Ashland Cafe

When I first moved to Baltimore I lived in the Towson area and made York Road my domain. Compared to where I grew up York Road had everything a young bumpkin could dream of and I rarely felt the need to venture out of my comfort zone. On one of those early adventures up the road I found Ashland Cafe and it became a staple of mine on weekends for a two or three year stretch. I knew it had to be good the first time I ever pulled up and people were waiting outside for a seat while flurries were falling from the sky. 

Ashland Cafe isn't fancy by any stretch of the imagination. You know what it is? It is a tiny little restaurant that puts out good food every single day. And that's all it has to be. Sometimes I just want good food for a good price and I want to be able to go in my sweat pants. Jessica Simpson felt good when Nick loved her with nothing but a t-shirt on. Well, I feel good when I can get a good breakfast without "getting ready" to go out.

After moving away from Towson my trips to Ashland Cafe have been few and far between so it was nice to visit an oldie but goodie with Deana a few weeks ago.  We went for breakfast and we left filled to the brim. My French Toast breakfast was so big it came on two plates! Moist French Toast, proper eggs cooked over easy, and a delicious ham steak....man I'd take that all day every day if my body could handle it. 

You might feel like my description of the food is lacking, but that's by design. This is food everyone knows but it's done right. I've never had a bad breakfast there, but if you're driving from far and get there a little late you can't go wrong with their French Dip and French Onion Soup. I made a habit out of that lunch combo to the point that the wait staff didn't even have to ask my order. If you want good food and you want it without all the pomp and circumstance of "going out to eat" make sure you take a trip down York Road and find out what this place is all about for yourself. 

Price: Cheap

Recommendation: It's one of my favorites. 

What to Order: Whatever you want. It's all good.

Pabu & Sake 101 with Tiffany Soto

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend a Sake 101 Class taught by Tiffany Soto at Pabu. As much as I love to read and learn about beer,  it's always fun to learn about something new. So when the chance to learn from a Master Sake Sommelier came up I was excited to accept the opportunity. 

The cost of the Sake 101 Class is $25 and that gets you a tasting of 5 different Sake's, a few different snacks (we had fire roasted edamame and Pabu wings) and a roughly hourto hour and a half long class taught by Tiffany on all things Sake. Going in I had next to no knowledge of Sake and found the class extremely informative and fun. Of all the fermented beverages out there Sake has to be the most intensive in regards to what goes into putting out a finished product. The care involved is amazing. 

The Sake 101 class is essentially a way of learning to navigate the vast world of Sake. You learn common misconceptions about Sake. For example, sake is not meant to be served hot or taken as a shot. Students are taught the basic components (Rice, Water, Yeast, and Koji-Kin) of Sake and what they mean to the finished product. And maybe most helpful we were taught a variety of common vocabulary that can help you learn to navigate a Sake menu. One of my favorite Sake's of the tasting was an offering called Aoki Honjozo Diaginjo Niigata. Prior to this class I would have just saw four words and had no clue what to expect. Now I know that the Sake in front of me is a 5 ingredient Sake because of the word Honjozo, the rice was milled by at least 50% because of the word Diaginjo, and that it was produced in the Niigata prefecture.

If you'd like to learn more about Sake follow Tiffany on Twitter @HeySakeLady for more Sake related information. And be sure to sign up for one of her Sake 101 classes. They really are a blast and even if you don't come away loving Sake (you will!) you'll learn a whole bunch of cool facts that might help you answer a Jeopardy question or two in the future. 

After class, Deana and I decided to stick around for dinner. When you're inside one of  the best Japanese restaurants in Baltimore you don't walkout without eating....especially if you're a food blogger. And so we ate and we ate well. 

