Beer and Knitting

Heaven, I'm in Heaven........

There is a new group that just formed here in Raleigh that combines my 2 favorite pastimes, beer and knitting. It is a group called Carolina Flyers and we meet at the Flying Saucer in Raleigh. Yup, we meet a beer tavern, drink beer and knit. How cool is that? (when was the last time/first time you went to a bar and there was spinning wheel there?)

I went out for the first time last Sunday and had a blast. I got there about 1230p and did not get back home until about 9p! And no, I did not knit the whole time. I knitted for about 3 - 4 hours and the rest of the time was spent talking with the other folks in the group. The most we had there was 11 people, but it dwindled down to 4 of us for the last couple of hours. Which is just perfect for me. Any discussion with more than 4 or 5 people and I tend to turn into a wall flower.

Weekend Wrap-up part II

After the Great NC Wine Tour, the Marquise and I decided to head on out to the American Brewmaster store in North Raleigh to get some supplies for our first attempt at brewing beer. (Yes, it was an alcohol themed weekend.) The Marquise and I had been thinking about trying out hand at brewing beer off and on for almost a year now. This past December we decided we would give it a real try. I had been looking online for some brew kits. Trying to decide which way we wanted to go, what we wanted to start out with. All that kinda stuff. Well, one day last week I decided to check craigslist, just to see if maybe there was anything there. Lo and behold, there was a home-brew set up that had just been listed! And they were asking 50 bucks for it. I could not resist, it was a good deal. It has 2 plastic buckets with spouts (5 and 6 gal), a glass carboy, a bottle capper and caps and some other odds-n-ends.
So after our great foray into the world of wine we decided to continue the alcohol theme and get started on our beer. We found the store with no problem, even though I thought it was on Glenwood when it was actually on Stoneybrook (BIG difference). If you have never been in a beer brewing supply store, let me tell you it is a wonderful experience. It is worth a trip just for the aroma! We found a beer mix that we thought we'd like (its an Australian beer, of course). Bought some other odds-n-ends and called it a day. The next day, Sunday, I headed over the the Marquise's new place for our first foray. Everything was going great until....... We miscalculated on the volume. The kit makes about 23 liters of beer. Well, that translates into just over 6 gallons. We, naturally were working with the 5 gallon bucket, not the 6. We quickly cleaned and assembled the other bucket and started working with that. Unfortunately, we did not check to see if the spigot was on tight. It was not. It started leaking. We decided to transfer about 5 gallons to the smaller bucket, since we knew that was OK. I didn't want to transfer back and forth, so we left the wort in the smaller bucket. We transferred the remaining to a pot, fixed the 6 gallon bucket and then put it back in there. So we now have BOTH buckets with beer. A full 5 gallon and an almost empty 6 gallon. Both hopefully fermenting away. I don't think the 6 will work because of all the head-space there (to much oxygen). If this works at all, it will be a minor miracle.
According to the Marquise, the buckets seem to be happily fermenting away. We will see what happens. We bottle sometime this weekend or Monday. I'll let you know.......

Williamsburg Scottish Festival

Well, The great Marquise and I made it to the old homestead and the Williamsburg Scottish Festival this past weekend. We left on Friday around noon and had a really nice drive up there. The weather was perfect for driving and the traffic was good, until we hit 664 and 64. We ran into the normal 5 o'clock Friday traffic that started at about 4. All in all, not that bad. The original plan was to head on out to the Yorktown Pub for dinner and drinks Friday evening. Unfortunately, the Pub has had its liqueur license suspended for 30 days, so no drinking for us. We asked the server how much more time they had left and she said 27 days. They had just started their suspension. I kinda feel for them. The place was empty. We ate there and then walked around the Yorktown waterfront for a little while and then headed into Newport News to Keagan's pub. My mom had said that they have music every Friday night there. The place was busy. The beer was not so good. The Marquise and I both ordered Smithwicks. When they arrived, they were .....horrible. I don't know if it was old beer, stale beer, flat beer, or just plan bad beer, but it did not taste like Smithwicks. I am fan of Smithwicks, so I am familiar with how it is supposed to taste, and it should NEVER taster like a cider, or even remotely fruity. The Marquise kept hers, but I sent mine back and got a Guinness instead. The Guinness was a little on the "robust" side, even for a Guinness, but it was much better than the Smithwicks. Keagan's did have music. The band was good, the singer was not. All in all, not a stellar night out.

