Museum Day! (Part 2)

Always a favorite at the museum is the U-505 exhibit. While I was growing up, you could walk through the submarine, but the boat itself was outside the building. You could only see parts of the exterior from hallway windows inside the museum.

Thanks to the renovations started in 1998, visitors have been able to get up close and personal with the entire vessel since 2005.

Being that it was November, we took advantage of the museum gift shop to pick up some Christmas gifts for my niece and nephew, Lily and Ben. These two shirts were fun, but didn't actually make the cut. They got noisy toys instead!

Museum Day! (Part 1)

Back in late November, Jami and I took advantage of a rare day off at the same time and set off to see the neighborhood! I hadn't been to the museum in a very long time; certainly not with Jami.

This place looks awesome since they decided to bring their larger collection pieces inside the museum. to be a bit more accurate, they built new exhibit rooms around the larger collection pieces.

What? Who's quirky?

Part of the inspiration for heading over to the museum was for the navy exhibit. Jami is pursuing a commission as a Naval Emergency Medicine Physician, and I had exchanged several messages with some buddies from the USS VINCENNES. I wanted to add this photo to the collection on the facebook page that one of my Vinny buddies started for veterans of that ship.

You know you're an engineer when...

It's a habit of engineer ratings in the navy; the yellow boxes mounted on overheads and bulkheads in ships are called: battle lanterns. They're like the emergency lights in fire escape stairwells: they're supposed to light up when the power goes out. There's a little button on the top to make sure that the battery works.

I know... it was only an exhibit; I didn't really expect it to work.

Forbidden fruit .....juice?

Having caught the homebrew fever, it's only natural that I'd try making a hard cider, even if it's only because of my fondness for cider from Wick's.

Wick's Apple House is a staple of my childhood and summers at the lake. Just a few miles from Round Lake, we headed over for doughnuts after church in the summer or for fresh, 100% apple 'squeezin's.'

This fall, I picked up five gallons of cider and brought it home to experiment with in my 'big-kids chemistry set.' A.K.A: Homebrew Equipment.

I don't plan to go into my recipe, largely because I haven't bottled/conditioned/tasted the final product yet, and because I want to keep it to myself for awhile.

After just two weeks, the alcohol content measured 11.8% by volume! Here it is all cloudy and brown, on the left, when the experiment was just getting started:

About eight weeks after initially pitching the yeast, the cider has already begun to clear out nicely:

Naturally, I collected another sample and saved it for tasting. Sean, Jami, and I were all pleasantly surprised (especially Sean) with this taste:
.

...and for those of you who are curoius, the ABV is just under 12%. Most of the fermentation did take place in those first two weeks.

Fallen off the Blaggon

So it's been two months since I've posted to my blog; so what? That should mean I have a wealth of material, right? Certainly so!

This is the photo from the invitation for"A brew or two, a brew or two, a brew or two, or three, or four!"

Back in October I had brewed up two batches of beer in two weeks. Jami decided that if I was going to be brewing on such a rapid schedule that I had to make room for more on a similar schedule. Since she and I really couldn't drink five gallons of beer a week and still keep our jobs, we decided that our own "Beer Tasting" was in order.

I brewed up an American Brown Ale from Perfect Brewing Supply in Libertyville and bottled that. Then I brewed up an IPA and used a Corny Keg as the secondary fermenter and served that straight from the keg. I suspect that racking to the keg was the key factor in why my IPA tasted more like a Belgian Ale. It wasn't bad, it was very interesting and well received. I'm just upset because it didn't turn out like i expected and I'm not sure I could, or would want to, re-create the brew.

If there could be a bad side to a beer party, it was having so much beer left over! This is my own fault too; in the invite for the party I gave those who might be afraid of homebrewed beer the option to bring a sample of their own favorite beer to drink and share. Of course everyone exercised this option and my home brewing pals brought samples of their beer as well as their favorites from other breweries.

Needless to say, we had plenty of tasty options.

So many options in fact, that we didn't have room in the fridge for leftover food - we filled it with leftover beers!

