Bothen Beer Blog

Kate The Great Imperial Stout - Portsmouth Brewing

2009-03-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

Portsmouth Brewing Company's Kate The Great Russian Imperial Stout is consistently rated as one of the best beers in the world, according to Beer Advocate & Ratebeer's user ratings. Brewed once a year and released only at the brewery in Portsmouth, NH. The beer usually sells out the day it's released. There is a 2 bottle limit per customer, so needless to say , it's pretty hard for a guy in California to get. Single bottles have sold on Ebay for hundreds of dollars. That's just craziness.

I was lucky enough to secure a bottle in a trade and have been waiting for a good day to try it. Why not a random sunny Sunday afternoon in March? My thoughts exactly.

This is the 2008 vintage, kept in cellar for a year.

Appearance - Pours out a pitch opaque black that shows no light with a tan espresso colored head.

Aroma - Big bittersweet chocolate, roasted/toasted malts, roasted coffee beans, some cherry, and burnt caramel. Awesome.

Taste - Taste follows suit with the smell, big & rich, chocolate, sweet & charred malts, roasted coffee, some dark fruitniess, plum, cherry, earthy hops, licorice, faint vanilla, bittersweet finish. Winner right here.

Feel- Full bodied, perfect carbonation, smooth, creamy, 9.5% alcohol is well hidden.

This lives up to the hype for me and is an A+ beer. This is extremely drinkable for a big ass rich almost 10% imperial stout. Extremely grateful I had the opportunity to try this one. I'll be seeking this out again.

Portsmouth Brewing is the sister brewery to Smuttynose, who also makes some awesome beers. Check em out here: http://www.portsmouthbrewery.com/

Beer Wars trailer

2009-03-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Stop drinking fizzy tasteless yellow beer.

And go see this movie

Deschutes Abyss vertical

2009-02-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

My good friend Chris was cool enough to offer up his bottles of 2006 & 2007 Abyss, along with a 2008, for a vertical tasting at Rose & Crown this past Sunday. Just a standard Sunday of drinking some high end beers with friends.

In all we tasted:

2006 vintage Abyss - stand out of the day for me. Obviously. Awesome chocolate aroma. Subdued flavors of roasted malts, chocolate, dark fruit, charred flavors, and vanilla. This one has come together nicely. As Bill Brand would say "a stunner".

2007 vintage Abyss

2008 vintage Abyss

Westvleteren 12

Westvleteren 8

Anchor Our Barrel Ale - Aged in Anchor Rye whiskey barrels. Caramel, vanilla, rye, wood flavors. A gem from Anchor. Hopefully I have the patience to sit on my bottle for awhile. I imagine it will be even better in 8-12 months.

Bell's Hopslam

Troeg's Nugget Nectar

Bear Republic APEX - on tap

And probably some other stuff I've forgotten.

Good times. Thanks to everyone that brought out the beer, chocolate, and cheese.

Get well soon Bill

2009-02-09T20:09:00.001-08:00

http://www.ibabuzz.com/bottomsup/

21st Amendment Strong Ale Month drop in

2009-02-08T21:30:00.001-08:00

Stopped into 21st Amendment on Sunday. Strong Ale Month is in full swing. This is the 7th Annual, coinciding with SF Beer Week. A joint venture between http://www.21st-amendment.com/ & http://www.magnoliapub.com/.

Didn't make it to Magnolia, but 21 A had 6 Strong Ales on tap. I sampled:

Hop Crisis Tripel IPA whopping 11.8% ABV & 100 IBUs - Nicely balanced hop monster

Lost Sailor Imperial Pilsner 8.6% ABV & 65 IBU - crisp, clean, user friendly

Monks Blood 11.2% ABV & 35 IBUs - Fruity, sweet, roasted/toasted, delicious.

Had a "breakfast pizza" which consisted of ham, mushrooms, spinach, and an egg.

Looking forward to coming back and seeing what else is on during the month.

Bistro 9th annual Double IPA Festival

2009-02-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

Hit up the Bistro in Hayward's 9th Annual Double IPA festival on Saturday with some friends. What a great time this event is. There were close to 50 Double IPA's from around the U.S. to be had. This event is the annual kick off to SF Beer Week.

Didn't make it close to trying them all of course. But some personal highlights for me were:

Pizza Port Solana Beach Lou P. Lin

Triple Rock Imaxx

Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale

Marin White Knuckle

Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental

The judging went like this:

1st place: Pizza Port Carlsbad Poorman's IPA

2nd place: Triple Rock Imaxx

3rd place: Bear Republic: Apex

People's choice: Pliny The Younger

The weather was quite nice for the majority of the day. Making an already great day more enjoyable.

Beer Advocates out in full force.

Thanks to the Bistro staff for putting on a great event.

Inauguration day brews

2009-01-19T13:07:00.000-08:00

Ale To The Chief! Exciting times. Celebrated with a couple inauguration inspired brews.

I picked up a bottle of Half Moon Bay's "Obama 08 Presidential Ale". Upon a closer look when I got home I discover it's just their Harbor Light Ale packaged up in a fancy label that features our president. Not my favorite style for sure, but there was nothing wrong with the beer. Nice and faintly hoppy. Better than the other examples of this style out there.

