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).