The Pros & Cons of Homebrewing

"You know....you can buy beer in a store for cheap, and you don't have to waste a day making it."

Thanks, jackass.  I had no idea.

I am a homebrewer, and I love every minute of the process.  From creating a recipe, to executing it and tasting the final product, it's an absolute joy.  It's the perfect blend of art, science and...well, alcohol.  I can't tell you that I look forward going to work every day, but I can say that the anticipation of an upcoming brew day fills me with excitement long before the day arrives.

I've been heavily into the craft beer scene since college.  Back then, craft beer wasn't the big hipster trend it is today.  We were just trying something different.  During my first year of college, I lived on cheap beer.  St. Ides was a staple.  When I was finally old enough to get in, the bar in the student center served $1.50 pitchers of something called Yuengling.  At the time, that beer was a revelation.  I could drink this fine well-made beer, and get shitfaced for $3.00.  Sign me up.

My first taste of craft beer actually came when I was about 14 (Incidentally, I had my first glass of wine at 5.  That's how we Italians roll).  My family and I took a road trip up to Boston for a weekend.  At dinner one night, my dad ordered a beer - something called Samuel Adams Boston Lager.  Never heard of it, but at 14 Budweiser was still exotic to me.  He took one sip, looked at me and said "son, you need to try this" (you know, sometimes, my dad was pretty cool).  He slid the bottle over and I took a swig.  WHOA.  "Dad, we have to bring some of this home."  He agreed.  We bought a couple of six-packs and brought them home.

The real transition happened when I was at a college party during my junior year.  I reached into a cooler just to grab whatever was there, and pulled out a bottle of something called Brooklyn Brown Ale.  I remember being annoyed initially because the cap didn't twist off and had to find a bottle opener (I drank shitty beer, so I never needed one).  The first taste...wait, this can't be beer.  No way.  Another sip...I'm tasting.....roasted coffee?  Hints of....cocoa?  What is this sorcery?!?  I ended up downing that bottle pretty quickly.  I rushed back to that cooler hoping to find another one, but alas, it appears I got the last one.  When I sobered up the next morning, I hit the closest liquor store and scored a six-pack.  Returning the favor to my dad, I said "pop, you gotta try this".  He took a sip and had the same look on his face that he had that day in Boston.

Over the years since then, I've slowly immersed myself in the craft beer world.  I can write a whole other article about that, but I want to stay with the topic at hand here.

About two years ago, I was sitting on the porch at a friend's house having a brew.  He looked at me and said "I think we can make one of these."  I'd been thinking the same thing for a while.  Why not?  My family and friends had been making wine for decades.  My dad and I made wine once together.  It was a special moment in time, but as he became ill shortly after that, we never got to do it again.  I never had the urge to since, either.  This was a chance to bring in a new tradition, and to get some of those creative juices flowing again.

We made a few batches together.  The first couple were from partial mash kits - a black IPA and a Belgian IPA.  The Belgian was actually quite good.  We thought we were ready to do an all-grain batch, so we tried our hand at a Belgian Witbier.  It could have been better, but we did fine given the learning curve.

Fast forward to the present......another dear friend and I have continued on perfecting our craft, and the results have always been solid, occasionally spectacular.  We've mastered certain beer styles (we make amazing stouts), and have some work to do on others (though sour beers aren't the easiest to make).

I originally became a homebrewer because I wanted to make beer that tasted better to me than anything I could get in a store or a bar.  Even when I write that, I realize that it sounds pretty arrogant.  What would ever make me think I could make better beer than those who have been doing it professionally for decades?  Simple - I find the majority of those beers to be absolute swill.  Sorry, but my standards are higher.  I want my beers to taste like they were made with crushed grains and clean water, not corn syrup and food coloring (if you think I'm exaggerating, I suggest you do a little research).

Don't get me wrong.  If you truly enjoy American adjunct lagers and the like, drink up.  I'm not going to stand here and tell you what beers you should be drinking.  I can be arrogant, but that level of snobbery makes me ill.  I'm picky about the beers I drink because that's what I choose to do, but I'm not going to put anyone down because I disagree.  I'd only suggest trying something new from time to time.

Back to this thing we do.......we have a dream.  We'd love to be able to do this for a living.  This isn't an easy industry to break into - made harder by the fact that the craft beer boom over the last ten years has definitely caused a degree of over-saturation in the market.  That doesn't scare us, though.  We think our beer is that good.  So, our next goal is to try and get our beers into the hands of as many people as we can.  We're giving it away to anyone who will try it and give us an honest critique.   We'll do what we can to spread word of mouth, winning over one person at a time.  It's guerrilla warfare...with beer.

