Monthly Archives: March 2012

A Birthday and a Lot of Love Prevent a Butt Whipping

Growing older is not such a bad thing….I like waking up on this side of the grass. Today is the 13th of March, the day after my 61st birthday and the celebration that went along with it. I had a nice series of calls from friends and family, a handful of meaningful email notes and the Facebook posts that made me feel pretty darned good. Had a great BBQ lunch at the  Goode Co –  My wife scored some really nice tickets for the Houston Rodeo and the Zac Brown Band concert –  We shared the evening with our best friends Beverly and John….it was an almost perfect night. It could have all been spoiled by my “inattention to detail” the evening of the 11th!

On the 11th of March I took one of the two 6L mini-kegs that had been conditioning and “tapped” it. I had chilled it and then installed the spout and CO2 cartridge. I decided to sample a little taste……. 5 or 6 ounces or so just to ensure that it was good…..and yes it WAS! I pulled the short glass of beer and closed the valve on the spout…..or so I thought. When fulled closed you feel it bump a little as it goes fully closed a detente type of valve . When fully closed you also have the option of engaging a toggle lock  to avoid any accidental discharge of beer. The valve will stayed closed without the lock if it is indeed fully closed…….that is where I must have erred. I sampled at 6ish and I went down for the count at about 9:40 PM. Sometime after 11 PM our son Joe came home and went to the back fridge for water or a soda….not a beer and found a very wet floor in front of the fridge and the smell of beer heavy in the air. He called out to my wife who opened the fridge only to have  a cascade of Dirty Honey Blonde ale run out onto the already soaked floor.

Apparently the valve was not fully closed and had emptied an entire 6L mini-keg of good beer as a fine spray inside of the refrigerator. Fortunately my birthday was less than an hour away and she  chose the high road….and let me sleep rather than rousting my sorry butt and putting me to work on the mess. So, love and respect for an aging and feeble minded husband prevented what could have been a serious butt whippin’!

Thanks hun….. I still owe you big time and I sure appreciate the fact that you love me!

One of My Favorite Birthday Cards

Das Dirty Honey Blonde – Es Schmeckt Gut

First Taste

I hope the German I learned back in 1972 translates ok!

I bottled the Dirty Honey Blonde about 10 days ago and I just had to sample it. First impressions….mighty good. I have two 6 Liter bottles and 10-16 oz. bottles sitting in a nice dark place. I think it will benefit from a few more weeks but it is very drinkable now. I have about 4 or 5 more glasses of Belgian Wit in one of the other 6 L bottles and once finished I will tap the “Blonde” and have her ready to dispense from the fridge.

The folks down at Backyard Home Brewers Education Center in Humble, TX gave me a winning recipe for this Ale. It is a partial grain recipe and turned out very nice… Local readers need to check them out.

http://www.backyardhomebrewers.com/       Listed below are some upcoming events for the local readers.

Advanced Homebrew Water Class: March 10th beginning at 4 pm.

Birthday Bash Beer Night! March 16th beginning at 6 pm

Join us for Adam, Jon, Preston and Chad’s birthday as we celebrate being born in March with lots of homebrew and craftbrew! – Since my birthday is on the 12th of March I think taht I should qualify!

Rogue Brewers Homebrew Club Meeting: March 29th at 6:30 pm

All Grain Brewing Class: March 31st beginning at 1 pm

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were off to Tennessee again. We enjoyed craft brews in both Nashville and in Knoxville.

Downtown Grill & Brewery in Knoxville

Nice beers, great people….even wearing our LSU colors locals would come over and welcome us. An Assistant DA for the City went out of his way and really made us feel welcome..Great place to visit and sample very nice craft beers. The brew kettle will be idle for a while – or at least until my inventory gets worked down a little.

TTFN

Bishop