Gygax Beer - You Know You Want One!

I'm guessing Gail missed the lucrative "liquor and beer" section when she registered the Gygax trademark. That, or she can defend it. Either way, looking forward to this can cooling down enough to drink ;)

Fantasy Beer Name Generator - Pure Genius or... (PWYW)

So, between having my niece over, trying to watch some football (excellent Giants / Saints game BTW) and reading the last bits of Event Horizon for White Star, I stumbled across this little beauty at RPGNow:

Fantasy Beer Name Generator

It is what it say on the tin. I'm tempted to use it to name my next homebrew (October is right around the corner).

As someone much smarter than me just told me - it's more useful that 40% of the releases at RPGNow based on title alone ;)

Remember, all purchases using The Tavern's RPGNow affiliate links puts 5% of your purchase price into The Tavern's coffers. Don't leave that money on the table for the greedy corps! Tip your barman!  ;)

Taverns and inns are a common staple of fantasy settings; they are places where players meet, get into fights and do business. But what if they want to have a drink? 

Rather than simply saying that they can have ale, beer, mead and so on, this generator has a set of seven tables that can be used to roll up a more exotic sounding drinks (or simply pick the names manually). A minimum of two tables should be used, but all can be rolled on for a more complex name. The tables have from eight to thirty results, and the results can be shuffled into a name for the drink, combining them with filler words so that the name makes sense. Two supplementary tables of thirty results each provide options to describe the drink's flavour. 

An example result, using all of the tables, would be Vale of the Green Orc Hunter's Best Ruby Mild, a drink with a fruity flavour and overtones of peaches. 

As well as being used to create fantasy drinks, these tables can be used for beer names in any setting or period, including modern, as they are not dissimilar to modern microbrew names.

Is That DCC on My Beer? Perhaps...

Tip of the hat to +Harley Stroh and props to +Jeff Sipko for the find and the pic.

Beer & The OSR. Those are my passions. It's rare that they intersect so perfectly, but Dragon Lady Doppelbock Beer from Rinkuskiai Brewery at first glance is that intersection. DCC RPG art on an imported doppelbock beer? I'm in heaven. Or I would be if it were a legal use of the art.

Yep, it appears Caldwell's art is being used without the artist's permission. This isn't some home brewer slapping labels on beer he's handing out to his friends. Nor is it some fan writer using a commercial RPG setting for her own stories.

Rinkuskiai is one of the top 5 breweries in Lithuania. Sure, that's like being one of the top five breweries in the NYC borough of Queens, but they are a legitimate company that's been brewing beer since the 1990s.

Using art without a license? That's something I wouldn't expect from a company located in the EU.

Aiko is the US Importer. I wonder if they would be responsible in the US for the unlicensed use of Caldwell's art. From what I can gather, the beer released two years ago. It looks like they've already gotten decent mileage from the art. Maybe they could just cut Caldwell a check and make it all legal.

Shame that this beer / OSR intersection isn't all it seemed at first glance.

Tenkar's Tap Room - The New Blog about Beer

Don't even say it. I'll say it for you:

"How the fuck are you going to find the time to run another blog!?!"

Better now?

The truth is, even though I'm getting hammered by work in the hear and now, the near future holds a
very pleasant retirement. One of the things I plan to do in retirement is explore my other hobby a bit more fully. The other hobby is "beer."

I've homebrewed in the past (and will again in the future) but Rach and I have decided to start a "brewery crawl" of sorts this coming weekend. There is simply a huge amount of craft beer being brewed in the NYC metropolitan area and we plan to explore what we can. The initial plan is to visit 2 breweries a month as well as exploring craft beers from around the world.

So, if we are going to have all that fun, why not blog about it?

That's where Tenkar's Tap Room comes in. It's an old blog from my early blogging days that hadn't seen a post in 5 years which should now see 4 to 5 posts a week. Posts about beer, breweries and beer related things. Guest posts are welcome, as we can't have a community without you.

I'm also hopeful that one of these small and local breweries would host a small PubCon, thereby mixing my two hobbies in one chocolate and peanut butter mess ;)

Join Rach and I as we go down the craft beer rabbit hole

Kickstarter - Geomorphic Beermats (mmmm... beer!)

