All that’s left in the world of my second place Maibock.
I’ve never really liked having the spotlight on me. Some of the earliest home movies of me are in front of a birthday cake as a three-year-old fidgeting around uncomfortably as my family sang happy birthday.
I’d rather watch someone else perform. I’d rather watch someone else lead. I’d rather watch someone else get recognized.
I figure if I want to be a successful brewer, I need to become more comfortable sharing my success publicly. In the Upstate Brewer’s Cup this weekend, my maibock took second place in the best-of-show. I haven’t entered many competitions, and this is by far my best showing.
A lesson in, “sometimes simpler is better,” the maibock is super-simple. It’s pilsner and munich malt with Northern Brewer hops, fermented with Saflager S-23.
I believe the keys to success were the low fermentation at 50 degrees and a boil over after my first hop addition that caused me to lose a good amount of hops and thus prevent the beer from being too bitter.
It had a strong caramel malt aroma and matching flavor. There was a little bit of fruity esters detectable. The finish was sweet, but not lingering. It had just enough hop backbone to balance out the malt.
Overall, it’s a clean, malty and balanced beer that’s very drinkable. I’m pretty sure this beer will become a spring tradition in the Cendrowski household.
Maibock is Untamed
For 10 gallons:
13 lbs. pilsner
9 lbs. munich
1.0 oz Northern Brewer (9.4% AA) (60 minutes remaining)
1.0 oz Northern Brewer (10 min remaining)
4 packets Saflager S-23, fermented at 50 degrees with a diacetyl rest to 70 degrees
Lagered for 8 weeks at 35 degrees
Within four months of each other, craft beer behemoths Sierra Nevada and New Belgium announced they are bringing their game east and will build breweries in Asheville, NC. They are the second and third largest breweries in the country, respectively, producing 1.3 million barrels of beer annually, which is about 14% of the total craft beer market.
The long-standing rumors proved true yesterday, when New Belgium announced they were coming to the neighborhood. This is the craft beer equivalent of the Broncos upgrading from Tim Tebow to Peyton Manning, and then signing Drew Brees just for giggles. Asheville is a player now on the national beer scene.
It appears that both breweries are at least two years away from being operational, with Sierra Nevada planning on going live early 2014 and New Belgium sometime in 2015.
Sierra Nevada is setting up shop in between Asheville and Hendersonville near the Asheville Regional Airport. They have plans to include a restaurant with the production facility.
New Belgium will be right in the thick of things in the River Arts District downtown. It’s an area that’s been home to artists and industry for years, but recently has undergone a revitalization with several new restaurants and bars opening in the past year.
What About the Little Guys?
Ironically, when Wedge Brewing opened in the River Arts District in 2007, it provided an anchor business in what had been a rough area, bringing in a lot of traffic, which over time attracted other businesses and spurred development. The area is now attractive enough that it brought in the third largest craft brewery in the country.
That begs the question, what will the effect of having two brewing giants within 15 miles of each other in Western North Carolina? What happens to the other seven small breweries (and who knows how many others in the works) in the city?
Obviously, I think it’s good for the city of Asheville. The two breweries are going to invest several hundred million dollars and create a couple hundred jobs.
I think it will also be a benefit to the other breweries in the city and the surrounding area. I think of Odell being right down the street from New Belgium in Ft. Collins. It makes for awesome brewery hopping having two breweries within walking, or at least biking, distance from one another.
Asheville is also going to be a destination for beer geeks throughout the entire Southeast. People who have never been to Sierra Nevada (myself included) or New Belgium out West will have a chance to experience what it’s all about much closer to home. Having 7+ other breweries to check out will seal the deal.
While it seems like old news now, the craft beer market is still emerging. In 2011, Craft breweries only account for 5% of the total U.S. beer market. It’s not about Sierra Nevada or New Belgium taking market share away from the small guys, it’s about making the whole pie bigger for craft beer. There is a lot of room left for everyone.
This Isn’t Just Good For Asheville
This news makes me especially excited for those of us across the border in South Carolina. My hope is that the arrival of these two breweries draws the attention of the legislators in my fair state and they start wondering why the second and third largest craft breweries in the country chose North Carolina, and why North Carolina has over 40 breweries while South Carolina has seven.
