Curtis BBQ

This place was written up in the NY Times 24 yrs ago and i have been meaning to go to Putney, VT to try it. I am a little slow but 24 yrs later, i made it. Funky place with a couple of old blue school buses, one of then selling food, the other one, ???, a wooden pagoda with picnic tables, a sand pile with kiddie toys and a volleyball court, very cool.

all they serve is chicken and ribs, the ribs were huge, everything was tasty including the collards and the cole slaw. Worth the 24 year wait.

VT Beer

Hill Farmstead Edward & Smuttynose Noonan

London Calling & TLA IPA

first trip to Burlington and two places that i needed to try was the Farmhouse for some Hill Farmstead beers and American Flatbread/Zero Gravity for pizza and beer.

Went to the Farmhouse first and all they had was Edward, an american pale ale, 5.2% beer. It was very good, worth the 5 hr drive. Also had the Smuttynose Noonan, a black IPA in honor of Greg Noonan, creator of the Vermont Pub and Brewery who died recently. Also had the Trapp Lodge Dunkel and a taste of a 1 yr old Smuttynose Wheat Wine, on of my favorite styles. It was amazing.

Off to American Flatbread where we sampled at the bar, a Gruit and a Madhava which is a 9.2% belgian pale ale brewed with honey and aged for 7 months with Brett, it was great, we also had the TLA IPA and a the London Calling, a 3.9% session english pale ale. Very tasty for  low alcohol beer. Oh yeah, the pizza and salad where great too.

accident

Mountain biking? Nah, just the results of me tripping over two crates of firewood.

I have no bruises from mountain biking except for a sore crotch.

Minnesota and Civilization

Woke up to a beautiful South Dakotan morning, dry (see previous post). Repacked the car, ate some breakfast and hit the road. We drove east with a planned stop in St. Paul, MN to see some family friends.

This should have been in yesterdays posting, not this one, this has been a lot trip (We drove thru Bighorn National Park in Wyoming which was probably one of my favorite drives of this trip. Driving thru rock outcroppings that were 250 million to pre cambrian granite 2.5 billion? years old. A lot of switchbacks, winding turns and some amazing views. The road then went thru ranches where i saw a real cowboy watching his cattle graze.) When we got thru the park South Dakota just turned flat, the entire rest of the state which brought us into Minnesota, which is just as flat and all farms until we got to outside of the Twin Cities.

My family has friends from skating in this area, so we were put up at one their homes. It was nice to be in a house, we sipped some beers, ate some brats, it is MN, nice conversation, which i nodded out a couple of times, not cause the convo was boring but because i was tired and sitting in a comfy chair. Got to sleep in a real bed. It was a very nice pitstop.

More National Parks & We Ain't Camping No More

So we leave out of Cody, WY this morning, stopping in some little eatery for breakfast with 25 cent coffee and a halfway decent breakfast. Drove across Wyoming into South Dakota to go see Mt Rushmore. Our first long, long day of driving.

We get to Mt Rushmore and we find that our Nation Park pass does not work for parking. It seems that our government owns the park but parking is a private concession. We had some of the coldest water out of a water fountain ever in the park. The monument is impressive. This couldn't be done in this day and age, the unions would make it to expensive to build. Also, in some change from coffee, i was handed a few of the new $1 coins. Never saw them before so i figured that the government was stuck with millions of dollar coins so they send them to their parks system.

We left the park and headed east to drive thru Badlands National park. We got here near dusk and for a little while saw some wildlife when we first entered but after that we saw some amazing scenery until it got to dark to see really anything. The drive at night is pretty hairy, lots of sharp turns, no guard rails and big hills too drive off of if you were going too fast or not paying attention.
We were watching an amazing lightning storm in the distance.