Also, I'd hate to forget mentioning the cider that Jeff brought over; he and I had very similar ideas for samples of Wick's Apple Cider. He brought over a nice spiced hard cider in a growler ...that I need to return soon!

Jami and I couldn't bring ourselves to dump the Belgian IPA, but once that was gone I was able to put the fridge back into some kind of order; it still took us a while to clear out these leftovers!

Pandora for my belly!!

WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!

Do yourself a favor and head over to: www.beerchooser.com and create yourself an account! I spent roughly two minutes searching for and rating just a few of my favorite brews. I then checked the recommendations page and there they were! More of my favorite beers! ...I have since gone through and rated more beers and am now left with things to try on the recommendations page.

They've also set up a mobile page too, so you can geek out AT THE PUB as well!

Brewer's Festival!

So last weekend we headed up to Bridgman Michigan for the Weko Beach Brewer's Festival. The breweries that showcased their beers were:

ARCADIA (Battle Creek, MI)
JOLLYPUMPKIN(Ann Arbor[whore!], MI)
The ROUND BARN (Baroda, MI)
BELLS (Kalamazoo, MI)
FOUNDERS (Grand Rapids, MI)
The LIVERY (Benton Harbor, MI)
NORTH PEAK (Traverse City, MI)
NEW HOLLAND (New Holland, MI)
OLD HAT (Lawton, MI)
SAUGATUCK(Saugatuck, MI)
SHORTS (Bellaire, MI)

Needless to say, it was a good day for beer!!

As evidenced in the picture on the left:
A great many local beer "connoisseurs" came out to try all the great beer. Unfortunately, few of the breweries had much faith in the success of the event because most of them ran out of beer before the headlining band ever got on stage. Well, either they had little faith, or they're just too small to have afforded enough beer to support a crowd like this. I do know for sure, though, that Founders did not bring their Breakfast Stout like they said they would.

My quick review of a few beers [my reviews aren't traditional beer reviews - most of my readers are casual beer drinkers - follow the hyperlinks if you want to read a real review]:
ARCADIA's SKY HIGH RYE - It was well presented and had an excellent aroma but tasted sour and thick - like it hadn't finished aging. If it was supposed to taste that way, they may want to call it an Imperial, but it didn't quite have the alcohol content.

FOUNDERS DRY-HOPPED PALE ALE - I was fairly impressed with this dry-hopped bevy. Of course when a brewery touts a dry-hopped beer I expect it to peel the enamel off my teeth; I was surprisingly disappointed that this beer didn't. It was hoppy enough, but not enough to make a big deal about it being dry-hopped.

Luckily for me, with so many breweries packing up early, I was left with several tickets to try many-a-mug of Saugatuck's Singapore IPA (on the right)

The Singapore IPA is named after the legendary Lake Michigan ghost town, not the island nation. This India Pale Ale is a hop-forward American IPA with a refreshing citrus aroma and finish. Ok, so I used the website description for the Singapore IPA, but it was right! and it was delicious!

Another nice thing about the Suagatuck Brewery, they offer an opportunity to BREW YOUR OWN BEER! Sure, the Homebrewers reading this will ask: "Why pay these guys when I can do it in my own kitchen?" - and that's a great point... but the non-homebrewers reading this can get a hands-on opportunity to make their own beer without a mess to clean up or a cabinet of equipment to get rid of if they decide brewing is not for them. Click on the link to learn more about brewing your own at Saugatuck.

What a glorious evening!

Ok, so put aside the chest freezer I picked up for $40 - there will be enough posts about that in the near future. While driving back from St. Charles IL - the boonies - with the $40 chest freezer (more than 2x as valuable than a $20 jean skirt) Sean and I spotted a large stainless-steel drum in the front window of a building on State St. in Geneva. The place was called Stockholm's and offered a decent selection of beer. Their Oktoberfest left a bit to be desired - it wasn't very easy drinking, despite having little flavor. Their porter, on the other hand, was a different story. That went great with a bacon cheeseburger w/ mushrooms, Swiss, and grilled onions."MmmmmmmMMh! That IS a tasty burger!"

Look at that spread!