$1,724.50

That's the going rate to get an idiot out of your life. Worth the cost? Every. Damn. Penny.

Rejecting Illinois' advances

This place feels weird this week.

Maybe it's because I had such an amazing weekend with a lot of my closest friends. It was seriously amazing. We didn't do anything too terribly special, but I was so upset about leaving that I even cried in front of a few of them before I left. (And that's saying something, because I don't cry in front of people.) Most of my way back here was spent scheming different ways that I could just stay there. (Let's just say some of the plans were clearly ridiculous and that there is no feasible way for me to still get paid and play in Rolla until December.)

This week just feels like I'm working as a travelling engineer. Like, you know when a company ships you to a remote location for the duration of a project and you actually have a home somewhere else? Just like I'd imagine that being. I still talk at work like I live in Missouri. I even have Missouri plates on my new car. I still support the Missouri Tigers (and the Cardinals, obviously), even though someone generally writes the word "Sucks" on my dry erase board over the word Tigers nearly every week. I talk about St. Charles with words like, "home", "my house" (even though it's my parents) and "my stomping grounds". I still have a core group of friends in St. Charles that I visit whenever possible. I talk about the DOL house in Rolla like I still live there and call it "my house". I call my friends there my roommates, even though we haven't actually been roommates for 6 months now. And truth be told, it feels like I haven't left when I'm there. I wonder if anybody here has caught on?

I've mentioned to one of the guys here that I'm a 'city girl' and not a 'small town girl' on the one day I've been out of my little office cube. He said he kind of figured that. I wonder if anyone else has figured that out? And if so, are they kind of expecting me to leave soon? I kind of almost hope so, it'd make quitting my first job so much easier.

193 days until my lease is up.

200 days left!

As of today, I have 200 days left on my lease. Awesome. Sooo, what have I done with my life in the past 165 days? I didn't think I had done a lot, that is, until I started listing it out. So here goes.

1. I moved to rural Illinois into a strange duplex/house/thing. My neighbor lady is approximately 67 years old and has been known to water my flowers and leave corn on the cob tied to my door knob. It's a nice place to live, it has a big yard and covered parking. I have my own washer/dryer, dishwasher, etc, etc. And it's rural Illinois, so it's fairly cheap. The only thing that could make it better? If I could have a dog. (Not a puppy, mind you. I know I have no patience for an animal that would chew up my mash tun or get into my grains or pee on my stuff.)
2. I've taken plenty of trips. In fact, since the first weekend I've been here back in June, I've only stayed in town for 3 weekends. And to be honest, two of those weekends were pretty epic. (More on that later.) I've been to Rolla, St. Louis, Alton, Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Lawernce and Kansas City in the other weekends. All of which were pretty great. I'm sure I could tell stories for hours about them, but here's an attempt at a summary: Rolla = 3 float trips over the summer, family time with Grandbaby, party hat parties and convincing friends that "everclear buckets" are a good idea (which normally works). St. Louis = Growler's (which is now closed, sad face), beer festivals, good times with Leah and family time. Alton = blackout town in the downtown/Reagle Beagel, Coley's lake, Grafton wineries. Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins = my first attempt at a brewery trip. Rachel and I shoved it all into one day and needless to say, I passed out in downtown Fort Collins. Fail. But, I made friends at Avery, so all's good. Lawerence/KC = where Shahd gave me the nickname "Darth Zebra", we died via lunchbox shots and tore up KC Live! with one of her work friend's vomit. I only wish there was a video of our shenanigans in the parking garage that night. :) On the way back though, I crashed my dad's F-150 into a semi.



Driving from Denver to Boulder. I became OBSESSED with the mountains. 