The last question - what happens if this doesn't work out?  The truth is that I don't see any way I could lose my passion for this.  I have a creative itch that needs scratching.  This craft scratches that itch and gives me satisfaction in ways my work could never do.  And I assure you, it's hard work.  Some brew days can be long and difficult, but the result at the end of the day makes it worth all the time invested.

Yes, I can get beer in any liquor store for cheaper, and I could save a lot of time doing so.  But then I wouldn't be drinking the best beer I could have, so why would I bother?

What a drag it is getting old...

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last week...yes, occasionally I do have conversations...which spurred some deep thinking afterwards.

Many people have "heroes" - individuals, normally someone of notoriety, who they feel have greatly influenced their lives. Sometimes, it's a family member who they greatly admire. Other times, an athlete, artist or other public figure who they feel inspired by.

If I have a hero, it would be Roger Waters.  I'll explain.

I discovered Pink Floyd during my first semester of college. Everyone's likely heard Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall by the time they get to high school.  Maybe not these days.  Most of your children are listening to garbage top 40 music and would find something like The Wall too much to handle, because it would make them have to, like, think and stuff.

[That's your fault by the way, parents.  When your kid asked you for the new Bieber album, you should've grounded them for a week, locked them in their room and forced them to listen to The Jam's entire discography on loop for the entire week.  I've gone off track, haven't I?]

The moment I really discovered Floyd, though...it was December, 1992.  I was sitting up in my room studying for a calculus final. My normal thing was to study in silence. For whatever reason, I couldn't absorb anything that night. Math was, and still is, my worst subject, and I was teetering on a C/C- in this class unless I did well on the final.

I step away from my desk for a moment. Upon turning around, I see a small stack of CDs on my dresser. Someone in my Pascal programming class (ha) lent me a few Floyd albums. On top of the stack: Meddle. I figure I'll decompress for a few and see what these cats are really all about.

It's difficult to describe what happened next. Suddenly, parts of my brain that were inaccessible suddenly opened. The clouds broke and my mind was an open field. By the time "Echoes" - the album's centerpiece - started to fade out, everything just began to make sense.  I hit the books again right after that, and I started absorbing material like I never had before.  Long story short, I got an A- on the final and pulled my grade up to a B-.

Thus began my maniacally obsessive infatuation with Pink Floyd that will likely continue until I die or go deaf.

The Floyd have gone through many phases over their careers.  In the earlier days from 1966 - 1968, they were the backbone of the burgeoning underground psychedelic scene in London.  At the center of the band was vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Syd Barrett - one of the greatest songwriters of his era, and one of the most tragic stories in the history of music.  Following his separation from the band in '68, the band entered what I consider their greatest period.  From 1968 to 1972, they created music the likes of which will never be made again.

1973 brought Dark Side of the Moon, and with it, a shift in the band's songwriting approach.  With Dark Side, Roger Waters had taken over the lyrical content of their songs.  From here, until his departure from the band in 1985, the stark shift in Floyd's music can be felt album by album.  The themes of greed, paranoia and death on Dark Side.  The laments of Syd Barrett and his mental state on Wish You Were Here.  The anger and disgust over the world's socio-political landscape on Animals.

Animals is the Pink Floyd album that resonates with me more than any other (Atom Heart Mother is my favorite, for different reasons).  When I first heard it, I was an angry young man all of 19 years old.  When I finished my first spin of Animals, I felt even angrier.  I had heard the words of a man who was completely revolted by what society had become.  I completely understood and related.  "Dogs" reminded me so much of my father, and how the company he worked at and co-managed for over 30+ years one day rewarded him for his years of service with a demotion and 40% paycut.  To make extra money, he'd go in weekends to clean the office.  It wasn't nearly enough and we ended up having to sell our house because we couldn't afford the mortgage anymore.  Scumbags.  Sadly, situations like that have been commonplace everywhere for about 2 decades now.  That's progress!  The final lines of the song sum it all up for us:

Who was born in a house full of pain?
Who was trained not to spit in the fan?
Who was told what to do by the man?
Who was broken by trained personnel?
Who was fitted with collar and chain?
Who was given a pat on the back?
Who was breaking away from the pack?
Who was only a stranger at home?
Who was ground down in the end?
Who was found dead on the phone?
Who was dragged down by the stone?

