Lisa has been feeling pretty lousy with a nasty cold for the past several days and on Wednesday it got worse. About an hour after work, she started to get a sharp pain in her ear. With her history of ear infections, she though it wise to go to the urgent care. About 2 hours later, prognosis correct...ear infection. Since this one seemed to be a pretty bad one, considering the doctor prescribed Tylenol 3 with codeine, I fully intended that I would be driving to brew by myself. I of course played the good Dad and ordered Pizza on Wednesday night while Lisa was waiting for a doc to see her. To my surprise, Shawn requested a 4-corner pizza from Jet's with pepperoni, fungus and the most bizzaro item an 7 year old could ask for...Anchovies! Yes you read it correctly. Salty furry tiny fish fillets. Thankfully I was also the smart Dad and ordered them on the side since Shawn could only choke down 2.
Lisa didn't sleep too well Wednesday but the idea of missing a day of Marc's hopping was too much for her to handle. The enjoyment that Lisa has wandering around the junk sections of Marcs is really hard to explain or to understand in my opinion. Lisa, Katelyn and I dropped Shawn off at school and met Bev and Ted for breakfast a Nick's and then off we went. Ted stayed back to pick Shawn up after school.
We picked Mike up about 11am and off to The Brew Kettle for some pre-brewing sampling. Unfortunately, The Brew Kettle didn't open til 11:30. So we waited....and pretty damn close to 11:30 I was sucking down one one of 24 beers they had on tap. And yes, I did have all of them! Mom and Ron showed up to visit and watch me brew about 1pm and I was already on my second 5-glass sampler. I wish I would have started with samplers instead of having a couple of pints first. The samplers were 5 ounces each and depending on the beer cost anywhere from 85 cents to $3.50 each. There were some really tasty beers on tap and most were over 8.5 ABV. They definitely taste better going down than they do coming back up which I will get to a bit later.
I ended up picking a beer called "Dead Poet'sImperial IPA" to brew. Online, the description was a big beer with Amarillo and Summit hops but much to my surprise, they only used those two hops when they were having a tough time getting their hands on Simcoe hops. This beer actually had 375 grams of Simcoe hops in it. Yes that is over 13 ounces of hops! And it had 6 1/2 liters of Light Malted Barley Extract. This beer is going to kick my butt!
The operation was really nice, I would love to have a couple of kettles like they have there. It was a blast from what I can remember of it. I pretty much lost most of the evening just before the last hop addition and my 24th sampler. The beer just kinda had a way of sneaking up on me. I do remember having a nice conversation with my mom and talking beer with Mike and Katelyn running around the place smiling up a storm.
I guess I was a regular ass on the way home. I kept messing around with the GPS and reclining my chair back and hitting Bev's knees (sorry again Bev, hope you recover from the bruises). Somewhere between Strongsville and home I decided it was time to get rid of all the beer back out the same hatch in went in. I would guess the truckers had a good time on their radios talking about the two women trying to undress the drunk dude on the side of the turnpike. I did a number on my shirt and the side of the car. If that wasn't enough, I kept a little beer in my body so when I got home the toilet also got its christening by me.
Make a note and learn from me, do not go to a tap house that is loaded with high octane beers and drink all day without eating more than just breakfast...major mistake! Needless to say, this morning was a bit rough and to boot, I had to call and apologize to everyone for being such an obnoxious drunken idiot. Once again, sorry Bev, Lisa and anyone else that I may have offended. I don't think I will be having a beer this weekend. One good thing about loosing all that beer is that I lost 5 pounds doing it; I'm sure it will be back soon.
Not sure what's in store for me and the family this weekend. Maybe a day trip somewhere. Here's a few pictures (crappy phone pictures). Have a Happy Valentine's day and a good Friday the 13th!
One of the Menu boards and half the taps
My kettle with 24 pounds of 2-Row dry grains
One of the Kettle lines
Bottling Stations (I will be kegging)
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