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brewvana (100 items)

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May 07, 2008
8:59
If a beer blogger could have a beer list, what would it look like?
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There are so many factors. First, you’d simply want it to kick ass. You’d want a hundred taps with a complete range of styles and breweries the world over. You’d want killer local beer. You’d want cask. You’d want bottle conditioned. You’d want to outdo everything that’s ever been done. But this isn’t a dream list, [...]
May 05, 2008
8:24
Dandelion Wine
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“Just the yellow stuff. No green.” That’s what the dude was emphatic about, and I could see his point. I took notes on his process, because this stuff was tasty. Yes, one day I would have a yard full of the weeds, and I would do something good with them. Dandelion wine. Well, one day has arrived, [...]
May 04, 2008
14:21
Beeralicious day of nostalgia
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“The first step of the cure is…a kiss.” –Gene Simmons It’s been a bloody good day. I’m on the tail end of brewing my Ceremony Abbey Ale and am soaked in good nostalgia. For one, I haven’t brewed in a while. My last two batches were 10 gallons each and as your math skills might deduce, they’ve lasted [...]
May 03, 2008
8:49
The Session #15–How did it all start?
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My mom and dad met on a blind date. They married. I arrived. I had the beer gene. That’s the long and short of it. But it’s always the long story that’s more interesting, right? I always looked forward to drinking beer, way back when I was a kid. I wasn’t wooed by cartoon characters or curvy [...]
April 29, 2008
10:07
Happy brewvana Day
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Cheers! Prost! Salud! and Yee-Haw! Today’s brewvana’s birthday. This pensive little beer blog has been pouring harmony, beer and joy into cyberspace for one year today. It’s been fun looking back on this year in a number of different ways: experiences, beers, friends. There’s a lot of energy that goes into a focused beer life like [...]
April 16, 2008
10:32
Testing, Testing (and getting testy?)
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My restaurant’s coming together, with great progress yesterday on the only big glitch. Making the day even better was, of course, beer. I’ve installed a shank system for my two taps, and ordered a keg earlier than necessary so I could test them (and reward my volunteer labor). My first delivery came yesterday, and so the [...]
April 07, 2008
8:57
Truth in waning
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Dear Readers: If you’ve been checking in lately, you’ll have noticed that I haven’t been. If you’ve been reading me for a long time, you’ll have noticed that while beer is a big part of my life, it’s not the only part, certainly not the most important. My family is. Right now, I’m heavily involved in opening a [...]
March 24, 2008
10:44
On the Opinion Expresser
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“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson Or a lotta thinkers. Everybody’s a critic, or so the saying goes. Stan at Appellation Beer brought up the question of the Beer Critic’s role (A [beer] critic’s job? Demolishing the bad?), and a great flow of excellent comments followed. I’d encourage you [...]
March 22, 2008
20:47
Slacker Alert!
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Sorry guys. I’ve been a major slacker. The excuse is that I’m busy. I’m opening a restaurant. I have a family. Beer is a great part of my life, but it’s not the only part. This wouldn’t be brewvana if that were the case. I’m not saying I haven’t had any beer lately. I surely have. Amazing [...]
March 15, 2008
9:27
Why you shouldn’t have to be 21 to look at a beer site
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I really value all my readers and the comments they make on this site. There have been many good views expressed and many positive words on the content I post. Thanks. However, all you old-fart, beer enthusiast, blog readers got blown away this week by my favorite comment of all time: Thank You for this very nice report [...]
March 14, 2008
8:12
Thirsty Thursday–Shoot to Thrill
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Just last week I was going on about the particularly aggressive winter we’re enjoying. And wouldn’t you know it, this week I get to talk about another nuance of a Midwestern Winter: the part about the huge temperature variation. One day it’s zero, and the next day it’s 50 degrees. One day it’s dull brown, and [...]
March 12, 2008
14:54
Trans-Atlantic Beer Tasting Simul-Post
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Wish you were here… Beer is such a lovely libation. It’s refreshing, flavorful and it brings friends together. It occurred to me recently that I’d cultivated a pair of cyber-friends that would be a great joy to sit down with for a pint. The problem is that we’re thousands of miles, an ocean and seven time [...]
