Day 2, Monday 09.15.08

In the Amsterdam airport, we imbibe some STRONG coffee to wake up a bit. Strong. No amount of sugar could cut through the bitterness for Kimberly. Chris likes his coffee strong and black, and even he was choking it down with some difficulty. 9:20am flight to Brussels.

Delayed.

Are you shitting me? At least it was delayed just a half hour, so at 9:50 we board the plane for the short jaunt to Belgium.

Newsflash: everyone in Europe smokes. Like a chimney. Like a four-alarm fire. We wait in line at the taxi stand amidst the throngs of Europeans smoking like they're about to face a firing squad. Cigarette butts litter the curb. A blue haze hangs in the air. Add to this the bonus of a colder than normal cold snap and these two Americans wonder just what the hell they're getting into.

We finally get to the front of the line, and enter our cab. A spacious black Mercedes. Funny. All the cabs were Mercedes. Even with the "no smoking" decal on the dash, the cab reeked of cigarettes. A mini-tour of Brussels from the cabbie resulted in our arrival at the Queen Anne Hotel at noon. Our home for 4 nights that we nicknamed the "Charlie Brown hotel" or "the little hotel that could". Our room was not much larger than a dorm room. Tiny. But quaint. We enjoyed our stay, but giggled at the simplicity of it all.

First on the agenda: a nap. 4:30pm we wake up and freshen up. What to eat for dinner? Chris (of course) has plotted out some beer-centric spots to hit that also serve food for the non-beer-drinker Kimberly. First? A little 30-minute saunter over to a place called Le Bier Circus. One of Chris's travel bibles, Tim Webb's Good Beer Guide Belgium, listed the hours as open on Mondays. We finally make our way there and....closed. Seriously? Closed Mondays. But, but, but, the book says you should be open!!! On our way back, we pass a little place that looks like "The Pie Hole" in the ABC television show Pushing Daisies, (just look at the picture!) but their menu is mainly seafood and Kimberly's not in the mood.

We stumble upon a spot that is also in the Belgian guide, A La Mort Subite, "sudden death". A Brussels "dive" and beer hall. We stop in anyway, and Kimberly has some more strong coffee; this time it's tasty. A free chocolate treat with the java! Kimberly likey. A big thing in Belgium is the "sausage and cheese plate", so we got one. Delicious salami, sharp cheese, tiny pickles, and little round white onions. Yum! Kimberly even tried a beer. Not just smelled it. Tasted it. Imbibed it. Drank it. A kriek (lambic beer on cherries) that she found most delicious. Even garnered a "I would drink a whole one of those" comment. It helped that it tasted like a wine cooler and not so much like beer, but it was a positive beer experience nonetheless.

After A La Mort Subite, we walked towards the main square and had our first official Belgian waffle from a stand. So warm and delicious. If we lived in Brussels we would be 350 pounds each on a steady diet of warm delicious Belgian waffles. Wow. And the mind-boggling selection of toppings! Yum!


We then make our way to the "Grand Place", the town square where the government buildings and guilds are housed. Gorgeous. One of our travel guides says to visit at night to experience its grandeur lit up. We didn't read this tidbit until after we did it. What a sight. Beautiful. Our first day in Europe, pretty much awake continuously for over 24 hours, a long long time outside of our little nap, was successful. This is going to be fun!

Day 1, Sunday 09.14.08

The time is here: our anniversary trip to Europe. Hooray!!!!

Our neighbors the Andersons are gracious enough to drive us to the airport. 2:41pm flight out of Greensboro on the first leg of our journey.

Delayed.

Shocker. Seemingly every flight we take in or out of this town is delayed in one way or another. This begins to wear on Chris as there is a mere 45 minute layover in Newark to hop over to Amsterdam. When it comes to time, Chris is a nervous traveler.

We finally leave town, and arrive in Newark just in time to go directly from gate to gate. 5:15pm and we leave the states. A large jet: 3 seats-aisle-4 seats-aisle-3 seats. No one sits next to us in our little 3-seat home for the next 8 hours, so we can stretch out a bit. Books and iPods and a nap kill time as neither in-flight movie, Made of Honor and Sweet November, interest us in the least. Gag.

Monday morning local time, 7:20am, we touch down in Amsterdam for a 2-hour layover. Our first experience on an overnight flight.