We left the park around 9pm and headed to a campground in Belvedere, SD because that is all we could find, got caught in that amazing lightning storm with a ton of rain for about 15 minutes. I must have been driving fast because the storm stopped but it was following us the whole way. Got to the campground around 10pm, got our late reservation pass and set up camp. We put the tent up and threw our gear in the tent to only have the skies open up on us, damm storm caught me. We sat in the car for like 25 minutes to watch our tent get blown over, only two stakes were holding it in at this point, 60 mph winds, rain and lighting. When the storm passed, we found that our tent was torn, our tent poles were shredded and our gear was wet. We tossed the tent and packed the wet stuff up in black bags. The owner of the park drove up on his golf cart to see if we were alright. Told him our story and that we were going to hop back on 90 and keep driving east until i can find a hotel. It is South Dakota if you know what i mean, i could be driving forever. We asked him if he had any cabins left, we were willing to pay but he gave us one for free for the night, which was way cool.

My little guy fell out right away and we stayed up drying pillows, blankets, sleeping bags, while sipping warm IPA's until 1AM

National Parks and I Eat Balls

Teton National Park

Old Faithful

So we leave Jackson on the way to see some national parks and go to Wyoming. The first park we hit was Teton National Park which had spectacular snow covered mountains, we walked around a little bit because we were going to Yellowstone next. We enjoyed a nice ride thru the park, amazing scenery.

Onto Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. Once again we enjoyed the drive thru these beautiful parks of ours, made it to Old Faithful 10 minutes before it blew which for me is pretty good because i am late for everything. It was pretty cool to see, then we proceeded to walk around the thermal fields near Old Faithful, there are 1,000 thermal geysers in the world and half of them are in Yellowstone. Another beautiful park, different from Teton but just as beautiful. Saw buffalo, elk, mule deer, and even a moose fr in the distance.

So once again we had no place to camp, so we drove to Cody, WY to find a place. This is a real, cowboy rodeo type of town, lots of history. The first hotel was the Grizzly Bear which was the cheap, clean and old, real Wyoming. 

We went out to dinner, late, around 10pm, we went to the Proud Cut Saloon and Steakhouse which had good food and good beer. On the menu they had Rocky Mountain Oysters, which if you don't know are Bulls Balls. Years ago, in Durango, CO, some native Coloradian tried to mess with my Bronxness by ordering me an order of bulls balls but not telling me what they were. My secret was i knew exactly what they were but i had to get up the balls to try them and show them that us Bronx dudes don't scare easily. They weren't half bad, the Proud Cut's balls were far better.

Back to the Grizzly Bear for some sleep to get ready for tomorrow

Jackson Hole, Wyoming - Snake River Brewing Company

Left Salt Lake City heading to Yellowstone National Park this morning. Took 89 up thru the the canyons and traveling thru many National National parks, very beautiful scenery, stopped at Bear Lake in Utah, went thru Idaho and wound up in Wyoming. Hit some pretty hard rain thru out the day, a 6 hour ride to Yellowstone, according to GPS was wrong. It was like 6-7 hours just to Jackson Hole Wyoming with another 1 1/2-2 hours to Yellowstone.

When we reached Jackson Hole, we changed plans and decided to grab a room instead of getting to the camp site in the dark and probably wet. Found a small hotel that didn't cost me an arm and a leg, just the leg but thats ok i have another one and, what else, found the local brewpub.

IPA and Hefeweizen

Left the car at the hotel, drinking and walking tonite, Snake River Brewing Company, right down the street from the hotel, grabbed some beer, their Pakos IPA, Hoback Hefeweizen, Black Diamond Tripel and 8.4% belgian ale and Slow Guy a belgian single. Food was good, pulled pork, brisket, buffalo chili, trout. I got them to put the White Sox on the tv because my little guy is a huge fan, they were cool and took care of us.

We walked around Jackson and i was a little disappointed, it was a cool looking western town with the town square and the antlered entrances but there were so many t shirt shops and other touristy places, in the west they have touristy cowboy boot and hat stores, i could have been at the Jersey Shore.