On this side of the pond we would call these "beer coasters". Mats, coasters - whatever. Geomorphic Beermats is damn cool.

I can see myself doodling on these at the local pub. I'm sure I'd get some interesting comments.

15 Pounds for 125 is probably the sweet spot. If you are in the UK it's a no brainer, as it includes free shipping.

In the US, I'm not sure the shipping, but I'm in. Shit, this place is called Tenkar's Tavern after all!

Kicking Off the New Year With Some Homebrewing

My wife and I kicked off the New Year with some home brewing - pictured is 23 liters of what will soon be Cooper's Lager.

The process made me think about how home brewing beer and home brewing a RPG campaign have similarities on many levels (which will wait for a later post) but not the least of which is, no matter how much of the work is done for you up front, the end result is always at least slightly different for everyone and has their stamp on it.

Much like gaming in my past, I stepped away from home brewing due to lack of time and space - we've had renovations going on, and finding a safe place for nearly 30 25 oz bottles to carbonate and condition for weeks or months just wasn't available. Now, it is.

Hopefully it's all ready in time for the Super Bowl ;)

Drinking Some "Ginger Beard" English Beer

I don't do many beer posts, but when I do, I hope to make them count ;)

The label on Ginger Beard is of a red headed dwarf complete with braided beard. You don't get more "fantasy dwarf" than that.

It's a sweet beer with a ginger burn on the tail end. I'm currently sipping it out of a scotch glass. If I'm going to cut back on beer due to calorie intake, beers like Ginger Beard that are made for sipping are the way I'm going to go.

Four tankards and a half pint out of five for this one (the extra half is for the awesome label).

Founder's "Bolt Cutter" Barley Wine - 15% Alcohol to Disrupt Any Game ;)

First, I show a pic of the Games of Thrones Blonde Ale (it went down very nicely and kept a robust head until the last drops in the glass were drunk) last night.

Tonight, it's Founder's "Bolt Cutter" Barley Wine Ale. My brother in law (who is a sales manager for a beer distributer in these parts) brought me over a bottle along with a mixed 6 pack of Founders for Easter. Needles to say I didn't waste any of it on the guests ;)

I need to chill the Barley Wine Ale. I expect it will pack a punch, as it clocks in at 15% Alc / Vol (the Game of Throne Blonde Ale clocked in at a mere 6.5%).

What does this have to do with RPGs? Finding a good beer is much like finding a good set of rules - it's all a matter of taste :)

Game of Thrones Blonde Ale For the Season Three Premiere

I'm looking forward to popping this open later tonight ;)

First Sign of Impending Springtime at The Tavern

Swapping out Newcastle and swapping in Heineken Light for the mini-kegerator ;)

Delirium Noel With a Helmet! (Belgian Beer with a swing cap)

My brother-in-law is a regional manager for one of the big beer distributers here in NYC, so for birthdays and Christmas beer is usually part of my haul.

The above is a 25oz Belgian Ale brewed at a family run brewery in, where else, Belgium. Alcohol content is 10% by volume, and no, I wont be drinking this during Friday Night's Drinking Quest session.

The little hat is a "Beer Cap" of some sort - it actually swings up so you can drink while it's still attached. It won't keep your beer fresh like a wine stopper, but it certainly makes the bottle you are drinking from unique and should keep others from inadvertently grabbing your beer by mistake. It was also part of the Holiday Beer Swag ;)

Real Dwarven Ale - Burdisson's Dwarven Ale

Have I mentioned in the past that my brother in law is a regional manager at one of the larger beer distributors in the NYC metro area?  Well, he is, and at times it has some pretty cool benefits.

Fantasy Brewmasters from Garrattsville, NY have released Burdisson's Dwarven Ale.  To my taste buds, it similar to a winter brew, although I am sure real beer fans can break that down more than I can.  It's a tasty brew, but I don't think I could have more than two in a sitting, as it feel kinda heavy.

If your state allows for beer to be shipped to your door, they'll arrange to have it shipped to you.

www.dwarfbrew.com

What Happened to the Homebrewing...

In answer to Christian's question about my hobby of Home brewing beer, I haven't done ANYTHING this winter season.  It's a shame too, as I was hoping to try out a raspberry flavor brew this time around.