Surprise post from Germany!!!

It's been a little rough waking up today. Something about drinking with South African battery salesmen at Munich's Hofbrauhaus yesterday afternoon. AFTERNOON. Whew, schnapps too? Stop buying me liters of beer! LITERS. Yikes....

Anyhoo, just a quick note one week into our adventures to say we are doing fine. Wearing out the soles of our shoes on all the cobblestones. And to keep warm, Kimberly had to buy a warmer coat and Chris bought a green felt hat with a feather in it. Ja. Das is gut.

Chris sent a teaser email to some of his beery friends bragging about some of his acquisitions in Belgium. Brugge specifically. Remember this post from November 2007? http://thehouseofgordon.blogspot.com/2007/11/best-beer-in-world.html

Well, it seems the "gray market" of retail sales is alive and well in Belgium as it was in the U.S. Observe:

The best beer in the world, encased in protective sleeves to keep them comfortable during transport back to Greensboro. Score.

It's 7:58am now, 1:58am back home, so it's time to shower and catch the train down to Mad King Ludwig's castles today.

Prost!

Find something else to do online while we're away

[Edit: never mind the whole "Saturday, September 13, 3:54pm" time stamp, there's a glitch and Blogger has defaulted to the time of the last post. It is really Sunday, September 14, 2:28am]



Sadly for our gaggle of loyal readers, we will be on hiatus for 2 weeks. The time is nigh. Belgium and Germany await. We may or may not blog in our free time across the pond. Frankly, I'm guessing "not". We'll be taking the laptop with us anyway to download our gobs and gobs of photos (and surely there will be gobs) taken to free up space on the camera....for gobs and gobs more. We're also bringing it in hopes of finding wi-fi over there...if only to make our weekly football picks and set our fantasy football lineups for Sunday 9/21!!!

In the meantime, we may kick around the idea of guest blogging. A sample, from brother Duke:

Since you will be gone for such a long time; and there are ones and ones of us waiting for your next blog to get us through our day; I propose you have a guest blogger during your absence. And I am just the man to do it.

I can offer two packages: Regurgitation of conservative, hate mongering rhetoric taken from talk radio. Or...I can also recite liberal biased news reports from the New York Times and MSNBC.

I can also mix in reports of the music scene. Here in Ohio, we have both kinds: Country AND Western. (For Chris, I can even throw in some Red Dirt).

I will give the latest reveiws of shows on Disney Channel and The Weather Channel. (The Can Man on the "Double E" is a regular.)

I will show pictures of my latest trips. Trips to Kroger...Trips to school...and trips to swimming practice...all with colorful commentary equal to or less than what Chris and Kimberly give us every day...or couple of days...or weeks...whatever.

You just give me the okay...and House of Gordon will continue during your absence as it always has...kinda.

Love,

House of Gor(Duke)don

I'd put it to a vote for all 5 of our loyal readers, but as Scully hollers at Moulder repeatedly, "There's no time!" It's 2:00am and we're staying up as late as we can tonight to be as sleepy as we can be on the plane tomorrow. Never done an overnight flight before. Should be an interesting twist to our internal clock.

In review...

The Gordons:





















In Belgium:





















Then Germany:





















That is all.

See ya!

Vacation preparation today

Today was the Foothills Brewing Oktoberfest celebration from 12:00pm to 2:00am. Sadly, we could not make it for the entire time. In any event, it was a good time to prepare and practice for German foodstuffs, brews, and hot big-breasted babes in dirndls.

I mean, come on:



















Anyhoo, knockwurst, bratwurst, spaetzle, red cabbage and apples, saurkraut, warm German potato salad, apple streudel. Yum! Tasty food at the buffet and malty, nutty Foothills Oktoberfest lager to wash it all down. A nice afternoon to warm up and prepare for the real deal in Munich in a few short days.

Talk of the Nation: Science Friday - lager beer yeast

As you continue to read about our increasingly annoying excitement, we are going to Germany soon, the land of crisp yellow lager. (What??? Really? You don't say. I never knew.....) NPR's daily afternoon progam Talk of the Nation turns nerdy (nerdier) on Fridays with a special edition called Science Friday. Today's episode that ties into yet another Germany trip reference?

Beer Yeast Separates The Ales From The Lagers

Listen to the 17 minute portion here.

