The only thing this has to do with beer and brewing is the fact that it has taken up some valuable writing and drinking time playing with this site. My Brute is a quick little “battle” between a brute you create and another person’s brute. It is completely random both what attributes they get and how the battle goes. There is no way to control the brute once it is in the arena.

Regardless, it is a fun time waster and I am trying to get my two brutes up to an experience level where I can start a clan for all the Stay Home Dad’s out there as well as the brewers!

Click either link or both, create your brute and see how it stands up to Farkler and Brewdad!

Enjoy, I sure am!
Cheers,
Tony

I kegged my ESB two days ago. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to put it on the stout facuet with beer gas because my fridge is too small! Now I know I have to drill a hole before the winter stout season is upon us.

The Maibock that it replaced was a big hit. The family reunion saw quite a few pints poured. Strangely enough, most of my wife’s family didn’t like the IIPA. I don’t understand it, but that was ok, it just means more for me!

The Furious clone is still sitting in secondary. Can anyone venture an educated guess on how long to leave it with dry hop?

Cheers and Thanks,
Tony

This last weekend my wife’s family had a reunion. Our house was the landing spot for both Friday and Saturday evening. I was ready for the impending horde with two kegs, an IIPA and the Maibock. No one had more than two sips of the IIPA, so my hop monster was kept to myself. The funny thing, though, was the popularity of the Maibock.

Everyone who had one cup ended up with two or three cups. It never occurred to me to warn the “Macro” drinkers that homebrew tends to be a bit stronger. It also slipped my mind to let folks know that Maibock is a higher gravity lager that tastes pretty tame but packs a whollup.

As imagined, there were good times had those evenings, many interesting stories and some long faces the following morning! Thankfully there was carpooling and responsible spouses to ferry them back to the hotel safely.

All in all, it was a fun weekend and everyone enjoyed “the one on the left!” All the more hoppitude for me!

The maibock fried earlier this week. Next up is the ESB on the stout faucet with beer gas.

Cheers,
Tony

I have had, as my grandma used to say, an interesting couple of weeks. A lot of my free time has been going to home improvements. We have prepped and painted our entry way and family room as well as the back hallway. If I were to be honest, we painted the entry way twice because we didn’t like the first two colors we picked. That solution is better off at Dad on a Dime though…

While the paint was drying we tore up the old linoleum in the entry way and I installed a parquet floor. Putting down the big tiles was relatively easy, but cutting up the little buggers probably doubled the total time! It looks good now though. Here is a picture of it when I was almost done:

Then disaster struck.

My wife and I were stricken with suspected food poisoning. The end of last week was MISERABLE. We both spent most of the day in bed. She bounced back quicker than I, but I am finally feeling well enough to get back to the topic at hand.

Beer.

Last month I wrote about Summit introducing a new beer, a hopped up Red Ale. I opened one about ten minutes ago, and it is definitely hoppy. I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to drink it, but since it is in the fridge I’ll drink it. Especially since I’m not up to trying unfiltered homebrew considering my weekend afflictions…

There we have my update, I’m looking forward to writing more often again in the coming weeks. My newly assembled kegerator is in dire need of a drip tray, and I just happen to have the parts to assemble one. I bet that will make for a great couple posts, making a home made drip tray!

Why spend the money on commercial steel or aluminum ones when you can make one for MUCH less?

Cheers!
Tony