HopHead Brew Blog

Hello fellow Brew Lovers, I know, I haven’t written in a while, let me explain why.

I have several hobbies, and building websites is one of them, and that is what I have been doing. As a brewer, and beer drinker, this will always be a top concern of mine, not just my brewing and drinking, but promoting the hobby in general. I get calls from other brewers who have found this site, and are looking for a homebrew club near them, and can’t find one. Why can’t they find the other sites out there? That is an easy one, they don’t get promoted the way this site does. I spend a lot of time on promoting a lot of websites and have finally decided to build a special site that will help my fellow brewers to promote, not just their favorite brew sites, but their business sites as well!

Many of the webmasters out there are home brewers, many have multiple sites, and everybody has been to those “autosurf” sites, wanting what those sites have to offer, but don’t want to have to look at a bunch of “get rich quick”, “E-mail Harvesters”, or other scam sites, the list could go on forever. So, when I built this site, there were several things that I learned, as a surfer myself for years, I knew what I was sick and tired of seeing, and those things are not allowed on this site!

Why you might ask? An autosurf site is very useful in several ways, first, the more traffic to your site, the better it ranks, so it comes up in the searches people do all day long! Second, people see your site and could possibly get involved with whatever it is you are doing or promoting. However, if your site is buried with all of the junk, who can find it?

If you have a website that you would like to promote, I would like to invite you to join, and yes, it is FREE, but you do need to surf a bit, that is what makes it all work! So, come take a look, register, and surf! TrafficComplex.com

When you join, you will receive 3000 FREE credits to apply to the sites you want to promote, not to mention referral bonus for anyone else you refer, and yes again, it is FREE! If you are a reader of any of my Blogs, or the posts they contain, you know that I am about half crazy, so when you are an active surfer, you will get all kinds of free credits by watching the surfbar, just click the link and they will get added to your account!

There is also a blog incorporated into this site, it is even the home page, so that you can see what is going on at the site on your way to login or register! We have also added a forum, bulletin board, or whatever you want to call it, so that we can all share our knowledge and report problem websites that somehow slip through the cracks.

So, get you a cold brew, sign up, surf, and tell everybody you know, it will help your sites get seen, and we all need that!

Today I found a post on HotAir.com that addressed this issue, check it out here. This inspired me to write this, because as you know, I also have a Political Opinion Blog, so I visit many blogs of all types.

Anyway, it got me to wondering, is it true? Do beer drinkers really skew towards John McCain?

If this theory is true, I can just see the party now! It would make a political rally a good thing!

Heck, I’m in! Free Beer! Dang right I’ll vote for him! Well, I actually like John McCain, and can’t stand any of the dumbocrats, so, Free Beer is just a bonus!

Any other beer drinking McCain fans out there?

The post also says that wine drinkers lean toward democrats, that is disturbing, because I know a lot of homebrewers that also make mead and wine. Come on folks, post a comment, tell me what you think!

Technorati Tags: beer drinkers lean toward John McCain

Has anybody but me noticed what has happened in the last few months?

Beer prices have gone up, way up! I last bought a six pack of Dead Guy Ale for about 7 bucks, now it is over $11!

Anybody else know why? Because they are using all of the corn,wheat, and barley, etc, for making methanol, to mix with gasoline! Hey gas prices at $3.00 a gallon is one thing, beer at $11 a six pack is another!

We need to all understand that when you take something from one place, it comes out of another!

These dreamers, that think using corn, wheat and barley, as a renewable fuel, are doing some good, need to slow down, as they increase these fantasies, they also increase our realities!

What we need to do, is FIND MORE OIL! Thus leaving our BEER alone!

Here is my analysis, my gas costs have gone up about $20 a month, but my BEER went up about $75 a month. What good will that do!

Our fuel costs less than in Europe way back in the 80’s, and our BEER costs even more than gas! The Europeans pay major tax on everything, everything but BEER!

This is America! We need to find a better way!

Speaking of increases, my dog food was at about $7 a 20lb bag, now it is at $9!

Has gas gone down? NO! So, why are they doing this? You tell me! Any other opinions about this?