Talk of the Nation, September 12, 2008 ·
Different types of beers — ales, stouts, etc — are distinguished primarily by their yeast, but now these groupings might get even more complicated. Scientists have examined the genetic sequences of 17 unique lager yeast strains from breweries in Europe and North America, tracing variations in their genetic code back through time.

Guest: Gavin Sherlock, assistant professor of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine

In the world of beer, ales are separated from lagers by their yeast. Lager yeast collects on the bottom of the fermenting vessel and ferments sugars into alcohol at lower temperatures that ale yeast, which operates at higher temperatures at the top of the fermentation vat. In new research published this week in the journal Genome Research, scientists examined the genetic sequences of 17 unique lager yeast strains from breweries in Europe and North America, tracing variations in the genetic code of those yeasts back through time. The researchers found that a key hybridization step, in which genetic information from two different yeasts combined and rearranged to yield a new 'lager yeast' organism, may have actually happened twice. The researchers found two different family groupings in the lager yeasts they studied, with one lineage associated primarily with Carlsberg breweries in Denmark and breweries in what is now Czechoslovakia, and the other family grouping connected mainly to breweries in the Netherlands, including Heineken. In this segment, we'll talk with one of the authors of the study about genetics and beer, and about the genes behind lager beer styles such as Pilsners, Märzen, Dortmunders, and Bocks. Cheers!

Why return to Républica Dominicana in February 2009?

As you may know or may have read on these very pages, Chris went on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic last February. He is returning this coming February. Recent hurricanes have battered the island, with flooding finally occurring after Hurricane Ike. Flooding will only bring about more disease, distress, and general uneasiness to Barahona. How could a return trip NOT be taken to help out in any way possible?

Here are some of the places Chris went to 7 months ago, and what they look like as of just a few days ago. Click to enlarge.

Come waste your time with me

We're both getting very excited for our upcoming Belgium/Germany excursion!!!! A matter of just one more weekend to get through and we are GONE! There's no other person I'd want to dawdle around Europe with than with Kimberly. So, in a flurry of sentimentality, Waste, this beautiful song by Phish (left-leaning hippies in Marvin the Martian t-shirts) warmly expresses how Chris feels tonight and always. And what better locale than Germany for this video to be recorded? I love this song. Come waste your time with me in Europe, Kimberly.



Don't want to be an actor pretending on the stage
Don't want to be a writer with my thoughts out on the page
Don't want to be a painter 'cause everyone comes to look
Don't want to be anything where my life's an open book

A dream it's true
But I'd see it through
If I could be
Wasting my time with you

Don't want to be a farmer working in the sun
Don't want to be an outlaw always on the run
Don't want to be a climber reaching for the top
Don't want to be anything where I don't know when to stop

A dream it's true
But I'd see it through
If I could be
Wasting my time with you

So if I'm inside your head
Don't believe what you might have read
You'll see what I might have said
To hear it

Come waste your time with me

So if I'm inside your head
Don't believe what you might have read
You'll see what I might have said
To hear it

Come waste your time with me

Smile and grin at the change all around

Thought about posting the angry Olbermann Special Comment from last night's Countdown program.

Thought about posting some dreary recollection that can only re-open a wound and not allow it to heal.

Thought about posting something angry myself.

Then I thought, why not just post a thrilling performance from the 9/11 Concert for New York featuring one of Chris's all-time favorite bands. Yes, of all-time. Let these old geezers show the whippersnappers how it's done. And just look ahead to the future and allow the healing to continue...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

OK, so for a matinee today, the new computer-animated Clone Wars movie was the recipient of expendable income. Heard some ups and downs concerning it; but hey, it's Star Wars and the flock must pay alms to the feet of George Lucas. The trailer looked promising:



The differences were vast. Warner Bros. was the parent company of this one, NOT 20th Cenutry Fox. So no famous drumbeat, horns, and strings to introduce the film. That was a little strange. No John Williams involved with the musical score, but rather a Kevin Kiner who bastardized the main theme, along with rearranging other Williams-ish numbers to suit his own liking. (And yet the music in the trailer above is strictly Williams. Odd.) Meh, not so impressed. And finally, no crawling synopsis floating off into the distance; no "It is a period of civil war..." type notes. Instead, a cheesy Gary Owens wannabe announcer giving a little background to why the hell we're fighting a war in this film.




