A beer sort of day

KC Hop Head and OregonAmy were nice enough to let me host July's Brew Day, and despite some ungodly humidity, I think a good time was had by all. I know I learned a lot, just by watching them do their brews. I chickened out, because I still had yet to figure out how to properly carbonate my Questionable Cream Ale in the keg, and am not loving the results I get from extract brewing. KC Hop Head managed to get my beer all set, so it was tested, and deemed drinkable if not delicious. :) The brews brought by Amy and her husband quite awesome, and I am freshly motivated to move on from "kit" beer. It doesn't look quite as scary and difficult, when everyone else can knock it out while hanging out on my back deck. So thanks for the fantastic company and examples to follow. I'm personally interested in the oatmeal raisin stout that was smelling so nice while boiling! Friends showed up all day and evening, and I thank you all.


Everyone brought summertime brews to share, from home brew to special finds. I think my top favorites were the Belgian Cherry that Average Jane brought, the Founder's Scottish Ale brought by Tim, and the IPA brewed by Amy & her husband. Good stuff!

My dog is so exhausted from yesterday that he has only woken up twice so far - both times to eat. Ha!

Edited to add that I inherited both a tan Coleman cooler with one unmarked bottle of homebrew, and a hula hoop after everyone left on Saturday. If you'd like to claim either, let me know!

Brew Day! Deck Party! Super Happy Fun Time!

Everyone is cordially invited to a Brew Day at a beer sort of house! Saturday, July 11th, starting around noon. We're going with a Summer Beer Trade/Brewing/Drinking theme. Think lagers, pilsners, fruit brews, kolsch, etc. We'll fire up the Weber, have a few yard games, and lots of awesome people there, some even brewing up their own concoctions. The forecast says 92 degrees, but it is always cooler in the shade of Prairie Village, so plan to stop by! Bring your favorite brew to share, and possibly a camp chair. :) Email, twitter, IM, etc for directions.

Oh yeah, edited to add that our house is a couple of weeks from going on the market. If you or anyone you know really wants to move into a remodeled ranch on an awesome street in Prairie Village with great neighbors, come check out the house before it goes on the market.

Crawling home

Lee is in town, Lee is in town! Freezing his mild Texas behonkey off in our sub-zero climate, I am sure. He's going to be at McCoy's tonight. Sadly, I will not be at McCoy's tonight. :( If you see Lee, tell him I said hi, and I'll catch him another eve. With beer. I promises.

Tonight my co-workers and I are embarking on what sounds like a Very Bad Idea. We're doing a pub crawl, on a Monday night, as our own little holiday party. All full-time employees and all contract field staff are welcome to attend. We're starting at the office, and heading out into the frigid night around 6 ish. This is what the work fridge looks like right now. Boulevard Pale Ale, Schlafly & Breckenridge Christmas Ales, and a little Hoegaarden, not to mention the Bailey's, Bud Light, Jose Cuervo margaritas, or the bottles of random booze below. I heard that someone is bringing their own 30 pack of Busch Light. A little something for everyone, then. The little mustard bottle looks a little out of his element, don't you think?

Saturday in Denver

I ripped everything below from Home Brew Beer, who received an email from Flying Dog directly.

"I just got this message from Steph at Flying Dog...

Hey,

I don't know if you have heard, but our longest standing employee and brewery manager, Mike Freeman, was recently diagnosed with a very serious brain tumor and the most aggressive of its kind! Due to Mike not being able to work and to offset some medical expenses, Mike’s friends and family are hosting a fundraiser. The fundraiser, Rock the Mike: The Freeman Brainefit, is on Saturday, August 23^rd at the old Flying Dog warehouse (24^th and Blake) from 7-2am. We are going to have several bands, free beer from Breckenridge, Great Divide and Flying Dog, free food and a raffle with a $20 cost at the door. All of the proceeds from this event are going to Mike and his fiancée Jennifer.

I was hoping you could help me spread the word in your blog, paper, to your friends, etc. The more people we get in the door, the more money Mike gets!

Please check out the website we set up for him at mikesupport.com.

Thanks for your support!

Cheers,

Stephanie Kerchner

PR and Event Coordinator

www.flyingdogales.com

www.flyingdognews.com

How to spot a geek

I don't mean the cool kind. Not the, wow-you're-smart-and-know-all-kinds-of-useful-techy-cool-nerdy things. Not that kind. I mean the truly geeky, the embarrassing-to-admit-you-hang-out-with-them kind. I think producing a spreadsheet like below while planning a party might be a clue.

