Beer and Boardgames

Something I've recently gotten into as a hobby is designer board games.  Things have come a long way since the era of games like Monopoly, Sorry!, and Life.  One thing that hasn't changed is taking a game and pasting a theme over it (I'm looking at you Cthulhu Monopoly).  Because, Capitalism.

Here are some games that feature beer either in the game's theme or as a game mechanic.

Beer: Do's and Don'ts for Hosting a Beer Tasting

A very impressive Collection of Sierra Nevada Beers.
Wait, we're drinking all of those tonight?

A fun thing for beer lovers to do, besides drinking beer, is to drink beer with friends.  One way to do this is to host a beer tasting.  These events can be set up in a myriad of ways so, to be helpful, here's some do's and don'ts for setting up a beer tasting event.

Do: Host a beer tasting event.  Everyone loves beer and would love to go to a fun event at your abode.

Don't: Invite every living soul you know.  Events like this tend to work better when between a gathering and a shindig, as opposed to full Hootenany (As described by Seth Green's character Oz in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Dead Man's Party): "Well, a gathering is brie, mellow song stylings; shindig, dip, less mellow song stylings, perhaps a large amount of malt beverage; and hootenanny, well it's chock full of hoot, [with] just a little bit of nanny."

Imagining NHL Players at Disneyland

So this happened.
Photo taken from DisZine

Living in Orange County, California, its hard to ignore Disneyland.  Especially at night with fireworks going off nightly at 9:25 pm during the summer, or so I hear.  From my house.  Every.  Single.  Night.

The other week Yahoo Puck Daddy's own West Coaster Jen Neale mentioned on twitter how she likes looking for hockey references while at Disneyland.  Here's how I imagine NHL players at Disneyland and what they'd be doing while there.

Setup:  At the conclusion of the NHL season, all the players head over to Disneyland for a private post season party.  Everyone shuffles into the park after a small issue with checking everyone's identification which is quickly resolved after Coach Joel Quenneville tells the staff something to effect of I've got your identification right here.

2014-15 NHL Predictions

Well, the 2014-2015 season is underway as I type this, so that means I'm probably the 25,002,019th person to throw predictions out there.  I've traditionally avoided doing season and post-season predictions because you might as well just pick teams out of a hat and pencil Stamkos and Crosby in for at least half of the awards.

Biggest Regular Season Drop-off: Anaheim - Here's a team that rode above average goaltending (9), below average shooting percentage (30), and an awful power play (22) to a Number One berth in the ultra competitive western Conference and then benched their starter in the playoffs.  With Hiller now in Calgary, I don't see Andersen and Gibson being ready to shoulder the load of an 82 game season.

Features I'd like to see in Future NHL Games

The release of NHL 15 is just around the corner, which means I should've written this about a year ago, just in case someone at EA reads this blog and was thinking about what new features one fan wants.

No matter what a developer does, there's always a desire for more (to go along with endless gripes).  Video game developers might even have a worse job than sports referees. At least the vitriol they experience is keyboard-based nerd rage as opposed to 15,000 plus hockey fans screaming "Ref you suck!" at every penalty called.  But overall, the overworked and underpaid developers rarely get the kudos they deserve.

So thank you for all that you do so I may live vicariously through pixelated avatars.

What are some features that I'd like to see added to a future version of the NHL games?

Types of Drivers as Hockey Players

This is actually a movie, not a picture (Photo by LA Times)

I live in Southern California, a place where you describe how far something is in time it takes to get there, not in actual distance.  In that way, I sort of get Han Solo's unit gaff when he described doing the "Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs."  (Though if you read this, it makes more sense, but kind of ruins my point, so don't click on the link).

As I drive, I often attribute personalities to cars near by.  Most of the time it's like a Fish Called Wanda, but not always.  And since I like hockey, I thought I'd compare the stereo-typical hockey players, by roles, to those of the people on the freeways.

Beer Intangibles

Tonight is the first night of the NHL entry draft where besides statistics players are often rated by various intangibles.  Intangibles, by nature, are intangible and therefore hard to quantify. Things like "desire", "clutch", "winner" are terms that are tossed around, as if the kid further down the bench loves losing and hates being on the ice, since that takes, like, effort.

In the world of craft beer people are always talking about IBUs, specific gravity, nose, color, taste, alcohol content, and other descriptors.

Does beer have intangibles?  I'm glad you asked; of course it does.  Here's some intangibles of beer being discussed as if it was a potential draft pick by a scouting staff and a general manager.

Wishlist for Untappd Badges and Features

I'm a sucker for achievements/badges/pointless recognition for non critical things like video games and apps like Untappd.  And while it feels like you can't have three beers without triggering a new badge, there's some items that I think deserve a badge.