3. Which brings me to this point. I crashed my dad's truck into a semi during a rain/hail storm. Word to the wise: wear your damn seatbelt. (Or helmet, if you're going the motorcycle route. Because without both them, I sure would not be sitting here farting around and writing this.) Anyway, my dad let me borrow his truck because my old one blew up (long story made short, obvi). And I totalled his truck into a semi. Not fun. So I had to ride my yellow motorcycle, Charles, everyday, rain or shine, hot or cold, for a month straight. It was awesome for the first few weeks, but by the end of it, it wasn't too great. I spent quite a while looking/shopping for a car I could deal with spending $20k on, because, hey, if I'm going to spend that type of money and I want blue, I'm getting blue. So long story short, I totalled my dad's truck, rode my bike for a while, bought my new car and then sold the bike because I never rode it anymore. Here's the progression:

2004 SV650S - Charles - Sold :(

1999 F-150 - Destroyed



2010 Tuscon - aka Phillip

1. WELLST, I'm not sure how to make Blogger make this #4... so #1 is the new #4 apparently.
2. Since my numbering is totally screwed, here's something else I did under a new number. I became the proud owner of the world's ugliest couch. I really need to take a picture of this thing and post it up here. It's from 1996, kind of a faded green/purple/mauve and kind of scratchy... BUT it has TWO recliners and two cupholders. So it's a winner. I eat my dinner there most every night, because, well, eating at a kitchen table alone is strange.
3. I became obsessed with beer. For a little perspective, I brewed 2 batches from February to June, but 10 from June until now. Yikes. I've also amassed a chest freezer, 8 carboys, 4 kegs (well, 5 if you count the AB one), 120-150 full bottles of beer, 10 more cases (24 bottles to a case, btw) of empty beer bottles, countless hoses, attachments, additives and accessories, and way to much other crap. And as usual, I have expansion plans.
4. Found 3 people who don't suck in this town. Of the two good weekends I've stayed here, I've ended up at KJB's downtown each time. The first time was with my cousin Casey, where we were in the midst of a bar crawl and we bonded with these older (read: 35-40) people about how Jville is dumb and cliquey. We FB friended each other and went on our merry way. Wellst, last weekend, my friends and I ran into them again at KJB's yet again. Turns out one of them is the bartender... he was so nice that our entire bar tab (read: Rumplemintz, Vegas Bombs, rum and cokes, vodka diets, etc, etc) was $25. It was easily a $150 tab, so I tipped him well and gave him a hug. It's nice to know that there are people around this town that aren't total asshats like everyone else. Plus, we had an amazing night even after we got home from the bar. I think only half of us could walk and one of us couldn't make it to the bathroom by herself. Hahahaha.
5. I made a name for myself on the town "Drunk Bus". The drunk bus, for those of you not lucky enough to ride it, is essentially a retirement community's bus that runs into the wee hours of the morning and transforms into what is technically known as "Safe Ride". For $2, you can be picked up anywhere in the town and dropped off anywhere else. So needless to say, there's no reason to stay even remotely sober in this town. I'm pretty sure that I've made an ass of myself every time I've been on there. So much so, in fact, that the second time I rode it, the ladies said, "We know where you live." YIKES.
6. I went to the county fair. $3 Keystone Light and crazy farm children is all you need to know about that one.
7. I got tickets for traffic violations like it was my job. Seriously. This month, I've gotten a 79 in a 55, a photo enforced red light violation and $200 worth of parking fines (strangely unrelated to traffic voilations).
8. I've also been "secretly" planning Kim's bachelorette party with Coley. Kim's my best friend and I think she deserves a little more than the standard "one-night-out-in-St. Louis-with-some-drunk-people-on-a-party-bus" routine. So epic plans are obviously in store. BOOM. Plus, I love planning things, so double-boom.
9. I've finally gotten to a comfortable place here. At first I was home-sick, and then I was friend-sick, and then I hated my job. And while sometimes I'm still a little bit of these things, I still have a good (read: paying) job and I'm generally happy. Hopefully I'll save up enough money while I'm here to put a down payment on a house when I get back. (Hey, I can dream, right?)

All in all, I like to bitch about living here and my boring job, but it's really not that bad. Yeah, I spend too much time by myself, but I sure do live it up with my friends and family on the weekends.

200 days until my lease is up!

Upcoming brews.

After my dad's party, I'm about 5 gallons of beer lighter. I brought the Pumpkin Beer. It went over really well! Everyone had good things to say about it. Not bad for messing up in just about every process of the brew/ferment. Guess that's why I take good notes.

Anyway, here's a line up of my next three "brews".
1) Left Hand Milk Stout Clone
2) Fall Cider - inspired by Woodchuck's Fall Cider
3) Vanilla Toffee Cream Ale - I simply could not resist trying to make this one. Sounds too good!

Upcoming things = Excitement!

