Ramblings of a Ferguson

Just a lil bout myself

2006-11-26T20:37:00.000-08:00

Ok...I figure I need at least one post where I can ramble on about myself and share some pics. Well I'm 23 years old and I work for Brewer's Retail (THE BEER STORE) . I put in a year at Chef School in Toronto (George Brown), so I do love to cook, but I realized that cooking wasn't something that I wanted to do for a living. My real passion is playing on my computer. Now when I say playing I don't mean web surfer or creating websites, or even looking at porn. I mean playing online games like Call Of Duty and Call of Duty 2. I play with the Rumple Foreskin Clan on COD and COD2 about 99% of the time. You can see our website at www.ther/fclan.com. There are forums, maps, downloads, as well as player bios for you to interest yourself with. Check out the player bios and see if you can find me....anyways I'm starting to ramble so I'll just say that I hope you enjoy the pics.

Beer Terminology

2006-11-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

Alright, before I get into telling you about any of the beers I try we're gonna have to go through a little terminolgy first. Just so that everybody is on the same wavelength as me. So here they are in no particular order.

Lager- A beer produced through bottom-fermenting yeast. Lagers can range in colour from golden to dark amber.

Ale- A beer produced through top-fermenting yeast, this process as opposed to bottom-fermenting imparts a distinctive fruitness to the beer.

Beer- Any drink that is fermented from grain and seasoned with hops.

Bavarian Purity Law of 1516- Insists that beer be produced with only four ingredients: Malted Barley, Hops, Yeast, and Water.

Malting- The process by which the grain (barley, corn, even rice) is moistened to allow the start of germentation. The grain is then dried and warmed in a kiln to stop the germentation process. All the elements of this process impart different characteristics to the malt ie: moisture content at time of drying, temperature and duration of drying.

Bitter Beers- Well-hopped ale, usually on draught (draft, or tap). The name implies a depth of hop bitterness, with subtle acidity in the finish. Colours vary from bronze to dark copper.
Basic Bitters have an alcoholic content of around 3.75-4%
"Best" or "Special" Bitters have an alcoholic content of around 4-4.75%
"Extra Special" Bitters come in around 5.5%

India Pale Ale- British ales for the Indian Empire were made to a higher then normal strength, and given more hops to protect the beers on the journey. Current IPA's are still often very hoppy with a +5% alcohol content.

Alright folks that's all you get for the time being. Don't worry I'll try and have terminology put up regularily. If you do have any questions or comments just post 'em and I will definately answer anything you got to ask about beer.

Beer Store Etiquette part 1

2006-11-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

alright if you know me then you know where i work...if you don't know me, well i work for Brewers Retail (THE BEER STORE). I just have a few pointers to those people out there that are just coming in to the age of drinking. Anyone living in Ontario the drinking age is 19, once you hit this age you will have well over 50 years of legal drinking. I want to stress that during these long prosperous years of your life you will encounter numerous different kinds of beers. Some beers will be in a green bottle, others in a clear one, then there are the ones that are oddly shaped, but oh yeah what about the brown industry bottles that soooo many brewers use. Here are some tips to help you return your bottles to the closest Beer Store without pissing off the Beer Store employee(s):

1. If you buy your beer through The Beer Store then return it just the way you FUCKING BOUGHT IT!! ie: the Moosehead bottles go with the Moosehead bottles, Corona bottles go with Corona bottles, etc...

2. If you are a beer can drinker and you always have a ton of beer cans to return, just throw them in a garbage bag and keep track of how many you have. We will believe you! (just don't be too greedy with your total). It really pisses me off when people come in with a bag of cans and they have no idea how many they have. If you don't know how many you have, how the hell am I gonna pay you for them?

3. DON'T PUT BOTTLES IN BAGS FOR CHRIST SAKES...YOU DON'T WANNA STICK YOUR HAND IN, AND NEITHER DO WE. Health hazard here folks!!

4. If you leave cardboard outside it will deteriorate. Rain makes paper mushy. If you didn't already know that Einstein. Don't bring your soaking wet case in and say 'watch that case it's wet,' well what the hell are you keeping your beer outside for you dumbass. I don't care how small your place is devout one tiny friggin crevice to put your empty cases. A dry box is better then a wet one(not all the time mind you).

5. Putting your bottle caps BACK on your bottle once you have consumed the precious nectar tells the world you have nothing better to do with your life.

6. The plastic six pack holders should be cut and recycled, not have the cans put back in them. Once again if you do this it screams to the world you have no life.

Well I think that's enough ranting and raving for the time being. I will have more up soon.

Pics and stuff

2006-11-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

Just actually checking to see how easy it is to put up some pictures and or videos on my blog.

Well the pics are quite easy to put into place.

This is the beginning of something beautiful.

2006-11-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

well for my very first blog post i'm not really sure what i should write about. i know i do have plans already for my next one, but that's not till later. ummm....i'm really gonna try and talk a lot about BEER!! i'm gonna do my best to post a lil info about every beer i can get my dirty mits on. this is just the beginning of an adventure into the world of BEER.