Pumpkin Homebrew Review

Well, its been a long while since I’ve done a beer review, but I had someone ask me to review their Pumpkin Ale Homebrew, so what the hell. One of L Bird’s co-workers’ husband has gotten pretty deep into homebrewing and presented me with two bottles of gold to review and well, who am I to turn down free beer.So here we go ….

Appearance: From the minute I popped the crown on the bottle until the bottle was empty it foamed over. I actually had to quickly get it into my pint glass before I lost the whole bottle to foaming. So it is plenty carbonated. It was a light tan/brown in color and produced a ton of rocky head. It is pretty cloudy with visible sediment floating throughout, which is not necessarily a bad thing. When brewing with pumpkin it can produce a lot of sediment that stays suspended and is harder to remove. In the future if you wanted to clean it up, you could rack to a secondary carboy for 1-2 weeks for more settling before bottling but it is perfectly drinkable the way it is.

Aroma: It has a bit of hop aroma right up front, it is slightly citrusy which could be from the choice of hops. There is also hints of cinnamon and pumpkin, but overall it is clean and bright.

Taste: The hops continue to shine through at the start, it has that bitter hoppiness up front that gives way to a nice pumpkin flavor before the traditional ale flavors come through. I am not sure if he added any spices during the brewing but I can detect a faint spiciness maybe allspice or clove. There is a very slight lingering aftertaste that is reminiscent of bitter citrus peel/oil.

Overall: This is a good foray into pumpkin beers. It has enough pumpkin to be tasty but not so much as to be over the top. I also like the fact that it wasn’t over-spiced, a lot of commercial pumpkin beers try to be liquid pumpkin pie and they tend to go over the top on spice and I find that makes it cloying and makes for bad beer. It could be cleaned up a little by giving it a longer racking time and the after taste may be from leaving the bittering hops in the boil a little too long, but these are very minor faults. Overall, this is a good beer and I would drink a couple of them if I had the chance.

Good job, keep brewing and keep ‘em tippin’!

3 Chocolate Rewards and a plan …

Raising children is the most rewarding and the most exasperating thing I have ever done in my life. One minute you are so excited and happy with them, you look at their angelic faces and feel truly blessed. The next minute they are running around like a band of drunken midgets and you are trying to control your breathing before you turn into a screaming dictator that hands out martial punishment like its candy. Yeah, it’s been super stressful in my house lately, absolutely no one is sleeping, STILL. A Bird and Nat are both waking up 3 times a night on average.

Nat is cutting molars, I think, so she is pretty miserable while she is up and playing and even worse when she wakes up in the middle of the night. A Bird is having some anxiety issues over being alone. If L Bird or I walk out of the room, its “Dad, where are you going?” or “Can I come with you?” and if I go to the next room for too long she comes in to find me because she “got nervous”. This happens all through the day, at night it multiplies by 10. It seems she is constantly up because she heard a noise, she had a bad dream, her stomach hurt, she needed something, she can’t sleep anymore (even though its 11 PM or my favorite 2 AM) etc. Every night its one of those excuses and its definitely getting old. From talking to other parents at work and a quick Google search of “How can I keep my 6 year old in bed” (which by the way auto-populates itself after the number 6), it appears that this phenomenon is pretty common among all kids. It’s great to know that we are not alone, but it doesn’t help when L Bird or I are trying to keep our cool on trip number 3 back to A Bird’s bedroom at 3 AM.

So back to the ever helpful advice of people, both real and on the internets, they all say “keep calm, stay unemotional and bring the child back to her bed as many times as it takes and be consistent”. While that may be true who the hell is calm and unemotional at 3 AM when they are running on empty, but hey we’ll give it a shot. We are going on night 4 of that nonsense and we are all struggling to stay “unemotional” and not have a screaming/crying match that wakes the neighborhood. Another tactic is to offer a sticker or reward chart to keep them in bed. I’m not above bribing my kid if it means I can get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, so we are trying that as well. We have told A Bird that if she doesn’t get up or even reduces her times of getting up in the night through the week she can pick out a prize at the end of the week. Sounds like a great plan until she gets up the same amount of times and then asks if she can still have a prize. When you tell  her NO, it turns into a super whiny, mega meltdown at 6 AM that wakes up Nat early which turns her into a super clingy whiny little bundle of joy for L Bird. I got to miss that this morning because I was already at work, but L bird wasn’t so lucky. She jumped on that grenade for me and I only got hit with tiny bits of shrapnel from her when she called me to vent.

