Bubba83

^ Wow, both Hospitality Houses at each respective Busch Gardens were hit this weekend by the beer thread! I am very jealous I've been to BGE but I was only like 19, it was still an awesome park in my opinion. I've never been to BGA though, and I hear it's even better than BGE, at least as far as rides go? But maybe Griffon balanced them out a bit, I dunno! ^^ Hi Rick! Does your friend plan on getting any playoff tickets for the Sharks? I think they have the team to go for the cup this year. Also, did you watch Big Joe on TV drop the gloves in Dallas? He doesn't fight much, but I was happy he did, because he absolutely destroyed Steve Ott, who I abhor. Here's a link to the fight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzYZ4CpO7Pg ^^^ Whatever happened to that bottle of Mikkeller Black Derek? I was at a friend's Bday party on saturday, so I only drank beer on Friday night over at my uncle's, but I've been having some stuff at home too that I will also post. The main reason I wanted to try it was because I was wondering about the simcoe variety itself, whereas I've only had it in a mixture before this. It's quite a spicy variety, which I did expect. This was pretty good, and the malt backbone is solid. Alcohol is present the whole way through. I'd give it a 7/10. I actually think if I were to use one single hop variety in an IPA this one might be last on my list. Adds nice spicy complexities when used with other hops that have more well rounded characteristics. Thanks for my first Weyerbacher Heath! And last night I had Weyerbacher's Double Simcoe IPA. My first brew from Weyerbacher and one that has been on my want list for a while. 9.0% ABV. Mmmm, that's great stuff indeed. It looks kind of scary though because there is a massive amount of sediment floating around, more than any other beer I've had. The flavors are nice and hoppy and complex. The malt backbone is still there though. And I saved the best for last, as I did not want to annihilate our palates before the other more mellow beers, my second bottle of Pizza Port's Hop 15, which I thought I would be trading, but apparently it's all mine, Muahahha! Ranked #62 on the Best of BA. My uncle absolutely loved it, which surprised me a bit. Recently I have started to figure out that he likes beers with a thin mouthfeel, but big flavor. This would fit under that category for sure, with awesome dark fruit flavors coming out and a refreshing feel to it. New Belgium's 1554 Black Ale. I had this in a bomber recently on my own, but my uncle hadn't tried it yet. It was acceptable, probably the most mellow ESB I've had to date, as it seemed a little watery at times, but did have that nice Maris Otter taste that I adore. We'd follow that up with a Red Hook ESB, which has somehow escaped the grasp of my Uncle and I until tonight. A good opener beer to start off the night with. The flavor didn't knock me off my feet or anything, but the balance was really nice. Continuing on to Friday, my uncle picked up a create your own six pack over at World Market, which is a pretty cool store. One of the six he picked up was Firestone's Double Barrel Ale. It's an amber ale that I've not yet tried. I was a little skeptical at first when I saw it was brewed with honey, since the honey flavor has overpowered other beers I've had, but this added just the perfect touch of honey sweetness that brings together the malt backbone with the pungeant piney hops. I LOVED this beer. Also, the alcohol doesn't really come through at all. A really amazing DIPA, and the 2nd best I've had (1st will remain with pliny) Thanks for the Bell's Heath! *Laughs at Matt* My first offering from Bell's, and from what I understand it's a good one. #27 on the Best of BA weighing in at 9.3%, Hopslam!

^ Neither compare to St. Bernardus Abt 12 in my opinion.

^ Pfft, The Edge was totally orange, and awesome! I guess I remember it back when I was young and it was the first one of its kind which was cool and it was scary as heck!

^ I like 8 a lot better, always wondered why 10 is rated higher. I have a couple to post from the last two nights. Oh yeah! It was good stuff for sure. Mellow for Russian River perhaps but I expected that from a blonde ale. Good amount of saison like funk balanced out by some cool sweet tropical fruits and a little bit of tart green apple in the finish. Finishes dry and smells great all the way through. My first Russian River from a bottle, Redemption Blonde Ale, no brett in batch 003. ABV 6.01% I lost half the beer to gushing after 20-25 minutes. And like the other Marin/Moylan's gushers I've had, it smelled terribly inky and tasted the same, had to drain pour, so annoying! Cracked open an Alaskan IPA to wash down the ink. Oh no, my first offering from Hair of the Dog and one I was really excited about trying... Blue Dot Imperial IPA was a gusher, noooo!!! And gush it did... I'm really surprised the bottle didn't burst with this kind of pressure. Uh oh, what happened here...

