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2011 Year in Milwaukee News

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:15:00 UT

Mentioned as runner up for June.

read the article on the The Onion's website or click image below to view the article full size

Making a Scene: Milwaukee's Avant-Garde

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:55:00 UT

read the article on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's website or click image below to view the article full size

Who's Your Favorite Milwaukee Bartender?

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:00:00 UT

read the article on OnMilwaukee.com's website or click image below to view the article full size

Pezzettino at Cathedral Square

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:50:00 UT

read the article on The Onion's website or click image below to view the article full size

Best of Milwaukee 2011

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:30:00 UT

read the article on Milwaukee Magazine's website or click image below to view the article full size

Food trucks turn streets into food courts

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:35:00 UT

read the article on the Journal Sentinel's website or click image below to view the article full size

Right or Wrong?

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 23:10:00 UT

read the article on Third Coast Digest's website or click image below to view the article full size

07.30.11 - Hirschgarten: the World's Largest Beer Garden

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:45:00 UT

Today was my last full day in Munich. I wanted to experience a few of my favorite things one last time.

I had a late breakfast of curry noodles and chicken at Quán Sen before heading over to the San Francisco Coffee Company to do some blogging. I stopped at the Hauptbahnhof to have a cranberry smoothie at the Chiquita Fruit Bar and pay $1.50 to pee. Then I did my favorite walk in Munich from the train station to Marianplatz. After tripping over tourists, and watching lunatics shove pamphlets about terrorism into the faces of Muslim families in Karlsplatz, I finally got to Marianplatz only to discover the second Vegan Fest in two months was going on. I thought I would stop at the Andechser am Dom for one last meal and a beer, but it was super crowded so I decided to head over to Hirschgarten.

Hirschgarten is the largest beer garden in the world, and can accommodate 8000 people. It's kinda like if Lake Park in Milwaukee got rid of the golf course and put in a HUGE beer garden and a pen of deer and goats. I'd never been there and wanted to check it out before I left town. It's actually a LOT less impressive than it sounds. The park is really nice, but the beer garden is pretty trashy and the food was expensive and mediocre. It's probably a lot of fun on a gorgeous summer day when it's packed with people, but like the rest of my two months in Munich (other than two days) it was cloudy and about to rain any second.

I had a pretty big meal of a 1/2 duck with dumplings and blaukraut. For dessert I had these apple slices wrapped in dough, deep fried, and served with ice cream. One of the apple donuts actually looked like a cartoon pig oinking up at me, so I only had a few bites, paid my check, peeded on a urinal that was a whole wall, and headed home.

07.29.11 - Graduating Siebel/Doemens a Master Brewer

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:55:00 UT

I am officially a Master Brewer!!! It's been a LONG road, but it's really nice to have my MBA and my Master Brewer training behind me. Now the tough part begins... raising the money to make this vision of a brewery that can also serve the community a reality. I'm excited to get started.

Tonight's ceremony was a good time. We all showed up in our lederhosen, get out diplomas, drank and ate, told stories, and talked about plans for the future. I'm really excited to find ways to collaborate with all these guys. Looking forward to the future. A great conclusion to a very challenging portion of my academic life.

07.29.11 - Getting Grades and Munich Weirdness

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:55:00 UT

We got our grades this morning, and I am definitely graduating. In less than 8 hours I will be done!

After a quick meeting with the director of the program and some pictures, I headed out to walk around Munich a bit and do some last minute shopping. Everyone is wearing lederhosen to graduation tonight, and I want to pick up a feather or some wild boar hair to pin to my German hat I'll be wearing. I also got this awesome Ram's horn the is a horn, but I need to find a cork for it so it can double as a drinking vessel.

I ran into some weird shit though today. First, some dude on this huge unicycle on the train (you'll probably be surprised to know he had a pony tail), and then a bus ad for some performance where they are apparently in black face. I was pretty sure that black face was not socially acceptable, but in German it's still ok, I guess. Crazy!

I also checked out the new bubble tea place in Munich. Super tasty. Wish we had one in Milwaukee.

07.28.11 - Bottling Soda at Doemens with Many Problems

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:30:00 UT

We had all sorts of problems getting the soda bottling going. With a ton of good problem solving and a lot of screwing around, we finally were up and running. I was actually in charge of running the bottling line. It was a lot of fun. We started out running it pretty slowly, but I kept pushing it until I had it running at max speed.

The first soda was an orange lemonade, but when we switched to our cola, all hell broke loose. I started having issues with the filler, and had to slow it down considerably. It was shooting the soda into about every 5th bottle to fast which would make it gush up and over flow, which led to a lot of short fills. After I finished the batch of cola, we switched to a red schorle, which tasted kinda like watered down cranberry juice. We quickly had a clog in the pump on the dosing machine that mixes up all the soda from our recipe, and again had to do some quick problem solving to get back up. The schorle was even worse than the cola, but I got the bottling line humming and we cranked it out.

