Homebrew

I just made a Firemans 4 style brew and a Magic Hat #9 with a brewing buddy Travis. As well as picked up some Satsuma Oranges from Louisiana to use in a Wit Bier. I will post pictures when we pour.

Gulden Draak

Gulden Draak, from Van Steenberge, Ertvelde, East Flanders. Reddish brown with a slight bitter finish. Strong at 10.5. Described as being a good winter warmer with a long finish. My corked bottle seemed a little lacking on the bubbles but was still enjoyable.

Another beer from the same place is the golden, hoppier Piraat Ale, also available in a corked bottle. I didn't have the camera set up when I tasted this one.

Annual Fishing Trip

Every year my family has a father/son/uncle/cousin/any male in the family fishing trip. I leave today for that trip. We go to Seadrift, Tx and stay at my Uncle Tony's Bayhouse. It's like a mini family reunion, we fish, or catch depending on who you talk too, drink, play dominoes, drink and generally have a good time. This is one of my favorite photos and I always think of it, when my family gets together, below are the details provided by my cousin Frank.

An interesting thing he pointed out about the cans in the photo, in 1958, they did not have pull tabs on cans but were opened with can openers, that is why some can are upside down. A dance flier for the Vesely Playboys at Frydek hangs on the wall amidst some beer advertising.

From left to right: Otto Matus, Sr. (friend of family, Ganado), Rudolph E. Dybala (great grandfather), Edmund A. Dybala (grandfather), Frank Jendry (friend of family, Ganado), Emil Trojcak (friend of family, Ganado), Albert "Sleepy" Zouzalik (Frank Brauner's uncle, San Antonio), John Vincent Oehl (Sophie Oehl Dybala's brother, Houston), August "Gus" Oehl (Sophie Oehl Dybala's brother, Ganado), Grandpa Dybala's brother Arnold Dybala is in the shadow of the post in the picture, Victor Korczynski (husband of Elsie Novosad Korczynski who is Edmund Dybala's first cousin, and also from Ganado), and Louis A. Oehl (Sophie Oehl Dybala's brother, San Antonio).

This picture was taken June 23, 1958 in the K. J. T. Hall barroom in Ganado, Texas, at the wedding reception of Frank Brauner and Barbara Dybala who were married at 8:30 a.m. in Assumption Catholic Church in Ganado, Texas by Rev. Anthony Matula.

Duchesse de Bourgogne

This beer is named after the Duke of Burgundy's daughter, Mary born in Bruges back in 1457.

Belgian Red Ale, dark reddish color, apple or fruit cider nose, slight pucker, sour tartness to it. 6.2% ABV Brewed by the Verhaege family with a brewing history dating back to the 1500's.

Black Star Beer Co-op Pub Brewery

Chantal and I just joined up as investor members, I remember looking into them back in 2005 but was to busy with my store to join at the time. I am hoping to become more involved with them in the future.

Black Star CO-OP Mission

To apply the models of co-operative ownership and worker self-management to create the best venue in Austin for the production and enjoyment of high quality beer.

Website

It's the first concept of it's kind and the plans are to open a pub with a brewery as well. There is a beer social once a month where you can meet other members, drink beer and listen to music.

Austin Homebrew 17 year Anniversary

This Weekend, big sale on everything, live music, probably some beer. I am going to pick up a bunch of supplies I need, including a Wort Chiller.

Go check it out.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/

Bottled Pinot Grigio and started a Cabernet

The Pinot has cleared up very nice over the past weeks, it has developed a fruity, crisp taste that should develop nicely over the next few months. It should be at it's prime during the wedding. 23 bottles total, half is for the wedding.

The final few inches of the Pinot carboy was remixed for the final time with the Fig wine and should be ready to bottle in a few weeks.

In addition Chantal and I have started a fresh batch of Cabernet Savignon.

Shiner: Spezial Leicht

At the local HEB and saw a few new Shiner labels, one of a re-do of the Heffeweizen with a bold new orange label, plus the new Light, or Leicht or whatever. To tell you the truth, I buy Shiner to drink a local beer with flavor, this tasted just like your regular light beer). It would probably be cheaper to go with any light beer out there. Not a fan.

When free beer is everyones favorite

I went downtown last night to take in a few promotional happy hours from the latest environmental trade fair. We started of at Scholz Garten with some live music and beer. The next stop was Iron Cactus, where the party hostwould give you a coupons for free drinks. They have a pretty wide selection of beers and some good top shelf liquors, but the majority of people were still drinking bud light or another domestic beer. If you ask me, if the drinks are free, try something new or maybe with a little more flavor. Of course once I figured out I could get a mixed drink for free, I put down the beer and started my own rum tasting tour!

