This topic came up last night when I was doing the Coffee Porter throw down, that one of the tasters didn’t have a lot of experience, and was making comments like “this is really full bodied like a lager”, and “I like all the hops in the porter”, he really had no clue what he […]

It has been a quest as old as time itself, man searching for the secret to lift the affects of aging.  The magical fountain of youth, just drink the water and roll back the clock!  What an amazing concept, people trying to reverse the aging process and be forever young.  We’ve sung songs about it, […]

Now one thing that a lot of people on this blog probably don’t know about me is that I used to live in Alaska.  I lived just outside Anchorage in a little town called Eagle River, and one of my family’s favorite activities while we were there was to go to the start of the […]

When I first discovered the world of craft beers, I wanted to try everything all at once.  I started with Belgians, and I’d uncork a big bottle just about every night to experience the uncharted (for me) wonders contained within.  After a few weeks, I realized I probably need to pace myself, and started spacing […]

Well, it’s the first weekend after all the holiday madness, and I have to admit, I’m a little pickled.  I took the week off between Christmas and New Years and enjoyed my lack of responsibility with quite a bit of (mostly) responsible drinking.   Lots of beer and a good deal of whiskey as well. […]

Otis was the town drunk on the Andy Griffith Show.  He used to come into the jail voluntarily to sleep off his drink from the night before.  It wasn’t like he was a threat or anything because he was always on foot, but his wife would bitch at him unmercifully if he came home in that […]

I came across this article by Patrick Orr from the Idaho Statesman (and I’m the brother who lives in New Jersey!) which looks back at what the 2000’s did for craft brewing. Turns out it was a big decade indeed.

Wilford Brimley has long been the image that comes to mind when you think about oats.  We finally get past the image on the Quaker Oats package, and traded one curmudgeon for another.  Seriously how did the oat get so unlucky?  It would be like if C. Everet Coop started doing advertisements for the healthful benefits […]

It’s a threat as old as Christmas. If you’re a rotten kid, you’ll wind up with a lump of coal in your stocking. It’s the ultimate Christmas FAIL, the dark reward for a pattern of anti-social behavior. Well, I’ve found a lump of coal that’s so delicious, I’ve decided to be very bad from here […]

Sometimes you really want to like something, but the spark’s just not there. For me that includes the new Battlestar Galactica, that hot girl I dated briefly in college, and stuffwhitepeoplelike.com (I get it, we’re uptight). These are all things that other people are crazy about and looked interesting to me, but I just don’t […]

Don Vito Corleone was famous for his offers you can’t refuse, do so and your life was mmmm…lets say, in question.  Marlin Brando played the mobster in this quintessential role.  So if you are so bold as to name a beer after the Godfather it best live up to the name.  The folks at Laughing […]

Well I find myself back in Grangeville, Idaho.  Another project meeting at the highway district tomorrow at 1:00pm.  With the weather being unpredictable I chose to come up the day before and hang out at the hotel room for the evening while I watched the end of the Independence Bowl and the final broadcast of […]

A man in the water is one of the worst things that can happen to a sailing vessel.  Suddenly the entire focus shifts from whatever the mission of the boat is to saving that sailor.  It is a singular focus that shifts the mission of the vessel radically and immediately.  It is no wonder that […]

The origins of Chicago’s Christmas Ship date back to merchants in the 1800s that would sail wooden hulled ships to Michigan and purchase Christmas trees from the Indians to sell to people in the City of Chicago.  Their business boomed for the better part of two decades and then through ship wrecks and other more […]

My wife just gave me a membership to a craft beer of the month club.  When I asked her for details about who’s club I was now a member of, she wasn’t sure.  But she said it came down between two that looked good, and she went with the one that wasn’t affiliated with the late Michael Jackson.  […]