Sunrise in St. Louis with a Cigar

My wife and I are in St. Louis for a couple of days to celebrate three years of being together.  This morning I woke up early from a dream and couldn't get back to sleep.  I usually have the ability to sleep late, but it just wasn't working.  I then recalled a Cigar Aficionado interview with the owner of one of the famous cigar families who said he enjoyed his morning cigar the most.  In the morning, the palate is a blank slate and perfect to enjoy a tasty cigar.

I could hear the ocean like sound of the constant traffic and it was still dark outside.  I decided to read a book until the sun started to reveal itself and illuminate the reflective surface of the arch.  At 6:30 AM I lit my Oliva V Belicoso on the balcony and watched the sun slide up over the horizon.  It was a fantastic forty five minutes of watching the morning greet St. Louis with one of my favorite cigars.  The temperature was only in the upper thirties, though, so it was definitely a crisp period of meditation.

Louisville's Bambi Walk (In Progress)

There are great beer treks to be found all around the world.  Louisville, Kentucky has the Bambi Walk.  This walk has traditionally taken place in late August, but has waned in recent years.  In this journey participants have a beer at each bar between and including the Bambi Bar and Baxter Station.  The total distance is 3.3 miles and includes just over 20 destinations on Bardstown Rd and Baxter Avenue.

We are currently compiling a list of bars which we feel should be included and will be walking the route soon to add a few of the newer bars.  If you have any suggestions about bars which should or should not be included or if you have some historical insight into this great event, please email us at: gudgerandferguson@gmail.com.

The current working map can be found here:

Gudger & Ferguson's Working Bambi Walk

The sheer number of views of this post has prompted me to get back on it!  Updates coming shortly.

St Patrick's Day Dinner

What is best for St. Patrick's day?  Brewing and partying.  This year, however, St. Patrick's day fell on a Sunday and it was raining.  We still had a grand Irish dinner, though!

I would have taken a better picture, but I was salivating at the time and incapable of caring beyond the first shot.  My wife put a corned beef, carrots, potatoes and cabbage in the crock pot and set it to stew all day long.  In the afternoon she baked Irish soda bread to tide us over until dinner.  The brew is a stout which I recently tapped.  Although it sates your appetite it entices you to keep eating, because it is scrumtrilescent (Thank You Will Ferrell).  Holidays are about food and I believe this is a tradition which will remain in our household.  I look forward to preparing brew/food combinations for future holidays!

Cigar Culture and Weddings

My wife and I got married four days ago and are now moving on from all the tedious work of planning and executing that wonderful event.  We had an absolutely wonderful time and were reminded of how great our friends and family really are.

During the preparations for the wedding I saw firsthand how much more expensive services become when wedding is attached to the product.  A cake is inexpensive.  A wedding cake, even if exactly the same, can be extremely overpriced.  This phenomenon is true across the board, except with cigars.  

I recently visited J Shepherd's cigar shop on Bardstown Road here in Louisville to purchase the gifts for the groomsmen.  Each of them received a Padron serie 1926, an Oliva V Belicoso, matches, and a double-bladed cutter.  They took twenty percent off the whole purchase, reduced the price of the cutters, provided bags and matches for each of the groomsmen to keep things neat, AND threw in a Padron Family Reserva which is an expensive and delicious cigar.  The culture of cigars is to embrace occasions and celebrate them, not gouge them like wedding vendors often do.  Cheers to you J. Shepherd and cheers to cigar culture everywhere!

Quality is the Measuring Stick, not Crazy. Cheers for Session Beers. ps-still make crazy, I love it, too

Session Beer--  An enjoyer of a session beer can have several pints of them over a reasonable time in one sitting and still leave in a sober or close to sober condition.


I enjoy a well crafted session beer most of the time and the occasional ridiculous strength beer to expand the palate and imagination.  Through my personal experience, it appears that a large segment of enjoyers of craft brews places the supersomething beers on a different tier of existence than well made session beers.  It's no wonder some people look upon lovers of good beer as snobs.  We need high-gravity, super hoppy beers, but we also need to know how to make exemplary session-strength beers as well. 

I would propose a hypothesis that a high proportion of those who are constantly clamoring for superhoppy, superstrong, or superdark have, in fact, underdeveloped palates.  I should interject that I also enjoy superbeers.

