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

Yes it has taken me two days to write about it. I’ve been slow that way, but I was able to brew on Sunday. I fired up the California Common or steam beer kit I’ve had sitting around for a while. Everything was great, smooth going. I even was able to leave grains steep while I ran to the local U-haul to get a refill on the LP.

Sadly, I learned a valuable lesson. Don’t try to do too many things at once while you brew:

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To everyone reading this, I wish you all a happy and safe Fourth of July! For those of you in the United States, stay safe, watch the fireworks from a distance and don’t forget to count your fingers if you are lighting off your own.

We are heading over to our friends’ house for the evening. They are situated right to view two cities worth of fireworks. I am planning on bringing over a sampler pack of Summit Summer beers since my kegged IPA is already spoken for.

The Summit mix is great, there are three pale ales and three pilsners for me and three Scandia ales and three wheats (or wits, I forget) for my wife. Something for each of us!

Stay safe folks and if you’ve served, thank you for keeping our country free!

Cheers!
Tony

From the press release straight from MolsonCoors:

SABMiller plc (SAB.L) and Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE: TAP; TSX: TPX) today announced the closing of the transaction to combine their U.S. and Puerto Rico operations to create MillerCoors.

MillerCoors, which will begin operating as a combined entity on July 1, 2008, will be a dynamic, brand-led U.S. brewer with the scale, resources and distribution platform to succeed in the highly competitive marketplace.

I hate to be a spoil sport about this one… I guess we’ll just see how it turns out.

I’ve already made my opinion known about bigger beer companies.

Cheers.
Tony

What kind of beer goes best with the addition of a puppy to the mix? Yesterday we brought home an eight week old 1/2 poodle, 1/4 Rotweiler, 1/4 naughty neighbor dog. Turned out the dad was also a naughty neighbor dog. The owner of the dam was looking to mate her rot mix with a boxer!

Our little bundle of teeth claws and fur has a faint brown mask around his eyes and a dusting of brown throughout his black coat. So far he appears very alert and intelligent. We’ll just have to see how the next few months go. The mother’s owner called him bandit, and on the drive home I thought “Zorro” would work well.

So, on to the question! What beer should I brew to commemorate our newest family member?

Cheers,
Tony

Recently I contacted a friend that had moved away from the area via email just to say “hey, we’ve been thinking of you guys” and got a response that made me laugh out loud.

Now, typically, I don’t react to things I read on the internet so vocally, but since it does pertain this blog I thought I would share. It might just be the fact that I spend most of my waking time in the presence of children that I thought it was so funny, but here it is:

Hey Tony good to hear from you. Enjoying your blog - mostly on my phone whilst sitting on the can at work.

So, to keep your identity secret I will say no more along those lines, except to chuckle again and to thank you for giving me a laugh! I’m glad to be able to brighten your “me time” a little! (Don’t forget to wash your hands )

Cheers,
Tony

May’s Homebrew Blogging Day is “I remember when I started homebrewing.

My first kit was a bock from the local homebrew shop where my wife got my gear from. It took me two months of reading and reading, researching and asking questions before I finally got up the nerve to light the fire and get it done.

Inside the box was a can of hopped malt extract, some dry extract and the yeast. No hops, no grains, nothing too difficult. My notes in my brew book are very detailed, all about the boil, what temp I pitched at, where I stored the carboy. I even forgot to add the can of extract until the very end. It must have turned out ok though.

3/21/02 Fantastic, lots-o-carbonation. Very Bocky, tastes as good as bockfest bock… no better!

Yeah, I wasn’t biased at all.

Cheers!
Tony

Moose wrote about a couple of cobras that have been spotted in his state and the possibility they were released as part of an animal activist group wishing to push a ban on exotic animals. How exactly does that help? To raise awareness?!? Really? And how aware will folks be when someone gets bit and dies?

Pure unadulterated irresponsible insanity.

Animal Protection Institute is supporting bills in North Carolina to have the state step in and begin regulating the private ownership of exotic animals. What a better tactic then to cause a panic among the public by turning some of these snakes loose. If a group or an individual purposely turned poisonous snakes loose I believe this should be considered a terrorist attack.

I would have to agree. No beer for them.

Cheers.
Tony

We stripped the beer related stuff off the kegerator yesterday and hauled it out. Thankfully (at least for the beer) it was just below freezing last night so my keg should be nice and cold this afternoon. First time the beer is chilled! Since the thing didn’t work anyway, we brought it over to my brother in laws house, whose city removes appliances for free.

It is fascinating watching a freezer be stripped of its copper. With a couple of snips and a twist or two the exposed copper is off and in a bag. We also found out why it wasn’t cooling, there was no more coolant in the thing. No big loss since it was a hand me down from a hand me down from some one that didn’t want it anymore.

My string of free kegerator bases, either fridge or freezer, is at an end. Now I have to look for something that will be decent enough to leave in my office. Clean and cold instead of just cold.

Cheers!

What an absolute utter failure to get a seal. One would think size five tippet material was thin enough to suspend through the seal of the keg and maintain a pressure but nope. Since I was lacking in time and didn’t have the energy (or remaining nap time) to fiddle with it any more I just cut the string and dropped it into the keg.

What I think would have helped greatly was re-lubing the O-ring with a liberal coat of Keg Lube. Unfortunately I don’t know where my tub of that is and like I mentioned I just didn’t have the time left to do it right. Its supposed to work the first time!

To top off the woes of the kegging experience this time around, something is bunk with my regulator and I can’t get pressure out of one side of the wye. I haven’t used it in a long time since I’ve had that stout on tap with the beer gas mix, and again I didn’t have the time to investigate fully.

The last straw of course was the dead kegerator.

For sale: Complete Homebrewing Kit, kegs, carboys, plastic buckets, cylinders, tower, faucets including stout faucet, brew kettles…

No, no, just kidding!

Cheers!