Tap Handles

I realize that my posting has been rather sporadic lately. I certainly have had ample time to so so. I have been somewhat disgusted with myself that my blog has turned into a journal of "useless information" (thanks Mick). I have worked a few "night jobs" the last few weeks and it has been hot as hell and my old BBQ competition team once again won in the Annual Hempstead Watermelon BBQ Cooking Contest. The Mrs The Third and I had the chance to visit some of our old friends last week and I must admit the experience was bittersweet.


This started as a beer blog and dammit I need to veer back on course. I need to stop detailing the circus life of my (what is turning out to be) part time job with the Power Load. Additionally stories about my feelings and favorite sports teams are pretty sappy I suppose. I need to focus on the quest for the golden liquid staff of life.


I have two son in laws. Both of them are special to me (in their own way). My first one (the one who joined the family first) is my granddaughter's (Little Cat) daddy. He actually is a good man but he is not as intellectually developed as I am sure one day he will be. I admire his child like qualities yet he is a good and loving husband to his wife (my daughter who still has no official TBC nickname). The past few months has required that he grow up a lot and he is do quite well at it.


My second son in law, The Jim is (as I have cited in previous blogs) far and away the smartest person I have ever met. He is actually the person who inspired me to begin TBC. He too is a good and loving husband to his wife, The Prodigy.


Upon returning from vi sting with our friends last Saturday we returned home to find a package addressed to me. Inside was a tee shirt. At first The Mrs. The Third began to berate me for purchasing yet another tee shirt. I literally have over a hundred now. What I found was a custom made shirt that said on the front "The Brew Chronicles - Quenching Your Thirst For Knowledge" Also on the front of the shirt are numerous pictures of beer logos that have found their way on my blogs and centered among them is my family crest. On the back of the shirt is the address to this blog and a Celtic cross with what looks like a beer mug inside of it.

The shirt really is an inspired work of art and I am very impressed with it. It was my father's day gift from The Prodigy and The Jim and it was the idea and brainchild project of The Jim. It has been a long time since I have received a gift that has been as special as this has been. Now if I can get my "crappy art" I will be a happy man. I plan on wearing it this evening as The Mrs The Third and I step into O'Brien's for a weekly three "happy hour" pints.


Speaking of O'Brien's, I must admit that little place is becoming a pretty good "beer bar". Their selection is continuing to improve. They still have not truly bit the bullet and tapped a real I.P.A., but they are certainly on the right tract. They will be soon pouring # 9 from Magic Hat. They will be one of only a few select places in Texas that will be doing so. a few months ago I brought back a couple of bottles for them to sample and now within a few days they will have the beer on tap. Actually I have recommended several other beers for them to tap. They have followed my suggestions several times and each has been very successful for them.

I began thinking the other day what other beers I would love to see on tap at my favorite pub.

Here is my list. I will actually make a copy of it and give it to Ryan (one of the owners of the pub)
I submit this list with only two criteria.

a. There is or possibly is, a cult following of the beer

b. The beer is actually good



1. Yuengling Lager

2. any beer from Bell Brewery

3. any beer from Schlafly Brewery

4. Moose Drool Brown Ale

5. Red Trolley ale

6. any beer from Abita Brewing

7. Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale (awesome beer)

8. any beer from Alaskan Brewery

9. any beer from New Glarus Brewery (Spotted Cow or Flying Squirrel)

10. Smuttynose Brown Dog Ale

11. any beer from Flying Dog Brewery

12. any beer from Odell Brewery (Their 90 Shilling and IPA are both awesome)

13. any beer from Flying Fish Brewery

14. Goose Island 312 (what I consider one of the best wheat beers I have ever had)

15. Goose Island Honker Ale

16, Widmer Brother's Drifter Ale

17. any beer from Allagash Brewing (preferably their whit beer)

18. any beer from Hair of the Dog Brewery (Fred or Blue Dot would be my favs)

19. any beer from Uncle Billy's Brewery (I like Hell in Keller)

20. Pearl (Triple X's for Texas)

I will be leaving Sunday to drive up to Minnesota for about a week. I am looking forward to some Scape Goat and Moose Droll as well as other cool beers I have not had in a while.

I will be taking my blogging machine with me and I will attempt to write a few lines or two.

....don't you know,

The Third

Gris Gris

The last time I was in the Big Easy was several years ago. It was pre Katrina. I was working here with a friend of mine and (at the time my boss). His company was a MBE. I had been working pretty hard to impress him as to how well I did on the job and I think he really was buying it. He was so impressed that he agreed to buy me dinner at any restaurant in New Orleans that I chose.. Trust me, they have a few here.( Oh yea I am back again. I brought my blogging machine with me) . I did him right and we ate at The Napoleon House. For those of you who are unfamiliar with New Awlins food, The Napoleon House and Central Grocery both claim to have invented the Mufelleta sandwich. I tend to think the claim rightfully belongs to the later but in my opinion the best Mufelleta is served at The Napoleon House. It is located on Chartes Street in the Heart of the "Quarter". The last time I was here the Essence Festival was in high swing and once again the 15th Annual Essence Festival was this weekend. A co worker (from West"By Gawd" Virginia) and I visited the "Quarter" this past Wednesday night. It was so hot it was nearly impossible to breathe. The sandwich was every bit as good as I imagined it to be. Aman was truly impressed. I also had a bowl of gumbo which was very tasty and a "Dixie" "Jazz" beer to wash it all down. I must admit it was a little strange drinking a beer enriched in New Orleans folk lore yet now brewed in Wisconsin. (Although I read they may one day brew in New Orleans). After our meal I took Aman on a stroll down Bourbon Street then to Jackson Square where some pimp was threatening to beat up his whore. We passed the one room flat my cousin Donnie had on Pirate Alley across from the side of St. Louis Cathedral . I took him to Cafe DuMonde where he informed me he did not like coffee thus ending up at my favorite watering holes in New Orleans,, Tujacques. We were back on the Westbank before 10 PM. The three hour tour sated my Big Easy fix for at least a few more years. My co worker was pretty impressed. I even ordered a dozen on the half shelf and he quaffed one down to prove he was not a pussy. I still ate the remaining 12.


