Whelp Pale Ale is a Success!

I broke into a bottle of Whelp Pale Ale over the weekend and it is definitely a success. The carbonation brought a nice balance to the malt and hops. It has a good hop aroma and a very smooth hop flavor.

This beer went down way to fast, especially at a little over 6% alcohol by volume. I haven't had time to work on getting labels printed up for the bottles with things going on and work and home, but I hope to eventually get some. At the very least I will put the larger labels on the bottle carriers.

I will try to get a six pack over to Dallas, it might have to be delivered through John because summer brings a different set of priorities.

For those of you that follow this strictly for warmachine I am sorry to disappoint, but I am going to be writing more about outdoor pursuits, yard and garden activities, home remodelling, beer and beer brewing, and I do hope to get some model assembly and painting in on occasion.

If there was a game store a little closer to home I could see getting more games in. Kim and I have created our own table and we are creating some terrain. We will play occasionally at home so that we don't completely forget the rules.

I hope to make it to the FLGS a few times this summer, but as I mentioned there are other things that take priority right now.

Time to try Whelp Pale Ale

Whelp pale ale has been carbonating in the bottle for a week now and should be ready for an initial flavor and carbonation test.

For best results I will wait at least two weeks before letting anyone else try it.

The hop flavor should be intensified even more with the increased level of carbonation. This beer is definately not for the person that typically stays with the large, commercially brewed pilsners.

No....I'm not Dead!

I have felt like dying the last couple of weeks, but no I'm not dead.

Nothing beats an early summer cold... oh wait, yeah having an early summer cold while travelling cross country.

I was in North Carolina a couple of weeks ago, got a cold and then came back to Utah and felt like I was going to die. I would have preferred if the weather had stayed overcast and crappy but not it got nice.

I suffered through work and am not feeling a little better. Whelp Pale Ale is now carbonating it bottles.

I will try one in a few days but it is best to let it carbonate for a couple of weeks.

We travelled to Idaho and visited the family. Played with all of the crazy neices and nephews and went to my brother's graduation.

With the weather warming up it looks like warmachine has dropped down a bit on my list of priorities. Work is keeping me pretty busy with an upcoming food safety audit. When I'm at home we are working on the yard and garden and preparing to start finishing the basement.

Oh and and the really fun side of things I am researching stuff to do when we go to Oahu and Maui. I am still finding some time to get hiking in and hope to at least get a few nights in a bag this summer.

I hope to still get the occassional game over in Logan and Kim and I have created our own board and we are making terrain so we will get a few games in at home.

We have artwork!

Thanks to Florian and G'DayBloke. I just have to figure out how to print it the right size. I don't deal with photoshop or printing much other than documents.

But let me know what you think and I give all of the praises to those guys. This kick's ass!

Cryx on Cryx Battle Report

Okay it is a little late and I hope I don't forget to much of what happened but here goes.

I was fielding the following:

eSkarre
Deathjack
Stalker
Nightwretch
full unit of Bane Knights
Bane Lord Tartarus
min unit of Satyxis
Sea Witch
Min unit of Mechanithralls
Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls
Min Unit of Bile Thralls
skarlock
pistol wraith

I think that is it.

Geoff had the following:

Mortenenbra and Deryliss
Deathjack
Nightmare
Seether
A couple of deathrippers
full unit of bile thralls
Withershadow Combine
a coupe of necrotechs and scrap thralls

I might be forgetting something but not sure.

The game went something like Geoff taking a couple of large jacks up one side and I had a line of banes coming towards him at the other side along with the Deathjack.

I used the satyxis and eSkarre's backlash to get some hits to Mortenenbra by trying to beat on some of his jacks.

I thought that I was doing pretty good, but I did realize that I forgot to feat and that left his jacks able to beat up my stuff, and unfortunately his Deathjack trampled over and gave eSkarre a couple P+S 18 fists.

It was a fun game. I enjoyed playing against cryx. Geoff brought a lot of stuff that I don't have and it was interesting to see how he played it as well as how he played the stuff I do have. He gave me a couple of pointers on how to better use the necrosurgeon, so next time I will have the stitch thralls positioned differently.

Good game, crappy battle report because I waited to long.

Whelp Pale Ale......Day 14

Ah, what a lovely two week old baby.  I don't have children, but treat my beers as tenderly as anyone would a child.  Well other than the shaking at the beginning to get some oxygen in there for the yeast.  I don't suggest anyone do that with a real baby.