Also had an Avery Ale To The Chief. A double IPA from Avery Brewing in Colorado. Huge aromas of piney & citric hops. Tastes of HUGE pine & citrus oily hop bitterness with a distinct sweet maltiness. Not balanced as the hops rule the show here, but that's what a double IPA should be.

Cheers!

SF Beer Week is coming

2009-01-06T10:32:00.000-08:00

San Francisco beer week is coming up soon. I for one can't wait. Events will be held all over the greater SF Bay Area. Bookended by the Bistro's awesome Double IPA Festival on Saturday Feb 7 and the classic Toronado Barleywine Festival on Saturday Feb 14.

There will be an invite only event at Anchor Brewing on Feb 6th with a special ceremonial keg tapping of something unknown at this point. Wish I knew the details. Apparently info is coming soon on how to get tickets.

Events in the South Bay and Santa Cruz as well. Red Restaurant is hosting a beer dinner with Santa Cruz's Uncommon Brewers. Firehouse in Sunnyvale will have 2 events, a beer & cheese pairing and a beer & chocolate dinner hosted by Pete Slosberg. Red and Firehouse are both regular stops for me. Excited. Yeah.

http://www.redsantacruz.com/

http://www.firehousegrill.com/

The SF Bay Area is one of the best places in the US, or the world for that matter, for great beer. Top notch breweries, great pubs that seek out great beer to bring us, and great bottle shops. Recognize.

21st Amendment and Magnolia will also be hosting February Strong Beer Month. High gravity goodies will be on tap at both locations all month long! Cask and barrel aged brews will be on at select times as well.

http://www.21st-amendment.com/

http://www.magnoliapub.com/

The whole calender of events is up on the SF Beer Week official webpage here:
http://www.sfbeerweek.org/

Baby Bothen

2008-12-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

Not images from a TOOL video. First ultrasound pics of baby Bothen. Coming late April 2009.

Chillin in Mom's tummy.

Profile of face.

Facing the camera.

South Bay Beer Advocate meet up at Rose and Crown Dec 2008 and El Toro Brewing

2008-12-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

The most recent South Bay Beer Advocate meet at Rose & Crown was a great time. Lots of interesting beers were tasted.

Some of the great beers sampled included:
Westvleteren 12
Boulevard's The Sixth Glass
Midnight Sun's Arctic Devil Barleywine
A Growler of Masala Mama IPA from Minnesota's Town Hall Brewery
Drake's Imperial Stout
The Bruery's Autumn Maple
Alesmith Yulesmith IPA

As well as the nice tap offerings at Rose & Crown, Drake's Hopocalypse IPA, Full Sail Wreck The Halls, Golden Carolus Xmas Ale, and Hoppy Claus.

Thanks to Rose & Crown for the hospitality!

http://www.roseandcrownpa.com/

Also had some time off work last week. Headed out for a solo round of some disc golf~!

Even par after playing around once. I still got it.

Since I was in the area, I went to El Toro Brewing Co for lunch.

Great spot in downtown Morgan Hill. 26 house brewed beers. Yep, 26. And 2 house made sodas.

4 versions of the Poppy, 2 different IPAs, a double IPA, oatmeal stout, imperial stout, 2 vintages of their holiday barleywine, 3 fruit beers, a California common, blond, Kolsch, golden, and more. Yee Ha!

Had a flight of the Poppy Jasper Amber Ale, their flagship.

The flight included the standard issue Poppy, and 3 dry hopped versions with different hops in each. Amirillo, Centennial, and Cascades. Cool idea, and makes an already good beer better, IMO.

Food aint bad either. Cheese pizza and their new red IPA.

El Toro is a brewery to seek out. The selection and quality of all the brews is great.

http://www.eltorobrewing.com/

Oh yeah. Also saw Mudhoney for about the 20th time in Santa Cruz. Good times. They're still great.

Bistro 2008 west coast barrel aged beer festival

2008-11-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

Attended the 200 Bistro's West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Festival on Saturday. Had a real fun time sampling unique beers with friends. Good times.

The number & quality of beers was pretty phenominal. 57 different barrel aged beers from the West Coast.

Didn't get to try nearly as many as I wanted to.

Some personal favorites:

Avery's Vogelbekdieren. A blend of 3 different beers from 5 different barrels. Cabernet barrel, Chardonnay barrel, whickey barrel. The with Brettanomyces added.

Firestone Walker Parabola Imperial Stout. Aged 2 years in a bourbon barrel.

Glacier Beam Razz XXX. Triple Bock aged for 3 years in a Jim Beam barrel. Then repitched with ale yeast & raspberries.

All 3 or Port's offerings were fantastic.
2006 Angel's Share barleywine aged in a bourbin barrel. Huge toffee flavor. Awesome
2008 Older Viscosity. Bourbon barrell aged imperial stout. Huge, chewy, filling.
Veritas 002. Blended sour barrel aged beer with raspberry mead. Tart, sweet, & delicious.

