Bros11

GUI

2010-06-01T10:57:00.004-04:00

I'd like to regale you with a tale of what happened to me on Friday night. For those of you not in the Greater Boston area, Friday was a flat-out gorgeous day. I spent the early part of the day running some errands and the like. Seeing as I am no longer gainfully employed, I had gotten tired of sitting in my house and watching The Wire (an unbelievable show, btw...highly recommended to anyone). So towards the end of my errands I started to get that hankering. You know that feeling where you know you have to sneeze, but it isn't quite there yet? And you sit around and get yourself all worked up and uncomfortable until you finally do sneeze? Well, that is the hankering I am talking about...except mine could only be relieved by drinking beer in the sun.

So I fired off a couple of exploratory text messages in the hopes that one of my working friends would be getting off soon and would want to engage in some daytime outdoor beer-having. As luck would have it, a threesome from mine and 'wrence's former place of employment took me up on the offer. We'll call them Cluck, Devin, and Slavacek. We sat outside at The Times for a good three or four hours talking about boobs, LOST, and less fortunate people than ourselves. It started out incredibly crowded and by the time we left there was only one other table of people. At this point, I probably should have had dinner...or at least something to eat, but I did not.

We then ventured to the Old Watering Hole to imbibe further and watch the Celtics close out the series against the Magic. Things get hazy here, although I know I was there for the whole game. At about 11:30, as best I can figure, I decided to make the 2.7 mile trek home on foot to save money on the cab.

As you can imagine, by the time I got home I was famished. I had put a couple of pork chops in a brine earlier in the day, intending to grill them for dinner. So I fired up the BBQ for some midnight thermal hijinks. Seeking a suitable accoutrement, I settled on making a baked potato as well. Started it in the microwave and finished it in the oven in the interest of saving time. After chowing down I promptly passed out on the couch only to wake up at 3:30am to actually put myself to bed. As I was doing some of that cursory drunken cleaning up of the mess I made, I realized that I had left the oven on. There it was, firing away at about 350 degrees...and had been for about three hours. Grilling under the influence is probably not the best idea....ditto baking. I decided that I need to make sure that I put a Chinese food number in my phone for situations like this. I turn 30 in a week...I really should not be pulling this nonsense anymore.

&Ry

Return to the LHBS

2010-05-22T00:23:00.006-04:00

So, bros, here we are. Last time I checked in, I was bringing tidings of a certain American skier's wang in a way-too-tight suit. That was a long time ago, and a lot has transpired in the interim. I have finished up the whole school thing at last and graduate on Monday. No job yet, so we'll see what happens there. But this should free me up to ramble about my exploits and travails.

To celebrate my new period of indolence, I took a trip up to the LHBS to purchase stuff to brew since it has been since last August that I had anything going on...and my last batch is still sitting in a carboy in my room. A year old heffe doesn't really sound too enticing to me, so here goes.

My first reaction when I walked in was to the fact that the comic book store-ish dude who is usually dressed in leather was there. No leather this time, but he did have an odd head-shaving thing going on. It was like a mohawk mullet with some other designs on the sides. Maybe there is some rule that he always needs to exude a certain degree of oddity and lacking the leather chaps, chose to shave this shit into his head. Long time, no see...it's good to be back.

Upon my arrival at the back of the store where they store the grain I was pleasantly surprised to see that the mill area had been totally revamped. Check the pics here and here. They built a new support cabinet and the mills are now more contained and less susceptible to the prying and poking of local nerds. They may have even replaced the mills themselves, but I am not too sure.

It was a good trip anyway and I milled my grain in the big guy in no time flat, which is awesome. I'll brew it up on sunday, recipe below.

Cheers,
&Ry

Grainbill
#6 UK 2 Row
#3 White Wheat
#2 Golden Promise...used this on my last blonde wheat and i liked what it added...i might bump it up this time from 1 pound to 2

Hoppage
1 oz Pacific Jade...amazing aroma on these bad boys. High alpha, and I don't know how I will use them yet. The non-nerd LHBS dude told me sierra nevada is debuting a brew with these next month, so I may actually wait to try that before I use them.
1 oz Vanguard

Yeastitude
1271 American Ale II

I am calling it Back in Blonde...I think

It's always 7 o'clock in Bode Miller's house

2010-02-23T09:59:00.005-05:00

So it's been a really busy couple of weeks for this little kid. I have had a ton of work-work and school-work and have just been running ragged. This is not to say that my life has been completely joyless. I recently was forwarded one of the most hilarious pictures I have ever received. I am going to share that picture with you now....here.

If you don't see it right away, take a closer look...pay attention to detail and you will. I have been sending this to people I know for the past two or three days always with awesome results. Kinda reminds me of this development prior to the last Summer Olympics. What is it about the games that brings out the exhibitionist in these guys?

Alright, I am off to write a paper about John Dewey's idea of the interplay of time and the development of individuality. I hope it sounds as awesome as it is.

&Ry

Lostnerdness

2010-02-10T23:48:00.003-05:00

forgot to mention this. check out what my bro and his friend did in central park today...nerdy? yes. awesome? absolutely.

&Ry

Beer Run!!!!

2010-02-10T23:30:00.003-05:00

Just a quick-hitter here as there isn't much fun and games type of stuff going on lately aside from how asinine the weathermen, the school systems, and your mom looked for predicting SNOWMAGEDDON!!!!

Anyway, I am trying this ASAP. In fact, I think I am stopping at the liquor store on my way home tomorrow just to see if I can score a boddle. I had something like it once upon a time in Ireland, but that was a long time ago and I was really drunk.

Stay thirsty my friends,
&Ry

LOST Tonight

2010-02-02T12:01:00.004-05:00

LOST starts again tonight. I think I speak for Bros11 as a whole when I say I am pretty excited. I am so excited in fact that I actually kicked my dog in the balls this morning....AND I DON'T EVEN HAVE A DOG!!!!! I actually changed my facebook status today to read something along the lines of: I'm Jessie-Spano-on-diet-pills excited about Lost tonight.

I made the mistake of watching the first four minutes on-line....some ABC promo. It honestly felt like cheating on a diet or stealing money from your mom...just cheap and dirty. I also think that the first four minutes video was a total red herring, I will explain whether or not I was right after watching tonight's action.

That said, I encourage all non-believers to head over to hulu.com or watch the episodes on-line via Netflix. It's a pretty righteous show.

Happy Islanding
&Ry

Support your local mechanic....buy Hyundai

2010-02-01T17:24:00.005-05:00

Little known fact: both myself and 'wrence (as well as Bones) have at one time or another owned and driven (when road-worthy) vehicles produced in South Korea. Suffice it to say that you get what you pay for when you buy these little buggers.

As my time in school winds down and I begin the whole job-hunt/possible relocation/wedding financing thing, I have found myself white-knuckling it every time I get in my little silver pseudo-testicle of a vehicle. I had a really awesome little string of luck going. No major repairs for about a year and a half...just oil changes and the like. In fact, I was just thinking the other day "Man, this piece of shit is actually holding up pretty well lately." Talk about really Munsoning it.

All that good karma came whip-snapping back at me on Friday night. See, the little bitch had been squeaking for a couple of days. One of those squeaks that gets progressively higher pitched and more frequent and then all of a sudden something "catches" and it stops. I didn't think much of it, just the cold...maybe a loose belt or something. Then, I was driving some students to an overnight program for kids who were thinking about going to law school and all hell broke loose. My dashboard lights started flickering, my headlights started dimming, my radio turned off, my tachometer stopped working. It was like I was in Apollo 13 or something and the shit just started all farting in my face at the same time..."Pusan we have a problem."

Then all of a sudden, the squeak happened, something caught and it lit up again...like Marty McFly all of a sudden standing up straight and strumming along to Earth Angel. Long story short, I was leaving this place in Dover, Mass and after four tries at jump starting I finally got it going, it just died on me at the first red light I came to. So I called AAA and joined up, which they actually let you do, and they came out an hour and a half later not with a tow truck but with jumper cables...apparently they didn't really understand my predicament. So they jumped me and less than 3 miles later it happened again in the middle of Rte 16 in Wellesley....and I couldn't push my car out of the way so I was just sitting there stopping traffic...talk about flagrant douchebaggery on my part.

At the end of it all, I had spent 3 hours waiting for roadside assistance and $500 on a new alternator and some belts. I just hope this little pain in the ass doesn't decide to fuck with me anymore before I graduate.

&Ry

Grocery-Store-Hot

2010-01-26T01:45:00.003-05:00

Grocery stores are weird places. Real public crossroads, ya know? Even your most normal grocery store is at least a little weird, but the Stop and Shop by me in Southie is flat-out mutantville. The place is like a glorified convenience store. There's some stuff on the shelves that you can tell they haven't sold in months, if not years.

Anyway, the people are what really makes the place interesting. Among the creepy weirdos that inhabit the place, the moderately normal looking kinda stick out a little more. So your regular old run of the mill 6, turns into a 10 once she steps into line behind you.

