually like

Today was so nice, and my hangover just within range of being manageable, I decided to take the new wheels and get out of the city for a bit.

Yesterday, right after finishing up tours at the brewery, I met up with another Hartwick alum Scott (Snotty) at Justin (Little Monkey Boy)'s restaurant, the Kite and Key. The place is still sort of new I think, and pretty nice. They have a great beer selection, heavily leaning on local stuff just as most of the bars around here tend to. Justin is a french-trained chef who's used to working in fine dining environments, so he's sort of a fish out of water running a pub kitchen, but he's definitely dropping of bit of the haute into this joint. I mean, I've never had oysters with fresh roe; or escargot; or this crazy french thing wherein meat is braised, then pureed in a blender with duck fat added, then molded into little rounds which are then browned in a saute pan (I can't remember the actual term J used when describing this), in a beer bar before. This stuff was off the hook, and I don't even use that phrase. For reals. It also helped that Snottty & I didn't have to pay for any of this stuff. Score.


Then today I headed east into the Jerz and found this nice state park, which turned out to be quite beautiful. It is about halfway to the coast, and the turf there starts to look almost like Cape Cod. They even had white cedar swamps and a cranberry bog like out on the Cape...well done, Jersey. It turns out that this whole part of the State is actually some kind of National Reserve, so there is not much in the way of houses, shopping centers, or other typical crap like that which seems to be everywhere you look in the state. There are some nice hiking/biking trails which I hit up, and a few ponds for submerging yourself. I'll definitely be back here often this summer. Oh, and since I was all the way out there I continued east after this until I hit ocean.

So now I am feeling the effects of all this activity and sinking deeper and deeper into a comatose haze which I am certain will envelope me completely for the next 12 hours or so. Work tomorrow doesn't start for me until 1 so I plan on chillaxing like you read about until then.

Peace

-Wrence