Schooner's 2007 Old Woody Barleywine. Aged 10 months in an oak barrel.

Valley's Dec 12 Cuvee Speciale. Belgian style quad aged in 56 year old Gallo brandy barrel.

There was no judging. Just a people's choice award.

1st. Schooner's Vindecation. Oatmeal stout aged with cherries & funk in a brandy barrel.

2nd. Valley's Effingreat. 2 year old strong ale aged in a brandy barrel.

3rd. New Belgian's Eric's Ale. Blend of La Folie & Peche.

4th. Firehouse's OTIS imperial stout aged in bourbon barrel.

Tie for 5th.

Fifty Fifty's BART. Barley wine & oatmeal stout blend aged in Jack Daniels barrel.

Glacier's big woody barleywine.

Allagash's Curieux. Belgian triple aged in Jim Beam barrel.

Didn't know this guy. But thought it was funny.

Buffalo Bill's is right across the street. Popped in to take a breather, have some food, and a beer.

Check out both these places next time in Hayward. Both great spots for beer.

http://www.the-bistro.com/

http://www.buffalobillsbrewery.com/

Catching up with some recent Big Beers tastings. Captain Lawrence Nor Easter, Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, Weyerbacher Thirteen

2008-10-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Catching up with some recent Big Beer tastings.

Captain Lawrence Brewing Company's Nor' Easter WInter Warmer 2007. From Pleasantville, New York.

This is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale aged in bourbon barrels with elder berries. That's right. This was one unique, interesting, & delicious beer. The barrel aging gives the beer a HUGE bourbon & vanilla aroma. The taste has the same qualities along with a distinct alcohol soaked raisin flavor that is AWESOME. Glad I traded for this gem. One of the best & most unique beers I've ever had. Truly. 11% ABV, but feels like much more.

http://captainlawrencebrewing.com/

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. I love hops. This beer has some serious hops. Boiled for a full 2 hours(standard beers are boiled for about an hour) while constantly adding hops for the full time, then dry hopping during fermentation for a month, then aged on full leaf hops for another month makes....well, a hoppy beer. There is also a massive sweetness to make one hell of a beer drinking experience. This clocks in at a mammoth 20% ABV. Yowza. A 12oz bottle can be shared with a couple people. It drinks surprisingly easy for such a huge alcohol content.

Dogfish's tag line is "Off Centered Beers For Off Centered People". They make really different out of the box beers and fast becoming one of my favorites.

http://www.dogfish.com/

Weyerbacher Thirteen from Easton, Pa. Brewed to celebrate their 13th anniversay. An Imperial stout brewed with Belgian yeast. Lots of smooth chocolate like flavors, roasted/toasted maltiness, bitter coffee flavors & lacking the big hop bitterness from typical imperial stouts. A nice big flavorful brew.

http://www.weyerbacher.com/

Another Dogfish Brew. Black and Blue. A Belgian Style Strong Ale brewed with Blackberries & Blueberries. Wacky. I'm typically not a huge fruit beer fan, and I thought this was just okay. Taste was very tart and sweet. Kinda like an effervescent blackberry....drink of some sort. The malty beer character is there, but, just different. Still unique & glad I had the opportunity to sample. Wish I would have saved the 750 ML bottle to share with friends over some food.

More Big Beers upcoming. Portsmouth's Kate The Great, Three Floyd's Darklord, Smuttynose's Barleywine Style Ale & Imperial Stout, and more. Good times ahead.

Tiny

2008-09-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

We're sad to report the passing of our wonderful cat, Tiny, on Friday September 26th. Tiny had been with Ronda & I for the 14 or so years we've been together. And with Ronda for 4 years before that. She did enjoy a very full life of 18 years & brought Ronda & I much daily happiness. Needless to say we are very sad to see her go & will miss her very much.

Here's a few pictures to celebrate her life.

Monk's Kettle S.F.

2008-09-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

Stopped into the Monk's Kettle prior to seeing Nick Cave on Saturday night. Located in the Mission, right across from the Kilowatt and conveniently located by the 16th st BART station.

The place is pretty small, seating 49. We were lucky enough to grab a table by the bar soon as we got in. Overheard the door guy telling people coming that the wait for a table was 2 hours. Yikes.

25 or so taps of all craft , Belgian, & other rare brews. An impressive bottle list as well. On tap during my visit: Avery Ale To The Chief, Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Allagah Curieux, Koningshoeven Quad, and lots more. Very nice selection.

The food menu consists of all high quality & house made items. The menu also suggests a couple beer pairings for each selection as well. Nice touch.

We started out with a housemade pretzel that was AWESOME. Served with house made cheddar ale sauce & ground mustard. This isn't my pic.

We had sandwiches for dinner. I had the Salmon sandwich on a baguette that was really good & Ronda had a burger with local arugala & blue cheese sauce. Look forward to going back to try some of their entrees.

The world needs more eateries like this that showcase beer as much as the well made food.

http://www.monkskettle.com/index.html

Tahoe and tying the knot

2008-09-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

Our great friends Kathleen & Kerri invited us to join them in Tahoe for their wedding ceremony last weekend. We were honored to be asked & had a fantastic time.