So there I was, with my modest harvest of what passes for fresh produce in these parts. It being a quick trip, I had decided to avail myself of the express aisle. As my stuff was getting scanned I noticed a blonde who would never under any other circumstances warrant any kind of attention entering behind me. But within the confines of this particular Stop and Shop for a second I threw her in the "Attractive" bin in my head. I didn't really pay much attention beyond that....no hubba hubba or anything like that. It was only when I was doing my debit card thing when I heard this tremendous WHOMP! on the conveyer behind me. I turned to find the chick behind me had plopped this behemoth on the belt. Nothing else....just this. In case you can't read, the text in the bottom corner reads "40 LBS." It was only then that I looked up and took another look at her. Sometimes it takes a 40 pound box of multi-cat kitty litter to slap some sense into you.

&Ry

Bad crunches

2010-01-17T16:38:00.003-05:00

It has been a while since I did any formal exercise. Once daylight savings ended, I can no longer run outside in the dark without fear in South Boston after watching Gone Baby Gone. The gym at school costs five bucks per visit or $135 for the semester. I'm not about to pay five bucks every time I want to go for a little jog, nor do I see the wisdom in paying over a hundred dollars just to be able to work out for the last 6 weeks of the year. So I decided that I would pay for a membership for the second semester and in the meantime, I will just do situps and pushups at home. Decent plan, no?

Time went by and I never actually held myself to my own promise of residential calisthenics. That is, until Tuesday. After Angie went to bed and I had plowed through another 4 or 5 episodes of Lost on my comeback tour, I decided to do some crunches.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning...not only was my stomach sore, owing to my long layoff from any kind of activity. But my neck was also incredibly sore. Like....I couldn't even move my head from side to side without feeling like Daniel Lorusso after getting worked by Johnny on the beach. I don't remember this ever happening to me before...I guess I must have been doing something wrong, huh?

&Ry

Advertising Tourette's

2010-01-13T20:32:00.004-05:00

for the last year or so i have been primarily listening to 92.9FM in Boston. In the car I am usually listening to the ipod, but my alarm clock plays this station and I put in on in the shower. I like it because when they started they didn't really fuck around with commercials that much and just played music for long stretches. they also don't have actual DJs, so it's like a computerized playlist. for those of you who are more romantic, i suppose the loss of the DJ is a cause for mourning, but there really is nothing I like less than listening to self-important pricks talk about shit I don't care about.

anyway, lately there has been a development that has me concerned. in lieu of your standard commercials, they have been throwing in these guerrilla ad...almost subliminal. this morning, some crappy red hot chili pepper song had just finished and spoonman by soundgarden was starting. sandwiched right in the middle some dude just blurted out "BLUE MAN GROUP." It always seems to be random Boston-ish types of stuff, but it is always hilarious like "KELLY'S ROAST BEEF" or "ERNIE BOCH JUNIOR." to be honest, i really feel like this is the type of stuff i would rather have happen instead of sitting through 30 second long commercials. just plant the seed my friend...just plant the seed.

&Ry

Parts of me are still frozen

2010-01-09T15:43:00.004-05:00

So, BC lost the game last night, or at least that is what the scoreboard said. I couldn't tell you a damn thing that happened there last night. As you can see, our seats were a bit distant from the action. Here's a little video I took from my seat:

It was also really cold as my brother referenced in the video...and I don't own boots. I deserve to have frigid feet, I realize, but that doesn't really do too much to console my sub-freezing toes. There is no way in hell Eric would have ever been able to handle it...big brown or no big brown. I was wearing a George Costanza-esque bubble jacket under my BC jersey. Gooey brought a facemask and 180s.

All in all though, it was a pretty awesome time and I am glad that I had the chance to go. The atmosphere was fun, without any of the usual BC vs. BU provocation that can often get ugly. I was also apparently on the big screen at one point although I did not see this for myself.

Solid times. Be well people.

&Ry

Outdoor Hockey

2010-01-08T00:41:00.002-05:00

Just a quick hitter here. As many probably already know, the NHL has been hosting a New Year's Eve outdoor hockey game for the pasts three years. This year's was at Fenway in Boston. They had the ice up for a few weeks prior and have kept it up for the last week. The final frozen event is tomorrow. One of college sports' best rivalries will be taking place with BC facing BU. I was lucky enough to get tickets, albeit a mile away in the bleachers. So I will be there. I'll take pictures. It's supposed to snow. I am pumped.

&Ry

The First Bros11 Post of the Second Decade of the Millenium!!!

2010-01-04T01:40:00.006-05:00

Despite the fact that not much too noteworthy has gone on since I last wrote, it would be worth a quick note to apprise all interested parties as to the comings and goings of the last couple of weeks.

I managed to travel to and from the Tri-State area (NY/NJ/CT) for Christmas without incident. Got to see my Dad and both my Moms as well as all my cousins on my Mom's side. The most interesting of the gifts included:
a) a Flip video camera, which I will find some good use for at some point. For the time being it will function as a means by which I can annoy the crap out of Angie
b) Alton Brown's baking book. I have always had the urge to get into breadbaking, pie-crusting, and muffining but I never really had the time or ambition. I plowed through the book and immediately started putting some thing into action. So far I have gotten a decent multi-grain loaf out as well as a delicious banana-nut bread. Stay tuned for more baked goodness.

I haven't had to work in a good few weeks, which is dope. I have been staying up late, sleeping in, and watching a a lot of TV. If I don't sound upset by this, then you are picking up on my mood wonderfully. I just put the finishing touches on my third watching of season 1 of Lost. I decided to once again rewatch the series in anticipation of the looming final season premiere on February 2nd. There's always something else to pick up on, or something that you might be forgetting so it is a good exercise in laziness.

Lastly, Angie's mom got me two dope DVDs as gifts. The first is the two disc combo set of Queen's rock Montreal concert in addition to their Live aid performance. The Rock Montreal one is particularly epic in that he begins the set fully dressed and end in nothing more than his underoos...classic. Second, I was gifted a two DVD set of Festival Express, which while not as amazing as the Last Waltz, has a similar awesome-70s-rock-god-lifestyle vibe to it.

Hope Santa was good to everyone else. Party on.

&Ry

The Dirt Floor

2009-12-22T15:52:00.006-05:00

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

2009-12-21T17:57:00.004-05:00

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...

2009-12-20T14:28:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-20T13:59:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-20T09:02:00.010-05:00

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!

2009-12-19T09:16:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-18T18:32:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-14T15:27:00.004-05:00

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?

2009-11-28T14:00:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-28T08:50:00.007-05:00

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

2009-11-17T08:44:00.007-05:00

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

2009-11-09T20:55:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-09T09:05:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-10-30T15:43:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-15T10:39:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-09T17:52:00.008-04:00

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

2009-09-22T11:27:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-14T08:15:00.006-04:00

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

2009-09-09T09:55:00.012-04:00

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

2009-08-22T12:02:00.018-04:00

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

2009-08-17T08:22:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-03T12:26:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-01T09:17:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-26T09:07:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-26T08:15:00.010-04:00

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

2009-07-25T23:55:00.009-04:00

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

2009-07-22T07:44:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-11T14:06:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-07-10T21:56:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-09T21:52:00.004-04:00

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....

2009-07-07T16:15:00.006-04:00

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

2009-07-06T08:47:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-28T08:01:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-27T13:10:00.003-04:00

Of Books & Beers

2009-06-13T19:25:00.007-04:00

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

2009-06-12T13:10:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-12T09:49:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-08T09:46:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-02T23:08:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-31T18:27:00.007-04:00

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

Turbid Blonde Ale

2009-05-19T09:57:00.003-04:00

So I racked my "blonde" ale to secondary this morning before work. I brewed it a couple of Sundays ago I think...so it has been in primary for just over two weeks. A little long I guess, but I have done it before.

Now, I had commented to 'wrence that i was worried about the turbidity of the wort/beer but we both agreed that it would probably be ok after some time to settle down and think about what it had done. Well, I am here to tell you that two weeks in primary has done nothing to lessen the cloudiness. I guess I should have done a protein rest or some shit like that, but hey man...I have a life to live here don't I?

The thing is, the color on this bad boy is beautiful, it's just too bad it is as cloudy as it is because it almost looks like dijon mustard...or shitty-pisswater...or potentially I guess pissy-shitwater. As tempted as I may be to bottle it even if it is still cloudy after a week or two in secondary, I will probably throw some gelatin or isinglass down the hatch to clear it up. So I harvested the yeast cake just in case I needed to repitch to condition it. Who knows...maybe I will actually get the kegerator thing done and then I can force carbonate it after clearing it out. That would be some incentive huh? Fuckin' eh.

&Ry

What did we learn?

2009-05-18T16:15:00.001-04:00

So remember how I said that I had those two papers to do a few weeks ago? I arrived at work today to find two interoffice envelopes with my exams being returned to me. Now, I didn't know this was possible, but I actually got an A+ on one of them. I mean, I don't even remember getting an A+ as an undergrad...I don't even think they gave that grade out at all...let alone grad school. Quite funny, in my opinion.

