SheBrew! I Judge!

Is it required that one drink a homebrew the night before they get to go judge a homebrew competition for the first time? I hope not, because I don’t think I have one in the house as I type this up.

That’s right, I got invited recently to be a judge (under the helm/wing of at least one BJCP judge) tomorrow at SheBrew! This appears to be a relatively new competition in Portland, Oregon, and I know the organizers have worked hard to make it big and awesome. When I last logged into my judge page, there were 92 entries processed for tomorrow.

Thank goodness there’s no world in which I’ll be expected to try all of them!

Two snapped in half hop cones positioned in front of a small notebook with a red pen inside it.

I will be there tomorrow judging beers within a few categories, but I don’t yet know where they’ll put me.… Continue reading →

Recipe for the Best Shower

I love showering, but I very rarely take a long shower. The water waste is just too much for this New Mexican’s heart. Yes, even though I live in the Pacific Northwest now (and I don’t know if I will ever be dry again). Clean, fresh, temperature-controlled water on demand is a hell of a luxury on its own. I can enjoy it in under five minutes and feel delighted.

But I won’t deny, there’s something glorious about a long, hot shower. So, on rare occasion, I take one. And today? Today I finally figured out what might be the best shower ever. Better than that? It’s repeatable. A must for any good scientifically-trained person trying to find “the best.”

Ingredients

Music from Tegan and Sara
Music from Enslaved

Almost blisteringly hot water

An appropriate plastic glass.… Continue reading →

Beer and Are There Four Kinds of Peppercorns?

Or, at least, that is what I told the nice folks over on the Brew Happy Podcast. Black, green, white, and the not-really-a-peppercorn-but-tastes-similarly pink. Also, it looks like I was wrong and there’s other kinds of peppercorns out there! I shall have to investigate further!

I got a last-minute invite to be on the show, so I’m glad it came together. It was a lot of fun, but you can probably tell I was very nervous (especially at the beginning) when you listen to it. Also SPOILER ALERT we never did quite get to it, but if I just had one “pizza beer” (which is INCONCEIVABLE to me) in Portland, Oregon it would likely be Occidental Kölsch.

Anyway, go check it out.Continue reading →