My new Scottish friend.

Do you see that?
Huh?
Do ya, do ya?
Do you know what it is?
Sure, they are bottles of Tennent's.
But not regular Tennent's.
It is Tennent's 1885 Lager.
Do you know where I got them?
No, not BevMo.
They were hand delivered to me all the way from the Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow Scotland.
How freaking cool is that!

The Tennent's that I can get here in the states is like that foreign friend you have. He was born in Scotland, but he lives here now. He is still has a Scottish accent, but it's not quite as authentic as it once was.

My new Tennent's is like the old Tennent's older cousin. He still lives in Scotland, but just crossed the pond to visit his cousin for holiday. (I don't think he is going to make it back home). New Tennent's is a true William Wallace loving Scotsman. He loves his country and is proud to wear a kilt.

The story goes something like this. My wife helped this Scottish fellow with his finances. He lives in Scotland, and comes to the states to visit family every year for the holidays. He keeps money in accounts here so he doesn't loose it every time he exchanges currencies.

My wife was able to save him so much money, that he felt indebted to return the favor. By chance, he asked if she liked beer. What luck, I do. Being the cool wife she is, she told him that I love Tennent's. So he said he would bring some "Bud Light of Scotland" with him as a gift.

He was true to his word. He brought 4 bottles with him. Why is there only 2 in the pictures?

Because our skilled government employees in the customs department broke the other 2 bottles.

Next time, he said he would bring me a special limited release Guinness. I can hardly wait.

-Sláinte

Beer on my Ipod. Right on!

I love my Ipod. I usually carry it with me everywhere. Good thing too, because my boss has horrible taste in music. But I am getting sick of my songs. So what am I to do?

Podcasts!

O man, what have I been missing. Podcast are so cool. I can learn how to invest in the stock market or speak German. I can even find out about my fantasy football team. But the best thing I can learn about is, BEER!

Damn, this is so cool. I have spent hours listening to podcasts about beer. They talk about making beer, drinking beer, different kinds of beer, and everything beer. I love it.

There is Beer School, Basic Brewing Radio, Craft Beer Radio, and my favorite, Brew Crazy. I would listen to all these for the entertainment value alone. But the cool thing is that I learn all kinds of things about the wonderful world of beer. Everything from home brewing techniques and equipment, to all the different stles of beer.

I strongly recommend that you check out these beer podcasts. I'm sure you will learn something you didn't know about beer. The Ipod is so much more than just a music player now. Good thing, because I don't think I can go another day listening to Abba or Enya.

-Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving to Me!

It looks like Thanksgiving is going to be a couple days early this year. Thanks to the amazing people over at Draft magazine, I will be celebrating "The Big Pour" with thousands of my closest friends. Friends who love this amazing country, and good beer. I am so thankful that there will be more than 100 different breweries pouring beer for me to try. Isn't that great.

I will see you all there. I love this country!

-Prost!

Kegerator Part 1

I finally did it. I bought my freezer to build my 5 tap kergerator, or "Keezer" as most home brewers call it. It is nothing fancy now. But by this time next week, it should be fully functional and pouring up to 5 different beers from a 5 tap tower in my guy room.

My beer fridge just couldn't cut it anymore. There are just to many different beers that I love to keep in stock. That leaves little room for the many different beers I like to try every week. My wife gets upset when I fill up a shelf or two in the main fridge in the kitchen. She says that is what my beer fridge is for.

My plan is to get the keezer functional in the next 10 days. That way, I can enjoy the draft beer while I start the other project. The Bar.

The bar will be built to house the keezer and the beer fridge. If all goes according to my plan, I will have everything built and ready to go for the Holiday season. Who know, maybe I will have a Christmas party. That would be one hell of a party. One of the great ones where the cops show up!

-Prost!

I'm a stone cold gangster yo

Sometimes, you see something that has got to be a joke, or a punk. But it wasn't. It was proof that the world is full of idiots.

