And I like the song.

We celebrated my parents’ anniversary and it was so memorable and wonderful.

I was able to create gallons of my special brew for the special event. It was a full bodied customized beer intended for everyone. Not that they are full bodies or something, just a simple metaphor on living a life filled with wisdom, love, and respect.

I had some help from caterers when a beer fountain was mounted at the side of the stage where we had the party. It was held in a hall for around 300 guests. I even heard a comment that they know there are champagne fountains, but beer fountains? Well, that’s creativity for you, folks!

It actually was my fiancée’s idea that we create and set a mood. Well, she’s not an interior designer for nothing. I should help her think of something better for our wedding’s reception next year - or the guests wouldn’t be as awed if we repeat this stint.

It still brings me to tears when I recount what happened during that night.

“Tonight we celebrate the years of our parents. They have given us a good home, education, values and most of all, love.” (Waiters light the beer fountain and start to serve guests with glasses etched with words, “As time goes by”.)

“To start this night, allow us to bring you to that exact night years ago when they first made music together.” (The band plays the song while our parents danced.)

I’m not sure our successful paths in life as the kids would have been so successful, were it not for the folks.

They are the best.

My parents will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary next year. So I’ve been using my time to make a special brew for them. I have to prepare. You see, you need a lot of patience for these creations especially if you are thinking of making several batches of the same flavor.

I even invested in large-sized gallons, which I read could be a beginning for commercial production. I’m not ready yet to go commercial since I’m the only one who does all the brewing. I possibly can’t supply supermarkets at the rate I’m going. I think a small-scale business would be a profitable start. All you need is determination, patience, and well, lots of money.   It should be priced a little higher but I thought that it wouldn’t get sampled by the community if it would be too expensive.

They gang is now going by the name hopheads. Later on I found out that hopheads are fans of a kind of beer with strong hop flavors. I also make it with lesser calories, so they won’t get featured on the Biggest Loser tv show. I recently came across another article regarding the legality of selling home brews. You can’t please everyone, after all. Well, in some states, it is allowed and I belong to one of those states. Here’s to going by the legal way and pray to get supported by a really big manufacturer.

Also, I’m not too hot on food that’s injected with hormones and chemicals.

So, I’m thinking the more control I have over my foodstuffs the better.  Better I handle it, than a bunch of other people.

Organic beer, anyone?

For me, organic beer brewing at home is the best.

It’s been a little over a year since I proposed to my girlfriend and used my savings to turn my Pop’s garage into a small restaurant that offers Mom’s cookies, freshly baked pastries, and of course my organically-made beer.

Brewing with organic ingredients such as malt and hops really does produce the best tasting ones - all because the beer that I make is not made with any chemical fining agents or filtration. This creates that wonderful taste that my family, friends, and customers love to enjoy!

I have learned that these organic ingredients like malt has this lower protein content which later on eliminates the chances of producing this hazy looking dull colored beer. With the products I’ve created, all of them sparkled like gems!

Aside from creating sparkling looking beer, going organic with my ingredients allow me to control what goes into my creations. There are pesticides used to protect barley, hops, and yeast. If I use low grade ingredients, all these toxins get transferred to my beer. That is a big no-no! I don’t want to be ground zero for cancer, respiratory problems, and even allergies. I don’t want to wake up one day with the BFAD tearing my garage down.

I will make it a point to advertise my creations as 100% organically made. Not only do I help in maintaining my customer’s health, I also get to help the farming industry that supports organic plantation.

Patience is a virtue, that’s what they always say.

But finally the wait is over! I transferred all the bottles in the chiller. I called my Rat Pack to come over the house after dinner so we can all taste my labor of love. Even though I’ve stuck label stickers on all the bottles, I do not have an idea what to call it. Well, I think I can think of something for this one.

Pop kept on opening and closing the chiller for about a hundred times and Mom even made some biscuits and sliced some cheese to accompany the drink. Everyone is really excited, but I am so nervous. What if it didn’t taste good? What if it didn’t even smell good? What if it turned to be a fermented mixture from outer space?