I recently made a well bodied, but lighter version of my stout and I find it absolutely delicious.  It has enough roasty character to be tasted throughout a session, but it's not the black death against which many craft beer lovers would automatically compare it.  I can make black death, but that's the superlative, not an evening with a mug in hand.  One of my friends often falls prey to mass produced cheap beers, but asked me to bottle several liters for him to enjoy over Thanksgiving.  He and I both very much enjoy the coffee undertones and mouthfeel of the oats, flaked barley, and wheat.  This is a win, my friends, because I have not compromised quality and still pulled someone away from cheap beer.

Last night, I opened a bottle of my Hallertauer Amber which is slightly less than 5% alcohol, but balanced in favor of late hop additions.  It's absolutely fantastic and the hops are a present and pleasant flavor.  Again, it's a sessionable beer and it's wonderful.

One of the best beers I've had was a pilsner served at the bar at the Trump Towers in Chicago.  It had a light body which was thoroughly flavorful and a delightfully spicy hoppy edge.  Brewers of masterful lighter beers demonstrate infinitely more talent than those who can make a dime-a-dozen stout which oozes from the bottle or a beer which has been drowned in hops.  It's far more difficult to hide behind a more delicate beer than motor oil.

In short, we need our superbeers (I, too, am a fan), but we also need to make sure that we are able to appreciate them as part of a variety.  Imagine if the creator of the aforementioned heavenly Pilsner developed an IPA or a Stout...

A Couple Bottling Tips (Just bottled my Bride Ale)

These are just a few ideas to help with the bottling process.  If you've bottled a few times then you probably won't need these, but they're great if you're new to it.  Enjoy!

Tip #1:  The Easy, Inexpensive Bottling Gun.

I learned this tip from Paul Young at My Old Kentucky Homebrew.  Take a plastic tube which fits into a portable keg dispenser faucet and enjoy!  I add the boiled sugar water into a keg, blanket it with CO2, push it with 5 psi, and dispense through the homemade bottling gun.  I've used the Blichmann bottling gun on hundreds of growlers at my first brewing job and this works perfectly.  The obvious benefit of the Blichmann bottling gun is that you can blanket the bottle with CO2 through the gun, but when you're carbonating with sugars you have to have air in the bottle for fermentation anyways.



Tip #2:  Holster the Gun

This is something I learned from my first brewery.  Keep a bottle of sanitizer so that the bottling gun has a sanitary holster as you move about your bottling processes. 

Tip #3:  Dishwasher Tray

Bottling trees cost money and take up space.  As long as someone else in your household won't stab you for it, simply roll the bottom rack out of the dishwasher and make sure it's off of its wheels.

Tip #4:  Put the Caps in Sanitizer

This is another trick I learned at my first brewery with growlers.  You don't know where the caps have been or what bacteria may be lurking in your bottling area.  Use just enough sanitizer to cover the caps and be sure to dry any unused caps when you're done so they don't rust on the edges.



Flexibility and Growth in a Brewing Rig

It's tempting to make a shiny, fixed brewing rig.  Hard lines and control panels are extremely sexy.  Someday I will have this sort of rig, but I am constantly adjusting, experimenting, and improving the setup to accommodate new ideas and slight improvements.  It is because of this that I have a frame made from slotted angle steel and braided lines.  When I no longer require somewhat regular changes to my setup I'll weld a custom frame and install hard lines.

Twice now I have taken pieces of angle steel and reconfigured the frame itself.  It's essentially a large Erector set and can be changed with wrenches and a hacksaw.  It's also great when you want to move a hot liquor tank burner, pump, or wort chiller.  The possibilities are endless and easy.

I recently raided my local hardware store for 1/2 inch valves, fittings, tubing, and hose clamps.  From this I have created a ridiculous web of possibilities for liquid transferrance.  My goal is to make it "as simple as possible, but not simpler."  Thank you, Einstein.  After tightening all the clamps once, though, it is inevitable that the rubber will give some and hot temperatures will loosen the connections.  The first few times this method is used you will have to be on the lookout for tiny leaks and crank the clamps back down.  It's also important to be able to move water from the hot liquor tank through all the lines in order to push wort and keep air out.  After only one use I already have plans for adjustments.

In short, it's extremely beneficial to be able to adjust and develop your brewing rig to your methods.