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

Treasure Island Flea Market

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Thursday was Thanksgiving… and we had a wonderful dinner with Izzy’s family at their childhood home in Richmond. I’m truly thankful for my wonderful ladyfriend Izzy & her wonderful family. I really can’t say it enough. They’ve been amazing the past few years that I’ve been here in the Bay Area. We basically just sat and ate and chatted it up for a few hours… and even Uncle Ed was there… and yeah, it was pretty awesome. Here are a few pictures of the delicious food… and a comfortable dog…

 

There was also football to be had… but we didn’t get to see any of it due to busyness… but it doesn’t matter because my favorite Eagles got f**king destroyed by Izzy’s Lions because Chip Kelly has done a great job of putting together a team that rivals their crosstown buddies, the also horribly bad Philadelphia 76ers. F**king seriously… I’m actually a little curious how they’ve won a few games this year. I’d actually prefer Doug Pedersen to Sam Bradford or Mark Sanchez at this point.

 

The big event of the weekend was the Treasure Island Flea Market!!! Izzy & Katie (aka Uniquecorns) had a booth to sell their incredible art… and we actually got a GREAT location right in the middle of everything… and this market is a well-run machine, which is greatly appreciated after the APE fiasco. Load-in was great… setup went well… the neighboring vendors were great… turnout was amazing… the weather was beautiful… food trucks were plentiful… there was a wide variety of goods to check out ranging from furniture to cookware to art to jewelry to novelty signs to clothing to random hodgepodge stuff. I highly recommend checking it out!!!

 

Would we do it again? ABSOLUTELY!!! We sold a good amount of art. We made great contacts with neighboring vendors. The turnout & people were great! Kids absolutely LOVED us! Heck, we may be there again in a few months at the next one! It was a great weekend!

 

That should be good for this entry… I’ll have another one shortly… but I’m doing a LOT of overtime in preparation for my Utah Christmas trip… and we have the Mangria Bar Crawl on Friday… and Central Valley Con this Sunday. More to come soon… but until then, have a great day everybody!!!