March 11, 2008
8:15
Grandma Beach’s idea of cough syrup
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I’ve been dodging my boys’ bullets for the last week, but finally I’ve succumbed to a cold. I’ve got all this beer lying around; how could I not have something with a cure involved? So I’ve got my wife’s great-grandma in mind today. Here’s her recipe for cough syrup. I take it like NyQuil, and sleep [...]
March 10, 2008
9:41
Pub crawl in beer portraits
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This weekend we converged on Des Moines for a bit of a crawl. Dinner at Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Company, and beers at El Bait Shop and The Red Monk. My aunt and uncle, and boys, were there for the chow, but the real fun came when Wonderful Beer Wife Michelle, Cousin Matt, Cousin-in-law [...]
March 06, 2008
19:24
Thirsty Thursday–Summit’s Great Northern Porter
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Because it’s cold and northern-like, I figured on a beer from a land both cold and Northern for today. If you’re from a Southern location, you just can’t relate to what is happening in my neck of the woods. Unlike many around here, I’m not complaining. Snow and a better version of cold is one of [...]
March 04, 2008
21:54
Beer and The Hays Code
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Here I go again. Taking something that has nothing to do with beer and, well, turning it into a big beer thing. With a little more time on my hands, or simply a stronger level of determination, I’m sure I could turn this one into a lengthy series. I’ve decided to spare you that and just [...]
March 03, 2008
17:28
Hang out in brewvana this weekend
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You don’t have to win a contest or anything! I don’t know if any brewvana readers will be around Des Moines this weekend, but I will. If you wanna get together for a beer, shoot me an email–jwmongrel [AT] yahoo [DOT] com. We’ll be hitting Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Company on Friday evening for dinner and [...]
March 02, 2008
9:45
Pain in my eis
» ‎ brewvana

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For the sake of transparency, I thought I’d share my eis bock experience with you. Lest you get the idea that everything is always peachy in brewvana, that I’m an amazing, faultless brewer. I could project that if I wanted, you know. But there’s no room for BS in brewvana. So, with great expectations, I took a [...]
February 28, 2008
20:23
Thirsty Thursday–happy day
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It’s a great day for a guy like me. At 5 pm, I showed up for the city council meeting. I wore my sweet Irish hat to look all sophisticated and whatnot. That was canceled out by the part about me having holes in my paint-speckled pants–I’d forgotten my change of clothes in my rush [...]
February 27, 2008
9:09
Short, sweet and wise
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“Wisdom is made up of ten parts, nine of which are silence–the tenth, brevity.” -Unknown After waiting and dealing with numerous delays, we closed on our building last Friday, and all my minutes, spare and otherwise, have been devoted to transforming it into the Electric Burrito. Come and see us if you’re ever in our neck of [...]
February 24, 2008
10:46
Put Some Margin into your Beer Life
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“What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.” –Mignon McLaughlin A couple of weeks back, I found myself sick of reading blogs. I noticed that I’d been reading more and more of them. And other beer-related miscellany on the computer. Checking out forums, formulating recipes, researching shank systems, checking [...]
February 21, 2008
9:21
Thirsty Thursday–Rogue Monk Madness
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As soon as he got finished with his hair appointment, my bro-in-low Kyle was ready for a beer. He’s been grooving on the Rogue lineup in his Walk with Better Beer, and recently snagged a bottle of Monk Madness for us to try. With excitement and good cheer, Jimmy and I obliged, neither having tried this [...]
February 19, 2008
14:10
More than 15 Things I Miss About Raleigh and NC
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…in no particular order and not necessarily beer-related 1. NC breweries (especially Duck-Rabbit, Foothills, Pisgah, Green Man, Big Boss and Carolina Brewery) 2. A few beer bars (like The Raleigh Times, The Flying Saucer, Milltown and Barley’s Taproom) 3. Sam’s 4. CARBOY homebrew club and related people and shenanigans 5. A few specific beers that I can’t get here (Nostradamus, [...]