I stopped to get gas yesterday ($2.45 a gallon, Right On!). As I started entering my data into the pump, I hear some idiot driving up with his rap music blaring from his stock stereo. I say that because music (even rap) sounds so cool blaring out of a sweet system. But when a stock stereo is screaming for help with all that distortion, it makes me cringe, and laugh at the same time.

Back to the story.

As I start to pump the gas, I see the idiot pull up to the pump one row over from me. I started to smile. It was a big white Chevy cargo van. It gets better. I hear something to the effect of...."pop, crackle, crackle...I'm a stone cold gangster yo". Then the door from the van, opens.

I started to chuckle. A tall goofy looking white guy gets out of the van. He screams out, "I'M A STONE COLD GANGSTER YO"! I immediately started laughing. The guy looked like Ali G. He was wearing big gold Elvis glasses, and his straight out of Compton, LA Dodgers hat with the front on a little sideways. This had to be a joke. I kept laughing as he strutted into the store from something. Probably a 40 of Mickey's or King Cobra.

While "G" was in the store, a car pulled up to the pump between us. I was just waiting for my receipt from the pump when I hear,

"What's up baby? Yo fine". O my God. Did he really just say that out loud? You see, that car that pulled up had 2 girls in it. I start laughing again as I reached for my camera phone. I had to try to get a picture of this guy because people are not going to believe me when I tell them.

"Sup Baby. You want my numba. I'll give ya my numba."

I notice the driver has now hunched down into her car while the pump is still going. G hopped into his van, and proceeds to lean out his window in his attmpt to woo the laides.

"Whats yo numba baby. Gime yo numba.....Dam, Yo fine"

That's it, I lost it. I am started laughing hysterically. He must have heard me because his eloquent banter with the "fine" women ended, and he started up his sweet ass gangster plumbing van.

The first thing he does is turn up his stereo even louder than it was when he got there.
Pop, crackle, crackle,......."You Fuck'n with me, you Fuck'n with a P.I.M.P".

Just in case we didn't know by now, "G" let us all know again as he drove away.

"You Fuck'n with a P.I.M.P"!

- Cheers

Now I am the Master

I just came up with a new name for myself. For now on, I will demand for my friends and family to refer to me as, "The Beer Master". You may be asking yourself how I am able to make such a claim.

My friends like to call me, "The Beer Connoisseur", and for good reason. I admit, I have to agree with them. However, I think I have moved to on to the next level.

Here is my story.

I got an email from my cousin today. He was in dire need of help. So of course, he calls the Master (me). You see, my little cousin is in a desperate search. An all important search for an ever valuable beer.

You see, his friend from work was just transferred to "Beer Nirvana". a.k.a. Belgium. This guy has been living the dream, and drinking beer after beer from all the amazing Belgium breweries. Now, one of these sweet nectars has turned this rookie beer drinker into a beer lover.

He tells my cousin that he has got to find this beer as soon as possible, at any cost. Because I am who I am, I (The Connoisseur) was the first, and only call. It is enriching to teach the younger Miller Lite generation the way to enlightenment.

Without haste, I proceeded to give my lil cuz all the information he would need in order to be successful in his crusade.

The amazing part of this story is, I have this beer sitting in my fridge right now. In fact, I always have bottles of this in my fridge at all times.

To make my status legendary, I emailed a photo of myself drinking it at that very moment.

What beer could have been?

It was the infamous, Delirium Tremens.

I know...I know. I am the shit!

-Prost!

What happened to November?

I walked into the Home Depot yesterday to get some parts for my kegerator build.

(More on that Later)

I swear I just decorated my house for Halloween last week.

Yep, there are still orange lights and pumpkins on my porch.

I don’t understand. Isn't it November? I sure feels like November.

But 2 miles away at the Depot, it is Christmas time.

What happened to Thanksgiving? I didn’t get to eat turkey. I love turkey.

What happened to the month of November?

If I remember right, our great country got it start, in a round about way, in the great month of November. Our founding fathers landed early because they were running out of beer. How could the Home Depot forget about a monumental occasion such as this?

If they sold beer, I'm sure it would still be November there too.