Case of the Mondays...

It was a decent weekend. I ate some good food, drank some good beer, made some (hopefully) good beer, and my niece was born. Normally that would make for a stellar weekend, however The University of Kentucky lost in both football and the opening game of the basketball season. I know this may seem trivial to many of you out there from a place that doesn't take its sports as serious as KY, but trust me, it's a heart breaker. Nothing can ruin a day more than getting up at 2am (time change!!) to listen to the cats play football only to have them lose it on the last drive roughly four hours later. That doesn't let me start the day with a smile....
Anyways! As I was saying we did make some good beer and drink a few good ones in the process. Since Christmas time is just 'round the bend, we decided to brew up a little Christmas ale. We used some good ole chocolate malt, some bitter orange peels (Nate's homemade!), fresh ginger, candy sugar (my homemade!), and the eye of a newt.
Making candy sugar for the first time was a little scary... We got the idea from the internet and decided that it can't be THAT hard. Of course, we took to making candy sugar like a duck does to water, and like lickety split--the candy sugar was made. As I have learned from Nate, more often than not, with a little can-do attitude and some brains, you can make just about anything that you really need.
While making the Christmas Ale, we drank some new beers that we found in Tahara! Two of them were brand new to me, and this weekend was their debut at the Centfare in Tahara. Since the unwritten (but should be written) rule of making beer is that you must be drinking one when you are making some, we cracked open one of the new ones to give it a shot.
The bottle looked inviting and it was a Pale Ale, so needless to say I was more than excited. And, just like so many times in Japan, I was dissappointed. No taste, no hops. If you had blindfolded me, I would have sworn that this was a High Life and I was back with the boys in the apartment in Georgetown. Now, I don't want you to think that I don't enjoy the High Life. The boys at the apartment have been known to buy it by the 30 pack on many occasions, and I will drink it over Bud Light or Miller Lite any day of the week. When the "huntin' cans" came out we bought every 30 pack in stock. But, when paying $4 for a bottle of Pale Ale, I expect to get something better than what we can get for $2 a forty.
Anyway, the Cats play the Tarheels on Tuesday and I am hoping for a W. I'm also hoping the Christmas beer turns out better than expected.... We will keep you posted...

Well crap. I found Bobbitt's picture of one of our tailgating coolers waiting on the ice that was full of the huntin' cans. Now, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that the High Life is a premium beer, but I sure am gonna tell you that I could sit here and drink one right as this very moment.