If you know me at all, you'd know that I get excited about a lot of things. Especially if those things are combined with sugar. (And I've had too many Starburst chews already today.)



I'm pretty convinced that this is a Magic Eye in disguise.



Things I get excited about:

 - Friends

 - Family

 - Beer

 - Combinations of those 3

Things I don't get excited about:

 - Designing ditches

 - Flow rates in said ditches

 - Contour maps regarding said ditches


Anyway, three of my best friends are coming to visit me this weekend! I couldn't be more happy about it. I used to live with them last semester in the DOL house and we all became surprisingly close in such a small amount of time. I love them all to death, so it's only normal for me to start becoming hyper on Monday for the weekend's activities. I had to find an outlet for my energy last night, so I cleaned most of my living room, bought shelves for some of my brewing equipment and even hung up pictures. Yeah, I know. I've been here for over 4 months and didn't hang up pictures. Fail. But my apartment is starting to look like I live there, so that's a plus!

This picture sums up why I'm really excited about this weekend.

I'm not really sure how this happened, or why we ended up on Courtney's floor, but what I do know is that we left voice mails on quite a lot of people's phones that night. Some were singing "Pants on the ground", some were just giggling and some were telling people to "shut the front back door", whatever that is. In any case, if this weekend is half of what that night was, I think we're in for a good time. I mean, we're celebrating not one, but two, engagements... so things could get out of hand.

208 days until my lease is up.



One Perk

I'm pretty convinced right now that this, right here, is the one perk about living alone (well, this and not having to wear pants all the time).

The current state of my fridge.

That's right, I moved all my food up top and the keg took over. I clearly would not be able to do this if I had a roommate. Well, a roommate that was a normal person. Anyway, I do what I want! :)

Yayayayayay! Stone Brewing is coming!

Hooray! Stone Brewing is going to start distributing in Missouri in 2011. BOOOOOM!

StL Today News Story

Thanks to some faithful craft-brew lovers in St. Louis, Greg Koch is finally going to be shipping his beer to us. I've been reading about, listening to podcasts about and learning about Stone Brewing for months now. But I could never get their beer. It was a sad time. I was literally planning a trip to San Diego just so I could visit the brewery... but soon I will just be able to run to Dierberg's and pick up a sixer. Life is good. :)

Today. Is. AWESOME.

Without going into the details, today is awesome. Let's just say that a certain ex-boyfriend is now FINALLY out of my life for good. He. Was. Awful. I really can't stress that enough. I lost one too many friends/my sanity for a bit because I dated this shithead, but now I'm free! It only took 10 months after I broke up with him and moved out of his house (and a $200 "illegal parking" fine), but as of today, I'm done. Forever! Weeeeee!

St Pat's 2010. I miss this shenanigans.

And back to one of my previous posts, my friends are awesome. Coley spent a good part of the morning distracting/helping me not worry about today. And Kimbo spent my lunch hour doing the same. This morning SUCKED, but once I got an email that all I had to do was pay a $200 fine? BEST DAY EVER. I'm free of my past. This is great. I've had a few celebratory beers "with" Kimbo. (I say "with" because I'm actually alone and she spent a good hour and a half celebrating/drinking beers with me on the phone.) Again, I love my friends. I owe them a lot.

So I think I'm going to have a few more beers and head to bed. Today was a long/joyous 10 hour work day. Still, best day ever. :)

150 DAZE until St. Pats and 216 days until my lease is up.

I'm an awful spender.

I think I have some of the weirdest spending patterns. I used to go through phases where I would either save everything or spend like my money was never going to run out. Now I'm in this weird phase where I won't buy the simplest things (like a cutting board, a lamp or lawn furniture) so I can save the money. But then I'll go out and spend some retarded about of money on something stupid (like beer, home brewing equipment or beer supplies). I mean, I finally bought what Kimbo calls "a big girl phone", but I dropped it in Wal-Mart nearly a month ago and I broke the digitizer on it. Since it still works and it's only kind of a pain in the ass to use, I can't bring myself to buy a new screen and case for it. It's literally $30 to buy a new screen. But when I was grocery shopping today I bought the Sam Adams Harvest Collection. I just bought 12 more beers when I clearly have enough. WTF. What is wrong with me?

221 more days until my lease is up.

The great joys in life.