(Before any know-it-alls ask what a 19-year old college kid would understand about all that - I worked retail 40 hours a week on top of a full load of credits to help pay for my tuition and the bills at home, so piss off.)

I knew all too well what Waters was trying to convey on The Wall - the feeling of wanting to isolate yourself from everyone because you just can't deal with it anymore.  I've done that on more than one occasion.  Sometimes it's necessary.  However, you do run the risk of losing people who were there for you after you tear down the wall.  I think Rog has seen that in his own experiences.  So have I.

I didn't truly appreciate The Final Cut until after 9/11.  When I was younger, I was naive enough to believe that the result of us going to war would always be victory and lasting peace - "The Post-War Dream".  There is no such dream.  It's a nightmare we live daily without an end in sight.  The title track still brings tears when I hear it to this day.

He continued to explore many of these themes over his solo albums through the 80s and 90s.  After 1992's Amused To Death, he disappeared for a bit.  In 1999, he suddenly emerged with a large-scale world tour, and I finally had the opportunity to see my "hero" in person.  I will never forget it.  I sat in the 15th row at PNC Bank Arts Center as he and his band cranked out 2-1/2 hours of classic Pink Floyd and Waters solo material, and remembering how they blended together so well.  When they finished performing "Dogs", I was numb.  He was still, even in his mid-50s, bitter, angry ol' Rog - maybe not quite the same guy who spat on a fan in Montreal in 1977, but the rage was still there.

Let's fast-forward to the present day.  Roger is now in his early 70's.  The feud between he and the surviving members of Pink Floyd has long since ended, culminating in their final reunion performance at Live 8.  His singing voice has greatly deteriorated, though he has managed to mount two more tours in this millennium, bringing Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall on the road.  The Wall tour was an absolute triumph, as instead of regurgitating a copy of the 1980 performances, he updated the visual content for a modern audience, and the results were phenomenal.

I recently watched a clip of him performing at the Russell Tribunal.  The song he performed was basically a rambling editorial of his feelings on the crisis in Gaza, set to what sounded like a re-arrangement of "Mother" from The Wall.  Regardless of how I feel about his opinion on this issue, the whole thing comes off dull and lifeless to me.  A bit more soft-spoken and more calculated in the delivery of his thoughts, the rage that was once there seems to have died out. I'm sure most will chalk that up to "old age".  I fear that may be the case as well.  So now, finally, I've arrived at the point I wanted to get at in the first place (if you've managed to stay with me this long, I thank you).

It's tough to watch the people you feel closest to get old.  It seems to happen in a flash, too.  One day, they're full of life, still willing to take on the world - and then one day, you see that fire start to go out a little.  Before you know it, they cease "living" and begin "existing" - just biding their time until the end comes.  Maybe they go on the occasional cruise to Alaska, but that's about as lively as it gets.  I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but it does to so many that I know.  I watched it happen to my parents and couldn't help but feel a great sadness for them when it did.  I've watched it happen to close friends of the family.  Where does that passion to live life to the fullest go?  Does it really just vanish, like the common cold or Keyser Soze?

At the ripe age of 40, I feel I haven't lost any of the rage and fire I had when I was younger.  I don't want to ever lose that.  I'd like to believe that as I get older, whenever I feel something I see or experience is wrong, that I'll feel the same passion to fight for what I believe in, instead of becoming accepting of it.  And when the opportunity to experience life in new ways presents itself, that I can still throw caution to the wind and dive in.  I like to think that I will still be doing all that.  The thought that I might not be in control of that makes me uneasy.  Funny enough, it angers me, too.  As I sit here and type these words, I feel the anger that comes with thinking that any of what I said may come to pass.

And then I realize...maybe ol' Rog still is as angry as ever.  His anger isn't derived from total lunacy.  I think people want to believe that, but the truth his he's no crazier than any one of us.  He's angry because he cares about those around him, and it angers him when he sees the ills of the world affecting them.  I agree with some of his causes and less so with others, but I won't deny his motivations.  He wants to be a good human being.  Maybe we should all take a cue from him...leaving the megalomaniacal (is that a word?) rock star stuff aside, of course.

That's why I grew up an angry young man, and why today I'm an angry middle-aged man.  I care.  I will always care.  When I'm an old man, I'll be sitting in my wheelchair shaking my cane at the world and continue to be angry.  Why?  Because I will never reach the point that I stop caring.  No one close to me in my life ever said it was OK to be angry.  "Turn the other cheek, let things go...."