OMG the Edge... I miss that ride I was one of the last few thousand to ride it when they had the counter up before they closed it.

^^ You guys and your best of BA! Mmm, St. Bernardus Abt 12... Hey Matt, Sierra Nevada's ESB is damn good isn't it? We'll start from saturday over at the uncles and progress to last night, since I've been having something new every night because this is the most beer I've ever had from my trip to BevMo a while back, my homebrew, my trip to Monument, and the shipment from Heath. Lots of goodies to be had but I'm trying to pace myself as best as possible. Pretty yummy beer. Started off a bit one dimensional for me in an earthy, spicy, funky saison kinda way, and then transformed as it warmed with some nice green raisin, green apple tart flavors with a little pineapple and bread in there too with alcohol presence letting itself be known throughout. Pretty dang good overall, can't wait to try my other Lost Abbey's. Lost Abbey's Avant Garde Ale. I think this is my first Biere de Garde, as well as my first offering from The Lost Abbey. 7% ABV and this wine bottle is all to myself! Pretty nutty, with some sweet toasted malt flavors and background smoke. A little bit of pine/citrus at the end but just barely. One of the better brown ales I've had so far, even if it did border on being a porter. Bear Republic's Tribute Brown Ale. Pretty dark for a brown ale, borderline porter color. This was brewed in rememberance of their Sales Manager, Peter Brown. Oh no it's molten lava, run for the hills! Actually, it's just the impressive coal base left from the tons of wood we burned that night. Smells like... Pine, pine, and more pine, with a side of spruce. This is perhaps the best beer I've ever smelled, but elder pliny is up there too. The flavor was good too, nice spruce and pine, but I must admit I was expecting a stronger red back bone which seemed to be lacking a bit to balance it out. Thanks Heath! I've waited a long time to try this one, my uncle is lucky I agreed to share it with him! Troegs Nugget Nectar, from the recent trade. The fire we sat by on saturday, it was raining on friday so we had to get out there and have a fire on saturday instead. Very thick and syrupy, and done in the classic English style with pretty much no hop presence but tons of bready dark fruit sweetness and alcohol. It's no Old Foghorn though. Next up was something I found over at Monument and had to pick up since my Uncle likes Mendocino brewing so much and I like it too. Talon is a barleywine at 10.5% Tastes the same as last week. Still decent stuff but I don't know what's with that flavor. I'll have to just take it to the LHBS (Local Homebrew Shop) to have the manager taste it and hopefully give me some insight. I'll remember my camera next time too, I promise! More of my porter would be had on saturday. I was hoping the raw hop/veggie flavor would be mellowed out this week, after beind assured by the BA homebrew forum that it probably is underdeveloped as opposed to the trub creating this flavor.

Some goodies from Heath arrived today, so look for those coming up in the next couple weeks. My uncle and I planted the hop roots in my backyard today, after receiving them in the mail yesterday. Speaking of my uncle, I was over at his place yesterday and we had a few beers while watching Planet Terror, that movie was nuts... And the final product, one cylinder for the centennials, and one for the horizons. Hopefully these guys will do okay their first year and I can make a wet hopped IPA come fall harvest. Here's a close up of the centennial variety planted in the ground... I'll just watch while he does all the work... It's rhizome planting time! I ordered these guys from MoreBeer, the place where I got the rest of my Homebrew stuff. My uncle is a gardener in the neighborhood so this works out great... Such a different IPA, god I love the malt backbone in this thing. Perhaps the best malt backbone of any IPA i've tried. Extremely caramel/butterscotch notes are followed by some piney hops. Ewww, it's all blurry! How'd that happen?!?! Stupid camera shutter has a mind of its own I swear. But yeah, I'd revisit Drake's IPA... Nice head with good carbonation and no signs of oxidation either. I am pretty sure the flavor was a lot more noticable than the last time I had this, and it ended with a NICE chocolate flavor that I don't remember. I liked this a lot better than the last Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout I had... Props to Anderson Valley. My uncle found Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout in a sixpack at the local liquor store, way in the back of the cooler. It has probably been in there for a couple years or something, seriously. Overall pretty good stuff. Extremely floral qualities in the aroma and the flavor. It's really raw hop flavor that reminded me a bit of Kill Ugly Radio, just not as good. I'd be curious to know which hops they use in the making of this one. Surprisingly this is my first time having it. I always see it around but have grabbed the other stuff. Lagunitas Maximus IPA, 7.5%

