HOMEBREW!!

Batch #3 is a success. As I wrote about before, it is a very very hoppy IPA with a very crisp finish. Arooo Brewery's "American Pastime" went over well in a taste test at our 2010 fantasy baseball draft last Sunday.

Up on deck is the afforementioned S.O.B. Named by HW1, this beer will be a delicious blonde, steeped with orange peels added to the grains for flavor as well as aroma, and strawberry flavoring at the bottling stage per the female's request. It should be a very good spring beer ready on April 11, 2010. It better be good as this beer took us over 2 hours making the wort.

Lastly, we stepped out on our own last weekend, clearing ourselves of premade kits and receipes. As our next beer is to be ready on May 2 (Patricia's bday) I let her choose our direction. After much research on my part, what she and I came up with a recipe from beerrecipes.com for a Cuban Coffee Cream Stout. Chocolate malt and oatmeal were added to the grains to allow for a smooth, creamy, thicker body as well as 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate and 20 ounces of cuban coffee for flavor. We are soaking 4 vanilla beans in vanilla vodka for the next 7 days and will add this to the wort before stage 2 of fermentation. Arooo Brewery's "Cuban P" is our most anticipated beer to date.

2010 MLB Predictions

AL EAST
Yankees
Rays
Red Sox
Orioles
Blue Jays

AL CENTRAL
Tigers
Twins
White Sox
Indians
Royals

AL WEST
Rangers
Mariners- WC
Angels
Athletics

NL EAST
Phillies
Braves- WC
Marlins
Mets
Nationals

NL CENTRAL
Cardinals
Brewers
Reds
Cubs
Pirates
Astros

NL WEST
Dodgers
Giants
Diamondbacks
Padres

DIVISION SERIES
Yankees over Mariners in 5
Tigers over Rangers in 4
Braves over DOdgers in 5
Cardinals over Phillies in 4

CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Yankees over Tigers in 5
Cardinals over Braves in 7

WORLD SERIES
Yankees over Cardinals in 6

MVP
AL- Miguel Cabrera NL- Prince Fielder

CY YOUNG
AL- Felix Hernandez NL- Roy Halladay

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
AL- Wade Davis NL- Madison Bumgarner/Pedro Alvarez

Maybe we should just go with Murray...

So, here are are, 3 days into spring practice and in the heat of a QB battle centered around Zach Mettenberger and Aaron Murray. How do we know who we should pick? Pocket presence? Arm? Overall athletic ability? Quickness in learning the playbook? Or maybe something more intangible...? What if one of them had to miss at least the first game of the season? Seems like that guy would be a definite candidate for 2nd on the depth chart, right? Well, Zach Mettenberger did just that on a fun little trip to south Georgia over the weekend.

Georgia quarterback Zach Mettenberger was arrested early Sunday morning and is facing five misdemeanor charges: underage possession of alcohol, disorderly conduct, obstruction and two counts of possession of false identification in an incident near Valdosta.Mettenberger, 18, was arrested by police in Remerton, Ga., at 1:39 a.m. Sunday, according to police chief Mike Terrell. The arrest happened at Flip Flops, a local bar.

Now, he's an 18 year old who got drunk and rowdy on spring break and most likely had a fake ID. Big deal. I don't think he's a bad kid or that this speaks of character issues. But, it does help us make the QB decision a bit easier, I think, especially if he draws a suspension to start next year. Why groom a starter who can't start?

HOMEBREW!!

As HW1 and LTDx can attest, I am becoming a jr brewmaster. I say jr because, as the beer has a good flavor, alcohol content, etc., both of my brews thus far have been very amatuer. Super Bowl Sunday, the Arooo Brewery introduced our "Kenny's Bunkporter." It was critically acclaimed (by Jenny's family) basically because it didn't suck. The Bunkporter had great color and flavor, but to me lacked the thickness of a true porter. Additionally, there were a bit too many bubbles for my liking. Overall, as a first batch I give it a 4.5 out of 10.

Because I agreed with Jenny that the second beer could be hers to choose, we went with a Blackberry Witbier. Last Sunday, we debuted Johanna's Wheat (Jenny's mom is Johanna Wheat) and our results have been lauded to this point. The flavor is wonderful and the aroma is fantastic. We were skeptical as to the strength of the blackberry flavor, but it ended up being dead on. The only knock on this beer thus far to me is the same of Sweetwater Blue, you really cannot drink more than 1 or 2 without getting tired of it. Overall, I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

This weekend we are bottling batch #3, a hoppy IPA, where it will sit for 2 weeks carbonating. It is our first batch outside of the rookie beers (we steeped our own grains), so we hope that we can take the next step forward. I am still looking for a catchy name, so if you think of one let me know.

Side notes: We figure these beers are between 7-7.5%

Batch #4 will be a Strawberry-Orange blonde that HW1 has appropriately named the SOB.

JOAJ- I left one beer from each of the first two batches with HW1 for you to try. Always need feedback from a true connoisseur.

It's so close I can almost smell it...

Can you see it coming? You have to look deep through the snow that still lays on the ground and the Madness that is around the corner. Can you smell the cookouts, taste the cold beer, and hear the sweet sound of leather connecting with white ash wood? Oh, they are coming. They're heading from the ice covered cities in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Minneapolis to almost tropical destinations like Ft. Lauderdale, Scottsdale, and Jupiter.

No longer the players of our childhood; we have left most of the elderly behind. Some will jump into the booth, othes may coach, run for government, or spend some time raising the generation of tomorrow. And for the first time, at 28 or 29, most of us reading this can claim that we are indeed on the back 9 of our playing careers, and that the men whom we watch and root for are no longer OUR idols, yet maybe someone who we played with or taught to play the game. The boys of summer are just that: boys. I yearn for the days where I could run and play, and without a breather, run and play some more. There were no such things as shin splints, tight hamstrings, or even stretching. Pitch counts were fascist, getting an autograph or a foul ball was the stuff of legends, and that first new pack of Topps that came out was the talk of your neighborhood.

Yet no matter how old I get, or how many new players, on new teams, from new countries that there are, two words elevate our national pastime as the long standing king of American sports. Its not double play, or home run, or extra innings. Its not cold beer, good times, or hot weather. And its not double headers, hot dogs, or no hitters. Its the first thing you hear on Opening Day that starts another fantastic baseball season:

Play Ball!