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Good Gift Idea For A Homebrewer

Homebrewers like making beer.  It’s what they do.  Buying them a gift that plays to this hobby can be overwhelming, unless you’re working off a specific list, but where’s the fun in that?   You’re probably not going to just buy them a bag of grain, although I’m sure many homebrewers would appreciate a random specialty grain or just some extra normal malted barley.

 

I suggest the complete supplies for a full 5-gallon batch of beer.  There are many many recipe databases out there, and all it requires you to know is if the brewer is All-Grain, strictly extract, or extract with steeping.   There is beerrecipes.org, the Beer Recipator, Beersmith, or the homebrewtalk.com recipe database.  Pick a recipe that you think you’ll both like, order the hops, grain and/or malt, and yeast, and have a fun and different present for the holidays.

 

Really, how could you go wrong with a present that’s both beer, and a hobby?   On top of that it’s an excuse to hang out together again in the near future, when the beer is ready for consumption.

 

Fyi to any friends/family that may be reading this:  This is not a hint.  I don’t get to brew (Extract with grains if you must know) often enough to really need my next beer picked out and waiting for me.

December 1st, 2011 by Ceetar in Beer, christmas, life
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Autumn Beer Season!

It’s autumn beer season again, meaning Oktoberfests and pumpkin beers.  This season is the Christmas of craft beer.  It’s the most popular season and comes earlier every year.

 

I saw Magic Hat Hex as early as three weeks ago, and since then most other seasonals have showed up, including my own.  The only popular one I haven’t seen in stores yet is Sam Adams, and I’ve heard that’s out too.  Traditionally Oktoberfest, the real one in Munich for the last 201 years, is celebrated for the 16 days prior to the first Sunday in October.

 

It’s my favorite season as well.  This is why I chose an Oktoberfest to brew as my wedding favor.  Two of my favorite brands are Sam Adams and Brooklyn, although there are plenty of other tasty and excellent varieties out there.  I’m not as big a fan of the pumpkin ales, but I’m interested to try Six Point’s Autumnation now that it’s going to be available in cans that I can get without going to the right bar.  Interestingly, the third Google result for Six Point Pumpkin is a post about how if you don’t like pumpkin ales you’ll like this, although it refers to last year’s variety.

 

So lots of fun and interesting beers to try.  I just hope they stick around long enough for me to try enough of them before the next beer season rolls around!

August 26th, 2011 by Ceetar in Beer, christmas, Uncategorized
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O Christmas Tree

I bought my first Christmas tree on my own, and my first in New Jersey.  I’ve participated in this process many times on Long Island, and found it soundly different.  In most places I would go to, you’d be faced with piles of trees lumped together against walls and barricades, and you’d slowly sift through them, pulling out trees and holding t

hem up to see if they looked nice. I’d do things like rotate the tree, and lift it up and drop it on it’s trunk to see if the bristles held up, or were dry and fell off. 

 

In all the places in Bergen County that I looked at, except for Home Depot which was a disaster, they had the trees all set up on spokes so that they looked like trees.  This was nice; it was easier to notice things like gaps in the branches, and dead areas. The trees themselves, at least where we got one, were also trimmed to fit the typical Christmas tree shape.  My tree this year is easily one of my favorite trees I’ve had. 

December 23rd, 2008 by Ceetar in christmas, long island, new jersey
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