Balance is the word of the day. The muscles I pulled in my right thigh trying to keep up with the Short's Brewery gang playing softball yesterday are perfectly balanced against the muscle I pulled near my left ribs water-skiing on beautiful Elk lake this morning.

Brewday has arrived.

This beer shall be called Cornholio. It's made with MI horehound (kinda like an minty rootbeery herb), Indiana red popcorn, and Delaware & Cape May Beach Plums. I got to try the test batch, along with the excellent pizza at Short's Pub last night. It's really nice; 7-ish abv ,roasty nutty notes upfront, balanced against a little dark fruit flavor underneath. Tony from Short's spent many hours grinding and toasting the red popcorn our buddy Nick Floyd sent along in a McGyvered coffee mill.

Short's is truly a family affair. Joe runs the joint with wife Leah who was managing the pub last night. All kinds of preggers and pretty and chasing their son Simon around the humming kitchen on one of the busiest nights of the year. They shoot to keep 20 of their beers on tap at the pub and they had a great line-up last night. My favs were Huma and India Spruce pils. The whole vibe of Short's is family-centric. The larger family is the whole staff, who work and play really well together (again, that balance thing).

Today brewer Krut took a break in mash in to let me help toss in some of the red popcorn. While you can't see it, I'm balancing on a 17 ft tall unicycle while adding the popcorn. Sans pants.

Cheers.