geekdom.
i should probably clarify that as beer geekdom... richmonds beer week ended on friday and i certainly donated large parts of my wallet and liver to the cause. a quick rundown of the events/brews i partook in:
legend brewery: lunch, tastings (brown, ipa cask, pale ale, porter), brewery tour, lots more brown...
cap alehouse (d'town): dfh india brown, st bernardus abt 12, art show benefiting ms society, ten-fidy, dinner, flying dog ba porter and single-simcoe casks
wine & beer westpark: ommegange beer theatre sampling hennepin, dubble, adoration, three philosophers and cup-o-kindess.
mekong: stillwater artisanal virginia launch party with tastings of saison darkly and existence black ipa in a dry-hopped cask. lots and lots of the existence...
williamsburg alewerks: brewery tour and stocked up on cafe royale for the cellar.
somewhere in there there was a stop at our fav bottle shop for a mix/match case of various bombers/750s and other assorted brews.
no, i am not an alcolholic. yet...
homebrewing.
i dabbled in it a few months ago with disastrous results. of course, i couldn't accurately know if the batch was ready to ferment as my girlfriend broke my hydrometer and i could barely get my stockpot up to a boil on my piece-of-shit cook-top and i was using a god knows how old ingredients kit. nah, it couldn't have been any of those things...
well, i'm about to begin again. i still need to replace that hydrometer and i need to purchase a few odds/ends but for the most part i am good to go. picked up a turkey fryer with a large 34 quart, 8.5 gallons to you and me, kettle with a built in spigot/valve this past weekend; that will solve my lack of heat from my cook-top issue and give me a much needed piece of equipment for when i, eventually, switch to all grain.
going through several recipes now as i will need to know that to determine what ingredients i will need. i'm thinking a nice brown ale... something session-able.
Labels: ber, homebrewing
memories.
well, that didn't last long (posting at least weekly...)
might as well recap the past couple of weeks: went to the local pub for the usa v england match - we drew - and got sick. the sickness started easing up a few days later for phish @ portsmouth. good show but no jams. :( group trip to mekong where we continually get served way too much food and some of the best beer in the world for ridiculously cheap prices, if we are charged at all. it was emilys birthday and ka brought out a bottle of a japanese ale, hitochino nest white owl... very good! i myself had a bottle of nostrodomus then split a bottle of chimay grande reserve with chad. a few days later jen and i attended a tasting at mekong of flying dogs gonzo imperial porter and the same brew aged for 3 months in a stranahan colorado whiskey oak barrel. while i appreciate porters, some of these bourbon barrel aged ones just arent my thing; tooooo boozy! jen loved them though! i had to grab some of the unibroue trois pistoles on tap just because. yummmmmm. a few days later i hit the local craft beer store, once upon a vine, to stock up on some brews for the upcoming phish @ merriweather weekend only to stumble into another tasting! i can't remember all 5 of the brews being tasted but the weyerbacher fourteen definitely stood out! grabbed a 4-pack and some other randoms - of course my 750 of gulden draak. top off the week with phish @ merriweather - great shows - and i'm up to date.
chad and i leave for more phish on thursday then jen and i head up to rhode island for a wedding this weekend. hopefully can score some russian river on the drive to the wedding and back...have to go by philly!
ber.
yes, ber. not beer...ber. that is the correct pronunciation, in my minds throat of all that is great and tasty from the brewers of belgian ale. no, i didn't forget about lager and port and stout, etc. i am a ale man - whether that be trappiste, pale, brown, ipa, double, tripple or quad. ale.
two weeks ago i was rudely informed of a place on the other side of town that is known to be thee place any self respecting afficionado of belgian brew should know about. by rudely i mean gracisouly. -thanks scott. how i was not informed of this place in its previous 15 years of existence is beyond me and is something i shall bear as long as my taste buds live. this place is mekong and is the brainchild of one an something or nother...i dare not try to disrespect his name by attempting to type it. all i know is that it is vietnamese. mekong is about vietnamese food and belgian brew. maybe in reverse order...
"enter the draak" means beware the power of the draaaken. that's what the multiple glasses of gulden draak told me anyways. the naked draak told me something different but i ignored him as he was naked and the last thing one wants is for a naked draak to be telling him something!
now i begin my quest on finding more gulden draaks to fill my dome with. hell, maybe there is something out there even better than a gulden draak? nah...i don't think there is a platinum draak :(
Labels: ber