Maybe, just maybe, it’ll wake some people up to understand that more favorable brewing laws, such as self-distribution and allowing on-premise and off-premise beer sales at the brewery, will level the playing field and make South Carolina competitive in the craft brewing industry.
I guarantee expanding the brewing industry in the state will create more jobs and tax revenue than the wholesale distribution companies whose interests they are protecting currently provide. But I digress, this is supposed to be about Asheville, right?
While I’m happy for my brethren 60 miles up Highway 25 and will surely reap the benefits myself, I’m still left to dream of what could be in my own city.
The first batch I've had to dump: a doomed Berliner Weisse
I made it five years, 20 days and 58 brews without losing a batch.
Then came the fateful day, on January 18, 2012 when I made a small, one pound sour mini-mash. This mini-mash was to go into a Berliner Weisse I was brewing that Saturday.
Overcome with confidence (some say hubris), I figured the small, two quart cooler I bought for $5 at Target would hold temp in front of a heating vent for two days. Not so much…
I placed the sour mash in the cooler at about 120 degrees. By the time I took the temp on Saturday, it was room temperature at 70 degrees. It kind of smelled like yogurt, so I figured “what the hell,” and proceeded with the brew…
I brewed the simple, 1.032 OG wheat beer, incorporating the sour mash into the main mash after conversion, and hoped for the best.
A week later, fermentation has completed. The gravity is a little high at 1.010 and the beer smells like eggs. No tart. Just eggs. I thought about adding straight lactobacillus to try and salvage it, but I don’t think that can overcome the sulfur.
I’ve brewed plenty of beer that was very good, but I’ve been fortunate enough that it’s all been drinkable. This, however, is not. It’s time to put down my first beer.
I’m sad, but as they say, you learn more from failure than success.
(I used this article on sour mashing from Brew Your Own as a guide. While I messed up, I think it’s got some great techniques. Just make sure you have the right equipment to keep the temperature high enough for the entire sour mashing period.)
Stay three nights in a 5 bedroom mountain home with a guest house
Sample 60+ beers over those three days
Dine on gourmet dishes, including a 9-course all-day beer/food pairing
It was a personal beer festival. How much would you pay for such an adventure? Over MLK weekend, 9 friends and I spent about $230/person to pull this off. All it takes is some creativity, a fearless sense to push the envelope of pleasure, sprinkled a little bit of work and preparation. I thought it was a deal. Hell, Savor in DC is over $100/ticket, and you’re only there for three hours.
Sausage pizza with pappadeaux peppers and basil
Friday night we started off with homemade pizzas on the grill. We had three different varieties: Margherita, homemade sausage with pappadeaux peppers, and the Figgy Piggy (figs, bacon, caramelized onions and arugula), all cooked over a charcoal grill. The homemade sausage was spectacular and won the night.
Our beer theme for Friday was saisons. We ended up sampling about 16 saisons while we ate pizza. My personal favorites were Foret and Odonata.
As with many weekend reunions with friends (think weddings, getting together with college buddies, or going to Las Vegas), I feel like I shot myself out of a cannon Friday night. I may have had a little too much of Matt’s homebrew before beginning the saison tasting, but Saturday started a little rough.
However, this was Barleywine Weekend, dammit, and I had 9 beer and food pairings to crush on Saturday. Four cups of French pressed coffee and a gatorade later I was back on my horse!
Such an excursion of culinary brilliance can only be explained through photographs:
Course 1 by Bobby Congdon
Sierra Nevada Porter pancakes with candied pecans, coffee whip creme & framboise reduction. Paired with Great Divide Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti.
Course 2 by Brian and Nicole Cendrowski
Scratch-made biscuit with goat sausage, a poached farm-fresh egg, and homemade goat cheese. Paired with Anchorage Brewing Love Buzz Saison.
Course 3 by Matt Schaefer
Country Captain chicken and waffles. Paired with Rodenbach Grand Cru.
Course 4 by Ed Westbrook
Red curry with chicken, basil, Water Chestnut III, onion and jasmine rice. Paired with Westbrook White Thai.
Course 5 by Bobby Congdon
Potato gratin. Paired with Stone Arrogant Bastard.
Course 6 by Bryan K. Smith
Caribbean beans and rice with fried plantains. Paired with Mad River Jamaica Red Ale.
Course 7 by Cristina Schaefer
Dan dan noodles (pork sauteed in bacon fat, ginger, green onion, peanuts, szechuan peppercorns). Paired with Victory Prima Pils.
