Gurrrrl, Where You Been?

I’ve always wanted to go on sabbatical, but I thought it was only something women with frizzy red hair who drink whiskey straight and smoke long slender cigarettes did. And professors. They do it too. And while I have the frizzy red hair down and I’ve been known to sip some bourbon, I don’t smoke and I just took an unintentional hiatus. Nothing as cool as a full fledged sabbatical. 

Drink One for Dad

For those of you who have read my For the Love of Beer post (which is all of you, I’m sure) you know that my dad is a huge inspiration to me both beerically and in general life living. My dad believed in living simply and deliberately. My dad believed in doing things for yourself and doing it well. What is the point of doing something if you’re going to do a shitty job?
These are principles I try hard to cultivate in myself. In a time when it is increasingly easier to just pay someone to do something for you or to just buy commodities, I try to remember my dad and do it myself. And when I can’t do it myself, I try to support the local people who love what they’re doing and are good at it. This is why my dad loved craft beer and how he passed that love down to me. When you make something yourself, you can taste that love. In the craft beer world, I’ve always felt like the approach is to make the best product possible to share with friends. The fact that it is a booming business is just a perk. These folks would still be making excellent beers and providing excellent memories if the profit wasn’t there.
My dad died two years ago and I work hard to make the days that have passed since a living testament to the way he lived and the way he raised me. I grow a modest vegetable garden, not because I have to, but because I’m so damn proud of those veggies and herbs I put into the food I feed my family. I’ll loudly announce, “And this heirloom tomato was grown from a seed by in our backyard, and mixed with herbs from the garden to make the lovely sauce you’re eating now.” I’m very proud of all my veggie children and the bright future they have feeding and nourishing my family and friends. This is also why I brew beer. I love beer so much, that I felt like I should understand how it’s made, incorporate local ingredients, and support local businesses. Not every batch has been amazing, but I’m learning a lot about something I am passionate about, and I’m able to share it with people. They can taste what I care a great deal about, and they in return care a little more too. I recently shared a ginger wheat pale ale with my Grandpa, mom, sister and husband. It felt so great to sit with extended family drinking beer my husband and I made together. These are the most important moments in our lives.
What I’m really getting at on this beautiful, sunny Father’s Day is to pay a little tribute to those that shaped who you are today. Those you admire. Try to live deliberately and make something for yourself.

The Marriage Ref- Homebrewer’s Edition

Marriage is hard (no shit). It takes a lot of compromise, follow through, team work and just letting go of the little stuff. Two weekends ago found Brock and I in a fairly impromptu brewing situation. We looked up a recipe on-line. We had seen a youtube video sometime back when we first started brewing that was a lemon ginger rye. With summer coming we thought that a ginger wheat would be really refreshing. The recipe we found was a ginger wheat pale ale. Now wheat beers are not usually this aggressively hopped, so it seemed like a fun challenge to lose the kit and buy the ingredients to follow an adventurous recipe.

If You Don’t Respond to This, You’ll Die Alone and Other Things I Learned from Chain Letters

I’ve been really busy lately. A bit of overtime and a recent job promotion (thank you, thank you) had me a bit behind on my reading and posting and other general blog related activities. I did however notice some traffic coming from The Dogs of Beer. As I sat down and started catching up on my reading, I realized I was tagged in a mutha truckin’ post! Clearly I am easily excited, but, I’m convinced that it also means rad beer lovers out there are loving my rad beer blog as much as I love theirs. This wasn’t just any post, mind you, it was a CHAIN LETTER POST. I think we all love/hate these. As bloggers we love pretending people give a shit about what we have to say, thus a questionnaire is right up the blogger’s alley. I think pretty much everyone hates getting those threats of lost love, the pressure to threaten others with threats of lost love, and having your email box fill up with posts from I Can Haz Cheezburger, or whatever the hell those cats are talking about.

You like me, you really like me

I began writing this blog (after a couple false starts) with lots of encouragement from my husband, a need to do something more creative with my time, and because as I age and drink more beer, it is becoming pretty damn personal. My inaugural post in December of 2011 was about my first attempt at home brewing with my trusty partner in crime and life, Brock. Granted that beer came out a little weird, but it was our weird little baby and we loved it anyway. We’ve continued to brew (much more successfully) and our love of beer and brewing continues to grow. 

Allies Win the War!

I’ve been wanting to try this collaboration ale for a while. When it first came out, it was pretty difficult to get ones paws on, but has since become more widely available in single cans or in cute little 4 packs. I say cute because the box and cans are covered in an old-time-y style newspaper print, and it’s, well, cute. According to the legend on the cans, Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi here in Eugene and Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment in San Francisco began their brewing careers together years ago.

Bottle Service

This weekend was a pretty big deal. I survived another year, and if you’re nuts you may think that this year, 2012, will be the last for mankind. So I’ve vowed to make it a good one. On the last day of 2011, Brock and I bottled our first batch of home brew. Although I tasted our pre-bottled brew, it’s hard to say if it will be any good, but I’m feeling pretty good about it. It tasted like beer, at least, just un-carbonated and not at all balanced- but it’s only two weeks old. Let’s give it some time to mature and see what it has to say for itself.
The following is a photo story about Bottling Day: The Last Day of 2011.

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If 2012 promises to be our last year on Earth, at least it’s going to be filled with some good home brewed beer.

Uinta Hopnotch- A Brew Review

I recently had the pleasure of drinking a couple frosty glasses of Uinta (pronounced you-IN-tah) Hopnotch IPA. Now, this is my kind of beer. I was originally introduced to Uinta Brewery on a trip to 16 Tons (sixteentons.biz) for a growler fill. We decided to go with Uinta Brewery’s Dubhe (pronounced “doobie”, such fun/difficult to pronounce names!) which is an Imperial Black IPA named after Utah’s Centennial Star. It was a pretty tasty, complex IPA so when I saw the six pack of Hopnotch at Fred Meyer, I had to go for it.

Uinta Brewery got their start in salt Lake City in 1993. You can read all about it on their website. They have a brew pub and pretty impressive line of brews now. If I ever find myself in SLC, you can bet I’ll make a stop.

After a long day a puppy needs a strong beer

Now on to the good stuff: Hopnotch IPA has a really pleasant, fresh IPA hoppy aroma. It’s pretty alcoholic at 7.3% ABV, but is really smooth and balanced so that alcohol flavor doesn’t smack you in the face, but rather sneaks up like a warm, snuggly bear hug. The flavor is reminiscent of one of my all time favor beers, Ninkasi Maiden the Shade. It’s just a really nice, bold IPA with a crisp, slightly piney finish. This is a beer (and brewery) that I look forward to sampling again.

Poll the Audience

As I go forward with my home brewing I’m curious what readers out there think I should brew as my second beer. So vote- it is your responsibility as Americans. If you vote for the winning beer and I know you, you get a free bottle!

The polls close right before midnight on Dec 31st, right in time for brew day two so get those votes in!

10 Questions for Female Beer Drinkers

I found this list of 10 questions for female beer drinkers at beerutopia http://beerutopia.com/2011/12/22/10-questions-for-female-beer-drinkers/ and thought it would be a good way to introduce myself as a female beer drinking enthusiast and burgeoning home brewer.

1. Why do you drink beer?
I was raised in a family that put a lot of stock in things that are handcrafted and cared about. Homemade means thought, time and effort have been put into something. My family, especially my dad, looked at beer the same way. There are mass produced domestic beers, but then there are the beers that are crafted for people who like beer by people who LOVE beer. I believe that when someone really loves what they’re making, it is something special and it should be enjoyed by as many people as possible.