I am very happy to announce my first ever contest here at BrewDad! The rules are super simple:

1. Read my blog.
2. Post a comment on this entry.

Simple, huh?

What is in it for you? The great folks over at Awesomedeals911.com are pitching in a little bit of Guinness branded goodness! I’m not sure if I should spill the beans about what you can win until later, though. It makes it more fun.

Thats all you have to do, read my blog and put a comment here on this post! Its great if you want to comment on other posts as well, but this is the one that the winner will be chosen from.

Now the savy surfer will be asking me “how will you choose the winner?” A couple years ago I entered a similar contest with the perfect random selection method. After two weeks, give or take a couple days, I will print off all the comments and have my three year old choose one! Can’t get any more random than that, can I?

Please, only one comment per person though, I don’t want to have to delete comments. That would be no fun, and this is supposed to be FUN!

Remember, the prize is compliments of awesomedeals911.com, the best place for cool guy gifts. There are a ton of cool branded bar ware and other guy type things all over that site, check them out!

Good luck!

Tony

I just kegged that Kolsch a couple of weeks ago and now its gone! Back to a dry spell? Nope, I need to keg up the steam that has been sitting patiently in the crawl space!

Cheers!
Tony

Yup, its time for me to brag up my Cascade hops! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “A picture is worth a thousand words”

Since I know the image is small, I figured I’d add a nice close up of those wonderfully huge and yellow dusted cones. Time to start harvesting and drying soon. This time I have to remember not to go to far. The last batch I dried ended up so crispy that it was falling apart. If I recall correctly from someone in the know, I want to dry them to 25% of the original weight? Any one know for sure?

Mmmm, don’t they look yummy!

Cheers,
Tony

On our little mini vacation earlier this week we stopped at the Leinenkugel’s brewery in Chippewa Falls and actually took the tour. We have been stopping at the Leinie Lodge off and on for years, well before they built the new one across the river, but never had the time to set aside for the tour.

Usually when I take a brewery tour I have to purposely keep my mouth closed so I don’t pepper the tour guide with questions they probably can’t answer. I learned that working at an aquarium. Rare is the front end staff that have deeper information past the curiosities.

I toured the Sam Adam’s brewery a few years ago. Some of my tougher ones actually were answered there! Yeast propogation, how they verify strain performance and the like… anyway, this isn’t about Sam Adams.

It was interesting to see a larger scale facility. The bottling and canning area was a hoot. They were canning that day, and case after case of Leinies original was rolling down the line being stacked for shipping. Read the rest of this entry »

We went to a little water park resort for a quick end of summer vacation with my brother and his family earlier this week. It was a lot of fun and we got to catch up in a totally relaxed and really cool cabin while the kids slept upstairs. Yeah yeah, the water park was fine, that part was for wearing out the kids so we could put them down for bed and have time to play Euchre.

The first night we decided to eat on site. The food was… nominal and over priced as to be expected. When I ordered my Spotted Cow and saw it poured, though, I knew it wasn’t going to be worth it. They charged me $3.50 for a ten ounce glass. Read that again, $3.50 for a TEN OUNCE GLASS!! C’mon! For $8 I could get a sixer! Anyway, if that wasn’t bad enough, we asked where the local grocery store and liquor store was. The answer was eight miles down the road… at the WalMart.

As we were leaving the bartender, who was very decent to us, talking about where else he’s worked and the like, told us that they sold five liter mini kegs of Coors Light for $25 if we wanted.

Thanks for the heads up… but no.

All in all it was an awesome time. Every one had a lot of fun and we are slowly recovering today slipping back into the routine. I am writing up my Leinie tour, since it deserves a post all on its own!

Cheers!
Tony

We went to the state fair today. It had its ups and downs, but I think the kids will remember it for a long time. Our oldest got to go on the little roller coaster all by herself, she was very proud of that, and the youngest got to go on a mermaid ride.