What lessons have been learned? None actually. In fact, this experience has done nothing but reinforce my bad habits of procrastination, last-minute action, and a propensity to go drinking when there is clearly work to be done. But what's a bad habit unless it actually causes a bad result I guess right?

Saratoga Trip/I Still Buy CDs (for now)

2009-05-16T13:26:00.006-04:00

So I am one of the only people I know who still insist on physical CDs versus downloads, at least some of the time.

There's something satisfying to me about going to the store, flipping through stacks in search of your prize, finally finding it and actually holding the thing in your hand, and then getting it home & unwrapping the plastic. Inhale the new CD smell. Press PLAY. Ahhh...

But it is getting more and more annoying to do this, considering all of it is virtually free to pick from the tree via my laptop. I am in Saratoga NY today (had to come up to get some important documents out of my storage stuff) and needed tunes for my trip back to Philly tomorrow. I went to the local Borders in search of the following:

M. Ward Hold Time
Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career

I located the first, but the latter was nowhere to be found. In general, the CD selection at Borders plain sucks these days. I know record sales are down in the wake of downloads, but is it the appropriate response to slash your music section, making it MORE DIFFICULT for people like me to obtain the music they seek? Borders now seems to have thrown all their eggs in the DVD/Blue Ray basket as I guess that's what people are buying more of now. Fair enough. But I'll end up downloading the Camera Obscura album with zero guilt.

PS: I DID check out the indie record store in Toga as well, but they focus more on used stuff. And Vinyl (but that's a different post...)

I did end up picking up a totally unexpected purchase. The Fleet Foxes album was on display at the store, and after the good things I've heard about this band I ended up listening to it on the headphones and was totally swept away by this album and am listening the shit out of it as we type/read this. So I guess they "won" after all.

(shaking fist to the heavens) BORDERRRRRS!!!!!!!!!!!

-Wrence

Mid-May update from Pennsy

2009-05-14T17:32:00.004-04:00

Last night I was hooked up with some free tickets to the Phillies/Dodgers game through work. It was a great night to be out at a ball park; hadn't been to a baseball game in about a year. The seats were tight as all get out, too.

Philly lost, and I didn't get my chance to eat the legendary Schmitter sandwich I have heard so much about. Major bummer. People really freak out about this culinary marvel, and I cannot blame them. Unfortunately last night, I waited until the 6th inning to go get one, and alas: they had run out of rolls. Unreal. Next time I am definitely going to try getting one earlier.
______

Today at the brewery the same gentleman I linked to above (the NPR host) was in the brewery recording some interviews and taking pictures. I believe the piece will focus on the series special one-off beers we're doing now. Speaking of which, we just brewed the first batch of the 2nd installment, basically a wheat beer with a pant-load of finishing hops. It should be interesting, keep an eye out for it.
______

I bought a car. Rather, I'm waiting to just hand over the check & drive the sonmbitch home, but I am currently dealing with PA red tape, trying to get it registered and to get myself licensed in this state. A real pain in the rump. But I'll keep you posted.

Peace,

-Wrence

Comps Shmomps

2009-05-11T01:01:00.002-04:00

As I have mentioned before, I am at this point in my life a student again. Before I complete the masters program a year from now, I will have to pass an exam known as the Comps...short for comprehensive exam. The way they work is that you get an e-mail with five questions on Friday morning at 9 am. You have until Monday morning to write two ten page essays out of the five questions. The questions themselves are drawn from some of the core courses that most people have to take.

Now, if you are a person you know that sometimes people can get themselves all worked up into hysterics over shit like this...and they do. People in my program love telling horror stories about how bad the comps are and shit. I just figured that it was legit and that it was probably purely reasonable to get so nervous about something.

Now, what does this have to do with me at this point in time? You see, tonight I finished my last final for this semester. I had two take home finals which were required to be 8-10 pages in length apiece. Despite the fact that I received both exams last Tuesday, I didn't look at either until Friday morning and managed to bang both of them out over the weekend. And that's not all, I actually managed to get sufficiently drunk both nights this weekend while writing 20 pages and not acting like a little bitch about it. Friday night went a-like this: wrote a ten page paper during the day, went out and drank a pitcher, came home and passed out at 10, woke up at 12:30 and couldn't fall back asleep because my hangover was already kicking in, watched the new Real World/Road Rules challenge, watched Gaylord Perry's 300th win on the MLB Network, climbed back into bed at 5:30 and finally got another 4 hours of sleep. Saturday was 6 more pages, beers with 'wrence and Bones at CBC, going home only to get dragged back out to a bar until closing time...woke up with another hangy today, watched the mets, went tyo mothers day dinner at Fugakyu, came home and banged out four more pages.

Now, if I can manage that in a weekend now....when all the chips are on the line and I will be a lot less tempted to drink in between, I really don't see the comps as being that big of a problem.

Awesome dinner party

2009-05-07T22:55:00.005-04:00

I am trying to work on a couple of take home finals right now and am having a real hard time concentration...which explains this post I guess. But what really has me laughing is what I just did on facebook. Now, i hate those quizzes. I mean I do them sometimes, but I never let the results get published because i know that that automatically makes me a douchebag. But....I just did one. And the results were so funny I had to publish them.

Topic: Top 5 dead people you would invite to dinner.
My answer: Please envision us all sitting around eating ribs and drinking beers...that really makes it for me.

1. Freddie Mercury - Rock icon and my favorite person of all time
2. G.W.F. Hegel - 19th C. Philosopher who was all about weird philosophical analysis of the movement of history. I sweated him in college.
3. Rick Danko - guitarist and vocalist from The Band. This is solely so that I can cry when he sings It Makes No Difference after dinner.
4. Abe Lincoln - He was just the tits.
5. Hemingway - Just so that there would be somewhere there to goad everyone else into getting blasted in case Hegel started to get soft or to restore order if Freddie started trying to get busy with Lincoln or something late night.

I just thought I'd share that.

&Ry

time waster

2009-05-07T15:30:00.004-04:00

So, there's this new thing called sporcle. Well, maybe it's not so new, but it was new to me not that long ago and it has since become a very integral part of my life. The way it works is that every day they put up a few quizzes. Some are stupid....like days of the week or something equally non-thought-provoking. But sometimes they put up awesome quizzes...such as the top 30 longest international borders (United States and Canada) or the complete VH1 list of the top 100 one hit wonders of all time (The Macarena was #1).

It doesn't sound all that awesome, but if you are like me and often find yourself with an infinite amount of time to kill while sitting at a desk when you are supposed to be doing work or maybe just when you are bored and killing time, this is the way to do it...especially if you get down with the attainment of knowledge that is completely worthless and unnecessary.

I would like to announce that I am now able to recite all 44 US Presidents in chronological order as well as name every country in Africa (there are 53 of them) in 2 minutes. Next up: the periodic table of elements...in order of coure.

Give it a whirl and see if it strikes your fancy...assuming you have nothing better to do obviously. But then again, why would you even be reading this otherwise?

&Ry

Anniversary of the Bros!!

2009-05-06T22:02:00.007-04:00

Hey, We totally missed it, but Bros11 turned ONE last week.

In honor of the fact that Ry & I's little crap-show is still kicking around after all this time, here are some stats:

First, a few of the actual keyword Referrers (things that people typed into their search engines which brought them to our site). This is only a partial list, focusing on the bizarre and/or hilarious

pandora ipa
ashlin philips
peach cyser
IPA stainless steel
how to paint an artichoke
rebones
gilling pizza
jonny greenwood vermont
postitude area+cambridge (my personal fav, misspelling & all! -ed)
bucket of beer, coors
bonsoir mes amis, torrent
early dinner byo marthas vineyard
"pussy attempt" movie (??-ed)
trivia in southie on wednesday
the vineyard salad
phrases overheard at work
cluster fuck beer
what are Galvanized nails made out of
brew sesh
cbc cyberweb 08
"dry hop the shit out of"
really awesome diagram
pumpkins throwing up with beer
how to lunch epiphany
"when the mountains turn blue, your beer is as cold as the rockies"
pictures of girls drrinking coors beer
wizard party beer duct tape
jonny greenwood alohol
smuttynose mustard
awkward walk
grilled pizza 2 electric

Whenever somebody puts something in quotes, it fucking KILLS me, for some reason! But really: a few of these beg some serious questions on the part of the subject. But more on my mind is: did these people all find what they were looking for on Bros11? I hope so. I always have.

Peace

-Wrence

Ch. 4 - wherein our hero scalds himself whilst topless

2009-05-03T19:44:00.005-04:00

So, I brewed today...seemed like a decent time to make my quasi-annual return to the blogosphere. The recipe was a modification of a wheaty blonde ale I made a couple of years ago that I remember coming out well.

