blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Category: Beer

  • Guinness continues to flow

    Over the past couple weeks I’ve been drinking a lot more beer than I normally would. I’m torn on whether that’s a good or bad thing. It’s good in that I really like beer, especially Guinness, but it’s bad for my waistline. Oh well. The good news is that it’s been 2 weeks tonight since I tapped the keg, and it’s still pouring fine. While I’m not sure how much is left in the keg, I tried lifting it last weekend and I can tell there’s quite a bit left. Not sure what to expect now (given that after two weeks everybody says beer on nitro goes flat), but I hope it last through one more weekend. After that I guess it can be used for cooking (stews and cakes come to mind). Even if the I return a half-full keg of flat beer at the end of all this, it was worth the experiment. Though I’m pretty sure I’m going to move to something on CO2 that I don’t feel pressured to drink (and force on all my friends).

    Last Sunday Kelly and I watched the fantastic final episode (of this year) of Battlestar Galactica. To anybody who hasn’t seen the show, watch it. It’s a great reimagining of the original. We’ve also been getting caught up on this season’s Doctor Who, which is also good, if a bit more kid-friendly than BSG or Lost (oh, yeah, it’s season finale was also really good).

    Last night we watched the film Jumper, which was also a fun film, despite starring an actor who I will always associate with the horrid Star Wars, Episodes II and III. The effects were well done, the story was interesting, and since I didn’t know much about it before watching it, had a couple twists (and an obvious, made-for-a-sequel ending).

    Work continues to be crazy busy, but good. My stress and happiness levels go up and down, but it’s still all good. Lots of stuff I’m working on, and hope to get to do, in the coming months.

    Anyway, sitting in my back yard with a beer and thought I’d write (finally). Mmmm… Guinness.

  • Since the trip…

    Since the last post, I had a nice end of my two week vacation. A couple relaxing days that allowed me to get back into our timezone. During that time I also discovered that Belmont Station carries the Bruges beer that Kelly and I had much of on our trip, Brugse Zot, so I picked up a couple bottles of that. Hooray!

    Last Wednesday Kelly and I had M & B over for dinner, to thank them for watching over our house and our cat, and I figured that would be as good a time as any to tap my keg of Guinness. The countdown begins. Tapping it proved to be more complicated than I’d thought. The first problem was that I hadn’t tightened the stout faucet all the way, and when I first went to lock the tap on, beer sprayed everywhere. Damn! Once I’d fixed that, the tap wouldn’t lock down easily (making me wonder for a bit whether I’d picked up the wrong tap). Finally realized that it just needed a bit more ‘elbow grease’ than other taps, and finally got the delicious black stuff flowing Yum!

    Kelly and I went out to my hometown on Friday after work for a belated birthday dinner for Kelly. We went to this newly opened Chinese place, the food was mediocre, but it was still a nice dinner. Afterwards we drove to my folks place for dessert (ice cream cake, yum!) and I got to spend time playing with my rapidly growing nephew, Bart. After getting home I had a couple pints of Guinness (naturally) while getting distracted by this Comcast site Fancast, where you can watch full episodes of TV shows… I ended up watching some of the original Battlestar Galactica. I hadn’t seen it in many, many years.

    Last night we went out with Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog to the Goose Hollow Inn for delicious sandwiches and beers, before coming back to our house for a bit. Had a great time, and it’d been quite some time since we’d seen the GDs.

    Today, finally, the unseasonably cold and rainy weather broke, and Kelly and I were able to spend a few hours outside doing yardwork. Soon, we’ll be grilling some chicken kabobs on the barbecue. Hooray!

    Between all this, was a crazy first week back to work. Loads to do in the next few weeks for the next software release. Gonna be nuts.

    Oh, also, discovered a new web comic, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Enjoy.

    Edited to add one more thing: My friend and coworker Aaron recently blogged about this news site The Big Picture, where I found this photo/article about an uncontacted tribe in Brazil. Really found the photos amazing, imagine not being in contact with the ‘modern’ world and having a helicopter buzzing around your tribe’s camp. What must have been going through their minds.

  • Home, and other stuff

    Got home yesterday around 1:30pm. The flight was decent. I watched a couple movies and got a 20 minute nap in (nearly a record for me, I can’t really sleep on planes). After getting home and getting unpacked Kelly and I went to the store for some food, made dinner, and then promptly passed out in the living room around 7pm or so (we’d basically been up and at it for 23 hours or so). I was really trying to stay up until 10pm (get back into this time zone as quickly as I could) but oh well. That meant waking up at 5am, fully alert and unable to fall back asleep.