We are 14 days into fermentation and it looks like primary fermentation is complete.  We started with a specific gravity of 1.054.  At the end of primary fermentation it looks like the specific gravity is 1.008.

This is the formula for calculating percent alcohol by volume.

((Beginning specific gravity - end specific gravity) x 105) x 1.25)

Using the 1.054 and 1.008 the %ABV (Alcohol by Volume) is 6.0375.

I tasted the sample that I pulled and it has a very floral hop aroma and taste.  It will be transferred to the secondary fermenter with additional hops tomorrow and will age for another two weeks.  The alcohol content is set, now it is just going to be adjusting the flavor and mouthfeel with additional hops and carbonation.

Girl on Girl! Sorry, meant Cryx on Cryx

Now I know it isn't exciting, but tonight will be my first battle against my own faction. I am playing Geoff, who is infinitely more experienced at table top war games, but I'm only slightly terrified.

I am still not sure who I'm bringing to the table tonight, but we are going to be playing with MKII rules. I have not spent the time going through the new rules and cards so it could be a slower game than Geoff likes. I am also planning on playing some models I haven't played, so it could be brutal.

If only Whelp Pale Ale was ready to drink I could have a bottle of that to provide some liquid courage.

I will post my list and how the battle turns out tomorrow. There is a possibility of a 25 pt MKII game against Menoth later in the evening, but I will have to see what how late it is.

New Lists

For those of you that have followed my blog for any length of time you probably noticed that my armies were usually pretty similar. I typically used one of three casters and then my core units and jacks remained the same.

I have recently come upon a lot of models and I now have access to all of the cryx casters with the exception of Mortenenbra and Goreshade the cursed.

I now have epic casters as well as Terminus and the Witch Coven. The question is who to bring to the table. I really want to play with Terminus even though I have been told I will lose. The model just looks bad ass and he looks like he could fly in and lay a beat down on a lot of stuff. The Coven allows for a huge control range and paired with more focus efficient jacks allows for a lot of focus to throw around on spells.

I have satyxis and the sea witch in case I can find someone to play MK II rules with, and if I take them I think I will have to bring out epic Skarre.

I also now have the revenant crew. I am not really familiar with what they are capable of in MKI or MKII, but I might have to put them in an army just for the hell of it.

Then there is the always fun Deneghra and bonejack army. I have been toying with running Deneghra at 500 points with 4 Deathrippers, 4 Nightwretches, and 2 Defilers. I would probably get my ass kicked, but it would be fun to have all that speed.

I have a few other jacks that I have never seen anyone play, especially in MKI rules, but if I get a MKII game in I might bring them to the table. I have a stalker, a couple of harrowers, a leviathan, and a reaper. Most of these aren't assembled so for jacks it will most likely be the cankerworm and Deathjack.

The choices are starting to make my head hurt. I now have to deal with list optimization where before all I had to deal with was learning to play the stuff I had. I now have the ability to switch out solos or units if they end up not working in conjunction with the rest of the list.

I guess I should first try to get a game for tomorrow before I get ahead of myself.

Whelp Pale Ale, An Update

It has been a little over a week since the beginning. Fermentation started rapidly and continues more than a week later at a slower pace.

The brew will stay in the primary fermenter for another 3 or 4 days before I start to take hydrometer readings. This will give me the percent alcohol based on a starting gravity of 1.050. I will put the actual equation in here when I begin to take the readings. I can never remember it off the top of my head.

When I have two consecutive days with the same specific gravity I will transfer to the secondary fermenter. I am going to be adding another ounce of pelletized hops to the secondary fermenter to give it that extra tangy hop flavor. The brew will then sit in secondary fermentation for an additional two weeks before priming and bottling.

With this type of beer I would want it to sit in the bottles and carbonate for at least two weeks, but I always become impatient and will probably try one about 5 days into carbonating.

I am still looking for some artwork, so if anyone has come across anything please let me know.

Models, Models, everywhere Models

I have recently been inundated with Cryx models.

Now comes the hard part. What do I keep multiples of and how many do I keep. Below is a list of some of the duplicates:

Casters

Warwitch Deneghra x2 - This is a no-brainer can't have two and I like my paint job.

Iron Lich Asphyxious x2 - Again same comment as above

Pirate Queen Skarre x2 - Well neither are painted but can only keep one.

Goreshade the Bastard x2 - I have one painted and one primed. I think I am going to try for a
different paint scheme, but again really only need one.

Jacks

Slayer x2 - Not sure if I want to keep two of these for the MKII rules. They are cheap so it is tempting.