Things I Fall For

I not-so-secretly love fall. Everyone I know seems to love the season they were born in, probably because as a child it meant good things, parties, presents, etc. I whine about having to rake roughly 10 million leaves, but I'd gladly rake my yard forever, if it meant I wouldn't be shoveling snow in 10 degree weather or mowing the grass in mid-August when it is 110. I had the best weekend, and it wasn't that exciting. We cleaned up the yard, trimmed trees, attempted once again to murder my neighbors out of control vine collection, cleaned the house top to bottom, had friends hang out on the deck, drank dark beers and went furniture shopping. (We didn't buy anything. We shop past the point of it being fun, then impulsively buy things on the internet. That's how we roll. )

We drank Paulaner's Oktoberfest, Boulevard Bob's 47, Lowenbrau Original, and a healthy dose of Gentleman Jack was administered amongst the guys. Somebody brought some 12 year Elijah Craig, and this was a wonderful development, I was told. I am more of a beer sort of girl, regardless what tales anyone has told to you, related to vodka or tequila. I was young and foolish once too.

Next weekend my mom is coming to visit, and then after that I am off to Vegas to celebrate turning 31. It just sounded like the good, adult, responsible thing to do.

Engraved Invitation

When: This Saturday evening, Oct 20th
Where: My backyard
Why: Good drinks, random tunes, cheap seating and awesome company
RSVP: email me

Fall is officially here, but the leaves are still on the trees. That means that this weekend is probably one of the last weekends we will be able to spend completely rake-free! It will also be perfect weather. These are reason enough for us to declare a celebration.

It's a house party, a fall deck party, a much delayed Oktoberfest, an excuse to have open flames in our backyard, and basically a decent setting to sit around, drink, and talk to some very cool people.

Come enjoy a crisp fall evening on the deck with some tasty beverages and snacky treats. We'll provide a selection of Oktoberfest beers, spiced cider and mulled wine, as well as finger food munchies. Feel free to bring anything (or anyone) you'd like. I'd recommend bringing a sweater or a sweatshirt.

Field Trip!

Our employee summer party is taking place this afternoon in the kind-of-still new Muelbach Suite at the Boulevard Brewery. There will be trivia, and beer, and like, 300 co-workers. OK, probably not all 300 will show. Because some people actively avoid fun and beer and other people. They cannot be helped. It should be a lovely afternoon. I'm hoping to get a sneak peek at whatever is brewing and bubbling down stairs in those giant silver vats. If I do, you know, I'll share.

Happy New Year!

Omygod, I have to go back to work on Tuesday. It's been too long. I haven't gotten out of bed before 9 am in a long long time. Tuesday morning is going to be a little unpleasant.



We had a small Festivus shindig on Friday. The Feats of Strength were abandoned, and I was glad, because I really didn't want to see a bunch of late 20 to early 30 year old dudes wrestling in my living room. The Airing of Grievances were too late in the evening for me, and I was already nodding off. Or not speaking well. Or both. But it was fun, and I am so glad everyone came. Trey brought me a whole six pack of the New Belgium Brewery's 2 Below, which was really quite tasty. It was my first beer of the night, and I dug it a lot. I had tried to pick up some more Nutcracker Ale, but the store down the street was out, and the deadline for hiding the dishes was looming, so I thought I was out of luck. BeerAdvocate classifies 2 Below as an ESB, or Extra Special/Strong Bitter, which just means that it is a little more aggressive than your average beer in terms of hops and alcohol content, but nothing overpowering. It is really not bitter at all, but balanced between hops and malts. I drank it right out of the bottle, like a classy broad, so I didn't really look at color or head, but it is a basic copper colored ale, and it was quite quite tasty.



Mel & Nate (Melanie & Nathan? Sorry, I have an obsession with nicknames, because my name is nickname-averse...) brought me a bottle of this. Delirium Tremens. I cracked it open and immediately drank it all. (Except that little bit the Husband snagged.) Yummers. It is a Belgian Pale Ale, with 8.5% alcohol content. Whoo, but it didn't taste as strong as you would think. But I should have had more food at the party, this is for certain. I had to pour it into a pilsner glass, since that is what I had handy, and I had to share. The beer is straw-colored, almost golden, and the flavor is smooth, almost fruity. I thought that the mouthfeel was extremely light, but the Husband, who had been drinking Bud Light, called it a "thick beer." The head on this was super fluffy, and I caught some crap for bad pouring. Deserved, I am sure, but it had one heck of a head!