We took the gondola to the top of Heavenly. A 15 minute trip up the hill.

They had a beautiful and small ceremony at the top of the mountain with an awesome view of the lake & mountains in the background. The weather was perfect as well. A great day.

After the ceremony we found a table, enjoyed the view, enjoyed the company, and had some Champagne to celebrate.

Then back to the hotel to have some snacks & drink. I brought the Wisconsin made Lambic if you're wondering.

And CAKE!

Spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out in Tahoe, enjoying the weather, eating, gambling, and having a good time.

Thank you Kathleen & Kerri for inviting to spend this special occasion with you. We wouldn't have missed it.

Oh yeah, I always thought Tahoe was a craft brew wasteland. No more. Bill's casino, sandwiched in between MontBleu & Harrah's has a bar called 24. Which stands for the 24 beers they have on tap. Including Stone IPA, Arrogant Bastard, Deschutes Porter, Deschutes Pale, Alaskan Amber, and a bunch of others I don't remember. Bill's is smoke free which is cool, but slots only. Not cool. But, you can get your beer in a to go cup and take it anywhere you want. I made a few trips while playing roulette in Harrah's to get beers. I love Nevada.

Mission Pizza and Elysian Loser Pale Ale

2008-08-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

Stopped in at Mission Pizza in Fremont for lunch recently. What a nice surprise this place was. 20 or so craft brews on tap. Appears they rotate the taps frequently as well by the collection of tap handles throughout the place. My new all time favorite place in Fremont, with all due respect to my sister's place.

Slice of pepperoni and a Green Flash Hop Head Red. Heck of a combo right there.

Place also has live country & bluegrass music Friday & Saturday nights. Awesome.

As well as a fine collection of beer cans, bottles, tap handles, and KFAT stuff. KFAT was an old time Bay Area country station my pops & uncle would listen to while swillin Bud Light. Thankfully I didn't inherit their taste buds.

On tap during my visit were 4 different Green Flash brews: Hop Head Red, West Coast IPA, Imperial IPA, Barleywine. Sierra Nevada Bock. Abita Purple Haze. Schmaltz Lenny's RIPA. Uncommon Siamese Twin. North Coast Pranqster & Old Rasputin on Nitro. As well as many others. Well worth the trip.

Check out Mission Pizza here http://www.missionpizza.com/index.html

I'll be back for sure.

Oh yeah. Elysian Brewery in Seattle has brewed Loser Pale Ale in honor of 20 years of Sub Pop Records. You can read my review from Beer Advocate here: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/700/44568/?ba=bbothen a little over the top with many Sub Pop artist references, but hey I was happy.

That's the all time great Mudhoney on the label.

Red is in the fermemter

2008-08-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

4 weeks away from drinking a homebrewed American style Red ale. Yet to be named.

7 lbs Ultralight malt extract
1 lbs Crystal malt
2 oz black roasted malt
1 oz Magnum bittering hops
1 oz Vangaurd flavoring hops
2 oz Santiam aroma hops

The Trappist, Cato's Alehouse, Pliny The Elder & recent tastings

2008-07-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Catching up with some recent tastings & onsite "research".

The Trappist in Oakland. Tiny fairly new spot in Oakland. Think the maximum capacity is 50. Place has beautiful workworking throughout, bar, and doors, archways, etc. 15 taps of mostly Belgian Trappist brews. St Bernardus, Urthel, Chouffe, Chimay, Caracole & more. Also a few local American made brews from Russian River, Avery, Port, & Stone.

Feels like a real Belgian beer bar. Check it out.

http://thetrappist.com/

Also stopped into Cato's Alehouse in the Piedmont area of Oakland. First time at this place. I'll be back for sure.

Real cool laid back vibe. Nice selection of California brewsd on tap. Moonlight Bombay By Boat(on cask!), Stone 12th Anniversary, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, Russian River, & lots more. Menu includes pizzas, sandwiches, salads, etc.

http://www.mrcato.com/

Some recent oddities I've liked.

Peche Mortel Imperial stout brewed with coffee. Delicious. Roasted/toasted flavors with a big coffee presence. Made in Canada. Not all Canadian beers are fizzy yellow lagers.

One of my all time favorite beers, Pliny The Elder fromRussian River, is now in bottles. I drank this about 2 weeks after it was bottled! The hop aroma is awesome. You can smell it from across the room.

Tiny the cat takes lots of naps.

Big A Imperial IPA from Smuttynose Brewing in New Hampshire. One of the "Big Beer Series" releases. Huge citrus hop overload in this one. Filled with the "chronic" of hops. Oily, sticky, & delicious.

21st Amendment's Hell Or High Watermelon Wheat. Now available in cans. Not a huge fan of fruit infused wheat beers, but this one is good for what it is. Very refreshing. Great out of a cooler on a hot summer day.

Santa Cruz

2008-07-14T13:29:00.002-07:00

Sunday BBQ & beer

2008-07-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sunny California Sunday's call for friends, BBQ, & craft brews. At least good ones.