I grew up in Louisisana but far away from New Orleans. When I was 8 , the same year I had the mumps, my father took us all to the Crescent City for the first time. I remember strolling on Decatur and smelling the fish at the fish market and the coffee and beinets. We toured the Cabildo and St. Louies.


I have returned many times since. I have walked, stumbled and crawled all over the Quarter. I have ridden the Ferris wheel and swam in the Pontchartrain. I have ridden the street cars and slept in a house in the Garden District. I have drank Irish whiskey in Irish Town and eaten some of the best German food in America at Kolbs. I stood in line for two hours to eat at K Paul's. I have had Sunday Brunch at Commander's Palace. I have spent time along Carrolton and I consider Rocky and Carlos' the best place on this planet to eat a oyster poboy and the Ferdie at Mother's is beyond belief.



When I witnessed the flooding from Katrina a few years back I honestly could not hold back the tears. I have never had any desire to live in New Orleans. If your were to give me the finest house in the Garden District I would visit only. But like it or not the Parish seat of Orleans (pronounce Or leens) is embedded in everyone who ever lived in the Sportsman's' Paradise.

New Orleans and the surrounding area is famous for several people. Uncle Carlos, (Carlos Marcello)* come to mind as well as the only man in America to be actually excummunitcated from The Catholic Church ( the Pope) because of his racist views, Judge Leandor Perez

Both men are still revered in the area. I must admit that Uncle Carlos was my cousin Jeff (Liam's) actual Godfather.

The word corruption originated in New Orleans. Mayors are infamous for their nefarious willing and dealing. I recall good old Moon Landreu and his successors Dutch and Marc Morial, Sidney Barthelemy and Ray Nagin. They have perfected the fine art of entitlement. What I am about to write is true and is free of hyperbole. .....

The Parish of Orleans, Louisiana and the City of New Orleans has received a significant more federal aid and Federal Government subsidy than any other parish/county and city in America, prior and after August 29, 2005. Thats right before and...after. A significant amount of New Orleans residents who are male are of a third generation of men who have not held a full time job at any point in their life. They, like their fathers and grand fathers have woke each morning and shuffled down St. Claude to the nearest corner store and purchased a Forty and a pack of Kools. They are the biological parent of numerous children and receive a portion of each child's mother's government subsidy check. they have lived in deplorable conditions and continue to inseminate future welfare recipients. Before the levee broke and flooded the lower Ninty Ward. The entire area was a true shit hole. When the levee broke it was just a wet shit hole.

The Army Corps of Engineers has subsidized New Orleans and the surrounding area for decades. The Feds realized that the levees truly needed to be reinforced. those guy (engineers) knew that any form of adjustment in the current weather patterns would cause a cataclysmic change in the water flow in the Mississippi River as well as the second largest saltwater estuary in America. Millions and millions of dollars were doled out to a litany of governmental agencies.

But the Nola power elite had a plan. It is the sort of plan that only someone from Louisiana could appreciate. "Lets tell the Feds we are spending money on levee repair. Let give them horseshit receipts and get all of the money. We could use the money to divert river sand from the Big Muddy and deposit into Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. We could in effect create new land. Upon it we shall build a gambling mecca on the level of Las Vegas. We can then tax the living shit out of the tourists and use the money to build a first rate levee system. So in the long run, the money received from the Feds for levee enhancement will ultimately result in actually levee enhancement. ...But then a not so gentle lady named Katrina came to call and the idea washed out with the floods.

So they were caught right? Well not really. It seems that they are now saying the Feds simply did not give enough money and besides George W. failed to have buses lined up to deliver the wards of the state to higher ground.

I could go on but what's the use?

Laissez les bon temps roulez

Le Tiers

Post Script

* Carlos Marcello was a mafia "Don". He was the "Godfather of Louisiana". Most people in Louisiana knew of him. ( Even way up in Shreveport). There are many people who believe that he is responsible for the assasination of John F. Kennedy. One day I received a call from my cousin Jeff to eat lunch with him and my uncle Alpin. I met them at a resturant called Sansone's. on King's highway. When I walked in I saw Jeff and Uncle Al setting at a table with an older man. I walked up and my uncle introduced me to Mr. Marcello, Jeff's Godfather. Many year's later I served as a pall bearer at my cousin's funeral. As I was escorting Liam's casket from the altar I looked up into the crowd of mourner's. My eyes were filled with tears and I looked and I saw that man I met at Sansone's so many years earlier. He was crying harder than I was.

3rd