My family decided to make this beer tasting an event. Glass flutes were displayed on the kitchen nook. Hey. I made beer not champagne. “Dear, it calls for something fancy. You have exerted a big effort to make this brew,” Mom said, but I told her that it was nothing. I just mixed it all together and left it on its own. It was no trouble at all.

After dinner, like clockwork, all the people close to me gathered in the living room. I opened the chilled bottles and poured onto those glass flutes my Mom prepared. Everyone smelled, sipped, and drank the concoction I made. I got the name for it. Pop said it when I asked how it was.

He said “Too Marvelous for Words.”

At least that’s what I am hoping.  LOL!

A few days have passed by and I’m proud to say that I’ve been in bars and pubs in my area. I’m a budding home brewer! I’ve been there to study the different tastes and flavors of brews. I should call myself the Brewmeister or The Darth Brewer to that effect.

I have hogged the Internet and visited sites about this newest hobby, which in the long run, appealed to me as quite rewarding. Imagine opening bar in your garage. Well, I think Pop has to look for a new place to park his Buick. What would his reaction be if I told him “Pop I’m taking over the garage?” Think he’ll just say “And do what? Start a band or something?”

Let me take you on a crash-course in knowing your beer. There is a saying that you are what you eat. I think it also goes for you are what you drink right? Before the Brewmeister starts his drunken master kung-fu skills, let me remind you drinkers and hopefully not future Alcoholic Anonymous recruits that you have to be responsible drinkers!

Remember to mix food with your drinks. Not the way you are thinking. What I meant was to grab something to eat when you’re drinking. Choose the ones with lots of oil. That way, you won’t get easily drunk. Chemistry dudes. Oil is heaver than liquid so it stays in the bottom part of your belly while the alcohol floats above it.

All you have to do is go online and sign up.

Many folks have lost loved-ones from drunk drivers, but others like me are just stepping up in support.

I hate that expression ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD, because that is what has caused many deaths.  So go sign up if you can.

I’m against drunk driving. I hate people who chug down every last drop of alcohol they could get their hands on but has this difficulty of grabbing the steering wheel and keeping it straight.

Well, a few minutes after my Rat Pack left with Mom’s cookies in a tow, I transferred the cooled mixture to a bottling bucket that has two kinds of sugar. The thick residue that is actually made of non-crazy yeast and hops stays in the fermenter. I leave these bottles alone for 10 days and after that, they’re ready to be chilled.

For the past couple of days that I was so busy with brewing, I forgot to even call my girlfriend. I know, I know. Think she’ll hate me for a season? We’ve been together for a 6 months now. She lives a few blocks down my street. I’ll call her and apologize.

From my numerous brew hunts, I picked up a flavor that I think she will definitely love. It’s called Strawberry Beer. It’s really sweet and tastes real good yet it has this hard punch on your 10th mug. Well, I told you I was a drinker. I think she’ll like that.

I think I’ll try brewing beer for her soon. Did I mention that she has strawberry colored hair too? Yup. A red head. I could name it Drizzling Strawberries. Well if she drinks that with that red hair of hers and the red tints of the beer, it’ll be a downpour!

One thing I am plearning here is patience.

Or, at least I am trying to learn patience.

There is a slow and logical order for making things here, and I am trying to follow directions.

During one of the barrel nights with my Rat Pack, I opened the topic for the night and told them of the great progress I have with my home brewing. I even invited them over to the garage the following day to witness the event. Topic flew after each topic and little did we know, the bar we went drinking at was about to close.

You see, being friends with the Rat Pack is such a blessing. I have known these guys since kindergarten. Their parents were my parent’s friends and my grandparents were friends of their grandparents, too. We come from a long line of drinkers. I mean alcohol lovers. Uhm, social drinkers? Occasional drinkers? I’m not getting straight here. We drink when there is an occasion.

I reminded my friends about driving on our way out the bar, which has this funny door sign that says Walk in from the left door swing and Pass out on the right door swing. Hangovers were pretty bad for these guys so they came by when I had finished boiling and cooling my Barley, Hops, and Wort.