After we finished, we cleaned up the whole bottling plant and I went to eat lunch, and then wandered around Munich a bit before grabbing a big plate of doner meat, a salad and fries for dinner.

07.27.11 - Egg Sandwich. Filtering. Ai Weiwei

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:20:00 UT

For breakfast I had this egg sandwich on a pretzel roll. The Germans put butter on their rolls and sandwiches like we would use mayo or cream cheese.

Today was LONG. Out schedule got switched around today cause part of the filler we need to bottle soda didn't show up, so we ended up filtering and transferring a bunch of beers.

After school, I went to a discussion panel at Munich's Haus der Kunst on Ai Weiwei. It was really interesting. There were a couple Chinese artists/professors speaking that had some interesting views about Ai Weiwei. One of the other panelists is a freelance journalist. He was probably the most interesting. His viewpoints about the growth and transition of a society and government where totally new to me. I'm still digesting all of it. Definitely a lot to think about.

07.26.11 - Exams Finished. Drinking at Weinstephan

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:55:00 UT

We had our last two exams today. I was actually first to take mine... stupid alphabetical order! It was pretty damn tough. They were 15 minutes each. It may not sound like a long time, but when each is conducted by two brilliant professors grilling you the whole time, it gets you shaking.

The first one I was given two plated samples and told they were found in filtered beer. Then I had to plate them view them under a microscope, and say what they were and whether or not they were potential beer spoilers. Every statement I made was followed by like 23 questions about process and method. It was the longest 15 minutes of my life.

The next part I was given a sample of filtered beer and asked how I would analyze it. Again, every single thing I said was followed with a million questions. When I was finally done, I actually felt pretty good about the whole thing. I guess I really do know my shit!!!

It was also nice to get feedback from the program director that he all the multiple choice exams had been graded and nobody failed. Based on the system of evaluation, that means that I am DEFINITELY graduating!!!

In the afternoon, we all took the train out to Weinstephan. It's not only the oldest brewery in the world, but home to the most respected brewing school in the world. You are probably asking why I didn't go there instead of Siebel/Doemens... well... Weinstephan is a MUCH longer program (4 years+) taught all in German, and I think you need an undergraduate degree in chemistry or microbiology to get in. We actually met a bunch of students who were studying. We started quizing them, and decided we knew more than them anyway. Maybe is was all the beer we drank.

We had such a great time. It was a really big group of guys, most of the folks in the program. We had a ton of great beer and these HUGE plates of food. We became the highlight of the beer garden by singing in opera. Every once and a while I would bust out my best opera voice, and all the locals would burst into applause. It was hilarious. I have no idea why they were applauding and not throwing shit at us.

By the time we left, I was pretty drunk. I ended up trying to run through these bushes and tripped and skidded across a pea gravel sidewalk. I scraped up my elbow and my hands pretty good. I've got a nice blood blister on my left hand. It was right in front of the HUGE group of students. They were all totally stunned and staring at me, but I jumped up and started singing opera for them and they all applauded. Another great day at Doemens. I'm really gonna miss all these guys.

07.25.11 - The First Two Exams and Missing the Lunch Lady

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:45:00 UT

Today we had our first two exams. I'm seriously very nervous. The multiple choice was really hard. The Germans have a totally different way of doing multiple choice. There can be more than one correct answer. Do if A,B, and C are correct, you have to check all three! You spend your whole life developing strategies to take tests only to have the rug pulled out from under you. The essay was SO open ended. We were asked how we would create a crisp pilsner beer from grain selection to final characteristics in the bottle. I'm pretty sure I passed, but I'm still worried. I have seriously had a stomach ache for 4 days just worrying about this shit!!!

For lunch today we had to go over to this deli cause the lunch lady is now done for the summer. We all really miss her already. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

07.23.11 - Fresh Flowers and Festival in the Castle in Ellwangen

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:15:00 UT

This morning I slept kinda late. It's been a rough few weeks at Doemens. SO much work and studying. Drinking one of each kinda of beer they serve in the restaurant made for a nice night's sleep.

After I woke up, I went back to my Opa's grave to clean it up and add fresh flowers and candles. It took a while to scrub everything down and lug a new planter back from a flower shop, but it looked great after I left. It was nice just to sit there quietly and think about my Opa and all he did for his family, how hard he worked, and all the memories I have of him from growing up. I spent a lot of time with him in the 14 years I knew him.

The late afternoon and evening I spent at HUGE festival up in the castle in Ellwangen. It was put together by the brewery. There was a TON of amazing food, including a plate of ox meat with spatzle. I also had a "sausage salad" while I was waiting for them to finish cooking the ox (I got there really early). The brewery also served a dunkle at the fest that you can't normally get. It was pretty damn good.

The fest was great, I'm really glad I stayed the extra day. They had two stages. One stage was like a middle school and then high school band, that were both really good. The other stage had a band that played mostly American cover tunes. Right at the beginning though, all these guys march in playing music in these old traditional military uniforms. They also had this weird little camp set up with a fire and tents and a cannon that overlooked the city. Such a great view of Ellwangen from up at the castle.

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