The LHBS trip to get the 'gredients for this sumbitch was uneventful. The Saturday staff at the place is downright frightening though. You got the dark haired bug-eyed guy with the excessive neck/back hair and then you have the fat comic book store-ish guy who yesterday was wearing a black cutoff denim jacket with some kind of weird logo on the back and nothing else underneath. just this weird biker vest. They both wanted to chat and I was not able to even approach the level of geekitude present despite my best efforts. Afterwards I got a carnitas burrito from Ana's in Davis Square.

So after an evening out celebrating the Celtics win and checking out the newest incarnation of the Littlest Bar (which is like three times the size of the original although surprising cozy and very enjoyable), I got up this morning and threw on my pajama pants to start a brew day. The haze must have really been clouding my mind because this was an especially goofy brewsesh very much in the Mulderrig Juncque Show tradition.

Examples:
1. I have to use the hose-thingee to fill up my big brewpot because it doesn't fit under the faucet in the sink. So instead of standing there with my hand on the fucking thing, I rigged it with a rubber band to keep the button down. I of course forgot to take it off and the next time I turned on the faucet I got blasted with freezing cold water. I took my shirt off then and have yet to put another one on. This was at least 9 hours ago.

2. My dad gave me one of these for Christmas. He likes giving hokie presents like that. And as cheesy at it seems, I have found myself using it a lot when brewing and picking up big hot pots and shit. Except today, I misplaced it and couldn't find it. So when I was filling up my lauter tun, aka the bottling Bucket, I had to do it with just an oven mitt...topless mind you. Anyway, I must have had the DTs or something because as soon as I picked up the pot I had a feeling that something was gonna go wrong. Sure enough, I spilled a good amount of boiling hot water and gave myself a first degree burn on my left arm. Cold water was applied liberally throughout the day and I think I am going to survive.

Those were really the big two fuck ups today. The rest of the day was just punctuated my droping more shit than I usually do and just being a tad on the absent-minded side. All in all though, I have to say, it was a pretty easy brew day and the little guy is resting in the carby right now.

Here is the recipe for those interested:
6# British Two Row
3# Wheat
1# Golden Promise (never used it and decided to throw a little in there. I don't expect much though because further research tells me that it is basically a lighter base malt so maybe I'll use it for my third annual heffe which will be forthcoming.)
1/4 oz Saaz (60)
1/4 oz Saaz (30)
1 oz Saaz (0)
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

&Ry

Manayunk Brew Fest 2009

2009-04-26T09:01:00.004-04:00

Jesus, it was freakin 90 degress yesterday. What a day for a beer festival outside on the banks of a river. This was the Manayunk Brewfest.

The Manayunk Brewery is a large restaurant/brewery in a super college-y neighborhood. The place is huge, and the fact that they sell Corona alongside their own brews simultaneously brings up a big issue I have with some brewpubs while also illuminating the underlying philosophy of this place, and others like it. Not to sell them short, their beer is pretty good, and they are obviously successful, but the focus is not so much on the beer rather than creating a social scene and getting heads through the door on a nightly basis. It's the only Brewpub I have ever known to charge a cover each night; I guess they have to finance that dance-floor type area upstairs somehow.

All this didn't stop me from enjoying it though. Amongst the douchery there were some chill people, and also some hilariously good-natured drunks. One in particular, after entertaining us with some GREAT conversation, casually climbed in the open manway of an old brew kettle that Manayunk had on display behind our table. The dude pretty much knew that he was going to get kicked out for doing it, but damn if he just didn't see an opportunity for humour and was willing to sacracfice himself in the name of it. Kicked-out he was, but what I was most impressed with was how this somewhat large guy squeezed in & out of the manway; I was sure he was going to get stuck just like Winny the Po.

My highlights were the Stoudt's Pils, Victory's Abbey Single, and Triumph's Simcoe IPA. Triumph is a real classy brewpub in downtown Philly and the brewer there, Patrick, is a solid guy who really knows his stuff. It's also one of the most modern, hip and shiny pubs I've ever seen. Check it out if you are ever in town.

It's going to be in the 90's for the next few days and frankly, I just don't know how to handle it, it still being April and all. I suppose I'll venture out but we'll see how long I last out there.

Wrence

"I am a Craft Brewer" the MOVIE

2009-04-23T17:52:00.001-04:00

Camera Obscura

2009-04-16T20:06:00.001-04:00

This is a band I've heard about here and there over the last few years. Anyway, they have a new album out and I'm blown away by it. You can hear the whole thing here, for the time being. Check it out!

-Wrence

My First Cheese Steak

2009-04-16T19:57:00.003-04:00

I got it at Pat's, which seems to the legit choice. Geno's is a relative newcomer, and has gaudy neon lights, therefor: I am a Pat's guy. Also there's a place called Mike's on South Street that's supposed to be better than both of these guys.

Some people take pictures of their kids. Me, this is what I have to offer you, O readers. Salivate carefully so as not to ruin your keyboard!

-Wrence

Philly

2009-04-10T21:34:00.005-04:00

Yo I moved to Philly.

Land of cheese steaks, world series rings, cracked bells, cracked people, and delicious soft pretzels.

No, seriously, the people here are great. Very real, not-exactly laid back, but very un-pretentious, good people. They make amazing hoagies, like EVERYWHERE. Work at the brewery is good, crazy hectic. The place could easily have one or two full-time cellar people on staff, but the brewers handle all the cleaning, filtering, racking, etc WHILE we brew three batches a day. It's in tents like the circus but it's great for a bro like me trying to compile work experience.
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Since I've been here I've found a few people from college who live in town, and I'm looking forward to hooking up with some of these strange recollections from my past, and seeing how much weight they've gained.
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Tonight I'm relaxing after my first week of work, sipping on the last homebrew made at 46 Tremont, listening to my man M. Ward, who is awesome.
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It seems like there is always some sort of beer event going on in Philly. Tomorrow is "Split Thy Skull" -historically a barleywine festival, but which now includes strong Belgians and big IPAs too. It starts at 1pm, but I'm told that the line goes around the block by then, so I am showing up around noon, I hope. I don't know much more about it than you are served flights of fucking strong beers, and some brewery people I know will be around. I'll post something abouts it at some point.

Other than that, just slowly unpacking & sleeping an incredible amount -the last month in Cambridge was desperately wakeful for me. Ahhh - feel the bed calling me right now!! Bonsoir~

-Wrence

Moving

2009-04-03T09:21:00.005-04:00

So now I am packing my life away into various liquor boxes. It's kind of sad, but I keep coming across weird stuff that makes me laugh: a printout of an email from Ray with the lyrics to "Angie" along with ridiculous conversation from the old days at Safety Insurance, random stuff like that.

Yesterday I was taking down all the various magnets that have accumulated on my fridge over the last 4 years. Among them was a set of "word poem" magnets, one using French words and another set from the American Homebrewers Association. There were some great mashups of the two going on so I had to take a picture to preserve it.

(click to make it BIG)

-Wrence

Life Things

2009-03-26T19:15:00.003-04:00

So, for the few regulars here on Bros11, those who have actually been following my exploits into the brewing industry, here is an official update.

I've accepted a job offer at a production brewery in Cherry Hill, NJ. It's just 5 miles outside of Philadelphia, so I will live in Philly and reverse commute out to the Jerz Burbs each day for work. I just got back from landing a great apartment down there in a sick neighborhood. It all looks like it's going to work out well.

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of me over the last year or so as I embarked on this long-anticipated, slightly terrifying journey!

(sorry for the lack of humor in this post, but shit, sometimes a Bro can get a little sensitive, it's allgood.)

-Wrence

Zero 7

2009-03-19T17:11:00.004-04:00

Zero 7 is a band I got into about 5 or 6 years ago. Here is a video I just found of them performing my favorite song, Somersault. It is beyond amazing...

-Wrence

Beer. Bacon. Have I got your attention now?

2009-03-08T10:49:00.006-04:00

Right now I am listening to a killer recording of the opening song from the last Radiohead show in Boston (there is a video of it on Bros11 here). My Bro from back in the day just emailed it to me. Nicely.

It is still early March and the weather has turned downright freakishly spring-like. But it's supposed to snow again in a couple days. Fucking typical New England shit. God, I hope I end up on the west coast, the manic pattern here is definitely not helping my fragile psyche right now. But at least it will be light out until 6:30 tonight, which is tight. I feel that Smokey Joe is about to make his 2009 debut in the driveway soon.
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A few days ago I went up to my home-planet of Vermont to brew with a guy whom I have long admired (well, his beers, anyway) at his brewpub in Waterbury. He turned out to be a real solid guy as well and I had a great time hanging with him while he brewed up an American Brown Ale. It was a long day though, which started for me at 5:30 am and ended at 10pm, with a pant-load of beer having throughout. It was well worth it though as I learned a ton in just that one day, not only about brewing but also about how he started up his business from scratch and is now wildly successful, without ever having paid a second's thought to marketing or distribution; they don't send any of their beer out the front door, EVER. Complete control. It's good to know that passion, talent, and knowledge CAN equate to a successful business.