For me, the joys in life are simple. A sunny day, a beer in my hand, good music going  in the background. Ah, life. :) But over the past year, I've realized that one of my favorite things in life is being able to see just how much people care about each other. I love, love, love being able to see and experience this.

A quality photograph from the float trip.

I like to visit my friends (and sometimes surprise them) because of this. They all obviously mean a lot to me (or I wouldn't be driving nearly 4 hours to see them!).  But I also get to see just how much I mean to them. How? Well, after a float trip with the girls a month or so ago, shit got kind of out of hand pretty quickly. Long story made short, Coley was getting railed in the back of the head by a huge bitch while she was on the ground. We're talking like "she's going to go to the hospital" type beating over the head. I would easily go to the hospital to help this girl out. She's amazing. But what I found out was that I was the only one in the group of friends that was willing to do that for her. After the two of us recovered and figured out what the hell just happened, it was pretty clear who our friends really were. That's one of those times where you find out how much someone means to you. Another example is from a couple of nights ago with the same friend. :) Phi Kaps semi-formal: pitcher die with Coley, Chelsea and John Dough. (And in case you're wondering, pitcher die is a terrible idea.) Well, I stupidly made the statement that if Chelsea or John made it in my cup of Large Farva, I'd gladly chug it. And of course, John Dough made it on the next throw. I power stanced in a dress, and Coley held my dress down so no one would get a free show of my vagina (because hey, we're classy). I made it through almost all of the drink until I made it to the cheap vodka layer. I nearly vomited on Coley, but she just stood there and held my dress, waiting to get puked on. Now I don't know about you, but that's a fucking friend!

Holz, my dad and myself... and our evil cat.

But I also have the unique experience of planning my dad's surprise 50th birthday party (and now we're getting to the real reason for the post). A year ago, I didn't think I would have ever been planning this, being that my dad was battling very aggressive cancer. Now, 5 months of clean scans later, I am able to see the enormous outpouring of support that my parents have. For a little back story, my dad used to work at a telecommunications company downtown. When his doctor couldn't say that he would be back to work within 6 months, he was fired. So needless to say, money is a little tight around their house. My mom has been working her ass off to keep the house. (Not that I'm trying to tell a sad story, this is just how it is.) So, back to my original point... upon inviting all of his friends, I wasn't expecting what I got. Almost everyone who was invited has offered not only wonderful words of encouragement and excitement that his health is much better now, but they've offered to help in any way they can. People are offering to bring food to help out. One woman is designing a gourmet layered cake incorporating his favorite hobbies, flying fishing and hunting. And another woman is putting together (without my help) a fundraiser for my parents. I obviously can't tell anyone in my family about this, and it's making me want to burst. I just want to tell my mom that her friends are freaking amazing whenever I talk to her, but I'll have to keep my mouth shut for another week and a half. I know that this gathering of friends is going to mean so much to both of them, I can't wait to see both of their reactions.

Too much? Nah...

My cold stash, 4-6 deep.

 Sometimes I think I'm a little too into beer. I mean, check out my stash. It's getting a little out of control. I think at last count I had about 120 bottles in my apartment. People who don't know me very well might think I have a serious drinking problem after seeing that number. Trust me, I'm not. At most, I'll have 3 beers after work a couple times a week because, hey, apparently drinking beer moderately actually lengthens your lifespan!

Anyway, I love, love, love beer. (Quality, not quantity. Except when I'm in Rolla.) I get into a new beer style about every two months or so it seems like. My beer journey went somethin' like this: German Wheats, then schwarzbeirs, then dunkelweizens, then pale ales, then brown ales, then IPAs, then fruity beers, the stouts, then the occasional scotch ale, then Belgian ales and now sour beers. And I know what people might think after reading that last one, "WTF is a sour beer? Sounds disgusting!" Well, admittedly, sour beers aren't for everyone. I'd just like to say that most of them are actually quite tart and sweet and the 'sour' portion of the name comes from how it is fermented (I won't get into the nitty gritty, but it's through spontaneous fermentation in a barn in Belgium, no joke). If you would ever get a wild hair and want to try a commercial version, try a Lindeman's Lambic. Yeah, it's expensive, but it's worth it.

My storage stash.