Nate/Nathan brought something dark and fierce and reminiscent of motor oil, from the Great Divide Brewing Co. I stole a sip and it was delish. Ah, here it is : Yeti Imperial Stout. I've seen their stuff pop up in KC stores lately, so I guess that will be my beer next adventure.


PLEASE be careful tonight, if you are headed out. It's amateur hour out there, so take cabs, be safe, and I hope that you greet 2007 with a tall glass of water and some quality time on the couch.

A Festivus! For the rest of us!

I'm bringing out the aluminum pole, preparing my list for the Airing of Grievances, and strength training for the Feats of Strength. Festivus is among us. Our celebration will be Friday, December 29th. It will be awesome. And there will be festive beer, like the Nutcracker Ale I bought last night. It is delicious. Mostly a warm, caramel tinged amber ale, this version gives a little sense of the season with pine, and maybe even citrusy twangs. The head on this beer is decent (thick & frothy) if you are lucky enough to find it on tap, but out of the bottle it tends to be weak and light. That's ok, if you never pour it OUT of the bottle, you kind of miss that part anyway!

B Side

Are we on the flip side yet? I'm exhausted. One more week until we do the Vegas thing, which I am SO looking forward to, I can't even explain. Fall used to be my favorite time of year, as a kid, what with the start of school and Halloween and my birthday. In high school and college it meant crunchy walks and football games. Now it means bagging 60+ bags of leaves and wishing it wouldn't rain again so I could paint the porch. Ah, adulthood. On the plus side, our kitchen is awesome. So awesome. I think I am going to have to learn to actually cook now. Baking and fixing dinner are not the same as really knowing how to cook. When things are happier, we'll have a party of some sort. Post-Thanksgiving, pre-holiday, perhaps? Dark beverages, fattening food, and the like.

Go Inside And Get My Pickle

We had a party two weekends ago, to celebrate the new deck and The Husband's b-day. We bought volumes of beer, and some people made some comments about the state of our fridge. Primarily the fact that it contained no food, a few condiments, and lots and lots and lots of beer. We also had buckets of ice full of beer on the deck. We had a bit leftover, but it's been going quickly. Tonight will contain a trip to the liquor store. Sure, we have tequila and rum and vodka and mixers. But I am running out of beer. I am thinking about a novelty label like Black Sheep's Holy Grail, or maybe Bell's Oberon summer ale. Whatever it is, I need it to be kept really really cold. Weather.com says that at 6 pm, it will still be 93 degrees, and feel like 98. Better than yesterday - it was still 106 at 7 pm.

I'm a planner

A beer sort of girl should have a sort of Oktoberfest, don't you think? I'm planning a party. In the Sosenhausen Biergarten. That is now the name of my backyard. October is a long time to wait, but it also means I'll have a lot of time to prepare. And get the patio stones out of my imagination and into the area of the yard that I refer to as the mudpit. Start making your suggestions for bier now. You know you want to be invited.

Four Day Weekend

I love summer holiday weekends. BBQs, things exploding, bug spray and sunscreen. And beer. Frosty beer bottles plucked from the big metal ice bucket that lives on a deck. That sounds like it is a beer tree or something. Hmm, beer tree.

So anyway, I am actually making a list of beers I want to drink this weekend. Beers that go with hamburgers, spicy BBQ, lots of friends, and that are perfect for kicking back in a screened porch, doing the Sunday crossword puzzle with a ceiling fan lazily spinning overhead. (I don't do soduku.)

So without much further ado, here is the 2006 Fourth of July Weekend Beer Girl List:

Sam Adams Light
Spaten Premium Lager
Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat (with a lemon wedge, please)
Hefeweizen
Shiner Summer Stock

Stick it in the fridge

The Husband's company open house is this Thursday. We went shopping this weekend for the stuff that doesn't require constant refrigeration, including wine & beer. It was a case of "two for the party, one for home." On pretty much everything. Good times. But even after all of those purchases, what did I end up drinking last night? Bacardi and cola. Because they get the job done.