At one point we moseyed in to the Million Dollar Cowboy bar to grab a drink and wound up paying a cover to hear some band that was having some sound issues, too much bass. It was a cool place, a bunch of pool tables, three bars with saddles as bar stools for the cowboys in all of us. Went to the bar and ordered, no not sangria, but what else, whiskey and beers. This is a cowboy bar and you drink like a cowboy here. stayed for a bit and then headed back to sleep

Whiskey, which i already drank and local beer

In N Out

FINALLY

I have been waiting forever to go to In N Out, i missed it in Las Vegas but i caught it in West Jordan.

Had a double meat, no spread, grilled onion, DELISH

fastest ice in the world

At the rink, built for the 2002 Olympics. Now i have been to all four long track ovals in the United States.

Wound up doing some food shopping, watching my little boy train, and went up to the University of Utah in Salt Lake city. It is a big and beautiful campus and i think my little guy wants to attend here, he already had his interview.

Took out the family that has been putting my family up for the past month, plus they also put my little guy up when he is out here by himself, to a local chinese restaurant. It was good, a lot of food for not a lot of money.

sitting around drinking a Squatters Brewing Hop Rising a 9% 75 IBU Double IPA, a tasty beer, very hoppy.

On The Road Again

Sitting in the NewYorkSportsGrill in Terminal 5 at JFK, drinking a Goose Island Summer ale, eating a burger, talking to fellow travelers, waiting on my plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. Yes, once again i am on the road for speedskating. It has been a while since the last trip so i guess i am blogging again.
Plane delayed, Lagunitas IPA to help kill time.

Took the A train to Howard beach to catch the Air Tram, a very easy way to get to the airport and probably the cheapest.

The above bar has about 40 taps, mostly Bud/Miller/Coors product and a bunch of bad Sam adams selections. They did have the above two beers that i had, $10 each, plus Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada, Harpoon IP and a couple of Brooklyn's.

Plane finally showed up, sat on the runway for an hour + and finally landed in Salt Lake at 3:45AM New York time.

Mamoun's Falafel

I am not a falafel fan, i never eat them EXCEPT for when i am on St. Marks Place and I pass Mamoun's. This is one of the best and cheapest places to eat, minus the $1 slice joint's up the block, in the city, $2.50 falafels. Not the tasteless, i need to cover it up in white sauce to hide the rancidness of the street car ones. This is pure goodness of fried chickpeas, which i hate, herbs and spices, on a pita. No white sauce for me, i hate it, but Mamoun's hot sauce with a glass of their own ice tea. 

PMC Fund Raiser

just came back from a PMC fund raiser which is a bike ride from Sturbridge MA to Provincetown, Ma, 195 miles over two days. the food was great, especially the seafood chowder.
The PMC raises money for the Dana Farber/Jimmy Fund, based out of Boston, yeah i know Boston, that does great work with their patients.

cancer has hit my family a few times over the last bunch of years and the support of this facility is amazing.

If you actually have read this blog post and would like to contribute, please reach out to me so that i can give you the website and the person that i am supporting, so that you can contribute.

If you can't contribute, i know, times are tough, we are all feeling it, give me a shout out, that is as fgood as $$$

Grace Potter/michael franti

Earlier this week we went to the Charles Ives Center to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals open up for michael franti and Spearhead.
Grace Potter is the hottest guitar player, singer , screamer, organ player on the circuit these days and as usual, she put n a great show. we saw her at Webster Hall last year and she plays better t a small intimate club bu it is Grace, wow.
michael franti and spearhead, a band that i only knew two songs  of, put on a great show, reggae, rap, r'N'r', whatever it is, he was good. Danced with the audience, jumped on a stage n the lawn seating area, brought a whole bunch of young people and old people on stage for the finale, a great showman, the crowd was on its feet for the whole show.

