Last weekend, Karen and I spent the night on our country property.  It was a very nice night, cloudy and cool, but no rain.  The trunk and the back seat of Karen's car were both totally full, and we didn't take very much stuff.  Just the necessities and some beer, of course.

For some reason, we took a whopping total of four pictures over the two days we were there.  Don't ask me what we were thinking.

Frank Cho is one of my favorite comics artists and writers. It was his Liberty Meadows strip that first caught my attention, and since then, he's gone on to work for Marvel and done many other things. If you have a chance, go to his web site and read Liberty Meadows from the beginning.  It's hilarious.

Anyway, he recently gave a seminar on how do draw sexy women and somebody must've recorded it on their cell phone for all of us to enjoy.  Watch it below, in two parts. 

By the way, this is probably not safe for work.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Speaking of beer, tomorrow's the day of big beer gluttony.  The Smörgåsbeerd is the KGB's way of blowing through some excess rubles by buying copious amounts of beers, the theme of which is bigness.  They don't have to come in big bottles, but we do have a three-liter bottle of Corsendonk to fit that description.  Big can also mean high in alcohol or body, and we'll have plenty of those to drink, you can bet your bottom dollar on that, comrade.  It can also mean bitter -- very bitter.  There is sure to be some highly hopped beers to try, but don't blow out your taste buds too soon.  There's also bratwursts and kielbasas cooked in beer.  There's red cabbage and sauerkraut, German potato salad, soft pretzels and homemade cookies.

Oh, yeah!  Click here for the time and place.

On the 6th of December, in 1979 (Saint Nicholas day) Hürlimann Brewery brewed the first batch of Samichlaus Bier in Zürich, Switzerland.  The beer was allowed to ferment and condition for a full year before it was offered for sale.  At the time, it might have been the strongest commercial beer available, weighing in at 14% alcohol by volume.  The resulting dark lager beer was extremely rich and malty with lots of chocolate aroma and sweetness from the alcohol.  It was best savored very slowly and as it warmed up to room temperature, its complexity only increased.

Alas, the Hürlimann Brewery closed in 1997 and Samichlaus Bier was no more.  Until, that is, the Austrian Schloss Eggenberg brewery took up the gauntlet a few years later.  The new beer is, in my opinion, not nearly as complex as the old one, but it is still a formidable, tasty beer that is prized by lovers of great beer.

In 2005, the drought brought on by Hürlimann's closing and the difficulty and high cost of getting the new incarnation, which wasn't available in the Houston area, inspired a few homebrewers to renew the tradition of brewing a Samichlaus Bier every December 6.  This year we hold our 4th annual Samichlaus Brew In at the home of its founder, Donald Sajda.  Always an advocate for bigger and stronger beers, his was the perfect location to hold such an epic event.

Donald and I will brew two batches of beer this Samichlaus Day.  Of course, we will brew 10 gallons of our Samichlaus clone and another 10 gallons of a wee heavy scotch ale.  Life is good!

I hope several others will show up with their kits and brew along with us.  I believe we've had as many as five batches going on in his driveway at once.  But we won't be just brewing!  Several year's worth of our homebrewed Samichlaus vintages will be available for tasting, along with a few of the commercial variety.  Plus, it's a pot luck dinner, so there will be plenty of foundation material to hold up all of these heavy brews.

Even if you don't brew beer, you're still welcome.  If you'd like to see how beer is brewed from scratch, come on by, but remember to bring some food for the pot luck dinner!  Check out the KGB web site for the time and location.

Yes, a little streamlining is in order.  Not only is the forum gone, but the home page is gone, too.  Now, the blog is the home page and anything I think is worth saying will be worth saying on the dang home page.  Why not?  Why announce things on the front page and in the forum, too?  No sense in it, I say.  Maybe I'll start different blogs for different topics, like the forum had different sections for beer, photography, etc., just for easy categorization.  Will such a thing even be necessary?  I doubt it, but is this entire web site necessary?  I just heard the world exclaim in a resounding chorus, "NO!"

Thanks a lot, world.

I think I will remove the forum and use a blog, instead.  The forum has been underutilized of late (to put it mildly), and it was really always just a vehicle for me to put something out there and solicit comments.  A blog should be able to accomplish that, so I think I'll try it.