First Brew

Iron Maiden Pinter Picture (from website)

I like beer. I would say that I would prefer beer over other alcoholic beverages. Though, my preferred beer of choice is not seen in commercials. I guess you can say I would choose craft beers over commercial ones. However, if I am invited over, I will drink any beer they have, beggars cannot be choosers you know. Most of time I will bring my own choice of beer.

During Covid, I bought a beer kit online thinking that I probably can try making my own beer. Sad to say even after watching videos, I did not even open the kit until recently. I opened the beer kit after I bought Pinter. To my disappointment, the kit only had grains, yeast, a gallon jar and some other tubes. I ended up throwing up the kit since it had been sitting for years.

I saw Pinter on Facebook, did not click anything and just opened a browser and searched about it. I got interested in the product and bought it from their website. There was a promotion which I took to get the product for free. The caveat was to get a 2-beer pack a month subscription and you can cancel after the first delivery.

YouTube Videos

While waiting for the delivery, I soaked up on video I can find in YouTube to get myself familiar with the product and to get reviews and to know what others say about it. I found out that this product originated across the pond and recently introduced it here. So far, the videos have been positive. Looks like this does not entail boiling and mashing since it uses fresh pack which was already prepared and only needed water and yeast and placed inside the Pinter.

First Brew

My Pinter - Conditioning

Finally, I received my Iron Maiden Themed Pinter (had to pay $50 instead of getting it free) and unboxed it and I was amazed at how they packaged the product. I already downloaded their app to guide you through the step on brewing the selected fresh pack.

I chose En Casa, which a Mexican Lager, which is described as light, dry and crisp. I went through the steps as prescribed in the app. It was slower even though I already had an idea what needs to be done, but there is nothing to it.

The agonizing wait begins.

First Tap

En Casa

I did not start tapping the beer per the app suggested and waited another extra day. The first tap looked great, did not get so much head. I could not describe how it smelled other than it really smelt like beer. It looks like beer and the taste of En Casa was true to the description. There’s a slight hint of citrus. I invited my daughter over and her fiancée to try the beer. They loved the beer. My wife did try but still preferred Corona and nothing else.

There are only 10 pints, and I was drinking a pint every night of the remainder of beer.

Opinion

Though, it was my first time brewing my beer, discounting the boiling and mashing, this product is good for beer drinkers like me who wanted to get their hands on brewing without so much hard work.

The Pinter is well designed since after mixing the fresh pack and yeast in the barrel/keg, it is self-carbonating. After fermenting and conditioning, you can tap from it directly. The only drawback that I have shared with Pinter support is that it is difficult to tap the beer after multiple glasses. And towards a few pints left in the Pinter, the beer is flat. However, surprisingly the beer still has great taste.

I suggested an idea of using CO2 through the hopper. This hopper facilitates adding hops later in the brewing process without releasing pressure inside the Pinter. I have seen a video where someone DIY what I was thinking.

Pinter

I cannot complain about their after-market support. It was rare to get an immediate response after sending a support question from their website. When I received my product, I noticed that I was missing the Iron Maiden pint glass as seen from the promotion, and that same day I got a response and was asking for order number and shipping address.

 I have been corresponding via email about some issues like the one I had and received a reply on the same day.

I would rate the product 4 stars just because of the carbonation. It is understandable that it is only using the carbonation that it creates. I just wish that they could sell you the CO2 in a similar container to use in BB guns but designed to fit through the hopper.

Pinter company, I would say 5 stars because of their after-market support.

Off to my next brew.

Formula Drift

Sony A7 ■ f/6.3 ■ 1/1000 ■ ISO 100

Ash and Denisha bought tickets for us to watch Formula Drift as a Father’s Day gift. It was held at English Town, New Jersey, about an hour drive from us. We arrived at the racetrack just half past 1 in the afternoon, we looked for parking and it was full.

There were a lot of spectators, but it was not that bad going through the gate. It was surprisingly organized. There were a lot of pop-up vendors and car shows. We walked around to check out some cars and grabbed a free cold drink from Taco Bell.

We then walked to the bleachers to find seats, and we should have brought some umbrellas because the sun was beating down on us. It was not a real race, but rather 2 cars riding side by side on a figure of 8 track doing drifting. There were judges who were looking into how drivers use the track to drift. What is amazing was that the cars running side by side drifting without hitting each other.

I took out my camera and attached the 200mm lens to take pictures, however, since we are seated behind a fence the pictures showed wire fencing. Instead of using the camera’s auto focus for faster shooting, I opted to manually focus on a distance where the cars travel. Later I decided to go closer to the fence and found a spot where I could stick my camera lens out. I managed to take several pictures through it without showing the wire fence.

It was a fun day at the track spending time with my daughter and future-son-law. Click here to see pictures I have taken from the track.

Graduation

Sony A99 ■ f/4.5 ■ 1/500 ■ ISO 100

I wanted to share these pictures I have taken of my kids’ graduation pictures. I have compiled high school and college pictures, I would also have included grade school, however, I need to dig deeper in the vault which may be a challenge. I will probably update the album when I am able to find them.

As a parent, I consider myself fortunate that both my kids graduated in college. It may not be the major we wanted for them, but more importantly, they chose what they liked and finished it.

Let me tell you a story that happened when I used to live in the Philippines. My parents used to rent bed space to college students, and they had a student who went to the university daily and came home in the afternoon. He did this for 2 semesters. On Sunday, he would be in his military uniform, since it was a mandatory requirement to attend half-a-day training. We just found out afterwards that this student did not attend any of his classes, including military training, when his parents came to collect his things and told my parents that he will not be coming back for the next school year. Looking back, I cannot imagine how much money was wasted, not to mention time. What was the student doing all those times? What the parents must have gone through financially and emotionally?

My opinion, as a parent we cannot ask our children to be what we want them to be. All we can do is guide them, teach them (I think showing them is better) how to be an upright person, and take responsibility for everything that they do and learn from them. Easier said than done.

Graduation is a milestone in our lives, a chapter in a book for some and skipped for others. However, it is not a measure of success or failure. One cannot guarantee that you will get your dream job but try to get a job. It may not be financially rewarding at first, but it may just be a steppingstone to a better one.

Let me share this quote from Dale Carnegie, “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”