Days That End in Y

I’m dealing with a quintuple whammy of the Extreme Beer Fest, Beija event, Valentine’s Day, anniversary, and girlfriend’s friend visiting this and next week, so the blogging has been sparse. Factor in all the eBay sales (I’ve been trying to clear my apartment of crap in exchange for needed cash), the purchase of a Wii (that’s why I need cash), and miscellaneous stuff, and I simply have no time. Hopefully, this will all change on Tuesday.

Anyway, if you’re in Boston, then you should be attending the Extreme Beer Fest today and tomorrow! The Alström Brothers of Beer Advocate fame put together incredible events. Unfortunately, this one has been sold out for weeks, but you may be able to find tickets on Craigslist. In the meantime, you should plan for the monstrous American Craft Beer Fest, which will be at the World Trade Center June 20-21 (happily coinciding with my birthday).

There’s also an event at Alibi at the Liberty Hotel on Sunday night 10 PM - 1 AM with Beija. You’ll have to RSVP at info@Beija.net.

In the meantime, I don’t want to leave you completely high and dry with absolutely no booze news. Here’s a couple beer-themed tidbits that I found interesting. The video demonstrates how to melt a beer bottle in a microwave. Is it safe? I dunno. Don’t try it at home? As for the picture, it’s pretty self-explanatory, but it’s a diagram for how to cook beer chicken! Mmm…chicken…I haven’t had lunch yet.

Ah, 6th Annual Winter Jubilee, I already miss you. As last time, the event was somewhat badly coordinated with no floor map available or list of beers, a line that went in front of the food (I made sure to eat beforehand), and lights that very annoyingly kept on flickering the whole time. It was also a bit too crowded, though the crowd thinned out a bit after a couple hours. Plus, most breweries brought a very limited selection of beers. Dogfish Head didn’t bring Randall like usual, Clipper City only had two despite having their whole Heavy Seas banner, and there were only two casks in the entire area.

However, I’m willing to discount most of these problems in exchange for fifty-five breweries all in one place pouring unlimited quantities of beer. I was also surprised at the speed at which I was able to get beer despite the large crowds. There were a number of great beers available, and most were good. There were a few really nasty ones that I ended up pouring out, though, in particular those from a small brewery on the North Shore. Here’s a tip for quickly assessing which beer to try: the hotter the chick pouring for you, the worse the beer. Ideally, you should be drinking beer poured by a fat old guy. I, of course, made the mistake of going to the two hottest women in the place and trying their beers. Not a good idea.

There were actually a few new beers that I hadn’t seen before, too, all of them imports. Unfortunately, I’m having trouble remembering what the heck they were because there was no beer list!!!

This time, we went to the second session, and I’m a bit torn as to whether going to the first or second is better. When in doubt, the answer is, of course, to go to both, but there are time, liver, and financial constraints. Anyway, I think the event was much improved from last year: they got rid of tickets and there’s now a cool mini mug. However, there’s still room for improvement. We’ll see how it goes next year.

In the meantime, the next two major events are the Wine Expo on Feb. 8-10 and the Extreme Beer Fest on Feb. 15-16. Unfortunately, the former is ridiculously expensive, and the latter is sold out. I will be at both.

Photo Credit: Michael Guo

What do you do with the carton after drinking 30 cans of crappy beer? Well…

moar funny pictures

I fell for yet another lolcat, though to be clear, I do realize this is not a cat! I’m not that drunk.

moar funny pictures

Oh, man.

moar funny pictures

Oh, man, I definitely laughed at this picture. It completely caught me off-guard: beer holder.

This is totally not safe for work (NSFW) unless you happen to be surrounded by naked boobies all day.

Fairly early one afternoon in Dublin, I got rather sick of going to museum after museum and walked straight to the Jameson Distillery. There, I got a little sloshed and learned all about Jameson and whiskey distillation.

Arriving at The Old Jameson Distillery

Heading to the front door

JJ’s Bar at the front

Waiting for the next tour to begin

Our somewhat sarcastically excited Irish tour guide

A mock-up of the grain storehouse

Heading to the next part of the tour

Our tour guide describes something about grain

An old harvester

Water wheel

A model of the mill

Millstone—if I recall correctly, this is the one to rub for luck

Learning about step #4: mashing

The big no. 1 mash tun

Learning about washback

Washback No. 1

Describing the distillation process

Stills

Learning about coopering and what happens to barrels of whiskey

The taste test at the end. Unfortunately, I didn’t raise my hand fast enough.

Jameson also has a promotional video of the whole tour along with some pictures and other info. If you have a chance to visit, then you should definitely go! It’s a little pricey, but they make up for it by giving you whiskey.

One of my first stops in Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse where I did the self-guided tour and had a pint of Guinness at the top. Many think the tour is uninspired and boring, but I did enjoy it.

Walking to Guinness!

Yet more walking…

Crane Street Gate at St. James’s Gate

What? More walking?

Some of John Gilroy’s famous ads on display outside.

Finally at the entrance.

Guinness sign at Market Street entrance.

Starting the ridiculously expensive tour.

Ingredient #1: Barley

At St. James’s Gate Brewery, Guinness use 100,000 tonnes of Irish grown barley per year.

Ingredient #2: Hops

Ingredient #3: Yeast

Ingredient #4: Water

Cheesy Ingredient #5: Arthur Guinness

Some sort of control panel

Here, you can pour your own pint or wait until the end of the tour.

Tasting lab

Looking back at the beginning of the tour

Huge display about coopering

Walking among Guinness ads from the last century

Lots and lots of Guinness advertising, mostly by John Gilroy.

Even more Guinnes ads.

Enjoying pints and the view at Guinness’s Gravity Bar at the top.

Guinness’s faithful pouring pints at the top.

Guinness also has their own (much better) virtual tour, though if possible, do it in person! Not only will you get the best-tasting, freshest pint of Guinness ever but you’ll also be in Ireland!