Course 8 by Nicole Cendrowski
Chocolate bacon tart topped with toasted cocoa nibs and more bacon. Paired with Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew.
Course 9 by Morgan Westbrook
Unfortunately, not pictured: Scottish sticky toffee pudding paired with a variety of beers and mead.
While every dish pairing was awesome (I’m not just saying that, they all really were delicious, no duds), I have to nominate the Porter Pancakes and the Chocolate Bacon Tart as my favorite pairings.
The Porter Pancakes had a lot going on, between the coffee whip cream, candied pecans and framboise reduction syrup, but all those flavors bounced off each other like kids in a mosh pit during 311’s Happy Slamdance Song (Do You Right) in 1996. The bouncer that restored order was the Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti. It was an intense delight to behold.
Then, toward the end of the night, when all palates were shot and you didn’t think you’d be able to taste a block of pure high-fructose corn syrup, in rode the Chocolate Bacon Tart on its horse with two Sunturnbrew six-shooters by its side. Holy smoke. A graham cracker crust with bacon crumbled into it, chocolate tart filling made with Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips, then topped with toasted cocoa nibs and more bacon crumbles.
The Sunturnbrew is a smoked barleywine from Norway, but not overly intense on the smokey side. The smokey-sweet intensity of the beer was a perfect pairing with the chocolate and bacon. It may have been the best pairing ever, and I give credit to Camron Read at the Greenville Beer Exchange for the Sunturnbrew idea. Home run, my friend.
After the saison cannon Friday night and eating food the entire day, Saturday night was a bit more tamed. I think lights were out in the house around 11 pm. It was a good night for rest and recuperation, for we knew what was ahead: Strong Ale Sunday.
The Duck and Strong Ale Sunday
This is an authentic Oregon duck. This was not the duck we ate.
I have long had an affinity for duck. Ever since I had my first dish of roasted duck with steamed buns at P.F. Chang’s many years ago, I have been drawn to this majestic amphibious avian.
Now, whenever I see duck on the menu when I’m out to eat, I must order the dish. It’s bordering on an obsession. So, it had to be that I would find a way to serve duck this weekend.
Me and my smoked duck.
My inspiration came when Bobby told me he was going to bring his smoker and was planning on doing barbeque pork Sunday for dinner. After learning that they sold frozen whole ducks at the Asian grocery on Wade Hampton (for only $15), I knew I had to bring it. We needed a smoked duck.
I grabbed the first recipe I found when I Googled “whole smoked duck.” The marinade included fresh orange zest, sesame oil, white pepper, grated ginger and salt. After sitting with the marinade overnight, the duck spent three hours on the smoker, getting up to about 160 degrees.
The sauce that went with the duck drew rave reviews. A hoisin base was combined with chili-garlic sauce (I used Sriracha, the best hot sauce ever), fresh cilantro and basil (basil was my addition to the recipe) and grated ginger. It was awesome.
To top it off, Nicole prepared a large bowl of Asian slaw with Ramen. (Unfortunately, the slaw is not pictured.) While not a pairing with beer, the slaw and duck was amazing, if I do say so myself. (Thanks also go out to Matt, who also brought his smoker, upon which my duck rested.) Duck, while already high in my esteem, has risen even further. I hereby dub it the official Fowl of Barleywine Weekend.
The beers of Strong Ale Sunday were so numerous that it’s hard for me to even recall what was had. Some of my favorites that I do recall: 2009 North Coast Old Stock, the flight of Westbrook barrel-aged tripels (four varieties aged in different types of wine barrels), 2011 AleSmith Old Numbskull, 2010 Untamed Barleywine, and the 2008 Dogfish Head Immort Ale.
I will admit, I only made it to number 17 of the 27 total beers sampled that night. The good news? I wasn’t hung over. At 35, any time I can avoid a hangover and still enjoy good beer, I consider that a win.
The Combatants of Barleywine Weekend VI gather around the beer bottle graveyard.
I like beer. A lot. I brew it. I (sometimes) write about it. I drink it.
One of the questions I’ve gotten more than once is, “How do you stay so thin and drink so much beer?” Before this post turns into one big humblebrag, I admit that yes, I am a thin man. Glad we got that out of the way.