We ordered the Robata Platter which consists of 5 different meats on skewers served over a bed of rice. There were a variety of chicken, pork, and steak skewers but the highlight for us was the Berkshire Pork Belly. It's the one I took a bite out of before I remembered to take a picture. Whoops! Pork Belly makes me forget to think. The flavor of the pork belly was so huge. It was simply marinated in Japanese pepper and sake which allowed the pork flavor to shine through. And the texture was very unique. It's not often you bite into a piece of meat as thick as this and still manage to get a super crunchy exterior while at the same time maintaining a tender and juicy interior. That's a bite of food I won't soon forget. 

We also decided to try the Tsukue Chicken Meatball with Jidori Egg Yolk for some chicken on chicken action. They were another solid appetizer and I really enjoyed using the egg yolk as dipping sauce. The smooth and creamy texture coating the meatballs made for a unique bite. If you like what adding an egg does to a burger, you'll be a big fan of using an egg in this way.

And now we get to what was the best part of the night and also the most intimidating. See, I was a sushi naysayer from way back. I've tried it here and there but there was always an odd taste I couldn't get over. It wasn't that I thought it was bad, I just never liked it. However, I try to keep an open mind so I told myself that I wouldn't taste sushi again until I was sure I was getting it from a restaurant I knew was putting out a great product. Pabu was that place and the Ken's Roll you see before you was some of the best food I've ever had. It made me love life to be eating something so tasty. The roll consisted of shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado, pine nuts, and chili garlic furikake. It was the perfect bite and this is coming from a guy who avoids nearly all fish. There was tender rice, crunchy tempura shrimp, the creamiest avocado that has ever crossed my lips, and tuna that literally melted in my mouth. It was superb and I now consider myself a sushi yaysayer. 

After riding the wave of savory perfection that was the Ken's roll we decided to end the night with Pabu's Desert Omakase. The Omakase includes Green Tea Panna Cotta, Crimson Honey Gelee, Japanese Style Cheesecake, Blueberry Sorbet, Sesame Peanut Butter Ice Cream Mochi, and Tograshi candy bar. I really enjoyed the Green Tea Panna Cotta. I've never had anything so light and delicate before and I found it very interesting to have a tea flavored desert. The Blueberry Sorbet was fantastic as well. It tasted as if I were eating the freshest berries around. What I found most enjoyable about the Sorbet and Gelee was how they worked as a great palate cleanser. Both had soft flavors that played an excellent contrast to the bigger flavors we had at the beginning of our meal. 

Between the Sake 101 class, pork belly, and sushi our trip to Pabu was one of the most fun food related dates Deana and I have had in ages. Everything about the restaurant from the people to the food to the decor were top notch and I can't recommend a visit strongly enough.

Price: It can be as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it.

Recommendation: A must visit as far as I'm concerned

What to Order: Ken's Roll and be sure to sign up for a Sake 101 class.

How to Make Beer Cap Magnets

Over the past few years I've noticed that drinking beer at home leads to a lot of potential waste. There are a lot of bottles and bottle caps that end up needing to be tossed out. Of course, I recycle bottles that are twist top and I reuse pop top bottles for homebrewing. But what to do with all of the crazy technicolor caps we find on craft beer bottles? 

For the longest time I just threw them away but a few months ago I decided I wanted to do a little more with the leftover caps. Long term I'd like to put together some kind of table with caps as the centerpiece, but a much easier project is to simply turn the caps into magnets. Sounds easy enough, but one thing I always had trouble with was getting the caps off the bottle without damaging them (or myself) somehow. I've had many friends try to teach me how to pop them off with leverage from a lighter, but I was never successful. I could sort of get them off with a spoon, but that led to a bloody knuckles when I slipped a few too many times. I reached out to twitter to find out if there are bottle openers people are using that won't bend or damage a cap upon removal. That's when I learned about The Grab Opener. I decided to reach out to the makers of Grab Opener about their product to find out if it was true. Was there really something out there that would allow me to get caps off of my bottles cleanly without the risk of spilled blood? 

