Happy Independence Day

As with almost every year around this time
I'll be heading up to Montréal during the holidays
for the fantastic Jazz Festival and to bask
in the city's fun multicultural vibe and cool hipness.


So happy 4th of July y'all,
don't let little dubya and his pals ruin the country

any more while I'm gone.

God Bless America!

Triple Double Medalists

yeah baby! we gots homebrewing medals!!!!

"Where my troopers at?"

Wyclef, Shaggy and the Ska-Talites are doing a free
outdoors show in DC, so I've been listening to ol' Wyclef.

There's a fantastic sample at the start of the
"Hollywood to Hollywood" track off his 2000 "Ecleftic" album.

I finally found out what song that came from:
Super Cat "Dolly my Baby" (Bad Boy Extended Mix, 1993)
Featuring Third Eye, Notorious B.I.G and Sean "Puffy" Combs
propelled by Herbie Hancock and the Headhunter's "Watermelon Man"

Ginger, Guinness, Guava, Lychee... Ice Cream

York's Tropical Ice Cream in Silver Spring
is a Jamaican family-run quaint piece of heaven.

The crystallized ginger and coconut/pineapple
ice creams were fantastic, fresh and not overly sweet.

www.yorkcastleicecream.com
9324 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-589-1616

Iritis Band is Alive

Take a sneek peak out our myspace page under construction!
http://www.myspace.com/iritis

Spirit of Free Beer

The results are in for this year's Spirit of Free Beer.
My first ever homebrewing prize!

Click for full results:

SoFB is a nationally sanctioned homebrew competition,
open to anyone, and organized by my local homebrewing Club,
the Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP).

Yes I have been a proud BURPer for a good 6 years or so now.
I've been sporadically and lackadaisically brewing beer for
about 10 years now, yet i had never won or even placed in any
of the 5 or 6 competitions I had entered.

This time I benefited from the direct help of the famed Wendell,
it was Beth's lucky first brew and we got some kick-ass
yeast slurry from a local professional brewer.

Not only did we win the 3rd prize in the hotly disputed
Robust Porter category, but we won the top honor
for Extract Brewing.

Yeeeehaw!
Cheers