#FABQ

So I stumbled across this cool little project while binging on Tasting Nitch's YouTube videos (If you don't know who she is, check her out! You won't regret it.). #FABQ stands for "Frequently Asked Beer Questions." It's a set of questions that *most* beer enthusiasts get asked at one point or another. The challenge is to make a video answering the questions, then tag 5 friends to do the same. It sounded like a fun way for all of you to get to know me a little better, so I decided to participate, but I'm bending the rules a little because videos just don't mix with my introverted self. So now that you know the game, here we go!

1. How did you get into beer geeking?/ Why beer?
When the hubby and I first moved to Galveston in 2009, we discovered a store called Spec's that carried more types of beer than I even knew existed. Hubby made it his mission to try a new beer every time we went shopping there. I was resistant to it at first, but finally came to realize that not all beer tastes like piss (thank you, Shiner!). A few years later, we moved to California, and the rest is history!

2. What's your favorite beer?
This is not an easy one to answer. It's like asking someone what their favorite book or movie is. It's like asking a mother which child is their favorite (OK, that might be a little extreme). When I get asked this question, I usually just say that I can't pick one, but I lean towards stouts and sours.

3. If you have one beer forever, what would it be?
Again, a hard one to answer, but if I absolutely had to pick one, I guess it would be Shiner Bock. Because it was the brew that opened my eyes to the beauty of craft beer, it holds a special place in my heart.

4. How can you drink so much? How do you stay healthy?
 I actually don't drink all that much? I don't drink every day, and usually don't have more than 2 beers at a time. I have gained some weight since I started this hobby, but I don't know if it's because of the beer or if it's because I've just crossed 30 and my metabolism is slowing down and hormones are weird. It's probably both, but mostly the beer. To keep it in check, I walk a lot, kayak occasionally, and have just started training to run my first 5k (pray for me!).

5. Are you an alcoholic? 
I actually wrote a small piece about this when I started my blog last year because I was getting some, ahem, "concerning looks" when I would express my passion with beer and brewing (read it here). I am definitely not an alcoholic. I'll give the answer I gave to a friend who is a recovering alcoholic and asked if I could stop drinking when I wanted: Yes, but I don't want to. I don't drink to get drunk, I drink to experience the flavors and appreciate the art of brewing. If I had to stop, I would be sad, but I wouldn't need help to do it. Besides, the great thing about being a homebrewer is that I could learn to make non-alcoholic beer! (Always looking for that silver lining)

6. What's your favorite ingredient? 
This is a question I don't think I've ever been asked, actually. I think I'd have to steal Nitch's answer and say yeast. Because without yeast, beer would not exist. We'd all just be drinking sweet wort. Yeast is the real hero here!

7. Do you brew? 
 Um, duh! Why else would I be here writing this?

8. What was your first beer?
 Ready to cringe? My 1st beer was Smirnoff Ice. Yeah, I know, it's not technically beer, it's a malt beverage, but did you think I knew that back then? No. A friend asked if I wanted a beer, I said if it tastes the way it smells, no (referencing Budweiser). He said, "You'll probably like this one." and handed me the Smirnoff.

9. Who in the beer world do you look up to?
I'd have to say Ashley Routson, aka The Beer Wench. I discovered her book, The Beer Wench's Guide To Beer, when I was working at B&N, and was immediately smitten. At a time when I was questioning whether or not I, as a woman, could actually make a name for myself in the beer industry, Ashley was the proof that I was looking for. She no longer works in beer, but I still admire her so much.

Well, that's it! I really enjoyed answering these, so I hope you enjoyed reading the responses. To see who I tagged, visit my Instagram page and check out the related post. And if you feel like participating, let me know so I can read your answers

Have a great weekend! 🍻

Why Is the Floor Sticky?

About a month ago, I experienced my biggest homebrew disaster to date. It started like any other bottling day: I took a final gravity reading, boiled the priming sugar, prepared the bottles, and racked New Texican into the bottling bucket. I had to prop up the bucket just a little so my transfer tubing would reach the bottom, so I put it on top of a case of empty bottles, something I've done many times before. Racking went fine, and I moved the tubing from the auto-siphon in the carboy to the spigot on the bucket. I stood back up and was about to ask my husband to lift the bucket onto the counter (he's my muscle). Instead, what came out of my mouth, was "Oh no, no, nononono, shit!" as I watched a tsunami of beer flow across my dining room floor. It happened too fast for me to catch the bucket, and yet, it seemed like it fell in slow motion. I stood there in shock for a split second before both of us ran and grabbed every towel in the house to start sopping up the beer. I cried, I laughed, I bitched, I mopped (and mopped and mopped), and I bitched some more.

BEFORE

AFTER

Losing the batch hurt, especially since I had such high hopes for it. Like every other brewing fail I've had, though, this tragedy taught me a few things:
1. I should probably buy some longer tubing. If my tubing was longer, I wouldn't have had to prop up the bucket.
2. Make sure the box I use to prop up the bucket is actually full. You see, the box I thought was full of bottles was actually missing a couple, and the empty part of the box crushed under the weight of the full bucket.
2.5. Better yet, don't use a cardboard box full of glass to support a 5-gallon bucket full of precious beer.
3. Putting a lid on the bucket would probably be wise. A lid wouldn't have stopped the bucket from falling, but it probably would have minimized the amount of beer that ended up on the floor.
4. Our kitchen/dining room needs better flooring than wood laminate, preferably something waterproof. I cringe whenever think about what it might look like underneath those floorboards.
5. I know A LOT of cuss words!

The good thing about being a brewer is that I can always make more. So worry not, my friends, I do have plans to revisit New Texican in the future. In the meantime, I have a couple other brews in the works. The moral of today's story: Mistakes=learning, learning=better beer

Love, peace, and hoppiness,
🍻Angelica🍻