Daaaaa Bearssss

I have to wonder what led to this.

Here's the kicker for me:

The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage.

So many unanswered questions. Was it sex? Boredom? A dare? How much beer did he have? By the sounds of it, the bears certainly had their fair share of beer:

Local media reported that police found several mobile phones inside the cage, as well as bricks, stones and beer cans.

This certainly tells a sordid tale of sex and betrayal at a beer festival. Some beers. The mood is set. A man undresses. The bears are already naked. Then...a few angry phone calls. Next thing you know, dinner.

Thank God there are no bears at any of the beer fests I go to.

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These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Coffee and beer.

Much of my life is based around coffee and beer.

How do I get the water my body needs? Well, it appears that coffee needs water in order to be brewed. And as an avid brewer, I can tell you for certain that beer indeed requires water.

Coffee and beer.

So imagine my delight, when Mrs. Smitty and I traveled to Tornonto recently, when I stumbled acorss a brewpub that combined the two.

Today I give to you: Mill Street Brewery Coffee Porter.

This beer is everything I like in a beer...and includes coffee.

The beer poured into the pint glass a deep black with russet-brown highlights when held to light. It yielded a latte-like head with incredible retention. This is a quality brew.

Fresh-ground coffee dominates the nose on this beer, followed by a malty sweetness and some dark roasted grains. Yup...coffee and beer. My two favorite things.

The taste, again, is absolutely everything I like in a beer. Big huge coffee right up front, like a nice dark roast. I get chocolate, toasted malt and in the background a malty sweetness and a hint of dark fruit that belies an ale.

Like a good porter, I also got a great oily slickness on the tongue ad the flavors really blended well and coated my whole mouth. The beer felt more full-bodied than it really is because of how the flavors blend and the coffee and malt shine through in this beer.

All in all, I have really used much less hyperbole than I do with many of my reviews. I am just so vastly impressed with this effort from the Mill St. Brew Pub in Toronto that understatement I think serves this beer better. Make the 4-hour trip to Toronto. Buy this beer. It is everything I like in a beer and is something I want to try to emulate in my own homebrew.

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Dialogue of the Day

Brewing beer has become a time honored tradition with Noah and I, having replaced what used to be the fine art of attempting to procure our fix of sudsy goodness for free. Now that we actually have money to not only make our own beer but otherwise buy good beer, we are no longer perpetually in search of the proverbial "cheap crap" that dominated our college days. It is along these lines that I am reminded of the immortal McKenzies and their ongoing quest... a quest for "free beer." Nothing mixes quite like beer and law:

Attendant:Well?
Doug: Elsinores.
Bob: Twelve!
Doug: Twenty-four, yeah, twenty-four Elsinore beers.
Attendant: Twenty-four Elsinore! That will be $14.70.
Doug: I believe there will be no charge on this two-four of beer, thank you.
Attendant: Excuse me?
Doug: Ok, uh, we found this mouse in a bottle of Elsinore beer that we bought at your beer store, eh? And we heard that when that happens you get your beer free.
Bob: It's in the Canadian Criminal Code, eh. Like there's legal precedence set in cases in law, eh?
Doug: So, like give us our free beer.
Attendant: You want free beer? Go to the brewery. Now get out of here before I put the two of you in a bottle.
Doug: You sure you don't want to think this over?

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99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

Ah yes. Bottling Day.

Not nearly as fun as this day looks, but it has the potential to be as messy.

The essence of bottling day is that you clean and sanitize around 48 bottles, transfer your beer into a container with a spigot, clean and sanitize a cool little bottling gizmo, and you're off!

The pic you see here is of Chief Assistant Brewmaster Joel, me and the totally-insane Smitty Jr. He watched in fascinated awe for 15 seconds and was then distracted by what must have been a very important meeting with the living room, given the speed at which he dashed off.

At any rate, we are bottling Joel's fantastic brown ale (thus far unnamed). This should be ready to go after about a 2-week bottle conditioning period.

Mrs. Smitty and I bottled my Belgian Cherry Dubbel this evening, but with only 2 of us, there was nobody to take any pix. Mine is also unnamed, but will probably have something to do with virgins, since it has cherries in it. Heh. It should also be ready after a 2-week bottle conditioning. Also, about 2 months ago, we bottled my Russian Imperial Stout (named Anastasia's Assassination), but that has at least another 4 to 6 weeks left in the bottle.

And finally, it is down to crunch time. If I don't get an Oktoberfest brewed and in a fermenter by this weekend, it won't be ready for our Oktoberfest at the Smitty household the last week of September.

That's all for now...though I am shotly to post about the Michigan State Fair Homebrew Competition...the largest in the State. I want to post a little piece about it before-hand and will surely post some pix from the actual event itself. I'll be judging and if we can swing it, Joel will be a steward. Stay tuned.

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An honor, really...

Smitty has added me to his blog as a writer. It is an honor to join such prestigious authors.

I had a blog for a while, but realized I don't have enough to say to post every day. Smitty got it right, though. Bring in people to write on your blog as if you were at a water cooler or standing "around the keg" and fun conversations will happen. So, thanks for letting me babble here a while.

I will have lots to spew off about - sports, politics, government, gaming, whatever else comes to mind.

I look forward to the chatter...

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Wait For It...

I give you this pic, just because. It's true.

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Can THIS FINALLY Be Love?

Iiiiiiiiii....am not ever so sure how I feel about stuff like this.

I mean, I love Van Halen and all. The David Lee Roth years were so spectacular. While poppier, the Sammy Hagar years were fun and their audience soared. But then they had that one guy from that one band I forget and several failed attempts at reuniting.

And then there's that pic of Eddie Van Halen at the music awards:


So are they really in shape for an American Tour?

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