    Today, due to the early rise, I got quite a bit done. All my laundry is done, spent a bit of time adding tags and captions to the photos from the trip. Have a lot more to go through, but it’s a start. Also today I went and picked up the Nitro/CO2 tank I needed, and a keg of Guinness. Finally. Got the kegerator all cleaned and set up, but not tapped yet. The Guinness will go flat in about 2 weeks. Yikes! Apparently the nitro interacts with beer in a bad way. Something CO2 does too, only it takes a keg tapped with CO2 like, 2 or 3 months to flatten the beer. Not two weeks. SO, I’m not sure when I’m going to tap it. I might do it tomorrow, making Friday the 13th of June a really scary day.

    At Moon & Sixpence right now, waiting for my brother T (and maybe my other brother C) to show up. Gonna have a few pints and a meal with him before going home and probably dozing off early-ish again tonight. Stupid jetlag.

  • An update-y thingy

    Since my last post of randomness, a few things have happened… most importantly, Kelly had her graduation for her MBA last weekend. The ceremony wasn’t too long, a little over an hour, however due to the order of events, and our shared last name, Kelly was nearly the last person to get presented with her degree. My mom came into town and sat in the bleachers at Concordia University with me, so it wasn’t just me hooting and hollering when her name was announced, though I’m sure she didn’t hear it. 🙂

    Afterwards we briefly went to the ‘cake and coffee’ event before returning home. We had some friends and family over to celebrate, a bit of a last minute BBQ thing. Had really good time. And congrats (again) Kelly!

    Today we went out to my folks place to celebrate an early Mother’s Day with a late lunch of sandwiches and salads. It was really nice, and there were three generations of mothers there; my grandma, my mom, and my sis-in-law (with my nephew ‘Bart‘, who’s growing insanely fast). My brothers and I spent some time wandering around the wooded three acres where we spent nearly all of our youth running around. We visited the former location of our old tree house (a three-story behemoth that we spent several summers stealing dad’s lumber to construct, which was sadly destroyed during intense wind storms last year) making our way through the now-overgrown paths, and realizing how different the property is now, partly due to some light cedar logging my dad did a few years ago, and partly due to the aforementioned wind storms. It was a nice day too, the weather which threatened rain remained fairly warm and rain-free.

    Aside from that, it’s been a few weeks of intense work, and the usual going out to pubs with Snooks and my brother T for after-work beers.

    Oh, and about one week from now we’ll probably be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Europe. Looking forward to the trip, but the amount of work I have to try and complete between now and then is daunting. Must keep focused on all the beer that awaits me in Belgium. Mmmmm… beer.

  • Hot Chip, and general update

    Hot Chip at Crystal Ballroom, April 2008, 1Wednesday night Kelly and I went to see the great electro-pop band Hot Chip at the Crystal Ballroom. After work we went to Ringlers Pub for some dinner and drinks before the show, where I had a fantastic brew (which I guess is only being poured at Ringlers), called Liquid Friend. It was a lighter ale, with a very balanced flavor (with a very slight citrus/sweet hint) and was delicious. The server said it was his favorite McMenamins beer, and I think I agree with him. It’s at least up there with their ESB served on nitro.

    Anyway, the show started at 9pm, we got in at about 8:30pm, went to the balcony and were able to get a couple seats while we waited for the opening band, Free Blood, who were a kind of quirky. It was a male & female duo who danced around singing to pre-recorded, bass-heavy dance music. At one point I thought I ‘got it’, it’s like some white raver-kid version of old-school rap. Kind of. But in the end, I was like, meh. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. The songs on their MySpace page sound better than they did live.

    Hot Chip at Crystal Ballroom, April 2008, 2Hot Chip however, were fantastic. The whole ballroom became a crowded dance club for an hour and a half. The vibe of the entire venue was good, and even the servers working the bars seemed less hipster-surly than normal. The band played pretty much everything Kelly and I were hoping they’d play from their last two albums. The encore held a couple fun surprises too. First was the hybrid of their track No Fit State and the classic New Order track Temptation, which was a fun surprise (you can watch a version of it here from last year). The second surprise was the band’s choice to finish the show by combining their song In the Privacy of Our Love with Nothing Compares 2 U (the Prince song that Sinead O’Connor made famous). It was really good, and a great way to end the show.

    Now on to the really quick update of the past couple weeks: gone out to the pubs once or twice, had friends over for dinner last weekend (Kelly made pulled pork, and hot damn it was good), been workin my ass off, and I finally booked the last of the hotels for our upcoming trip. I think that’s about it. I think.

    Update: Oh, I forgot something. The weather here has been schizophrenic. It went from warm and sunny, to cold and nasty (it even snowed briefly a few days ago), and now back to being a bit more consistent with this time of year. Sheesh!

