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Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
New Poll
For all you Google Readers or those who didn't notice, I have a new poll. Vote for your favorite Revolution is Brewing Company beer label! Check out the post about "My Beer Labels" to survey the choices.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
My Beer Labels
Carrie gave me props about a month ago in her blog post about making beer labels, and I just got around to reading it. So in honor of that, here are the labels I've put together to date for my Revolution is Brewing Company homebrews. I use a program called paint.net, which is a free download that lets you import and manipulate picture files, draw, and add text to create really nice-looking images. I then print and tape the labels onto my bottles so I can easily remove them to reuse the bottles for future batches.
Marsupium was my first attempt at making a label with paint.net. I brewed this one in late fall 2007 for my first annual Holiday Homebrew Party. It was an extract-brewed stout with 8 oz. of organic cocoa powder added to the end of the batch. The idea behind the label was that I treated it like a baby, keeping it close as a marsupial would it's young. The kangaroo is holding a basket of hop cones and cocoa beans. It was actually brewed after Chrysalis, the next label I attempted (below). 
Chrysalis was a very bitter (97 IBU) dry-hopped IPA, also from extract. The grassy, spring-like flavor and aroma from all that hops (Columbus mostly, some Cascade, and Nugget for bittering) inspired the theme for the label: a butterfly emerging from a hop cone-chrysalis. This one was also served at the homebrew party in December '07. Following these, I brewed a beer called Lady Fitzgerald Irish Red, in honor of my grandmother, whose maiden name was Fitzgerald. I skipped the label on this one - although I had some ideas, the beer didn't last long enough to do one, thanks in part to St. Patrick's Day. Following Lady was Hippity Hoppity, another ultra hoppy IPA much like Chrysalis, brewed around Easter, again with no label.
Then followed a long and arduous period of being too broke or busy to brew, two words I refuse to ever let sway my brewing tendencies henceforth. The reward at the end of the tunnel was Lazarus, brewed in August 2008, a big-ass strong Belgian Golden Ale brewed with extract and a shitload of sugar. Lazarus got its name from a primary fermentation that looked like it was ready to peter out after a week, then kicked in for another week, presumably when it started eating the cane and corn sugar. Raised from the dead you could say. I also liked the religious theme that it and so many other Belgians imply, though when I made this label I was teetering more towards heresy. Yes, that's Jesus being abducted by aliens in a bottle-shaped laser beam. All in good fun.
Bellona is my first real concept beer. I envisioned a full-bodied, syrupy beer with minimal bitterness or dryness, kind of a smooth yet complex elixir. I'd wanted to experiment with agave nectar, but didn't want the yeast to eat it all, so I added it to the secondary. I used a Scottish ale yeast to keep it malt-forward, some wheat malt extract as a base, malto-dextrin to keep the body up, and kept the carbonation light. Then I used a few hop varieties that were supposed to make it qualify for the September Star City Brewers Guild Competition (Glacier, Palisade and Galena). Unfortunately, I didn't realize adjuncts weren't allowable for this competition, so obviously I couldn't enter it. The label is inspired by the city "Bellona" in Samuel R. Delaney's book Dhalgren, a city where all kinds of oddballs gather and live together. Read the book and you'll get it!
Next I took a couple of months off while upgrading my equipment to all-grain. In November 2008 I brewed my first all-grain batch for the December competition, a Robust Porter with a variety of malts. By all accounts it was a solid first batch that really only suffered from low carbonation at competition time. Time took care of that though. Having brewed this shortly after the Presidential Election, and itself brewed for a competition, the political theme was in my head, so I dubbed it Proletariat, a working class style (see History of Robust Porter) for the working class. Instead of a hammer and sickle, thats a crossed mash paddle and auto-siphon. The Voice of the People Series is a gimmick that will cover all of the beers I brew for competions through this year (American Brown, Saison, Oatmeal Stout and Imperial whatever).
Dreamer was my second all-grain beer, one that started out with every intention of being a strongish English export ale or special ale, but whose original gravity wound up low enough to fit comfortably in the Extra Special Bitter (ESB) category. There's a movie I won't mention that kind of inspired this, in addition to my constant daydreaming at work of someday opening a brewery. The peacock is a reference to the book Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver that I read and liked in high school...seemed relevant. This one was a little rushed (trying to get it finished for Christmas which didn't happen) so it's not my favorite.