Good Belgian style quads come from either Belgium or Kansas City, Mo.

Roasting peppers & garlic for salsa.

Art shot.

I like double IPAs.

Expresso rubbed chicken with caffe latte bbq sauce & bbq roasted potatoes. Notice the lack of vegetables.

Here's desert...and a piece of apricot & berry pie Ronda made.

Port Brewing 2nd anniversary

2008-06-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

Port Brewing celebrate their 2nd anniversary in business in style. By brewing a huge fruity oily grassy hoppy double IPA. I was lucky enough to grab a couple bottles way up here in Northern California. Yowza, is it good. That is all.

Next time you're in So Cal...go to one of their Pizza Port locations. They make a damn fine pizza too.

http://www.portbrewing.com/

Beer in the Italian mountains

2008-06-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

This is my buddy & fellow beer advocate Paul, stopping to have a roadside brew with touring the Italian mountains on his BMW touring bike.

He carries that plastic Pilsner style glass in his bike gear. Like any true advocate would.

You can read more of his travels to Normandy here: http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26085

And his final ride here: http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26632

Big Sur May 2008

2008-06-02T17:19:00.001-07:00

Spent 4 days camping at Big Sur on Highway 1. Really nice to just relax, laugh, be in nature. If you've never been to Big Sur you owe it to yourself to go. Redwoods, Pacific Ocean, rivers, etc. It's awesome.

You have to cross the famous Bixby Bridge on 1 heading into Big Sur. I didn't take this pic, but think it's awesome.

Rare posed picture of the Bothens.

Our campsite was right along the Big Sur river. This is how most of the days went.

Yummy hops in the Lagunitas IPA Maximus.

Lost Abbey's Serpeant Stout.

Also spent some time at awesome Pfeiffer Falls & Pfeiffer Beach.

Doing some stunt kiting.

Russian River's Perdition.

There is a pub in town called "The Maiden". Turns out the owner is an Iron Maiden fan. How's that for awesomeness. They have a pretty impressive beer list as well. This picture is Old Rasputin, Racer 5, Delerium Tremens, Franciskaner, & a Dunkel Weizen.

This pic just makes me laugh for some reason.

Ethan & Sara

2008-05-12T21:17:00.001-07:00

Some random Ethan & Sara pics from Mother's Day 2008.

Having fun in the backyard waiting for the BBQ lunch.

Grandma brought cupcakes!

I have no idea were they learned this.

Bodega Bay

2008-04-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Spent a few days in Bodega Bay with some friends. Very relaxing. Had a great time. It's tough coming back to city life after being near the ocean & redwood trees.

Made a stop into Russian River Brewing of course before heading out to the coast.

The place we stayed at was in Bodega Harbor. Right on the 8th hole of the golf course. Awesome view of the Pacific and Bodega Bay.

This is the view from the back patio.

Spent most of our time relaxing, eating, & mostly hanging out. Did find some time for flying kites.

Kenny & Morgan

Kenny was having a tough time with his kite here..

Sampling a Westvleteren 12 & Rochefort 10 while playing dominoes.

Looking forward to heading back here. Good times.

Seattle

2008-04-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

Spent a night in Seattle for work last weekend. Quick trip, but made the most of my free time by hitting some of the many brew pubs & local sights.

Had dinner on Friday night at Brouwer's Cafe in the Fremont district. Awesome. 60+ well thought out taps & a HUGE bottle list. I had a big plate of Belgian style fries with chipolte mayo & enjoyed a Rogue anniversary black brutal bitter, Deschutes Hophenge, & a Rochefort # 10. Place has a really cool feel to it & the bar tender was friendly & knew his beer. Wish this place was in Northern California.

Had lunch the next day at The Pike Brewery in the Pike Market. Solid beers, great atmosphere. A good place to people watch as it's in the market & there's views of Puget Sound.

Oh yeah. And they have a BEER MUSEUM filled with old bottles, tap handles, trays & stuff.

Went to EMP, The Experience Music Project. Has a cool Seattle area music museum with a bunch of Soundgarden, Mudhoney. Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains stuff. A Jimi Hendrix exhibit, videos you can watch that are hosted by local artists. A whole interective deal where you can record yourself playing guitar, drums, singing, etc.

Wacky guitar sculpture from inside.

In the same building is also the Science Fiction museum & Hall Of Fame. Basically a bunch of props from various Sci Fi movies. You weren't allowed to take pictures inside. But I got a few anyway.

I gave one of the local yokels a jump start in my rental as well. I'm a good person.

First sample of # 5

2008-04-12T16:13:00.001-07:00

First pour of #5 IPA. A Bothen Brewing original. I'm really pleased with the results. Can't wait for people to try it.

Ronda & I went to the Eddie Vedder solo shows last Saturday & Monday in Santa Cruz & Berkeley. They were both fantastic. We had no real expectations going in except that we are not familiar with his solo album, the Into The Wild soundtrack, & well, we may get bored. We were wrong. Great mix of Pearl Jam songs, Into The Wild songs, & cool covers. He sounded great, was talkative, funny, told stories, & appeared to be having a great time. We've been fans since Pearl Jam started. I think we've seen them over 30 times together.