February 16, 2008
9:30
Allagash’s Spontaneous Beer Project
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By now, many beer enthusiasts have seen Allagash Brewing Company’s YouTube video chronicling the use of their koelschip and their brewing of a seriously wild beer. It’s an American-made lambic, produced traditionally, according to Allagash head brewer Jason Perkins “for the first time, as far as we know it, in the US.” For those that haven’t [...]
February 15, 2008
8:07
Thirsty Thursday–catching up and getting ahead
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Kyle, Jimmy and I haven’t done Thursday together for several weeks, so this time, it was really a matter of catching up. Jimmy had two new homebrews I hadn’t tried and I had two he hadn’t tried. We also cracked open a bottle of Sprecher’s Black Bavarian. It smelled great, but tasted oxidized. Not a [...]
February 13, 2008
8:16
More beery places to hang
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Lotsa resources out there. Lotsa communities. Lotsa beer. Lotsa clubs. Lotsa forums. Lotsa blogs. Two beer-related social networks recently cropped up on the scene, and if you’re the beery sort, you might want to check ‘em out. Offering forums, personalized pages and ways to connect with other beer lovers, Aleuminati and Democracy’s Drink, are both great [...]
February 10, 2008
17:03
Bonzo–Beer Geeks in Training
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Today, Mom was out of town. So, out came Beavis and Butt-head; peanut butter, honey and chocolate chip sandwiches; and The White Stripes. Further, Bonzo Soda Company leaped into action, producing its first cream soda. It’s fun watching these two rascals, miniature aficionados, hone their buds and delight in the fruits of their labor. My role is [...]
February 09, 2008
9:57
Freezing my eis off
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the making of Mongrel Brewing Company’s High Voltage Bock and Roll One of the many great perks about living in Iowa is the ability to do your eis bock au naturel. I pulled it from my fridge around 1:30am this morning, scared the droppings out of the handful of deer nosing for grass in my yard and plopped [...]
February 07, 2008
9:11
Thirsty Thursday–Sampling Sanctuary
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Once upon a time, on September 2, 2007, Wilson brewed his first Flanders Red. He’s very patient. He knew this would take some time. Sanctuary spent a week in primary fermentation. It went from a gravity of 1.061 to 1.008 in that time. On September 11, 2007, Wilson racked the beer to secondary, and added Wyeast [...]
February 06, 2008
9:34
Free the Hops needs your support
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For three years, Alabama’s Free the Hops has been working to change bad beer laws. Who’s Free the Hops? From their website: Free The Hops | Alabamians For Specialty Beer is a grassroots, citizen-driven movement solely committed to lifting the 6% alcohol by volume and 1 pint container limits for beer brewed or sold in [...]
February 05, 2008
10:20
The brains behind the bar
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Boak got me thinking last week, when she posted about the etiquette of taking your pint back. I thought about myself in that situation. Generally, I’m the mellow sort. If I were drinking a beer that seemed off, I’d probably just put up with it. I’ve got English blood. That’s compounded by being raised in the [...]
February 01, 2008
9:25
The Session #12–Barley Wine
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There’s something to be said for not knowing anything about the beer you are about to try. You could learn something. You might discover you know something. And you might discover some unexpected pleasure. The beers I have for today’s Session are books I judged by the cover. The first is Flying Dog Brewing Company’s Horn Dog [...]
January 31, 2008
8:27
Thirsty Thursday–lime research
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I don’t really believe this, but I’ll say it anyway. You can’t always drink beer. Sometimes one has other work to do. And for me this week, that has meant putting some thought into margaritas. Work, work, work. I’m opening a Mexican restaurant in a couple of months, and with a lot of groundwork laid, as [...]