Lastly, for now, is Flora. With the homebrew shop closed the day after Thanksgiving and myself itching to brew, I turned to Patrick from the Brewers Guild to supply me with some grains. I wound up with a recipe much different from what I was intending, so I personalized it by adding some rose hips, the dried berries of rose plants often used in teas, to the end of the brew. It's very citrusy and a bit too bitter from hips and hops, but certainly its own animal, and packs a nice punch. The label theme is kind of obvious, "flora" meaning plant material, this shows a picture of some roses taken by Bailie out in our yard from last summer, a picture of hop vine leaves, and a picture of a rye plant.
Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment. I'll post new labels as they are conceived!
Marsupium was my first attempt at making a label with paint.net. I brewed this one in late fall 2007 for my first annual Holiday Homebrew Party. It was an extract-brewed stout with 8 oz. of organic cocoa powder added to the end of the batch. The idea behind the label was that I treated it like a baby, keeping it close as a marsupial would it's young. The kangaroo is holding a basket of hop cones and cocoa beans. It was actually brewed after Chrysalis, the next label I attempted (below). 
Chrysalis was a very bitter (97 IBU) dry-hopped IPA, also from extract. The grassy, spring-like flavor and aroma from all that hops (Columbus mostly, some Cascade, and Nugget for bittering) inspired the theme for the label: a butterfly emerging from a hop cone-chrysalis. This one was also served at the homebrew party in December '07. Following these, I brewed a beer called Lady Fitzgerald Irish Red, in honor of my grandmother, whose maiden name was Fitzgerald. I skipped the label on this one - although I had some ideas, the beer didn't last long enough to do one, thanks in part to St. Patrick's Day. Following Lady was Hippity Hoppity, another ultra hoppy IPA much like Chrysalis, brewed around Easter, again with no label.
Then followed a long and arduous period of being too broke or busy to brew, two words I refuse to ever let sway my brewing tendencies henceforth. The reward at the end of the tunnel was Lazarus, brewed in August 2008, a big-ass strong Belgian Golden Ale brewed with extract and a shitload of sugar. Lazarus got its name from a primary fermentation that looked like it was ready to peter out after a week, then kicked in for another week, presumably when it started eating the cane and corn sugar. Raised from the dead you could say. I also liked the religious theme that it and so many other Belgians imply, though when I made this label I was teetering more towards heresy. Yes, that's Jesus being abducted by aliens in a bottle-shaped laser beam. All in good fun.
Bellona is my first real concept beer. I envisioned a full-bodied, syrupy beer with minimal bitterness or dryness, kind of a smooth yet complex elixir. I'd wanted to experiment with agave nectar, but didn't want the yeast to eat it all, so I added it to the secondary. I used a Scottish ale yeast to keep it malt-forward, some wheat malt extract as a base, malto-dextrin to keep the body up, and kept the carbonation light. Then I used a few hop varieties that were supposed to make it qualify for the September Star City Brewers Guild Competition (Glacier, Palisade and Galena). Unfortunately, I didn't realize adjuncts weren't allowable for this competition, so obviously I couldn't enter it. The label is inspired by the city "Bellona" in Samuel R. Delaney's book Dhalgren, a city where all kinds of oddballs gather and live together. Read the book and you'll get it!
Next I took a couple of months off while upgrading my equipment to all-grain. In November 2008 I brewed my first all-grain batch for the December competition, a Robust Porter with a variety of malts. By all accounts it was a solid first batch that really only suffered from low carbonation at competition time. Time took care of that though. Having brewed this shortly after the Presidential Election, and itself brewed for a competition, the political theme was in my head, so I dubbed it Proletariat, a working class style (see History of Robust Porter) for the working class. Instead of a hammer and sickle, thats a crossed mash paddle and auto-siphon. The Voice of the People Series is a gimmick that will cover all of the beers I brew for competions through this year (American Brown, Saison, Oatmeal Stout and Imperial whatever).
Dreamer was my second all-grain beer, one that started out with every intention of being a strongish English export ale or special ale, but whose original gravity wound up low enough to fit comfortably in the Extra Special Bitter (ESB) category. There's a movie I won't mention that kind of inspired this, in addition to my constant daydreaming at work of someday opening a brewery. The peacock is a reference to the book Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver that I read and liked in high school...seemed relevant. This one was a little rushed (trying to get it finished for Christmas which didn't happen) so it's not my favorite.
