Kegged: Tommy's Two Stone Porter

It fermented solidly for 1 month, and now it is ready for the next phase. I kegged most of it, and bottled a few bombers for distribution. It won't quite be carbonated & ready to drink in time for Christmas, but it will be ready for New Year's Day, when the Oregon Ducks play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. GO DUCKS!

Tommy's 2-Stone Porter

OG: 1.067

FG: 1.023

Alc%: 5.7%

Final characteristics:

Very dark and malty, with a roasted coffee and chocolate finish. The hops didn't get pronounced nearly as much as I had hoped, but it has a very subtle and earthy bitterness, coming from the Nugget finishing hops.

I'm extremely pleased with how this one came out, and I cannot wait to start sharing it with anyone who will try it.

Cheers!

Tommy's Two Stone Porter

Latest home brew recipe which is currently fermenting for the holidays:

3/4 lb. chocolate malt

1/2 lb. Caramunich malt

1/2 lb. 60L malt

1/4 lb. roasted malt

1/2 lb. dry wheat malt

3 lbs. dry dark malt

3 lbs. amber malt

2 oz. Cascade hops (boiling)

2 oz. Nugget hops (finishing)

1 vial White Labs British Ale yeast

OG: 1.067

FG: ???

Brewed with my favorite nephew, Tommy, in mind. He's nearly 18 months old now, and getting REALLY big. The "Two Stone" reference is to the British weight measurement of "stone". He's a big kid, and I swear he easily weighs 2 stone (about 28 pounds) at only 1 years old.

<- Here's a photo of Tommy & his Dad (my brother)

The brew should be ready for drinking right before Christmas.

VG Art Replacements

Excerpt from a blog I found recently....

"Maybe you're like me and your imagination goes a little kookoo from time to time about a game coming out and you maybe obsess over it for the fortnight leading up to it's launch. You deny yourself any knowledge of the impending title, refusing the numerous morsels of knowledge to be found on the internet with the devotion of an ascetic yogi. Then the day arives and you stride in to the store to pick up your game. THE Game! And the cover looks like it was designed by a drunk 6-year-old."

I totally agree with this sentiment.  This guy has a solution.  Head on over to VGBoxArt.com, and get your sweet new game the cover it deserves.

Case in point.  I've been searching for the game ICO for the PS2 for years now.  I bought it way back in 2001, just after it came out.  I played and finished it twice, and then traded it in for another title (which I think was GTA IV).  I immediately began to regret the trade-in, and have been trying to re-find the game ever since.  On a recent trip to a Game Crazy store, the clerk was kind enough to use their expansive database to track down a used copy.  He found 1 copy in the Lake Oswego store, and my lovely wife made the trip to pick it up.  Victory!

So, I get home last night and excitedly open up the game.  The disc is intact, but no cover art... just that craptastic Hollywood video cover with the name of the game written in sharpie.  I did a quick Internet search, and found the original artwork for the game.  Meh.  I jumped over to VGBoxArt.  Attached are 2 covers for ICO.  One is the original that I remember being on the box (drunk 6-year-old style artwork), and then a user-submitted piece of ART.  One which BELONGS on the cover of this wonderful, award winning game.

Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Sodomy?

Michael Jackson died yesterday.  So did Farrah Fawcett.  Today is a day for playing MJ songs ALL DAY while thinking of Farrah in a bathing suit.

F.U. Facebook

With under a year under my belt for Facebook, I've had enough.  Goodbye Facebook, and all your silly time-wasting ways.  Marking the day.

The 3 worst things about Facebook:

1) Waste of time

2) Too much BS tie-ins with ridiculous apps and polls

3) Too needy 

The 3 best things about Facebook:

1) Connecting with "friends" who aren't really friends.  Because if you were friends, you would already be emailing & having beers with them, right?

2) Uhh..

3) Still can't think of anything.