The answer is a resounding YES. The hiss of a freshly opened bottle of beer is one of the most satisfying sounds I come across daily. I didn't think it was possible to improve upon this until I used the Grab Opener and the power of leverage to seamlessly remove the cap. Best of all, Grab Opener has a magnet that prevents the caps from bouncing all through my kitchen. At $16, it's a bit more money than I've previously spent on bottle openers, but it does exactly what I want so why not pay a little extra for something that I use nearly every day? Whether or not you're looking to save beer caps for nerdy art projects is irrelevant. The Grab Opener is a great product that fans of craft beer should consider. 

For those of you interested in nerdy art projects, below you'll find a little tutorial of how to put together Beer Cap Magnets. 

You will need:

• Beer
• Bottle Opener that won't damage caps....and then the cap removed.
• Sandpaper
• Adhesive
• Bolts
• Magnets

Step 1: Grab a good a beer and The Grab Opener. 

Step 2: Remove the Cap. 

Step 3: Use Sandpaper to remove some of the plastic on the inside of the cap. This step is done to help the glue adhere in a future step. Be careful not to scrape the cap on whatever service you might be holding it against. 

Step 4: Find the manliest hot glue gun around (or Gorilla glue) and add some glue to the cap. Place a bolt on the glue and hold. Once it's stuck, add more glue to the top of the bold and place a magnet on the bolt. The bolt is to add some distance between the magnet and the cap to prevent scratching of surfaces later. 

Step 5: Put the magnet on your beer fridge and take a bad picture of your handy work.

And that's all. It's really simple and I think a cool way to spice up a beer fridge or kegerator. I'd like to thank the people behind The Grab Opener for sending me one of their products to test. It worked as good as advertised and help me get the caps I needed for future projects.

Burger Brothers

Wow. A restaurant review. I bet you thought I quit doing these. Nope, I just took one of those unintended sabbaticals I'm apparently so fond of. But worry not, for I have what seems like an endless backlog of reviews to get through for you guys.

Today, we're going to visit Burger Brothers in Towson. Deana and I found them one day before she headed back to work for one of her late Fridays. On those days, we usually walk around the Towson Town Center and then meander out to the circle until we end up in a restaurant. On this particular day, we found Burger Brothers. Before then, I'm not sure I'd heard much about the place, but I'm glad we went in because we were served a very good burger for an even better price. As far as burgers that are sold for less than $10 this has got to be one of the best options out there. 

Apparently, I was in a healthy/spicy mood on that day because I ordered a cheese turkey burger with caramelized onions, lettuce, mustard, ketchup, mayo, and a heaping mound of jalapenos. Something about pickled jalapenos and a burger really gets my Pavlov's Dog going. I was a little hesitant about ordering a turkey burger because most restaurants usually just serve you a round piece of cardboard or communion wafer. In other words, a burger with no flavor. That's why I asked for 7, 803 different condiments. I figured if the burger was dry I could always drowned it in stuff, but it turns out I didn't need all the extras after all. The burger was fantastic.

As much as I like burgers, I don't always want to spend $14 to get something good. That's where this place comes in. Burger Brothers provides a burger that is right up there with the best of the best, but at a price that will keep you coming back often. Give them a try and see if you don't agree. 

Price: Cheap
Recommendation: Definitely visit
What to Order: Any burger that peaks your interest

The Session #80 - Is Craft Beer a Bubble?

Is Craft Beer A Bubble? This is perhaps the most popular question within the beer world currently and one in which Derrick from It's Not Just the Alcohol Talking would like us bloggers to answer for this month's Session. His words below:

It’s a good time to be in the craft beer industry. The big brewers are watching their market share get chipped away by the purveyors of well-made lagers and ales. Craft breweries are popping up like weeds. 

This growth begs the question: is craft beer a bubble? Many in the industry are starting to wonder when, and more importantly how, the growth is going to stop. Is craft beer going to reach equilibrium and stabilize, or is the bubble just going to keep growing until it bursts?