Harrower x2 - Again same comment as above.

Deathjack x2 - Well I can only field one, so one has to go.

Deathrippers x5 or 6 - I really don't know that I need this many, especially with the cost of of them in MK II

Defiler x2 - Again not sure I need too, hell not sure I need one with the new rules for the cankerworm

Nightwretch x5 or 6 - This is a lot of these little guys, but that is a lot of AOE's being dropped.

Units

Bile Thralls x30 - I want to keep at least two full units of bile thralls, but I have to decide if three full units is overkill

Bane Knights x28 - I want to keep at least two units, so that leaves a mid-size unit that I might part with.

Bane Thralls x18 - Not sure if I should keep all of these. That is almost two full units, and they are fun to play with. This would allow me to field a unit and keep the min. unit in reserve for Goreshade's feat.

Mechanithralls x16 - These are fun little guys. I just don't know if I need more than a single unit.

Soulhunters x8 - I can only field one unit at a time, and with the new rules I'm not sure how much I will use them. I do want to keep one unit, so most likely looking at getting rid of a min. unit.

Solos

Pistol Wraith x4 - I love these guys, they have won me a lot of games. I don't see the need to have more than two. I might be wrong but it seems like overkill.

Bloat Thrall x5 or 6 - I like the models and they are fun to play with. I just think that 2 or 3 is sufficient. Most likely be getting rid of some easter egg color schemed bloats.

Bane Lord Tartarus x2 - Can only have one.

Skarlock x3 - Definately some overkill here.

So those are all the models that I have multiples of. I would love feedback on how many of some of the models and units you think would be a good number to keep.

A Plea for Help! Well sort of a plea.

I am asking for assistance from my readers. I have the beer started and in about 3-4 weeks I will be bottling it. It will sit in the bottle for another 2 weeks carbonating and aging.

I would love to have some Whelp related artwork to slap onto the bottle prior to the official unofficial tasting.

I am not good with photoshop and really haven't been able to find any usable images of the whelps that I can put on the bottles. If anyone has any suggestions or artwork that they are willing to share I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you and keep up for updates of the beer. Fermentation has slowed, but it was extremely active the first couple of days. When it is transferred into the secondary fermenter with the dry hops it should get some additional fermentation.

Whelp Pale Ale's First Days

We cooked up the wort for Whelp Pale Ale on Saturday.  We had 5 hop additions during the boil and now it smells like hops in my office as the beer begins fermenting in the carboy.  I have filmed the stages of the creating the beer, and when I edit it I will try to get it on youtube and post a link.

I also like that my first comment from PPS_Kevin is on the post about the homebrew.  I kinda like that.  It sounds like at least one guy at Privateer Press likes his ales so full of hops that it kinda hurts.

And it Begins

I am not beyond using vague titles to lure people in.  So you might ask what exactly is beginning. I'm glad you asked.

Whelp Ale ingredients are scheduled to arrive today and the brewing process will start tomorrow.  I am going for a very Western U.S. type of pale ale with hops, hops, and more hops.  There are 4 hop additions during the boil and once I transfer to secondary fermentation dry hopping will occur.

This will not be a beer for the timid.  If all you drink is coors or bud this is probably not your beer, in fact it could make you cry.  If, on the other hand, you like your beer to reach out and give you a little slap before you take that first taste this is the beer for you.

I am still looking for ideas for artwork.  I'm good at making the beer, but not so good at making the artwork for the bottles.  It will be at least 2-3 weeks before it is bottled and then an additional 2 weeks before it is carbonated enough to drink.  

A six pack is headed to Dallas for suggesting the winning name.  John will get to try a few because we always tend to have homebrew when we get together and play on Saturdays.  

Warmachine MK II Experience

I played my first game with the new MK II rules against John last night.   I forgot the camera so no pictures of this battle.  Here is the list I was running.

Goreshade and deathwalker

Deathjack

Cankerworm

Deathripper

Bile thralls x6

bane knights x6

mechanithralls x6

Pistol wraith x2

bloat thrall

Darragh Wrathe

Gorman di Wulfe

Bane Lord Tartarus

John won the roll and chose to go first.  He moved up but not enough to where I could charge him with the Deathjack.  I moved up and unfortunately I was a little too close and the Deathjack was charged by the avatar that had 4 focus that turn.  The Avatar turned the Deathjack in a wreck marker.

