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by XaqFixx

No Way! Brew Day is on Delay.

February 18, 2012 in Beer, Brewing, FAIL, gadgets and gear

Today was supposed to be the brew day at the Fixx Brewery for the 2012 Sticky Porcupine, but we ran into problems. Xaq Fixx, the resident brewmaster has a day job and his company recently launched a new website, this has meant 10 days in a row pulling 16 hour days and it has finally caught up with him.  He went to bed  around 4AM last night and slept until noon. Not enough time to sanitize the brewery and the equipment, brew, chill, and start fermienting a batch beofe getting back to work for another long night. Hopefully Sunday will be brew day.

In the few hours Xaq has to kill before working he decided to clean the brewery, workshop, and give the kitchen a surgical scrub. When starting on the core of the brewery, pictured above, he discovered that after breaking his thermometer cleaning up on the last brew day he forgot to replace it on the last trip to the LHBS and must order another one. Hopefully a well sanitized digital probe thermometer will work when checking the specific gravity, as the candy thermometer, which works well in the kettle will not fit in the test jar.

Stay Tuned!!

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by XaqFixx

Sticky Porcupine

February 13, 2012 in Beer, Brewing, Drinking, Site News

For the third year in a row Sticky Porcupine will be available at Porc Fest. This is the same recipe I use every year, and as per the tradition, I am only doing one small batch. If you are interested in reserving a bottle contact Xaq by contact form, e-mail or on Facebook with “Sticky Porcupine” – last year all bottles were reserved in less than a week. This year promises a bigger even and an equally small batch – so act while you still can.

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by XaqFixx

Freaktoberfest for Febtoberfest

February 13, 2012 in Beer, Drinking, review

The bottle art was a la carnival and the text from the back of the bottle was excellent.

Arise & take possession of this bewitching offering of the season. Crafted to lure your spirit’s deepest rapture. Conjured to exercise the grim horrors of the armies of soulless drafts everywhere. ABV 6.66%

Occasionally the beer and wine store near our places has good beers on sale when the season’s styles change. About a week ago Garland and I picked up a 4 pack of Coney Island Freaktoberfest by Shmaltz Brewing Company .

It is a novelty beer, to be sure, but still pretty tasty. While meant as a halloween beer with 6 malts (Canadian 2 Row, Munich, Rye, Wheat, Dark Crystal and Caramunich 40), 6 varieties of hops (Warrior, Centennial, Crystal, Fuggle, Northern Brewer and Willamette) and an ABV of 6.66% it makes a good choice for Valentines Day as well because of it’s blood red hue.

If looking for a special touch for your date night and perhaps to save a few bucks, try to hunt down a bottle of this hoppy lager. If you can’t find it this year, plan a trip to Coney Island for the Freaktoberfest Festival and enjoy it with a big helping live music, side show freaks, and you favorite fiends.

 

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by XaqFixx

Books, Beers, and Innovation on the Disindoctrination Podcast

February 8, 2012 in Beer, politics

Agorists, libertarians, activists, and DIYers Kevin Sanchez and Garret Fox discuss the philosophy of liberty, how they got into activism, DIY 3d Printers, and of course, Fixx Brewing. Listen or download the episode now.

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by XaqFixx

Calling All Porcupine Brewers

February 3, 2012 in Beer, Brewing, Site News

Are you a brewer even thinking about attending the Free State Project’s Porc Fest this summer? Are you interested in Agorism? If you answered yes (or maybe) to both of those question then come join the Porc Fest 2012 Homebrew Planning Group on XaqFixx.com where we are working on the Homebrew Pavilion. Last year was an overwhelmingly huge success for Fixx Brewing, we kept running out of beer, so this year we are hoping to share the experience and better meet demand with the help of people like you while exposing fellow liberty lovers to high quality hand brewed beer.

Porc Fest brings over 1000 liberty lovers together in beautiful Lancaster, NH to meet with like minded people, practice counter economics, hear great speakers, explore alternative currencies and generally have a great time. It is a project to show off the New Hampshire and the Free State Project to perspective movers and supporters as well as unite activist from all over the state.

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by XaqFixx

The Chemistry of Brewing

February 2, 2012 in Beer, Brewing, How To, video


Care of the Big LIttle Guys at Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) come a great video explaining the chemistry behind a 4 vessel brewery.  Their brew master, featured in this video has gone on to launch his own brewery, Revolver Brewing, in TX.

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by XaqFixx

Buy or Build: Printable 6 Pack holder

February 1, 2012 in Beer, Brewing, Drinking, gadgets and gear, How To

This nifty little six pack holder can be bought from the designer on Etsy for $30 – but because he is awesome he has also shared the designs for free on Thingiverse so those with access to a Laser Cutter, CNC Machine. or a -decidely low tech - scroll saw (currently my only easy option) can make their own.

Although I have only seen wooden versions, I would love for those with access to the tech to modify the plans to work in acrylic or metal – maybe even grown to handle 6 growlers!

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by XaqFixx

He-Man Woman Haters Homebrew Club

January 31, 2012 in Beer, gadgets and gear, politics

In a case of what can best be described as Double Reverse Sexism an Australian woman had her beer rejected from a homebrew contest because it was Bruces Only. How is this a result of reverse sexism, and how then doubled? For the last 97 years the Lake Haye’s A&P show had been heavy with female entries in their standard event like baking and top produce feeling this was (reverse) sexist they decided to add something for the boys. Thus they added a homebrew event for gents only – like a biazzaro title 9 event.

This year the aptly named Rachel Beer attempted to enter Beer’s Beer but was told to bottle up those hopes until next year, now people are frothing over about the sexism she has been the victim of. Although the organizers have announced they will be adding a a mixed-sex category they would not change the rules for this year. Not to worry, the Australian  Human Rights Commission has declared that the contest is not in violation of the Human Rights Act.

Read More at news.com.au 

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Guns and Beer

January 30, 2012 in Beer, Drinking, gadgets and gear, Just For Fun

I love guns, I love beer, I love enjoying them in that order (When I drink, my firearms gets put away). This bottle opener combines those loves and make your beer taste like testosterone. I am surprised some made this as the target (no pun intended) market  for a .50 BMG Bullet converted to anything is guys who consume their beers exclusively from cans (something like this canned hunting accident). If you still want one (to open your bottle of Bud Light) you can get one for $19.99 at Vat19.com.

(via The Firearm Blog)

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by XaqFixx

Dirty Money for Mediocre Beer

January 29, 2012 in Beer, FAIL, politics

Canada may be known for terrible mass produced beer (LaBlatt’s Molson, Etc.) but it is also home to some of the best (Including Unibroue over in Quebec) – this isn’t about them. This is about other people paying for beer you don’t want to drink in Ontario. Due to budget constraints the government cut off $1.2 million in annual ($8 million total) funding to Ontario Craft Brewers, the brewery trade group. It is already shocking that tax payers are spending any money at all on marketing beer (that if good enough should sell itself) but it gets far worse…

According to A Good Beer Blog about an eighth of that went to just one out of 50 breweries and counted for a significant portion of their profit – that brewery is more a government contractor than a beer company.

For a slightly more sunny (read: brewer apologist) take check out the original article in the Toronto Star.

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