Motor has a simple rule about gifts given to him for his birthday: they must cost more than $500. okay there’s a second part to that which is, “it doesn’t have to cost that now.” this makes for interesting presents. he’s got a Newton 2200, a Mac Cube other relics from the past that we all lusted over.

for years his b-day had a specific name. Festival de Motor alternated years between adults only and kid friendly. there’s been trains, skating, casinos, more trains, buses and other trains. he likes trains. here’s a video of that trip on YouTube which not only went everywhere it came with shirts.

anyway. Motor is plus one year!

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the homework isn’t always beer. if you have any kind of a green thumb you owe it to yourself to plant a vine or two of hops. that’s right, you to can grow one of the four ingredients of beer in your own back yard (or anyone elses backyard just be sure to ask first). hops is a vining plant so you will need either a wall, trestle, or trellis for it to climb around. or you can make something less permanent with a two poles and some wire or thick twine. another way to grow is to have a single rope go up the side of your house.

it’s a good idea to grow a few different kinds of hops. that way if one doesn’t make it you’ll have something at the end of the season.

hops needs sunlight and water. it grows fast so it’s fun to see change over the summer. sometime in August or September your hops will be ready to harvest. usually the best thing to do is put them in a kettle of beer. otherwise you have to go to through the trouble of drying them. if you don’t dry your hops they will mold turning brown or black.

just so you know, brewing your own beer with hops that you grew is as rewarding as it gets.

you can get hop rhizomes for a limited time from your local homebrew store or order them TODAY as in RIGHT now from Morebeer Hop Rhizomes.

also check out Grow Hops Yourself for complete details on what it takes to make them grow.

you know that sometimes the only way to get that cool glass or plate is to appropriate it by appropriation. and while the five finger discount seems like a good idea 5 pints into the night there are better ways to acquire loot. like at the Rogue Ales Public House Presidents day(s) garage sale. okay, so we’re pretty sure they really have a garage but they do have a sale.

it runs from Friday the 12th until the 15th. meaning you’ve got time to stop by there before the big SF Beer Week weekend that will have you busy beyond.

Get here!

link

here’s some things that will help you get the most from SF Beer Week. we did it last year and we learned lots.

get the iPhone app if you have that thing. it has a list of all the events. plus it lets you share photos. or lacking that thing the SF Beer Week website has a very complete list of all the events.

here is a nifty interactive map to help you get there.

you cannot go to every single event. don’t even try. by the time this happens there will be over 250. decide what you think is the most fun you can have and do that. you will look at the list with the idea of all of this sounds fun. but the reality is that time will be your limiting factor.

make a plan. decide in advance what you want to attend. and write it down or post it somewhere. that way you can share it with your friends. for example:

5 Opening Gala at the Yerba Buena. 4PM-8PM
6 Double IPA Festival in Hayward. Noon-ish.
7 Beerunch before the @ESBale Stupid Bowl & Home Brew Festival.
8 Triple Rock Sour Beer Festival
9 Triple Rock Barrel Aged Festival followed by the Tionfest at Toronado
10 City Beer Store (noon), Zeitgeist, Lagunitas
11 Paxton dinner. details here. or it's Oyster Fest at Magnolia and Sierra Nevada at the T.
12 Bill Brand Tribute at Drakes 4PM
13 Barleywine at Toronado (Satur-DAY)
14 Brewers Tea at 21st Amendment followed by the Celebrator 22nd Party

if you want to go to a specific dinner or event don’t wait to sign up. do it the second you think it’s a good idea. everything sells out.

don’t do anything on an empty stomach. you really need to eat before you get these events. the idea is that a good foundation will help you later.

plan on public transportation. bart, bus, cab, train, trolly, or designate a driver. please DO NOT DRIVE yourself.

the Toronado is always crowded for these events. if you want a seat get there earlier then the actual event. but don’t just sit there. also remember that “less popular places” are also doing very cool things. two examples: Pi Bar, the new kid on the block, has events almost every night. and City Beer Store has special tastings all week.

it’s not just in San Francisco. events are happening all around the Bay Area. and there’s events happening in the Lower Area as well.

take notes. take pictures. get twitter. get it on your phone. and when you tweet something put @sfbeerweek as part of the message. this will let everyone know what a good time you are having.

take a night off. or make it a short one. you don’t have to stay to the end. it’s okay to go home early.

it’s not all drinking. there’s lots of learning going on as well. check out the Expert Panel series. a beer judging session. homebrewing demostrations. brewery tours. beer appreciation. there’s lots to learn.

the Meet the Brewer sessions are another way of saying “something special is going to be poured.”

drink water. you don’t have to go overboard on this. but have a glass once in a while. you will feel better later if you do.

the Double IPA Fest gets bigger every year. take BART. it’s over by 6. and Pliney the Younger runs out first.