Lastly, for now, is Flora. With the homebrew shop closed the day after Thanksgiving and myself itching to brew, I turned to Patrick from the Brewers Guild to supply me with some grains. I wound up with a recipe much different from what I was intending, so I personalized it by adding some rose hips, the dried berries of rose plants often used in teas, to the end of the brew. It's very citrusy and a bit too bitter from hips and hops, but certainly its own animal, and packs a nice punch. The label theme is kind of obvious, "flora" meaning plant material, this shows a picture of some roses taken by Bailie out in our yard from last summer, a picture of hop vine leaves, and a picture of a rye plant.Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment. I'll post new labels as they are conceived!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Roanoke Railhouse Brewing Company: Research Tasting
On Sunday the 13th, this article was published in the Roanoke Times regarding the new Roanoke Railhouse Brewing Co. The Times had first reported on this brewery in this article last October.
I jumped at the chance to attend the blind tasting conducted by Martin Research mentioned in the former article. Having not read the article until Monday, I quickly sent an email to Martin and was informed this morning of a cancellation by one of the participants for their 6:30 appointment this evening. Again, I jumped and was fortunate to have responded in time to be allowed into the study.
The idea behind the tasting was to create a group environment in which individuals (about 20 in our group, although I don't know the total number of groups that will be assembled between tonight and Thursday) were given the chance to taste 8 styles of beer, and rate their impressions.
SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you plan on participating in this tasting or talking to someone else who will be do not read any farther!
We were asked first to give our age and our favorite domestic and imported beers. Then we were given checkboxes that basically covered a scale of 1-5. The lowest being I would not drink this beer, the highest being this beer is awesome. We were also encouraged to write some brief notes in the margins beside each beer describing what we liked or disliked about the beer.
Going into the tasting, I knew full well there would only be fairly standard and non-extreme styles offered. It was not disclosed, and still unclear whether the beers would be commercial examples of a style, or potentially test-batches or homebrews the brew master had previously made. There were a couple of beers in particular that appeared to at least resemble well known commercial beers; an amber lager resembling Sam Adams Lager, and a maibock resembling Rogue Old Dead Guy. Again, this was just speculation.
The remaining styles appeared to consist of the following: a dunkelweizen or German dark lager, a porter, a pale ale, an IPA, an amber and an English mild. This list leaves the notable exceptions of a wheat ale and a stout, which I had figured would have been great candidates for "the palate of the Roanoke masses," as the study had hoped to predict. The only consolation I take in the omission of these styles at this event was that the first Times article indicated one rotating seasonal beer flanked by two consistent "flagship" styles. The suggestions given for these seasonal styles? A wheat ale and a stout.
Now for the interesting part. Judging by our groups reactions in discussion after tasting, the Sam Adams(-esque?) beer was the only real consensus pick as a favorite. There was more polarization on most of the other beers with the exception of the mild/light ale, which no one seemed to particularly enjoy. If I had to guess, I'd say the IPA, my favorite, would probably not make the cut, but could be offered as a seasonal, as there was huge polarization over the hoppier beers. The maibock seemed to be well-liked among the anti-hoppy beer crowd, and at least tolerated by the hop heads, so look for that as a possibility too. I personally liked the porter as well, which although it tasted like a porter and was very flavorful, may not have actually been as the color was a bit light.
The bottom line is, I consider myself very fortunate to have been a participant in RRBC's research, but I hope that I may have helped sway the vote in favor of beers that both succeed and challenge Roanoke beer drinkers. A member of the Star City Brewers Guild made a valid point earlier about the RRBC's selection of flagship beers: while us beer geeks might love for them to brew a more extreme or hoppy beer, we tend to crave variety. RRBC's key market is going to be the threshold beer drinker that prefers something above the American macro, but is not devoted enough to actively seek out variety.
My recommendation: a smooth dark lager ala Sam Adams, a wheat ale that beats the crap out of Blue Moon, and a rotating seasonal that cleans up the rest between a winter stout, spring maibock, summer pale ale, and fall porter.
I jumped at the chance to attend the blind tasting conducted by Martin Research mentioned in the former article. Having not read the article until Monday, I quickly sent an email to Martin and was informed this morning of a cancellation by one of the participants for their 6:30 appointment this evening. Again, I jumped and was fortunate to have responded in time to be allowed into the study.