Also, like everything ever invented, more features are better.  Of course, features cost money to develop, take memory, and generally make things less reliable.  But don't worry, we'll be drinking, so that will probably help slow us down too.

Here are some of my ideas...

Guide to Hockey Player Sign Language

There's more to hockey sign language than this, really.

Many hockey players can speak several languages so it shouldn't be a surprise that many know a specialized form of sign language.  This isn't your typical American Sign Language but rather a version that all hockey players know. 

Obvious things, like the picture of the Bruins' Andrew Ference (via Realtalkthemag.com) showing the Montreal fans where they rank in his heart are well, obvious. 

Below is a handy guide to hockey player sign language with the gesture and what it really means. 

What Homebrewer Excuses Really Mean

A home brewer may use a lot fancy words to describe their beer to help their friends understand what's being handed to them.

While most beer drinkers get "hoppy", "malty", and "bitter" there's a lot of other terms that home brewers will use to try and accurately describe their beer, while trying to hide that it probably wasn't exactly what they were going for.  And much like a haircut, it's bad when it's not what you wanted, no matter how much everyone else raves about it.

So here's some common excuses (not saying I've actually used some to most of these) and what they might really mean.  If you're not sure, ask "what were you going for?"

First Game Back

As a fan, I've endured three lockouts that have wiped out 150 regular season games and one entire post-season.  After the first two lockouts, I ran back to the NHL with open arms, and more importantly to them, screaming "take my money, all of it."  I bought tickets to games, video games, jersey's, hats, and t-shirts.  At one point in the early 2000's, I was probably rarely without one piece of hockey related garb at all times.

My attitude during these lockouts has also changed.  In 1994 I put a photo of Gary Bettman on my dart board as I vilified him as the culprit (without understanding the spectrum of the issues of the game).  In 2004-05, I found myself taking the owner's side and was hopeful that the salary cap would bring parity and prevent rich teams like the Rangers and the Maple Leafs from backing dump trucks full of money up to UFA's who could never match the hype.  Well, at least the former happened.  Meanwhile, if any NHL GM's are reading this, you might be able to get a slightly used David Clarkson for a pretty reasonable price from Toronto if you ask.

Review: Brewery Tours of Temecula

Tour Buses. Photos from Brewery Tours of Temecula

The other week my wife and I went to wine country for our anniversary and then promptly went on a brewery tour.  We (and by that I mean she) made reservations with the good folks at Brewery Tours of Temecula.  This is a review of that tour of some of Temecula's breweries.

Brew Day Timeline

Wort trying to survive our attempt to make beer.

Brew day is a big deal for every home brewer as all of your planning for your latest beer goes into action.  To help those who haven't tried homebrewing, I thought I'd help out by putting together a rough timeline for my friend's and my first all grain home brew.  We purchased a clone recipie for Bear Republic's Red Rocket from Austin Homebrew,

Beer is supposed to be fun and so we weren't really on a huge timetable, so you can probably be more efficient if you want.  Also, if you've never brewed, I'd recommend doing an all-extract beer first and then play with a mini-mash (half extract, half grain) before jumping into all-grain.

Puck n Beer's Guide to the Really Big Football Game

Today is one of the biggest sports days of the year as the NFL holds its annual championship game.  The Super Bowl... wait, am I allowed to write Super Bowl, or do I now owe the NFL a million dollars?  So, the Big Game almost transcends normal sports and has become a thing that millions around the world gather to watch.

Here's some things for hockey fans to help them understand the subtle differences:

Drinking (Video) Game: NHL 14

Two of things I really enjoy are video games and beer.  Sometimes these are enjoyed together.  Other times the games can drive you to drink.  I find this to be the case for EA's NHL 14 game.

As a disclaimer, I generally don't play drinking games as I like to savor the beers I drink, but I found myself take sips of beer after many of the items on the list below, which was the inspiration for this post.


Most of my time has been spent in the Live the Life mode and the Anniversary mode (which is just simple fun).  I may expand this later for GM mode after I get some time playing with that.

Great Gift for the Beer Lover in your Life

The holidays are upon us, unless you celebrate Hannukah which just past and now you're waiting for Purim (which, for your reference coincides with Valentine's Day), but that's not really the focus of this post.  The holidays are time for giving.  And what is the best gift to give?

Besides a "What's best in life?" t-shirt?  Beer, obviously.

Thoughts on Alcatraz Brewing Closing

Recently, Alcatraz Brewing located the Block at Orange Outlets at Orange closed its doors leaving the following note on their website:

On behalf of the Alcatraz Brewing Company team, we regret to announce that September 22 was our last day of operations.

