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Played nine holes of golf before dinner. Not necessarily hot out but humid. Leaking oil halfway thru.

Rehydrating from @gromitdj
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Just giving you guff. I wasted five years of my life chasing the ultimate fizzy yellow swill during my Panther Piss Project. It's cheap and easy fun to poke canned domestic swill in the eye from time to time, but it's a fascinating and highly technical rabbit hole that you can very easily lose yourself in if you're not careful. Joking aside, it's perilous to start pondering the hops in Coors Light, you see the evidence in my posts. Turn away, flee, do not ponder the hops in Coors Light! Some knowledge is not worth having!!!!
I will take your advice and happily buy the occasional pint for $6 at the lodge. I'll stick with the quest for the perfect best bitter.
 
Went to a fun murder mystery tonight at a nearby winery. So having some wine at home after. By its description, this is a California red blend known for its rich, full-bodied flavor profile. It features notes of ripe blackberry, black cherry, dark chocolate, espresso, and roasted oak. The wine is crafted to be smooth, balanced, and enjoyable as an everyday red, with a good depth of flavor and complexity. It used to be called Witching Hour dark red blend. Now its called Stories and Spells. Its one we’ve had a few times.

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Today I kickoff at least 11 days of delicious Helles beers! So what constitutes a Helles beer? Well, I rounded up the 11 Helles Lagers currently available in Southern California to find out what makes these tick. Traditionally, a Helles is a “Light” beer, and not the way we view “Light” in the US. Literally, Helles refers to “Light” in the German way, meaning “Light” in color, but not light in Calories or ABV.

So when we see the words “Hell” or Helles”, we are referring to a “Light Color” but malt-forward Lager. Whereas with a hop-forward Pilsner, we might see 25-45 IBU, on a more malt-forward Helles we might expect between 16-22 IBU. Hey, what about that 3-point IBU gap between a Helles and a Pilsner? We’ll that’s sort of the grey area you might find more highly-hopped Helles beers or more lightly-hopped Pilsners. It’s that crossover range between the two.

A good example of this is the North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsner I drank last month. This is a beer in that crossover range. Last month, I felt this was more of a Helles than a Pilsner – drink a bunch of Bavarian Pilsners in a row then drink a Scrimshaw and you’ll see what I mean. It is delicious, but definitely more of a Helles in my humble opinion. Because of that, I’m including Scrimshaw in this tour of Helles beers.

When I’m buying the beer for newbies, I generally suggest most non-beer people have a Helles rather than a Pilsner. My personal preference is Pilsners, but I find Helles Lagers are more what your typical non-beer drinker is looking for when they are forced into actually drinking a beer!

So, we have 8 German Helles Lagers, 1 can of Austrian Steigl which essentially is like a Bavarian Helles, even though they are out of Salzberg, and we have two California beers, Scrimshaw by North Coast Brewing in San Jose and Ruekeller Helles produced by The Bruery, located in Placentia, California. I have to point out, it takes a while to round up all participants here. Any time I do one of these tours, it might take a month or two to round up all the usual suspects, supply chains being what they are.

First up is Weltenburger Kloster, the World’s oldest Monastery Brewery since 1050! Not to be confused with Weihenstephaner, the World’s Oldest Brewery, Since 1040! Amazing that through all the European conflicts in 1000+ years, there are still records out there documenting this. Think about that – Weltenburger Kloster – cranking it out for 2025-1050 / 25 = 39.4 generations! Ice cold beer – great way of “bringing in the flock!”

This is a terrific, malt-forward beer, 4.9% ABV with a 20 IBU. You don’t see this brand much, but it is on the shelves now, go pick up a 4-pack! Prost!

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Since we're apparently in a race, 16oz X 10%= 160 Alcohol Units, AU for short. Adding this beer is now 264AU. My table still has a force field under it. 😏

I'm watching The Mummy so this many units of beer in ancient Egyptian. What a time to be alive!

𓃊𓃎𓃌 𓃀𓅂𓅂𓂋

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Having a drink to calm my nerves…
Just killed a big ol ‘effn rattlesnake chillin by my back door. I absolutely hate snakes and hate them even more when they surprise me. Sorry for you animal lovers, but venomous snakes don’t get second chances on my farm. (Dude was deceased when I took the pic with my daughter’s legs)
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Having a drink to calm my nerves…
Just killed a big ol ‘effn rattlesnake chillin by my back door. I absolutely hate snakes and hate them even more when they surprise me. Sorry for you animal lovers, but venomous snakes don’t get second chances on my farm. (Dude was deceased when I took the pic with my daughter’s legs)
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Glad everyone is okay! We run into Coral snakes the most on the back yard but dogs handle them well. No rattlers nor Copperheads yet.

Great great beer! Although, my liver might disagree.
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Having a drink to calm my nerves…
Just killed a big ol ‘effn rattlesnake chillin by my back door. I absolutely hate snakes and hate them even more when they surprise me. Sorry for you animal lovers, but venomous snakes don’t get second chances on my farm. (Dude was deceased when I took the pic with my daughter’s legs)
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That's a big one, oddly I haven't run into any of them on the trail this year yet. Knocks on wood.
 
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