The zealots took out a fair number of bile thralls but left me with three remaining.  Tartarus cursed the avatar and charged followed by charges from the bane knights.  They were able to get the avatar down to two boxes but not finish the job.   I moved Goreshade up and cast mageblight which meant no magic or feats within his control area.  I then popped his feat and had a unit of bane thralls charge the bastions.  I was fairly impressed that the thralls were able to take out the unit of bastions.  I figured this was my last ditch effort combining mageblight and feat.

eFeora and her bonded redeemer then lit a bunch of my stuff on fire.  eFeora moved up but was inside of Goreshade's control area and couldn't feat.  The avatar hit and destroyed a couple of bane knights which exploded and lit a couple more on fire.  Tartarus died that round.

I started my round by using vengeance and moving a couple of bane knights away from the avatar to give them a free charge lane to efeora.  I attacked the avatar with a couple that were on fire and then they immediately died.

I began to move biles thralls up to purge on efeora and John decided to concede the game at that point.  

Emotions started running a little high towards the end of the game which unfortunately made the experience unpleasant for both of us.  We always have to remember that this is just a game and if we stop having fun when we play maybe we should reconsider playing.  

John has already expressed an interest to have a rematch with the same lists and I doubt that he will make the same tactical error.  I believe the list I put together was not the best list for what I was facing since I was getting my undead ass handed to me.  I may tweak the list a little and see what happens.  I know that Darragh losing shadowride is a big deal.  I attacked a Seneshal and missed and I was screwed.  I couldn't run away I just had to sit there and take the whacks.

MK II rules will take a big of getting used to and I know that there are models that I don't have that are now good.  I may have to proxy a necrosurgeon with the mechanithralls and see how that goes.  I will need to take the seether and stalker for a test run as well.  The new rules are going to take some getting used to, but I think everything will work out.

MK II test tonight

I am playing my first MK II test tonight against John and his flaming menites. I have put together a list that should be fun. I'm using Goreshade as my caster, and I'm still getting used to him, so it should be an interesting game. I will post the full list and battle report tomorrow. John got the better of me the last time we played and I brought Goreshade, so I'm hoping to avenge that.

Sucking up the 350 pt Tournament

Dallas kicked my ass, Mike kicked my ass and then Adam forfeited so I got the pity win.  I will post pictures and a tad more detail tomorrow.  Also be on the look out for the assembly of the deathjack.  It is being prepared and coming to a blog near you soon.

Assembling the Deathjack....poorly. Part 2

Ok, so after tearing the arms off and figuring out that I'm an idiot this is what it should look like.

This is a view of the front, you can almost make out the broken open rib cage with the souls being sucked into the soul furnace. I think this is going to look awesome once I get some paint on there.

So all that was left was to mount those giant hands, the necrovents and the shielding over his spine. That is all pretty straight forward.

And yet another angle where you can see the horns pretty well.

Assembling the Deathjack.....poorly. Part 1

So I needed to get the Deathjack assembled for the 350 pt tournament. It wasn't that it did a lot of good, but I wanted to field it and if I didn't play in the tournament Dallas was going to kick me in the junk.

Here are all of the parts and pieces.

Here is the beginning of assembly. Pinning the legs.

Here is a photo of how I first attached the arms. For those of you that have assembled a deathjack you will see the obvious error. After this photo I had some mild profanity, and then had to tear the arms off.

So he was starting to look all bad ass and then I had to tear off his arms and he kinda came undone from the base at that point.

Look for part two

Warmachine/Hordes Themed Homebrew, and the winner is.........

We have a tie! There was a tie between Harby's Jailbait Pale Ale and Whelp Ale. I think that I am going to make the tie breaking decision and go with Whelp Ale. I just think there are a lot of opportunities to have some fun with the whelps for the label design.

Now that I have mentioned Whelp Ale and label design if any of you happen to be artsy and creative I would love to see what you can come up with for a beer bottle label for Whelp Ale using the images of Whelps.

Dallas not sure if you drink or not but I do believe you just won yourself a six pack of homebrewed pale ale. It will be several weeks before it is ready for consumption, but it will be a lot easier to deliver it to you than to mail it.

A plea for support

I thought I would use my blog to see if I could drum up support for my Tour de Cure team. This will be my third year as captain of a Tour de Cure team. The Tour de Cure is a cycling event that takes place in over 40 states and raises money for Diabetes education and research. The event in Utah has distances of 25, 60, and 100 miles.

If any of you feel an irresistible urge to part with you money I am giving you the opportunity to part with it by making a donation to my team that supports the American Diabetes Association.


For those of you that might be interested here is my personal rider page.

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=5629&px=3374559