What I am not is a genetic marvel (I was a chubby kid and never made an organized sports team I had to try out for). I do not have monk-like discipline (I will have the occasional hamburger and piece of cake). I am not an obsessed fitness maniac (I have never completed an Ironman).
Shortly after graduating college, I weighed 183 pounds and couldn’t run a mile. I wasn’t in terrible shape, I lifted weights and played pickup basketball. However, I just didn’t feel very good about where I was. I felt soft.
Before - January 1998
I made the decision that I was going to change my lifestyle and become more active and eat healthier. I didn’t use any specific diet program, I just tried to take a common sense approach to improve my life. Over the course of the next year, my weight dropped to about 160 pounds, I ran my first half-marathon and could bench press 260 pounds. (At the same time, I was 24, lived in downtown Columbia and probably drank more than I did in college.)
After - July 2009 (As a bonus, I have amazing tan lines)
Over the next 10 years, I’ve been able to maintain what I had attained. I weighed in this morning at 155 pounds. At 34, I ran a PR in the 10-K Cooper River Bridge Run this past April, finishing in 45:13. A few weeks ago, I had a fitness assessment and came in at 10% body fat and could do 43 pushups. I’m not super-human, but I think I’m doing well for myself and I’m enjoying a lot of good beer in the process. As the saying goes, if I can do it, anyone can do it.
Since this is the time for New Year’s resolutions, I thought I’d share some of my habits and philosophies that I’ve used to stay healthy, feel good, and yes, enjoy my fair share of beer. My hope is that at least one thing will stick with you and help you feel even better physically and mentally this coming year.
Below, I have identified five key ideas that have helped me maintain my weight for more than 10 years while still being a beer “appreciator.” Notice that I’ll often use words such as limit, avoid, and in moderation… That’s because I’m not going to say you should totally eliminate something, or always do this and never do that. I believe most people fail in their changes because they don’t allow themselves any room for error. Don’t give up because you had a piece of cake at the office birthday party.
Cut yourself some slack!
1. Calories matter, make them count
I’m a male, 35 years old, 6’0″ tall, 155 pounds. Roughly, my resting metabolic rate is about 1,700 calories per day. Figure I burn about 400 calories in an average 30-45 minute workout and other activities throughout the day. I estimate I’m working with about 2,100 calories per day.
I figure that I drink, on average, about 2.5 beers a day. I usually have two on weeknights when I get home from work, and about three or four a day on weekends (sometimes more if it’s a brew day). That comes out to around 300-400 calories per day from beer. If math isn’t your thing, that leaves me with 1,700 calories for food and everything else.
Think of calories like money in a bank account. I have a certain amount money to spend, so if I’m smart, I’ll spend my disposable income on things I really enjoy or that have special meaning, rather than waste it on frivolous things I don’t care about.
I try to approach food in much the the same way. I only have a certain amount I can consume. The goal is to maximize the enjoyment & health benefit per calorie. I want food and drink that is high quality or high health. That means minimizing empty calories, so out goes the soda, candy, chips, mayo, fried anything, the artificial and preserved. I deserve better.
If I’m going out to eat, I try to pick the most interesting and unique dishes available. If nothing stands out on the menu, I’ll get a salad and save the calories for when something better comes along. Choose your battles wisely.
A few other tricks that I’ve found very effective when eating out:
Pick fun, new and/or expensive restaurants. Make eating out a special event, not just any old meal. (Goodbye, Applebees!)
Consider ordering an appetizer instead of an entree. They’re smaller portions and often more creative dishes.
If getting an entree, immediately draw a line down the middle of the dish and only eat half. Take the rest home or let it go.
Spend the extra $2 and upgrade to a side salad instead of fries.
Ask to have the dressing or mayo on the side of salads and sandwiches.
2. Eat fresh
No, not Subway sandwiches. I mean load up on fruits and vegetables. You can eat them in nearly unlimited quantities. Throw in some whole grains, low-fat dairy (a little fat in your diet is actually a good thing), beans, fish and occasional lean meat.
My goal is to eat two pieces of fruit a day, either with breakfast on my cereal, as a morning snack or as “dessert” for lunch. I also try to make sure I have a salad at least once a day, either for lunch or dinner. Take larger portions of vegetables at dinner and smaller portions of everything else.