To get to my point: I hope this all-consuming hobby can turn into a career. I listen to podcasts at work about brewing (without them I would fall asleep of boredom) and I have been accumulating a small library all about making better beer. I've learned so much since I've started just a few months ago. Once I get to the point where I can consistently make great beer, I look forward to entering competitions. Maybe I'll even go back to school and get a degree in Brewing Science, who knows. Either way, I'm pretty excited about the small possibility of having a future in the beer industry. Wish me luck!

Next brew day? Pale Ale / IPA double brew day with my dad and Pastor Rob. I'm teaching Rob to brew this Thursday. Should be awesome!

I have a like/hate relationship with this town.

I work in what I would call a "big-small" town. It's about 26,000 people, which is twice the size of Rolla (which isn't saying much). We have a Wal-Mart, two Walgreens and a race track. There are a few churches and a few 'mom and pop' resturants. The downtown square is undergoing a major rehab and is actually a fun place to go. So here's the real reasons why I have a like/hate relationship with this town.

1) I'm here. By myself.
I didn't think it was going to be a huge deal moving to a new town. I usually make friends pretty easily and try to get along with the people around me. I did it before in Kansas City, so no big deal, right? Well, I forgot that this was rural Illinois. A place where most everyone in the town grew up with everyone else and I don't know anybody. Sure, I hang out occasionally with my home brew club or some of the guys from work but not only are they in their 30s to 50s, but they just don't stack up to the amazing friends I've had over the past few years.

2) This job is boring.
When I was in school, no one ever told me that you could be paid to design ditches, the same ditches, over and over again, for 4 months. If they had, I would have run away screaming. So guess what I do at work? I design ditches. That's it. I almost like it because it's super easy but I hate it because it's super easy. The first assignment I got, my (awful) boss told me that engineering takes time, so don't rush it. I get that, but I'm not the kind of person that does things slow. I take an hour long test in 20 minutes and still get a good grade on it. So when I finished my first task "too quickly", he was really surprised and said, "Are you sure you did it all correctly?" And then made me redo it. I didn't change a thing, sat on my ass for about 2-3 hours and then gave it back to him. He reviewed it and told me how well I was learning. WTF. Since then, I've learned to space out my ditch designing. I'm really not the type of person to enjoy working at a leisurely pace. I love it when I'm on a deadline, I have to make it to a meeting, or have oh, I don't know, ANY responsibilities of any sort. I have none of that here. I guess I should be happy that I'm getting paid to do virtually nothing, but it feels kind of stupid.

3) I get paid.
I really quite like this aspect of being out of college and my job. Who wouldn't? It allows me to take my parents out to dinner/beer festivals/whatever, buy almost whatever beer/beer making equipment I want, buy a brand new car, live in a nice part of town, etc, etc. (Please don't take this like I'm bragging about the money I make.) I don't actually make a lot, but when you don't have kids/responsiblities/a spouse, it's hard to spend it on something worthwhile. Which brings me to my next point.

4) This place is CHEAP.
Rent and housing here is ridiculously inexepensive. For instance, you can buy a house in the historic district for around $100k. Something like that would cost anywhere from $500k upwards in the St. Louis area. In fact, a co-worker just sold his house (albeit run down) in the historic district for $15,000. I literally bought my car for more than that. WTF. Also, pints of beer at bars are $2.50 on FRIDAYS, and not during happy hour either. That's like Grotto prices. Although, the price of a six-pack of Schlafly Pale Ale is $10 at the liqour store. I might like Schlafly, but there is no way in hell I'm paying $10 for six of them. I'll wait until I get into St. Louis.

5) Traveling.
Because I don't spend a lot of money here, I have the amazing oppourtunity to travel the country. I probably wouldn't want to travel as much if I lived in St. Louis, but I can always go for an excuse to fly to Denver to visit breweries or KC to hit up the Flying Saucer!

6) Traveling.
Because I live in rural Illinois, I have to travel to get anything or see anyone of even remote importance to me. Let's say that I want to buy fresh ginger root for a beer I'll be brewing. Or I want to find some simple lab equipment for harvesting yeast. I can't get it here. I have to drive at least 30 miles to the nearest city or wait until I'm in St. Louis again.

