Belgium Comes To West Chester And More Tidbits

What more can I say that hasn't been said already? The best local event period. This years edition of BCTWC started a couple hours earlier than last year and that was fine with me. The board looked impressive as always and the lack of Professional drunks who would show up a couple of hours later on the bus from Philly , gave us some time to sample a few of these great beers before they disappeared in record time.

Standouts? How bout some Iron Hill Eddy? The Cannibal aged in a wooden barrel and loaded up with some brett. Ithaca came through with two very smart ones, White Gold and Brute, more funk monsters. Harpoon really showed off it's flying colors with Wild Hibernian 2007, aged in a bourbon barrel and then loaded up with B.lambicus and latic acid producers for ten months and then put into a firkin. Yum, yum, yum. Without a doubt, I had to add to my fiber intake for the day
with a Nodding Head Otay, a lovely Belgian style ale make with 25 pounds of organic buckwheat. Of course there is always a couple more sips of this and that from every body's glass. (no wonder everybody gets a cold this time of year!) A fine luncheon with the Tom boys and the esteem Mr. Curtin and other dignitaries capped off a fine day for yours truly.

Now on a more personal level, a boatload of thanks to all asking about my health these days. I know trying to explain this to people has not been easy, much less trying to write a blog post about my 17 page report that I got back and not have all the folks who read it go, Huh? I shall try my best to put it into layman's terms.

In some other non life threatening news, you may be wondering what ever happened to my follow up stories about the Craft Ale House opening? Well, since I set up their blog, and have been fooling around in the cooler and posting on the blog etc, I wasn't quite sure how to go about this story without seeming........? (Pick your own word.)

Last, but not least, this fine photo (also on Facebook) of a group of somewhat decent people having a drink before they try and knock off Mr. Curtin. They were foiled however by me and the beer board behind them. See ya!

This Is The Day (Part One)

Today at 2:30, I find out part of what my (Many) problems are. I get my toxicology test back. One of the more obvious parts of the tests tells me me how much toxic material I had stored up in my body over the many years of my very illustrious career as a painter. It will also tell me what important minerals I lack or have too much of. Now some of you fine folks may say, "You had blood work done and nothing came back right?" My answer is quite simple, if I had enough toxic stuff in my blood, I doubt I would be typing this right now. I am sure I have bored many of you nice people out there with my stories of woe and my every increasing guess work of what the root cause of all this is. I now know the basics of what happened that sunny day in Rehoboth Beach and in a little while I'll find out the rest of the story.

Who Wants Some 08 Stew?

Ah leftovers. You love em, you hate em, especially when you find them in the back of your fridge 3 months later in scientific experiment. And it looks better to you now, then it did when you first ate it. None the less, it is that time when I must clean out the fridge. I say that every year but this time I really kind of mean it. So away we go!





This extremely rare photo of Mr Ruch outside of Victory was going for $13,000 on TMZ. It is yours free. This was UJ's Lost Abbey event. Lost being the operative word.







This photo was taken at Patrick Mullin's house right after he got the job for Sierra Nevada. Notice the cascading cascades coming out of the statue.





Americas favorite beer reps, Sly Fox's Suzanne and New Hollands Dr.Joel at TJ's 5th anniversary



Last and most certainly least, TROUBLE. Same spot as the last picture. Still very much in rehab, I look the same drunk or sober or for that matter ill. Also a rare picture of Jack standing which doesn't happen to much when he hangs out with this crowd. So, please enjoy 2009 responsibly if possible!