my take on the Barley Wine Festival is to go late. sure, you won’t get to try as many because they sell out. and you certainly will miss the winning beers. but it doesn’t matter as you won’t have to fight. this festival starts Saturday morning. if you aren’t in line by 9 you won’t get in. it gets super crowded, it’s very loud and it gets hot inside. the other thing to do is go with a team. that way you will get to try more because you are committing to tastes not larger pours.

the Celebrator Party is always fun. and this year its back at Trumer! save $10 by getting your ticket(s) early.

just because we’ve listed these specific events doesn’t mean that the ones we missed aren’t awesome. there’s just too much going on. believe us, all of it looks fun and should have our attention.

remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint. it’s a party that lasts for 9 days. 1 more day than the Beatles 8 Day Week. you start to feel the effects of it by the third day. drink less. drink smaller. share what you are tasting.

we did a big wrap up of it on the podcast. here’s the link for it.

I want to thank everyone for making their way to the event that marked the beginning of Strong Beer Month and drinking my first commercial beer. Chad and McDole (of the Brewing Network) were already there when I arrived. and that was just the beginning of wave of all of my friends. Richard from Elizabeth Street Brewing (who has a real fake pub in his basement) brought his kids who helped ring the bell. his beer is really good in double double form. I can’t really describe how all this felt. even hung over like hell it’s still an amazing buzz. I’m sure this gets old at some point. but I don’t know how it could.

here are some highlights: Tasty egging me on that I need to brew more. the girl who lost her mind when I told her I brewed the beer she was drinking. my friends saying “I really like your beer!” and then ordering another one. hearing random people saying “I love this!” and finally punching the “get a free glass score card” for my beer.

I don’t think I took enough pictures. but here’s some of the ones I managed to take.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfoster … 211276221/

and that’s just the first day. there’s a whole month left. GET HERE!

back in October. and more specifically October 8th. the entire gang was hanging out at Pi Bar. the place had just opened so we were all excited about drinking beer and eating another take on pizza. turned out it was a fun night.

it was ShaunO who said, “you know, we really need to brew a beer call Beer School. you can help make it. anything you want to make. seriously, let’s do it!” I was floored, excited and scared all at the same time. and the question “what to make” started pinging around in my mind. oh so many things to make. it was why I was scared.

I knew right off that I didn’t want to make an IPA. a Pilsner would be good but not something I normally drink. Porter, Stout, maybe an angry pale… so many styles. and just one batch.

then I started thinking about 9 years of drinking beer at 21st Amendment. that’s right nine. surely there was something that was a one-off that I wanted to re-create or build on. after a lot of thought I remembered two things that were accidents that would be fun to re-make and re-take.

the first was a beer made by accident was brewed when the Blonde was pouring during the second year of the new ball park. the people from the park were fans of the 21a so they helped get beer in the park. while ShaunO was brewing a batch he go distracted so lots more grain went into the mash. it was later revealed that the beer was 8%. which gave it lots more body compared to the way it normally thin-ness. it was good! it was also the best deal in the park for beer that cost $6.00

last year Jesse was dry hopping the IPA or so he thought. the hops went into the Blonde instead making a beer that got sold as Summer Ale. it wasn’t over the top hops. but it really took the beer into a different direction.

needless to say, neither mistake has ever been repeated. and what was the inspiration for the beer that I wanted to make. that is TWO wrongs make a RIGHT. so that’s what the beer called Beer School is. specifically it’s an 8.5% dry hopped Blonde.

once I knew what I wanted to make I talked about it with Jesse. he said, “we can make that!” so it was just a matter of scheduling when.

the TXT came in the middle of December, “You still want a dry hopped Imperial blonde?” I replied, “yes.” later that day we talked about the beer at the brewery. we talked about the when and what. the hops were going to the be problem. Cascade, Simcoe and Chinook would make it very IPA like. we didn’t want to make a blonde IPA. even held back it might be too much. we decided to defer the hops until brew day.

at last the call came from Jesse. “your beer is on for December 31. you in for a 9 to 5?”

brew day. or actually the night before. I was like a little kid. I couldn’t wait the same way same way that you couldn’t wait for your birthday party, the tooth fairy or the fireworks. I was totally excited.

brew day got me out of bed, onto a bus, then a train and to the 21a at the crack of 9. Jesse was already filling the mash tun with 168 degree water. from there we wasted no time mashing in. you have to pull grain around otherwise it piles up in places. periodically you have to pull grain up to stir it. after it filled it had to sit for a while.

