Hopping into Spring!

Spring is a great time of year. The cold weather of winter makes its departure, leaving in its wake an abundance of new life and color. Lawns that had turned brown in dormancy, come back to life. Trees start budding new leaves. Flowers begin to grow and bloom.

Asquatterhousell this change and growth does have it’d downside though. Lawns will once again have to be mowed. Weeds will once again have to be pulled. Flowers will once again have to be watered. I am not a huge fan of all that outdoors work, but it’s worth it to have a home that doesn’t look like it’s inhabited by vagrants and squatters. Continue reading

Time to fulfill my promise

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Last week I told you I would have some exciting news after Friday and I think it’s high time I share it with you. Your patience has paid off friends! I’ll give you a picture clue:

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That’s right, the Regular Guys have finally entered a beer into competition! Our Hot Blonde Jalapeño Blonde Ale has officially been entered in two categories in the 19th Annual Microfest here in St. Louis, Missouri. Our beautiful lady will compete in the Blonde Ale category as well as the Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer category.

A kudos and a fist bump from my dad is great and all, but he likes pretty much anything I do. We are really looking forward to getting some unbiased feedback from professional beer judges. Tasting and judging is April 26th and 27th so we’ll keep you posted!

And now a little update. Saturday night we got together to bottle our Hot Blonde Jalapeño Blonde Ale, keg and carbonate our unnamed EPA, and transfer our Smokey Grove Apple Smoked Porter to secondary and add more apples.

The Hot Blonde is a beautiful hay color and carbonated perfectly. I can’t say enough good things about the aroma and flavor of this beer. Our unnamed EPA smells and already tastes amazing,  even without carbonation. The Smokey Grove has this wonderfully light smokey aroma with a punch of apple and is black as black can be!

All in all it was a good weekend for beer. Until next time…

It is what it is

Everything happens for a reason? Do you believe that or is it something people say when looking for a silver lining to a dark cloud. Lately there have been some dark clouds looming over my money making job that have left a sour taste in my mouth. Just when I think I’m set on the job I somewhat enjoy, working the hours I like, it’s taken away from me. Then I’m told the majority of the year I’m still going to be working that same job on those same hours. Great right? Wrong! That gets taken away as well.

Now everything’s all jumbled and my future is unclear. I don’t know what schedule I’m going to have week to week or what job I’ll be on day to day.

That’s where this little gem comes in, “everything happens for a reason.” I’ll buy into this saying for the time being. If I want to think deeply into the phrase I could make it work for my situation. Maybe if I fell into the job I wanted so early in my career, I’d spend the next 30 years like a robot. Come into work, do my job, go home and repeat. There’s nothing wrong with that, but maybe I’d lose my drive, creativity and ambition along the way. Maybe the discomfort and uncertainty is supposed to drive me to do something bigger. Maybe I’m not meant to spend the next 30 years working with steel.

Well now the whole, “everything happens for a reason” thing is starting to sound pretty good! I’m starting to feel better about this situation and I can see why people would buy into it.

Now, I wouldn’t call it a “sign,” I’m not going to go off on that tangent, but maybe being uncomfortable in my current job situation will spark my ambitions even further to become a full time professional brewer. Only time will tell. All I know is yesterday I was relatively happy at work and today I feel like I’m frantically searching for something else.

Now that I’ve bummed you out, a cat picture…

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Kegging and such

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Friday night we got together and kegged our Hot Blonde Jalapeño Blonde Ale for carbonation.

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(In case you forgot what this pretty lady looks like)

When we opened the fermenter, what a delight for the senses it was! It was a beautiful hay colored brew. The smell of the jalapeños really came through and the flavor was incredible despite not being carbonated. I can only assume that if your beer is enjoyable before carbonation, it’s going to set the world on fire when it is!

We may have some exciting news about the Hot Blonde that I’ll fill you in on after it happens. Easy biggin’ you’ll find out on Friday.

We also transferred our yet to be named Extra Pale Ale to secondary and dry hopped for that extra boost of hops aroma and flavor. This beer has only been fermenting for two weeks and I wanted to sample it already! Wonderful aroma, citrusy and floral. I’m excited for this beer!

We didn’t do much to our Smokey Grove Apple Smoked Porter because it’s only been fermenting for a week, just watched her bubble away and make alcohol.

We also made a schedule for our next three beers we’re going to brew. A couple of redemption beers and something brand new! Stay tuned because it’s going to get exciting!