Saturday afternoon, we went back down to the Yorktown water front and walked around a little there before heading on up to the Yorktown Victory Center. I had been there before, but it was several years ago. I had not realized that they had expanded the facilities a lot. We went out to see one of the reenactments (firing a mortar cannon) first and then went inside to see the "museum" part. We went in through the back door and so actually started from the end of the exhibit. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why none of this seemed in the least bit familiar to me. It wasn't until about 1.5 - 2 hours later that I realized what was going on. Of course by that time, we were tired and heading out the door for lunch.

Just an aside, the next time someone says that previous immigrants were quick to learn English as their new "native" language, there is an exhibit in the museum praising the German immigrants of the late 1700's for managing to keep their native language and customs. There was even a German language newspaper that circulated throughout the colonies. Something to make us all go Hmmmmmm.

Saturday night, we meet up with my brother, his wife and my nephew to head on out to the music festival. One rule: if you drink the "harder" beers, don't order first, or at least watch what the rest of your party is ordering. I was the first to order and everyone else kinda followed along. I ordered a porter. I ended up finishing my brother's beer, my nephew only managed to drink about 3/4 of his and that was over about 2 hours. My sister-in-law finished about half of hers before throwing in the towel. We got there at about 7p and heard 4 bands. The first 2 were not very good. The would have been fine for "daytime" gigs, but I would have preferred something a little more exciting for the evening shows. I was worried that the rest of my family would not really like the experience, and I think that was true of the first half. They seemed to enjoy the second half a lot more. The last two bands, Rathkeltair and Albannach were very good. I had never heard Rathkelter before and was quite impressed. They have one of the most talented bagpipers I have heard so far. Albannach gave probably one of their best performances I have heard this year. Actually, it was the best by far this year. The only better was last year at Tir Na Nog when I first heard them.

A Great 4th of July

Well, all, I had a really good 4th of July holiday. I was able to spend the day with two great friends, Meg and the Marquise.

I went over to Meg's place that afternoon. She recently adopted a very pretty kitty she has named Gustav (I'll see if she'll let me post a picture of Gustav). Her father is somewhat of a tinker and built her a kitty condo. Now, her father lives several states away so he dissassembled the **** thing and mailed it to her. It is my job as the resident testosterone generator and repository to put this kind of stuff together for her. So, I loaded my little bundle of joy, AJ (a 85 lb goldendoodle) and off we went to Meg's place. You kinda need to know that AJ's experience with cats is that he chases them and they run away from him. He has never gotten face to face with a cat before!!! (I knew this was gonna be fun) I really have to give Gustav a lot of credit, he (all 2 lbs) stood up to AJ very admirably. Needless to say, it turned out that AJ was relatively well behaved and Gustav finally decided he was OK and started to "stalk" AJ's tail. Well, in between AJ wanting to be petted/played with and Gustav wanting to play with AJ's tail, the kitty condo was finally assembled. I DO NOT certify that it will stay assembled, but it is assembled right now.

So after performing my responsibilities and assisting the damsel in distress, we went out for lunch and parted ways.

That evening, I met up with the Marquise for dinner and drinking and Hercules Mulligan. We decided to eat at Carraba's Italian Grill (mostly because it was next the Hibernian). Neither of us had been there before, so it was a new experience. I was not the brightest bulb in the restaurant that night. I have mentioned before that I am in the process of getting braces (read the post below), well, my teeth still hurt. Friends, do not eat a house salad with carrots and celery when your teeth hurt. Very Bad. Very, Very Bad. However, the entree was great, the salad dressing was much better on bread than on the salad. The sangria was good (a bit expensive) and the Marquise made damn sure that every drop was poured from the pitcher.

After dinner we walked down the road a bit to the Cary Hibernian to cheer on our favorite band Hercules Mulligan. The beer was good (Paulaner Heffe-Weisz), the band was even better, the irish carbomb (Guinness and irish cream) sucked. The beer is not something I would really want to drink all the time, but it was good for the evening. It didn't get upset that it had to share a room with sangria, if ya get my drift. The band was really good last night. We had a really responsive crowd and Chris K. was determined he was gonna have a good time and determined the rest of us were gonna have a good time also. He started off with a rousing rendition of "Star Spangled Banner". I can honestly say that I have never been in a bar before when the anthem was sung. It is a lot more intimate than at a ball game with 50 or 60 thousand of your closest friends. And finally the carbomb, oh the carbomb. Just say no! Every once in a while you come accross a concoction that just doesn't work. A half/quarter pint of Guinness and a shot of irish creme just don't mix.