Category Archives: Daily Life

by | April 7, 2012 · 8:33 am

Real Life Begins… NOW!

I’m officially done with my job working for the artist! After the lovely evening at Four Peaks Brewing, we had a windy drive home.
It was an incredibly turbulent drive.
It’s always fun driving through the desert when the road suddenly disappears and all you see is sand blowing in front of you. Not knowing if you’re driving on the actual road or barreling through the desert is such a rush!After we got back, I needed to crack open a beer I’d picked up while in Tempe. Lips of Faith Cocoa Mole – I wouldn’t say I “liked” this one, but it was definitely unique! It had a rich cinnamon and chocolate flavor with a massive punch of spice on the end, and a lasting smokiness from the chipotle peppers. I won’t be getting it again, but I’m glad I got to try it.
Then came work. And lunch at work. I varied between the Taos eggrolls…
… and the seared ahi build-your-own tacos, among many other delicious options throughout the week.
Oh right, and there was work too! We brewed a hefeweizen, I scrubbed out the tank, we added booze to a very special beer…
Rye whiskey in beer – this is gonna be GOOD!
I also made it a point to get out on the trails in my new area. Getting up at 6am isn’t ideal for me for hiking, but since I got one of them “real” jobs, it’s the only chance I’ve got.
And there’s nothing wrong with greeting the sunrise from the top of a mountain!

I’m off to work at Enegren Brewing today, loaded up with some face cookies! I hope you all have an amazing weekend!
Another gem from the drive back home.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

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by | March 27, 2012 · 10:16 pm

Moving On

The move is officially over! The movers were at the house until 11:30pm last night! That would make for a grand total of 15 hours, three calls to the police and a nasty neighbor who turned the sprinklers on, aimed it at the workers and soaked some of our stuff as it was being loaded into the moving van. What a long night it was.
It was incredibly sad to say goodbye to this beautiful view.
And this beautiful little house… Which really needs the roof to be scrubbed down…

Even more difficult was saying goodbye to my wonderful roommates who have been the best living companions anyone could ever ask for! I love you both so much and can’t WAIT to see you in July!
HOWEVER, I’m more than thrilled to be at my new job! Scratch ‘n sniff above to smell Falconer’s Flight hops!
Last week was full of brewing, keg cleaning and filling…
Delicious eats (that would be a burger with BACON and blue cheese IN the patty!)…
Delicious…er fermentation!
And my second to last trip for the artist. We went to Tucson. I got heatstroke. I got pretty rings to make myself feel better. That didn’t work well enough.
A local beer and a trip to the hotel pool, however, worked wonders!

And now I’m off to crash. Tomorrey is full of keg deliveries and pickups, location scouting and a trip to an awesome burger place in the evening!

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by | March 19, 2012 · 4:06 pm

Tan and Tanner

Did you guys enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations? After work at the brewery on Friday, I went to the other brewery to work.
Brie and I fashioned this concoction for those who came in to gear up for St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday. This was our attempt at a “black and tan”. Turned out to be more “tan and tanner”, but everyone seemed to enjoy the Golden Spur Saison atop of the Valkyrie California Alt! We’re creative like that.
The rest of my photos are all from my phone camera. They’re also all of food that I get at Wolf Creek every day that I work. It’s a tough job…
Tri-tip pizza, anyone? NO! Cuz it’s mine! Back off!
One more gratuitous shot of that beautiful parfait I got to sample!

I’m about three-quarters of the way done with the move! Once I’m settled, things on the blog will get back to normal. For now, I spent the day cleaning kegs, checking out production facilities, changing addresses online and doing a whole mess of thrilling things like that. Tonight is Ladies at Ladyface and tomorrey I’m up at 4:45am for brew day!

Loving this crazy life!

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by | March 16, 2012 · 10:50 pm

Growler Giveaway Winners!

Here’s the list of everyone who won a growler: Brent Whitley, Jacob Smith, Johnson Le, Ryan, Christian K, and Darryl the Beerdolt! All the winners send me an email at Becki (at) Bitesnbrews (dot) com along with a reminder of your preferred growler and I’ll get you the info on when and where to pick it up! Thanks for participating and taking the excessive amount of growlers off my hands 🙂

The next few weeks are going to be a little sporadic and random blog-wise! Moving along with working my new job will keep me nice and busy, but I’ll still be updating when I can!

Today we delivered kegs to the Calabasas Wolf Creek Restaurant, took back empties and cleaned tap lines. Hoisting two 15.5 gallon kegs and navigating through a narrow walk-in fridge takes a lot of effort, even when said kegs are empty. My arms are KILLING me. Did I mention my arms hurt? Cuz they do…

I also got to try the pastry chef’s latest creation for the “Brewer’s Menu” which will be out soon.
That would be caramel and banana pudding, a layer of chopped pretzels, housemade Howlin’ Hef caramel, more pretzels, whipped cream, more caramel pudding, more whipped cream and a drizzle of Howlin’ Hef caramel on top. I’ll gladly be a guinea pig anytime!

Sorry for the short post, but my muscles are screaming at me and I need to go pass out so I can work at the OTHER brewery tomorrey – Enegren Brewing Company! No such thing as too much brewery!

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by | March 9, 2012 · 4:39 pm

San Diego Again!