Before the Santa Cruz show we went to Red, which is the upstairs bar in the Santa Cruz Hotel. My favorite new place. They have an AWESOME selection of beers on tap including Alesmith Speedway Stout! & Nut Brown, Bear Republic Racer 5 & Racer X, Moonlight Death/Taxes & Bombay By Boat, Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter, Chimay Triple, and more I can't remember. Great bottle list too with Lost Abbey, Stone, Alesmith, Chimay, Pizza Port, etc. They have Rochefort 10 for 8$, it may be as good as Westvleteren. Don't think yopu can find selection like that south of San Francisco & North of So Cal.

Go there. Now. We'll be back soon for sure.

http://www.redsantacruz.com/index.shtml

Bottling Day

2008-03-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

So the beer has been in the fermenter for 2 weeks. Fermentation has done it's thing & it's time to bottle.

First I had sanitize (24) bottles. I used the dishwasher.

Added a bit too much sanitizer.

Then I have to get the beer out of the fermenter and into the bottling bucket. You do this by placing the racking cane into the fermenter, attach a rubber hose to it, suck(hey now), and let the beer flow into the bucket. I put 4 ozs of dissolved corn sugar into the bottom of the bucket. This will work with the remaining yeast to make the beer have bubbles.

After the beer is in the bucket it's time to start filling up the bottles.

Then cap em off.

Beer should be ready to drink about in 2-3 weeks. I tasted a bit before bottling and it tasted like flat beer. Which I guess is a good sign.

Hope I don't end up with 24 bottles of crappy beer.

Easter 2008

2008-03-24T16:54:00.001-07:00

Spent Easter Sunday at my sister's place. Had a great time hiding eggs with my nephew & niece, Ethan & Sara.

Sara

We filled plastic eggs with Hot Wheels & play kitchen accessories. I think we hid the same eggs 47 times. It was fun.

The hunt begins.

Sara wearing her chef's hat, oven mit, & apron

Let's open em up.

This tooth wasn't knocked out during the fun, I promise.

Random camping pictures

2008-03-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

Big Sur from May 2007. We're heading back here again this summer. It's awesome.

Big Trees June 2006

Bodega Bay July 2005

Big Basin July 2005

Home brew batch # 1

2008-03-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

New hobby. Making my own BEER~! Oh snap. Started my first batch last Saturday. Am Americam IPA made with all Columbus hops. This is mostly a run through of the process to see if I enjoy it & see if it turns out okay.

The ingredients are basically water, malted grains, hops, & yeast. Who ever took the time to come up with a recipe of these simple things to make something so delicious should have at least have a statue somewhere. Or his face on some currency.

1.5 lbs of Crytal grains

9 lbs of ultralight malt extract

6 ozs of Columbus hops

The hops are the pellet version. Hopefully I'll graduate to using whole hops.

They smell awesome.

Steeping the grains in 3 gallons of water. Tea bagging if you will.

Water at a rolling bowl. Add the first batch(bittering) of hops and boil for a complete hour. Add the second batch(flavoring hops) for the final 5 minutes, and the last batch(aroma hops) for the final 2 minutes of the boil.

That's a long time to be standing around. Better have a beer. Research on flavor profiles & whatnot.

After the hour boil the wort needs to be cooled to below 130*. I saw Alton Brown do a trick where he pours the hot wort into a bucket of ice to cool down. I did the same thing here. Then transfer into the container for fermentaion and add cool water to reach 5 gallons.

Once the wort has cooled again to below 80* the yeast was added. The yeast is ALIVE & will eat the sugar from the malt and create alcohol. Which makes beer taste yummy, and improves life. And makes most people tolerable. And funny. And attractive.

The beer will sit in here for 2 weeks for the fermentation process to take place and for all the stuff floating around to settle. Then corn sugar will be added & the beer will be bottled. The sugar is what makes the carbonation.

The cloudiness is all the hops, yeast, & gunk settling to the bottom.

Got my fingers crossed that this will at least turn out okay. I'll bottle next Saturday.

Wine?

2008-03-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

Vacation week is tough

2008-02-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

The greatest man ever, I mean the Fed Ex guy, brought me a box of beer this afternoon. I traded 2 Lost Abbey seasonals for this box of 12. Pretty good deal I think. I can't get any of these beers in California. Guess that's my plans the rest of the day.

(2) Dogfish 90 Minute IPA
(2) Victory Storn King Stout
(3) Bell's Expedition Stout
(1) Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
(2) Duck Rabbit Milk Stout
(1) Highland Oatmeal Porter
(1) Bell's Java Stout

I'm on a bigtime stout streak.

By the way I tried the most intersting beer I've ever had. Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout. It's an Imperial coffee stout that's been aged in bourbon barrels.

It was so good I reviewed it on BeerAdvocate.com. It's here: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/19960/?ba=bbothen

I have some spare ribs in the smoker. Gives me some time to sample a couple of these.

