The joys of fatherhood far outweigh the drawbacks but, man; sometimes kids get in the way of the simplest errand!

So, one year of blog entries down. Normally I need to think long and hard about committing to another year of writing anything, but these blog entries are different for me. I get to say just about anything I want. I get to ramble on about random thoughts, and as long as the topic somehow relates to beer, everyone seems to be OK with it. Cool gig, huh?

I brewed a Belgian-style tripel on Friday and had a great time for at least three reasons: 1.) My friend Dan Dewberry came over and brewed with me. 2.) This was my first brewday of 2012 and 3.) Everything went extremely well. 

It's been about a year now. I'm trying to control it, but with little success. What "it" is is an obsession with brewing a decent hefeweizen. I'm determined to get it right. But I keep getting it wrong. 

Over the past year or so I’ve lost five friends. About one every two or three months and it sucks. I don’t want to bring you down, but every so often I think about those friends and what they meant to me.

I am a novice home brewer.  There I said it.  I am attempting to get better.  Really that’s the crux.  I have brewed off an on for about a decade but can’t seem to crawl out of the beginning stages of my brewing career.  I’ve brewed some decent beers – beginners luck turned my first ever brew, a hopped up Pale ale, into my all-time favorite beer.  But I’ve also brewed some duds and encountered some really strange outcomes – including an oddly sour hefeweizen – I don’t want to talk about (but I will, of course). 

I’m sure everyone that is old to enough to ride a bicycle has been subjected to the overused cliche that patience is a virtue dozens, if not hundreds of times.  During the last 3 months of 2011 I got a chance to test this time honored theory out.  My hiatus from this blog during the holiday season was indeed intentional, as I did not want to burden you with the tedious details about the roadblocks we were dealing with trying to get this brewery going.  Now that we have entered the new year, allow me to make amends and give you the scoop.

I know I mentioned our search for a new location the last time around and the ironic part is that we decided to give it one more try at the original spot.  Our two major issues were the existing septic system shared by the business complex and the inability to sell pints out of that building due to zoning restrictions.  Thanks to the wonderful people at the county office, our wastewater consultant and a coffee shop in downtown Mariposa going out of business, those problems have been solved!  We now have an approved permit for our own leach field and a perfect space to convert into taproom. 

James Spencer and I are happy to announce the next in our series of Brew Your Own/Basic Brewing Radio collaborative experiments. We have two experiments this time, and you can participate in both (or either) by simply brewing a single batch of beer. 

"The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?" -- President Gerald R Ford

People who have known me as a homebrewer for a long time often ask me what I think of professional brewing.