recent beer reviews!
under my (other) nom de plume, Warmstorage, i review lots of beers and brewpubs on a couple of different sites. of late, i've mostly been reviewing on beeradvocate.com. a few recent reviews:
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (aka The Mothership), Chico, CA (reviewed : http://www.beeradvocate.com/beerfly/user_reviews/140/
Beermann's Beerwerks, Lincoln, CA: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beerfly/user_reviews/8817
(both Sierra Nevada and Beermann's Beerwerks were visited, imbibed with, and reviewed cojointly with The Good Senator .)
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/rate_results/140/2671/latest/0/warmstorage/
Sierra Nevada Best Bitter Ale: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/rate_results/140/8169/latest/0/warmstorage/
Anchor Brewing, 1997 Our Special Ale (Christmas Ale): http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/rate_results/28/2880/latest/0/warmstorage/
Sunday, March 20, 2005
homebrew!
i'm fretting quite extensively about the IPA that S and i homebrewed on Friday (he took the day off of work to brew: there's a man who has his priorities straight!)
it was the first batch i've brewed in a long time, and the first time he's ever brewed. more worrisome to me, i've always brewed with other, more experienced brewers, who were in charge of when the inevitable existential and logistical crises developed. being the lead brewer was pretty nerveracking.
good things:
i'm fretting quite extensively about the IPA that S and i homebrewed on Friday (he took the day off of work to brew: there's a man who has his priorities straight!)
it was the first batch i've brewed in a long time, and the first time he's ever brewed. more worrisome to me, i've always brewed with other, more experienced brewers, who were in charge of when the inevitable existential and logistical crises developed. being the lead brewer was pretty nerveracking.
good things:
- we got it all brewed, without totally destroying the kitchen in the rented home he just moved in to about two weeks ago.
- it's the correct general color
- it started with a VERY vigorous fermenting action
- i have yet to be made sick by it
bad things:
- i dropped the carboy (thankfully, we spent the extra $20 for a high tech, plastic carboy!) while aerating it, spilling probably a half gallon.
- the disinterested guy that sold us the homebrew equipment didn't bother to point out that the high tech plastic carboy needed a smaller rubber cork for the airlock, so the homebrew spent its first 24 hours of existence with ziploc bag taped over it for an airlock.
- we only had a 15.1 liter pot to brew in, so we were volume limited, and i didn't add enough plain water to the fermenter, so we only have about 3.5 gallons fermenting in the 5 gallon carboy.
- the fermenting action has dropped dramatically, leading me to worry incessantly.
- S's house is FUCKING COLD, so we've had to turn on the heat to keep the fermenting temperature warm enough, which makes the front living room area of his house unbearably hot. so i closed all the vents in the house outside of the room where it's fermenting.
i'm toying with re-pitching yeast tomorrow if we don't get some fermentation action.
in other notes, The Good Senator is in town, and we spent most of yesterday brewpub touring. links to reviews to be posted soon.
back to worrying about the homebrew, and reading Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
annualcreditreport.com
for fun, i used the new FACT Act free credit report service last night, to see what random things have popped up on my credit reporting since i last checked it, about a year and a half ago. it's a decent service, although, bizarrely, i failed the security check questions asked by Trans-Union and Equifax, and so was only able to view my Experian report.
imagine my surprise to see a collection account for an old T-Mobile bill ($46) that i already paid off once for nuisance value. i'm on hold now with the fucking new collection company, and since i can't figure out what bank i wrote the check on (it was about two years, five addresses, and several banks ago) i guess i'm going to pay it off AGAIN for nuisance value. sure makes me mad, but it makes me even angrier to have it marring my otherwise good credit.
this time i'm going to CC the letter to the president of T-Mobile and see if I can get them to confirm that it was, in fact, paid off this time.
i know these rude, curt, terse bottom feeders are really just regular people doing their shitty, barely above minimum wage jobs (and in fucking florida, at that.) i know this. . .
but fuck, can't you just give me an address to send a check to for $46.39, so i can pay this fucking thing off? why do you need to transfer me to two different people, and then call me back? why?
for fun, i used the new FACT Act free credit report service last night, to see what random things have popped up on my credit reporting since i last checked it, about a year and a half ago. it's a decent service, although, bizarrely, i failed the security check questions asked by Trans-Union and Equifax, and so was only able to view my Experian report.
