Hoppy Brew Year!

What a end of the year it was...my sister and her family joined us for the holidays, filling our house with more kids, wonderful food, and lots of good beer. My bro-in-law Sean is nearly as big as a beer geek as me, and we spent some quality time bonding over those good beers. From Christmas night at the Muddy Pig sharing a Southern Tier Cuvee One oak aged strong ale to waiting in line at Surly to purchase some growlers of their double IPA 16 Grit--the last Surly growlers to be sold until the law is changed--to using a gift certificate to buy some sweet beers from the Four Firkins, it was a ton of fun.

The Firkins Haul:

Imperial stouts and porters

Pale Ales, IPAs and Double IPAs

More Double IPAs and Boulevard Saison with Brett

I traded a growler of Surly 16 Grit with a guy in Chicago for some top-notch beers.

A top rated 17% abv. Imperial Stout from Nøgne Ø out of Norway.

Change on all fronts

Ah, autumn in Minnesota. Change is in the air, with particularly notable occasions this season. [Disclaimer--fall is easily my favorite season]. Yeah, I love the change in color, change in temperature, change of wardrobe, and this year, change in leadership, change in direction of the country, and change in my family. My sister had a little girl--Nora Lorraine--on Tuesday, adding another birthday to the week (Dylan turned 6, his good friend Lily turned 5, and I know increasingly more people born in October).

And, with every passing day, I'm more convinced that Obama will be our next president. Clearly helping things along the way, in addition to Obama's consistent message of change and stellar campaign organization, is McCain's rapid approach towards running one of the worst campaigns ever. I mean, no way in hell should I get a single phone call or piece of mail, because of who I am AND where I live, yet I've gotten four and three respectively. But I say, "keep 'em coming!"

The Minnesota beer scene is also changing, with the market continuing to expand. My most anticipated return to the market is Lagunitas, one of the first California breweries that grabbed and shook me ten years ago. Hopefully their crazier brews will also trickle in.

As the Oktoberfests are cleared out of the aisles, the winter beers are flowing in. I'm a big fan of most 'em, but Summit and Schells are at the top of my list. Again, "keep 'em coming!"

Homebrew Update
I've been digging into some of the darker beers that were made last December and January, as we fooled around with lagering and reusing yeast. Unfortunately, the resulting beers have been less than impressive, especially since all-grain brewed beers seem to be so much more satisfying. Which is also unfortunate, since the length of time that it takes to brew all-grain beers has significantly put a damper on the brewing efforts.

Beer + Turkey = Good?

I was charged with (or took charge of) preparing our family's turkey this year, my first attempt at the task. You may find this shocking, but in searching for a recipe, I turned to one of my most reliable sources for everything beer, BeerAdvocate.com. Their turkey recipe was simple and still intriguing. While it called for injecting a Märzen or Octoberfest into the turkey, none could be found and so I used some of my homebrewed alt. I'd like to think it made a huge difference, but even though the bird was quite delicious, I'm not convinced it did. The alt was good with the bird, but maybe not so much in the bird.

My wife has a more complete account of the meal on her blog.

This one's for you Mom

Dylan my 4-almost-5 year old son started school last week. The first day was tough--he almost fell asleep in my arms walking the 2 blocks back to our house from the busstop. But now he looks forward to it everyday.

Not my life

My mom's been giving me some flack in the comments over at Jane's blog, apparently because I don't post enough about my family and my life. True 'dat. I succumbed very early on to the inherant self-centered, egotistical nature of blogs, going so far as to only write about the things I want to write about, and if my family, friends and really anyone at all wants to read about it (or not) than so be it. I like writing about beer right now, have had my beer musings published a couple times (there goes that ego thing again) and so that's what I'm going to write about. Love ya mom, but you'll have to head over Jane's way to read about someone's personal life (which is a good one to read about!).

But being that I am a caring person, take my new poll to your right and maybe I'll alter my posts. Or maybe not.

Homebrew Update
I came home from France to a wealth of beer at my doorstep. Ready for the drinking is an extra pale ale, a hopped up amber and a Fat Tire clone. All are drinkable, but the EPA is luscious. Well balanced but still giving a nice hop punch. Tony and I bottled our barley wine and Belgian Dubble this week, and dry hopped the double IPA, all of which can be opened around Christmas. A winter and German Alt are on the deck for brewing soon.

In a Galaxy...

I had one of those Moments I'll Remember for the Rest of My Life today. I'm sure Dylan didn't realize the pleasure of watching Star Wars: A New Hope with him would bring me. Of course, the viewing took a whole new meaning for me as well, and I'm not just talking about knowing that Darth Vader is Leia and Luke's dad, but that does sum up some of the intrigue.