Yesterday saw temps in the 60's and the 3rd annual Bacon Eating Contest at AwesomeWood's tavern. This year, V actually competed! And she did quite well up there on that stage surrounded by a bunch of puffy, loud-mouthed, chowder-headed dudes. And she definitely won the crowd over, I think.
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That's the weekend wrap-up. It's Sunday, sunny, warm - and I am about to go out for a quick run. Next week might see a trip to Philadelphia for a brewery visit/job interview and possibly some partying (depending on if I can get anyone to come with me) seeing as how it's Philly Beer week. I'll keep you updated...

Peace,

-Wrence

Video of the Day (a quick one)

2009-03-05T15:39:00.002-05:00

Good things about 2009, so far

2009-03-01T10:41:00.003-05:00

Movies watched:
-Slumdog Millionaire
-Pineapple Express

Restaurants dominated:
-Dali
-Tremont 647
-Coast Cafe

Meals cooked:
-Brisket braised in beer & tomatoes
-Cassoulet
-Fried Goat Cheese, with caramelized apple/shallot sauce

Things witnessed:
-Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood at the Grammy Awards
-Bad Art Ensemble at the Plough & Stars

Patio Partying in the February Rain, Me & V

2009-03-01T10:38:00.002-05:00

There is no February

2009-03-01T10:20:00.004-05:00

So, you may be wondering: what the hell happened to February?

I do apologize for the lack of updates. Truth be told, I just didn't have much to say. February pretty much sucks. It's my least favorite month. Sometime around Valentine's Day, when I still hadn't been inspired to post anything, I simply decided to BOYCOTT the whole month. But for you obsessive types, I'll give you a quick re-cap:

-It was nut-shrivellingly cold, and then
-It rained for 3 days, melting all the snow and revealing the accumulated street garbage of the entire winter.

I spent some time brewing, more time drinking, and a whole lot of time not-job-having.
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So let's move on.

The Mild finished perfectly at 1.011, and it tastes wonderful already at just 5 weeks of age. Chocolaty and a little roasty, and you would never guess this gentle guy comes in at a mere 4% booze-by-volume. Success!

I actually got together a 3rd "quick batch" recently. I must say, I have enjoyed brewing these low gravity beers so far; I never ventured into this territory before, back when time and space were not issues, but it has been a good learning experience for me, I think. The latest brew is a Belgian Pale Ale. I overshot my gravity a bit so this one may hit 5% bbv or so, but it's still pretty small by our standards here at 46 Tremont Street. This brew was partially inspired by Kevbones' brand new 55-pound bag of Franco-Belges Pale Ale malt. What better way to try it out than a nice Belgian Pale Ale?

7# Pale Ale Malt (MFB)
.5# Aromatic Malt (Dingeman's)
.5# Dextrine Malt
.25# Special B

Wyeast 1762, Abbey Ale II

Currently slowing down after 2 days of a wild, sulphur-throwing primary fermentation. Temps were right on so I am assuming the sulphur is normal with this yeast; I'm not worried.

Anyhoo, It's March 1st, and it's snowing again. I must admit that I will be happy once this winter is over, the weather improves, the days are longer, and I hopefully will be less unemployed than I am now. The job search continues, I am undaunted, but still it wears at one's soul in a way few other things do. Will keep you posted.

-Wrence

2009 Brewing

2009-01-31T09:11:00.003-05:00

So, I wasn't exactly planning on doing too much brewing after coming back from California; the reason being that I am not exactly sure how much longer I will be here. But, let's be Frank, I'm going to be here for at LEAST a few more weeks if not much longer. So, Frank, I decided to brew a quick turn-around Pale Ale early this month, in the vein of a Russian River styled hoppy beer.

8.5# 2-row (U.S.)
.5# Dextrine Malt

.5 oz Chinook -60 min
.5 oz Chinook -30 min
2 oz Chinook -0 min

Dry hop#1:
.5oz Chinook
.5oz Amarillo

Dry hop#2:
.5oz Centennial

Wyeast 1056
SG: 1.051
44 BUs

Dry hop #1 went into the primary after fermentation subsided. The beer was then racked off of the hops into secondary, where Dry hop #2 was added. Both were about 5-day rests.
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That beer is in bottles now. It finished BONE dry at a frightening 1.006 - But it still tastes solid as all get out.

So last night I decided, "Shit, Frank - we will definitely need more beer than just that." The decision was made to brew up an even quicker turn-around, mega low-gravity beer that I could have in bottles within 2 weeks. The idea of a Belgian Wit reared its fruity head, but then the idea of doing a Mild Ale hit me and I didn't look back. These beers can start out in the 1.03s, for shit's sake, and still be very flavorful. Also I thought the roasted character that some exhibit would be a good drinker for the month of February. I ALSO also decided to make this a larger batch, and bottle it right out of my 6.5 gallon primary fermenter.

Here are the details:

(5.5 gallong batch)

6.5# Maris Otter Malt
.5# Crystal 120
.3# Chocolate Malt
.25# Crystal 60
(I kind of whiffed on the crystal malts when at the brewstore, RyToy style, not sure how or why I ended up with what I did - it does look a bit odd)

.3oz Chinook -60 min
.2oz Chinook -15 min

Wyeast Northwest Ale Yeast
18 BUs
SG: 1.046 (which was WAY higher than I wanted. I was looking for 1.038. So I diluted the wort the following morning with another .5 gallon of sterile water to take it down to 1.042)

The yeast choice was partially a reaction to my over-attenuated XPA, and also due to that just being what they had at the brewstore...and it was mega fresh. I knew I wanted something that was a low attenuator, and I have always wanted to try this yeast, but never would have with any of my normal gravity beers.
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So that's the update on the Brew crap. Otherwise I am just hanging out & sending out resumes. There has been some good feedback from some of these brewers, but not job offers yet. Also, Thursday night was CBC's Barleywine Fest, which is always a blast. The Greeks joined me, as well as Tom from the Balazs Clan fame. Lit is the word I would use to describe how I got.

Peace out, January.
-Wrence

The 'Bones, Contemplating... beers.

2009-01-28T13:08:00.002-05:00

photo by 'Wrence

One last message of holiday cheer

2009-01-20T11:05:00.009-05:00

Sometimes when the Bones and I get together, it really amounts to little more than a facial hair competition.

Two Nuh

2009-01-12T21:01:00.004-05:00

'wrence and I both do a good deal of smacque talking on here about all the awesome shit we make and then subsequently ingest. The impression, perhaps, is that we always make kick-awesome stuff and would never be bothered by eating anything that would be considered pedestrian/white-trash by comparison. Well, I am here to tell you that is not the case. I have a confession to make and it might even hurt a little bit.

Tonight I made tuna casserole....and it wasn't the first time. A couple of cans of cream of mushroom soup and tuna, some milk, and a pound of egg noodles. I mean seriously...I realize that it is entirely gross and I don't expect anyone to think otherwise. I just had to get it out there because I was sick of living a lie.

&Ry

A night at the 'bones

2009-01-08T22:53:00.005-05:00

So, I know I haven't posted in a while, but that's only because I haven't really been doing awesome stuff lately. However, I never did fill ya'll in on the most recent awesome thing I did...which happened almost two weeks ago now and has ALREADY been mentioned here by 'Wrence.

SO...I drove back from NYC pretty early on the Saturday after Christmas and hollered at 'Wrence on the way. It was decided that we would eat and drink things while sitting near each other that night. The venue was to be determined, but the intent was clear. On this night, awesomeness would be given free reign.

It was eventually decided, after not too much deliberation, that we would be spending our time at RedBones BBQ in Davis Square...this place puts nipples on the proverbial Tits. 'Wrence and I have taken our frustrations out on this place before and had decided that it was once again time to let shit fly.

After a very successful execution of the trick*, 'Wrence and I took the T to Davis and promptly arrived to Redbies to find the place not-too-packed. Despite some upstairs availability, we opted to examine the downstairs, dubbed UnderBones by some. Dimly lit and pretty wide-open...UnderBones feels a bit cavernous and homey...just the place for eating massive quantities of meat and drinking far-too much booze.

On to the action...the beverables were duly noted by myself on my phone for posterity's sake...there is no way, under other circumstances that I would be able to recall them all. Or even one of them for that matter. They are as follows:

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA

Lagunitas Brown Sugga

Rogue Mocha Porter

Smutty IPA

Stoudt's Pils

'Wrence

Six Point Bengali Tiger IPA

Weihenstephaner (which, after ordered, provided a good 5 minutes of conversation)

Founder's Backwoods Bastard

Goulden Draak

Sierra Nevada Celebration

Clipper City Winter

Now, I admit, things got hazy at the end, and I may have misattributed a couple of those, but you get the idea. Not included was the goddamn shot of tequila 'Wrence made me have somewhere in the middle. Also not included was this picture of the bartendress's assbutt.

As far as mangibles, we started things off with some collards and catfingers, both old standards. 'Wrence attempted to have the brisket, but that was out for the night, and was forced to change his order to ribs of some type (i think). As for myself, I had a full order of Memphis ribs...I think. See I usually get a combo of Memphis and St. Louis and then always like one more than the other and have to do it all over again the next time. This time I threw caution to the wind and just ordered one type...and it turned out to be the one I like better. I now I still can't fucking remember which one it is for sure. Oh well, I have never been opposed to experimentation by eating.