Technorati Tags: beer, gas, dog food, prices, tree huggers, ethanol

Has anybody but me noticed the trend with the packaging of todays beer? I mean personally, I like the label, when you compare it to the many others that look similar to it, but that is my point, they are all starting to look alike! It’s almost like a bunch of kids with photo-shop went crazy and designed beer labels! Maybe this was the first and the others copied that look? Does anybody know?

The only thing bad is that since they all look alike, how do you get your product to stand out? I can tell you with this one, all you have to do is taste it! One sip and you won’t forget it!

When I opened the first bottle, I heard a familiar crisp sound, which usually means “bottle conditioned” Who knows, maybe it is? I didn’t find anything on the Great Divide website, does anybody know?

As this first brew poured into the glass, the first thing I noticed was that it was actually a bit dark to be a “pale” but, this did not upset me, when I brew an IPA it is always darker than the “specs” say it should be, so that is a good thing!

As I got to the last bit in the bottle, I noticed a sediment! Yeast! Maybe it is bottle conditioned? Then I noticed there was a slightly green tint to the sediment, I got a great big smile at that point because surely they haven’t filtered all the flavor away and green, that means HOPS! (I hoped)

This beer, in my opinion, has a full body and a thick foamy head, compared to many others, so as I took that first sip, I didn’t want that flavor to end, and it didn’t disappoint, the hops were there all they way through!

Below you can read an excerpt from Great Divide Brewing’s Website, and see what they say, and when you click the link to read more, you will also find what others have said about this brewery and their beers, I saw nothing that I could disagree with.

Titan IPA
Traditionally India Pale Ales, the hoppiest of all pales, were brewed with more alcohol and large quantities of hops in order to survive the lengthy ocean journey from the U.K. to India. Unlike our brewing forefathers, Great Divide enjoys the modern benefits of refrigeration and we don’t have any plans to ship Titan IPA to India. Instead, we brew Titan IPA for hop disciples – independent beer drinkers seeking out robust, flavorful beers characterized by their abundance of hops flavor, aroma and bitterness. As a big, aggressively hopped India Pale Ale, Titan IPA fills this bill – beginning with piney hop aromas and citrus hop flavors, and finishing with a rich, malty sweetness that is carefully balanced with crisp hop bitterness.

Titan IPA weighs in at a considerable 65 International Bittering Units (IBUs).

(Read more)

Many of you may be familiar with this brewery, it is new to me, if I have seen it before, maybe that packaging issue got me, and I thought I had already tried
it, it looks a lot like Pyramid, same color etc, but I can
assure you, it doesn’t taste the same! I can’t wait to try the rest of
their brews! That Hercules Double IPA sounds really good!

While I’m thinking about it, I have another question, if a young person can join the military, and vote, why can’t they drink beer? It seems to me that if they can’t be trusted to drink a beer, how can you trust them to vote? Do you have an opinion? Visit my other site, OpinionHead.com, I told you it was coming, now it is here and I need help! I need more OPINIONATED authors, check out the site and drop me a note if you are interested. OpinionHead.com

Technorati Tags: great divide brewing, Titan IPA, hophead, opinionhead

I know that many people, who have done host transfers, may be wondering what all the fuss is about, I’ll explain. I have several domains, each with many layers, many problems you can say, but, it is all done now!

I will be back to my regular reporting on anything I can find about beer! Tonight, I have to do a follow up to the Keystone Light post The main thing I have to say is, if you like beer, not just the expensive stuff, but all beer, you have to have a baseline or benchmark to go from, and personally, for regular beer, it is Budbrewski for me! Since my break, the keystone post, I haven’t had a beer! Tragic I know! However, after it is all done, except for the fine tuning, I wanted to have a beer! Remember, keystone is the norm here, I wanted a bud, and comparing the two is a bit like chalk and cheese! They start out the same, but finish much different.

When drinking the Keystone, I had this overwhelmingly stupid feeling, my brain was out of order, yes, gettin drunk does that, but I barely had a buzz! After drinking just 6 of my Budbrewski’s, I had mor of a buzz, but don’t have that cloud in my head! Hmm, for $3.24 a twelve-pack difference, I will buy the Bud!

I still have some work to do, and guess what, I can do it, even on my “vacation”, I know this, once I get my hands on some Arrogant Bastard, I will appreciate it even more!

Technorati Tags: budbrewski, hophead, keystone