Jesse left me to do all of that. he left me with the task to hook up two valves on the main fermentor, cap a port that we wouldn’t use and hook a red “hose” to the bottom valve. “I’m picky about how the valves go.” was his only instruction. I compared what was already installed on the other tanks then did exactly that. the one thing I noticed was the the wrench to tighten the nut was exactly where I would have put it.

the grain in the mash tun acts like a filter containing all the husks and bits of broken grain. this allows the wort to go into the kettle without lots of contaminates that might make the beer taste off.

the 21a brewery is small and it lacks a hot liquor kettle. this means that a fermentor tank has to be used to hold water heated in the kettle to be used for sparging. a pump system makes this possible. sparging took almost 2 hours slowly filling the kettle with wort.

the emptying the spent grain process is pure caveman work. fortunately gravity is there for the assist. it took six trips to the recycle bin to empty all the grain.

it didn’t take long for the boil to start. my brother Matt got to dump the hops (Magnum) in at the start. there wasn’t anything to do at this point so we all had lunch. an hour later we started a whirlpool and added the other hops (willamette).

Jesse made a stack of valves, visual pipe and clamps that looked like something your could use in a Men in Black movie. this was used to harvest yeast from an existing brew in one of the fermenters. the yeast was stuck so it needed a shot CO2 and water to make it go. the yeast was captured in 12 feet of hose. then this hose was hooked to the pump connected to the kettle so as the beer was used to move the yeast into the tank all in one shot.

about the time the kettle was emptied into the fermenter was when everyone showed up. Motor, Nils, Torstin, Gabby, Phil, Thomas, Matt, Beth, Melissa, Catherine, Brandi and Hallie. about the time when everyone was leaving ShaunO and Stephenee showed up. from there we rolled to Richard’s to party in the Elizebeth Street Brewery until the midnight clock struck the new year.

two weeks later the fermenting finished meaning it was time to add more hops. we talked about what that hop or hops might be. then I smelled them, crushed them, and combined three different hops together to make what we would add. let’s just say that as much as I like the hops in an IPA none of those made it into the beer. all that sat for a while before the beer was filtered.

the beer called Beer School will be on during the month of February as part of the collaboration between Magnolia and 21st Amendment. SF Beer Week also falls during the same time frame.

if you want to come to the release party be sure to watch here for the date and time. you could also email us at info@beerschool.com with the title Get Here and we’ll email the details.

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Stu Stuart has a bunch of trips planned that will take you to all over the country of Belgium. some of the trips are centered around a festival like Zythos or Essen Christmas Beer Festival.

traveling to a foreign country can be a daunting experience. there is so much different and yet the same. and while it’s not at all like trekking to the Congo a guide is a handy thing to have just the same. Stu has run many trips of all sizes from small personal trips to larger bus based tours.

Stu also has classes about Belgian beer. which is a great way to try beer that you’ve never tried without the hassle of traveling.

Belgian Beer Me! Beer Tours
• The Great Zythos Beer Festival Tour of Belgium March 3-8, 2010. Six days, five nights.
• The Ardennes Mountain Spring Beer Tour of Belgium May 26-June 3, 2010. Nine Days, eight nights.
• New! The Best Damn Farmhouse Ale Tour of Belgium & France Oct. 11-16, 2010. Six days, five nights.
The Lonely Monks Trappist Beer Tour of Belgium & the Netherlands Oct. 16-25, 2010.

check out Belgianbeerme.com for a complete list of tours and additional information.

Join us at 5PM on Monday February 1 for the release of Beer School the beer. it’s pouring at 21st Amendment on 563 2nd St (between Brannon and Bryant) in San Francisco.

Beer School (the beer) is a dry hopped Blonde that weighs in at 9.1% ABV. the idea was to take two wrongs and make a right. the details of how this beer came to be will be posted soon.

this is one of the beers featured for Strong Beer Month which is a joint effort between Magnolia and 21st Amendment. now in it’s 7th year with it’s original idea was to do something for the make what is normally the slowest month of the year into something that wasn’t.

anyway. see you at 5PM!

Gabby likes things that Justine can’t stand. And the other way around. Faced with this problem we decided to have them drink beer on the show so we could record their reactions. Bugs Bunny face here we come.

The show is really long, but stick with it. We stay on topic for the entire time. 24 minutes in there are two conversations going on at the zact same time. but oddly because half is in each ear it works. hurray L/R!

you can follow Stewie the Cat on Twitter.

Beer on the Show:
Racer 5
Duchesse De Bourgogne
Pliney the Elder
Green Flash Imperial IPA
Dogfish Head Festina Peche
Lips of Faith series Biere De Mars
Port Brewing Old Viscosity

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because there isn’t anything happening before SF beer week you might be interested in this Sunday afternoon event being held at Ace’s located in the Tenderknob. join the regulars in choosing the best homemade Chili in their 4th annual event. and if the chili doesn’t fill you up there will be free BBQ to go with that.

Ace’s
998 Sutter St @ Hyde

Sunday 31
12-4 PM

Free BBQ

$3 bud and bud light 16oz cans
5 other beers on draft