Sunday, 30 November 2008: Finally arrived in Basel

Yesterday: Off to Basel

After yesterday's merry-go-round of aircraft changes, we finally made it to Paris late this morning. En route, I got to try a can of Nigerian Star lager, which wasn't too bad.

We got through the rat's maze that is Charles de Gaulle in time to catch a flight to Zürich earlier than the one we had re-rebooked. We even had time for a couple Affligem de Noël.

This airport is the O'Hare of the EU. In fact, I've determined that the French words Charles de Gaulle translate to the English word clusterfuck.

But we did get to Zürich, and from there took a train to Basel, and we checked into the hotel at 5:30pm, exactly 27 hours after we left home yesterday. So much for a quick pub crawl in Germany this afternoon.

Tomorrow: Waldkirch and Riegel am Kaiserstuhl

Saturday, 29 November 2008: Off to Basel

• Got up early this morning and verified our flight's on-time status.


• Left home at 7:30am and drove an hour and a half to Omaha.


• Checked the departures board and found that our flight was delayed three hours due to a mechanical problem, and so we would miss our Atlanta-Zürich connection.


• Rebooked Atlanta-Paris-Zürich so that we'd still arrive on Sunday.


• The delayed flight landed in Atlanta even later than expected, so we missed the Atlanta-Paris connection too.


• Re-rebooked Atlanta-Paris-Zürich on a flight leaving Atlanta two hours later. The new itinerary includes a six-hour layover at Charles de Gaulle Airport, arriving in Zürich at 5:05pm on Sunday. Then there's a 80-minute train ride from Zürich to Basel.

Tomorrow: Finally arrived in Basel

Back to Basel

Just got word Tuesday morning that Paris and I will be visiting Basel, Switzerland again from November 30 through December 5. (My notes and pictures from the September trip are here.) I'll be looking for new breweries to visit this time around, so if you have any tips, please pass them along!

Wednesday's adventure

Yesterday's root beer deliveries to Lincoln and Council Bluffs were delayed a couple of hours.

Thanks to AAA Nebraska, LincolnLand Towing, and Graham Tire Company for getting me back on the road in under two hours!

Germany wants warning labels for pregnant women on beer

The pussification of Europe continues. I'm all for full disclosure and labels warning of non-obvious hazards, but if you don't already know that an intoxicant might not be good for your fetus, you've got no business getting pregnant in the first place.

“Before the parliamentary election in 2009 we want to lawfully implement warnings on beer bottles that are aimed directly at pregnant women, who can cause considerable damage to their children by drinking during pregnancy,” [German Drug Commissioner Sabine] Bätzing told the [Rheinische Post].



Plans for the labels include images of a pregnant silhouette with a strike-through line, similar to existing labels in France.

It's like tobacco warnings: how can you not know that inhaling concentrated products of combustion is hazardous? It's SMOKE, for cryin' out loud!

I don't want to sound like some kind of anti-fun crusader. If you want to smoke, you're free to do so. Ditto with alcohol consumption and the myriad other activities that may strike your fancy. But anybody with enough intelligence to walk upright and handle a lighter or a pint glass must know that inhaling smoke might hurt the lungs, and consuming alcohol might hurt the fetus.

Criminey. Read all about this nonsense at The Local.

Grab a pint: Best beers for every season

NBC's Today Show weighs in with their choices of seasonal beers. They seem to lean toward spiced and fruited beers — not my favorites by any means — but they list some real classics also.

You can find their list and the reasons therefor at MSNBC.com.

Halloween Handfasting

It's been pretty quiet around the brewery — clean kegs, fill kegs, rack the odd beer — but rather exciting on the personal front. Paris and I got married on Halloween in a Wiccan handfasting ceremony at Max & Joe's Belgian Beer Tavern in Omaha. We decided to conduct the ceremony at a bar so as not to cut into anyone's drinking time. I don't have any still pictures yet, but here are some videos of the proceedings:

Down the "aisle" (0:47)

The ceremony (9:29)

The dance and the party (10:00)

I'll post the pictures when I get them. If you were there, Paris and I thank you for helping us have a great time! And thanks to Tom Dinwiddie (the tallest man in the room) for shooting the video.

I'm expecting some fresh Hefeweizen yeast later this week, so I'll probably brew again on Friday or maybe Tuesday.

In memoriam