imagine my surprise to see a collection account for an old T-Mobile bill ($46) that i already paid off once for nuisance value. i'm on hold now with the fucking new collection company, and since i can't figure out what bank i wrote the check on (it was about two years, five addresses, and several banks ago) i guess i'm going to pay it off AGAIN for nuisance value. sure makes me mad, but it makes me even angrier to have it marring my otherwise good credit.
this time i'm going to CC the letter to the president of T-Mobile and see if I can get them to confirm that it was, in fact, paid off this time.
i know these rude, curt, terse bottom feeders are really just regular people doing their shitty, barely above minimum wage jobs (and in fucking florida, at that.) i know this. . .
but fuck, can't you just give me an address to send a check to for $46.39, so i can pay this fucking thing off? why do you need to transfer me to two different people, and then call me back? why?
back in saccaminnow
back now in the house that i grew up in. it's a little odd, and a little comforting. i've been running, and riding, and walking a lot (the upside of not having our car here: J is driving it up later this week from san diego.)
while there are certainly parts of san diego that i'll miss (yes, it's pleasant to go look out over the ocean), there are so many that i won't: traffic; image-obsessed, plastic people; absurd cost of living; the right wing reactionism. it was awfully nice to walk around in december and january in shorts and short sleeves, though much of san diego's supposedly "perfect" weather is, as noted by me before, just smart (and untrue) marketing.
a series of physical and gastrointestinal ailments, and two bad colds in two weeks, have left me way off of marathon training pace, and doubting whether i'll be in good shape for a may marathon. since the travel schedule only calms somewhat in the next few months, i'm likely to reschedule training and a marathon for Utah, when i can do it right. in the meantime, the likely plan is to keep exercising and stay in good shape, so that i'm not starting over when i do begin active marathon training again.
plans on the middle burners include a bike tour (with J) down the Oregon and northern California coast, seeing how many brewpubs and wineries (if not vineyards) we can hit without going very far out of our way. i just bought the brand new edition of Bicycling the Pacific Coast by Vicky Spring and Tom Kirkendall, the acknowledged bible of this bike route, which i also used when i rode from Saccaminnow to San Diego in spring 1995.
that ride was on the cheap, and totally self-supported: i was loaded down with a sleeping bag, several changes of clothes, etc. this time around, our older and creakier bodies are requesting that we do it much less on the cheap. while we're certainly not planning a true "credit card tour", we are going to stay mostly/entirely in places with roofs, and not carry pounds and pounds of food, and find a laundromat a couple of times along the way, so that we can mostly carry extra socks and underwear, and not multiple changes of clothing. i expect it to be a hell of a lot more pleasant ride, and probably every bit as scenic.
now i'm going to go strip, sand, and stain five pieces of furniture. it's nice to have a garage and driveway to work with again!
back now in the house that i grew up in. it's a little odd, and a little comforting. i've been running, and riding, and walking a lot (the upside of not having our car here: J is driving it up later this week from san diego.)
while there are certainly parts of san diego that i'll miss (yes, it's pleasant to go look out over the ocean), there are so many that i won't: traffic; image-obsessed, plastic people; absurd cost of living; the right wing reactionism. it was awfully nice to walk around in december and january in shorts and short sleeves, though much of san diego's supposedly "perfect" weather is, as noted by me before, just smart (and untrue) marketing.
a series of physical and gastrointestinal ailments, and two bad colds in two weeks, have left me way off of marathon training pace, and doubting whether i'll be in good shape for a may marathon. since the travel schedule only calms somewhat in the next few months, i'm likely to reschedule training and a marathon for Utah, when i can do it right. in the meantime, the likely plan is to keep exercising and stay in good shape, so that i'm not starting over when i do begin active marathon training again.
plans on the middle burners include a bike tour (with J) down the Oregon and northern California coast, seeing how many brewpubs and wineries (if not vineyards) we can hit without going very far out of our way. i just bought the brand new edition of Bicycling the Pacific Coast by Vicky Spring and Tom Kirkendall, the acknowledged bible of this bike route, which i also used when i rode from Saccaminnow to San Diego in spring 1995.
