A night at the 'bones

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:

Ry

1. Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA
2. Lagunitas Brown Sugga
3. Rogue Mocha Porter
4. Smutty IPA
5. Stoudt's Pils

'Wrence

1. Six Point Bengali Tiger IPA
2. Weihenstephaner (which, after ordered, provided a good 5 minutes of conversation)
3. Founder's Backwoods Bastard
4. Goulden Draak
5. Sierra Nevada Celebration
6. 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.

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

GUI

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

Beer Run!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace

-Wrence

Judging, Beering, Awesoming

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3: Ate lots of food and dranks tons of booze.
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I apologize for not having some sort of photo in this post, as damn they do spice up the posts...oh well.
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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

Back on the Hombie Horse

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

Let's begin:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 oz Centennial
.5 Columbus
1 oz Simcoe

1 oz Centennial
1 oz Summit
.75 Columbus

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

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

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

James Brown on the computer speakers

Cyser in the glass

Life ain't too bad sometimes

Love

-Wrence

Brooklyn Fail

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

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

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

And now some good things:

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

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

Love,
-Wrence

Blind Pig & New Routines

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

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

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

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

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

Hope you all are enjoying your September.

Peace

-Wrence

DAMOFEST `09

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

I sincerely love you all,

-Wrence

The Power of Beer

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

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

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

The Power of Beer.

-Wrence

Tours at the Fish/Kite & Key

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

Snotty showed up at the brewery, along with a couple of his bros. It was good to see some familiar faces there. We shot the shit & drank little cups of beer for a few hours. I think they enjoyed seeing the brewery, especially since I brought over a bunch of our beer last weekend to Snotty's BBQ and they were naturally curious to see where it was brewed.
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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.
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All in all, a strong showing for the day. Also I should note that this place has great beer. Among my quaffed were: Elysian's Jasmine IPA, Ommegang's Hennepin, and a few others. I got crunked and walked home around 9pm. I awoke in the middle of the night in my bed, but on top of my sheets and sporting a large ice cream-colored stain on my tee-shirt. Sweet.

-Wrence

Ry's Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

&Ry

Brewreport

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

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

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

See ya...
&Ry

My week so far

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

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

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

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

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

&Ry

July 4th weekend in Massachusetts

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

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

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

-Wrence

Wheat love/hate at the South Philly Taproom

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

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer

-Wrence

Weekend Wheat Beer

More on this later...

-Wrence

Of Books & Beers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading & stay dry.

Night,

-Wrence

'pe

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

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

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

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

&Ry

Heffe the Third

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

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

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

Bon Tidings.

&Ry