Over the past few years, Nicole and I have cut out a lot of meat from our diet. We’re not vegetarian, but we’re much more moderate. I’ve found that vegetarian dishes and recipes are often tastier than those that use meat. Many recipes use meat as a crutch to provide flavor, whereas vegetarian recipes have to be more creative, introducing a variety of ingredients, herbs and spices.
Eating fresh also means cutting out as much processed carbohydrates (including enriched flour, which is basically sugar) as possible. Limit pasta, white rice and white potatoes. Instead, try sweet potatoes, wild rice and beans. Lots of beans!
Now, I know some of you are going to say, “But I have an incurable sweet tooth! I can’t say no to sweets!” (Or fill in your vice…) Treat your sweet tooth like a heroin addiction. Go cold turkey for three months. Eat fruit instead of sweets. I guarantee you that at the end of your sabbatical, you’ll eat a candy bar or a bag of chips and it will be so sweet and heavy that you’ll feel like ass.
3. Drink a lot of water
Around the time I began my dietary revolution, I also made it a point to drink as much water as I possibly could. It’s gotten to the point where my friend Andy calls my water bottle my woobie. I can’t go anywhere without it.
The benefits of proper hydration are tremendous. Water is vital for proper body function. Among a plethora of benefits, it will improve your mental clarity, increase your energy level, and it will help you regulate your appetite.
These days, I basically drink three things: coffee, water and beer. (I enjoy milk, wine and gin from time to time.) I have my coffee in the morning, chug water throughout the day, then wrap it up with a beer or two in the evening.
4. Stay active
Everyone knows that exercise is important. I say it has to be a priority.
My goal is to work out six days a week. I alternate between strength training and running. It took me a couple years of starting and stopping to finally develop an exercise habit, but I cannot express how much better I feel physically and mentally because of it.
My workouts really aren’t all that intense. My weight and strength training workouts are about 30 to 45 minutes. If I’m not training for a race, I average 12 to 15 miles per week running.
I won’t pretend that I spring out of bed every morning ready to crush some weights or hit the pavement, but I always feel better when I’m done than when I started. Knowing the payoff keeps me going.
The key is to stay active, every day.
5. Listen to your body
A few months ago, I read the book The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. It’s a life-changing book, and I highly recommend it to anyone.
One of the central themes of the book is that we all have an “upper limit” of how successful we allow ourselves to be and how good we allow ourselves to feel. When we hit our limit, whether it’s feeling good in a relationship, being in good physical shape, or having some money in the bank, something happens to sabotage that good feeling or success. We get in a fight with our spouse, we break down and order dessert at Cheesecake Factory, or our car breaks down and eats all of our savings.
Our ceiling is determined by our self-image, the programming we received from our parents and all the other messages we’ve heard as we go throughout our lives. (Money doesn’t grow on trees… No one in our family is athletic… Just get a good job…)
It was after reading this book that a lightbulb went off in my head. Any time I eat too much or eat the wrong thing and I feel like there’s a brick in my stomach the rest of the afternoon, that’s my way of sabotaging my good feeling for that day. I deserve to feel good and I should treat my body accordingly.
Since then, I’ve started to pay close attention to how I feel after I eat certain foods, what time of day I eat, and how I feel when I have “just one more bite.” If I feel bad afterwards, that’s my body’s way of screaming, “STOP IT!”
A tip that my sister taught me to help avoid overeating is called the Oprah Sigh. You know how when you’ve had most of your meal, you’re getting full, but there’s a few bites left on your plate? You put your fork down for a minute and let out a long, drawn-out sign. That sigh is a sign from your body that it’s had enough and you should stop eating.
There are certain beers within the beer geek community that get our hearts aflutter and motivate us to camp out in advance of their release, as if we were Duke students who would do anything to get tickets for the UNC game at Cameron Indoor. They are institutions such as The Dark Lord, Sexual Chocolate, Pliny the Elder.
Among this inner circle of beer is the granddaddy of them all, Sam Adams Utopias. (I can only hope to someday brew a beer that inspires a video like this.) It is a pioneer into the upper 20s of ABV, before the BrewDog/Schorschbräu ABV arms race started debates as to where beer ends and liquor begins.
At 27% ABV and over $100 per bottle, this beer has become as much myth as legend. Having given up all hope of tasting such an elusive nectar, my friend Jake Grove, a writer for the Upstate Be in Anderson, sent me a text message a couple months ago: “you want to try sam adams utopias?” Uh, yeah…
After months of wrangling schedules, we finally got together last night at the Velo Fellow to crack this baby open and take it for a spin. Or should I say, get taken for a spin?