January 30, 2008
9:53
Shut up about Shut Up About Barclay Perkins
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I’m sure this is what my wife’s thinking. She’s always thinking something. If she’s anything like me, she thinks about porter. A lot. Lest you were worried that I’d run out of topics for my blog, I wanted to point out that I’ve enjoyed reading Ron Pattinson’s Shut Up About Barclay Perkins for quite a while, [...]
January 27, 2008
9:47
Beer’s been everywhere, man
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“I’ve been everywhere, man Crossed the deserts bare, man I’ve breathed the mountain air, man Of travel I’ve had my share, man I’ve been everywhere” -Johnny Cash So I’m taking in a little piece of rural Americana yesterday. It’s been years and years since I’ve been to an auction. I used to go with my dad. My gramps, like many farm-dude [...]
January 25, 2008
8:12
Thirsty Thursday–Kyle’s First Batch
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The Good Beer Army strengthened its numbers this past week by one more as Kyle popped open the first bottle of his first batch. This knucklehead of a brother-in-law couldn’t just settle for starting out with a pale ale or an amber. He had to fool around right out of the gates. He is a [...]
January 22, 2008
9:29
Lager Rhythms
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“Let it flow. Let yourself go. Slow and low, that is the tempo.” –Beastie Boys After eleven years of brewing ales, I’ve started my first lager. On December 30, I brewed 10 gallons of bock. I pitched the yeast the next morning, with the wort at about 50F. No activity for at least 3 days, then slowly [...]
January 21, 2008
7:43
Not exactly long, lost…
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….but I haven’t seen this cousin in an awful long time. In my mind, he might be in junior high, but in reality, he’s got a bus load of kids and I’ve only just met his wife. I guess I’ve been away for awhile. In any case, it’s good to see a cousin (or anyone, for [...]
January 17, 2008
14:44
Three Blind Macros
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A couple of week’s ago, Kyle, Jimmy and I sat down with three cans of beer, nine cups and a pen. We labeled the bottoms of the cups to reflect what would be inside: Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite. Then we numbered the cups, poured and tasted. Blind tastings are fun and sneaky, and [...]
January 16, 2008
9:33
Over-analysis Syndrome
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True story: A week or two ago, I’m walking down the street and I catch this aroma. My nostrils perked up. What is that? I thought. Not the scent of a beautiful woman. Not the scent of a warm Krispy Kreme doughnut. It was sweet, fruity and perplexing as I scanned the files of my [...]
January 13, 2008
10:21
My new brewery
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After much debate, I’ve brought my brewing setup indoors. Of course many homebrewers, myself included, start indoors–on the stove top. Like other brewers I know, I eventually took it outside to avoid destroying and tying up the kitchen. Cleaning up a boil over with a hose is so much easier. And a propane burner is faster [...]
January 10, 2008
8:39
6 women, 6 decades, 6 beers
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A tasting to engage women in brewvana Is it any wonder that there are few female beer enthusiasts? With the macro-breweries focusing on babes in bikinis rather than flavor and education in their advertising campaigns, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that women are a little turned off by the whole beer scene. The [...]
January 09, 2008
9:04
Ingersoll Wine Merchants
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I recently stopped in at Ingersoll Wine Merchants, located in West Des Moines. Easy to get to, just off I-235 on 50th Street, it’s affiliated with Ingersoll Wine and Spirits, which is on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines. Operating with an emphasis on niche wines, this location is smaller, with a warmer shopping atmosphere. But [...]
January 07, 2008
10:04
A cheesy beer life
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I find that a beer life, especially for a homebrewer, is also a foodie life, a coffee-soaked life, and sometimes a little bacony. This week, my life got cheesier than ever before. For years, I’ve been saying I need to start making cheese. This Christmas, my family gave me a kick in the pants to get [...]
January 05, 2008
11:18
Illuminating Roundup–The Session #11
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It was an illuminating day, indeed, thanks to the many beery bloggers that have involved themselves in this lovely little project known as The Session. This month, we’ve discussed doppelbocks, a glorious liquid bread that’s none too ubiquitous in the grocery store aisles. I chose this beer because it’s one I love, but due to scarcity, [...]

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brewvana (100 items)

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