I've been slacking for sure, so that means it's time for a beer post... I sure do have plenty of pictures! Also, I am still eagerly awaiting the triumphant return of Soren to the beer thread, fresh off his trip from Sao Paulo Brazil. Here we go... Uhhh, yeah this beer was insane... Actually, at first it comes off a lot like Wipeout IPA. The malt backbone is probably identical, but the spicy hops set this one apart and the complexities from the hops start to come out as the beer warms. I absolutely loved it, please build a Pizza Port up here! And to cap off the brilliant Sharks win when I got home, I'd have a Pizza Port Hop 15. 10% ABV (surprsing!) And what a victory it was... A come from behind win in overtime with Nabokov, Thornton, and Marleau sealing the deal. Awesome win guys! Hey, too many men on the ice! Oh wait, it's just warmup at the Shark Tank... Here's a picture of the outside of the place in the stripmall known as "The Pruneyard" And their other beer of note would be their pale ale, which has a nice spicy amarillo and simcoe kick to it. My sad attempt at a picture of the tap list. Yeah, not the easiest place to see or take a picture of... This is their award winning 2005 GABF gold Kolsch, which held up to the medals for sure. A nice dry, tettnanger hoppy flavor put me right back in Deutschland along the Rhein river up near Koln... That brings us to tonight, where I'd go to Rock Bottom Campbell before the Sharks game with my mom. I got the sampler. I keep trying Full Sail because their business model of 49 independent brewers or some such but all of their beers have this weird background smoke flavor. It's not necessarily bad, but just masks some things that I look for in a brown ale. The sweetness has a hard time coming through the smoke, and again I'm left a little underwhelmed by Full Sail. Not bad though... Another bottle from BevMo and a Full Sail Brewmaster's Reserve, the Nut Brown Ale... Almost black in color somehow... It was a good IPA. Not the best I've had out here on the west, but pretty solid and I liked the malt backbone quite a bit. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting a taste of some other Rubicon stuff in bottles soon. I wasn't planning on opening another beer, but after the triple bock I had to... And it would be Rubicon's IPA, finally available in bottles at my local BevMo. They had it at my local BevMo and when I bought it I just expected a stronger dopplebock, but it was not what I expected at all. Yes, you read right, this beer was brewed 11 years ago, when I was only 13 years old. I wish I knew how this tasted in 1997 because frankly, it was horrible in 2008, extreme soy sauce/balsamic vinegar with a touch of chocolate dominated, and I couldn't even finish the 2oz I poured. Yuck! Sam Adams Triple Bock. 17.5% ABV, wait, did I type that right? Oh, yeah I did apparently... I guess this stuff was brewed in 1997? I had no idea when I bought it.

So Nicole, is he a lot cooler online?

Oh, also an RSS feed would be nice to alert people of new content updates. I have an RSS bot in IRC (Internet Relay Chat) which gives me updates from Slashdot and LiveScience, would be great to have it feed TPR updates as well.

1. What do you find most useful about the front page? The thumbnails of pictures along with the titles of the posts so that I can quickly see what content updates are new since I have checked it last, and get a brief description of what that content post includes. 2. What do you find least useful about the front page? The entire top area. I've never used anything up above the content area except for the link to the forums. The top area takes up too much space. 3. Is anything on the front page confusing? There is too much text scattered everywhere. I don't really like the layout of the announcements portion. 4. How far do you scroll down the front page looking for updates? I visit it regularly enough to be able to see if there are 1-2 new things without needing to scroll. If I haven't visited in a couple weeks though, I'd have to scroll a few inches to see everything perhaps. With my resolution (1152x864) I only see the top two updates. 5. How often do you look at the front page? Once or twice a week. 6. How often do you click on the "whatsnew" link? I had never clicked the link until just now to see what it was, looks like just a text link version of the frontpage. I will not use this link again. 7. What would you like to see added to the front page to make your visits to TPR better? Better organization. I like the content that is there, but it needs to be organized in a more logical way. 8. Anything else you would like to mention? Like any thing else you would like to see us add/change/leave alone/etc? Leave the thumbnail previews for the content updates.

