Straffe Hendrik Quadruple pre-parties Daman's 21st birthday

Because we're gearing up for a big night, David brings out one of the big dogs, albeit in a small bottle. Straffe Hendrick makes a fantastic Tripel, and the Quadruple below is his stronger and darker brother.

Balcony beeeer

I wasn't initially impressed with this fellow probably until I realized my expectations were exceptionally high, ruined by one of the worlds greatest and another quadruple, Rochefort 10 (Rochefort 10 is Transcendent). I came in expecting a certain complexity and richness, and it simply wasn't there. It is however, a sublimely subtle and sweet quadruple that despite its 10% alcohol, isn't full bodied or tastes alcoholic. It's smooth and surprisingly easy to drink. It's a very well crafted beer and deserves THE ROCK rating.

So tonight, David's intern Daman is turning 21, and their company decided to reward their hardest working unpaid intern with a party bus and a night on the town for 24 friends. Today we picked up enough handles of liquor to satiate 24 twenty-one year olds, which was enough to require us each three trips to unload from the car. I was expecting a pretty ridiculous night and the evening didn't let me down.

I'm 28 and I haven't partied with 21 year olds since I was in college. Anyone want to guess how much liquor them kids drank? We picked the birthday boy up at 10pm and he already had 11 notches on his forearm, one for every shot he'd taken. By 11:30 it was up to 17. Daman is apparently a cross between Frank the Tank and The Little Engine That Could because in a feat of superhuman strength, he didn't get sick and lasted the entire night.

So besides the overeager 21 year olds, a coworker's wife brought members of her rotary club to the bar (a business club). One guy was described to me over the phone as a Diamond Dealer with a Napolean complex and he was hell bent on buying the entire group group shots. There was a silver haired man who introduced himself to me with a 5 step handshake that I thought only a 16 year old stoner could design. They were stoked to be there and it was glorious. The whole experience was wild and surreal. There's this really weird mix of people my parents age doing shots with people my age who were mixing it up with kids who were born in the 90's and didn't grow up watching Saved By The Bell reruns. Such a trip. David and I ended up going to bed at dawn, which as I type this Monday, was probably several hours later than I should have. David's hilarious facebook status at 5:30am Sunday morning was, "Computer Blue." Shutdown

Well, go big or go home. Or go big and then go home, and keep going big. I think that's what the kids are saying these days... 

Uinta Tilted Smile Imperial Pilsner isn't as desirable as Joan Holloway

Well, today is my officially my 28th Birthday. The party started Friday with the All-Denim extravaganza, continued Saturday with Beach day Sloshball and followed through with lobster and a partial mash homebrew. I've been celebrating this day three times over before the sun debuted on May 9th 2011. Cookies for lunch and chips and dip for dinner is all I need for birthday celebration. I'll be out all this week and I'll be tasting 7 or 8 breweries this weekend with my parents and David.

Some people would argue that you have to do something for your birthday, or that you shouldn't be alone on your special day. To them, I say that thinking is for the birds. I've been surrounded by great friends enjoying memorable experiences for 72 hours. I think I'll be okay if I take a night off, open up one of my favorite beers as an appetizer before the beer of the day, demolish some guacamole and watch my best show on TV, Man Men.

Next to all the special whiskey we keep in the hard to reach cupboard above the microwave, I keep a bottle of North Coast Pranqster and Drake's Denogginizer Imperial IPA for a special occasion. Tonight is perfect for the Drake's, which has an incredibly rich caramel and Munich malt. It's inspiring enough that I have decided here and now to design my next homebrew to hopefully create a malt of this caliber and richness. It's amazing. 

But the beer of the day hales from Utah and is a strange bedfellow. Almost as strong  as the 9.75% Denogginizer, the wacky Tilted Smile is an Imperial Pilsner. This is our second imperial pilsner, a very odd style but one that some American brewers apparently like to play with.

I immediately taste that it's too malty. On the flip side, David says that it's not hoppy enough. He's right. An imperial malt bill needs an imperial amount of hops to balance it out. Unfortunately, Uinta didn't adjust accordingly for their increase in alcohol. Maybe they kept the same IBU number as they had with their regular pilsner. Either way, it doesn't work. I'm not impressed, ARMAGEDDON rating.