206th st. Reunion & Paddleball

So last week we had a 206th st reunion up in Congers, it was a blast, saw a few friends that i haven't seen in, jeez, 25 years. ran into some friends i see every now and then. it was definitely like old home week with less hair, especially me and maybe  a lb or 2 more.  Somehow i let my self get talked into playing paddleball on a future weekend. You know when you are having fun you agree to most everything. The problem was i haven't played since i was like 17 yrs old.

Well that weekend was today. Met Anna, my neighbor, Laura Leigh, one of those i haven't seen in 25 yrs, and some dude i didn't know. All i envisioned was missing the ball, falling on my face, getting hurt, straining body parts i don't use or know that i even have.

you know what, it was fun. After the first game i  slowly got back to into playing shape, by the fourth game i was that 17 yr old kid, lots of hair, skinny, etc..  ok i really wasn't feeling that young but i definitely could have played 5 or 6 more games.

off to Dicks Sporting Goods to get a paddle and some balls.  no comments on that last line please...

Beer To Go

This is what i love about Vegas, beer in to go cups, walking around the mall with a beer in my hand, sweet...

Hard Rock Casino and Carlos Santana

so after a day of hanging out at the Venus Pool, drinking fruity drinks and beers, it was off to the Hard Rock Casino to eat and see Carlos Santana at the Joint. Sat around the sports book, drinking New Belgium Fat Tires, watching the Yankees and the Rangers. Then it was off to the Pink Taco for mexican food and margaritas and then to the Joint to see Devadip Carlos Santana who preceded to blister my brain with his guitar playing. it was a very good show, they played for more than 2 1/2 hours. After waiting a half an hour for a cab, it was off to the Mirage for some more Let It Ride Poker.

Venus Pool - The Adult Pool

Adult Pool

Caesars pool complex is crazy, there at least 6 pools throughout the pool area but the one pool that i was at three times was the Venus Pool, which is an adult only pool. It is really just a hangout space for the hotel to sell you bottle service liquor, expensive fru fru drinks and food. The place was very casual, no drama no preening, just people hanging out enjoying the day.

The gimmick here is that they have cabanas and day beds that you could reserve with a minimum of several $100's up to $1,000 based on day and time of day. I just hung out in the free lounge chairs and preceded to spend a ton of money on these expensive drinks and beers.

And yes, since this is an adult pool, i did go topless..

Downtown Vegas and PURE

So from the airport, back to hotel to change into nicer clothes and cabbed it down to Fremont Street, which is where the original casinos are, to Nick and Anthony's Steakhouse at the Golden Nugget.

Fremont Street Experience

They closed off Fremont Street years ago and put in this metal structure for 5 blocks that they show animated shows, on the hour every hour, from 8PM until....

We ate steaks and drank martinis at Nick and Anthonys, after dinner we walked and played at the Sam Boyds Fremont, Binions, and the 4 Queens. I found a beer store where i actually found an Alaskan Brewery White Ale to drink while walking around. This area gets very sketchy at late, late night.

Went back to Caesars, and bro, sis and myself went to the nightclub PURE, located in Caesars, and wound up in the VIP Room, drinking rum for hours.

View from the VIP Room at PURE

At 3:30AM we went across the street to the Flamingo to lose more money.

I am going to be hurting tomorrow.

Long Beach Cali

Aquarium

The Pacific

Queen Mary

up and out at 6:30am to the airport, cabbie tries to rip me off by telling me his speedometer is broken and the fair should be higher, as soon as the pen and paper came out, conversation ended. Long Beach Airport is very small, walk down stairs from the plane onto the tarmac before entering terminal which looks like a bunch of trailers butted together. Went to the aquarium, the Belmont Brewing Company for lunch and beers, kind of got lost and wound up sight seeing at the Port of Long Beach and then went to the Queen Mary to check it out before we headed back to the airport for a 5:30pm flight.