^ Looks like a nice trip Derek. Exciting beer times indeed for me. So I got an email and a tracking number from Heath in my inbox at 2:45am this morning, I am still awake because I just finished my website work Apparently Heath is so hardcore he shipped my package out before work, at 5:30am eastern. Either that or he appended my email address to the package he had already shipped on Sunday, not sure which. Can't wait to see what he's sent, and I can't wait to surprise him with a few I've picked up as well. Let's get on with the picture action! I couldn't really figure this one out. I was happy to finally be trying my first Avery beer, but this beer seemed confused. It had a strong belgian funk and spice that reminded me of a Saison or Belgian Strong Pale Ale. It had some sweet candy sugar flavoring but the alcohol was pretty strong throughout. Pretty enjoyable overall but I was expecting more dark fruits and whatnot, oh well. And tonight after work, kinda late I know... but I needed to relax and enjoy after a long easter sunday work day. Avery's The Reverend, it's a Quadrupel at 10% ABV. Even lighter than in the picture, and much lighter than I'd expect for the style. But not just any beer, Stone 11th Anniversary, woopee, I finally got my hands on this stuff at Monument Wine and Spirits earlier in the day. That store had a brilliant selection of Lost Abbey/Pizza Port/Stone/Russian River. My uncle says this is the best beer he has ever had. I don't know if I can say that, but it's probably in the top20. We'd spend the day at my sister's before returning home around 9pm, just in time to head over to my uncle's to watch Vanishing Point and have a beer. And a picture of the patio side as we're on our way. Here's a picture of the interior of the place. It was a really nice place with a laid back atmosphere and a really enjoyable experience overall. So tasty infact that I had to order E.J. Phair's Stouter to wash it down. Now this beer was exciting compared to the last. Really excellent balance between roasty toasty flavors of a dry stout and chocolate coffee flavors of an IRS, this guy was one of the better stouts I've had to date. A picture of what my mom and I both had for lunch, the Salmon Fish and Chips. Very tasty! I was feeling like spring was in full swing with how nice a day it was in Concord, easily 70 degrees and an event staff cleaning up the park nearby from an easter egg hunt. So I choise the Marzen to start off with, which had nice flavor but was a bit mellow for how dark it was. Yeah Mr. Blue menu, I love beer too. Unfortunately, they had just kicked the Black Mamba and replaced it with Bear Republic Pete's Brown Tribute Ale. Moving on to saturday my mom and I went up to visit my sister in Brentwood, stopping along the way in Concord to hit Monument Wine and Spirits as well as have lunch at E.J. Phair's Alehouse. A little bit mild for an ESB, at least compared to Sierra Nevada's Early Spring Beer. Still quite nice with some excellent sour green apple flavors. Still Friday night, we'd try some more Fuller's ESB, since I've been on an ESB kick lately. Cheshire Cat Brewing Co. because Cheshire is the street name where I live, Blank Slate Porter because I couldn't think of a name and I have a Blank Slate when it comes to brewing. Honestly, it turned out decent. Good color, amount of head, and carbonation. The smell is great, the taste starts out good, then gets too weak too fast, and it's a little thin in mouthfeel. Also, at the end of the sip there is a kind of raw hop/veggie flavor that is mildly off-putting. I will be sure to get some advice from my local homebrew shop before I take a whirl at an IPA. Hmm, this bottle's label must have fallen off... Or wait a minute, could it be that it has no label at all? That's right, it's Blank Slate Porter from Cheshire Cat Brewing Co. 5% ABV. It was quite good really, but the taste and mouthfeel seemed a little watery and thin, which is my main complain with many of New Belgium's offerings. I'd start off with a New Belgium 1554 Black Ale on thursday, which was new to me.

^ Hey, how'd you get your hands on my favorite IPA? Maybe we shall trade someday too, perhaps when I can regularly get my hands on Russian River American Wild Ales which I'm sure you'll love.

