This Thing Still Works, Right?

As much as I hate writing, I still feel like it's something I can do to keep my brain sharp. My ambitions as a new blogger back in 2006 were to do tech product reviews, music reviews, beers reviews, etc., and in the beginning, I pulled it off fairly well. After getting involved in podcasting, blogging became more of a burden than anything else because I was busy producing videos and audio shows. Currently, I'm still a podcaster, and I produce and edit two shows, Four Brewers and Cheap Beer Corner, as well as dabble in my own video content from time to time, so personal blogging is still something that I have less interest in doing. But...

I was on Twitter today and realized that it might be fun to post small snippets of my life on this dusty, old blog. Stuff that won't fit into a tweet and people generally wouldn't care about on Facebook seem to be what makes sense to post here. So, that's what I'm going to do. That's the plan. Actually posting content? We'll see...

 

Cellaring Beer?

So, I've had three beers from my 55º beer cellar this week and they have all been stellar. Of course, they were great beers to begin with, but were either too hot (alcohol), too smokey, or just not ready for consumption. Keeping beers (that are worthy) at the widely recommended 55º-60º range really seems to benefit them. A Chocolate Rain ​that I just opened (pictured below) is on point. It's amazing. 2011 vintage, keep in mind. The cacao nibs are still quite present, but the alcohol heat has diminished to the point that it enhances the experience rather than destroy it. Yes, wow. The 2009 Alaskan Brewing Company Smoked Porter I opened yesterday was awesome. The beers you pick to cellar should be worthy, but the 55º temperature for cellaring really seems to be ideal, depending on the beer, of course.

 

 

 

FirkFest - Festival of Cask Beer 2014

Greg Nagel, otherwise known as the talented Mr. Awesome who runs the OC Beer Blog, put on his very first craft beer festival this past Saturday. I must admit that I was a bit curious about the experience of only drinking cask beer at a fest, since the beer is usually not as cold and not as carbonated as kegged and bottled beer. Turns out, there were a LOT of really flavorful, adjunct variations of well known local brews, as well as many beers made specifically for the festival that were all just spectacular. I was really blown away.

All in all, the event was a great experience, and Greg, as well as his army of volunteers, did a superb job of making it happen. Big thanks also go out to the kick-ass mayor of Anaheim, California, Tom Tait, who's a big supporter of craft beer and the craft beer scene. The setting for the festival was spectacular.

I posted some photos on my Flickr page of the event. The link is below. Click on it--it works.

Cheers, Greg, and cheers to

FirkFest