In spite of looming weather issues (and neurotic reloading of weather.com’s "map in motion" feature), we managed to pull off our little BBQ party.

We had a great turnout, and at one point it looked a lot like a day care center(!), but we managed to keep everyone busy. For the adults, we had four beers on tap — pale ale and coriander ale (pictured here), a brown ale, and a Hefeweizen that Sean brewed as our Nuptial Brau. I had two in the kegerator, and two in satellite buckets of ice, and managed to avoid too many serving issues.

I’d say our little posse — a mix of aging hipsters, neighbors and parents of a gaggle of young kids — managed to represent well. We managed to finish off these two kegs, and put significant dents in the other two. And, no five-year-olds doing kegstands. So we have that going for us.

I think it’s time for a pint of Nuptial weiss.

It’s been a while since I posted about making beer, but rest assured the north Georgia outdoor water ban did not completely curtail production. Sean and I have been working through scheduling conflicts (he works more than I do), and innovating our production processes to not be scofflaws, and have managed to put a few kegs on tap in the past three months.

This pale ale will be one one a handful of beers in tap when my new in-laws meet my family ths weekend. I also have a coriander ale on tap, and Sean is bringing a Hefeweiss nuptial brau for the proceedings.

If we’re all lucky, some hilarity (and tipsyness) will ensue.

I’m in Kansas City today for a little play, beer and barbecue. How lucky for me that there is a place that has them all under one roof — Ameristar Casino in North KC.

The barbecue (Arthur Bryant’s, an outpost of the well-known local joint) was interesting enough, if the “original recipe” sauce was a bit strange. It had what I would call a weird mix of spices that I didn’t like. Their “sweet heat” sauce, on the other hand, was a nice mix of hickory and buffalo sauce flavors. Yummy.

Back to the beer. The “Amerisports Brew Pub” is the outlet here for five varieties of house-brewed accompaniments to your slot pulling or card playing activities. In the sampler pictured here, I tried three of their offerings — the Knock Out blond, Face Off pale ale and the Hard Ball dark. The blond, billed as a bohemian pilsner, had too much of a floral, fruity finish in my opinion to carry that pedigree. That said, it was enjoyable. The pale was somewhat hoppy and well-made as far as English pales go. The real treat was the dark lager. This tasty Müncher style dunkel had really nice mocha notes and would’ve merited a full pint, had my need to drive not interfered.

Darcy and I are out and about for some shopping near Decatur, and have stopped into Twain’s for a quick lunch and brew.

After sampling the smoked rye pale ale (too heavy-handed on the smoke), we settled on the Irreverent Liberty IPA. With the hop shortage firmly upon us, we are taking care to drink hoppy beers while we can. And this one fits the bill.

Dry-hopped with 4 lbs of Challenger hops per batch, it’s an earthy hop lover’s delight, and a welcome sight after our visit to the land that beer forgot. While I prefer more citrusy IPAs, this one is a worthy tipple. Get it while you can!

My mother had been complaining about her slow MSNTV dialup service for some time now, and finally did something about it. Problem is that her broadband ISP (Verizon) wouldn’t do the modem installation for her.

Enter the geek squad — rather geek son.

15 minutes, and a few line filters later, she finally has a respectable on-ramp to the Superwebs. All that DHCP madness can make a guy thirsty. Thankfully the Legend Brown Ale I planted in the fridge during my last visit was still chillin’ behind 16 cartons of cherry tomatoes (don’t ask me, I don’t live here).

I’m pleasantly surprised by how well it’s held up. It starts smoothly, with hints of roast and toffee. The finish is dry (probably due to length of stay in the cold box), and a little acrid. In all, it’s a perfectly suitable treat to finish an afternoon of 1s and 0s.