I finally got to Cali and saw the Pacific Ocean, very cool

Too Much Info

Boxers vs Briefs

i am a boxer brief type guy but in my frugality i bought briefs because you get more undies for your money. I wound up wearing them once and tossing them out. What the hay, i am living large in the Penthouse suite so i can afford to toss them, ha ha ha

Walking around

went to Mandalay Bay to walk around, wanted to hit Red Square, which is a russian vodka bar with a strip of ice in the bar to keep your drinks cold. They open at 4PM and since it was noon, we wound up at the Eye Candy bar to drink martinis. We then went to the Burger Bar, one of only a couple of places with decent beers, where we had Deshutes Inversion IPA, 80 IBU hoppy but needed a little more malt to balance the beer out, this was probably one of the best beers that they had on tap.

We went back to Caesars and went to the Venus Pool, the adult only pool, hung out, worked on my tan, got a bunch of seats together,  sucking down Summer Fling Cocktails while sucking in my belly so i look halfway decent.

We went to Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris Casino for Steak Frites and Cotes Du Rhone. After dinner we went back to the Flamingo to lose some more money

6AM Do you know where your money is?

I do, it is sitting on a Three Card Poker table where, unbelievably, i am actually winning money.

After coming back from hanging out until 2AM, woke up at 5:30,  needed coffee badly so we hit the strip at 6AM in need of caffeine. Went to Wild Bills Gambling Saloon, grabbed some coffee, walked around the casino, I asked one of the Three Card Poker dealers to teach me how to play, which she did, we decided to sit down and play and on the second hand i hit for 4 of a kind. Nice.

Walked around the Flamingo Hotel, where i lost too many times during the week, never going back to gamble there, and they had real flamingos in the back gardens.

After walking around for an hour or so we went back to our Penthouse Suite where we ordered in room service and had the butler set everything up for us. Sweet

Caesars Palace, Morning Glory, Silly Human Race

so after having out flight changed to a longer flight, waiting for connection passengers and luggage through customs we finally land in VEGAS Baby and Caesars Palace, our base station for the week.
We get to the Registration desk to check in, M starts flirting with the young man behind the desk and the next thing you know, we are getting a FREE upgrade to the Penthouse Suite. This room is 3000 square feet, far bigger then my house and at $10k a night, the room for the week costs more then 2 years of mortgage payments. This place is ridiculous.

I am in "Hangover" city. Where is Mike Tyson and the dude with my $80,000 in chips?

Went to dinner and started hitting the tables. Around 1:30am i had my first attempted pickup moment by a drunk woman/prostitute. Since this is Vegas I am betting that she was working.

Back to the Penthouse Suite to try to sleep.

Bloody Mary

Hash A Go Go Bloody Mary

Nothing says Vegas better then a 9AM Bloody Mary

afternoon with Belle

Belle

so my Belle came home today, i heard my middle guy is somewhere around town, everybody is home to go to a celebration for a lost family member.

So i met Belle in the village, went to get cat food, for the cat, coffee, for belle, we finally went to a bar together for the first time together in Manhattan,  we went to McSorleys, one of the oldest bars in NYC, 1854, a place where i spent a lot of time when i was way younger. We stayed for the prerequisite two beers and then moved on to the Strand, a huge used book store on Broadway, went to USF liquor store for some free mescal margarita samples, then went to Mae's for some sushi.

Big Saturday, lots of stuff to do, hopefully it is a good day.

My Cat - Diggy

someone told me that they didn't think i was a cat person, i didn't think so either until Diggy Claws was brought into the house. This very good looking cat of mine is caught in hunter mode, climbing trees and chasing birds and squirrels. A real cat.

La Folie 2011

2011 La Folie

one of my favorite beers, you can't get them on the east coast. I have a 2007 caged and corked bottle aging, this one was a surprise find in some beer store in Milwaukee, 2011 version. Was going to age it but WTF, i drank it today and enjoyed every sour, puckering moment.