First off, the packaging is flat out seductive. It’s a bottle that looks like a copper brew kettle, complete with a sliding window that reveals an etching of Samuel Adams himself. It’s beer porn. It should be illegal. (Well, in some states I’m sure it is…)
Interesting fact I did not know until last night: Utopias is not conditioned like beer usually is. It’s uncarbonated and meant to be served at room temperature. Makes sense, since there’s no way you’d want to drink all that in one setting. Unless, of course, your typical autumn Friday night consists of a backyard bonfire started with $20 bills for kindling.
The color of the beer is such a rich, ruby mahogany. I’d paint my study with it. When you get within a foot of the glass, the first thing that hits your senses is alcohol. I’d recommend it for clearing up allergies and sinus infections. It is hot.
Once you get past the vapors, the aroma really opens up and gives a hint of the complexity of the brew. Vanilla, brandy, maple syrup and spice cake all intermingle at different times throughout the experience.
The initial flavor is uber-sweet and it has a mouthfeel of brandy. However, it’s much smoother than the aroma would indicate. Not much burn going down, but I would only take a sip at a time. There’s an abundance of dark fruit: figs, raisins, prunes. The malt flavor is intense with toffee and caramel. This is easily one of the most complex beers I’ve ever tasted. The flavors and aromas just kept evolving as we went.
While the Velo Fellow provided a fitting backdrop of an old-world pub, I feel like Utopias is best enjoyed in a plush leather chair facing a roaring fire in a stone hearth with deer prancing in a snow-filled meadow outside of a massive bay window amid the Canadian Rockies on the horizon.
(Un)fortunately, Nicole was called away on business and wasn’t able to partake of the initial tasting. I’m hoping that means we’ll get a call to Anderson so she can try it before the Groves finish it. After all, a beer this complex needs much futher study, I am all about education.
When you mix the culinary innovation of American Grocery with the wizardry of Stone Brewing and place it in a majestic setting such as Greenbrier Farms, you know something magical is going to happen. That’s what we have coming to the upstate on November 19.
I had the pleasure of making my first trip to Greenbrier Farms in Easley, SC last weekend for the wedding of my friends Nathaniel and Eliza. It’s a beautiful place amid the rolling hills, just 20 minutes from downtown Greenville, but far enough out to feel like I was in the countryside. The venue is awesome for a huge party or an intimate dinner, and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.
It only makes sense, then, to have a farm-to-table dinner at an actual farm. Can’t get much fresher than that. Chef Joe Clark from American Grocery (my favorite restaurant in Greenville) is coming out to cook up something good. Chef Joe brings the thunder with creative dishes and a menu that constantly changes, so there’s always a reason to go back.
To top it all off, Scott Sheridan and Greg Koch (yes, that Greg Koch) from Stone will be there. I’ve been told Greg is bringing with him some Stone creations that have not yet hit the shelves. (I hope this isn’t like the time I heard the rumor that Dave Matthews was playing a surprise show at Captain Harry’s in Charleston back when I was in college.)
Tickets are $75 each. I’ve purchased mine, happy birthday to me! Nicole and I will likely bring our tent and camp out by the pond. I don’t want to over-hype the event, but this can’t not be amazing.
For those of you in the Columbia, SC area, I’m emceeing a beer tasting at Refresh Columbia on Thursday, Oct. 13 at 6 pm. I’ll be one of the speakers, along with Nick Wilson of Half & Half design and print making studio. Nick designed these giant beer prints for the Columbia Museum of Art. He obviously knows his way around a pint.
I’ll be serving five “well-designed” beers of various styles, from light to strong and dark. I haven’t selected the exact ones yet, but rest assured I’ll bring out the good stuff. The meeting is free to attend, but if you’d like to participate in the tasting, tickets are $12 to cover the cost of the beer and snacks.
Refresh is a community of designers and programmers who are passionate about the web. Even if you are not “in the business,” the meetings are open to anyone, especially if you have an appreciation for technology, design or art. The meeting on the 13th will certainly not be tech-heavy, so don’t be intimidated.
As I’m sure you could deduce by my lack of writing over the past few months, but I’ve developed a serious case of writer’s block. I’ve had this blog for over four years, and I’m finding it difficult to come up with original article ideas and interesting things to write solely about beer.