The night got hazy and we rode the T home. However, we thought it might be a good idea to take some pictures of each other on the T. We probably looked like a real happy couple of gay dudes. See for yourself.

Just another night for the dudes (that was the name on our tab this time I think).

&Ry

Year-End Hombrew totals

2009-01-03T14:28:00.003-05:00

2008:

10 Gallons MEAD
70 Gallons BEER

a slight drop from last years totals (105 gallons beer, 5 gallons mead)

-Wrence

January 3rd ramblings

2009-01-03T11:16:00.007-05:00

Holiday Re-cap aXesome `09!!!!!

Sorry, I'm not entirely confident that this post will actually live up to that title, but here she goes:

AwseomeMas was pretty cool. My flight back east from San Fran was deeeelllllaaayyyyyed -like you read about; I ended up landing at 3:30am on the morning of the 25th. It was pretty dope actually, once it was all over. V, bless her Greek heart, was super-cool enough to set her alarm and drive out to the airport in the middle of the night for the pickup (and this only a day after her mother arrived for a 2 week visit). A Solid.

After a few hours sleep I commuter-rallied to my Mom's house in the suburbs....upon exiting the train and looking 200 yards down to the parking lot, I spotted some idiot in a full-on Santa suit. The Idiot turned out to be none other than The 'Bones himself, one of my All-time favorite idiots, waiting to pick me up at the station. Another Solid.

What then followed was about 3 or 4 days of eating & drinking. RyToy & I had a fond re-unionizing at the venerable Redbones BBQ, Toy's favorite place for stuffing beer & food into his craw. He had his new camera with him and we took about 100 pictures, most of which feature us pretending to be a gay couple for some reason. Hopefully he will post a few choice ones up here at some point. Toy & I also hit the brewstore a few days later; We met a nice lesbian homebrewer; Ry ended up brewing something and I got some yeast ready for hopefully a quick brew sesh while I'm still hanging around Boston. Will keep you posted.

I hit CBC on new year's eve to catch up with those guys. Brought Ben a bottle of Pliny the Elder, which I don't think he was expecting at all. Good times. Will gifted me a bottle of the 2008 Blunderbuss, which they bottled for limited release at their NYE party and possibly sales at the bar later this year. Very Solid. I'll be back over there next week to talk to Will about my future & hopefully come up with some more concrete ideas as to what I'm doing next. Will keep you posted.

OH: also the Balazs clan was in town for 3 days around the year's end. The typical insanity ensued. I havent seen drinking like that in a long time. And my January 1st hangover was one of my worst, All-time. They kept it going an extra day, though, mind-blowingly.

Cheers to you, readers; wishing you all the beast for Twenty o-nine.

-Wrence

My awesome Xmas gift (not the duck)

2008-12-29T11:22:00.007-05:00

-Wrence

The awesomest Christmas present ever!

2008-12-23T09:40:00.005-05:00

Angie and I exchanged Christmas presents last night. I have to say, without gloating or anything like that, that I received the dopest Christmas present of all time. Having said that, I don't really expect anyone else to agree with me.

I'll start by telling you one of the things she got me, that, while awesome, is not THE awesomest. Here it is. She even got me an extra one of the funny little wheels you need to use. The game is a blast though and I anticipate that it will contribute to my ongoing bouts of insomnia.

The real gem though was this:

The 4-Disc complete Last Waltz Concert, including all the songs that didn't make it into the actual movie...as well as some studio stuff and so on. The track list is shown here. Suffice it to say, getting this the day before my trip down to NYC for Christmas made the drive that much more manageable. I am currently in the process of ripping the uncle-choking-bejesus out of it so I have it for the ride. I can't wait to get in my car! Good work Angie. This is really the culmination of a big change in my life...a few years back, 'wrence introduced me to The Last Waltz during a brew/beer-having session. The intervening years have seen me developing an increasing fondness for The Band. Last Christmas, my Dad got me the DVD, and my drunken nights became that much more awesome as I found myself ever more likely to throw it on when I arrived home from a night of drinkitude. So, as I said above, getting this CD set is kinda the final piece in the puzzle of my obsession.

My Christmas wish to everyone is simple: I hope you all get your Last Waltz 4-CD boxed set this year, whatever it may be.

Bon Tidings,

&Ry

Things that happened to me today

2008-12-22T01:15:00.008-05:00

So, today is/was December 21st 2008...the Solstice...or for those who are more into the inherent awesomeness of things the Soul-stice. As such it was the shortest day of the year, nevertheless I was determined to get my money's worth. Ain't nobody can shortchange me out of nothing, no way no how.

And so I commenced the day by waking up and looking out my window to see that the old bitch continued to be dropping shitty white stuff from the sky. This has been going on nonstop since Friday afternoon and I was about ready to see it stop. Angie was planning on taking the Downeaster up to NH to do Christmasy stuff for the day...so I offered to drive her to North Station...given the weather the way that it was, I couldn't have her trek out to take the T. The roads were a complete juncque show...expectedly so I suppose. I arrived back at home eager to make sure I didn't get a sniff of the great outdoors for the rest of the day.

After yet another unbelievable breakfast of cholesterol-laden fare, I settled in for the football watch that defines most Sundays. Today's would be different however. Week 16 of the NFL season is Fantasy Football Championship week. With teams clinching their divisions and resting guys for the playoffs, it doesn't make sense to have Fantasy games on week 17 because there is a good chance the best guys won't be playing. I happened to be lucky enough to be in the Championship game in one of my leagues playing against our friend 'monde, whose team I also drafted. This would be the overarching theme of my football watching schedule for the day, but with only one guy playing in the 1 o'clock games and the only early game on here being the Patriots blowout, I decided to do something productive and wait for the late games.

And so I decided to make rice balls. Also known as arancini in Italian (meaning little oranges), these things are the single greatest hot snacks/appetizers you will ever taste. I was practically raised on them. Every pizza place in Brooklyn, if not all of New York, carries these things...and cheap. Its name pretty much describes it. It's a ball of rice, stuffed with meat or cheese, breaded and deep fried. Sounds pretty simple and maybe not all too enticing to those who may not be lucky enough to have tried them. The problem with Boston, aside from the complete impossibility of getting anywhere in the city cheaply and quickly at the same time, is that there are very very few places that sell rice balls...and it is a shame. I mean this city likes to eat...it has a nation of young college kids who would love to have something else to get from the local pizza joint. Why don't rice balls make any waves in Boston? I don't get it. And since I can't really find them anywhere convenient, I have to make them on my own.

So I whipped up a batch of risotto and incorporated a good amount of parmagiano reggiano. Let that cool for a bit and then added a touch of homemade pasta sauce and a beaten up egg. I added some breadcrumbs as binder, rolled them up in to balls and breaded them and then dropped the little lovelies into a vat, or a small pot, of fucking hot oil. What comes out just minutes later is pure gold...seriously. These things were beautiful. Topped with some sauce they are all I really needed for the rest of the day. I was a happy camper.

Rejoining the football world, I was happy to see the Falcons dropping the hammer on the Vikings but very disappointed to see that my fantasy team was putting up a sub-par performance against 'monde's squad. Disgusted to an extent, and contradictory to my previously mentioned desire to not set a foot outside for the rest of the day...I decided to take myself to Mass.

Now, I am not a zealot. I was raised Roman Catholic and went to Catholic schools my whole life...including now. I don't agree by any stretch of the imagination with a lot of the stuff that the Christian right advocates...and I have very serious misgivings about the Catholic church's own stances on a number of issues. That said, I still like to go to Mass. It feels like home, it is comfortable, it gives me a chance to think in a way that I don't usually do. It gets me out of the house and makes me feel somewhat productive. And it is literally right around the corner....as is Christmas figuratively. Not a bad time to go. So I pulled my collar up and headed out into the cold. Man, was it shitty...awful. It was nice though because it was small, and we were in the basement instead of the big church upstairs...no music...very peaceful. Then when the priest, a young Boston guy...very chill, was walking out he said that he felt weird processing out without a song and recommended Silent Night. It was actually a pretty sweet moment in my day...and if I had to pick a high point, I think this was it. You have those moments during the Christmas season where you finally feel the real spirit of Christmas. This was mine and I was happy to have it...as sappy as it sounds.

The rest of my night was uneventful to a point. My Giants were on in Primetime and my best player is on the Giants. This game had huge implications for my fantasy match-up as 'monde had Steve Smith. The game was back and forth, with Carolina looking to be in control. But my guy, Jacobs, punched it in twice in regulation, including the game-tying score to essentially force overtime. In the overtime period, I was down 5 points and change. I needed 6 to win essentially. After exchanging possessions, the Giants marched downfeld and when the team lined up at the goal-line, I was holding my breath hoping that Jacobs would get the ball. Sure enough, he did, and he scored. With the score the Giants won the game & clinched home-field throughout the playoffs,,,,and I won my fantasy championship. I couldn't have scripted it any better. 180 bucks ain't half bad for sitting on your couch and watching some football.