After more than a decade of happily serving the community, we are closing our doors.  We thank all of our loyal customers for supporting our passion for creating award-winning, handcrafted beer.

It has been a privilege to serve you.

 That is, as the kids say, "teh suck."

Hockey Video Game Review: Ice Stars

Hockey between guys with vicious under bites and fangs.
Seems legit.

EA Sports continues to release the premiere hockey game each year for consoles (and formerly for PCs).  Every now and then, I want to play something different.  Some of those games will end up here either as a ringing endorsement or a rant or somewhere in between.

On iTunes, I came across a game from 2009 called "Ice Stars" which sadly did not unite my favorite scenes of Empire Strikes Back and hockey.  In reality, I've had this on my phone for years, and just now decided to write about (off season and all).

Stadium Music and What it Says About your Arena

Arena music is key part of the hockey game experience. The right song can energize a crowd more effectively than the giant cartoon hands and the words reading "Make some noise" and some weird animation of a 1990's styled volume knob.

As we get ready for the start of the new season, we can all expect some new audio tracks at the rinks all over the league.   So here's some songs/artists/styles of music and what they really represent as you listen to some tunes during the up-coming season.

• Bell Biv Devoe - "Poison" - Your rink is stuck in the 80's and/or couldn't get the licensing to "99 Red Balloons".
• Punk cover of 80's pop song - you're trying to be edgy by playing a faster and goofier version of a goofy song without being offensively edgy and trying not to sound goofy.  It's probably not working for you.
• Don Henley - "Boys of Summer" - Donald Fehr has hijacked the sound board.
• Ugly Kid Joe - "(I Hate) Everything About You" - Gary Bettman is in attendance. Or your Divison rival. Or if a spotlight is on you, maybe that guy you cut off on the freeway works for your local team in some capacity.
• The Zamboni's - "I Wanna Drive the Zamboni" - it's intermission or your sound guy has been drinking heavily.
• Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody" - there's more hockey hair per capita in the stands than on the ice.
• Country - you're in Nashville or Calgary.  Or they're visiting.  The song probably features snarky lyrics that will make the visiting team cry if they were actually paying attention to anything besides the game they're being paid to play and/or the ice girls (Craig Anderson only).
• "Shake Your Money Maker" - Terry Pegula is around and probably makin' it rain.
• Skee lo - "I Wish (I was a little bit taller)" - You're playing Tampa. Or if in Tampa, you're probably playing buffalo to hurt Nathan Gerbe's feelings. You may also want to check to see if someone has put earmuffs on Martin St. Louis.  There may also be a touch of irony if they play it while showing Zdeno chara or Tyler Myers on the Jumbo Tron.
• "99 Bottles of Beer on The Wall" - You're in Patrick Kane's stall.
•  Metallica -this one is tough because of the length of their career and the various styles of wearing all black and screaming into a microphone while playing heavy metal they have encompassed. Basically everything with radio airplay sucks and everything else is cool says your long haired friend wearing an old school Metallica shirt.
• Marvin Gaye - "Lets get it on" - The cheeky kiss cam is on the jumbo tron which is never a good thing. Unless you're on a date with a girl who won't kiss you unless pressured by 18,000 strangers in which case you get ignored in favor of the adorable 80 year old couple and two players on the visitor bench. But I'm not bitter.
• "Am I Evil" and/or "Star Wars Imperial March" - Jeremy Jacobs' entrance music.  The smaller person next to him in a black hooded robe may or may not be Gary Bettman.
• Beatles - "Money (That's What I Want)" - you're at the ticket booth or the concessions.
• Any Weird Al Parody - you're in an ECHL arena.
• D.R.I. - Anything from Thrash Zone - You're at Tyler Seguin's apartment.  Wait, that's not supposed to be "Thrash" it's supposed to be "Trash."  
• Barthezz - "On the Move" - You're playing Phoenix.  This isn't actually true right now since they have a new owner.  But give it a few years for the out clause to kick in and then pick up the remix.
• Any song from a current/recent EA Sports NHL game - the Music Director doesn't know much about hockey other than wondering why they aren't trying to always pass across the slot for a one-timer.

Not Crafty Cruise Beer Selection

One thing this meal is lacking is a good beer to pair it with.

As anyone who has read this blog periodically knows, I like beer, hockey, and often both of these things together.  And like many craft beer fans, I also enjoy good food and even more so when paired with good beer.  

My family and I were going to Alaska on a Cruise (which is a trip I'd highly recommend to anyone) and I looked online for the cruise line's beer selection. Unfortunately I found a horrifying reminder that craft beer, while growing, is still the minority.  Undeterred I did what any normal person (by my definition at any rate) would do: call and find out what type of beer they offered.