40764205

I work in a Brewery. We specialize in organic Northwest Ales. I get to work with great folks who enjoy what they do. (Well there is one prick that no one likes to work with) My average work day used to be drinking coffee and hanging out with my buddies while making beer. Now that I am the head brewer I get fuck-all done. Every time I start a thought I get pulled away from what I am doing to answer questions or fix problems. I am lucky to have good fellas working under me. They get alot of work done and care about what they are doing. because of them, I get alot of pats on the back. Because of my obsessive nature I find my job very challenging. One of my favorite past times is still home brewing. Working in a brewery you work with other people who have opinions about how the beer is to be brewed. The customers expect a certain flavor from there favorite brew ECT..... At home I can brew What ever I want. If I want to brew a traditional European lager and age it for 3 months, I can. I can brew beer my way. I don't have the bottom line to worry about or equipment limitations. My favorite biers to brew are German and Czech (Bohemian) lagers. Lately my home brew focus has been to brew the same recipes over and over, making slight tweaks trying to get my possess and the recipes really dialed in. I enter my home brew in homebrew competitions. This gives me unbiased feed back from trained beer tasters. When you give a homebrew to someone they might decide it is substandard because it is made in a garage, not a brewery, or they might love it for the same reason, they might know fuck-all about beer tasting, they might not like it because they don't like you. When entered in comp. these things play no rowel in the judging. In comp the judges look for flaws and judge the beer according to style guide lines. Most of them are trained and know what they are doing. Judges credentials are posted on your score sheet so you know how experienced they are. I enjoy cooking and have started roasting my own coffee. Coffee is best @ 24 hours post roast to 5 days. The aromatics of fresh coffee are really something special. I have trained in martial arts on and off since 2000. I have trained in Boxing, Muay Thai, Grappling, Danzan Ryu jujutsu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I have found the older I get the less I like to get hit, so my focus has become grappling/BJJ. I had to take a year off of training due to a torn ACL. I had surgery and am working my way slowly back to the level I was at before the injury. I like to go target shooting on the weekends. I mostly shoot pistols. My favorites being my SW1911 and my SW M-66. I like to build stuff. I built an AR-15 carbine from components; I have made lots of stuff for the home brewery; a magnetic stir plate for yeast propagation and a motorized mash mixer I am always tweaking something on the home brewery. I built a motorized coffee roaster but am still getting the bugs worked out of it. I like to cook and to eat GOOD food. I like to watch the food network. I have the best girl friend in the whole-world who I have been with since 2002. When I come home at night the only person I have to be is me. I don't have to be someone I am not to make her happy. She has put up with me through the ups and downs of my life. She is always there for me. My family and friends are the best you could have, even if they love to piss me off. My Pop and my uncle Ken are always there to tell me how fucked up I am, and set me strait. I have over 150 beer glasses, most with logos on them. They are on special shelves all over my house. The collection just seems to keep growing and growing. I have a special fondness for the 1 liter Bavarian mass. I spent 10 days in Germany in September of 06 and really want to go back. Next trip I plan to be in Europe for 3 weeks. I want to spend some time in Austria, the Czech Republic and of course Germany. I am still trying to figure out how I am going to make it happen….. Prost!!!