While this was going down, Angie was trying to make her way back from NH. I had been checking travel advisories for her throughout the night, and despite the snow, there was nothing saying her train back home (scheduled to arrive at 10:25) would be running late...but of course it was. So after sitting in the car with her increasingly impatient Dad for 1 hour and 57 minutes, the train came. Now it looked like she wouldn't be getting in until after midnight, I offered a ride instead of making her take a cab...which in and of itself is a dicey proposition even in good weather. At about midnight I went outside to work on my car (yes, the incredibly admirable spot-clearing I perfirned yesterday was quickly undone by more snow and freezing rain). The entire thing was encased in ice...front back, top sides. I thought I was going to have to piss on my door to get it open at all. So I began chipping away at the fucking thing. After waking up half the block, I said fuck it, called Angie and told her I was sorry but that it would take me forever to free the thing and that she should take a cab home. After settling in at home for a few I got another call...there were tons of people and no cabs. What the fuck is wrong with this city? Trains are always coming in...the weather sucks, people need rides....why why why are there never cabs hen you need them? Where the fuck do they all go. I hate this goddamn place sometimes. This would NEVER happen in NYC...NEVER. That said, I went back outside...now it was 12:30 and my previous conviction to not go outside for the rest of the day was looking downright foolish. So for the second time today, I started hatcheting away at my ice-block of a Hyundai....after about 20 minutes and waking up the other half of the block, I realized I had left my phone inside and went to retrieve it. ...surely enough Angie had managed to get a cab after all and my two trips to the car were rendered completely unnecessary. I am not really looking forward to doing again tomorrow at all....but at least the day will be just that little bit longer and easier for me to get my money's worth, and I have to think that's all I can really ask for.

&Ry

Consecration

2008-12-21T14:52:00.005-05:00

A couple quick shots taken from my phone over the last few days. We have been working with over 160 wine barrels: soaking, emptying, and moving old ones; and then racking beer from others. The beer is Consecration, and it was brewed in May and again in August.

These bastards are 60 gallons, and they weigh over 500 pounds when full. I had to "spin" all of these to empty them, after they had been filled with water the previous week (this helps the wood swell up so they don't leak when filled with beer). Might have been the hardest work I've done out here.
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So I'll be heading back east in a few days....this might be the last post from Cali. As for 2009, who knows.

Peace

-Wrence

(PS: Welcome back, RyToy)

Shove that gauntlet up your ass!!!!

2008-12-20T15:05:00.005-05:00

How's that for a retort? This is RyToy once again, hollering at you from the Beast Coast with an update.

My classes finished up this Wednesday with the handing-in of my last take home final. To celebrate, some of my classmates opted for some beer-having. What was initially intended to be a grand partaking of beers by many and varied people turned into five people, two of whom were not drinking. In any event, we went to the Publick House. Hadn't been there in a long while. Managed to put away a few drinkables, whose names now mostly escape me. There was a Belgian blonda ale that was good. There was also the Six Point Sweet Action, which wasn't sweet at all and was actually really well balanced. All in all though, it was a subpar time...super crowded, lame crowd. I found myself pondering how much better my next trip might be...knowing that it would at least be better than this one.

Then Friday (yesterday) I decided to thaw and cook a pork tenderloin that had been in my freezer for a few weeks. First of all, I probably don't need to tell you this, but a pork tenderloin is the most phallic food I have ever seen. Add to that the fact that I was going to be doing a rub and I felt altogether somewhat amused by the whole situation. Did a nice marinade though and a mustard-based rub as well as a mustard and taragon cream sauce...cooked it perfectly to just about medium, nice and moist...the whole thing came out pretty well. Those potatoes on the side were Angie's skillet-fried fingerlings. After dinner Angie and I walked up the block to the bar, which was ridiculously packed, turned around, and came home and watched Igby Goes Down...a solid movie that I have been avoiding for some reason for a while. All the while killing Cascazilla, by the Ithaca Brewing Company, which claims to be loaded to the asshole with hops and shit, but it tastes like a normal red ale and doesn't have a ver pronounced hop character at all. I drank it anyway, and then graduated to my brown ale, which I still have too much of. Maybe a brewday soon!?!?

One thing 'wrence probably does miss (because he is totally fucked in the head) is the asston of snow we got this weekend. Started Friday at noon and continued into Saturday afternoon. The people here in Southie, being completely out of their minds as they are, shovel themselves out starting the night of the storm and continue shovelling until the snow stops. Then they take their car out just for the fuck of it (probably to do something that they could have waited to do anyway...or somewhere they could have walked) and mark their spot with either a pail or a chair or something else. The consequences for stealing a spot are not officially determined, but I have a feeling it involves calling in some additional muscle or something. So I shoveled mine out and marked it with two folding chairs. I have to admit to a certain sense of satisfaction. I mean, my spot was CLEAR!

Stay warm and be well all...

&Ry

Still in California

2008-12-17T23:29:00.007-05:00

First and foremost, I guess I should welcome back RyToy, but I won't....at least not until he gets up a few more posts. Don't get me wrong, I love an occasional update from the Toymeister, but I learned to stop getting my hopes up about them becoming more habitual. (RyToy, in case you missed what I just threw down, it indeed was the gauntlet.)
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Anyway, things are wrapping up for me out here in Cali, as preposterously impossible that is to believe. 5 weeks is a long time, but it's also a short time. Damn, that last sentence sucked. It was like something George Bush would say. I apologize.

So I just bought a plane ticket which will have me touching the tarmack at Logan around 11pm Christmas eve night. Talk about your dramatic movie moment! I think I will carry a large stuffed bear under my arm, with bow, because for some reason that just seems like what one is supposed to be carrying when getting off a plane on Christmas eve night. Oh, and I'll be running, too (I don't know why).
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While things have been mega busy here, I DID finally get time to go out & explore a bit. This past weekend I rented a car & drove down to San Fran to see DG & Junior, and possibly some of my Oakland peeps (time permitting). On the way, I stopped in a town called Novato and had lunch and some beer samples at a brewery called Moylan's.

I remembered trying their beer before somewhere and I remember really liking it. There are a TON of great breweries out near me (Marin, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, etc) but Moylan's was on the way to SF and I heard that the food was good.

The food was good. That's all I'm going to say.

At any rate, I got down to SF and to DG's new house that afternoon & we hit up a nice neighborhood pub for a pint. Later we met up with some of his buddies, where they have a nice garage band-style setup with a digitial recorder, so we jammed pretty solidly and laid down some sleek tracks. It was good to play some instruments again...each person could play each instrument (drums, keys, bass, guitar) to some degree so there was a lot of switching around & whatnot.

Afterward, DG & I hit up the famous Toronado, perhaps the most renowned beer bar on the left coast. It was cool. The draft list was strong, about 30-40 handles, and naturally was focused on local California beer. They had some stuff we get back east, and some stuff we don't, and plenty of stuff from the brewery I'm working at now. Also, it should be noted that the prices were awesome and totally unexpected. A place like that back in Boston would have charged a good 20-30% more, easily.

One thing that's different about San Fran is that none of the bars serve food. Back in Boston you pretty much HAVE to have a kitchen if you expect to have a successful pub. BUT: to their credit, SFers have logically placed kick-awesome food joints right next door to their bars. Next to the Toronado is a sausage that joint was so awesome I almost punched DG in the knockwurst.

We ended up back in the Mission, perhaps my favorite neighborhood in American in which to party (though probably not to live). We continued to get progressively more hammered, attracting an odd assortment of strangers who wanted to party with us. Maybe it was my hat, maybe it was DG's smart-ass mouth, maybe it was the fancy absynthe-pourer-thingy; I am not sure. There were crazy people everywhere. Junior showed up with some of his peeps and the night gets extremely blurry. Luckily there was a disposable camera in my hand and I am sure I clicked the button a few times. When I get home, get them developed and scanned, I'll post some up here.

On Sunday I had some time to drive over to Oakland and meet Brian & Smitty, my old bandmates, who are both working musicians in the Bay Area now. It was good catching up.
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So now it's Wednesday, I've finished another 12 hour double-brew day, and I'm still recovering from my hangover due to the brewery's Christmas party Monday night, which was off both the hook, cuff, and charts. It was pretty wild, actually. They have some very, um.....free-spirited girls working there. I am relaxing tonight while watching the Patrick Stewart version of "Christmas Carol." SCORE!

So until next time, Peace!

'Wrence

Ry-Toy Returns

2008-12-14T00:30:00.005-05:00

Sooooooo, this is Bros11 huh? I kinda sorta remember this whole thing. Well, I have been away for a while...school has been kicking my ass and my usually low level of motivation dropped to "extremely low" for a while there. But I'm getting back on the bloghorse for a nice little blogride. Thanks to 'wrence for tending the flame during my unfortunate absence. I'm going to try to be better...I think.