They found me rinsing my fermenter. I began pouring my cooled Wort into the clean fermenter and started to pitch the yeast. With everything in place, I told them that I have to wait for 2 or 3 more days for the yeast to go wild and crazy.

That’s it? The Rat Pack chorused and started to leave the kitchen, but not before hoarding handfuls of Mom’s cookies from the jar.

Not sure i picked that.

Oh well.

Still, it preoccupies my thoughts between everything else.

A gallon for your kiss, a case if you tell me that you love me… I’m sorry but home brewing has invaded my thoughts. My sister was listening to that song, “Penny for your Thoughts” a few minutes ago, so I decided to sing along with it. Much to my attempt in scoring a yellow card with the “I’m going to Hollywood” pass, I sang the song with different words.

Now that I’ve bought the items to help me start this brilliant hobby, I have learned through my endless research that brewing can take more than a few hours to complete, so I have to allot time for this quest. Starting with clean surroundings would mean a big deal.

I have to fill my stainless steel kettle about 2/3 full of water then boil it on high. When it gets real hot, I have to add malt extract syrup. Malt is the heart of the beer, so I have to be careful in picking the best one. It’s often called Barley. After an hour of constant stirring I’ve produced Wort. Not a nice name, but it sounds cool.

I then add an ounce of Hops when I see the steady boil of the Wort. When boiling is done after an hour, I add an ounce of Hops once more to get that rich aroma found in fresh brews. Last step is to cool the mixture down and sanitize the area so it doesn’t absorb any strange aroma from around the kitchen.

That’s my idea.  Save money.

And in the best of times, figure out a way to make some money to help pay expenses.

I’m going to get some bumper stickers: Will Brew. Will Earn. Soon.

As the unofficial bartender of the original Rat Pack, Dean Martin’s love for drinking is no secret. When I was a lot younger, my Pop would come home after work with a vinyl record of Dean. He’d sing it over and over, dance with my mother and even lull me to sleep. I have been raised by a family of music lovers and well, alcohol lovers too.

Last night, I approached Pop and told him about home brewing. At first he didn’t want to hear anything more about it. But I told him that one could make big bucks out of it. He said “Now you’re talking, son. But how would you do it? “

I ranted on and on about the whole concept of home brewing that starts with finding the right item that did not usually reside in your kitchen. Everything could be bought at the local thrift store!

Well, you need a stainless steel brew kettle, an airlock that allows the carbon dioxide to escape when you get to a certain stage in the process, racking cane that’s made of plastic that is fitted over with this hose - reminds me of that drinking spree back in college!

Where was I? You need a lot of clean, non-twist beer bottles, and for starters, two cans of liquid malt extract which is still unhopped. Now don’t hop around the store, dude! It’s a process not a dance. The list went on and Pop got really interested in this venture!

I don’t remember if I gave everyone the right website.

We’re starting a new hobby: moonshine.

Or at least attempting it.

This may prove to be a disaster.

“Drink up all you people. Order anything you see. The drink and the laughs on me.” The great Frank Sinatra sang these words in his song Angel Eyes and I intend to sing it too. You see, I’ve always wanted to be the King of the Hill, Top of the Heap in the things I do.

Aside from being a Frank Sinatra aficionado, I, together with my own version of the Rat Pack, love to unwind nightly with a few bottles of beer. It may seem costly, but that’s our way of chilling out after a stressful day.

Imagine shelling out around 7 dollars for a 6 pack of beer. That’s enough for one person! Yes, I’m still young - just in the 20-something range. So my alcohol tolerance is high. Well, my uncle, who turned 60 a couple of months back, claims he could finish around 14 bottles in a good day and half in a not so bad day. I guess, drinking does run in the family after all.

During one of my Rat Pack’s barrel nights, as we fondly call drinking gatherings at home, I told my friends that I came across this article in the Net which spoke about brewing beer at home. I definitely got high fives and cheers when I told them that I had this idea of brewing beer on my own.

Yup, concocting your special brew right in the comfort of your home!  Not by the bottle but by gallons and barrels! Now, wouldn’t that be divine?