The Separatists need open space lanes near Hutt territory, if they could sway the Hutts to prevent the Republic from traveling through, it would seriously dampen the Republic's ability to reach the Outer Rim. A scheme is hatched to kidnap Jabba the Hutt's son and blame it on the Jedi, thereby bringing the Hutts to the Separatist cause. Anakin receives a new Padawan learner, Ahsoka; an anorexic orange girl in a tube top who brings the most annoying character to the screen since Jar Jar Binks. No mention is made of Ahsoka in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith so she surely leaves the scene sometime soon. I can already not wait for her to die a grisly death and be removed from the Star Wars Universe. A couple of her gems: Jabba's baby boy is nicknamed "Stinky". Anakin is referred to as "Sky Guy". The venerable R2-D2 is referred to as "Artooey". She must go down, and she must go down hard.

Being such a huge Star Wars fan did not save this film from being dull and drab. The battle scenes were exciting, with more computer-aided starships and blasts and whatnot like the "regular" movies. But once you put a human on the screen....crap. Utter crap. Might as well have put wooden marionettes on the screen. No flexibility, no movement, no flow. It's almost as if the animators WANTED to take a shortcut and make an awful looking film when it comes to humans. Clone troopers, space scenes, dogfights? All fantastic. The human element? Drivel. Crap.

Infuriating.

The animated (i.e. actual cartoon) series on Cartoon Network from 2003-2005 was superb. We shockingly have the entire series on two DVD's. "Modern" animation with free-flowing body structures and exaggerations like elongated necks. But this movie....this was a travesty. Sadly, the weekly cartoon series that starts October 3rd will feature the same type of computer animation featured in this film. I'm just not a fan. Wooden marionettes.

That being said, we'll still set it on the TiVo Season Pass and record every episode. Why? Because we're junkies. Lying in our own filth in a back alley somewhere begging for more Star Wars. And our dealer George Lucas laughs all the way to the bank.

For the movie? This 1 hour, 40 minute trailer for the upcoming TV series? It garners a low, low House of Gordon score. A Wait for HBO score. Disappointing.

Trent Reznor...twice in 73 days

August 22, 2008 - Cleveland, OH
November 3, 2008 - Greens-freaking-boro, NC !!!!!!!!

The day before the presidential election. I can only imagine what he'll have to say...

More tour dates were added to the tour, and some The Spiral fan club seats went on sale at 5:00pm. A glitch in remembering our online MusicToday ticket sales password resulted in some sucky seats for Greensboro: Section 109, Row B, seats 1-2. Row B!!!! Oh the humanity.....

Somehow we'll muddle through.

Inconsistent beliefs.

This is about a week old, but it was searched and searched for this afternoon. After reading the comments concerning Fox News's "centrist" and "non-politcal agenda" rumblings in the "MSNBC, i.e. pansies" post below, some points needed to be brought to light concerning the mouthpiece of the Grand Old Party.

Palin's outstanding governor qualifications, vs. Kaine's paltry governor qualifications.

Palin's pregnant daughter left alone as personal matter, vs. Spears teen pregnancy a result of pinhead parents.

Gender cards, victimizations, disrespectful family attacks. Oh my!

Consistently inconsistent, these righties are...

NIN pictures from Cleveland.

Finally.

08.22.08, Gund, er, Quicken Loans Arena. Row 1, seats 9-10.

Fuzzy, hazy, frankly crappy pics from Kimberly's phone. But anyways, you get the perspective we had during another awesome NIN show: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21177580@N08/sets/72157607193311917/

Two official pics from Cleveland on the NIN Flickr site:

MSNBC, i.e. "pansies"

MSNBC, the left-leaning network and home of Keith Olbermann, has sent Mr. Olbermann to his room and removed him and Chris Matthews from hosting political news events. David Gregory will now host debate nights and election night from behind the desk. Pressure from the "liberal media" such as Fox News and coexistent whining from the Republican National Commitee resulted in this change. Call the waaaaaaaaambulance. Too bad Keith was never a P.O.W., that seems to soften any criticism and can be used as a constant rebuttal to the naysayers.

The skinny:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jlhzoRPoTjgeV9vNrGXaMN2AUGLwD932MSBG0

MSNBC says Olbermann, Matthews won't anchor
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of political night coverage with David Gregory, and will use the two newsmen as commentators.