No, Craft Beer is not a bubble. If it were a bubble, I'm sure the genius economists at the macro brewers wouldn't have their companies in a tizzy trying to come up with "crafty" ways to fight back. The presence of Craft Beer is real and it's ability to grow has been incredible. People want these beers and they love the culture that accompanies it. Why do we like Smart Phones? Because they change constantly and always give us something new to fiddle with. New things are fun and I think our culture's ever present need for the next thing works in Craft Beer's favor. There's always a new beer, a new twist, a new hybrid beer that keeps people coming back in for more. How many of you buy the same three six-packs over a two month time span? I'd say if I do that at all, I do it at most twice a year (and that's being generous).

I think a better question would be Is there a bubble within Craft Beer? And if that's the question, my answer is Yes. Craft Beer as a whole is going to be fine, but that doesn't mean every single decision made by companies in the business is going to mean good things for them. I don't know very much about economics, but I do know a thing or two about space on shelves. Eventually, they fill up and you run out of space to put new things on. If you're an overeager brewery trying to expand too big too fast and you're product is too mediocre you're going to run into problems because the well established brewers are going to take up the space on the shelves. The bigger Craft Beer gets the more well educated consumers are becoming about what they put in their mouth. As that education continues the demand for superior products is going to become the determining factor of who stays and who goes. The question "what's new" might get you an initial place on the shelf, but if you aren't bringing anything new and innovative to the table, it won't be long before you're company is gone.

With that said, if new brewers focus on the local aspect of Craft Beer I think they stand a much better chance of surviving the increasingly congested highways. If they have a mindset of serving their community first and world domination second then the bubble that does exist can be reduced greatly. I don't have numbers in front of me, but a large part of the brewery growth comes from brewpubs. Are any of us going to not visit a brewpub if they make good beer and serve good food? I don't think so. I'll take ten quality local brewpubs over TGI Fridays and Chilis' every day of the week.

Is Craft Beer a Bubble? Yes and No. As I stated in the comment section of a different blog earlier this week, it depends on exactly how you ask the question and what angle you want to take when you're answering it. But am I worried about the whole thing falling apart? Not at all. Craft Beer is just too damn good.

My Trip to Germany

Once upon a year ago, I took a trip to Germany (with a little Austria thrown in for good measure). Needless to say, it was excellent. I saw a lot, learned a lot, and I drank a lot of world class beers. You may be asking why I'm just now getting around to sharing these pictures with you. Well, because when I took the pictures I had no intentions of sharing them on my blog. A year ago, I wanted to keep to the Baltimore in Baltimore Bistros and Beer. Today, I just don't care that much about keeping to a strict theme and since the direction of the blog has expanded to be more beercentric lately I thought it made sense. So, here we go. A bunch of pictures of beer or me and Deana drinking beer with descriptions where necessary. As a disclaimer, I wasn't focusing on quality for the majority of these pictures. I wanted to make sure my actual eyes were taking in as much as they could, while they could.

My favorite picture of the whole trip. Lake Titisee in the background. Furstenberg Pils in the starring role

Romantic, right? His and Hers liters.

What a head! I ordered this beer simply because I purchased that glass earlier in the day and wanted to be able to say I had a beer in that glass.

This is the best hefe I've ever had. I dream about that beer. 

First beer of the trip. After a 9 hour overnight flight with zero sleep that little dandy did a number on me. I believe it was a Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest

Enjoying a few beers at the Hofbrahaus Munchen.

All glassware should be that beautiful.

You can't imagine how good that beer tasted after a day of climbing a mountain and checking out Neuschwanstein Castle.

We took a brewery tour at Erdinger. The tasting room was awesome and the hospitality was great. Drink as much beer as you can and when you're not drinking stuff a few weisswurst and pretzels in your mouth.

There you have it. Hope you enjoyed looking at a couple of these and the revealing of our face for the first time in blog history! Prost!

My Perfect Baltimore Beer Week

Coming up in the not too distant future is one of my favorite weeks of the year. Baltimore Beer Week. For 9 days there are smorgasbord of great opportunities for beer lovers to get their craft beer fix no matter their budget. Some of the events cost nothing and some will set you back a few bucks, but they are all sure to provide a good time. Below, I've narrowed down the list to what I consider My Perfect Baltimore Beer Week...the events I'd like to hit up if money and time were no object.