Pat's Hubba Hubba

Texas Burger

My Own Personalized Seat At The Counter

"The Fucker"

So we drove over to Cornwall HS today to see my little guy run for the first time in two years, in which he did alright for such a long layoff. After watching 3 out of 4 kids ran track for 10 years, today made me feel old. I realized that as the years go on, i get older and the track kids stay the same age.

We then drove down to Port Chester to the Clay Arts Center to see some art opening where once again I embarrassed myself by having a brain fart and knocking my own wine glass out of my hand, duhhh. My son told us about Pats Hubba Hubba restaurant which is really a small and narrow, counter seating only cheap burger joint with good chili. There were four big dudes working behind the counter, dancing around each other in a 30" narrow space and one dudes belly had to be 48". It was a decent cheap greasy burger meal with greasy fries and onion rings. I was thinking that i should have a second one but i am tying to be good, but then three ladies come in for take out and they ordered three burgers each, made me feel weak but i stayed the course and stuck with my one.

$3 Beer Near Yankee Stadium

so we were going to our first game of the season, three friends from home where driving down, i was heading uptown from downtown. some other friends had tickets and they told me that they were meeting at the Dugout, a bar right across the street from bleacher section of the stadium that had $3 PBR pounders. WHAT, the Dugout where two years ago i soaked for $40 in shots of Patron before a yankee game at the old stadium has cheap beer. As much of a beer geek as i am, i don't expect to drink anything good when i am up in this hood, the old good beer bar on 158th st is closed so i am in cheap beer mode.

due to the the first rainout in my 40+ years of going to games, we never left the bar, causing the case of drinking too many beers and spending too much money. Around 9PM, the game was canceled, so it was time to go home.

The Dugout is the Yankee bar to go to before the game, it is a huge space with 3 bars and a lot of young waitress' getting beer for you. Stan's is still the ultimate destination but they slam you in and you wind up paying too much or the same bad beer as the Dugout.

Boston - Flann O'Briens

Harpoon Leviathan Imperial IPA in front of the Bruins and Celtics game

So i walk from the Penguin Pizza joint to Flann O'Brien's, a real Boston Irish bar, dark wood, Irish flags, Guinness shamrocks, Boston sports on tv, Boston drunks plus 28 taps of good beer, a better selection then Penguin, 4 6tap towers 1 of them strictly Irish, 2 Guinness taps, Murphy Stout, Smithwicks, Harp and Magners Cider.

I order the Harpoon Leviathan Imperial IPA, bloated belly from Penguin but finally a big hoppy beer. As i am sitting there, i hear, "Hey i am drunk, do you want to talk hockey" I turn around to find 2 drunk Boston sports fanatics talking to me. So right away i open my mouth and let them know that i am an Islander fan, when in enemy territory you need to lay the line in the sand right away, but we had a good time talking hockey, NCAA, hockey fights and the such but i realized that this New Yorker might be over his head dealing with these two drunks so i kind of finished my beers, mentioned Mariano Rivera and took off.

Supposedly they have good food but i didn't find out.

Boston - Penguin Pizza

Rapscallion honey Beer

BBC Maibock

Penguin Pizza

So i was in Boston Sunday night and it was getting late and i needed something to eat and drink. I was near the Mission Hill area and i found Penguin Pizza, 27 taps, a 100 or so bottles of beer so how bad could the place be. Since i was alone i decided to sit at the bar, there was an empty seat between 2 dudes, one who was eating wings with a loud Pod in his ears and the other who was just staring into space, at the tv, no food or drink in front of him, strange but it is Boston.

The tap list was pretty pedestrian, no BMC except for Blue Moon, not a lot of MA beers, a couple of Harpoons, the standard Sam Adams, a Rapscallion and 2 BBC's.

