Who said that?

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drank, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.""
– Jack Handy, Saturday Night Live

In need of inspiration

Being pulverized by the daily grind that is Tuesday, I find myself searching for some sort of inspiration to flesh out the rest of my day. In so doing I have put together a simple acrostic poem about the life cycle of a beer.

Beer

Biological
Experimentation
Excitedly
Rapturing

I'm not sure I have reached the existential enlightenment I was looking for, but I did kill a few minutes. Happy Tuesday!

What's wrong with this picture?

El Cajon Brewing Co. update #2

A couple of weeks has passed since my last update, and the brewery restaurant is still not open. The word now is that the opening will be in September. I will post the exact date when it is announced. East County waits with bated breath.

So, there!

Crap beer may always outsell craft beer, but craft beer will always out-taste crap beer. The moral? Don't drink crap, drink the craft! I'll step off my soapbox now, carry on.

The Hops Project

Wanting to take my homebrewing a step further, I decided to try my hand at being a hops farmer. As harvest time approaches, I will take you on a pictorial trip of my growing adventures. If all goes as planned, I will be brewing with my yield in the very near future. Stay tuned!

Where am I?

Everybody sing along!

Click here if you don't see the video.

A great use for Bud!

Coronado Brewing Co. is expanding

You can add Coronado Brewing Co. to the growing list of local breweries who have acquired larger facilities to enable greater production. Check out this article for all the details. It sounds like the main brewing operation will move to their new Tecolote Canyon location, leaving their current Coronado equipment free to produce one-off and specialty brews. I look forward to their growth, and the possibility of some really good limited release beers coming out of their original location.

Beer Fries follow-up

I was able to try this recipe over the weekend. I didn't have olive oil, so I used vegetable oil instead. I believe there was some flavor loss due to the oil change, but the outcome was tasty nonetheless. I happened to have a bottle of Starz Beer that a friend had given to me, so I figured this would be a good use for it. The fries turned out very crispy and flavorful, but I didn't get any hint of the beer. Maybe if I had used a more robust brew it would have been more evident, or maybe the beer isn't meant to lend very much to the final product. Using other herbs, as the recipe recommends, would have made for more of a flavor punch, but the fries were good anyway. I would like to try this recipe again using the correct oil and perhaps a variety of herbs to see what difference that makes. All in all I enjoyed the fries, how about you?

Perfect for picnics and parties

El Cajon Brewing Co. update

Just a quick update on the opening of East County's newest brewery. I have it on good authority (thanks Mike!) that the brewery will be open in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to sampling their beer and seeing what else will occupy the guest taps. According to this article, they plan on having 10 house and 30 guest beers on tap, I would assume, rotating regularly. I will let you know more as I learn more.

So many choices, so little time

My thought for today comes from a conversation I had with a friend of mine earlier. How do you decide which beers to try, and which ones to skip? I like to try all that I can. I may decide to try a beer based on a good review, but I will almost never decide to pass on a beer based on a mediocre or bad review. I refuse to let 1, 100, or even 1,000 reviews of a particular brew dictate to me whether or not I should try it. The only person with my palate is me, just like the only person with your palate is you. Explore great craft beer. Make your own path. Don't be led by the masses. Don't let me, another blog, your best friend, or anyone else tell you what to drink. You be yourself, I'll be myself, and let's get together for a beer!

Is it Friday yet?

Where am I?

Who said that?

"If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs."
- David Daye

Beer Fries

This recipe for Garlic, Salted Beer Baked French Fries sounds quick, easy, and delicious. I think I'll try it sometime this week. If you decide to try it let me know what beer you use and how it works out, and I'll do the same!

The end of another weekend

Another Great Beer Joke

Yesterday, scientists in the USA revealed that beer contains small traces of female hormones. To prove their theory, they fed 100 men 12 pints of beer and observed that 100% of them started to talk nonsense and couldn't drive.

International Beer Day snuck up on me

I was so focused on #IPADay yesterday that I let International Beer Day sneak up on me. I hope you were able to celebrate this fine day, but check here for last minute celebrations in your area. Because we all need another excuse to drink beer!

Happy #IPADay!

A day just for IPAs? What a glorious concept! Read about the induction of #IPADay here. For those who are not familiar with what an IPA (India Pale Ale) is, this Wikipedia entry has some pretty good information. If you are a fan of this style, as I am, you will have no problem cracking open a bottle or finding your favorite on tap today. If you are not a fan (yet), go out of your way to try an IPA that you have never tried before, or try a different variety such as a Double or Imperial IPA. No other style of beer has the ability to showcase hops better than the IPA. Give it the chance it deserves to grab your taste buds and take them on the most incredible rollercoaster ride of their life! That may have been taking it over the top, but I don't care. I'm getting thirsty, and hope you are too, so get out there and celebrate the IPA!

Where am I?

So true!