Beerambassador

I've wondered about the turnover at Woodman's. Heck, I wonder about it at all liquor stores. It's my understanding that distributors are supposed to be rotating stock to ensure freshness but I'm betting it rarely happens. I know Bells and New Glarus turnover quite quickly at Woodman's. I've seen the cooler case almost empty for both of them. So maybe I'll just buy those two.

So which games are the bobblehead games and who are they going to be next season? I NEED MORE BOBBLEHEADS!

I've been a craft beer connoisseur since before I could legally drink, meaning well over a decade and I FINALLY bought a sixer of Anchor Steam after I realized I'd never had it. It's such a standard of the craft beer industry (kinda like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) that I couldn't believe I'd never bought it. What a great beer! Lately I've really been developing a taste for lagers (is it a lager? is it an ale? that's debatable I guess..) and it really hit the spot. Nice and hoppy with a smooth malt taste. Nice on a cool late summer evening. Inspired by the all the buzz around Black IPAs I went out and found a bottle of Southern Tier Iniquity. I don't know. I know people who talk up Black IPA say it's not just a hoppy stout, but this tasted EXACTLY like a hoppy Russian imperial stout. It was nice, but I don't know about all the hype with Black IPA. I picked up a bottle of Stone Sublimely Self Righteous - which sgtcluels loved - but I haven't had a chance to drink it yet. Maybe this one will change my perception a bit. For the Dancing Man lovers - Woodman's on the east side is all out. Staghorn is out in its place. So if you want some for the winter (and why not, it's got enough alcohol for a cold winter night) better go and find some. I picked up a sixer of Staghorn (and a couple other New Glarus varieties) for my son's post-baptism party. I make sure those who don't like attending church have lots of good beer to look forward to post service but I don't want them to drink all my home brew. Also, had a nice Scotch Ale on cask at the Great Dane the other night. Gotta go there during happy hour to avoid their ridiculous beer costs. The beer - thank God - was really good, which offset how ticked off I was about my sustain-a-burger. What a joke of a hamburger. Especially disappointing since the Dane has pretty good burgers in general.

Ohhh. That sounds tasty. Hennepin is one of my favorite beers. Is that a kit someone sells, or did you just find a nice recipe? I was going to brew a "mini" saison this summer, but when I went to buy my supplies they were all out of saison yeast so I had to take a pass. From what I've heard, saison yeast is incredibly tricky. It likes to stall out a lot, ferments really hot...but will eventually finish really dry. I've got Northern Brewer's Patersbier bottle conditioning in my basement right now. It's about 8 weeks old now and I've heard it doesn't get really good until about 10-12 weeks. I've been limiting myself to one bottle a week and it's slowly getting better and better. I'm starting to think about a winter beer, but with a toddler and a newborn in the house it's hard to undertake something that takes effort and planning.

I stopped at the New Glarus brewery last week. Not to tour it, just to check it out and maybe pick up some R&D beer. What I saw of the new brewery looks amazing. Sat outside and had a beer and just admired the view from the hill top. Very nice. I picked up a bottle apiece of the Golden Ale and the Two Women Lager. The Golden Ale was dominated by the brett, giving it a nice funk. The hop character was pretty much non-existent. It would've been nice to be able to taste it fresh just to see the difference. Nice beer that I really enjoyed. The Two Women Lager was an outstanding pilsner. I hope they turn it into a regular beer of theirs, because I'd drink a well-crafted pilsner by them by the bucket. That said, $5 was a bit ridiculous for what is basically just a well-crafted pilsner. Worth picking up a bottle if you're in the area. I also missed - by two freakin' days - their two new R&D beers, the bourbon barrel kriek and gueuze. The kriek is already sold out per their facebook page. Anyone do the Great Taste in Madison over the weekend? My sister went and said it was amazing.

I only save New Glarus bottles. I just recycle everything else. Too much soaking and scraping with just about any other brewery.

Lyle Lovett is playing the state fair on opening night. I saw him two years ago at the Overture in Madison and he was pretty amazing. He tours with a "large" band and they put on a stellar show. People tend to think of him as a country act - which would be accurate to an extent - but they cover all the American roots music bases: country, gospel, jazz, bluegrass, blues, folk, R&B, etc. And Lovett's got an amazing voice. Maybe an act that fits better in a theater than outdoors, but worth the price of admission if you like good American music.

Brew and Grow is on Femrite and Agriculture if you're on the east side. The selection is limited, but I've stopped in a few times to pick up some basics I've needed in a pinch. They're more into the "grow" part of their name. Lots of "tomato" growing products.

I don't care for wheat beers generally speaking. Too many of them are just waaayy to sweet. But Dancing Man is a spectacular beer. Crack'd Wheat is also a great hefe, albeit a heavily hopped one.

