The Story of the Forgotton Homebrew

Digging through my fridge today, way in the back I found something. A bottle of the blonde ale I brewed last fall. This beer was designed by me to be similar to many of the Belgian blonde ales such as Leffe, usually I only let my beers that I brew condition in the bottle for 4 weeks or so but this one must have been forgotten about from the night we thought we finished them all. Being a lover of beer though and not having any other beer in my fridge I decided I would give it a try, couldn’t be too bad. So I opened the bottle and poured it into a glass in order to make sure it still had a good aroma, and to make sure nothing weird had happened with it.

The unopened bottle, nothing unusual, I guess that’s a good thing.



As soon as I opened the bottle all that I got was a ton of foam that did not stop, this was the result of my first attempt of pouring.


Eventually it settled to make this good colored but pretty cloudy beer. Looked the same as I remembered it from before though, so far nothing bad.


Smelling the beer I could tell it was a homebrew, had that distinct smell than any homebrewer would recognize of a homebrewed beer made with malt extract (don’t have my equipment to do an all-grain brew yet). I could notice the hops through the smell but the rest was masked by the homebrew scent. This brew I made a little hoppier than most blonde ales would be, because I was craving a nice hoppy beer at the time, and wanted to see how it would turn out.

The taste was not as bad as I expected, though little true flavor remained, was more of just a bland beer with a decent body, and a strong hop finish. I cannot say it was my favorite, nor was it as good as it had been before, but I easily was able to finish every last drop in the glass. Moral of the story, when you homebrew, drink the beer while it is still good and do not forget about it.

Beer Myths

After going out both days this weekend and talking with some people who don't know their beer at all I feel that it is now my responsibility to dispel some myths about beer.

1) Beer makes you fat, causes beer belly etc. - Being lazy and eating more calories than you burn makes you fat. Because beer contains calories you can gain weight from drinking it, but so will energy drinks and Gatorade. Beer itself does not magically make you get a beer belly, being lazy and sitting on the couch all day while drinking beer does.

2) Beer should be as cold as possible to taste best - This is only true if you are drinking cheap, watery, crap beers. If you drink good beers, most of the time chilled but not cold is the best way to drink it, drinking something that is ice cold masks flavors, and in the case of cheap beer that is a good thing. But when you have good beer being that cold will hide some of the complexities and good flavors. This is also the reason why frosty glasses are one of my biggest pet peeves.

3) Dark beer is stronger than light beer - This is not true, though there tends to be that correlation. My favorite type of beer, a Belgian tripel is usually brewed to about 8-10% ABV but is a very light beer. The same goes for heavy beers being stronger. Budweiser is a pretty dark and heavier beer than most wheat beers, but the mircobrewed wheat beers are usually much stronger alchol-wise.

4) Beer kills brain cells - Simply not true, as proven by an austrialian study, because I am sure nobody beieves me, here is a link to the story. Beer not so bad

There so I hope I have at least dispelled a few myths that tend to bug the shit out of me when people argue with me about them being true. Now I hope that you will never be one of those people. Feel free to share the myths that bug you the most.

Busy Week

I haven't had much time to write this week, next week should be better. Over the course of this week I have received a job offer, moved back home from school, and have gotten a lot of unfinished projects done.

But today is Friday, which is always one of the best days of the week. It is also a good time to head to the bar or wherever you like to go and have a nice brew. Then have another nice one, and then maybe you can move to the cheap stuff for the next 5 or 6 beers. However you choose to celebrate your Friday, just have a good time. I guess safety is the generic thing to say next but the only thing I care about is having a good time, with friends or whoever you choose to have join you. And enjoy your beer and have another to me.

Top 10 Best Drinking Games

Drinking games, we all love some of them and hate others, I have played many and will share my list of the top ten with you. Please feel free to comment or add your own list below, I would love to hear your opinions.

10) High/Low - Easy game, pretty boring but gets a lot of consumption in a short period of time. Good to fill short gaps of time when you want to do something.

9) Suits - Another card game that can be fun for a little while but can not be played for too long, good game though if you want to screw someone over.

8) Quarters - Classic game that is quite fun, especially if you are good at it. Either way though this is one where you have good active participation by everyone.

7) Kings - This game is also known as waterfall often and probably more names in other areas. This game is good when you have group of people and want a game with a lot of drinking but is still pretty chill.

6) Presidents and Assholes - This is a game with many other names as well (Asshole, P&A, etc.) and I personally am not a large fan of it, but it is a good game for a group of people. Also it is very easy to be good at if you actually concentrate on it.

