Right Before Christmas

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Okay, here’s the catch-up from the last week or so… this last Friday, Izzy’s cousin Amy celebrated her 21^st birthday and she had a Barbie theme… I went as Ameri-Ken (pretty much my usual clothes) but here are some good pictures…

 

 

Saturday, Izzy & I had a booth at the Holiday Stroll event at Noman Coffee, and it was pretty sweet. It’s a pretty small venue now, but there’s definitely some great potential out there & a LOT of great artists joined us out there. Here are some pictures of that…

 

Sunday, we met up with headbrewer/owner Kevin at Ferment.Drink.Repeat to brew our own recipe (well, a variation of it) to fit his system! A few years ago, I contributed to his jumpstart campaign and this was one of the benefits… and he’s a good friend & fellow homebrewer, one of the founding members of the SF Homebrewers Guild, and just an overall great guy & retired military man. Basically we helped with most of steps in the process, milling the grain, mashing, lunching (some great Bahn Mi sandwiches), transferring, cleaning, all that stuff. It was a lot of fun… but here are some pictures of it…

 

Our Saturday at Jack of All Trades Festival involved a LOT of rain… and the show being cancelled… but we stuck it out for most of the event anyway (cancelled about 10 minutes before start so we were already set up) and there were a few lucky patrons / passerbys who were able to gladly purchase some of our wares, even in the rain!!! No pictures of this one though…

 

Sunday, we drove up to Lincoln (near Sacramento) to attend Izzy’s nephew Everett’s 1^st Birthday Party!!! It was actually a lot of fun to see the family up there & that baby is just so damn cute and happy!!! Here are some pictures…

 

Aside from that, we’ve just been really busy obviously… but things have been great!!! The Everything I Learned From Movies podcast has been really taking off… and we’re really focusing on making it the best that we can. On that note, this isn’t quite time for the Stevies… but my New Year’s Resolution for 2017 is to REALLY set time aside to focus on the podcast & make it better and better each week… and with that in mind, I ask a BIG favor of YOU!!!

 

This year, instead of going out and buying me a present for Christmas, don’t make a donation to a charity in my name (although OK, that’s cool too), but please feel free to go to patron.podbean.com/eilfm and Become a Patron of our EILFM Podcast instead!!! That way, not only are you giving us a gift… but you’re getting a gift in return, in the form of a great podcast PLUS plenty of great rewards to take advantage of such as mailed gifts for our Fan Club, guest hosting episodes, all kinds of fun stuff!!! Anyway, please give it a look & let us know what you think!!!

 

Until next time, have a great day everybody!!!

Ketchup for Thanksgiving

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Well damn… it’s been a few weeks… you may be wondering what the hell has happened to me since then? Well… here are a few things:

 

IRON BREWING!!! – As briefly mentioned last entry, Izzy & I are making Extinction Fennel Event for Ferment.Drink.Repeat’s Iron Brewer event… and it’s coming along great so wish us luck next week the judging.

 

We also started a Cider, kegged the California Common from Big Ben & Lone Cicerone, made a pair of SMASH beers, and FINALLY bottled our 2^nd barrel aged Imperial Stout (and it’s very whiskey-y). Here are some pictures of those adventures…

 

We’ve also had a booth at the Treasure Island Flea Market twice and have had a little weather each time… but overall, a pretty great experience where we made some money & learned things…

 

 

… and we also had a booth at the Jack of All Trades festival in Oakland, and going to do it again in just over a week! Here are some pictures of that…

 

 

Oh, there was also Halloween (mostly spent at the Flea Market) but we had fun at the Lake Lady’s Going Away Party…

 

There was also the California State Homebrewing Competition Finals at Anchor Brewing… and I was among the top winners, even though I didn’t enter a single beer this year. How you ask? Well, here are some pictures of the event, including some of my winnings from the raffle in which I entered $100 of tickets which include:

 

 

·         $50 gift card to Oak Barrel Brewcraft

·         $25 gift card & glass from Barrelhead Brewing

·         4 bottles of Speakeasy Brewing’s Scarface barrel aged Imperial Stout

·         Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest T-shirt

·         9 bottles of Henhouse Brewing’s Saison

·         11 bottles of Freewheel Brewing’s beer (4 different kinds)

·         2 bottles of Almanac Brewing’s Peach de Brettaville

 

…and then a few things that I got in the Anchor Gift Shop… so a pretty good day!

 

What else, what else? Oh yeah, one of the worst game show hosts in American history is now the President of the United States… no pictures of that.

 

We followed that surprise up two days later by watching one of our favorite comedians in the world, Dana Gould, at Punchline SF again. He’s always a treat and an incredible performer. If you don’t listen to his podcast, The Dana Gould Hour (never an hour), then you should absolutely start downloading and listening to it now. He’s just a very interesting & funny man with many layers! He also has great taste as he loved my “I didn’t mean to offend you… that was a bonus!” T-shirt that I was wearing that night. So much so that he liked my photo of him on Instagram which… is basically fantastic.

 

There was also the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild Annual Brewery Bus Tour which included stops at Uncommon Brewers in Santa Cruz…

 

Corralitos Brewing in Watsonville

 

Highway 1 Brewing in Pescadero

  

… and ended at Beach Chalet Restaurant & Brewery at Ocean Beach. Not quite the turnout of years past but… a great bunch & a great time was had by all on an otherwise pretty dreary& rainy day (which is also awesome).

 

I also received something unexpected… a 25^th Anniversary Letter hand signed by Mr. Bill Marriott himself!!! Yes, I know, I started early… like when I was 10 years old.

 

This past weekend, Wingman Scott came to visit and spent Thanksgiving with us… and we had a lot of fun hanging out with him, also a surprise visit from C&H&KJ on Black Friday, we had the booth at the Flea Market doing some pretty good business, and then on Sunday Scott & I met up with C for some Tailgating at the Oakland Raiders game…

 

As you can see, I’ve been pretty busy… and I’m trying to keep you