Roger showed me otherwise.  The older I get, the more I understand.  That's why I will forever look up to him.

Stay angry.  It makes life worth living..

HEY! YOU SUCK?

Today, my beloved New Jersey Devils have announced that they have adopted a new goal song, This is the culmination of a ridiculous saga that has gone on for close to two years.

To give a bit of history.....prior to the 2013-2014 NHL season, the Devils were sold to new multi-billionaire owners.  The fans couldn't have been happier.  For years, there have been rumors that the Devils were going to be the subject of relocation (in reality, those rumors have been around since 1995, but anyway...).  The new owners have comitted publicly to pumping more capital into the team and to increase the brand's notoriety.  Excellent.  Maybe one day, they can fill the arena on a Tuesday night game against the Florida Panthers.

Until last season, Rock & Roll, Part II by Gary Glitter has been the team's goal song, aside from one failed attempt at a change about 7-8 years ago.  It was a team tradition going back to the days when they were the Colorado Rockies, and really galvanized the crowd, especially during the playoffs.

(NOTE: for those concerned about Mr. Glitter's criminal history and the possibility that he gets paid any time this track is used, court rulings long ago have prevented him from collecting any royalties from his music.)

Around 2007-2008, the crowd interaction during the goal song changed somewhat noticeably.....

Your opinion as to how "appropriate" the chants are has merit, regardless of which side you're on.  If you find that the chanting is all in good fun and just part of how fans enjoy giving the other team and their fans a good ribbing, you're right.  If you find that the chants are vulgar, juvenile and show poor sportsmanship, there's a lot of validity in that too.  I fall into the former camp, and I'll explain why:

Yes, we all know the connotations of the word "suck", and the same for "you suck".  For most of us, in this particular area, it's an edgier substitute for the word "stink".  For some others, it's usage insinuates that the other team performs acts of fellatio.  However, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that when the crowd unites in that chant, it's the former, mainly because I really don't believe people sit around at a hockey game - especially a playoff game - thinking endlessly about oral sex (ok, maybe occasionally...). 

For me, as a diehard fan, I enjoy creating a hostile environment for the other team.  I fondly look back on the days of going to games at the old Yankee Stadium.  No team felt safe coming into that building, and the fans united in making them uncomfortable.  If you walk into the new stadium today, it has all the ambiance of a mildly-interesting table tennis match.

But I digress......and please note - this behavior should never be directed at opposing team's fans.  I realize it can be often, but those situations should be dealt with individually.  I know as I've been on both ends of that in the past.  If you go into an opposing team's house and root for your team (without being a jerk, of course), you shouldn't be subject to abuse by the home crowd.  If you are, go tell security and get the idiots thrown out.

OK, let's get back to the main topic.

Last year, the Devils announced that the goal song would be changing.  It was discovered at a season ticket holder's meeting that this move was part of the new regime's initiative to create a more family-friendly experience at the Prudential Center.

To say the transition was completely botched is an understatement.  I understand - most would say "it's a goal song, who the hell cares?"  Well, apparently Devils fans care.

At the first home game of the 2013-2014 season, the team unveiled the new goal song - "This is Our House" by Bon Jovi.  Here's how the fans reacted:

I'm sure Damien Brunner was thrilled to hear boos after his first goal as a Devil.

Shortly thereafter, the team scrambled to fix this mess by presenting fans with three options for a new song and an online vote.  Of course, R&RP2 was not an option.  The winner of the poll was The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army".  Not a bad choice, if they used the original.  It's been used by soccer teams around the world for years, and quite effectively.  Instead, they used a techno version of the main riff with artificial "Let's Go Devils" chants piped in to drown out the "You Suck" chants fans were adding in (you didn't really think they wouldn't, right?).  I couldn't find a good video of it, and frankly, you aren't missing much.  Funny enough, since the Devils had great difficulty scoring goals last year, it wasn't played very much.

Now today, the team has announced their new goal song - the NHL's first ever fan-created goal song.

The cheesy video aside, it really isn't bad at all.  However, it just begs this question for me - why make it a priority to come up with something to galvanize the crowd in attendance after every goal, when something that does it very well has been in place for almost two decades?


I really don't have an issue with changing it - in the end, it's just a goal song and not a big deal in the grand scheme of it all.  My issues are the reasons behind the change and how they went about it - to me, treating the fans like children because they were behaving like children, and because "DEAR GOD, WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN???"

