National Beer Day 2011

Happy National Beer Day Everyone! For those unaware, on April 7th, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act into law, ending the 13 year long prohibition of alcohol in the United States. It's a great day for beer lovers everywhere, and especially home brewers!! Cheers!

A fine selection up at the Dogfish Head Brew Pub

in Rehobeth a couple months back

Adding more hopes is always fun

Beer. Hooorayyy for beer!

Irish Punk Rock Music

Irish punk rock is almost like Christmas music to me. I love it, but I just cant listen to it year 'round. There are of course a few exceptions, but for the most part, spring is the only time I really let it all fly cranked up to 11.  In keeping with years past, here's a bunch of really fun Irish punk rock music songs that I really like. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, and be safe. Enjoi! [See what I did there?]

[Dropkick Murphys, Going Out In Style]

[Flogging Molly, Drunken Lullabies [Live]]

[Dropkick Murphys, God Willing]

[Carbon Leaf, The Boxer]

[Flogging Molly, If I Ever Leave This World Alive]

[Dropkick Murphys, Famous For Nothing]

Living Room-Mini Fridge-Beer Cannon

Soooo, this is amazing and awesome, and I may need one. That is all. 

[Mini Fridge Beer Cannon]

Warrior Dash: After

Awesome would be an understatement if trying to describe the Warrior Dash from this past weekend. I headed up to PA late Friday night and met up with some friends to participate in the Warrior Dash. Epic would probably be more appropriate. People dressed up in various costumes all over the place, plenty of beer, gigantic turkey legs, and good times were easily found. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I did make it onto the news on a PA station. Click HERE for the link to the video, you can see me and my buddies at 7 seconds in, getting ready to start the race.

I can't say I was overly happy or impressed with the park it was held at [which also, was not suppsoed to the be the original location.] It was pretty obvious they were trying to take full advantage of everyone and simply make as much money as possible. The event itself was a lot of fun, but I'd be hesitant to do it again if it's held at the same location next year. Anyway, on with the pictures. Enjoy!

Screen shot of the news clip linked above.

The motley crue.

Testing out my powers before the race.

At the start of the dash.

Since our cabin was strategically located on the course,

we had friends ready to hand of cold beers to us!

Quite happy to get those cold beers in the middle of the run! 

Making my way to the finish line.

Right after the race.

All cleaned up with beer and turkey leg in hand.

Mmmmm.

I found my friend Audrey who I went to college with there!

Home Brew and Kegging

First off, let me apologize for completely slacking the last month on my posts, I've been pretty busy and just haven't had the time. But I haven't forgotten about my faithful followers, and because I love all [3 or 4] of you, you all will now be receiving a prize!! Let the fun begin!

Back in January I made my first batch of home brew beer. It came out pretty good, but there were a few small hiccups along the way that prevented the beer from fulfilling it's full potential. The first being that the stove in our house is electric. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem, except that an electric stove has an extremely difficult time keeping 2.5 to 3 gallons [GALLONS?!] at a rolling boil for any extended amount of time. Because of this, our boiling wort would be on the stove for up to 120 minutes, and only be hot, instead of a nice boil like it should be. Well the times have changed my friends. No more will I be confined to the super fancy looking, black stealth, electric burners hidden inside our stove top! No longer will the tyranny of electric current conduct [haha, get it?] how hot my boils will be!! No sir, I've moved on to one of man's most basic and primitive tools. Fire! Well, fire in the sense that it comes from an outdoor propane burner originally used to deep fry a turkey, but it serves the same purpose!

By boiling the wort with an open and propane controlled flame, I can now get the wort up to the proper temperature much, much faster, and boil it for the 60 minutes it really needs, instead of 120 minutes at a 'hot' temperature. 

The other reason why I'm very excited about our this brew is because it's going to be kegged. Yes, you read correctly, we're moving on to kegging our own beer! No more cleaning and sanitizing 30 to 35 bottles, then tediously filling and capping each one! No more I say! Now, I'll only have clean and sanitize one container [the keg] and seal it off just once. Furthermore, by kegging the beer, I'll be able to control the carbonation levels much better since I'll be force carbonating it with a CO2 tank. When you bottle beer you have to mix the fermented wort with a sugar solution, then bottle them. The sugar goes to work with the alcohol in the sealed bottle to create the carbonation from within, but it doesn't work that great all the time. Lastly, instead of having to wait the 2 to 3 weeks to enjoy the beer after bottling it, you will be able to enjoy the first glass of beer 24 hours after transferring it into the keg. Force carbonating takes much less time, and you can also control how it pours out of the tap by adjusting the CO2 pressure. 