This is such a hard thing to deal with because I can vividly remember lying in my bed terrified when the wind was blowing the tree branches into my window and making scratching noises. It only got worse when the lightning flashed and I saw the long shadows of the branches that looked just like arms coming to get me. I remember that terrified feeling of not wanting to be alone and running for my Mom. So I completely understand A Bird’s feelings and I do feel so bad for her, but I feel even worse when the whole next day I am irritable and snapping at her and everyone around me because I am tired and cranky. I hate being like this and I hate that she feels so scared, but something has to give.

So all of that brings me to “the plan”, my plan is the reward chart only modified. Like I said I am not against bribing my kid, however a week is like a lifetime to a 6 year old so I thought I would modify the reward for a little instant gratification. A Bird is a junk food hound, we are constantly “making deals”, like “if you have a banana or a yogurt you can have a piece of candy/cheetos/bbq chips (insert junk food here)”. Like all kids, she loves candy, especially Hershey bars, so my plan is to send her to bed with the thought if she stays in bed all night she can have 3 “bricks” of Hershey bar after her breakfast in the morning. Every time she gets up for anything other than the bathroom or emergencies she loses a “brick”. I am hoping that this instant reward strategy pays off, although I do feel slightly awful/guilty that I am treating my child like Pavlov’s dog and may possibly be training her to be a stress eater, but hey man Daddy needs some sleep.

Tonight, my plan goes into action, so hopefully the next time I post things will be so much better. They have to sleep sometime, right? And if not maybe I’ll get in touch with the TLC network about putting us on one of those odd family shows, with the subtitle “Teenagers that still sleep in their parents’ bed….” Wish me luck!

Thankful

It’s Thanksgiving morning and I have been up since 4 AM, what I am I thankful for…… COFFEE. We have hit a rough patch with the girls sleep schedules recently. A Bird isn’t sleeping well, she keeps waking up with bad dreams and won’t go back to bed unless L Bird takes her. I tried last night at midnight to tuck her back in and she cried hysterically until L Bird got up and came in to tuck her in. She stayed in bed for about another 45 minutes before she was up again because the wind was blowing so hard it was rattling her screen in her window and scaring her. So because she won’t sleep in her room she crams in between L Bird and I and settles in to snore and keep both of us awake. Then Nat who had been sleeping through the night is now waking up twice a night and because A Bird’s bedroom is right across the hall we can’t let Nat cry a little to see if she will put herself back to sleep because that wakes A Bird up then everyone is awake in the middle of the night. This has been going on for a few months now and its wearing everybody thin, L Bird is exhausted because she does the bulk of it because A Bird won’t let me do it and everybody knows if Momma ain’t happy nobodys’ happy.

So this morning I laid awake in bed hoping L Bird and Nat would get a good sleep and that A Bird would stop snoring and remove her elbow from my neck but well that just didn’t pan out so I ended getting up at 6. I let the dog out, brought in firewood, got a fire going in the woodstove gave Nat a little bottle to see if she would sleep a little longer and then sat down to type this.

While going through these mundane everyday chores I thought about Thanksgiving and what it is to be thankful and I realized that I am very very blessed. I am thankful that I found L Bird and she is my wife. I looked long and hard trying to find my perfect match and thought I would never find her until I saw L Bird at Wegmans with baked beans on her shirt, then I knew I found her. I am thankful that she loves me through all my faults. I am thankful for my two girls, we tried so hard to have them and went through 11 rounds of fertility treatments to get them here, yes they are definitely trying at times but I am so thankful that they are in my life. I am thankful for my family, my Mom, my Dad, my step-parents and all of my brothers and  my sister, they made me who I am today. I am thankful for the small group of close friends I have, I know I could call on them and they would come running to help and I hope they know the same is true of me if they were to ever call. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head when so many in this world don’t, I am thankful to be working and have a job where I can be creative and productive. I am thankful for so many more things that they are too much to list here but right now at this very moment I am very thankful for this…

Starting to bubble …

This has been one of the most stressful couple of weeks I have had at work in the last 11 years I have been there. It just seems like nothing is going my way, I can’t really go into it because of proprietary issues but I can say that I am struggling with some slow fermenters so its slowing supply on my end. I have been trying everything and nothing has worked until this morning, FINALLY things are starting to turn around.

The three things above are fermentation tubes, NOT bongs or water pipes or whatever the hell else you want to call them. You fill them with a fermenting wine, so the tube is filled with wine. As the wine ferments it produces CO2 which is captured in tube forcing the wine down into the bulb. Then you can measure the amount of CO2 produced to see the rate of fermentation and do a rough calculation on when the wine will be dry. All three of these wines have been sluggish but finally one of them started to ferment. The tube all the way on the right fermented to completion as you can see that the tube is empty of wine and full of CO2.