I'm going to climb onto my soapbox for a second here to spout about Imperial Pilsners as a style. To me, increasing alcohol content serves two purposes. Obviously, one is you create a potent beer. In order to make a higher content brew, you have to increase the amount of malt. This allows for a greater complexity of malt to be used - or so I think. As a style, however, Pilsner are brew to be clean and crisp. They are not known for their complexity. I really don't see the need for them. Maybe they're fun to toy with, but I don't understand why you make them.

My Homebrew Heisenberg's Honey Wheat to celebrate my berfday

Today is my joint berfday party with Aaron and Tiffany! Turning 28 today, the year which legends are made, friendships created and my liver fatally destroyed. Still recovering from Aaron's All-Denim Party, Aaron, David and I head to Costco for liquor to make Fader-aids, which are Gatorade and vodka. Our guests will love us and they're vital to the distinguished game of Sloshball. 

This is my 4th homebrew and by all accounts, probably my best. This is coming from David as well as other friends. It's easily the most drinkable and perfect as a summer hammock beer, which was intentional. The irony of the situation, is that this was also the cheapest to make. I added very little adjunct malt to the recipe and it cost me a little over $30. My belgian homebrews cost over $50 in comparison. What made the difference was my decision to use Kolsch yeast, which provides a less tart flavor profile than an American Wheat yeast and clean, lager like finish, and also my dedication to keeping the temperature constant in my room, which was no small feat. I spent many nights freezing my butt off to keep the temperature in the room well below 70.

The beer itself is clean and crisp, with a tinge of sweetness from the caramel malts. It's something I could make and enjoy for the rest of my life and tweak the recipe very little. I plan on making this for every summer as long as possible. Here is the original link that explains the name (Heisenberg's Honey Wheat). This is a TRANSFORMERS rating because it's not a complex or astounding beer, but I think this brew is worthy of greater attention (perhaps a homebrew competition in the future?)

Birthday kids!

Sloshball is the game of kickball but played with cups filled with alcohol. It's a hilarious game. People trying to catch the ball with one arm, others trying to kick the ball (my every at-bat ended with alcohol on my face and up my nose - apparently I kick by throwing my arms up in the air), and people having to finish their cup as they round third, which also ends with a large amount of booze on their face.


It was an amazing birthday filled with body paint, booze and great friends! I thought it would be hard to beat last year's joint birthday party with my friend Natalie, also held on the beach, but this topped it! Wildly successful. Just amazing. Thank you to all my friends who came out!

Marin County Brewing Stout kicks off Aaron's All Denim Party

Tonight kicks off a birthday filled weekend and nothing says P-A-R-T-Y like an All Denim Party. Aaron B, the man with the largest Jewfro in three surrounding counties, is the genius behind the event and is celebrating his birthday tonight.

Berfday kids! Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, because I'm pretty sure that's a nip-slip on the left.

We had a wheat beer from Marin County the other week and it wasn't so tasty. If this one fails as well, my friends Mr. W Turkey and his fruity cousin Caprisun are going to follow the Stout down my gullet.

I take that back, this beer is awesome! It's everything I want in a stout. This has a rich aroma with dark chocolate and nut flavors. It's incredibly well balanced. If you like dark beers, pick this up at Whole Foods. You will be the opposite of disappointed. THE ROCK rating.

That's how we roll

A small part of the whole denim group parties on! Who knew people owned so many denim shirts and vests.

All I can say is, I quickly switched to hard alcohol and sooner rather than later, the party really got started. It was wild.

There is fairly long video somewhere of David and I dancing to WHAM! that will undoubedtly torpedo my political career and mostly likely hurt my friends, after they laughed hard enough to fall down after viewing my incredible dancing. PARTY

I went to sleep closer to sunrise than I planned to, but that was partially due to a 3am beach excursion and that I had to make a yeast starter (brew a small batch of beer for the yeast to grow) around 4am. Now I'll be all set for making beer beer on Sunday. Hell of a birthday weekend kick-off!