October 18

•          Chilibrew VII
•  I  I love chili and I love homebrew. Having the opportunity to show off my skills and taste that of others sounds like my kind of fun.
•          King of the Pins
•     DuClaw, Heavy Seas, and a host of other breweries are battling out to see who can drain their pin the fastest.
•         BBW Kickoff Party with DuClaw at The Judges Bench
•     DuClaw takes over the taps and offers a special firkin of HellRazor
•          Public Works Ales Debut at John Steven
•     The debut of Public Works Ales. On tap will be Red Cent Amber, Fair-Shake APA, and Knucklebuster IPA

October 19

•          OktoBEARfest
•     Oktoberfest at the Zoo. Beer and Bears. 
•          Monocacy Brewing Co Tour/Tasting
•     A chance to taste and tour one of the areas newer breweries.
•          Das Best Oktoberfest
•     Baltimore does their version of Munich's Oktoberfest at M&T

October 20

•          Baltimore’s Own Beer Tap Maker
•      Sample some homebrew, learn the process of homebrew, and see what it takes to make tap handles.

October 21

•     Beer Hunter: The Movie
•     Watch a movie and drink some homebrew. This is probably the event I'm most interested in as we all should know and thank Michael Jackson.
•     Q&A with Union Craft Brewing
•     Learn what it takes to take your beer to the big leagues
•      Pumpkinfest
•     30 different Pumpkin Beers at Victoria Gastro Pub

October 22

•          Public Works and RavenBeer meet thebrewers at Peabody Heights
•     Meet the brewers and take a tour
•          Homebrew with Brad Smith
•     This sounds awesome. Learn about homebrew during happy hour at Maryland Homebrew. The speaker will be none other than the man behind Beersmith, Brad Smith.

October 23

•          Zion Lutheran’s Saurbraten Dinner Celebration
•     I went last year and had a nice time. Good food, good atmosphere, good beer all in a beautiful church.
•          Four Randalls of the aHOPeclipse
•     A bunch of Dogfish Head IPA's going through Randall the Enamel Animals

October 24

•          Mussels and Cask Ale
•     Heavy Seas and Bertha's
•          Rare Beer Night
•     Hard to find stuff at Victoria's Gastro Pub
•          Vintage Brews from the Cellar
•     Taste some vintage Heavy Seas beers aged in Hellas Restaurant

October 25

•       Seattle Pumpkin Fest
•     A slew of pumpkin beers from Elysian Brewery
•           Think You Know Beer
•     Test your knowledge of Beer with a blind taste test. 

October 26

•          Tour the American Brewery Building
•          Real Ale Fest
•      40 Casks. $40
•          Steins and Shots Vessel Making
•     Make your own drinking aparatus. 
•          Gruit Ale Contest
•     Gruit's are some of the best tasting Ale's I've had lately. 

October 27

•          New Belgium Beer Dinner
• Beer and Food pairing at a pretty reasonable price.

      Now obviously I don't have the time or money to attend all of these events, but in ideal world I'd be there for all of them. Take a look through some of the links and have a good time if you end up there. Maybe we'll bump into each other. And if none of these events sound fun (impossible, i know) or fit into your schedule, fret not for there are a ton of other events not mentioned here that might be perfect for you. Happy Baltimore Beer Week!

Craft Beer Community: Barriers to Entry

It's been said many times in one way or another that the Craft Beer Community is one of the best communities to be a part of. We'll tell you that we're a bunch of happy go lucky guys and gals and that we just want to spread the word of good beer and share a good laugh while we're at it. But is that true? How open are we really to those who aren't already card carrying members of the Craft Beer Community?