It took us an incredible amount of time to find a Park and Ride that still had spots open, once we did it was pretty straight forward getting in. What was our first stop? BEER! Summit EPA for me and Leinies Honey Wiess for my wife. Oh, we might have got some food for the kids too.

I was a bit shocked that the cost of a 20oz beer was more than what I used to pay for a pitcher back at the Anchor in Superior, WI. Over $6 for a plastic cup!!! But it was hot out, the beer was cold and hoppy, so it was worth it.

The other highlight for me was stopping at Famous Dave’s booth and getting some Pig Lickers. Chocolate covered thick cut bacon sprinkled with rock salt. Seriously, it probably sounds not so good, but holy cow, or should I say pig, sit back and enjoy the flavor explosion. They had a nice belgian style wit on tap to help wash it down too, but I can’t remember the name of it.

Oh yeah, the kids really liked the cotton candy too.

Cheers!
Tony

Jessica Simpson is apparently helping hype a Dallas microbrew touted to have added vitamins. The beer is going by the name of Dallas Stampede Light Plus.

Stampede’s intriguing marketing will focus on the brew’s vitamin content, cleverly referred to as “functional additives.”

 The article I quote from out of the LA Times has some snarky writing in it, but I particularly found this bit hilarious:

Frankly, Jessica has her work cut out for her. I have a sneaky feeling it will take a lot of sweet talkin’ to make men order — and actually drink — vitamin-enhanced beer. Mmm, nothing like the taste of some serious B-complex, huh guys? Although that ‘functional appeal’ may appeal to a few.

The first thing popping in my head was wondering if this author ever goes to health food stores to buy “Brewers Yeast” suppliments! Hey, I take my B-complex vitamins in my homebrew. Unless my faulty memory is … um… faulty, that is one of the benifits to yeast.

Commentary on Jessica Simpson pushing a beer? Not really, her face on a bottle of beer won’t make me buy it any more that another beer, if it look interesting. Honestly, if I saw it on a shelf here I might give it a try. I suppose there is some novelty to that, same as Schlitz.

Cheers!
Tony

I finally aquired/borrowed a beer fridge for my home brew. I can’t put holes through the wall, since its not technically mine, though. It is one of those 3/4 sized fridges with the freezer compartment on top. I cut a piece of plywood as a shelf to make the bottom flat and solid.

It just barely fits two kegs and a cylinder, with just enough squeak room to work the little tap handles. I’m using rigs like below to pour my beer. I just can’t go back to picnic taps.

(Thanks to Midwest for the pic.)

It works ok. I have to turn the pressure down to about 6psi otherwise it gushes out and makes a heady mess. Still all in all a decent set up. Frankly, who am I to complain? I can drink my homebrew cold again!

Cheers!
Tony

I ran across this link on the dad site that I frequent. Its an ingenious way to bring in your own beverages at your favorite sports venue. The BeerBelly! Also available is the WineRack for ladies. The whole thing has me chuckling in my suds.

Since they gouge you on the price of a ticket then expect you to pay $5 for a plastic bottle of MGD and $3 for a hotdog, why not save a little and bring in your own.

Cheers!
Tony

This morning I took a journey out of my comfort zone with the girls. We went on a driving adventure which ended just as if I found the end of a rainbow. I had to stop at Midwest Brewing Supplies … ok, no, I didn’t have to stop there, but we were visiting my wife at work and she’s just a few exits away from Midwest, anyway, I heard about a new beer store that opened a while ago and planned this excursion.

I Googled the way between Midwest and The Four Firkins and saw that it was a couple left turns and maybe three miles apart. Aw man. If I timed it right I could get my Fleet Farm stop in, see my wife, hit Midwest and then find The Four Firkins just as they open at noon. The idea was to get back home before the kids melted down because of the late lunch.

On to the store. I found it without a problem. It is situated in between a couple other nondescript shops. Frankly I didn’t even notice what was on either side as I was walking up to it, holding two little hands and trying to take in all the beer displays in the window.
Read the rest of this entry »