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

The Past Three Weeks

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Been a few weeks huh? Yeah well… insanely busy. However, here are a few things that have happened in the last (sigh) three weeks. First off, a while back we checked out Old Devil Moon, which is operated by one of our buddies from the SF Homebrewers Guild… great beers on tap… and the location is pretty sweet with some kick ass po’ boys… so what’s not to like? Check it out here…

 

We also celebrated Oktoberfest at Spiesekammer again with Big Ben & Lone Cicerone and a few other friends… beers, meat, cheeses & fruits were had… but mostly beer, all paired with polka music & good peeps!!! Here are pictures…

We snuck in a last minute Giants game against the Padres at AT&T Park… big thank you to the Riegelsbergers!!!

 

Then there was Oktoberfest at Ferment.Drink.Repeat owned by another one of our buddies from the Guild… again, great beer, they had brauts, and good times… and a test of endurance & strength…

We also started two batches of beer on our own! First was our wedding gift from Big Ben & Lone Cicerone, who gave us the ingredients for their WONDERFUL California Common recipe…

 

…and the other was called the Black Death Porter kit from the Oak Barrel, which will be put into our oak barrel at home… so that we can FINALLY bottle (and drink) our 2^nd Imperial Stout recipe that’s been in the whiskey barrel for nearly 9 months now… yeah, damn!!! Here are some pictures of those…

 

 

My Lady also got the first of her Purrmaid stuffies… and it’s amazing…

 

Gretchen reached 119,000 miles… two years to the day from when she hit 90,000 miles…

 

Lastly, we helped sort & organize about 50 cases of beer for the California State Homebrewing Competition… and that was exhausting… but yeah, good times & for a good cause!

 

That was all in between working overtime & the usual hum-drum… so now you see why I’ve had a hard time keeping up with this thing… but hey, you can catch up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yahoo, telephone, text and any other means so… hit me up!!! In the meantime, next update will include our next trip later this week… to Disneyland, Knott’s Scary Farm, and a cruise to Catalina & Ensenada… so yeah, busy busy.

 

Have a great weekend everybody!!!