Went to the Kendall Square Theater tonight for a flick, but more on that later. First thing's first, Angie and I grabbed some food. We were gonna go to that pizza place across the street...Rosalia's or something like that...but it was too crowded and we were crunched for time. So instead we hit up the Cambridge Brewing Company for some beverables and mangibles. I had never had the pizza there...got the margherita and it was dynamite. Angie treated herself to a Chicken Club Pizza that basically made me really excited....it even came with ranch dressing on the side!!!! For drinks I had their Late Harvest IPA, which was deliciously malty and hoppy and wonderful. Angie had the Pumpkin, which I did not try because I am boycotting pumpkin beers of all stripes for 2008. It's just a personal decision basically.

Onto the movies...first of all, Kendall Square theater is awesome because it shows dope movies you don't get in other places...but at the same time IT'S A TOTAL FUCKING SHIT SHOW at all times. More than half the movies were sold out tonight and the place is just absurdly disorganized. We had bought our tix ahead over the interweb, so we were all good. The movie in question was Synecdoche, New York starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It was fucked, as is every Charlie Kaufman movie that I have seen. Hoffman plays a theater director who is basically bat-shit insane and neurotic. The whole thing was absurdly surreal and sometimes hard to understand what Kaufman was doing. Hoffman was awesome as usual, the rest of the cast was real solid as well. I didn't realize what I was getting into when I saw it...if my mindset had been one that was more ready for a complete blow-job I would have enjoyed it more. I'll probably see it again though at some point.

Getting out of there is a shitshow too. Instead of paying for parking on the way out, you have to wait in line to pay at the teller...which is always at least 75 people deep. It fits the feel of the place to have something as unorganized as this as the lasting aftertaste of your experience there. That said, I will be back I am sure.

So that's my story...I'll try to do some more cool stuff soon so that I can type about it.

&Ry

Another day at the (not) office

2008-12-09T20:54:00.002-05:00

Corking Machine: 1

Wrence's Hand: 0

What I'm listening to - with morning my coffee

2008-12-06T13:02:00.003-05:00

There really is NOTHING like the sound of a vintage tube amp turned up all the way

A day at the office

2008-12-02T22:15:00.006-05:00

So I had my phone out at work today, using its clock to time a cleaning cycle (I need to buy a cheap watch to use in the brewery!) and I took a random shot, which I will post now.

So, this is the first post of December, although I must admit it does not feel like that in the least out here in CA. The weather has been chilly and foggy in the morning, but sunny and mild each afternoon. Today we even shot some hoops after work, out at the basket they put up near the loading dock...while drinking Damnation that was kegged yesterday. Nicely.

Peace

-Wrence

Fridge Full of Pliny

2008-11-27T15:38:00.001-05:00

Working 12-hours days in a brewery DOES have some benefits....

-Wrence

Wrapping things up in Middlebury

2008-11-20T20:45:00.004-05:00

So we are almost done here at brewschool. I can't believe how quick it has come up after nearly 6 months of this stuff. Some quick thoughts before I pass out:

It finally stopped snowing and was actually somewhat mild today. Very nice.

Amongst the 28 samples of spiked beers, (we are studying flavor defects every night) was one called Butyric acid, which is described as "baby vomit" and tastes just as it sounds. Lovely! Now I know what I DON'T want my beer to taste like.

Here is a nice shot of my current workspace, the common room of the Inn I am staying at. They used exterior shots of this place for the Newhart show, if any of you are old enough to remember that one....
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anyway, I should start studying now, final exam tomorrow. Will get another post up soon.

Goodnight from VT with love!

-Wrence

Brew School

2008-11-18T21:11:00.005-05:00

It's snowing in Middlebury, Vermont.

I've just finished another 12-hour day.

In case you haven't been paying attention, I'm finishing up brew school this week up in VT, working days in a considerably-sized microbrewery and studying sensory analysis, water chemistry, and QC with a class of 22 brew students (brewdents?). There are several solid bros (and sisters) in the class, but also a few annoying douchebag-types; you know, the kind who have to shout whenever they are talking (so as to subject as many people possible to their idiotic ramblings), name-drop (about people in the brewing industry, for christsake) and make fun of innocently bland beers like Labatt's Blue.

Regardless, most of my classmates are cool, and I'm psyched to see what some of these people are doing with themselves over the next year. Most of us are off to apprentice for 5 weeks after this, at various breweries. A lot of people are going back home to their local brewpub, but some are actually off to really cool places like: Hopworks (Portland, OR); Firestone Walker (Pasa Robles, CA); Ommegang (Cooperstown, NY); Sixpoint (Brooklyn, NY). I will be at an un-named brewpub/production plant located in Santa Rosa, CA.

Also: one fellow student grew up in my college town and knows all kinds of people that I do.
one fellow student went to college with one of my best friends from home.
-weird-

SO: I'll put something else up later in the week...it's mega-busy time for Wrence here, and I've only a few hours in the evening to check the emails, maybe chat with a roomate for a minute, and throw up a blog post (if possible) so stay tuned. Graduation is Friday!

-'Wrence

edit: also I'd like to add that we just discovered that the TV in our room at the inn is set to parental-block any show that's rated over TV-14 or some shit, and we can't watch South Park because of this. My roomate just stormed downstairs to confront the inn-keep about this. Amazing.

Embarrassing Life Moment #5239

2008-11-07T17:39:00.003-05:00

So my company held a blood drive today. I have never donated blood before, so I thought it would be cool to pop my cherry on the last day of my job (see below). The only problem was that everyone wanted to take me out for drinks last night.

In my defense, I tried to get people to go out tonight instead, but no one could do that. Also in my defense, I only had like 4 beers or so, and when those shots went around, I politely declined. See, I also had a meeting with my class online at 9. I ended up home around 8.30 and I thought I was in good shape. I had some food & a pint of water & was asleep at 11.

So anyway, today, after I pass the screening & they have me on the table, the nurse gets the needle into a vein just fine. But then she gets this sort of concerned look on her face. She fiddles with the needle a bit. She asks me if I'm ok. Yes. She asks me if she is hurting me as she fiddles with the needle more. No. Then she gets the head nurse. They put a blood pressure cuff on my arm and give it a few pumps.

Me: "Ahem....uh, what exactly is the issue here?"
Head Nurse: "You aren't bleeding."

It turns out I was too de-hydrated to bleed properly. At least, that's what they say. Personally, I think it's more likely that I am just INVINCIBLE.

So now I'm on a mission to rehydrate and go find a place to let a pint of blood sometime in the next week or so. Will keep you posted.

-Wrence

Take this Job and...re-staff it

2008-11-07T09:25:00.041-05:00

In honor of my last day at my job of the past seven years (the nature of which I will never reveal here) I am cleaning out the hard drive. In addittion to some ridiculously hilarious emails which I had saved, random documents I might want to keep, and mile after mile of cookies; I also have a pant-load of images which were saved for one reason or another, no matter now inexplicable they would seem now.

So, I proudly present to you a sympozium of weird shit that represents various moments of my "professional" life over the last 7 years. Enjoy!

I realize that this must seem like a lot, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. About half-way through I suddenly started to become aware of the enormity of 7 years of goofing off. Anyway, it's all over now. Adieu, a bien-tot, a la prochaine fois, mes amis!

-Wrence

Election Day

2008-11-04T10:26:00.003-05:00

We here at Bros11 strongly support voting! Get out today and do it.(This clever shirt design was made by RyToy 4 long years and one awful presidency ago)

-'Wrence

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T19:51:00.007-04:00

So it's Halloween, and we have only one piece of candy left after I gave all the early kids 2 or 3 pieces each. Godammit.

While Vanessa & I are trying to come up with some decent costume ideas, we are listening to a kick-awesome spooky playlist that I put together on iTunes:

Thriller - Michael Jackson
This is Halloween - Nightmare Before Christmas
Walkin with a Ghost - The White Stripes
Ghost - Phish
People Are Strange - The Doors
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Bad Moon Rising - Creedence
Monster Mash - Boris Pickett
Midnight in a Perfect World - DJ Shadow
Ghost World - Aimee Mann
Vampire Forest Fire - Arcade Fire
It's Dark, Is it always this Dark? - The Flaming Lips
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Great Pumpkin Waltz - Vince Guaraldi Trio

And I think we are just about shutting down the candy train. Anyway, the doorbell has sort of stopped ringing, and we are trying on costumes & piling on serious empty stomach buzzes. Off to CBC for the pumpkin festival!

And here are some shots from the pumpkin-slaying last night - enjoy

-'Wrence

Autumn in Boston

2008-10-30T14:23:00.003-04:00

It wouldn't be a week without another crappy cellphone camera image....here we go.

This was taken after I was suddenly inspired during a walk back to work from the North End.

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Not much else to add. Trying to finish up my exam this week. Also will be carving some pumpkins tonight in prep for Halloween tomorrow. There is a pumpkin party happening at CBC, which I think I will be attending. Potential costume ideas are still in the conceptual phase at present. Updates to follow.

Peace

-Wrence