The place is known for pizza but i couldn't eat one by myself so i ordered a meatball hero that came with a s@!t load of fries. I ordered  the Rapscallion Honey beer which was eh and a BBC Maibock which was pretty good, kind of true to style. Sitting next to the staring in space dude was his friend and we got into a decent conversation on different stuff. As he was enjoying an Abita Purple Haze and a Wicked Petes Strawberry Blonde , i decided, and was pretty proud of myself, not to give this guy my opinion of fruit beers, it is not good, but i realized that nobody really needs to or wants to hear my rants on what i like and don't like. Hey maybe i am growing up, Nah i don't think so.

Captain Lawrence Saturday

The next generation of Captain Lawrence fans.

Fresh Remote

i want to thank the Best Western hotel chain for keeping this fresh remote inside a remote condom. We all know what happens when a fresh remote is let out.... baby remotes.

Saturday

So i spent all day freezing in the Shelton Ice Rink, volunteering at a speedskating event, doing lap counting  for the first time. I only screwed up the first race because nobody told me how to do it, so that was alright, i did kind of space out a couple of times but i was able to catch my screw ups. On break i would go outside for fresh air and next door is  a double level golf driving range, i wish i had my clubs in my car.

During one of my breaks i took a walk over and found that they had some of those metal clubs and they also had some lefty ones so i figured that since my peeps are either upstate, working, or hanging out with their friends and i would be home alone so there was no rush, i decided that i would go drive a bucket of balls.

Regular bucket, large bucket, x large bucket? it was late, cold, metal clubs, old glasses, i decided a regular bucket was enough for the first time of the season. Now i can come up with excuses, standing in an ice rink for 10 1/2 hours, the metal clubs, the cold, my shoulder hurt, the first time swinging this season, but no, i won't make excuses, i just suck at this game and i know it. I didn't even have fun, just totally frustrated myself. I guess driving balls was not a good idea.

So one of my peeps was generous enough to wait for me and allow me to buy him BBQ so that he can eat and then go out with his friends.

Homebrew Day

So #1 son wants to make a chocolate/coffee stout as our second batch. so after three weeks of trying to do it, he has off this saturday so today is the day, except that he has to take his girlfriend to work and should e home by 11:30. Shit hits the fan at her job, so #1 son helps out and realizes that he will be down there all day. In the meantime, i already started the soaking of grain, and i get the call that he can't do it, so i continue the process. During the boil the power goes out and i have to find the propoane Cajun cooker that i purchased 10 years ago and never used, found some propane, and lit it up. flame kept going out between boil overs and wind, finally got it going, a quick 45 minute boil instead of 60 minutes, got it into the house and realized that i didn't rinse the fermentation bucket. no power means no water, well you know, so i decided to go drinking at the Captain until the power comes back on, hopefully.

got the call that the power is on, went home, got it up to 4 gallons and dumped some Captain Lawrence yeast in it.

I think we wil be calling this "Shit Don't Work Stout"

Chancery Part II - Kielbasa on a Burger

Kielbasa on a Burger


Only in the mid west can you get a 1/3lb burger, 1/4lb kielbasa, cheese and onion strings on a roll. Man i love this place

The Chancery

New Glarus Back 40 Bock Beer

Your Daddy's Schlitz

My Little Guy kicking my butt in video bowling

There is a family that puts my little guy up whenever he flies to Milwaukee with out us so in appreciation we took them out to dinner to a place called the Chancery in Wauwatosa, WI. The place was kind of cool with two bars, one in the restaurant and the other one thru a door from the restaurant along with a door to the street. They had a decent beer selection, nothing killer but they had some New Belgian, a New Glarus, Miller, of course. They also had Schlitz.

Schlitz is an old time beer that thru the decades went from being decent, long before i was born, to a crappy yellow fizzy beer. Last year they resurrected the original recipe and decided to brew it. I think it is only in Wisconsin right now so i figured sine i am Wisconsin i might as well give it a whirl. It is now decent yellow fizzy shit, alright to try but i don't think i will try it again.

food was decent and inexpensive, no complaints there, the conversation and company was nice too. It is a little out of our way but if i had to go back i would with a smile on my face.