During this time of celebration and the welcoming in of the New Year, enjoy and have fun, just do it safely!

Remember these helpful hints:

• Don’t drink if you are under the age of 21.
• Offer to be the designated driver, and drink only non-alcoholic beverages.
• Eat foods that are high in protein or carbohydrates if you are drinking alcohol.
• If another guest is having too much to drink, engage them in conversation to help slow their rate of drinking.
• Stop drinking alcoholic beverages about two hours before the party is over. Your body will then have time to absorb the alcohol you have consumed.
• Be a friend. If another guest has had too much to drink, help your host not let them drive. Offer to drive them home. Whatever you do, don’t give in. Friends don’t let friends drink and drive!

From TheHopsReview.com: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Filed by Kevin at 12:45 pm under Site Related
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Our first Podcast!

I can’t believe it, we finally made a Podcast. Turns out, this process isn’t exactly as easy as you would think. I think we spend over three hours trying to record a basic nine minute segment. At least we learned a lot in the process and had a good time doing it.

In any case, in this episode, Paul and I review Red Hook ESB amber ale. The consensus? Well, you’ll have to listen to the Podcast to find out…

Download as a MP3 file.
iTunes users, click here

Links from the Podcast:

• http://redhook.com/ales_esb1.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tettnang
• http://www.ebrew.com/hops/willamette.htm

Filed by Kevin at 10:52 am under Podcasts
3 Comments

Interesting product for the Mac user: BeerAlchemy

“BeerAlchemy is designed to help homebrewers create great beer. It takes the drudgery out of recipe formulation and looks after all your recipes too”

Filed by Kevin at 10:08 am under Site Related
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“Humulus Lupulus (hops) are the flowering cone of a perennial vining plant and a cousin of the cannabis variety (sorry no THC in this stuff) that typically thrives in climates similar to the ones that grapes do. Hop plants are dioecious, meaning the males and females flower on separate plants — and the female cones are used in the brewing process. Hops are the age old seasoning of the beer, the liquid gargoyles who ward-off spoilage from wild bacteria and bringers of balance to sweet malts. They also lend a hand in head retention, help to clear beer (acting as a natural filter) and please the palate by imparting their unique characters and flavours. Basically, hops put the “bitter” in beer. ”

source: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/hops.php

Filed by Kevin at 12:39 pm under Links
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Filed by Kevin at 11:13 pm under Beer Making, Links
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The Brewmaster’s Bible : Gold Standard for Home Brewers, The

Author: Stephen Snyder

Year: 1997

Publisher: Morrow Cookbooks

Question:

I was thinking of getting this book, to familiarize myself with the beer making process.

Does anyone have it, or could they recommend something better?

Filed by Kevin at 11:07 pm under Books, Beer Making
2 Comments

It really is hard to believe that in just a week’s time, we have gone from a simple idea, to a full fledged web site. From what Paul tells me, he should have recording equipment available within the next few days. This means we’ll be able to create our first Podcast, where we will be reviewing our first selection: Gordon Biersch (of course we still have to find it first).

We also have a new member to the staff. Another good friend of ours, Jason McArtor. Welcome aboard Jason!

A couple other items to note:

1. The forum is now active. Please take a look at the categories available and post something relative. We really hope to use the forum to help facilitate a connection between our readers. If there is anything that seems to be missing, as far as categories go, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
2. Design and functionality of the site is basically complete. After some struggles with CSS, I believe we really have something worthy to look at. We hope you agree.
3. I have also implemented the structured blogging plug-in for Wordpress. Basically, through this nifty plug-in, we have the ability to quickly and easily write what is classified as microcontent. In a nutshell, it is very easy for us to write reviews, post about events, write audio/video posts, as well as showcase groups and people. It really is a cool thing, that anyone running a Wordpress blog should look in to.

We’re off to do a hops review! It is our namesake after all.

Filed by Kevin at 8:36 pm under Site Related
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Do you have a favorite beer that isn’t mainstream? Submit your frosty favorite and we’ll do a review.

Filed by Kevin at 7:00 pm under Site Related
5 Comments

Welcome to the inaugural first post of theHopsReview.com.

This site was started because we have a passion about good quality beer. With this site, we hope to provide our readers with the best information possible concerning our favorite beverage.

Please feel free to browse the site and comment on how we are doing.

Thank you,
Kevin & Paul

Filed by Kevin at 4:44 pm under Site Related
2 Comments