The last beer I brewed was a british bitter. About 3.5% alcohol. And it's got great flavor. Nice and rich, malty, with good hop balance. I read an interview with Dan Carey from New Glarus here. While he's not really a big time session beer brewer, he's got great insight into it. Moon Man, awesome beer, period. And it's staggering how simple it is. You can do incredible things with simpler and smaller amounts of ingredients. But the market right now is big, bigger, biggest. I think Moon Man is great step in a different direction and I'd like to see more brewers try that approach - and I think they will, because in that interview, Carey says Moon Man is now their number two seller. If you want something lower alcohol, you shouldn't have to reach for a bud/miller/coors. You'd think you'd have tons of craft options - but you don't.

Stone Cali-Belgique was a pretty damn good Belgian IPA. I really liked the way the Belgian yeast and hops played together. Really, a well done beer. Tyranena just released their La Femme Amère, which just didn't do it for me. The Belgian yeast was just way too subdued. Personally, I like the style. I think IPA's have gotten stale to an extent - "I can make my beer so bitter only a handful of people can actually enjoy it," which is just another aspect of the big beer trend – so it's nice to see a different trend with IPA's. As an aside - I'm dying for a trend where brewers go nuts with session beers. I'm not holding my breath.

I fermented my first beer in an upstairs bedroom closet. It was a Belgian yeast and you could really only smell it when you took the airlock off the carboy. Some yeasts can give some sulfur odors. I've read people on forums complaining that they've had their basements stunk up by sulfur smelling yeast. I *think* lager yeasts tend to throw off sulfur, but you wouldn't be making lagers as newbie and maybe never at all. I've also heard of nasty smells coming from some Belgian and wheat beer yeasts. Like I said, for me, so far no nasty yeast smells. I knew a guy who fermented in his dorm room closet in college. Could you stink up your whole house? Sure. Would I let that stop me from brewing? No way. As an aside, read the Northern Brewer forums. I've learned more from those forums than from just about anywhere else. Palmer's book is great. I reference it a ton. What are the homebrew options for reasonably light beers? Something with flavor, like Guiness or Corona Light. Northern Brewer sells a Dry Irish Stout that would be similar to Guinness. Low in alcohol, pretty light. But honestly, if you're a light lager drinker you're probably better off buying that at the store. Lagers are pretty tough to pull off, you need a dedicated fridge with temperature control for starters. You could always brew a cream ale, which would be pretty similar to a light lager. There was some truth to that Budweiser commercial where George Clooney is talking about how darker beers can hide flaws. No room for error in a light lager.

Get the Northern Brewer catalog and salivate. Lots of good low gravity "session" beer kits to choose from in there. If you know someone who brews ask them to show you the ropes. It's easy and fun. Beer always tastes better if you make it yourself.

A secondary fermentation carboy is not very important - at least when you're beginning. Some people never use them at all from what I gather. It's really only necessary for higher alcohol brews that need extended aging, gets them off the yeast cake which can impart off flavors if left in there too long. A lot of recipes tell you you need to secondary beer, but it's not necessary. It can help with clarity in small beers. So unless you plan on starting off brewing Russian Imperial Stouts you really don't have to worry about a secondary. Does it smell? Well, when you're actually boiling the wort, it makes your kitchen smell awesome. That smell goes away pretty shortly after you're done. House might still smell like malt in the morning. SOME yeasts will give off nasty smells when fermenting, but I haven't experienced that yet using three way different kinds of yeast. I've brewed three beers and I'm enamored with it. It's a ton of fun and I pretty much only drink my own beer at home.

So would a shoe like Nike Free be a wise decision for a novice runner, or is this more of an "advanced" method of running? It's got me intrigued.

I take back what I wrote earlier about hearing good things about O'So's Picnic Ants. Had it at the Old Fashioned yesterday. Syrupy sweet with no balance to it. Uck.

I'll just update this and it can probably die. I just spoke with my insurance agent and it went much better this time. I'm now hopeful the car will be totaled by the insurance company. No way of being sure until they look at the claim - but unless me and the insurance company have wildly different ideas about what this car is worth, it should get totaled out.

