Going to New York again. This time Manhattan. I’ll be staying in a pod at 16 West 19th. Click to check it out.

My stop. Middletown, San Diego.

Sheldon from Big Bang Theory names Apple Store Genius the second “most mind-numbing, pedestrian job conceivable.” At least I’m not a tollbooth attendant?

Digg it here if you agree!

The beer, which we have affectionately dubbed “So, So Brown”, has been transferred to the secondary fermenter, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and tucked away in a closet where it will remain for two weeks until bottling.

After reading the “Common Problems” section of our Home Brew guide, I was dreading only a thick white bacterial film on top of the beer as we were removing the lid on the primary fermenter. So when what I saw instead was a chalky, curdled brown ring of what could have passed as the residue left over in your toilet bowl after an episode of the runs, I was elated.

It looked like beer. It smelled like beer. Thank God, I think it’s beer.

Not much a man of science, I was astounded by the physics of the “syphon”. Somehow it utilizes differences in pressure to maintain a continual flow of liquid from one container to the other and doesn’t require the rudimentary suck-to-start method.

I will say that we were both rather shocked by the dark shade of the beer. I mean, we knew we had set out to brew a brown ale, but it was just so, so brown.

Not coming to a liquor store near you in February 2010.

When it rains in San Diego, roads become rivers.

Good luck, San Diego.

Actually, it is yeast. Now we wait. I’ll see you in a few weeks, beer. I hope you don’t taste gross.

It smells like beer.

This is the brew pot. I want to bathe in it, but that would probably be unsanitary, so I won’t.

And this is how we pour the first two gallons into the Ale Pale.

With the soothing sounds of Curtis Mayfield in the background, Boner and I have begun to brew our first beer. Possible names thus far: Boner’s Brown, Charlie Brown, and Normal Brown. This calls for a toast.