I've pondered this question briefly before, but I never really sat down with it until this past weekend after attending a beer event at one of the bigger craft beer spots in Baltimore. I'm not going to throw their name into the mix, because for the most part the people that work there are class acts. I've had many a good time there in the past and I no doubt will continue to do so in the future. But something rubbed me the wrong way about the interaction between bartender and customer that went on this weekend. At the time I brushed it off because I didn't think it was worth dwelling on, but after learning that the same bartender offended Deana's sister later that night (long after I went home) it really got me thinking about how one bad experience could potentially prevent a significant amount of people from joining our club.

I like to think I know a thing or two about beer. Afterall, I have 100 badges on untappd god dammit! But one thing I fully admit to is my lack of ability to pronounce the names of foreign breweries. I don't speak German and Norwegian or anything other than English so naturally I'm going to mispronounce a lot of foreign words. I don't think I'm unique in that sense. Vereinigte Historische Bierfanatiker Grodziskie. Can you say that? Beyond that, can you even remember the order of the words when you're in a loud bar that's 100% fuller than the pint of Hofstettner Granitbock Ice you're looking to replace? I don't know whether you can or not, but I do know that you shouldn't be looked at sideways when you can't or given the evil eye when you give up and just point to the words on the menu.

I asked a bartender (the same one that expects all customers be multilingual) later that night if they had any more of XYZ beer . After we establish the fact that I'm a simpleton for the third time that night , he says "I don't know" and walks away chuckling to himself. My response should have been "Well, what makes you think I do?"  Eventually, he makes his way back and says "Of course, we have more. It's 90L. Where did you think it'd all go?" Again, how the hell was I supposed to know what they still had behind the bar and how much they had of it. Is there an app I was supposed to download that shows me how much beer is left in each of their 100 kegs? Was it crazy for me to assume that on day two of a big festival they could be running low on certain offerings?

As I mentioned earlier, for the most part I didn't dwell on my experience but Deana's sister's run in (she had the audacity to be unsure about what to order) with this guy got me thinking about it all over again. She isn't a beer connoisseur in any way, but she is willing to try something new. And as many of you can remember, it can be intimidating ordering from a craft beer menu when you really don't know what you're looking at. It can be even more intimidating when you're looking at beers named Vereinigte Historische Bierfanatiker Grodziskie. I get that the bartenders are busy, but they aren't there just to serve the knowledgeable. They are there to serve the customer no matter how much they know about craft beer.

If you're the type of person who is easily intimated, a bad first experience like this could ruin you from craft beer forever. That's not cool and it's not something that should be taken lightly. And I don't want the focus of this post to be solely on the bartender. Sure, he was an asshole, but there are going to be assholes no matter what. But it got me thinking, how many times have one of us made a joke about people that drink Bud Lite or Blue Moon? How many times has someone read our comments or overheard a joke we made to our friends in the bar and shied away. I know I'm guilty of it, but after this past weekend I'm going to make a concerted effort to be a lot more patient and open to those of us who aren't already in the know but want to be. We all take beer seriously. If we didn't, why would we write about it or read things like this. It's big part of our lives. It lightens the load of a long day and connects us with history. Everyone deserves to get to know craft beer, so let's not be so precious and uptight about things we prevent people from entering our kick ass club. There's room for everybody.

The Session #79 - USA versus Old World Beer Culture

This month's Session is hosted by DingsBeerBlog and he has a simple question. What the hell has the USA done to beer?

What the hell has the USA done to beer? Everything and nothing, I guess. It depends on which perspective you take when answering the question. From an American point of view, US beer culture has changed tenfold over the years. We have options galore and we have beer with flavor.  

Thirty years ago the question was generally which Macro beer suits you. Nowadays, you can walk into a quality liquor store and find aisles upon aisles with hundreds of options to choose from….most of which you've probably never heard of or tried before. The US beer industry, and craft beer in particular, has given us options. And we thank you.