Jeez, it's been too long since I've made a post... I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day. I have a big beer week coming up here so hopefully I will be posting more soon. Going to a nice liquor store this weekend to pick up trade stuff too. I think Heath and Derek will be very happy shortly Matt, nice pics, and lots of them! I may make goofy faces but I usually explain how I liked the beer regardless of the face I make! A smile from ear to ear can only mean one thing. It was great! The roasted quality that is so muted in the Guinness we get over here was hitting you over the head in this brew. Absolutely great roasted barley flavor with a nice hop presence. A little bit sparkly for the style in mouthfeel, but that's the only downside. If they have this on Nitro from time to time at Moylan's I'll have to make sure to get up there. Jumping forward to St. Patrick's Day, which also happens to be my mom's birthday. I decided to go the Heath route and enjoy a superior Irish Dry Stout in a Guinness pint glass. In this case, Moylan's Dragoons. Wow! Why didn't I try this sooner? This is the definition of a huge beer. Excellent piney hops that are pungeant with an equally gigantic malt backbone. Another beer that's new to me, and my first offering from Speakeasy. Surprising since they're right over there in San Francisco. Double Daddy IIPA. Yeah, it is perty good eh Matt? More Lumpy Gravy. It's pretty bitter but the nice floral qualities don't really come through on the hops. The malt backbone is okay but overall I wasn't so impressed with this IPA, nor did I expect to be. Saturday we'd watch Deathproof in the garage while drinking some Bridgeport IPA, also new to me. It didn't let me down. Met expectations which were pretty high. My uncle also liked it a lot. Time to end friday night with something I was really looking forward to that BevMo is carrying for the first time, Alaskan IPA. Nice! I really liked the almost weizenbock flavors present in this beer with that interesting yeast strain. A good doppelbock but no celebrator... I found some Weihenstephaner Korbinian as well. It's a doppelbock weighing in at 7.4% from Germany's oldest brewery. I guess I put it off so long because I thought it might be kind of boring, since it's popular and they make Great White, but it was actually fairly hoppy and a nice brown with big malt flavor too. As you can see I also picked us up a couple new tumblers. I got my uncle a Red Tail one cause that's his favorite from back in the day. Mine is one of the rogue guy. Finally get to try some Downtown Brown after putting it off. Ok, so it's a little boring but still not a bad hefeweizen by any means. My uncle and I started off Friday night with a Pyramid Hefe.

^^ They put me under when I had mine out, apparently I came to way sooner than expected and was pretty messed up. I was very talkative which is not like me and reportedly was flirting with one of the nurses.

Final Four: UNC vs Kansas UCLA vs Texas Championship: Kansas over Texas Team I am rooting for has to be Tennessee, they always make March Madness exciting, I hope Ty Lawson is banged up by the time Tennessee meets UNC in the great eight, and Tennessee beats them, but I think it's doubtful that will happen.

^^ I think your picture makes it too obvious, but I won't spoil it for everyone else. The top left hand corner along with the ABV makes it too easy, if the logo was the only thing pictured it would be quite a bit more difficult. I went to BevMo today and was really happy with some of the new stuff they got in that they have never carried before. My mom must have been as impressed as I was with the burger and fries from Faultline last time, because this time she suggested it! And a picture of the logo out front as we are on our way out. This is absolutely the beer spot in Sunnyvale, much better than Firehouse Grill and Brewery. I tried to get some pictures of the patio and lake, but it was just too dark and they didn't come out. This is a picture of the front windows that go along the side of the bar area from the outside. I'd pair the burger with a Best Bitter served on Nitro. A nice bitter with good english hop flavor and as beers always are on nitro, it was very smooth indeed. Here comes the burger. I was hoping it would be as good as last time, and it was just as great. Really awesome burgers and great fries too from Faultline. Wow, this picture came out so dark. I started out with a Belgian Abbey which was a deep copper brown, was expecting more shades of red. Very spicy pepper up front melded into some awesome dark fruit flavors. I was extremely pleased with this beer, perhaps Faultline's best thus far. It was very busy in the bar area and they did not have near enough cocktail waitresses. We started off with the Thai Chicken Skewers, which were very tasty.