  • Summer day, in spring

    Back yardAfter a couple weeks of dark, cloudy, cold, and rainy weather, Portland was hit with a summer-like day, 76 degrees and clear blue skies. I had a few errands to run (picking up my taxes from the accountant, driving to the Toyota dealership to get some warranty work done) and then finally got home and was able to pull some weeds and mow the lawn. I just got back from a trip to the local grocery store, and everybody else seemed to be there for the same thing I was… BBQ fixins and beer. Well, they were there for beer, I have plenty of that. 🙂

    Wonderful day. Too bad it’s not going to last. Oh well. I’m sitting at the table pictured, waiting for a sausage to heat up. Have it with a bit of sauerkraut and beer. Yum!

  • Liver reprieve, and Kelly’s Travel Hell

    After getting a new Keg on Saturday I decided to give my liver a bit of a reprieve. It needed it, even though the liver is evil. However, tonight I’m left on my own (Kelly left for a work trip to Texas for the next 5 nights) and the keg of Terminal Gravity ESG beckoned. I could no longer resist it’s call.

    I’ve been getting texts from Kelly throughout the day, and sadly, she’s been caught up in the American Airlines flight cancellations that have been plaguing airports the past several days. She and a coworker made it to Seattle, planning on catching a connecting flight to Austin, which ended up canceled. As a result, they had to re-route to Salt Lake City, then catch a flight to Houston, where they’ll have to drive the nearly 3 hours to Austin. Last thing I heard is that they weren’t scheduled to arrive in Houston until 11:30pm Houston time. Egads, what a mess!

    Oh, and we learned yesterday that Kelly’s sister and her family are moving to Salisbury, England for the next two years. Kelly’s brother-in-law is in the military, and is getting stationed there (one of four possible locations, most a great deal less interesting) and they are all very excited about it. And so are we, I think we already know where our next trip will be (after the one we’ll be taking next month). It’s probably going to be a very interesting struggle, moving a family of four (including two boys) to another country. However, I’m a bit jealous of the eldest son, he’ll probably turn 18 over there. PUBS!

    UPDATE: Kelly and her coworker have landed in Houston. Now they just face a long-ass drive to Austin.

  • Terminal Gravity, & more Goose

    Today I went and picked up a keg of Terminal Gravity ESG, a very tasty ale. I was going to get Guinness, however there isn’t anywhere open on the weekends that will sell the nitro/co2 mix (known as ‘brewgas’) tanks I need. Apparently I need a 75/25 mixture (75% nitro) to get that perfect creamy texture, and there’s not many places in town that even sell brewgas tanks. Hopefully I’ll get one over the next few weeks and have it ready. I did however stop off at the local brewing supply store and picked up the Guinness keg assembly and the fancy faucet I need. Time to start hunting for a Guinness tap handle. 🙂

    Tonight Kelly and I met friends at the Goose (three weekends in a row, hooray!). Had fun catching up with J & J, and A & Z. The weather was just warm enough to enjoy their covered and heated patio area, and we kind of had it to ourselves due to the crappy weather outside. The whole pub was fairly slow too, so it meant the service was fantastic. Had a great time out.

  • The saddest sound in the world

    Tonight, after spending some quality time with my friends M and T (not to be confused with Mr. T, though if combined, they would surely rival the awesomeness of that infamous bad-ass, foo!) at Shanghai Tunnel, and then heading to my place to sip off my keg, we were witness to the saddest sound in the world… the sound of a dying keg. Never mind the cry of a hungry child, or the whimper of a puppy left outside on a cold night, that “ssshhhhh-ghllghlllghglg” that signals the death of a keg of beer is far, far worse. Especially when it happens before 9:30pm on a Friday. The horror!

    I guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow.

  • Goose, work, beer & travel plans

    OK, it’s been a bit since my last post, here’s what I’ve been up to:

    • Kelly and I have been to the Goose Hollow Inn a couple weekends in a row, first just Kelly and I, a second time with our friends T & Aymie and Miranda. Good lord I love their reuben sandwich. Mmmmmm….
    • Had an afternoon outing with some co-workers last Friday. The development team at SuperSweetCo were given a few hours reprieve to celebrate the the next big release of SuperSweetCo’s flagship app, and were taken to Grand Central Bowl. And despite my embarrassing high score of 86, I had a good time. Oh, Grand Central is definitely the fanciest bowling alley you’ll ever go to.
    • Still digging on the kegerator, my brother dropped by over the weekend, we hung out in my garage (aka: ‘Ryan N Kelly’s Pub’), had pizza delivered, and generally had fun chatting and sipping beers.
    • Kelly and I have been planning another trip to Europe (Belgium and Netherlands, taking advantage of the direct flights from Portland to Amsterdam)… looking forward to another vacation.

    I’ll close with a video I found yesterday, by Trey Parker & Matt Stone (of South Park fame) featuring an audio clip by Alan Watts.

    You can watch more of these here.