The idea behind the tasting was to create a group environment in which individuals (about 20 in our group, although I don't know the total number of groups that will be assembled between tonight and Thursday) were given the chance to taste 8 styles of beer, and rate their impressions.
SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you plan on participating in this tasting or talking to someone else who will be do not read any farther!
We were asked first to give our age and our favorite domestic and imported beers. Then we were given checkboxes that basically covered a scale of 1-5. The lowest being I would not drink this beer, the highest being this beer is awesome. We were also encouraged to write some brief notes in the margins beside each beer describing what we liked or disliked about the beer.
Going into the tasting, I knew full well there would only be fairly standard and non-extreme styles offered. It was not disclosed, and still unclear whether the beers would be commercial examples of a style, or potentially test-batches or homebrews the brew master had previously made. There were a couple of beers in particular that appeared to at least resemble well known commercial beers; an amber lager resembling Sam Adams Lager, and a maibock resembling Rogue Old Dead Guy. Again, this was just speculation.
The remaining styles appeared to consist of the following: a dunkelweizen or German dark lager, a porter, a pale ale, an IPA, an amber and an English mild. This list leaves the notable exceptions of a wheat ale and a stout, which I had figured would have been great candidates for "the palate of the Roanoke masses," as the study had hoped to predict. The only consolation I take in the omission of these styles at this event was that the first Times article indicated one rotating seasonal beer flanked by two consistent "flagship" styles. The suggestions given for these seasonal styles? A wheat ale and a stout.
Now for the interesting part. Judging by our groups reactions in discussion after tasting, the Sam Adams(-esque?) beer was the only real consensus pick as a favorite. There was more polarization on most of the other beers with the exception of the mild/light ale, which no one seemed to particularly enjoy. If I had to guess, I'd say the IPA, my favorite, would probably not make the cut, but could be offered as a seasonal, as there was huge polarization over the hoppier beers. The maibock seemed to be well-liked among the anti-hoppy beer crowd, and at least tolerated by the hop heads, so look for that as a possibility too. I personally liked the porter as well, which although it tasted like a porter and was very flavorful, may not have actually been as the color was a bit light.
The bottom line is, I consider myself very fortunate to have been a participant in RRBC's research, but I hope that I may have helped sway the vote in favor of beers that both succeed and challenge Roanoke beer drinkers. A member of the Star City Brewers Guild made a valid point earlier about the RRBC's selection of flagship beers: while us beer geeks might love for them to brew a more extreme or hoppy beer, we tend to crave variety. RRBC's key market is going to be the threshold beer drinker that prefers something above the American macro, but is not devoted enough to actively seek out variety.
My recommendation: a smooth dark lager ala Sam Adams, a wheat ale that beats the crap out of Blue Moon, and a rotating seasonal that cleans up the rest between a winter stout, spring maibock, summer pale ale, and fall porter.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Hops and Barley Shortage
You may be wondering why your favorite 6-pack just went up in price a buck or two, and some beers are reaching $1.50 to $2.00 and up per bottle. This mostly has to do with the hops and barley shortage that literally every brewery has had to deal with over the past year, and will continue to have to do so for the foreseeable future.
A lot has been written about the topic and most brewmasters have addressed it on their own websites, but basically what is happening is that supply of ingredients is dwindling while demand for craft brews has dramatically increased. Farmers, through no real fault of their own, have failed to honor contracts to provide hops and barley to suppliers, in most cases opting instead for corn or canola (rapeseed), from which larger profits can be gained due to the emergence of ethanol, which is being touted as a "green" additive to gasoline.
Less room in fields and less interest from farmers leads to less barley and hops for brewers, at a time when new breweries seemingly spout up weekly, and brewers seek to fuel the public's desire for bigger, stronger, extreme beers. As an example, this recipe for a 5-gallon homebrew clone of Pliny the Elder, which is probably my favorite beer ever as I write this, uses over a pound of hops and nearly 16 pounds of barley per batch, which will produce about two cases of beer. Don't get me wrong, I loooove this beer, but when you consider a normal batch of wheat beer, golden ale, Irish red or the like uses more like 2 ounces of hops and maybe 10 pounds of barley per 5-gallon batch, imagine how tough it is for breweries like Russian River to produce these beers on a national scale.
