Birthday Season Visits

Blow, boy, Blow!
Originally uploaded by petemorris.

I missed last week's entry and thus have half of October to discuss. Nonetheless, we're still talking about Tony's birthday! Oh to be seven years old. Oh to be young enough to actually look forward to birthdays and then milk them for all they're worth. Seriously, though, we've had a fun and busy couple of weeks. A cub scout pack meeting and halloween party (and thus costume making for Audrey), a beer club meeting (and thus beer drinking for me--life is tough), a birthday party for friends at the local bowling alley for Tony, a nerve-wracking overtime victory for our Cal Bears, weekend soccer games, and then a just-completed week of more visitors from out of town. This included Audrey's folks, with whom we got to spend each afternoon and evening the last seven days, and culminated with a big get-together at our house yesterday (Saturday) that began at Tony's soccer game. In addition to Al and Bev, we got to see and have lunch with Grammo and Woody, as well as a not-common-enough visit with Kari and Eric. Everyone looked well, and it was a nice prelude to more good fun and conversation this coming winter holiday season. On the beer front, I had a successful two-day (Saturday night - Sunday morning) session last weekend during which I bottled the newest, triple-grain iteration of my American "Wheelmen" Wheat Ale, and brewed a rather generic amber ale--just something (hopefully) drinkable for the holidays that would work well with the recycled Wheelmen yeast. (You see, yeast prices just went up, and I figured I might as well save a few bucks; with apologies to Stone Brewing Co., call this new beer my "Cheap Bastard" ale.) Cheers! and Happy Halloween!!

Cousins

A pile of cousins #3
Originally uploaded by petemorris.

Another weekend, another Cal victory (Go Bears!), and another fun Sunday. The highlight was certainly today's visit with the whole crew of Hoereth siblings (my mom and her younger brother and sisters), in addition to several of their kids and grandkids. While not a full-fledged family reunion, it still was a special gathering of folks from three different states, and a rare chance for Tony and Everett to play with their second cousins from Chicago, Caleb and Ian. Throw in some excellent pizza and a lot of fun knocking around the soccer ball (and each other!), and you've got a day well spent. Meanwhile, on the beer front, my triple-grain Wheelmen Wheat ale continues to ferment away and looks and smells promising, and I cracked open the first couple of bottles of my new Century IPA. Carbonation seems to be coming along nicely after one week, but it did attenuate just a bit too much and thus could use just a tad more sweetness to balance out its otherwise appealing hoppy profile. Cheers!

Happy Birthday Tony!

Happy Birthday Tony!
Originally uploaded by petemorris.

It was a fun-filled end to an otherwise ordinary week. The big event was Tony's seventh birthday on Friday! His party with friends will be in a couple of weeks, so the celebration on the actual day was a little subdued. Still, it included a number of fun presents and a dinner-time visit by Grammo and Woody. And Tony being the chip off the old block that he is, escorted us all to a special dinner by the airport at In-n-Out!! Saturday included the usual AYSO soccer game in the morning, with the added new twist of Everett taking his first music class of the fall. The day then culminated in some quality couch time in the evening as our Golden Bears thoroughly steamrolled the Ducks of UO in an absolutely magical display at Strawberry Canyon. Memorial Stadium has never looked or sounded better. With their new golden jerseys, after taking or copying just about every other element of the Ducks' successful football program, coach Tedford's boys appear to have now taken Oregon's mojo as well. Go Bears!! To close out the weekend on Sunday, we spent the better part of the day at a fun community fair of sorts down in the Marina. A Coast Guard helicopter rescue demonstration was the centerpiece, but the real highlight for the boys was their extended play time in some of the biggest bounce houses you'll ever see. Back on the home front, Friday was also a brew day for me. I bottled my long-fermenting-and-dry-hopping Century IPA, which attenuated more that I expected, meaning less residual sweetness than I had planned to balance out what was already going to be a pretty hoppy brew. Even so, it tastes (and smells!) like a promising beer. As for Friday's new brew, it was a revised version of this summer's Wheelmen Wheat, which won a second place ribbon at the L.A. County Fair. To liven it up just a tad, I included a small amount of rye malt in the grist and added some Amarillo hops I had left over from the IPA to the end of the boil. It's too early to tell how it will turn out, but so far so good; indeed, the primary fermentation appears to be largely complete already.

Willkommen Oktober!

Oktoberfest Dancers
Originally uploaded by petemorris.

It was a pretty standard week of work and school and errands to wind up the month of September. Probably the most noteworthy event was Tony's trip to the dentist--the final of three visits in the last month to get some cavities filled. And they saved the worst for last, but Tony was his usual brave self. (On a more pleasant dental note, he also lost his second baby tooth during the week, and the tooth fairy was able to drop by to give him an early birthday gift of sorts.) As you can guess from the photo, we closed the weekend today with a trip to the Oktoberfest celebration down in Torrance. The boys were pretty tired, but we all had a good time--even if I was the only family member to actually do the chicken dance. I was also the only family member to drink a full liter of beer; I wonder if there is any connection? Speaking of beer, no brewing this weekend, but the boys and I did stop by the homebrew shop to get ingredients for a wheat beer I plan to brew on Friday.