So in conclusion; Lots of changes, and all for the better. This is why I'm so excited for the upcoming batch, an Autumn Ale by the way, and you should be too. Why you ask? Because that's your prize, a free beer or 3 that you'll be able to pour yourself from what will be our new home beer dispersing system. [More on that later as well.] The code word for your free beers will be: "Hoochie Mama" [Bonus beer points if you can tell me where that comes from.]

Here's a couple pictures to feed your curiosity. Enjoy!

Adding 1oz of hops to the brew last week

The wort during its 60 minute rolling boil

Some of the recently ordered equipment for kegging the beer

Air Guitar, Rocking Out, and Classic Rock

Every once in a while you have to just let loose and rock out. I do this on a regular basis, yet probably not enough. It's even better when you go nuts, and don't care how stupid [or awesome, depending on your point of view] you may look.

There are two videos posted below. Some of you may be familiar with the first one. It's from an episode of Scrubs when the hospital's air band, the 'Cool Cats' performs More Than A Feeling at the end. It's a classic scene. The second video is from this past weekend when I was down in Tennessee. We had some free time one afternoon and my buddy and I felt the urge to get our rock on. We also happened to choose More Than A Feeling as our song, and it wasn't until the weekend was long over did I remember about the Scrubs version.

Now, I don't think we could ever compare ourselves to the Cool Cats, but what's your take on our [unrehearsed] version? At any rate, I'm sure this will be good for a few laughs at my expense [I'm in the black trunks.] Happy Friday everyone. Enjoy!

[Cool Cats, More Than A Feeling]



[Mullet Rock Out Session, More Than A Feeling]

Mug of Saint Arnold Guest Blogger

My guest blogging adventures don't stop with cars! A week or two ago, one of my best friends who now lives down in West Palm Beach, Florida emailed me asking to write a beer review that he could post on the blog he maintains: The Mug of Saint Arnold.

Chalie emailed me at a perfect time, because I happened to have a lesser known beer from Dogfish Head in my fridge at the time. I went to the store to grab some food to make for dinner and really enjoyed writing down my thoughts as I drank the beer, and really paid attention to the flavors rather than just downing it! Chalie is quite the beer connoisseur himself and his blog has been linked here for quite some time, but if you haven't visited recently I highly suggest you do so. My guest blog post can be found at the link below. Enjoy!

http://www.mugofsaintarnold.com/?p=734

Easter Keg Hunt 2010

Last year's Easter Keg Hunt did not go super well. And one might argue that this year's went even worse. Here is my story.

My team [Team DC Sportbikes] unfortunately did not plan very well this year. The usual orchestrator of our attack has been busy recovering from various surgeries and prepping for the upcoming race season. Thus, this year's event slipped a lot of our minds, and we never really got around to forming a plan.

The weather has been great recently, so I've also been riding my new bike into work. So I get in early this morning and pull up DC101 on the computer and start listening. Lots of people calling in saying how they've found kegs, which really made me wish we had planned this year. For those unaware, each year there is one 'golden Easter keg' that is hidden somewhere with one of the people from the radio show. He calls in periodically and gives clues to where it might be. Clues 1-3 only revealed that they were in fact in DC somewhere. Then I heard clue #4 and knew instantly where they were. Clue 4 was "Under the lights" -- they were at RFK stadium. How did I know this? Well the prizes for all the other redeemed kegs were tickets to DC United's home opener this weekend. I put 2 and 2 together real quick and knew RFK was the location.

I asked my supervisor if I could try and go for it, and he said "yea man, just call me if you get it and I'll come pick up the keg in my car." So I threw the jacket and helmet back on, and blasted over to RFK as quickly as possible on the DRZ.