7) My workplace
Beyond my glorious and highly regarded duties as a ditch designer, my workplace is strange. Which sounds weird, but let me explain. First off, you would actually have to try to get fired from this place. At first this sounds like a great thing, but it's a real motivation killer. For instance, the fat guy next to me told the Preseident of the company that he wasn't going to clean his desk(s) because he thought it was stupid. (Side story: his office looks like it could be on an episode of Hoarders. It has even spilled over into two of the offices across the hall.) Had that been said to any of my other bosses, well, it wouldn't have been pretty. Promotions are based on how you know the President of the company and not work performance too, so there's another motivation killer. Secondly, we have scheduled breaks at 9:30am and 2:30pm, a scheduled lunch from 12pm to 1pm and can only work from 8am to 5pm. Flex time is HIGHLY frowned upon. I've never worked anywhere that hasn't encouraged flex time. I'm sorry if I am more productive at 6am than I am at 5pm, I figured you would want me to work when I am most productive. No? Okay then... anyway, I have to nearly beg my boss to let me come into work early for an hour so I can leave an hour early on a Friday. And then when I do, I get shit about it all day from nearly everyone. It's not like I'm a doctor that is scheduled for open-heart surgery all day, I design ditches. The office will still keep chugging along if I come in early and leave early. GEEZ.


All in all, I think I would like this place a lot more if I wasn't in my 20s and single (because it's actually a nice, inexpensive, crime-free town) and if I wasn't designing ditches for a company run by the 'good old boys'. But for now, I think I'll stick to livin' cheap, making beer and having weekend adventures.

233 days until my lease is up.

Relaxing Weekend

After the past two weekends in Rolla, I needed a relaxing weekend to recuperate and let my bruises heal. I mean, hell, I got punched in the back of the head several times by a crazy woman while trying to stop her friend from beating one of my best friends over the head with her fat fist. So yeah, I needed a break.

Forest Park Balloon Glow

This past weekend was two great St. Louis events: the Forest Park Balloon Glow and Schlafly's HOP in the City. On Friday, Leah and I went to Forest Park with her sister and mom to see the balloons. And wow, were we unprepared. We just went to walk around and look at the hot air balloons. Clearly, what we should have done was pre-gamed at the park and then stayed all night. So Leah and I began plotting how we could "do it big" next year. You know, like, lawn chairs, dogs, coolers of beer, maybe a homebrew keg... well, we walked by a group of older couples who literally had THE WORKS. The were dressed nice, brought wine, chairs, tables, table clothes, table runners, (it keeps getting fancier) candlesticks in candelabras, flowers and a centerpiece. I literally stopped and applauded them. We are most definitely doing that next year, candelabras and all.

Saturday was a great day. It was the day of Schlafly's HOP in the City. It's an annual beer festival they put on every September where they bring out 40 of the beers they make (including a fest beer, more on that later) and serve them on tap. I brought my two beer drinkin' buddies, Mike and Myles with me as well as my mom and dad. Normally you wouldn't bring your parents to something like this, but ever since I brought them home my first bottles of homebrew, they've been really supportive in me trying/brewing as much beer as possible. Plus, the both of them needed to get out of the house and I was happy to help with that.

Myles, myself and Mike

Now, the fest beer was called Oud Bruin. If you know a small amount about Schlafly, you've probably noticed that they don't name their beers anything creative. A pale ale is called Pale Ale and so forth. The only one they didn't do that with is No. 15, their 15th anniversary beer. ANYWAY, Oud Bruin literally translates as 'old brown'. It's a Flanders-style, Belgian Ale that's been soured with tart cherries. And sour beers just so happen to be my new thing. I love, love, love them. I even went back for three tasters of this one. It was that good. Only problem? It was the fest beer, so I'll never be able to get it again. Sad times.

Pumpkin Beer: BREW DAY

Brewed a pumpkin beer for my dad's 50th birthday party coming up in a month. I used a recipe from homebrewtalk.com to base mine off of. As usual, things really didn't go as planned but I think it may turn out okay anyway.

Here's what I brewed:
8 lb 2-Row
1 lb Caramalt
1 lb Marris Otter
1 lb Torrified Wheat
1/2 lb Molasses

1 oz Northern Brewer
1oz Hallertaur

"Dash" of cinnamon at 5 minutes left in boil because I forgot to buy all the other spices before I started this. I'm dumb.

