Wisconsin Beer Tour

On a road trip to Wisconsin, we did the Leinie's Brewery tour. Afterwards, we went hunting for Sandy Creek beer which can only be found in Eau Claire county.

Basement Kegerator with Kitchen Faucet

With the amount of beer Sarah and I go through, it made financial sense to invest in a kegerator to replace the cases of Grain Belt we go through. After all, 1 keg at $92 is better than the equivalent 7 cases of beer at a total of $112. ;) Plus there's the cool factor of finally having a tap in the bar.

So after shopping around, we bought a Kegerator Conversion Kit from the Beverage Factory. I also added a new 10 pound CO2 tank thinking that a bigger size would help prevent less runs to the gas company. And then later added a nice stainless drain as well. I chose the door mount kit knowing I'd be making my own faucet box to mount the handle through.

Then I began searching Craigslist for a free fridge I could haul into the basement to use. I see them on there all the time, (except, of course, when I'm actually looking for one.) Eventually, I ended up hauling in the old fridge that's been sitting outside our place for the last three years to see if it would work. After cleaning it up -- a lot -- it ran great and so I decided to use it.

In the meantime, I did find a little fridge on Craigslist for $10 that I thought would make a great soda/beer fridge. So I brought it home to discover the thermostat was faulty. I took it apart (or rather had it explode into 10 or so parts in my hand), and put it back together again after discovering the plastic dial had worn out. I fixed it, put it back together, and now the little fridge is working great keeping the extra bottled beer nice and frosty.

While waiting for the keg kit to show up, I researched various forums in which people discussed their own home keg setups. I quickly discovered that unless the faucet came right from the door, the exposed beer line would cause foamy beer as the beer would warm up in between pours. After a bit of hemming and hawing about glycerin chilling systems and the like, I decided I'd simply try it as is and see how bad the results really were. read more »

Summer Brewfest

Ed and I tagged along with Betsy to the Brewfest at Midway Stadium. There were hundreds of tasty beers to sample. :) Afterwards, we went to a secret neighborhood pub built above a garage. Fantastic!

Team Premium has Epic Crash at the 2009 Powderhorn Sled Rally

The Sled Rally pics here.

Team Premium (Crystal, The Pants, Jessica, Claire, Bertine, Sid (the mascot), and I) participated in our first Powderhorn Park Art Sled Rally this year. An event where neighbors gather at the park to watch as about 30 elaborately crafted sleds go down the hill. It was spectacular!

We created a giant 6-pack of Premium Grain Belt beer to slide down in. A platform of 2x6's and 2x3's rested on top of a pair of cross country skis sacrificed to the project. Atop this, we screwed on side panels of chip-board on which we spent 3 hours painting the Premium logos. The build pics are here.

The build pics here.

The rally was great. The hill was a LOT larger than I anticipated and some were skeptical that we may not survive a trip down such a slope in a beer box of death. In the end, Sid did not ride and Claire took his place. (This was probably a smart idea as Sid might have gone airborne otherwise.) As we went down the hill, we were steered along the center until the drop off over which we took off at full speed.

Immediately at the bottom was a snow covered sidewalk that formed quite a bump. When the sled hit it, the sled stopped and we did not. (see the videos below.) Crashing through the front, the Pants and I face-planted into the snow and everyone else tumbled out as the wreckage continued down the hill. The roars of laughter and the cheering was deafening as we raised our arms in triumph and picked up our sled parts.

After watching the rest of the sleds go down the hill (in various degrees of success), we went back to the Manfort for martinis and beer. Nothing but Grain Belt of course. :)

Watch the videos posted so far after the jump... read more »

The Most Interesting Man in the World seeks assistant, will it be Mr. Whaley?

You may or not be aware of the Dos Equis contest for placing an assistant to the Most Interesting Man in the World. Our common friend, Chris Whaley, has risen through the ranks of competitors to the lofty position of one in ten nominees. Seriously folks, that's out of a pool of more than 9000 -- he's managed to convince enough people that he's interesting enough for this lofty position.

Go read his online profile and submit to clever tidbits such as this:

CURRENT OCCUPATION:
It's not so much an occupation as a little game I like to play: I call it "Keep Alive". It involves constantly redistributing debt over a variety of credit accounts and eating sushi on Tuesdays....

or:

UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS:
As mindful locuteur of the Most Interesting Man in the World, I would be sure to keep my public statements to a minimum - both to preserve your mystique and avoid any unnecessary scuffles with pretenders to that honorable title....

Chris needs your vote. Do it now. Read on for simple and easy to follow instructions from Chris himself. read more »

Ultimate Beer Temperature Measurement System

Temperature results after the jump.

Okay -- get over the whole boobies-business. Let's pretend for the moment that we're civilized and live in Europe.

With the dawn of the new home-bar, I'm thinking I need one of these installed to make sure my Rauschbier is ready for drinking.

To be scientific about it, one should probably have a chart on the wall for comparison, too. ;) (And of course said chart will require some more online research.)

fyi -- (NSFW)

read more »

2 beers a day keeps the doctor away.

CHEERS TO REMEMBERING!: Study in rats suggests long-term, moderate consumption of alcohol improves recall of both visual and emotional stimuli.

read more...

There! Proven with science. I don't want to hear anymore about the beer in the fridge cause I'm working on improving my memory dammit. Kill 10 brain cells -- grow 12 more.

Now I wonder if they need any research assistants.