Cause I'm also a nerd I had the 'I Heart Radio' app going on my iPhone while riding over there. I made it to RFK in about 10 minutes and snuck around a fence or two on the bike (WHICH I AM LOVING BY THE WAY) and starting blasting around the parking lots with my head on a swivel looking for a DC101 van of some kind. Unfortuntely the app cut out briefly and I missed the last clue which probably would've helped.

I checked all the parking lots with nothing to be found, so I headed back under the tunnel and decided to park near the offices. I hopped off the bike and start walking up to the security guard. As I'm walking up, another guy is just behind me walking up as well. We asked each other if we were going for the keg, which confirmed we both had the clues right. I was trying to talk to the security guard to let me peak onto the field to see if it was there.

She didn't know what I was talking about, so she called someone on the radio and I asked them if they knew anything about DC101 and the Easter Keg Hunt. "Yea, they're supposed to be here" the voice responded. I begged the guard to let me go check the field real quick. No sooner am I trying to convince her I'm not a lunatic, then I hear on the radio [DC101] that two guys just nabbed it, and they were indeed on the field at RFK.

NOOO! SOOOOO CLOSE!

After a minute of chatting with the guy with me at the entrance I started walking back to the bike and I see the two guys carrying the golden keg back to their car. I walked over and let them and said hi and let them know how close I was. They were nice guys, we chatted for a few about the keg hunt. They were actually driving by the stadium when they heard the clue about "under the lights." Had I not circled all the parking lots and just gone and tried to go straight onto the field I bet I would've gotten it. Un-freakin-believable! Oh well.

On my way back to my building I decided to do a lap or two around the tidal basin since it's such a nice day out. It was packed full of people looking at the cherry blossoms, one kid even tried to give me a high five as I rode by. [And yes mom, I literally am that close from work.]

In conclusion, team DC Sportbikes [me] came very very close to snagging the mother Golden Keg. This fuels my inspiration for next year, which hopefully will go better.

Oh, and the prize for finding the golden keg? Free beer for one whole year. Yea.....

UPDATE: I just learned that one of my friends over at DC United was the woman behind the whole collaboration between DC101 and DC United. A little heads up would've been nice, but I certainly understand why I didn't hear a peep about it! ;) Congrats DC United office workers, who are also friends of mine, for a perfectly executed marketing operation! Now everyone go to the home opener this Saturday!

St. Patty's 2010

Welp that time of year again, everyone who's only a part Irish is suddenly 100% Irish, and those who aren't Irish at all, are....well suddenly 100% Irish. I get a kick out of it if nothing else, and will more than likely enjoy a good beer or two this evening for good measure. If you want to kick things up a notch though, I recommend trying an 'Irish Car Bomb' if you've never had one. Guiness, Whiskey, and Irish Cream, that's all you need. Here's a quick instructional video, but note the bartender fails to mention, that you MUST DRINK IT REALLY FAST IMMEDIATELY AFTER DROPPING THE SHOT IN, otherwise the cream will start to curdle once mixed with the Guiness:

After you've kicked off your night on the right foot, I recommend enjoying some lovely fast paced Irish sounding tunes. Some of the same bands as last year, but new songs for you to enjoy! Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, stay safe.

Beer Wars

This movie/documentary looks kind of interesting! I wonder if they'll ever have a segment on the '6 Year Old Brewery' ...ha, one can hope I guess.

Das Best Oktoberfest

This past Saturday, me, Natalie and my parents headed over to the National Harbor just across the Woodrow Wilson bridge to check out the second annual 'Das Best Oktoberfest.' I went last year, and it was only okay. It was really crowded, the lines were ridiculous [an average of 15 min to get a beer], and they about ran out of food and beer all together!

Well I'm happy to report that they learned from last years mistakes and although this year was completely rain soaked, was much much better. Even with everyone crowding under the tents to try and stay dry, you could pretty much walk right up to the servers and get a beer with little to no waiting. There were a lot more food vendors this year as well, and we got some really good stuff! My folks heard about and saw pictures from me last year, and when I mentioned it this year, they both seemed quite interested in going. We could've done without all the rain, but we still had a lot of fun anyway.

Once we got home my mom cooked up an awesome meal of bratwurst with sauteed onions, and homemade mustard, paired with my all time favorite food; Spaetzle!

We didn't take many pictures, but here's a few of the good ones [NOTE: not taken with my good camera!]. Until next year, PROST!