Hey everyone. I just got in my first accident the other night - police said the other driver was at fault. Being that I've never been in an accident, I've never made a claim, so I'm flying blind. I went yesterday and got a quote on the damage to my car and was told $1,500 minimum, with the possibility they'll find more damage once they pull the bumper off. I was driving our "beater" car, a 2001 dodge stratus with 180,000 miles on it. It runs ok, but needed a lot of work even before the accident (rides rough, needs new brakes, new suspension, various minor mechanical issues, body's got minor rust and peeling paint). I'd thought on and off about selling the car BEFORE I got in the accident and would've been thrilled to get $2,000 or so for it. The auto body guy is telling me my car is nowhere near being considered totaled, saying that those damages amount to about 40 percent of my car's value. I realize he wants me to get the car fixed, because he doesn't make a penny if they total my car or I don't get it fixed. My main concern is I don't want to spend AT LEAST $1,500 on repairing a car that's only worth maybe $2,000. I'm not convinced the car will make it to 200,000 miles anyway. Kelly Blue Book says my car is worth $1,900 in fair condition. I think I'd be way better off if they total the car, but it sounds like they won't. Can I "negotiate" with insurance on this at all? Or am I stuck having them fix my car? My insurance agent, who I've never dealt with before, has me sort of steamed. It seems like I'm doing a lot of stuff he should be doing, like trying to get in touch with the person who caused the accident, waiting to hear back from her insurance company, etc. I kind of feel like he should be handling this sort of thing. I'd rather not call him back until I have a good idea of what my options are and after my first experience with him, I'm not convinced he'll be the most helpful in telling me what my options are. Unless he really comes through for me, I'm probably switching insurance agents once this is through.

I've hardly bought any beer since I've started home brewing, so I don't have much to report here. My latest kick is Belgian IPA's. I really love the way the Belgian yeast plays off all the hop flavor. I've had the Stone one and Tyranena just released their attempt at it, which I have yet to try. I'm hoping to try brewing a more sessionable-type one that would make for some awesome summer drinking. I've also read some good things about O'So's Picnic Ants, a saison. The reviews for it on BeerAdvocate are not good, but they're all based on last year's beer and supposedly this year's is much better. Saison's are great summer drinking.

The component cables alone may not fix this. Check and see if your TV has a gaming mode or something like that. I have a Hitachi HDTV in my basement and any timing based game is useless on it even with components. I called Hitachi and they said "use component cables." Said I already did. Their response: "Sorry." Works great on my 720 Samsung, but not so much on the 1080 Hitachi. Hopefully component cables will fix this, but in my experience they might not.

I had this happen a few years back. My fan was just installed poorly and the casing it was in was not firmly snapped into place. I opened the computer case and just snapped it back into its proper place and everything was fine. Worth a shot.

I wasn't wild about Ranger, but that might be more of a personal taste thing. I just don't care for New Belgium as a whole. I talked about this earlier in the thread and Ranger confirms what I was thinking. All of their beers taste the same. It's gotta be their house yeast strain. I pour a bottle of New Belgium and I immediately pick out that taste and that's it. It just bothers me. It was a nice, bitter IPA but I thought it was missing that citrusy aroma/taste I love from hops. That and it had that darn background flavor from their yeast. As for the whole tour thing. It' my understanding that New Glarus only does the guided tour with cheese on Friday afternoon. Other than that, it's the super lame self-guided tours "hosted" by JOHNNY DANGER! I thought it was REALLY underwhelming. While I much prefer New Glarus's beer over Captial, Capital has MUCH better tours. By a long shot. Unless you take the hardhat tour at New Glarus, which sounds awesome. Smuttynose is pretty widely available. For starters, I know Woodman's has it. I'm sure you can find it elsewhere but Woodman's has quite a few of their beers. Oh, and ManOfTheBeer, let us know how those beers turn out. I've been drinking my first homebrew for about a week now. It's not great, but it's getting better with each passing day. I'm excited to try my second, and was considering one of the Northern Brewer Scotch ale kits. The 60 seemed like it would be lacking, seeing how cheap it is. I'm thinking there can't be much malt or hops in any kit that far under $20.

Moon Man is fantastic. I love it. I love hops and Moon Man really showcases them nicely without being overly bitter or being too boozy. Great beer.

I sampled my first homebrew last night, a belgian blonde ale. It's only been bottle conditioning for a about 5 days, so it was still a little flat. I'm hoping I didn't screw something up during the bottling process. I sampled some before I bottled, and it was pretty nice, big belgian yeast esters...maybe could've been a bit more balanced, a little too sweet and pretty hazy (so I likely screwed up something in that regard). So anyway, the beer I drank last night still had those big esters upfront, but the back of the beer was really flat and dull tasting. I'm wondering if I oxidized the beer or maybe the flavor will "round out" more after some more bottle conditioning. Anyway, it'll be drinkable, but I might have some difficulty putting away 48 bottles of it. I'm already looking forward to my next batch.

I'm about 60 minutes to the west of Milwaukee. I have a rooftop antenna and 58 - along with all the Milwaukee stations - is spotty. Really depends on atmospheric conditions. I'd say without a rooftop antenna you may be out of luck, possibly even with one.