The change reflects tensions between the freewheeling, opinionated MSNBC and the impartial newsgatherers at NBC News. Throughout the primaries and summer, MSNBC argued that Olbermann and Matthews could serve as dispassionate anchors on political news nights and that viewers would accept them in that role, but things fell apart during the conventions.

Gregory, the veteran Washington hand, will anchor MSNBC's coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates and election night, network spokesman Jeremy Gaines said Sunday. The change was first reported by The New York Times.

The tipping point appears to have come during the GOP convention when Olbermann criticized MSNBC for showing a Sept. 11-themed video prepared by the Republicans.

MSNBC executives, who had publicly defended their anchors' roles while privately monitoring them throughout the political season, made the change over the weekend after discussions with Olbermann. Despite the controversy around him, Olbermann has been a hero with left-leaning viewers and keyed MSNBC's growth among coveted young viewers.

During her acceptance speech last week, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin talked about the "Washington elite" not accepting her qualifications for the job. Some delegates on the convention floor began chanting, "N-B-C, N-B-C."

Olbermann began to have difficulty keeping his opinions in check, or simply stopped trying.

He sarcastically dismissed GOP pundit Pat Buchanan on the air after Buchanan said the Republicans had been enlivened by the entrance of a conservative Republican.

"Those reading US Weekly with the picture of her and her youngest daughter with the word `scandal' written across it won't be so happy," Olbermann said.

He expressed little sympathy at another point when GOP anger at rumors over the Internet about Palin were being discussed.

"We'll see if people feel sorry for unfounded rumors on the Internet," he said. "If that's the case, Senator Obama's probably standing up and cheering and waiting for people to feel sorry for him."

Perhaps most embarrassing, Joe Scarborough was discussing positive developments in John McCain's campaign at one point when Olbermann was heard on an offstage microphone saying: "Jesus, Joe, why don't you get a shovel?"

Scarborough, a former Republican congressman and host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," got in another nasty on-air exchange with MSNBC reporter David Shuster, and Matthews snapped at Olbermann on-air when it appeared Olbermann was criticizing him for talking too much.

All the drama made MSNBC a punch line when top NBC anchor Brian Williams appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" last week. "Is there no control?" host Jon Stewart asked him. "Is it Lord of the Flies?'"

A sheepish Williams said that every family has a dynamic of its own.

"But does MSNBC have to be the Lohans?" Stewart said.

Olbermann was in Denver during the Democratic national convention, but performed his co-hosting duties for the GOP convention in a New York studio. NBC President Steve Capus said the decision was not political, that Olbermann had been sent back to anchor coverage of Hurricane Gustav.

MSNBC's decision comes just before Olbermann's "Countdown" show is set to air, on
Monday, his interview with Barack Obama. That will put Olbermann in direct competition with his nemesis, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, who interviewed Obama last week and is airing a portion of it Monday in the same 8 p.m. EDT time slot.

Bite the hand that feeds you, MSNBC. As Keith vocally proclaimed his opposition to the current admnistration, his (and the network's) ratings rose. This demotion, along with the double standard of righties spewing vitriolic hate and lefties criticizing the administration but the righties keeping their place within the "liberal media", is mind-boggling.

Nothing is more patriotic than dissent. Grow a spine, MSNBC.

Trent Reznor speaketh

9-8-08: Short Break

I'd like to thank all of you who attended the first leg of the Lights In The Sky tour. If you missed it, check the schedule - we'll be playing through the rest of this year. If you've seen it, come back - we'll have some new tricks up our sleeve on this next leg. We're very proud of this show and it's been exciting (and quite the challenge) for us to present it to you.

Oh, and it was quite a surprise to get back home, turn on the television and discover we've apparently won the war in Iraq! Yeah, some woman from Alaska said so - apparently that troop surge was all we needed! That's good news, because I was starting to think all the shame and embarrassment I've felt as an American citizen traveling abroad the last few years wasn't going to pay off in the end. Now I can rest easy knowing we've successfully spread FREEDOM - AND we've stopped evildoers in their tracks.

Nobody wants anyone preaching their opinions at them - particularly a musician - but PLEASE get involved and pay attention to what's happening during this election and try to see through the clutter to the substance of what is or isn't being said.