that ride was on the cheap, and totally self-supported: i was loaded down with a sleeping bag, several changes of clothes, etc. this time around, our older and creakier bodies are requesting that we do it much less on the cheap. while we're certainly not planning a true "credit card tour", we are going to stay mostly/entirely in places with roofs, and not carry pounds and pounds of food, and find a laundromat a couple of times along the way, so that we can mostly carry extra socks and underwear, and not multiple changes of clothing. i expect it to be a hell of a lot more pleasant ride, and probably every bit as scenic.
now i'm going to go strip, sand, and stain five pieces of furniture. it's nice to have a garage and driveway to work with again!
back in saccaminnow
back now in the house that i grew up in. it's a little odd, and a little comforting. i've been running, and riding, and walking a lot (the upside of not having our car here: J is driving it up later this week from san diego.)
while there are certainly parts of san diego that i'll miss (yes, it's pleasant to go look out over the ocean), there are so many that i won't: traffic; image-obsessed, plastic people; absurd cost of living; the right wing reactionism. it was awfully nice to walk around in december and january in shorts and short sleeves, though much of san diego's supposedly "perfect" weather is, as noted by me before, just smart (and untrue) marketing.
a series of physical and gastrointestinal ailments, and two bad colds in two weeks, have left me way off of marathon training pace, and doubting whether i'll be in good shape for a may marathon. since the travel schedule only calms somewhat in the next few months, i'm likely to reschedule training and a marathon for Utah, when i can do it right. in the meantime, the likely plan is to keep exercising and stay in good shape, so that i'm not starting over when i do begin active marathon training again.
plans on the middle burners include a bike tour (with J) down the Oregon and northern California coast, seeing how many brewpubs and wineries (if not vineyards) we can hit without going very far out of our way. i just bought the brand new edition of Bicycling the Pacific Coast by Vicky Spring and Tom Kirkendall, the acknowledged bible of this bike route, which i also used when i rode from Saccaminnow to San Diego in spring 1995.
that ride was on the cheap, and totally self-supported: i was loaded down with a sleeping bag, several changes of clothes, etc. this time around, our older and creakier bodies are requesting that we do it much less on the cheap. while we're certainly not planning a true "credit card tour", we are going to stay mostly/entirely in places with roofs, and not carry pounds and pounds of food, and find a laundromat a couple of times along the way, so that we can mostly carry extra socks and underwear, and not multiple changes of clothing. i expect it to be a hell of a lot more pleasant ride, and probably every bit as scenic.
now i'm going to go strip, sand, and stain five pieces of furniture. it's nice to have a garage and driveway to work with again!
back now in the house that i grew up in. it's a little odd, and a little comforting. i've been running, and riding, and walking a lot (the upside of not having our car here: J is driving it up later this week from san diego.)
while there are certainly parts of san diego that i'll miss (yes, it's pleasant to go look out over the ocean), there are so many that i won't: traffic; image-obsessed, plastic people; absurd cost of living; the right wing reactionism. it was awfully nice to walk around in december and january in shorts and short sleeves, though much of san diego's supposedly "perfect" weather is, as noted by me before, just smart (and untrue) marketing.
a series of physical and gastrointestinal ailments, and two bad colds in two weeks, have left me way off of marathon training pace, and doubting whether i'll be in good shape for a may marathon. since the travel schedule only calms somewhat in the next few months, i'm likely to reschedule training and a marathon for Utah, when i can do it right. in the meantime, the likely plan is to keep exercising and stay in good shape, so that i'm not starting over when i do begin active marathon training again.
plans on the middle burners include a bike tour (with J) down the Oregon and northern California coast, seeing how many brewpubs and wineries (if not vineyards) we can hit without going very far out of our way. i just bought the brand new edition of Bicycling the Pacific Coast by Vicky Spring and Tom Kirkendall, the acknowledged bible of this bike route, which i also used when i rode from Saccaminnow to San Diego in spring 1995.
that ride was on the cheap, and totally self-supported: i was loaded down with a sleeping bag, several changes of clothes, etc. this time around, our older and creakier bodies are requesting that we do it much less on the cheap. while we're certainly not planning a true "credit card tour", we are going to stay mostly/entirely in places with roofs, and not carry pounds and pounds of food, and find a laundromat a couple of times along the way, so that we can mostly carry extra socks and underwear, and not multiple changes of clothing. i expect it to be a hell of a lot more pleasant ride, and probably every bit as scenic.
now i'm going to go strip, sand, and stain five pieces of furniture. it's nice to have a garage and driveway to work with again!
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