^^^ Nice photo TR Justin, the pictures of the coast are beautiful. They posted the participating breweries for the 2008 OBF today, looks like a good lineup for sure! ^^ You guys are just having too much fun. Looks like some sweet places. I'm going over to BevMo on Friday because they finally got a few things in stock I've been waiting on for a bit. Here's some pics of this past weekend after I picked up a few things at Whole Foods. Ahhhh, the amazing caramel flavors are the perfect night cap. This is yummy stuff right here. Drake's IPA found itself back to the driveway to kick more ass and take more names. Their bottling labels are really awesome, it's like shrinkwrapped or something. Still pretty nice roasted barley flavors and easy to drink. Guinness Extra Stout will make another appearance tonight. Too bad it's not on nitro :[ A good hefeweizen that did not dissapoint. It wasn't mindblowing, but I really liked the more bitter ale flavor that came out of this. Too many hefeweizen's are overly citrusy in my opinion. Now on Saturday my uncle picked up some Drake's Hefeweizen after we were pleasantly surprised by their tremendous IPA. Lovely mouthfeel and amazingly creamy smooth. The complexity in this beer is nuts, but the flavors are verging on going in too many different directions. We require more Lumpy Gravy. We can actually find bombers of Lagunitas around here for like $2.99 a bomber which is pretty astounding value. Yummy! This is a style I haven't explored much and need to do some more exploring of! Nicely hopped with cirtus rind flavor and a tart almost granny smith apple quality. The Marris Otter malts are so different to me and very tasty. Earthy spicyness is there as well. And here we have another one of Sierra Nevada's delicious seasonals. Their Extra Special Bitter Early Spring Beer. It's quite yeasty. Fairly decent tripel but nothing to write home about, and definitely overpriced at $13 for a 4-pack. Over at my uncle's on friday, he picked up some Petrus Gouden Tripel at the local liquor store. 7.5% ABV. I thought it was pretty good. A decent amount of tartness with some cool raspberry flavors and a smidge of malt background. This is the first lambic I've ever had, maybe I'll try some more. Ewww it's all blurry. Oh well... I've seen this one a lot in the beer thread and wanted to give it a whirl. Lindeman's Framboise.

^^ I am getting jealous of all the Nugget Nectar! Must acquire some tradeworthy beers soon hehehe! I look forward to seeing the BTR from the Oregon Coast. Also, I know it's a bit early but I am planning to come up with my mom to visit my Aunt, and we'll be there during the Oregon Brewer's Fest in July. I was just wondering if you're planning to go to it because we could meet up! Catching up on pictures from this past weekend now. On Friday I finally bottled my porter, which took quite a bit longer in the fermenter than I thought it would. The original gravity was 1.055, and the final gravity was 1.018, making the beer an even 5% ABV. Taking pictures while doing this by myself for the first time proved to be more difficult than I imagined. I tried again with more dough and was able to get it a little less thick, but the same deal happened with it not being done on top. I am about ready to give up on pizza making as I feel like I am not building the proteins in the dough well enough even after 25-30 mins of kneading. All the better pizza makers use those Kitchenaid mixers, but they cost $200! I baked it anyway and yummy as it may look the crust was way too thick and did not cook through, leaving the top doughy and uncooked. I attempted another pizza, but failed, the dough just would not stay thin enough despite my stretching, it would just curl back up into a small circle. How ironic, he died from hypothermia but he'll warm me up on this rather chilly night. Ahh, he just won't go away will he? Shoot him a few more times in the back and throw him in the river! Yummy! Chocolate is the obvious dominant flavor here which is just fine with me. Big Bear Black Stout makes another appearance as the local liquor store has stocked back up on some Bear Republic. I like their porter and their bock better. It just has less flavor to me than anything else they do, albeit some decent spices. Saturday we'd find something from a while back in the bottom drawer of the fridge. Anchor's Christmas beer. Phew, that was a close one. Wonderfully complex in every sip it seems you can taste something new if you can get past that hop wallop and let it warm a bit. Oh no, my bigfoot's on fire! Quick, put it out! Extreme flavors that you can never really pinpoint any which way. It's all here, chocolate, coffee, pine, and roastyness, in just the right amounts. We've been seeing this guy a lot recently, and are really appreciating the local liquor store a few blocks away carrying the four packs. Hands down the best organic beer I have had. It makes use of mostly roasted barley which is a more irish taste than american. Overall pretty good. North Coast's Old Plowshare Organic Stout. Picked this up at Whole Foods and I don't think they carry it at BevMo. My uncle and I are surprised by how low key this is compared to how extreme we once thought it was. Moving on to Friday night we'd start with a Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. My army of bombers will be conditioning for 3 more weeks before I send them into battle. I might try to get some labels to print on from my computer and make a cool logo and name this batch. And at last, capping my first bottle of homebrew. It was certainly more work than I thought it would be. I did sneak a taste though and it tastes a bit under-developed still but the flavors are all there, and more importantly I didn't notice any off flavors that could have been created if I had screwed up somewhere. I must have forgotten to take a picture of the bottling bucket with the tubing and bottle filler attached to the spigot at the bottom, but here I am filling the bomber sized bottles one by one. A closeup picture of the racking cane's connection with the tubing and the sanitized air filter snugly connected on top of the primary fermenter which I blew into to create pressure in the glass carboy in order to start the siphon. Here is a picture of me racking the beer into the bottling bucket, using a siphon. Look at all that yeast and hop vegetation at the bottom!

