Archives for September 10, 2019

Beer In Ads #3112: Carnegie Porter For Christmas

September 10, 2019 By Jay Brooks

Tuesday’s ad is for Carnegie Porter For Christmas, from maybe the 1940s. From the late 1800s until the 1970s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. This poster is a little bit of a departure because I wanted to feature a Porter since my son Porter’s birthday is today. It was made for D. Carnegie & Co. located in Sweden. The ad was advertising the beer for Christmas and a popular local mixed drink called Mumma, which Martyn Cornell detailed in a post entitled Mumma, Mixed a Beer Today…. I’m not sure who the artist was that created the ad, but there is a symbol I don’t recognize in the bottom right hand corner, which probably gives a clue.

Beer Birthday: Porter

September 10, 2019 By Jay Brooks

Alright, you caught me again. It’s not the birthday of the beer style, Porter. Strictly speaking, this isn’t really a beer post but it’s my son’s 18th birthday today, but since his name is Porter I figured people wouldn’t feel too duped by the title. It is accurate, after all. In previous years, I’d written that “one day soon, we’ll brew a porter together.” Well that day finally came, and six years ago on his birthday weekend it was Porter’s Porter Day, when he made his first batch of homebrew, with a little help from our friends. Anyway, please join me in wishing Porter a very happy birthday!

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At Porter’s birthday party when he turned one, trying to get at a keg of Russian River. That’s my boy! NOTE: To those of you reaching for the phone to call child protective services, put down the receiver. He did NOT drink any beer. His mother got to him before he figured out how the tap worked.

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A beautiful memory at the Rogue Alehouse in San Francisco when Porter couldn’t have been more than two, if that. Much to my surprise, Porter utterly charmed Don Younger with his ability to swiftly climb a bar stool. Don was very impressed, and so was I.

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Twelve years ago, showing off a 5th-birthday present from Grandpa, a Union Pacific Challenger steam engine.

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Porter several years ago, when he came with me to visit Southern Pacific Brewing in San Francisco. He was trying to emulate his then-hero Tim Lincecum, at least hair-wise, pitching-wise he was more of a closer. Timmy may be gone, but the hair remains.

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Me, Porter and Vinnie Cilurzo, after Porter’s Porter Day six years ago.

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Also six years ago, Porter’s second batch, a version of Hair of the Dog’s Doggie Claws, made with the Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton, but mostly Alan Sprints, whose own birthday was just a few days ago.

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Wowing the ladies with his diving prowess during a vacation in Solvang a few summers ago.

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Porter riding Amtrak, also during a summer vacation a few years back.

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Porter with his sister sporting their World’s Okayest siblings shirts.

Brookston Fantasy Basketball 2019

September 10, 2019 By Jay Brooks

We’ve done March Madness fantasy games in the past, which I’ve called Märzen Madness, but I’ve never done an NBA fantasy basketball game of any kind. Since my son has been playing high school basketball for the past few years, my interest has grown, not to mention our local Golden State Warriors have been a lot of fun to follow lately. So this year, I thought, why not give it a try? Our league is called Hoops & Hops and will last all season long.

Similar to both Baseball fantasy and Football fantasy, in Basketball fantasy you draft a team, play your starters and then earn points for what they do in each game. I tried to keep it fairly simple since I’m both an idiot when it comes to the finer points of basketball (and especially NBA) knowledge and also since this is all so new. Each team has a roster of 16 players, from which you’ll start 10 players each day. Scoring is also fairly straightforward, with 1 point for a free throw, 2 points for a field goal, and 3 points for a three-pointer. Then there’s also points for total rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots and negative points for a turnover. And there are big points for the elusive double-doubles and triple-doubles, but that’s it. There were a lot of other statistics you can give points to, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you see something you think should be added, say something now, since I can edit the stats before the season starts, but not after.

The season starts on October 22, so you have about 6 weeks to sign up, which is good since I don’t know what I’m doing and that gives us more time to fix anything. We need a minimum number of 4 teams, but we can have as many as 16, although we have to have an even number. I’m not sure why that is, because you get points just for how your players do rather than going head-to-head against other players, but c’est la vie. So while there’s no hurry per se, the sooner you sign up, the sooner you’re locked in to fielding a team this season. We’ll use the Autopick draft feature, again to make things easier, and once it’s set to “Go” then the draft will run, usually overnight. In order to sign up for a team, you’ll need a Yahoo ID (which is free if you don’t already have one), and then simply follow this link and follow the instructions to join Brookston’s Hoops & Hops. When you sign up, you’ll also get a chance to look over the league settings for rosters and scoring, and please do let me know if you have any suggestions for improving things, keeping in mind my goal of keeping it fairly simple. Enjoy.