Short reason:  I've been busy.

Long reason:  I've had added responsibilities at work, changed offices (twice), was taking the kid to Auxiliary Police training in the evening fall to early winter, some positive life experiences (but major time sinks), do it yourself to hold down the cost renovations (talk about time sink) - and general lack of space for my beer to ferment in, as the closet I used last year is being deconstructed (nice word) so it can be replaced by a closet with modern sensibilities and depth.

Phew!

Soon it will be too warm to brew in NYC, unless I can clear out a pat of the basement that may stay fairly cool until late June.  This may be a brewing season that passes me by.

As for the savings vs. buying commercial bottle beer... if you drink Bud or Coors by the case, home brewing will not save you money.  If you drink primarily Microbrews, home brewing will probably cost less.

Still, thinking about the whole process made me think about how similar home brewing beer is to home brewing an rpg setting, but that's for a whole 'nother post.

It's Almost Time to Homebrew

Gaming is always a better experience with a nice cold one in hand, at least when I'm gaming from the privacy of my own computer via Fantasy Grounds. There is just something very relaxing as I nurse a single glass ( fairly large tho') throughout the night.

The return of cooler weather means not just the return of the C&C game I play in, but also the return of my opportunity to make some more home-brewed beer. Mmmmmmmm. Beer.

Anyhow, I need to figure out what the first batch of the season will be. I'm leaning towards using my Cooper's kit, although I will need to see what I have waiting.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Weekend Update

Lets see, it's saturday afternoon and I need to figure out which PDF / RPG Product I'm going to review next.  That's not so simple when your son is trying to drag your ass in to the Star Trek Online Open beta every free moment that you have.  I'm sure there is something I can catch up on.  Hmmm, I may need to do a quick spreadsheet just to organize what I have, what I have and haven't read, and what I have and haven't reviewed.

On the brewing side, I'm starting a Home Brewers Blog.  Gonna be slow at first but what the heck, everyone likes a good beer ;)  In the meantime, one more week of carbonation and then I start sticking some beer in the fridge to condition for a week or so.  All that and probably another 2 gallon batch will start brewing today or tomorrow.  Variety is the key...

Brewing Apprentice 101

So, over the weekend I bottled my beer.  The Red Ale will need to be filtered as it appears some hops and dead yeast made it to the bottles.  No biggie, its all good ;)  The Oktoberfest looks nice and clear.  Both seem to be carbing well, as the plastic bottles are firming up nicely.  It will all be ready in plenty of time for the Super Bowl... heh

A side note to yesterday's review.  The PDF is not very Kindle DX friendly.  The DX seems to have issues with PDFs that have multiple layers on the page... it tries to view each layer as a separate page.  I could go into the PDF with some editing software and take out the offending layers, but it looks damn fine using Adobe Reader.  Sumatra has some minor issues, but I've been finding the Sumatra has issues with just about all but the most basically laid out PDFs.  Minor quibble, and it probably only effects me :)

Its Been Busy at the Tavern

It's been a busy couple of days on this end. I came home from work on friday to find sewer specialists were called in as the 100 year old sewer line had backed up... yet again.

After a couple of harrowing hours (and fears that a need to replace the line would easily top 10 grand), our lovely specialists pulled a roots system from the pipe that would have made for an excellent baddie in any waterborne adventure. It looked like some bizarre sea creature from the depths of the deepest ocean instead of some roots and soil (and sewage oh my). Things we take for granted in today's modern world and probably our fantasy worlds too. All that for just $2700. Sigh, I need to take up a career in adventuring ;)

Yesterday I bottled one of the two batches of beer that have been brewing for the last three weeks. Irish Red is carbonating and the Oktoberfest will follow later today. About three to four weeks before the first beer from these batches get drunk.

If all goes well I'll have a short review of one of White Haired Man's products posted tomorrow or tuesday. Although packaged for FG2, the enclosed PDFs really make them suitable for all VTTs or even tabletop play.

White Hair? Just Hints of Grey ;)

White Haired Man Games has been kind enough to forward me review copies of their latest products for use in Fantasy Grounds 2 (or without, as the accompanying PDFs are probably worth the value on their own). Its going to take me a few week to get thru their review material and I have a few other products from other publishers I want to touch on. Janauary is going to be a very busy month it seems.