I hate to simplify it like this, but people in general just don't know how to have fun anymore.  Every child has probably heard the words "you suck" at a very young age, and most likely heard it from their parents.  It's just a word, and I'll never understand why people are scared to death of words.  Besides, I heard a lot worse by the time I was five - I know this because the nuns called my parents into school one day because I apparently said the "F-word" in kindergarten.  I think I turned out OK....

Record Review #1 - The Meeting Places

This is sort of a test post.  About 10 years ago, I had a brief work stint at a now-defunct major record label in NYC.  I made some great friends in my short time there, and a couple of us had the idea of starting our own blog.  Sadly, it never really got off the ground.  This is the one review I wrote for that blog.  I've edited it a bit from the original.

The Meeting Places - "Find Yourself Along the Way"
 (Words On Music, 2003)

To the majority of the music-buying public today, music is nothing more than just another commodity - something you have on in the background as you clean the house or do yoga.  There's a great sadness in that, though.  Great music is meant to be absorbed, to be allowed to penetrate the deepest reaches of your subconcious.  It should be one of the most potent drugs on earth.  Not enough people find the time to just stop, put on a set of headphones, and let a record take you somewhere else all together.  It is the ultimate high.

The short-lived dream pop and shoegaze genres project that experience as virtually no genre since has been able to, with droning guitars, shimmering soundscapes and breathy vocals that are the staple traits of those genres.  In their heyday, during the late 80s and early 90s, The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Chapterhouse, Spiritualized and many others gave birth to "the scene that celebrated itself".

The genre was virtually cast aside with the onset of Brit-pop and Grunge, but left in its wake were dozens of amazing artists with scores of records that still cry out to be heard today.  Those records are too many to list, but easy enough to find.  I encourage you to do so.

I discovered L.A.'s The Meeting Places listening to a dream pop webcast.  I was very surprised to hear a modern band sound like this, as I had no idea shoegaze was still a "thing" anywhere, let alone America.  When I first heard "Freeze Our Stares", I literally did freeze in place.  I hadn't heard something like this from any band in quite some time  "Stares" opens the album and immediately brings you to that place of comfortable numbness, where external senses shut off and the brain yearns to take a journey walking the fine line that separates music and noise that all shoegaze artists walked.  Even the more rock-like numbers, such as "Blur the Lines" and "On Our Own", induce chills with ethereal melodies reminiscent of Lush's "Gala" compilation.  "Take to the Sun" begins as a slow, sweeping number that erupts halfway-through into an explosion of drone and feedback that is incredibly reminiscent of MBV's Loveless album.

Wholly engaging and beautifully crafted, "Find Yourself Along the Way" is a gem that shouldn't be missed by anyone, nor should the records that influenced it.

Into The Void

Those of you who know me maybe be asking yourselves...dude, seriously?

Those of you who don't know me.....Hi.

Why am I doing this?  Consider it an experiment.  That's how I'm approaching it.

I used to write quite a bit.  I was exceptional at it, in my opinion.  However, I chose an alternate career path that didn't require these talents.  I'm not saying that I chose the wrong path, but I can say that I made the mistake of choosing to ignore an avenue I used to express myself in the best way I possibly could.

I'm not a conversationalist.  As Chili Palmer said, I never say more than I have to.  It drives the people closest to me nuts.  I've gotten better at it, but sometimes, I find a bit of silence to be a glorious thing.

So this will be the place.  I have a need to write about the things that interest me.  Facebook doesn't really give me that avenue, and I can't express complete thoughts in 140 characters.  I've chosen to do this through Blogspot as I have no idea how far I will take this.  Maybe I'll invest in my own site if my narcissistic ramblings gain any traction.  I don't know that I'm an expert on any subject.  I just know what I know.

This blog has no theme or central focus, at least for the time being.

I'm heavily into all genres of music - sometimes, I will write about that.

I'm a musician- sometimes, I will write about that.

I'm a huge movie buff - sometimes, I will write about that.

I am a homebrewer and consider myself a beer connoisseur - sometimes, I will write about that.

I love baseball and hockey - sometimes, I will write about that.

I have random thoughts all day long - sometimes, I will write about those.

I have no interest in world politics or organized religion, except to say that the world would be a finer place without both.  That is about all I will ever write about that.

Comments and discussion are welcome.  Talk to you soon.

Peace and love, peace and love...

NV