On the way home we stumbled into the Whip In for a St Bernardus ABT12 as the nightcap. While I was there I picked up aBush or Scaldis Prestige and a De Koninck Winter Dark Ale as well as another Taj Mahal for a friend.

Louisiana Trip: Festival International

Thursday: So here we are again visiting family, taking a break and going to Festival International. After we settle into Breaux Bridge we head out to the basin, on the way we stop for beer and I pick up a sixer of Abita Red Ale. We get to the Atchafalaya Basin to visit some of my wife's family that are vacationing on the boat, we were picked up via a party barge and transported out into the basin, tucked away into a cypress and willow flooded area. Nice and peaceful setting, I was able to fish for bluegill right off the deck. The family enjoyed a wonderful crawfish etouffee made on the spot with fresh ingredients. I shared a couple of bottles of St Bernardus Wit and Prior 8 with the house boat members as well as brought a variety of local Texas beers. The Wit is becoming a favorite of mine and the more I try the other styles St Bernardus offers, they are growing on me pretty quick. We finish with a moonlight boat ride back to the cars and head home.

Friday: Off to the festival for live music, art and socializing. Luis Perez is a family artist that was showing his work. I picked up a wood carved voodoo doll to hang at the shop. The smaller doll on the right is from New Orleans, from my wife. Chantal's grandfather Al Grace built a still and would make is own whiskey, this was several years back. Since his passing the still has sat in his old shop unused. It was loaned to me today by the family, it needs a little work but I think I can get it to operate. pictures soon.

Sat: First stop Marcellos to take a quick look, a box and some cash later I emerge. It's always hit or miss but this time they had a large variety of corked Belgium beers that I have not tried, plus a few french beer and corked cider.

Beer List:
Meantime Coffe Porter, London UK
Gouden Carolus Triple, corked, Belgium
Gouden Caroulus Grand Cru, corked, Belgium
Corsendonk Brown and Pale Ale corked, Belgium
Silver Jubilee Farmhouse Ale, corked, US
Guldenberg Abbey Ale, corked, Belgium
Gavroche Red Ale, France
Cidre Bouchet Brut Du Normandie, Cider, Corked, France

A few of these will be cellared and a few will show up later here. After we deposit the beers at home we head out to the festival. One of the festival events was a beer class: Good for what ALES you: The History of brewing techniques of beer from around the world. Due to a scheduling mishap the classes didn't form but a few die hard beer lovers showed up and were treated with a very small, social beer tasting environment. The local distributing representative was on hand with a variety of beer available from a Bud distributor. Of these I tasted the Wild Blue, Blueberry Lager a blueberry infused lager. Deep purple color, little carbonation and a super sweet blueberry taste. Not what I expected in a beer, I think this beer would be better suited for cooking. Next up the Shock Top Belgian Style White ale with a slice of orange, hazy wheat color, sweet notes, coriander. Not a bad value based selection for the style. The rest of the selections were pretty domestic but the conversation and free beer is always enjoyable. The rain finally set in and we decided to leave early and get some fresh boiled crawfish.

More photos and tasting notes soon.

Corsendonk Belgian Pale Ale

Corsendonk, Brewed at Du Bocq in Pernode Belgium. The Corsendonk Priory dates from 1659, it was shut down in 1789 by Austrian Emperor Joseph II, again in 1789 during the French Revolution the properties were seized and auctioned off. From the 19th century forward Monks no longer make the beer but it's logos and taste reflect an abbey style.

Fermented twice, once with top fermentation and the second time in the bottle. It is matured for three weeks before being sent out. A six month aging period is recommended for a better result.

Orkney SkullSplitter Ale

Orkney Brewery
Quoyloo Sandwick
UK Scotland

Orkney is a small group of islands off Scotland. Home of Thorfin Hausakluif (Skullsplitter), the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney 1,000 AD.

Dark reddish copper color, thick tan head. Heavy malt taste with a slight bitter finish. Picked this up on my last trip to Louisiana.

This guy celebrated St. Patrick's day a little to much.

Seems fitting for a day were everyone is Irish and gives us an excuse to drink. I wonder if they had green beer back around 3000 BC?

"Canterbury Archaeological Trust said the curled-up skeleton was an example of a "Beaker" burial because of the pottery vessel placed at its feet.

Education officer Marion Green said the "beautifully decorated" pot could have been "a type of beer mug"."

Read the full article here

Fwd: Email Sucks, sometimes......

Typically when I get a fwd email from someone, it is a tragic story with a life lesson at the end, or a feel good story about overcoming great adversity, lately it has been political with different reasons why a candidate is evil.

