So, just a quick post...I sent my kickin' IPA to Sam Adams for the Longshot competition, and the shipment was received by Bob Cannon, one of the Brewmasters. Dude! Sweet!

Friends, once again the illustrious team brew team of yours truly and Sergeant Stout teamed up 3 weeks back and brewed up a storm. Or rather two batches of beer. Then last weekend we bottled them... and something wonderful happened... both of our beers... while flat, tepid and not even done with their development (2 weeks minimum of course but I think these babies will be shining come February or so) both beers tasted amazing. I'll get more into it when we give the bottle-conditioned beers a taste (which I may do prematurely this weekend...), but here's a primer: The Sarge brewed what I guess I'll call a Holiday Ale if I must classify it. The beer is spicy, rich and bursting with a crisp tartness supplied by copius additions of fresh and dried cranberries. A lovely amber hue. My beer is a Scotch Ale and, if I may be so bold, manages to both cleave faithfully to its style while boasting notes of honey, spice and a secret hobo twist I'll never reveal. Oh... OK... the secret ingredient is... is... RIGHT BEHIND YOU! AAUUGH!!!!! GLAUAWAUGH!!!!! *Except that "you" means "me."

...but I've been drinking a lot of homebrew recently so there have been fewer posts. Your Captain regrets this. He loves you all and hopes you can be briefly held over with this wonderful shot of the Cap'n and Lieutenant Lager doing what we do best*. I'll be in the mountains this weekend and am sure to find some lovely new beers. ---Captain Beer *DAMMIT! It's not uploading. I'll deal with this from a differnt computer. Oh yes... I'll deal with this...

Well just when I was getting down on my fancy beer brewing... the very same day, in fact... Samuel Adams gave me a shot in the arm! Why, just take a look! That's right! Captain and Mrs. Beer's Maple Porter received a score of "very good" from the professional panel of tasters from the Sam Adams Longshot homebrew contest! Not only that but as you'll see below, one of our judges indicated they would "pay money for this beer" which is rockin! I think. Look I'm struggling with humility here.  I  swear I'm awesome trying. Anyway...

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Perhaps we've all come too far too fast, boys. As I gathered round the table with the Sargent and Kolonel last weekend, I came to an unsettling realization. It has been maybe 5, 6 batches since I brewed a simple beer without going all wonky on the recipe. And frankly, 2 of those batches came out all wrong. 1 was passing. 2 were damn good. I think it may be time for the captain to ease back a bit...

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Gather round children, for I come bearing words of encouragement, rather than disgrace (reference my Apocalypse post of two months ago). As we speak (or rather, as you read the words I previously typed... previous, that is, to right now! Right... NOW!), my freshly-brewed Dunkelweizen is busily bubbling away in the coat closet. I wanted to pass on two tidbits for you fellow homebrewers out there: The first is a pile-on to the General's comments of a few weeks ago. He remarked about how freezing a jug of (distilled) water and then dropping the ice directly in your wort to rapidly cool it worked well, but urged caution when cutting the plastic jug off the frozen water.

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Folks, I know I haven't been reviewing all that many beers lately, but I have a good excuse---the Cap'n has so much homebrew around the house these days that I've barely bought beer in the past few weeks. There are upsides and downsides to this. I'd get into them, but instead, I think I'll just pledge to brew review soon, and share with you the best thing, oh, ever:

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http://www.samadams.com/samsite/home.html If you, at the above link, entered this contest: Then you and I are among the same ranks. Except that WE HAVEN'T MAILED OUR BEER YET BLUAAAUGH!!! Now, if I didn't have this goddamn stupid job, I'd drive my fine braus out to the testing site here in Southern CA myself. But I do. So I guess it's semi-legal air mail for us... Anyway, to all of you proud homebrewers out there who entered/will-enter-today-or-tomorrow... hats off and good luck (just not quite as good luck to you as to me...). It is a fine thing to make and love beer and t'would be the finest of things to have Sam Adams make and love our beer, no? No. I mean yes! Yes. T'would. And again, hats off again to Jim K. and Samuel Adams: great beer, giving hops to the hop deprived, homebrew enthusiasts... man, they get the elusive "it." Now! All of you! Go have beer(s)!

BELGIAN WIT ROUND III, KIDS! DAMN RIGHT!* That's right, we brewed us another Belgian Wit, and this one's going to rule. It's been a brewy week, beervolk. The Mrs and I bottled our Blackberry Wheat two nights ago, and then last night we brewed us some Belgian Wit, baby! We're talkin' sweet dried orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, fresh squeezed tangerine juice and 4 other flavor ingredients that are SECRET... and no, I don't mean water, hops, grains and yeast. Those are not the secrets. So wait there... on the very edge of your chair... whimpering and hoping no one notices you forgot to put on deodorant (again) and we'll see you in, oh, 4 weeks. *or so we hope... more on that in uh... a month.

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Those there are but three of the many refrigerators devoted to fine beer at the superlative Red Carpet Liquors. I can often be found pacing back and forth before the hundreds of bottles, muttering and plotting. Yesterday, myself and Mrs. Beer went to a stout tasting event at Red Carpet, and it was the cat's pajamas, I tell you. The bees knees. On the menu were 10 different stouts, ranging from Guinness to Lagunitas' Cappuccino Stout to Asahi's take on the darkest of roasted brau and so on. Also presented were many...

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