08/08/2005

Republican beer money spells trouble for Democrats

Whoa. The title sounds political, but this blog is supposed to just be about beer.

It seems that Anheuser-Busch Co. wrote a $5,000 check intended to reach the Missouri State Republican Party, but for some reason it was addressed to the Democratic Party, who gratefully accepted and cashed the check.

Dems refunded the check, but not before Cons threatened a lawsuit.

Definitely, some oversight occured on this one. My understanding is that only Republicans drink Budweiser.

I'm certain that many upstanding Democrats could tell you that us stuffy, uptight liberals only drink microbrew. Democrats should never have accepted the check to begin with. Instead, it should have been sent back where it came from, rejected solely on the basis of the flavorless bread-water it stands for.

Maybe I'm too liberal. Or perhaps I'm just spoiled on the great beers we have here in the Northwest. In any case, it's a sorry piece of news, and I'm amazed to find it made front-page of CNN.com when more important stories, like the whole Robert Novak flap, are nowhere to be seen.

You can read the full article here:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/08/08/sc.beermoney.ap/

David

Posted by Dave at 08/08/2005 11:23:43am
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08/07/2005

The Fermenator Arrives, at last

Lately, I've been getting further and further into homebrewing. My custom brewing stand, which consists of three welded kegs, pipes, plumbing, metal tubing and more, is still being built by a local welder. Once complete, it will enable me to brew up 10+ gallons of beer at a single time, with results rivaling the big boys.

Where to ferment all that beer? Enter the Fermenator.
http://www.fermenator.com/

They come in several sizes. I chose the 14-gallon version, which I now understand is "only" good for 11.2 gallons at a time, but so what? It arrived this past Saturday by Fedex in a nice box. One part - the ring seal - was slightly bent, and one of the 90-degree 1/2" threaded pipes has some rough edges on the thread, but other than that, this thing arrived intact and ready for brewing.

Advantages of the Fermenator become obvious almost immediately:

• It can be pressure sealed, locking out any infection or odd things you don't want to get into your brew.
  
  
• Its conical shape means the sludge settles out to the very bottom of the tank and is easily separated from the good beer.
  
  
• Two spigots on bottom means the bottom one is for sludge and yeast drain-off (so you can actually harvest yeast for additional batches), while the upper one (with an internal swiveling racking arm) lets you suck out the very purest of your brew from the tank..

Posted by Dave at 08/07/2005 2:04:29pm
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