Wouldn't it be great to feel proud of this country for a change? Seems like it's within reach.

OK - I got it out of my system. Thanks for reading.

posted by Trent Reznor at 7:24pm

The Night of the Iguana

Saturday night was the first performance in our 2008-09 Triad Stage season pass schedule: Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana. A ramshackle hotel on the Mexican Pacific coast near the jungle in the early 1940s hosts a vertiable gaggle of folks down on their luck: a widowed hotel manager, a defrocked minister, a hopeless painter and her 97-year old poet grandfather. The only characters having a good time here were actually German vacationers celebrating radio reports of the burning of London during the Battle of Britain. Two Mexican "hotel boys" capture an iguana from the jungle, tie it to the hotel, and fatten it up in hopes of slaughter and a good meal. The iguana lurches against the rope, making a grinding, sanding noise. The iguana is at the end of its rope, what is its future? And what of the characters and their respective ropes?

A little long. Chris enjoyed the first act, but not the second. Kimberly was exactly the opposite. And least we both agreed dinner at 1618 West Seafood Grille was delicious beforehand.

Apfelwein

Not really a "brew" day today, but more of a "ferment day" in the Gordon household. One of the online homebrew forums Chris frequents is homebrewtalk.com, a message board on all things homebrewing-related. There is an enormous thread on there concerning a German hard cider called "Apfelwein"; literally, "apple wine". Apparently quite tasty and ridiculously easy to make.

But first, a little meat smoking along with the faithful vermin, one of which has been going deaf for quite some time now as you can plainly tell from the video. A hefty pork tenderloin with a spicy rub on it and apple juice in the smoker's pan. Apple juice and pork to complete today's theme.



So, on to the apfelwein. We are going to Germany very shortly, and this easy recipe figures to be a nice "welcome home" beverage to remind us of our trip once we return. The skinny:

Five gallons (that's right, FIVE) of 100% apple juice. Earth Fare in Greensboro was the destination to get some pure organic apple juice. Then it was a trip to Triad Homebrew Supply to get two pounds of dextrose. Generally, in homebrewing, 3/4 cup of dextrose is utilized right before bottling to "prime" the carbonation within the bottle. This recipe uses a whole two pounds. Also, from Triad Homebrew, we got a packet of dry wine yeast. Either Red Star Montrachet or Lalvin K1V-1116 can be used. Then just for shits and giggles, 4 cinnamon sticks would be added also. The recipe Chris had did not call for cinnamon sticks, just as a garnish if warmed when consumed. So why the hell can't we add it to the 5-gallon carboy? Poof! Chris tinkering yet again.











One-half gallon from each of two of the gallon bottles are poured into the carboy, then 1 pound of dextrose is added to each of the half-empty apple juice bottles. Shake like hell to dissolve. The juice froths up a tad with all the sugar in it and all the shaking. The pour everything in the carboy and sprinkle in your dry yeast packet.

Add your 4 sticks of cinnamon directly into the carboy.










Then it sits for 6 weeks in the carboy (in this case, right next to the Maple Pumpkin Ale settling out). The carboy is filled pretty much to the top with no fear; there won't be a huge head of krausen rising up to overtake the carboy and pop the airlock off. Just a simple film of bubbles involved. After 6 weeks of sitting, we carbonate as usual with 3/4 cup dextrose and let it sit in the bottles for 3 weeks to bubble up.




Easy.

Should be a good "cold winter's night by the fire" beverage later this year.

Pop the Cap, as we know it, is no more.

Sadly, the final Pop the Cap beer dinner occurred while we were in Denver. A huge chapter comes to a close. The evolution of a grassroots campaign to battle stereotypes, religious fervor, and ignorance has come to an end. The official Pop the Cap organized movement is no more.

However, as with all ends, there is a beginning. Sean, our fearless leader, is taking the plunge into opening a brewery. Sites, names, and cities were all discussed and entertained in the past. Soon, something concrete with bricks and mortar and big shiny stainless tanks will come into being. And finally, an official name: Fullsteam Brewery.

A local brewery utilizing all local ingredients [edit 9/4 "when possible"]. I'll be interested to see how this plays out. (Sean, if you ever need a gallon freezer bag of Gordon-grown Cascade hops, I'm your man.)