In most cases the story is usually false and it still gets passed around. This email started off the same way, friend of a friend sent me this story and they were actually there so it must be true, let me fwd it to you. I started reading with the usual skepticism trying to guess the outcome of the story, this one seemed like it was going to be a tragic story with a lesson at the end. So I read on the learn today's life lesson. Let me tell you, after reading it I was convinced that it needed to be shared, so not only did I fwd it to every person in my address book, I posted it here. Please read on.

-----Original Message-----
From: []
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:34 PM
Subject: Fw: Accident Photos



I actually had to think about whether to send this or not.....it's pretty
graphic



I almost cried when I saw this picture. It is absolutely gut wrenching.
It shows the importance of being properly strapped in.
A friend of a friend sent him this photo of a horrible highway accident
in Germany. The picture may be kind of hard to take for some of you. If
you look closely you can see what appear to be some survivors of the
accident still in the wreckage. Although the picture is quite graphic, it
makes you realize how quickly our loved ones can be taken from us.

My friend stayed on the scene to help and even though he performed mouth
to mouth on quite a few of them, none apparently survived.



Ha, I had to laugh and share!

Bootlegger Brown Ale

Independence Brewing Company
Austin, Tx.

Just down the road.

Nutty roasted malt nose, roasted malt flavors throughout. Dark maple syrup in color, thin tan head.

South Congress and the State Capital featured on the label. They have some other beers to choose from with some other local icons on the label.

Beer Bottle Symphony Orchestra

Australia's Victoria Bitter has launched a great video for it's products.



Did they really need to waste that beer at the end?

Pinot Rerack and Figrigio Wine

The specific gravity finally dropped below .01 and I made the first re-rack of the pinot. There was a 2 inch layer of sediment on the bottom and probably a half gallon of left over wine from moving from an 8 gallon to a 6 gallon carboy.

If you notice another bottle in the original picture, that is a fig wine I try to make every year from Uncle Phillip's fig tree. This year I got behind on the batch and was getting ready to dump it in the compost pile. Instead I re-racked the Fig wine into the Pinot's original carboy. I am going to keep it on the same racking schedule as the Pinot. So if all goes well we will have a Figrigio to try, or at least a Figrigio to dump in the compost pile.

So we have a batch of Pinot looking good, and a second batch of Figrigio to speculate about.

BenderBrau: Life size beer brewing bender robot.

People say I have too much time on my hands, check out this very cool homebrewing project.

The Bender Brewing Project

I did not build this, but I wish I did.

Gingerman in Austin

I am taking one of my just recently turned legal drinking age employees to the Gingerman this wednesday. Need to make sure he understands what good beer tastes like.

Feel free to come join us from some darts and pints, especially if you are buying a round or three!

Wedneasday, Jan 9th, sometime after 7.

Louisiana Trip

Back in Louisiana with Chantal for her friend's baby shower, and I am back to Marcello's to see what's in stock. Marcellos is the only place in Lafayette that has a good selection of spirits, wine and beer. they have just recently added homebrew supplies to the inventory. The list for this trip is as follows:

Delerium Noel - Belgium
Delerium Nocturnum - Belgium
Abita Bock
Sam Adams White Ale
Skull Splitter Orkney Ale - Scotland
Harviestoun Special Reserve - Scotland (Aged in single malt casks)
Uerige Dopplestick - German
Eisenbahn Dourada Golden Ale - Brazil
Eisenbahn Vigorosa Unfiltered Wheat Doublebock - Brazil
Eisenbahn SAPA South American Pale Ale - Brazil
Konig Ludwig Weissbier Hefe Weizen - Germany

I was excited to find the other flavors of the Delerium line.

Park's Pinot Grigio

A friend of mine just recently announced his engagement and wedding plans in November. As a gift I am making him a batch of wine for his wedding. His fiance asked for a Pinot and that is what I will try to deliver.

Jan 2, 2008. Combined grape juices, bentonite and water in an 8 gallon carboy. SG 1.085. Yeast started to ferment within 24 hours. Check in 5 - 7 days and rerack to 6 gallon carboy.

Jan 8, strong bubble for last seven days, clouded up after the first two. Rerack Jan 9th.

Happy New Beer and Year

Farewell 2007, Clean slate in 2008.

This time of year we should reflect on the past year and make plans for the new one. I decided to reflect on the beers I put away for long term storage and wait with anticipation to open them in the future.

Chimay Grand Reserve (2007) I like to put away at least two bottles, then open one on new years the following)
Fuller Limited Edition
Shiner 98 Bavarian Amber
Bourbon Casks Winter Ale
Velvet
Westmalle Tripel
Sisyphus 2007 Barley Wine
Ayinger Celebrator Doppel Bock
Corsendonk
Ommegang Rare VOS

And of course to all of the beers I drank this past year, farewell, I will miss you.