Fellow brewer Dan and I made our way to Gartner’s Meats to acquire our hog for roasting tomorrow before the Super Bowl. This was my maiden voyage to Gartner’s and I was suitably impressed. I cannot imagine purchasing my meats from any other source from now on.

This is our story. Our task was to inject the hog with marinating sauce and rub on some salt so it could sit overnight and become delicious. Tomorrow, we break out the La Caja China!! Click on the thumbnail images to see the full size photo.

What would you get your best four legged friend as a gift? Well, Terrie Berenden of the Netherlands has a good answer. Terrie recently appeared in a story in the mobile edition of ABCNews.com:

Pet Shop Owner Creates Beer for Dogs
After a long day hunting, there’s nothing like wrapping your paw around a cold bottle of beer. So Terrie Berenden, a pet shop owner in the southern Dutch town of Zelhem, created a beer for her Weimaraners made from beef extract and malt. “Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it,” she said. Berenden consigned a local brewery to make and bottle the nonalcoholic beer, branded as Kwispelbier. It was introduced to the market last week and advertised it as “a beer for your best friend.” “Kwispel” is the Dutch word for wagging a tail. The beer is fit for human consumption, Berenden said. But at euro1.65 ($2.14) a bottle, it’s about four times more expensive than a Heineken.

its absolutely amazing… Patrick Cauldwell posted a link to a geospacial map of brew houses and winery locations. Now you’ll be sure that you hit every last one on your way across this great land.