So I'm going to add the allspice, ginger, cloves and nutmeg in the secondary and see what happens. I kind of just fly by the seat of my pants when I'm brewing so I'm not really too worried about it. As Charlie Papazian would say, "Relax, don't worry. Have a homebrew!"

The yeasties just started up an hour ago. And now I'm realizing that I forgot to take an original gravity reading... oops. Guess I'll have another homebrew!

Being the "Old Balls"

When I was in college, I tended to judge the people who graduated but then came back to school on the weekend to party. Well, I'm now one of those people. And now I get it.

I thought I would move to a big city, work at a big company, make work friends, etc, etc. But now that I've moved to a small town working for a small company and only know 30 & 40 year olds, I've begun to realize that I left the best friends I could ever ask for back in Rolla.

My roommates found me at what was (hopefully) the worst time in my life, took me in and were nothing short of amazing. When I came back from class, there was at least one person in my room either watching TV or waiting for me to get back from class. I'll never forget when I walked into my room and there were 4 people in my bed and one in the recliner and everyone one of them yelled, "Roommate!" like I had been gone for months. Or when we called Taco Bell shortly after at 10am to see if they were open. (Yes, they are open. And yes, we did go to Schlaco Hell at 10:15am.) Or any of our adventures during St. Pats. Or the nightly sleepovers. I will never be able to pay my roommates back for the no-judgement always-loving attitude they always seemed to have.

In short, I'm not ashamed to be the "Old Balls" that comes back to college even after they've graduated. The thing is, these girls are really only going to being in the same place until December of this year. After that, they'll be spread out arcoss the country. And $50 in gas to Rolla is much cheaper than a $500 flight out to California!

Schlafly Pumpkin Ale; St. Louis, MO

For those of you who don't know, fall has become my favorite time of year simply because of fall seasonal beers. Pumpkins, Oktoberfests, etc, etc. Basically, if it has cinnamon and nutmeg in it, I'll probably love it. That being said, there are obviously some beers that are just better than the others. One of those beers is Schlafly's Pumpkin Beer. I literally judge all other fall beers by this one.


Serving type: Bottle (Bottled with love on August 27, 2010.)
ABV: 8.0%
Appearance: Pours a somewhat cloudy deep orange/red color. Has a 1+ finger head that dissipates quickly into a small ring with little to no lacing.
Smell: Pungent cinnamon, nutmeg and clove aroma, no hop aroma to speak of.
Taste: Tastes like a liquid pumpkin pie! The maltiness is balanced well by the spices. Some may find the spices overwhelming, but this is really what I love about this beer.

Overall, I'd recommend this beer to many people, even those who don't really like beer. I've pushed it on a few of my roommates with great success... hehehehe... I "secretly" advocate the craft beers whenever I can. Watch out. It hides the 8.0% ABV incredibly well. You could easily get secret drunk after a few of these, so watch yourself. But then again, who's judging if you get a little secret drunk? Not me, that's for sure.

What's a malted barley?

I used to be one of those girls who hated beer, one of those who would never drink it even if it was free. That was a long, long time ago by my standards and thankfully so.

I started liking beer after a trip to the Flying Saucer in Houston, TX. (If you haven't been to one, please go and be adventurous. All craft beer may not be for everyone, but I'd be willing to bet that you can find at least one beer there that you'll find palatable.) I had one of their "flights", or sample trays of 4 oz. glasses of beer, and Well's Banana Bread Beer. That experience changed my whole outlook on beer. It could be good! Really good! Who knew?!? From then on, I tried as many different beers as possible. So many, that I've lost count and memory of all of them. (Which is part of the reason for this blog... for my own memory. Hahaha.)

In February of this year, I got into home brewing. This was about the time that I became completely enamored with beer. If you don't know me very well, that might sound like an 'inner alcoholic' coming out, but I'm much more interested in quality not quantity. Which is not to say that I don't have a ridiculous amount of six-packs in my apartment, but that's another story for another day.

This brings me to the question, "What's a malted barley?" Beer, in it's pure form (and according to the Reinheitsgebot... look it up, I don't know how to link just yet) is malted barley, hops, water and yeast. When I brew I don't just love to smash my nose into the hops, like Jim Koch does on that Sam Adams commercial, but I love to have a sampling of the barleys I'll be brewing with. It's my own way of 'stopping to smell the roses.'