Shout out to Public Glass, a facility where the public can take classes and attend workshops on glass blowing. At their holiday party a beer glass came with the admission. Hand blown beer glasses, start your collection today!
Stay tuned to their website, http://www.publicglass.org as there will be more events in the upcoming year.
Have you thought about brewing and haven’t done anything about it yet? On average, it takes 2-3 years of thinking about brewing and talking about brewing before actually brewing. Somewhere down the line you either (1) run into someone who brews so you help them with some stage of theirs and learn from them, or (2) you stroll on into SF Brewcraft and we hook you up with a starter kit complete with recipe and proper instructions. And a free class taught by Griz.
You may be surprised at the superior quality of your beer, or you may have expected the best already. Brewing will relieve the stress from the other areas of your life and reconnect you with history while simultaneously creating a happier future.
All the mice are out crawling around the CO2 tanks. Beyond Jazz on the stereo. New concrete out in front. Big thank you to EF Gomez for the one day sidewalk. Bring in your wheelchairs for a test ride!
This is harvest time for all the stone fruits as well as wine grapes. If you ever wanted to experiment with fruit wines or regular wines, now is the time. This year’s growing season was perfect, and the horn of plenty is overflowing with all kinds of sweet goodness.
Pick one (or two or ten) of your favorite fruits and ferment them out and see what happens. You will more than likely be very happy with the result. It’s easier than you think.
Went to see the Giants tonight. They have it all figured out. In between batters and innings there is always a song appropriate for the moment, mostly songs from the rock world. If you polled the general public to see how many AC/DC fans there were, what do you think the percentage would be? Go to a Giants game and they are blaring out the AC/DC at everybody.
What is AC/DC’s favorite beer? Do they really drink Foster’s at home or do they drink Young’s Ales from England? 300 days on the road for 20 years, maybe they don’t even drink anymore.
Somebody knows the answer to this question. Joey D, the Human Trivia Machine? Joe O’Keefe? Joey Oey? Someone somewhere is playing Van Halen right now! Believe it.
Yea to the Giants. Beer is $8.25 per plastic cup. Sorry Walter. At that rate, you could buy the recommended half glass kit to brew your own beer at home for the cost of 12 cups, not counting tips for the beer or tax on the kit. Barry Bonds! I need the ball breaking record breaking ball.
Please support your local baseball team, futbol team, hockey team, basketball, badminton, brewers, all the b sports. Please support your local musicians, dancers, theatres, artists, merchants.
One more example of trying to feel good without making any changes whatsoever. A desk chair today with an oversized glossy tag stating how the chair was constructed with “green” foam. The quotation marks are there on the green-colored tag. “Green” foam, the tag explains, is foam made from recycled materials that would have otherwise been sent to the landfill.
No mention of the pleather used to upholster the chair, or the source of the metal frame, or the plastic caster rolling wheels, or the screws used to keep it all together. Just the “Grren” foam, and an oversized tag providing all this information and a little bit more. How the manufacturer, along with the purchasers of the chair, are greening the world, “one chair at a time.”
Oh doesn’t this make you feel good about your new purchase? For about one second until your brain wakes up and you question any of this nonsense. How long do you suppose these chairs will last? Will our grandchildren be recycling them into new “green” products? The quotes once again because if it was beyond question the quotes would be unnecessary. Where do the boxes the chairs were shipped in go? To the landfill or to be recycled again and again?
This barely even qualifies as critical thinking. No piece of brand new furniture purchased for $59 can be realistically expected to last very long. So this rolly “green” foam swivel chair will not find its way into the landfill for a few years beyond when the foam padding alone would have been dumped, presumably. Way to go Earth People!
Quote for the Week:
“The stage is now set for direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles, and the world’s 2 billion poorest people.”
Lester Brown from the Earth Policy Institute speaking at a briefing to the US Senate two weeks ago.
SOLUTION OF THE WEEK:
Feed The Hungry At The Gas Pump
* Automakers roughly doubled the fuel economy of cars between the 1970s and the late 1980s. In other words, the “know-how” has been here for a long time.
* Over the past 20 years, automakers have used advancements in technology to add more than 800 pounds to the average vehicle and nearly double horsepower, while fuel economy has declined. Be smart about what you drive.
* The grain required to fill a 25 gallon gas tank with ethanol would feed one person for a year. Every time you fill your tank, think about biking, walking, mass transit or just relaxing at home.
* Next year, 30% of U.S. corn will be used for ethanol. Instead, the same amount of fuel could be saved by increasing average fuel efficiency by just three miles per gallon. Let your Representatives and Senators know that you support strong fuel efficiency standards and a wholesale conversion of U.S. transportation, utilities, and agriculture to renewable sources of energy.
Remember, printed letters currently count as 10,000 voters who feel the same way and don’t write, phone calls count for less, and emails count for about 10 disenfranchised voters. Print some letters today!