Obligatory Tiny pic. The sun makes her happy. Would she lose in a cute cat contest? Doubt it.

First stop. Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA. 90 minute means that for the entire 90 minutes the beer is boiling that hops are continually added, get it? They make a 60, 75, 90, & 120! minute version. Esquire magazine called this beer the best IPA in america, but what do they know? It's really good. Lots of double IPAs taste like hop juice, but this is nicely balanced with alot of malt. Not my all time favorite, but very good.

Dogfish are known for their wacky beers, always pushing the boundries of what a beer can be. They have a beer called Pangea that has 1 ingredient from every continent, beer brewed with muscat grapes, a stout that is 18% alcohol, stout brewed with chickory, a raspberry beer that is brewed with a TON (literally) of raspberries. My friend Alicia has one of these in her fridge, but hasn't offered it up at any gatherings yet. Hmmm.

Next stop. Bell's Expedition Stout. Never had this one before. 10.5%. Bitter coffee & licorice flavors. Definately taste the 10%. Good, not great. I just had the best stout I've ever tasted a week ago. This may be better than I'm giving it credit for. Jaded.

Ribs are done. Dinner time. With Chocolate Macroon cupcake made by my lovely wife for desert. I should have paired this with the stout, but oh well. Next time.

Here's the cupcake Ronda made. It's a rich chocolate cupcake with a macaroon filling topped with chocolate butter cream & shredded coconut.

Ummm ummm. Later.

Toronado 2008 Barleywine festival

2008-02-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley_wine

Saturday 2-17-2008 was the 14th annual Toronado Barleywine festival in the Lower Haight area of SF. This is the 6-7 time I've been to this fest. Arrived around 10:00 AM to see a line that alerady winded down to Fillmore St. Wasn't bad though as they opened up around 10:30 or so & let everyone in.

This year they had 55 barleywines on tap, yowza! My plan was to hit the highlights and get out of there before it got too packed. I almost made it.

From left to right: Angel's Share, Bourbon Bigfoot, Bear Republic, Firestone Walker

Good idea to go with a few other beer geek friends. That way you can order several and sample each. No way you could do this alone and taste everything you'd want. Unless you didn't have plans for your brain cells for several days.

Everything I tasted was really good, for the most part, at least decent. Some were awesome. But no way did I sample even 1/2 of them.

In all I sampled:

Lost Abbey 2006 Angel's Share - was looking forward to this one the most. Too sweet for my tastes though.

Sierra Nevada bourbon barrel aged Bigfoot - my personal favorite

Bear Republic Olde Scoutters - blend of their 1999 & 2007 barleywines

Firestone Walker Abacus blend - Barleywine blend aged in bourbon & whiskey barrels

21st Amendment's Lower De Boom - Hoppy & delicious. My second fav.

Russian River's 2006 Old Gubbillygotch

Stone 2006 Old Guardian - always great

Devil Mountain 1994 barleywine - yep, 14 year old beer. I wasn't too hot on this one

Full Sail 1995 Old Boardhead

Lagunitas Gnarlywine 2006

Cucupa barley wine from Mexicali, Mexico - the only international entry

The top in the judging were:

1) Lagunitas Gnarlywine 2006

2) Stone Old Guardian 2006

3) Firestone-Walker Abacus Blend 2yr and 1yr Bourbon & Wheat Whiskey

Met a alot of really cool people. Didn't catch everone's name, but cheers!

There was a family from Boston that were in the city on vacation, were walking around teh Haight, and came in to see what all these people were doing in a beer bar at 11:00 am. The dad described himself as a Budweiser drinker, so this was a whole different world. That's them standing under the yellow Fuller's sign. Very nice people. They were still there when I left around 1:30 pm.

Takes awhile to get served. The bartenders were swamped.

Go to the Toronado now.

http://www.toronado.com/

Sunday brisket & catching up with beer recent beer stops

2008-02-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

The first sunny Sunday in a long time. Time to fire up the smoker and try doing a brisket. Wasn't very happy with my last attempt. Trying a different cook this time. 325* for 4-5 hours instead of the standard 225* for 10-12 hours.

Bought an 11 LB untrimmed brisket at Smart & Final. Trimmed away the fat(about 2.5 pounds!) and rubbed it with my favorite homemade rub.

Using hickory chunks for the smoke.

Should take about 3-4 hours to reach 170*. Then I'll wrap it in foil for the final hour or so.

Beautiful sight.

Good opportunity to try a beer I received in a trade from my good friend & fellow beer advocate, Rusty Diamond(his real name).

This is Baptista from http://www.pisgahbrewing.com/index.htm in Black Mountain, Ga. All their beers are certified organic. This particular brew is a Belgian Noel style. It was a limited edition

From their site: This Belgian Noël takes it’s name from Jan Baptista van Helmont (1579-1644), the Flemish chemist and physician who first discovered CO and coined the word “gas” by recognizing the existence of gases distinct from air. This energy luminary was the founder of pneumatic chemistry and also the first to bridge alchemy and early chemistry. Hats off to the man behind the bubble.