Other factors have led to the shortage: a warehouse fire wiping out about 2% of American-grown hops last year. A below-average growing season due to poor weather. Brewers will probably lean towards more modest recipes in the coming months. Homebrew supply stores like mine in Roanoke have notified customers that hops will only be sold by recipe, with a maximum of about four ounces to be sold only when customers purchase their malts and yeast at the same time. Ingredients for the IPA I am currently brewing ran me close to $70 for a 5-gallon batch, while in the past I had rarely topped $50. The Irish Red I brewed in February, which contains significantly less ingredients, was under $40.
It will be an interesting year ahead (and probably more), as we watch brewers practice conservation and discretion in their own ways. Sam Adams recently sold off 20,000 pounds of hops to smaller microbreweries that were not able to obtain them due to lack of supply. From all accounts within the industry, however, the beers we enjoy will continue to line the shelves, as long as we continue to buy them. We may just need to shell out some more dough to make that happen.
A lot has been written about the topic and most brewmasters have addressed it on their own websites, but basically what is happening is that supply of ingredients is dwindling while demand for craft brews has dramatically increased. Farmers, through no real fault of their own, have failed to honor contracts to provide hops and barley to suppliers, in most cases opting instead for corn or canola (rapeseed), from which larger profits can be gained due to the emergence of ethanol, which is being touted as a "green" additive to gasoline.
Less room in fields and less interest from farmers leads to less barley and hops for brewers, at a time when new breweries seemingly spout up weekly, and brewers seek to fuel the public's desire for bigger, stronger, extreme beers. As an example, this recipe for a 5-gallon homebrew clone of Pliny the Elder, which is probably my favorite beer ever as I write this, uses over a pound of hops and nearly 16 pounds of barley per batch, which will produce about two cases of beer. Don't get me wrong, I loooove this beer, but when you consider a normal batch of wheat beer, golden ale, Irish red or the like uses more like 2 ounces of hops and maybe 10 pounds of barley per 5-gallon batch, imagine how tough it is for breweries like Russian River to produce these beers on a national scale.
Other factors have led to the shortage: a warehouse fire wiping out about 2% of American-grown hops last year. A below-average growing season due to poor weather. Brewers will probably lean towards more modest recipes in the coming months. Homebrew supply stores like mine in Roanoke have notified customers that hops will only be sold by recipe, with a maximum of about four ounces to be sold only when customers purchase their malts and yeast at the same time. Ingredients for the IPA I am currently brewing ran me close to $70 for a 5-gallon batch, while in the past I had rarely topped $50. The Irish Red I brewed in February, which contains significantly less ingredients, was under $40.
It will be an interesting year ahead (and probably more), as we watch brewers practice conservation and discretion in their own ways. Sam Adams recently sold off 20,000 pounds of hops to smaller microbreweries that were not able to obtain them due to lack of supply. From all accounts within the industry, however, the beers we enjoy will continue to line the shelves, as long as we continue to buy them. We may just need to shell out some more dough to make that happen.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
A Few Basics
This post will contain some basics regarding the beer rating system, what to look for in a good beer, what makes up a beer, etc., and I will probably come back to it in the future to add things. If you have any questions about anything I write, please let me know and I'd be more than happy to clarify.
Beer ratings are based on Beer Advocate's beer rating system. This is a scale of 1 to 5 based on the five main components of tasting a beer, and the % of rating contributing to overall score:
Appearance: 20%
Aroma: 20%
Taste: 40%
Mouthfeel: 10%
Drinkability: 10%
To save myself from republishing everything Beer Advocate has already quite ably written, look here for descriptions of each category. There's a load of good information on this website, so we'll keep that website for basic reference and this one for my thoughts.
As you check out the ratings I give, keep in mind that these are relative to style. What this means is that if I give an Imperial IPA a 3.8 and a wheat beer a 4.4, it doesn't necessarily mean that I liked the wheat beer better than the IIPA, it just means that the wheat beer is great compared to other wheat beers, and the IIPA is not quite as great compared to other IIPAs. Cuz I like my IIPAs.
