I asked my sister for some beer

She went up to Santa Rosa, so I asked her for some beer from Russian River Brewing. She brought me back a case from Eel River Brewing in Fortuna.

I'd describe the Pale Ale as an english style, but I's describe any pale ale as english if it doesn't reek of cascade.

The Porter as dark and roasty just like a porter should be. Or is that a stout that should be roasty? Stout is roasted barley and Porter is black patent. I could taste some hops in there too.

The amber was what every other amber is. Had a bit of the fat tire taste, which is my least favorite beer by new belgium.

Buy a Dumb T-Shirt

I made t-shirts on cafepress.
the are black and say what sould jesus brew?
you should go buy one.

Christ Mas Beer

ok the christmas beer is in the bottles. We added some yeast, Safbrew T-58, and priming sugar. Two weeks in the warm room, the chest freezer with a lightbulb in an old stock pot controlled by a Ranco digital controller, at 59F and it'll be christmas time again. It's just now got cold enough in x-oakland to call it christmas time anyways.

XMAS Beer 2005

um, it's still in the kegs. kirk and i haven't had a chance to bottle it yet, but it is still coming. it's a belgian strong pale, from a recipe from "Brew Like a Monk" that vinnie from russian river contributed. it's about 8% abv.

for 60 liters finished beer the grain bill is
mash @ 67.5 C for 90 minutes, then recirculate till clear, sparge for 90 minutes

7.25kg belgian pilsner
5.5kg american 2 row
600g munich malt
600g white wheat
1.2kg maui gold raw sugar

60g pelletized kent goldings @ 80 mins
30g pelletized kent goldings @ 50 mins
20g pelletized kent goldings @ 20 mins
20g pelletized saaz @ 0 mins

s.g. 17 Plato
f.g. 2 Plato

pitched WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast from an 10 liter starter.

You know you're in trouble when you need to use a carboy for your starter.


we still need to add sugar and yeast for bottle conditioning and the bottle 'em.

please send money for a conical

i was brewing until 21:00 on saturday. not counting putting all the equipment away. i wanted to repitch the yeast from the batch of rossi red 125 into the batch of rossi red 250. i need to watch a couple of races still. i heard from jimi that he crashed out. i was gonna just rack the 125 from the carboy to the keg and then put the 250 wort on top of the yeast, but then the beer stone was bothering me, so i cleaned and sanitized a carboy, then cleaned and sanitized that carboy and then well whatever. you either know what i'm talking about or you don't. do you even have your motogp tix davie ninja? do you even know what motogp is?

pat got flowers from his hop vine. i just got leaves. and wilty ones at that.

so send those donations to the paypal accout of seregmcw@yahoo.com

history of brewing in alameda and oakland

i went to the alameda free library to research brewing in alameda. guy at the front desk sent me up to the research desk. the research desk er um person looked at me cockeyed when i told her i was looking for the history of brewing in alameda. i mentioned that i knew of a closed brewery called the tied house, but i figured that there was probably someone brewing between the gold rush and prohibition. she looked in a file of newspaper clippings, found none, and said to try the oakland history room at the main library. on my way out, front desk guy asked me how it went, then suggested i speak to mr. gunn at the alameda historic museum. i went there, but mr. gunn is only in on saturdays. i'd have to come back. it was monday. i took the boy home, this had all started as a long bike ride, and headed off to the oakland main library.

i stayed there way too long.

first i read some american brewers association books from 1911. i found mention of a few breweries in oakland, but nothing in alameda. read some interesting stuff in siebel's history of brewing in america.

upstairs i looked through a card catalog of local junk and found reference to the oakland brewery, the golden west brewery, the brooklyn brewery, raspillier brewery(may be berkeley though), kramm brewery, and the palace brewery of ALAMEDA brewery founded 1881. golden west had swallowed all of them up at one time or another, but that's the way most of the american breweries went. if prohibition didn't get 'em double-u double-u two did.

i had my proof of brewing in alameda.

now the details.

some more legwork back in alameda revealed that the palace brewery was on central ave between 5th and 6th. henry schuler held the palace's grand opening in 1885 with bock and 2 year old porter. 15 gallons of the regular stuff went for $3 while the aged porter was $4, both delivered free in alameda.

this wasn't schuler's first brewery though. he started the alameda brewery in 1881, a few blocks from where he started the palace, until about 1886 when victor ruthardt owned it. it seems that schuler sold to ruthardt, opened a brewery a few blocks away, and the drove him out of business. by 1887 the palace offered 3 month old kulmbacher bock, cream steam lager, and 1 year old porter.

more later..

went to the lucky 13 alameda

i just poured a glass of russian river damnation batch 002.

the wife just got back from nyc and fell asleep at 7 or so. the boy at around 8. it is friday and i have been taking care of him since friday. i missed drake's, and i've been drinking homebrew almost exclusively this week, so i thought i'd walk down to the lucky 13 for something belgian.

the first FAUCET handle i noticed was from russian river. i got excited until i noticed it was the esb. i'll drink a beer from vinnie before most others, but it's not his esb that i was after. wow that sounds gay. there was stone's ipa and arrogant bastard. hoegaarden. i'll skip the pbr, fosters, pear cider, and what ever other swill they had that is beneath me..what? what i mean is i wanted something belgian. i was gonna order the hoegaarden(not ho garden) until i looked one more time and saw the chimay trippel. i ordered it sitting next to a guy drinking what must have been a newcastle brown. the barkeep placed my fancy trippel in a fancy de koninck glass in front of me. the guy next to me says he says that's a fancy beer glass, so i says to him i says:
"not a fan of belgians?"
"i just try not to pay five fifty for a beer"
"yeah but it's belgian" i says
"i've never been to belgium"
"i haven't been either"
well that's not really going anywhere. i'll just say that he paid 8 bucks for his two, that i saw, newcastles, and i only paid 5.50 for my one chimay served in a de koninck glass. i'll bet i'm drunkedr that him AND i had a better beer. newcastle has corn in it like my sheit. umm trippel. umm chimay. peppery and spicey err spicy. now i'm drinking damnation and listening to the strokes and typing. so take that.

i had something about leaving the boy with lee at rosamunde and going to toronado yesterday to try a monk's cafe flemish sour ale, but then i didn't write it. but i just did. that was good. but monk's didn't make it. but it is belgian.

i got my motogp tickets for laguna seca next year so who's gay now?