Not only do we have options, but we have flavorful options. After a multi-year sabbatical, I had a Bud Lite on vacation a few weeks ago. I was shocked how little flavor the beer contained. My palate registered nearly zero hop presence and I think I described the beer in my untappd check-in as mildly sweet nothing. Brewers who weren't afraid to bring the bitter and who are constantly experimenting with new hop varieties have changed drinkers’ palates in an extreme way. Imagine going back in time to have a discussion with someone about why you like the taste of beer. People who had ever only known Macro beer would probably look at you crazy if you started describing flavors such as pine, grapefruit, pineapple, mango, or tobacco. And as I’m a testament to, once you develop a taste for these new flavors for a significant amount of time, there is no going back. Sure, I can drink a Bud Lite without being offended by it, but that’s only because there is nothing to be offended by. And if you need more proof that drinkers palates are changing, look no further than Heineken and the fact that they are starting to add Cascade hops to their beer. 

I took a trip to Germany last year and as far as my experiences were concerned US and craft beer has had next to no influence over there. I tasted Dunkels, Helles, Pils, Hefe’s, and Octoberfests. These are beers that the people know to be of a certain standard and beers that breweries have been perfecting for hundreds of years. They have tradition and they stick to what they know and do it as close to perfectly as they can.  The big flavors of Craft beer don't seem to have crept into the Old World, but I believe that's because the Old World has something that the US does not. The Old World has an appreciation for subtle nuance. The beers I had in Germany were flavorful, but they were delicate flavors and features you could quietly stop and appreciate. These are beers you can sit back with at the biergarten and not be distracted by while you're taking in the scenery. You can't do that with a lot of craft beer. Often times, the beer at hand smacks you in the face so when someone tries a Helles they dismiss it as not having enough flavor because it doesn't hit their mouth with a WWE style ring entrance. 

Different parts of Germany are known for different types of beer. If you go to Koln, you’re drinking Kolsch. And while it’s a great beer that people love, other parts of the country don’t go nuts trying to keep up and start producing their own version of Kolsch. In America, there is a growing trend of eating and drinking local, but this variation of drinking local is a special feature the German beer community (and I’m pretty sure Belgium has the same) has that I envy the most. Accessibility is great, but I love the idea of traveling a little ways to get a taste of something you can’t quite get anywhere else for a product that is produced with the utmost care and pride.

Craft beer touts itself on being different and pushing unique products, but in my opinion it still falls victim to massive group think. I wish we took a page from the Old World and took a little more pride in producing only the best and not always run to keep up with the Jones'. Over here, everybody and their brother has an IPA. Why, because they want to keep up. It doesn't matter that their IPA doesn't bring anything new to the table. It doesn't matter that there are 50 other IPA’s from other local breweries that are better than theirs. They need to keep market share and if producing a mediocre IPA helps them achieve that then so be it. Sure, they have a brown ale that is out of this world, but instead of focusing on pushing that product and doing all they can to perfect the recipe they waste time brewing something that is just average. If the Macro brewers are the bad guys for pushing mediocrity on the masses simply to make a buck, why do we give craft brewers a break for doing the same thing (albeit on a much smaller scale). The same goes for Pumpkin Beers. Do we need 89,000 different options? Hell no. Let those who do it best keep us happy and focus on the product you do best. Heady Topper and the one beer they brew is great example of this. We don’t need brewers who produce one good beer and 9 that are forgettable. We need brewers who push products that move craft beer forward in a qualitative way and not quantitative.

The US beer scene has done a lot to push the envelope forward. We have options and we have flavor like we never have before. As far as that objective is concerned I think we can confidently say Mission Accomplished. Sure, variety is supposedly the spice of life, but it’s important that we not soften up on the idea of standards and perfecting something. We're great at taking risks and always trying to move things along. The Old World is great at respecting tradition and perfecting things over time. We don't necessarily need one or the other, but hopefully the future sees the two view points come together to create the best beers the world has ever known.

Pumpkin Havoc: Chaos in Homebrewing

Wow! What a weekend of homebrew activity.

I had no intentions of brewing a beer this month, but Deana wanted me to put together a Pumpkin Ale and who am I to argue that. Of all the things she could ever ask me to do, brewing beer is one I'll never turn down. All guys should be able to make their lady happy by brewing beer. So, I put on my thinking hat, came up with a recipe, and went out to buy all the ingredients.