Head: The foam you see at the top of a beer is referred to as head. Contrary to popular belief, it's actually a good thing to have a lot of. Head can be fluffy, pillowy, foamy, sticky, non-existent, etc. Generally, I pour my beer right down the center of the glass and let the head do it's thing. If the head sticks to the side of the glass, that's a good thing; it's called lacing, and the more of it the better, in most cases. Great beers tend to form intricate patterns down the side of your glass. Sometimes you'll get a heavily carbonated beer that is 80% head when you pour it vigorously. Here you can cheat and start by pouring it down the side of the glass, straightening it up as you go. Whatever you do, don't pull the old frat party trick where you wipe your finger on the side of your nose, then stir the head with it (unless it's a Beast Light or likewise). That kills the head, which can hurt the aroma and mouthfeel of the beer.
Also, make sure you have a "beer clean" glass. This means wash your glass out using non-scented, powder detergent that doesn't leave any residue on the edges of the glass. Generally, this excludes all liquid detergents. Either clean your glass with a basic powdered dishwasher detergent, or just rinse it with water after you drink a beer. I don't know how sanitary the latter is, but I do it a lot and it treats a head well, and I'm not dead yet.
Glassware: There are all kinds of options for glasses you can pour your beer into. Certain beers require special glasses to be appreciated to their fullest. Most beers, you can get away with pouring into a typical pint glass, mug or stein. I prefer a snifter for beers with more intricate aromas, and generally those with higher ABVs. It's a good idea to get yourself a nice snifter if you like beer. You'll be glad you did. For more on glassware, check out: BA Glassware .
Beer ratings are based on Beer Advocate's beer rating system. This is a scale of 1 to 5 based on the five main components of tasting a beer, and the % of rating contributing to overall score:
Appearance: 20%
Aroma: 20%
Taste: 40%
Mouthfeel: 10%
Drinkability: 10%
To save myself from republishing everything Beer Advocate has already quite ably written, look here for descriptions of each category. There's a load of good information on this website, so we'll keep that website for basic reference and this one for my thoughts.
As you check out the ratings I give, keep in mind that these are relative to style. What this means is that if I give an Imperial IPA a 3.8 and a wheat beer a 4.4, it doesn't necessarily mean that I liked the wheat beer better than the IIPA, it just means that the wheat beer is great compared to other wheat beers, and the IIPA is not quite as great compared to other IIPAs. Cuz I like my IIPAs.
Head: The foam you see at the top of a beer is referred to as head. Contrary to popular belief, it's actually a good thing to have a lot of. Head can be fluffy, pillowy, foamy, sticky, non-existent, etc. Generally, I pour my beer right down the center of the glass and let the head do it's thing. If the head sticks to the side of the glass, that's a good thing; it's called lacing, and the more of it the better, in most cases. Great beers tend to form intricate patterns down the side of your glass. Sometimes you'll get a heavily carbonated beer that is 80% head when you pour it vigorously. Here you can cheat and start by pouring it down the side of the glass, straightening it up as you go. Whatever you do, don't pull the old frat party trick where you wipe your finger on the side of your nose, then stir the head with it (unless it's a Beast Light or likewise). That kills the head, which can hurt the aroma and mouthfeel of the beer.
Also, make sure you have a "beer clean" glass. This means wash your glass out using non-scented, powder detergent that doesn't leave any residue on the edges of the glass. Generally, this excludes all liquid detergents. Either clean your glass with a basic powdered dishwasher detergent, or just rinse it with water after you drink a beer. I don't know how sanitary the latter is, but I do it a lot and it treats a head well, and I'm not dead yet.
Glassware: There are all kinds of options for glasses you can pour your beer into. Certain beers require special glasses to be appreciated to their fullest. Most beers, you can get away with pouring into a typical pint glass, mug or stein. I prefer a snifter for beers with more intricate aromas, and generally those with higher ABVs. It's a good idea to get yourself a nice snifter if you like beer. You'll be glad you did. For more on glassware, check out: BA Glassware .
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Welcome!
I want to keep this short so I can get into the stuff I really created this blog for - well, in short, BEER. This blog will probably be updated fairly regularly, considering I'm pretty much always drinking, or brewing, or buying, or reading about...beer. So crack open a cold one, bold imbiber of the barley 'n' hops blogosphere, because you've come to the right place if you want to know what to drink, where to drink it, or how to make it (don't worry, that will be the last Bud Light reference in this blog). And since it just took me a half hour to come up with that zinger, on to the posts.
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