Thanks to Rusty for mailing one out to me. If you didn't know, I'm a pretty big beer geek.

Reminds me. Last weekend I was in Irvine for work. Took the opportinity to drive down to Pizza Port in San Clemente. Place is great. Pizza is awesome. They have 8 of their own bers and 10 or so taps of guest beers. When I was there they had Pliny The Elder, Racer X, Gonzo imperial porter, Alesmith Speedway Stout, and other great beers you don't see on tap every day.

I didn't park on the roof. I parked on El Camino with a view of the Pacific Ocean.

That's a Monterey Pizza(Pepperoni & Artichoke) & a Speedway Stout.

Also went to Stone Brweing in Escondido. Mixed bag. The place is beautiful. By far the coolest looking & neatest vibe of any brewery I've been to. Huge outdoor garden area with streams, walking paths, etc.

Their logo etched into the wall.

The menu is all organic & every item is made with beer. We had the IPA battered onion rings with smoked porter BBQ sauce. Despite how AWESOME they look. They were just ok. The sauce was really good though. Also had the cheddar, garlic, & IPA soup. Wasn't very good. In fact is was gross. I appreciate what they were doing, but it wasn't very good in my opinion.

All in all I'd probably be there once a week if the place was in the Bay Area. Just for the beer selection though, which is incredible. The Orange County/San Diego area is pretty much the Napa of beer right now.

My cat, Tiny, is pretty happy the sun is back too.

Big plate of smoked beef!

Brisket sandwich with homemade BBQ sauce. Sauce has Coca Cola in it. How can that be bad?

Chico, Ca July 2007

2008-02-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

Ronda & I took a Wednesday off work to go see Queens Of The Stone Age~! and spend some time at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico. It was about 110* outside, so some brews inside the air conditioned brewery sounded good.

They have an "experimental hop farm" outside the brewery.

They have about 20 different Sierra Nevada brews on tap. I had Torpedo Ale, which is an IPA and a 2006 vintage Bigfoot, and Draft Pale Ale, which is different than the famous bottled version. Smoother & not a hoppy. Ronda had a german style dark wheat & Kristal Weizen. They had at least 5 different wheat beers for the summer.

Food was good. All their beef is from a farm at the college. The cows are fed a special diet that includes the used grains that made beer at the brewery. And they're fed beer. Yep.

We were too late to take the tour, but they let us walk around and do a self tour, which was cool.

Magic happens inside these things.

Smart men making great things.

We stayed at the $75 a night Holiday Inn. Turns out the whole band was staying there as well. Yep, big rock n roll stars staying at the Holiday Inn. We ran into Josh Homme in the elevator, talked to him for a bit. Nice enough, despite the fact that he's a Corona drinker.

Ran into teh band as well in an ice cream/candy shop in town before the show. Took this pic with my cell phone of Ronda & Josh.

Show was great. They played mostly stuff from the latest CD, but threw in some old gems as well.

Russian River May 2007

2007-12-30T19:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pics from our long weekend in Duncan's Mills, which is right along the Russian River near Guerneville. Beautiful area that combines redwoods, the river, and the pacific ocean right up the road.

The house was very cool in a great spot on the river and awesome backyard. We BBQ'd every night, played poker & dominoes(Alicia learned how to play while in jail), drank micros & wine, good times indeed.

We went on a tour of Korbel in Guerneville, golfed, found an awesome bakery in nearby Freestone, and mostly hung out.

We did find some time to use the canoes. Here's the captain & his first mate preparing the vessel for launch.

Kenny manning the "dumb end" of the canoe.

We ventured out to Occidental, a small town about 20 miles away, for an awesome italian meal at Negri's restaurant http://www.negrisrestaurant.com/ and couple drinks at the Occidental Hotel

About 7 miles up the road is Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds. Oh, and the pacific ocean.

Look forward to heading back next year.

Anchor Steam Brewery

2007-12-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

Ronda & I(mostly me) decided to take a tour of the Anchor Steam brewery in San Francisco. Had to make reservations, they only do tours during the week. Very popular tour as there were many people on the Thursday at 11:00 am we went. Appeared to be people from out of town checking out the SF landmark.

The brewery has been making beer since the late 1800's in the city. The current owner, Fritz Maytag, bought the place to save it from closure in the 60's while he was a student at Stanford. He's the son of the guy who owns Maytag appliances and the world famous Maytag blue cheese. Fascinating, I know.

Tour lasted about 45 minutes with alot of historical info. No pictures were allowed past a certain point so no pics of the awesome HOP ROOM! and bottling line and other cool stuff. After the tour the bring you into the tasting room and let you have samples of all their beers. When I say sample I mean they pour you about 6 ounces of each. And as many as you want. Wow! This includes the barleywine, Old Foghorn. Tour is free as well. Nice.

They also have a "micro distillery" where they make Junipero Gin. Voted the top american made gin by the New York Times apparently. They also make a whiskey, Potrero. Didn't get the chance to sample any of these unfortunately. They make wine too, York Creek Vineyards, but at a different facility in Napa.

Highly recommend this tour. Made for a fun day in the city.