Wheat love/hate at the South Philly Taproom

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

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer

-Wrence

Weekend Wheat Beer

More on this later...

-Wrence

Of Books & Beers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading & stay dry.

Night,

-Wrence

'pe

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

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

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

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

&Ry

Heffe the Third

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

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

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

Bon Tidings.

&Ry

Manayunk Bike Races & Sunburn

Another weekend of strong summer weather; another trip to the State Forest in the Jerz where this time I accumulated 2 TICKS. One was found on my wrist during the drive home, another found much later and in a much more disconcerting place. I'll leave it at that, suffice it to say that I have since thoroughly examined and showered my person & clothing from the day. Thrice. Saturday was also the 2nd annual Roots Picnic, to which I could not afford a ticket, but was staged close enough to my house that I meandered over and was surprised to be able to hear and SEE the last 4 songs of the Black Keys' set. Bonus.
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Yesterday was the Manayunk Bike Race, which was a much bigger deal than I had guessed it to be. One of the legs of the Triple Crown, the race comprises "10 laps of a 14.4-mile circuit that links the majestic Benjamin Franklin Parkway with the hillside community of Manayunk, site of the legendary Manayunk Wall, named by Pro Cycling Tour’s David Chauner and Jerry Casale, a steep half-mile cruncher that has become a Philadelphia icon and favorite spot for race watchers."

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

-Wrence

A Long Day

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

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

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

&Ry