Anyway, enough of the science, things are starting to break and move forward. I am still stressed because things aren’t rolling yet but some of the pressure is moving off. I hate not being able to figure out why these problems happen. I go through and check everything I can possibly check and it all checks out but I am still not getting the results that I want. I know that it isn’t my fault, but because I am the winemaker it is ultimately my responsibility and hence my fault. I always worry that people will look at that and realize that maybe I’m not as smart as they think I am. I worry that people will see me as a fraud that has just fooled them for the last 11 years. I know that this is an irrational fear, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting just the same. I am so stressed that I can’t even keep my thoughts straight so I know that this is a boring post and that I am rambling but what the hell, right?

So, I hope the fermentation tubes above are a sign of things starting to turn around, but until then I am going to sit by the wood stove and enjoy a warm fire and a cold beer and try to forget about work for awhile.

Wish me luck!

A Nice Surprise

I hate surprises, I really do. I have a very analytical mind and I am a planner. I always like to know what is going on so I can gameplan for the worst, I know I’m weird, right? So for a week L Bird was pestering me with “I am taking you somewhere on Saturday and I’m not telling you where.” which put me in the greatest of moods. Then Saturday morning comes and everyone is up early, we have a house showing mid morning, L Bird has to go to work, and I AM NOT a morning person. So things were a little rough because I was CRANKY, so cranky that L Bird cancelled the whole day. However, as the day progressed I slowly pulled myself back to an even keel, it helped that when L Bird got home from work, Nat was napping and A Bird was playing in her room and I got to lounge on the couch and catch the last 45 minutes of The Four Sons of Katie Elder with John Wayne, I mean c’mon who doesn’t love The Duke.

My Mom came down and watched the girls, and we headed out. After about 15 minutes of driving we pulled into our destination, Climbing Bines Craft Ale Company. This was my surprise, glorious, cold refreshing craft beer tastings. L Bird definitely knows what gets me. So we go in and the place is crowded with people, L Bird and I make our way to the bar where I ran into a friend from school I hadn’t seen in years, Maryanne. We chatted for a few minutes and it was nice to catch up before she had to take off. Now L Bird and I get our spot at the bar and I did a full flight, and L Bird only did their House Line flight.

The tastings were great, they have nice sized tasting glasses that you get to keep after your tasting is finished, the beers were very good which I was pleasantly surprised at and the guys behind the bar were an awesome group of guys to talk with.

A few highlights were they had two hefeweizens and they had a couple of one offs that were wet hopped which were very good. I ended up buying a 32 oz Grenade of the Hoppy Apple Pie Ale. This beer was one of my favorites, and I bought it because it was so different and was a one off, so once the barrels were gone they were gone and they weren’t sure if they would make it again. It was a light ale but it tasted of apple cider, cinnamon, nutmeg and beer mixed perfectly. Definitely an interesting drink, I don’t think I could drink a lot of it but it was very good.

After about an hour or so of drinking and talking we packed it in and stopped for a picture by the sign, then we were off to an early dinner with friends then home. It was a great night and a great surprise, thank you L Bird.

 

 

If you get the chance definitely make the time to stop here and drink some great beer. Enjoy!

So I got a switchblade… A MicroTouch Switchblade

I am going to step out of the norm here and do something I don’t normally do and review a product. I get emails all the time recruiting bloggers to review their products and most of the time I pass because it isn’t my thing and that’s not what this blog is about, but I did see a couple of products that I would actually use and give an honest review so I decided what the hell I can review this, so here is the first of three reviews then its back to the basics of whatever the hell genre of blogging that I fall into. Anyway, here we go.

So I am a pretty hairy guy, my hair used to be thick when I let it grow on my head but now that I shave my head I notice how thick and quickly my hair grows on my goatee, ears and my grandiose caterpillar eyebrows so when I got a chance to review a personal groomer I thought that was right up my alley, so I signed up. A couple of weeks later this showed up.

The MicroTouch Switchblade All-in-One Groomer. Now I have to admit that I was a little put off by the bright orange “As seen on TV” label, it instantly brought images of late night infomercials with guys with bad hair hawking their lousy wares but once I unpacked it I was pleasantly surprised.

It unpacked into the 6 pieces it claims, the groomer/trimmer, 4 guides for eyebrows, mustaches/goatees, hair and of course that tiny little brush for sweeping out the trimmer of all your unwanted clipped hair… gross!

So now was the time to put it to the test. The small trimmer on the right in the picture above has a tiny light on it so it illuminates the hair you are trimming. It worked flawlessly on the hair on my ears and nose hair. I used one of the smaller guides and trimmed my eyebrows to the length I like. So far so good.

I switched the guide to a little longer length and moved to my goatee and nothing. BOOOO! I have a pretty thick and wiry goatee and the guide was just not going through it. After a few unsuccessful attempts I ended up having to switch back to the clippers with a short guide to get my goatee cut. I don’t know if it may work better for guys with thinner hair but using it on my goatee didn’t cut it for me.