I had an interview in San Diego yesterday and it was getting to be around lunchtime. I figured that I should probably enter this interview with a full stomach to level my head. Enter: Stone Brewing. Again! I can never get enough of either this place, or San Diego in general!
My pops ordered the Oaked Arrogant Bastard. He graciously let me steal a few sips. I love how the oak chips slightly mellow out the bitter bite of hops without really diminishing the wonderful, mouth-puckering IBUs.
Both the beer list and the food menu were quite slim because they’re in the midst of an expansion. A new building will be going up behind the current one, and all the bottling/production will go in there so that more fermentors can fit into the current building.
Luckily, we were able to find a few things to consume, small menu aside. The prime rib melt – so far the best thing I’ve eaten at Stone.
Mushroom pillows – so far my least favorite thing from Stone. The mushrooms had released all the water while cooking and made for a sloppy mess. I like mushrooms at times… This was not one of them.
My mumsie got the duck tacos – sweet barbecued duck topped with fresh tomatoes, onions and sprouts, served alongside spiced rice, beans and corn salsa.
For dessert we split the orange chiffon cheesecake. This was like eating delicious air! Incredibly light, creamy, not too sweet with a perfectly crumbly crust.
After fooding, I had the interview and we cruised down to San Diego for the William Fitzsimmons concert in Little Italy.
A few pictures of that will come later! First, we had to stop by my favorite bar in town: Craft & Commerce.
Both Michael Skubic from Hess Brewing and Jeremy Moynier from Stone Brewing recommended the Up In Smoke. I had to try it.
This is a very, very smoky/scotchy drink! I’ve always been afraid of bastardizing beer, but I’m glad I got this! The sweetness and carbonation of Allagash Curieux along with the tang of the lime juice balance the smoky scotch, with big cubes of ice to mellow the blunt alcohol. This baby is a slow sipper! The real question now is what beer cocktail to try next?
After Craft & Commerce, we sallied over to Anthology and spent the night being lulled into mellow, happy oblivion by William Fitzsimmons.

I needed this vacation. Happy sigh.

Don’t forget to enter my growler giveaway! It ends on Wednesday, March 14th!!!

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by | March 7, 2012 · 8:49 pm

Injuries and Insanity

It’s been a crazy month. I’m sorry, I’ll catch you all up on Monday night, I promise! In addition to packing my room and house, getting smacked in the face with the leg of a 200+ pound couch, pulling a muscle in my leg that makes me walk with a limp and attempting to study for my Cicerone test, I went into North Hollywood to record some ADR for the short film I did so we can start submitting it to festivals.
Luckily, I didn’t have to drive all the way down to Orange for this one. Fancy microphone and a cardboard box with a pillow. DONE! Great to see Scott, my director, for the first time in over a year. Far too long, sir!

I then went home, spent the rest of the day packing, spent all of yesterday packing, spent all of today packing and injuring myself, and sat down to enjoy a Woodcut No. 5 Quadrupel by Odell Brewing. First, I would like to proclaim my complete adoration for Odell. One of my all-time favorite breweries. However…
Worst. Beer. Ever. I’m hoping I got a bad bottle, or that it’s just been sitting too long in my fridge and turned, but this was the worst beer I’ve ever tried. The nose is relatively pleasant – full of cherry and dried currant, there was no carbonation (the cork was wedged in so tightly that I needed my much stronger roommate to help me remove it) and after the first awkwardly sweet sip, a lingering bitter funk remained on the back of my tongue, and grew even more awful with time. I dumped out the ridiculously expensive bottle and poured myself a Little Sumpin Sumpin by Lagunitas. Much better.

So there’s a quick update on why I’ve been so sporadic in posting! Packing, injuries and more packing do not make for exciting blogs. Lucky for me (and for your viewing pleasure), I’m heading down to San Diego tomorrey to enjoy William Fitzsimmons in concert and visit a few breweries!

While you wait for the SD recap, go enter my growler giveaway! If you’re going to be in the Ventura/Los Angeles area anytime soon, enter to win a free growler! FREEEEEEEE!

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by | February 7, 2012 · 3:27 pm

Superbowl Eats

I haven’t watched the Superbowl in YEARS. The last time I recall sitting down for an entire game was when I was living in Colorado and the Broncos were attempting a Threepeat. I needed a distraction on Sunday after the terrible morning and then being in mourning for the little pup, so when the EBC crew invited me to watch with them, I took them up on their offer. And I brought cake.
First, we made sure to overdose on these soft pretzels and relish mustard that the chef at Wolf Creek brought for us. We are the reluctant guinea pigs for his new recipes. It’s a tough job, but somebody we have to do it.
Commander Matt went gourmet on us and wrapped miniature hot dogs in crescent rolls, served with a fancy half ‘n half barbecue/ketchup dish.
Brie went SUPER gourmet and brought homemade carne asada, fried up some homemade tortilla chips and made a huge tub of freaking delicious guacamole. I was uncomfortably full, so obviously I had to bake the cake.
I used one of my remaining coupons from Duncan Hines and purchased the Decadent Apple Caramel cake mix – holy deliciousness. Even though I was stuffed, I was unable to stop myself from eating a huge chunk of this, smothered in frosting. If you’re not up for the slightly more labor intensive Sticky Apple Toffee Pudding Cupcakes, this is a good substitute that also tastes delicious.
Yet another good thing about working with/being friends with brewers is that beer for such occasions is always on hand. We brought back a big growler of Protector IPA to enjoy along with the fancy spread of foods.

Oh yeah, and we watched the Superbowl. That happened too.

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by | January 4, 2012 · 9:47 pm

Draft Systems and Daydreams

I finally put together a study schedule from the master syllabus for my Cicerone exam! My day consisted of this:
Back to Monstas! Nothing like a liquid salad before 9am!
Study, study, study! Today was the beginnings of draught/draft systems and anatomy of kegs and couplers.
Lemony lentil soup with onions and spinach and Hi-5 Fiber bread from Great Harvest with olive oil and fig balsamic. Healthy, healthy, healthy!
All that topped off with a healthy dose of daydreaming.
Escaping back to Monday in Santa Barbara, celebrating my mumsie’s birthday!
Then I got back to studying. Kinda…
Another escape back in time to last week. But that’ll have to wait for another post…

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