The first fiasco, although minor compared to everything else, happened the day before brew day when I was putting together my yeast starter. After I had my wort cooled down I opened the bottle of White Labs WLP011 and it came splooging out of the container like a high school boy on the biggest day of his life. I'd estimate that at least half of the bottle ended up on my hands, but at that point what are you going to do? Besides, the whole point of a yeast starter is to build a bigger colony of happy yeasties so if I lost some I'd get them back over time anyways.

When brew day came around, I churned through the process like the champion underwater basket weaver I am. I'm always an overanxious brewer and inevitably I always forget to do something. I add something early, I add something late. It's never anything catastrophic but it's not perfect and it drives me nuts. Not this time. This brew day, I took the time write out my steps one by one to ensure no screw ups. And guess what? I didn't screw up.

When the end of the boil came it was time to get serious. I picked up the 3 ton pot of hot wort and started the trek from backyard to basement. Eventually, after penguin walking everything to the basin I placed the wort chiller in the pot and started the cool down. While all of this is happening, I'm flying high and congratulating myself on a job well done. I brewed a beer without making a mistake and I cooled the wort down in record time. All I had to do was get the wort into the carboy, add the yeast, and let the little guys enjoy the sugar buffet. I called upstairs to Deana to hold my funnel not knowing that the real fun was soon to begin.

Deana came downstairs, held the funnel and I picked up the pot to pour. For some reason this particular batch of beer felt extremely heavy and I was having trouble getting it high enough to pour properly. My first attempt was not so successful and I ended up spilling some wort on the floor and on my feet. It wasn't the end of the world, but I hate to lose any of my hard earned nectar and I really didn't want to have to clean the floor or have sticky feet. As I attempted to start pouring the wort again I noticed a rush of warm water coming across my feet. I hadn't yet picked up the pot high enough to start pouring so all this new found liquid I'm standing in prompted me to ask the question "What the hell is all this water on my feet?" And that's when I turn around to see a baby tsunami coming at me from the toilet. You see, when you have the washing machine on and draining, your wort chiller dumping off who knows how much water during the cooling process, and tree roots in your plumbing system you didn't know about blocking all of the water, you end up with a lake in your basement.

I didn't know what to do. My first reaction was "crap, I need to get this beer in the carboy or it's going to get  infected." But then I realized there was a basement full of other things I didn't want ruined by water so I waddled the still full pot of wort as far away from the new lake as possible and began the process of moving other essential items like clothes out of the way. Once everything that needed saving was saved Deana busted out the shop vac and started sucking up the water while I got back into beer mode. By now, I'm in a hurry and just want to be done with everything so I pour the wort into the carboy waaaaaaay too fast. My super spill into the carboy created a ton of bubbles that came rushing back out landing in the new water front property we just created. I looked at Deana and we started laughing acknowledging our amazing luck. Finally, I got the yeast added in and I crossed my fingers that everything would turn out okay.

After 3 hours, I returned to my basement to find the beer fermenting away at a rapid pace. I've never had anything start fermentation that quickly or vigorously. The carboy I was using  was brand new and so of course I didn't have a blowoff tube that fit properly. I braced myself for what was to come. When I woke up the next morning, I found my airlock laying on the ground and the carboy oozing like a 6th grade science project. Putting the airlock back would have been pointless, so I sanitized some foil and put it on top to try and prevent anything from landing in the carboy while it went berserk. As I type this, I still haven't been able to put the airlock back on.

The only good that has come out of all of this is that it helped me create (what I consider) to be a cool name for the beer. Pumpkin Havoc is a beer I'll never forget brewing. From step one all the way through the final step it has been a trying situation. Let's hope that despite all of the chaos I still end up with a tasty beer. I deserve it after all of that. I guess I'll be adding "ensure plumbing is in working order" to my brew day checklist from here on out.