Now on to some other “manscaping”, the “machismo” (chest hair) is strong with this one. My chest hair is fierce, bold and strong when unchallenged. It routinely advances its front line over the top of collar and will continue its march to a rocking neck beard if I don’t keep it in check. Here is where the larger trimmer comes into play. The orange section on the lower left of the trimmer picture above slides over to reveal a larger trimmer. The large trimmer worked fantastic at mowing down the unwanted curls that were threatening to overtake my neck.

Overall I think that this is a decent personal groomer, it has the two blades for intricate grooming as well as the larger trimmer for larger jobs like chests and backs. If I saw this in the store I would have no problem paying $15-20 bucks for it. It does what it is supposed to do and does a pretty decent job at it minus goatee grooming.

So what do you think? Would you buy one of these? Do you own one? Tell me your thoughts….

Meet The Ladies!

Well, a couple of times over the past two weeks I have come home to find one or two chickens out of the run. It really isn’t a huge deal because of their flock nature they won’t roam past the garden because they want to stay close to the rest of the girls, but I don’t want them out for stray dogs or cats or the occasional fox to happen upon them and leave me with less chickens. To find out if it is the same chicken that is the escape artist I wanted to band them with leg bands so I could easily identify them. I started to look for spiral leg bands which are safe and effective, but after two trips to Tractor Supply and Country Max I was still empty handed. After a little research on a few backyard chicken  websites I found that a lot of people were using the color velcro cable ties and that they were safe and easily adjustable as the chickens grew, so a quick trip to Walmart and BAM! I had homemade legbands. I just put them on all of my younger chickens as the three old hens are readily distinguishable. On with the introductions:

CHIRPY

She is A Bird’s hen and always has been. When I originally got my first 5 chickens, Chirpy was one of them. She is a Barred Rock and the friendliest of all the chickens, ever since she was a chick she would walk up to A Bird and hop on her legs to sit and  chat.  She is one of my favorites. Right now she is going through her yearly molt so she is looking a little rough with her feathers coming back in.

Betsy

Betsy is a year two hen that I traded our rooster Crazy Mack for since I can’t have a rooster in the village. She is another Barred Rock, she is more stand offish, and a bit bossy with the other girls. She is definitely Chirpy’s right hand girl, she is second in command and will only defer to Chirpy otherwise she is chasing the other hens away from treats.

Gossie

This is Gossie and poor Gossie is going through molt pretty bad. All of her head feathers have fallen out and new clean pin feathers are starting to come in but until all of her new feathers come in she is going to look a little worse for wear. She is a black Australorp and very friendly. She will routinely come up and stare at you to see if you are going to give her a treat. She is a very good layer (when she isn’t molting) and lays big brown eggs just about every day of the year.

Silver – Black Band

Silver is one of this year’s chicks, she was hatched out on June 1st. She is a Silver Laced Wyandotte and she is one mean, miserable big bad hen, just look at the face. For the first few weeks, I thought she might be a rooster because she would charge me and peck me anytime I got close to her. Needless to say she is my least favorite hen. She seems to be pecking her way to 3rd on the hierarchy of top hen. At least she is pretty to look at.

LACE – Blue Band

Lace is Silver’s hatch mate, she is slightly smaller than Silver and much nicer. She is actually a bit skittish, she will come up to you and stand at the back of the flock waiting her turn for a treat but if you move too quickly she takes off running in any direction as long as it is away from you.

Sophia – Purple Band

Sophia is one of four Buckeyes and named after The Golden Girls. I wanted to get a heritage or endangered breed of chicken, so I went with Buckeyes. Sophia and her sisters were hatched on May 30th and she is pretty mellow except if you are pestering her then she can get pretty vocal.

Dorothy – Yellow Band

Dorothy is the biggest of the Golden Girls and she is very mellow. She is friendly but tends to go off on her own and does her own thing.

Blanche – Blue Band

Blanche is the friendliest of the four and the most “treat hungry”. I normally feed all the girls layer crumble but when it gets cold, I feed them scratch grains as a treat. It has cracked corn, and oats so it takes them longer to digest it so it heats up their body temperature and keeps them warmer in the cooler weather. Blanche will follow me around and cluck until I spread some scratch out for them, then she pecks contently until she has had her fill.

Rose – Black Band

Rose is the last of the Golden Girls and the flightiest. She is friendly and a good chicken until anything catches her attention then she is off and running to find out if she can eat it. So she spends the majority of the time running back and forth from this to that, but overall she seems to be a pretty good hen.

So that’s it, those are the girls. Now I just need to wait to see who flies the coop, and then that lucky girl might be the winner of a wing clipping.

Wish me luck!