Totally off topic, but I think this Friday will be Beer Bottling Day at Tenkar's Tavern. Then at least two more weeks to carbonate and at least one more week of conditioning in the refrigerator. So at least 3 1/2 weeks before a true sample can be tasted.

In the meantime, thanks to my Brother-in-law Chris for the 1 liter and 1/2 liter bier steins he brought back from Oktoberfest in Germany for me. Dude, you rock!

Brewmaster 101 - or Why I Would Never Drink What my PCs Do

My plan was to post about some of the really nice PDFs I picked up last week. It was going to be "The Anti-Rant". Somehow I never got around to transferring them to my Kindle DX, and my son is currently glued to my PC playing the Star Wars Online Beta. Lets just say if it plays half as well as it looks I'll be sold. In any case, no PDFs to review (working off my netbook at the moment)

I still need to bottle my beer as it has been 15 days since it started fermenting. Looks like tomorrow nite will be the nite to do so. I have some 1/2 gallon and quart bottles waiting to be used. It has been a busy but fun four day weekend, and I just don't have the energy to bottle tonight.

So, what am I doing at the moment? I'm flipping thru a X-mass gift my brother-in-law got me - The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible by Leon W. Kania. Holy crap. If you have any desire to brew anything at any point in your life, pick this book up. If you want to know how booze was made back in the days before mass production and pasteurization, this is your bible.

One recipe included is for Corn Whiskey. It call for 10 lbs of corn to be aced in a feed sack and buried in the warm moist center of a manure pile for about a week and a half... you are basically waiting for the kernels to sprout. Now, imagine being told that the Whiskey you were drinking had its start in the center of a pile of cow crap?

There is alot of information on stills, distilling, brewing, and real life characters that that were involved in bootlegging. My favorite so far? The retired Catholic Priest that made milk wine, much to the authorities frustration. I'm finding hooks and props that I can drop into my next campaign no matter the genre.

I'm tempted to try my hand at wine now. I can legally brew 100 gallons of beer and wine yearly for my personal use. Heh. Nice thought.

Oh, if you want to try your hand and brewing beer, run-don't walk, to your nearest Bed, Bath and Beyond. They have the Mr. Beer starter kit for $29.99 less half - so for 15 bucks (less 20% if you have a coupon)and some empty soda bottles you can try your hand at brewing some pale ale. If you get luck they may have a 3 pack of refills for about the same reduced price. Try it if you have the time. Its fun, it's fairly cheap, and tastes better then most of what the big breweries put out these days.

More Beer! More Games... Tastes Great, Less Filling

Actually, I don't know if the beer tastes great yet but one can hope. Mr. Beer suggests one week to brew, one week to carbonate, and possibly one week to condition. All of the forums I've read push 2-2-2 as the cycle, so next weekend for the bottling / carbonation stage. At the moment the Irish Read has some nice activity with a healthy foam on top of the brew, the Oktoberfest less of a head.

RPG Blog II has a link to a way to get Iron Crown Enterprises Rolemaster Express in PDF for free. They did this offer last year and I snagged a copy (also bought like 6 dead tree copies at 5 bucks a piece last year when they had a promotion). It's a great write up of the Rolemaster Rules without the overwhelming pages and tables from the full set. Almost reminds me of the MERP rules of old.

The Gathering of Fools took place yesterday, and our host succumbed to the dangers of 12 year old Scotch by 4pm... we didn't realize until nearly 5, and didn't wrap things up until nearly 7. Another fun time was had by all. Er, almost all.

Palladium Books has extended their Grab Bag offer until January 15th. Basically, for 37 bucks (plus handling, shipping and possibly tax) you get 80 or 90 bucks worth of gaming goodies. I received 6 signed prints (one signed and numbered), one unsigned print, 14 blister packs of Rifts minies, The latest Rifter (signed by Kevin and the rest), a Palladium Fantasy sourcebook (also signed) and last but certainly not least, a signed copy of the Palladium Fantasy Rulebook with a scetch signed and dated by Kevin. That was a double order (2 x 37). I need to pick up some frames to display the art :)