The story:
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1193808.html

Beer lobbyist group disbands

Founder Sean Wilson has built network of brewers, will open his own brewery

After 5 1/2 years heading a beer industry advocacy group called Pop the Cap, Sean Wilson of Chapel Hill is disbanding the nonprofit group and moving on to a new beer-related venture. Wilson started Pop the Cap in February 2003 to lobby the state legislature to drop the law capping the alcohol content of beer at 6 percent.

In August 2005, the group succeeded, when new legislation went into effect and cleared the way for craft beers -- speciality beers brewed in small batches -- to have higher alcohol content.

Since then, Wilson, 37, shifted the group's focus to improving the state's beer culture and raising awareness of craft beer, dubbing his new effort Pop the Cap 2.0.

But, "it turned into a hobby, and I'm not a hobby kind of guy," he says.

Besides changing the state law and offering North Carolina brewers more flexibility, Wilson and Pop the Cap connected the state's brewers into a network that didn't exist before, said Robert Poitras, owner of the Carolina Brewery, with locations in Chapel Hill and Pittsboro.

"He was really our quarterback," Poitras said. "It's been good for the whole North Carolina beer scene."

Now Wilson will help out with the newly founded N.C. Brewers Guild and is working on opening his own brewery in Durham.

Wilson's establishment, called Fullsteam Brewery, will focus on "Southern agricultural brewing," using local ingredients and grains.

Though a specific site has not yet been selected, Wilson said the brewery could open within nine months.

"There's still a lot of work to do [for the beer industry in North Carolina], but we need to be more politically organized, and I can't do that," he said. "I'm just a beer fan. It's time to move on."

sue.stock@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4649

An exciting adventure to say the least! From the Fullsteam website, here's a peek of the upcoming libations:

On tap:
Experiment - Pomegranate Saison
Control - Fullsteam (our flagship Carolina Common)
Control - English Beat IPA
Control - Belgian Golden

In the tank:
Experiment - Miso Ginger Stout (If it tastes good, next time around we'll make our own miso from local organic soybeans.)

In our heads:
Experiment - Fuzz Buzz (Carolina peaches, heirloom rice)
Experiment - King Kudzu (kudzu cider)
Experiment - Scuppernong Lambic
Experiment - 200 Mile (beer made from ingredients all grown within 200 miles of Durham...we don't yet know if this is possible!)

"Experiment"? "Control"? What the heck does that mean? Let's go back to the Fullsteam website for clarification:

We’re developing two lines of beers.

Control beers are easy drinkin’ session beers. Low in alcohol (under 5 percent alcohol by volume). Well-known, traditional styles like Pale Ale, Mild, Porter, and Stout. Think English pub. Everyday ales. Beers you could drink a few of in the course of an evening, without denting your pocketbook or your head. Inspirations include Young’s and Fullers.

Experimental beers? Well, they’re our own mad creation. Not bound to tradition or to style. Sometimes higher in alcohol. Uses local ingredients in the brewing process — anything from persimmon to heirloom rice to spruce pine. No tobacco, smarty-pants. (We get that question a fair amount). Inspirations: Russian River, Lost Abbey, Stone, New Glarus, Dogfish Head…but with our own Southern Ag twist.

The goal is to serve two needs: the Control when you want a no-nonsense, everyday beer that embraces tradition…and the Experiment for when it’s time to check out something genre-busting: radical Southern brewing.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BREWERY!

Rundown of the week.

One of us saw it live in the arena, one of us saw it live on television. Either way, we were both excitedly in Denver for the following:

Friday 08.29.08

The airport is crammed with conventioneers trying to make it out of town. The pundits and anchors scurry to return to their regular broadcast centers in time for the Friday evening telecasts. The Gordons bypass this anxiety by staying another day in Denver. (Well, Chris bypasses it anyway. Kimberly is staying since she flies to Minneapolis on Sunday.)

Destination today for a free day of sightseeing? The Denver Art Museum:

Located across the street from the Denver Public Library:
Nifty.

Then it's back to Boulder to pack. One last time to hit up downtown Boulder and enjoy their original brewpub, Walnut Brewery. Tasty wares and crafty libations. Chris's final night in Colorado. Saturday, it's an early flight out from DEN-CLE-GSO. The dogs cry and screech upon his return. And sadly, they look around and sniff for Kimberly. Fret not l'il doggies, mommy'll be home later in the week....