^ Speaking of Surly... Do you know if they plan to distribute out west? Is it all over the place out in PA or are you guys stocked up from a trip of some sorts?

Yarrr, I guess it's time for me to catch up on some pictures. I am sadly out of beer again, and will need to go somewhere soon to get more. I do have a bunch of pictures from the last week and a half though that I will post. I had a big job interview today and I think it went fairly well. Were those egg rolls that Kim cooked? They looked awesome! Onto the pics we go! By the way, Brian Campbell's got legs! Nice lemon and yeasty spicyness out of the gate that mellows into nice pineapple and other tropical fruit flavors. Beautiful beer on the pour. A sticky white head with an absolutely perfect color and nice lacing too. And finally a new beer back at my place during last week. North Coast's Le Merle, a Saison. Seriously good flavor. Seriously. The hops didn't seem quite as harsh this time around which led to a better malt backbone and fruity qualities. Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine, mmmmmmm.... Jee, I hope they don't use cyanide in this beer. Hi there, I'm Rasputin and I am the awesomest beer North Coast makes. Pretty awesome yeasty flavors with a nice wheat background in the finish. Even better as it warms a bit. And we'll follow that up with Aventinus' Weizenbock. It's always amazing to me how white the head is on this for how dark the beer is. A little better than I remember it being, still ranks up there with Samuel Smith's for me. These pics are still from the saturday before last. Anderson Valley's Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout revisited.

Audioslave. Please.

^ Hi There, would be nice to see more action out of Germany with Soren missing =] ^^ All you're missing is the cheddar cheese Derek! Okay, so I'll start with the weekend's beers over at my uncle's to begin catching up a bit. It's really nice. The flavor is very similar to Brown Shugga, it's just got a bit less alcohol and a bit more spicy hoppyness. That's it for friday and it's time to go out for dinner. I'll do saturday soon. Well what do we have here? It's a Hairy Eyeball! 8.8% ABV and it's listed as a Strong Ale. Still pretty darn tootin' awesome! Yummy yummy chinook hops bring that spicyness. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Perhaps the last bottle for us this season. 6.8% ABV. Still amazing. Heavy bitter coffee notes up front that fade into a little chocolate and roasted barley dry flavors. Amazingly complex and holds a candle to every RIS i've had to date including Stone's. Then we'll head out to North Coast for some always great Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. 9% ABV. It's still as awesome as last time I had it. Very nice chocolate tones and a nice bitter bite at the end. Also, the mouthfeel is just awesome. I don't know if I could choose between this and Big Bear Black Stout. We'd follow that up with one of the best stouts in the world, Rogue's Shakespeare Stout. 6% ABV. It surprised me how tasty this was. I figured it might be a little boring since my palate has been adjusting to all these extreme beers, but it's still very nice. Reminds me a little of hobgoblin. We'll start off with Rogue's popular beer that I haven't had in a while. Dead Guy. A Maibock at 6.5%

Happy happy birthday to Heath! Got any plans to celebrate?

Awesome win! I hope you had fun at the Oscars! It is exciting seeing a fellow theme park lover win something like this... Can't wait to see what's next from you. -Kevin