I decided that it’s my blog, and I should just write what I feel like writing about. Much of my life does revolve around beer, so that will still be the primary theme of the blog, but I’m taking a page from the Sports Guy, and I’m going to expand my topics. I hope you don’t mind.
I want to share a short excerpt from today’s e-newsletter (called the Spark Plug) from Joe Tye. Joe calls himself America’s Values coach, and I find him to be one of the most positive and inspirational, yet down to earth, speaker/writers I’ve come across. He’s helped me keep the dream alive and stay the course in my own life, and I always look forward to getting his weekly e-newsletter. I highly recommend subscribing.
I’ve been thinking a good bit lately about how many people are wallowing in “these tough economic times.” Rather than looking forward to the immense opportunity the future brings, many people are trying to “recapture the glory days.”
There’s a new normal out there, and only those that can adapt will thrive. I found Joe’s article today to be especially appropriate.
Designing the Next You
I used to love listening to music on vinyl records, except the hissing and popping and scratching was really annoying.
Then they invented the 8-track, and then the cassette deck. The hissing and popping and scratching was history – and I thought it doesn’t get any better than this.
But then they invented the compact disc that never got torn and tangled in the player – and I thought it doesn’t get any better than this.
But then they invented the MP3 player that actually fit inside a headphone and played music while I worked out – at least until it stopped working – and I thought it doesn’t get any better than this.
But then they invented the iPod that would fit in my shirt pocket and contain ten thousand symphonies, oldies, jazz classics, and audio books – and I thought it doesn’t get any better than this.
But then they invented Pandora. Tonight I’m working on Spark Plug and while I work Pandora is trying to guess what music I want to hear next and pulling it from the cloud (whatever that means). And I’m thinking that it doesn’t get any better than this.
Until it does. And it will. And probably quite soon.
It’s a pretty good metaphor for the world of work – and more broadly for the work of creating a wonderful life.
In the daily papers, we read about the loss of jobs in our economy and, quite honestly, many of those old jobs are never coming back – no matter who wins the next elections. But companies like Amazon are still aggressively hiring – but only people who have invented, or reinvented, themselves as the sort of workers that can thrive at a company like Amazon.
The world of doing the same job for the same company for forty years is in some cosmic museum next to the 8-track cassette player. But the opportunities for everyday people like you and me to be able to do exciting things have never been greater.
So that raises the question: what are you doing to invent the next version of you?
Are you asking yourself life-transforming questions like this: What would you do if every job paid the same and had the same social status?
And then answering those questions by taking action necessary to move you in the direction of those dreams: taking night school classes, replacing cable TV with library cards, replacing credit cards with progress reports, replacing toxic emotional negativity with a positive, optimistic, and cheerful attitude about life?
Because if you keep getting better, so does everything else in your world.
8-gallon whiskey barrel from Tuthilltown Spirits. Gnome not included.
Looking for a whiskey barrel to age your homebrew, but don’t want to invest in a 50-gallon barrel? Upon the recommendation of a man whose name I can’t remember from a recent beer dinner at American Grocery, I came across Tuthilltown Spirits, a small distillery in Gardiner, New York.
Tuthilltown is a small micro-distillery started in 2001. Their tininess is to homebrewer’s benefit, as they resell 6, 7 and 8-gallon whiskey cured American white oak barrels. I’ve been on the lookout for small barrels to age homebrewed sour beer, and this is the best deal I’ve come across for used barrels. (Now, full disclosure, my research usually lasts for five minutes, so there may be better deals out there. Feel free to comment if you find any.)
I recently ordered an 8-gallon whiskey barrel that Bobby C and I plan to use to age a batch of sour homebrew. We plan to brew the beer on July 30, so I’ll keep you posted as to its progress. The cost of the barrel with shipping was $162. I had seen other “new” 15-gallon barrels for around $200+, but that was almost too big for what I wanted.
Tuthilltown had the “Goldilocks” offer. It was just right…
There are certain beers within the beer geek community that get our hearts aflutter and motivate us to camp out in advance of their release, as if we were Duke students who would do anything to get tickets for the UNC game at Cameron Indoor. They are institutions such as The Dark Lord, Sexual Chocolate, Pliny the Elder.
When you mix the culinary innovation of 
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