Not surprisingly, Dylan was more fascinated by the cadre of unique creatures and whether they were nice or mean. I mean, how do you explain that the Jawas are just trying to survive, and that Greedo is only trying to make a buck from Jabba the Hut?

New Beer

I've been meaning to hit up the Cellars in Roseville for some new beers, and finally made a trip over there. Ya see, they sell single bottles at 10% off a mixed six-pack, and so even though it's $10, its six beers I've never had.

I first dipped into the Rud Tulip from New Holland Brewing. It's an amber, with a forward bitterness that blends together well with the heavy malts. It was nowhere near complex as, say, Brian Boru from Three Floyds because nothing's like FFF, but it brought up some memories of Brian.

The $3.99 price for a 11.2 oz. bottle of Petrus Pale Ale, aged in oak casks for almost 2 years, intrigued me. I was expecting a sweet pale ale, but just got a mouth full of sourness. I hear this is how it is supposed to taste, but it reminded me of that sour batch of Hazed and Infused that passed through town recently. I'll pass on this again.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise came from a brewery not known for making quality beers. City Brewing out of LaCrosse, WI is known for light, mass-produced lagers, but their seasonals are worth picking up. Their pale ale is brewed with a mouthful of citrus-ey cascade hops, and can stand up to most pales.

It's been a good week for new beers. My mother-in-law knows me well. She brought with her from France a number of tasty treats, including Korlene, a French organic amber. It was well-balanced, with a pleasant nutty flavor. This would be a standard in my fridge if I could find it here.

Other new beers included a wonderful Triple from Sprecher Brewing, served at the Happy Gnome, and Ben's Irish red, sampled at a quality bottling session with Ben. Although they were both a little watery, his Fat Tire and my ESB will make for good summer pours.

Oh, and I almost forgot, session ended on Monday. Whew. I'm still recovering. That's all I have to say about that.

One trial ends, another begins.

One week left of this legislative session. Some words to describe it thus far:

• Intense
• Engaged
• Tedious
• Shattered
• Exhilarating
• Betrayal
• and of course, Rewarding

One week from now, I imagine I'll be brain-dead, sleep-deprived, wasted and most of all, relieved. We came in looking for $300 million in the upcoming biennium for early care and education, and will likely walk out with $40 - $80 million. It ain't nothing, but it's nothing.

So I planted my garden this weekend and got the yard in tip-top shape for the arrival of spring, as well as the arrival of my brother- and mother-in-law in a week for almost 3 weeks. 3 weeks. We finished half of our basement this past autumn, adding a bathroom and a legal bedroom, and this will be the first time its to be used in the manner for which it was prescribed. I'm honored to offer up the new comforts for my in-laws, not to mention the alleviated stress the addition will bring me.

Conserve water; drink beer

I'm sick of the 2007 legislative session. This is my 11th session, although my first as a lobbyist, but survey says: this session is looooong. Everyone anticipated a slow start, with so many newly elected legislators needing to get up to speed about not only the issues, but about how a bill becomes a law.

But no, it slammed everyone, and now we're in the last two weeks, when stamina is needed most. Conference committees are wrapping up (or, in the case of the Education Conference Committee, just getting started). I worked almost 70 hours this week, including 25 in the last two days, and there's no sign of letting up until May 21st.

Yuck.

Thankfully I have a wonderful, understanding (sometimes) wife, and kids who still recognize me. Although I took Dylan to May Day today, and he definitely tested my tolerance and patience. Payback I suppose.

The parade, as usual, was inspiring. Paper mache, metal, and plastic bottles conveyed a positive message. Conserve water. Be raise awareness. Don't use bottled water. And, as usual, the sun came out and gave everyone the May Day they deserved.

Late nights in conference committees inevitably leads to closing out the evenings a local watering hole, which usually means the Muddy Pig, the Happy Gnome or Sweeney's .

One such evening landed me and a colleague at the G-nome, where they happened to have a variety of Big Sky brews left over from the beer dinner the night before. I had a version of their IPA, conditioned in bourbon barrels for 10 months. It really took the edge off of the hops--almost too much so. It was still interesting, and unlike any other beer I had had prior.

I wrapped the evening up with Flat Earth Brewing's sophomore release, Element 115, a California Common in the style of Anchor Steam. It's hard to compete with Anchor, but the 115 gives it a good run for it's money. I look forward to more releases from Flat Earth.

I'm sure the next two weeks with bring more late nights and more unique beers at one of St. Paul's top beer bars. It's a very small (molecular-sized) price to pay for missing my family.