5) Shotgun Racing - Always something guys like to do, and I still believe that nobody can beat me. At least no frat-boy who though he was badass has beat me yet, or anyone else for that matter.

4) Power Hour - Good one for drinking with friends, I have mentioned this before in a blog post as well, as it can be fun when done with others to have a good time.

3) Flip Cup - This is a good game, everyone has fun usually and it is actually a good way to meet people due to the "bond" you tend to make with your teammates.

2) Beer Pong - Probably expected to be #1 but I will disagree with that, though it is an awesome game and thus it is understandable why it is featured at almost any house party you go to, it isn't quite perfect as it can take too long, and not too many people can play in a night.

1) Drinking Darts - Darts is only really an example game here, what is really meant by this is drinking anything. Wii bowling, darts, croquett or any other individual group game is perfect, you just choose the game and decide stakes for how much to drink related to what you place in the game. Makeing and adjusting the rules is half the fun, and the game never gets old because you just make it up on the spot and it they tend to get changed every time you play. Also unlike other games, when the game is about drinking you never really have arguments about the game because no one really cares. If you disagree just everyone drinks, problem solved.

If you are unfamiliar with any game here then I would suggest going to the wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_games and you can learn about them there, it would just be too long of a post to explain all of the rules in a single blog entry

Happy Mother's Day

Haven't gotten around to posting in a while, the last week for me was quite hetic with finals for school, moving back to my home for summer, and then getting an interview and job for the summer.

My mom is one of the first people that I drank a beer with. I started drinking with family a few years before it was "legal" for me to drink (I put that in quotes because I disagree with a drinking age in general, especially the age of 21 that we have in this country, will post on this topic another day though). But family is one of my favorite drinking groups and my mother is no exception. I grew up with her drinking beer around me (never heavily) and now I drink with her occassionally. And for today being mothers day I would like everyone to reflect on how their mother's have effected their drinking lives. Sometimes they are companinons, sometimes they dissapprove, but regardless, they are still the women that brought us into this world with a love for beer.

Top 10 Best Drinking Songs

There are many good songs about drinking, and many good songs not about drinking that just sound good when you drink a beer to them. The following list is the top 10 songs I associate with drinking, feel free to share yours in my comment section.

10) Kiss - Rock and Roll All Nite Ok so I could put any Kiss song on here almost as all of them are great party songs (except Beth) but I will choose the Kiss anthem for this list

9) Billy Joel - Piano Man Different kind of drinking song but at the bar with this one comes on, everybody feels good and at a party every guy in the place feels the need to sing when he hears this one.

8) Journey - Don't Stop Believing Song isn't really about drinking, but everybody loves it and it is a great addition to any party's playlist.

7) Buckcherry - Crazy Bitch I could say their newer song about drinking (Too Drunk to F***) but I like this song better and believe it is a better song, both are good additions and make that crazy party feeling.

6) I've Got Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks Another song that everybody loves to sing to and enjoy while drinking, even the people that hate country like this one.

5) Gin and Juice - Snoop Dogg Most rap songs are not necessairly the classics of the party mix but most have them on it, this song is one of the exceptions and is a song that acts as more than background music at the party.

4) 40 oz To Freedom - Sublime All Sublime songs are just, well, sublime to drink to. Out of pure topic of the song I will choose the one about drinking fourties.

3) Black Rock - O.A.R. I could also say Crazy Game of Poker, but this song has much closer connection to me, reminds me of the "black rock" that me and my friends used to drink at in HS, many good times and times learning about drinking.

2) Fight for Your Right - Beastie Boys Great song about how sometime (especially when your young) it takes work to party, but you always find a way anyway, because regardless of what they teach you in school with all the anti-drinking propaganda, its just that fun and completely worth it to have a good time with good friends.

1) I love College (Michigan State Remix) - Brilliance As a spartan myself I am forced to have this song as number one, it takes that song that we all hate after the first time we hear, and makes it feel great, at least if you have every experienced MSU in person. I have included a video of it below for you all to experience it.

My experiences blogging thus far

So I have been working on creating How to Drink a Beer for a few months now and as a change of pace I would like to reflect on my blogging experience. It has been more difficult that I imagined to get visitors to my blog and get my name out there. I have followed many guides on how to get more good traffic and have found little luck there. My problems may stem from my blog being more of a niche blog but from what I read those will still get a steady stream of traffic if you work at it. All in all I think I could just use some advice from people that read my blog. Please leave me comments letting me know how I could improve and what you think that I could do to get more traffic, I would love to hear what you have to say.