Has everyone seen the band shell in the Panhandle? It could be temporary or it could remain in place, or be moved. It is so well constructed it deserves a permanent home. It is even wheelchair accessible. Reduce Reuse Recycle. The water bottle backdrop is the only part that would budge even an inch in an earthquake. All those lag bolts may outlive the painted ladies.
How about the big head in Golden Gate Park? Pretty unnerving the first time it peers out! Viewed from the Rose Garden it looks like a purple yurt. The Hayes Valley Miniature Golf? Always a new piece of city history to learn. The two rustaceously curvaceously ladies on the Embarcadero… Life is ever changing.
Burning Man is bringing it home and making everyday life more interesting. Some people will look at the bandshell and see the performance, others will see the car hoods, others the wood, the chalk on the sidewalk. Enjoy it every day!
Congratulations Alberto Contador! Team Discovery won the Tour in an unusual fashion this year and it is perfectly fitting that it was a youngster who represents the future of the sport. Certainly Disco was the strongest team, placing three riders in the top ten.
On the last day of the Tour what do we get from the Chronicle? Profiles of the kayakers who will be attempting to catch the home run ball hit by Barry Bonds. Fascinating news, thank you for such wonderful coverage. No matter though, this was the day for all the riders who survived this year’s race to ride into Paris and celebrate the fact that they made it. Many didn’t, and some dropouts were better publicized than others.
After three weeks and over 2,000 miles of racing, a mere 23 seconds separated first place from second, and just 8 seconds between second and third. What an odd race this year, with so many scandals and whole teams being ejected, vampire riders drinking blood to gain some sort of advantage. Where will it end? Will it ever end? Fifty years ago caffeine was the drug of choice for many athletes, cyclists included. Now science has changed the way athletes attempt to gain a competitive advantage, and science is also providing new tests to detect these substances in the body.
If any of the other sports decide to test their athletes as rigorously as bicycling we may see some interesting results. Until then we have endless speculation and flat denials and no proof one way or the other. And probably more well paid guinea pigs than we can imagine.
In the meantime we can toast a beverage of our choosing (homebrew is the obvious choice, but any beverage will do) toward France and honor the riders who survived the 2007 Tour de France. A gigantic Thank You to the sponsors for another exciting race.
Everyday is a Good Day for Wine Equipment
Anybody with perplexing wine problems or questions please address your questions to Tucker online including your phone number and he will either write you an answer or call you up. While we’re on wine, the prices of wine equipment have gone up quite a bit because the Euro is really high against the dollar and most of the wine equipment comes from Portugal or Italy.
We now have in stock two brand new motorized stemmer/crushers that we are asking $450.00 for. During the wine season these will cost $600.00 plus. We also have one manual stemmer/crusher suitable for small wine crushes(1000lbs of grapes or less) for $300.00. These will go up in price by Aug 20th.
For you wine makers out there, we have both Lalvin and Red Star wine yeast and all the wine making chemicals, acid test kits, SO4 titration kits, refracto meters, etc. Remember to start getting ready now for the season because once it starts sometimes it’s to late. Be sure to call or email Tucker with any questions.
We have gotten the wine vinegar mothers back in stock and they are $10.50 for a little chunk of mother if you excuse the expression.
GoodFella
Anybody that comes in and talks to Eric with an Italian, New Jersey or Rhode Island accent will get 10% off their order.
Bon Voyage
This is a big congratulations for Griz’s life long friend Steven Schain who just retired from 30 years of being an outstanding and influential English teacher in Durango Colorado. Steven, I Love Ya. Enjoy your retirement.
The new employee of the month here is Andre Sanchez. You will recognize him when you come in. He’s the big teddy bear who I think looks like Bluto. Andre is truly one of the nice guys in the world even if he is a total mess.
Recipe of the Month
In the spirit of the Dog Day’s of Summer, on those afternoons when nothing can be more pleasing and stimulating than a “nooner” or also called an “afternoon delight”, we offer Andre’s Libido Ale, a beer that is sure to stimulate your erotic yearnings. Drink one before you start and one after your finished, then do it again (if you catch our drift).
“Andre’s Libido Ale”
* 5lbs Dry wheat malt extract
* 2lbs Belgian 2 row
* 1/2lb Oats
* 1lb Honey (not included)
* 1tsp fennel seed
* 1oz Styrian Golding
* 1oz Saaz
* 1pkg Nottingham dry yeast/ one vial California Ale liquid yeast
This beer is best drunk ice cold and has a slight hint of licorice flavor (caused by the fennel seed) which sweetens the breath and cleanses the mouth.
Further directions will be included with the recipe.
Your Thoughts
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We wish you all a very happy and fun summer. Enjoy it!
Cheers!
The Crew
