With CEDIA EXPO just two short months away, it’s time to start getting excited for this annual spectacle custom installers have come to know and love.

This will by my 16th EXPO and far from familiarity breeding contempt, I think I actually come to look forward to the show a little more each year.

And having been to EXPO in New Orleans, Atlanta, Indy, and Minneapolis, I can definitively say th...

Nearly every custom installer I’ve met also loves a good craft beer. (Shamless plug: Check out my blog dedicated to craft beer reviews!) Beer is almost always part of the tradeshows we attend; either as a booth enticement or afterhours party conversation lubricant. Beer is often a crew pit stop at the end of the work day, either to celebrate or commiserate over a hard install.

There are PR people. There are *cool* PR people. And then there is Betsey Banker.

Betsey handles the PR and marketing chores for Ergotron and OmniMount, companies that manufacture the really sexy stuff of the technology world like projector and flat panel TV wall mounts and standing desks. If you want a mount that can go flat to the wall, tilt, swivel or even – I kid you not! – raise up and down, OmniMount has a solution for y...

I've decided to add to the brand which is things Sciacca...

First there was Sciacca Writes.

Then there was Sciacca Tweets.

Now, I am launching a new blog devoted solely to beer reviews called Sciacca Drinks.

This site is going to be all beer reviews al...

Like a cozy, hand-knit snowflake-design sweater, nothing heralds the coming of fall/winter like the arrival of the latest batch of pumpkin inspired things. And no true beer lover* can let fall pass them by without trying a few of the season’s latest pumpkin beer offerings, and this year I snatched up a trio of pumpkin infused brews to get into the pumpkin season and nutmeg seasoned and cinnamon season and, umm, other similarly spiced seasons.

It's not every day that I come home to find packages on my porch. It's even less likely that I come home to find packages of beer on my porch. And the rarest event of them all is when I discover not one but TWO packages of beer on my porch! It's like a solar AND lunar exclipse occuring simultaneously!

When I opened the boxes and saw that both beers were Bastard ales, I knew it was more than just serendipity, it was a sign; cl...

I have a backlog of beers that I’ve drank. Beers that I’ve photographed. Beers I’ve reviewed. And beer reviews I’ve yet to post. I think there are like 30 of them. In an effort to clear the backlog, here are three beers I drank but neglected to post up. Why? Who can say. Let’s stop trying to figure this all out and just move on to the beers, shall we?

Great Divide Brewing Co - Fresh Hop Pale Ale

While not specifically mentioned by name, White People do love them some Trader Joe's. (Which is kind of just lumped under Whole Foods and Grocery Co-Ops as stuff white people like.)

White People also like Microbreweries. To whit:

"White people don’t like stuf...

"Good people drink good beer." - Hunter S. Thompson

A wonderful little package arrived on my porch the other day. Carefully wrapped inside was a new release from the good folks at Flying Dog Brewery, with the note starting, "To those who spread the gospel of craft beer..."

As one of the true believers in the many wonders of craft beer, I drank Flying Dog's latest offering, and share my findin...

I get a lot of things in the mail – mainly packages with electronics to review – but nothing gets me more excited than seeing a small box with the “Stone Brewing Co.” return address. I mean, free frickin’ beer! It is literally the height of civilized awesome!

So, when I saw a package by the front door, I gingerly carried it to the kitchen, pulled out my “has a taste for blood” Leatherman and care...

It’s amazing to think that craft brewing has been around so long that breweries are celebrating seventeen, nineteen and even twenty year anniversaries! It’s important to give a tip o’ the cap nod of respect to Samuel Adams at this point, who in many ways began the modern craft beer movement. (I really have nothing to back that statement up, so I welcome any of your more knowledgeable beer historian types want to slap me back into reality...) Sam Adams was foun...

Summer may be quickly drawing to a close, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop drinking summer inspired ales. As we ease into the warm, lazy days of fall, the humidity just starting to break and lessen its crushing grip on our dampened spirits, it’s the perfect time to pop open a brew meant for a nice relaxing sip by swimming pool while gently rocking with your best girl on a porch swing.

When I stumbled on this Summer S...

Today – August 1 – is IPA Day; a day where people around the globe are encouraged to celebrate by drinking large tulip glasses filled with hop-juicy deliciousness. In my house, last night was IPA night as I began celebration by downing three New Belgium Rampants. To be fair, nearly every day is IPA Day in my home, as I constantly have a fridge filled with a variety of IPAs.

To date I’ve reviewed about 200 beers and have ...

While practically every day is IPA Day in my home, tomorrow is the third annual actual IPA Day; a movement dedicated to celebrating the unquestioned awesome which is a fresh, hop-juice filled IPA. That sweet, sticky-icky resinous, pine-juice that engages your entire mouth in a taste sensation of liquid heaven.

Wonder how you can celebrate IPA day?

I have been accused, perhaps even fairly so, of being an IPA snob. Someone even told me that I should learn to appreciate other beers, that I need to broaden my horizons to embrace real beer, dark beer.

To these people I say, “Suck it!” I likes what I likes! And also, if by "snob" you mean I believe that other beers are inherently inferior to DIPAs for any one of a variety of reasons, including real or supposed, then, ...

I’ve been remiss in posting beer reviews with the vigor that I previously had. I fear that some of you might misinterpret this as the fact that I have cut back on my beer consumption, and I want to allay that fallacy right now with a quickness. I assure you; I am drinking just as much beer as ever. And am cataloging my reviews. It’s just the posting that I’ve become a little lax in. In fact, I have about 30 beers that have been opened, photographed, swilled an...

By this point, I’ve drank and reviewed close to 200 beers. Very few have been awful, many have been middle of the road, several have been good, a few have been great, and a couple have been truly epic.

But of all the beers I’ve had so far, only one can stand alone at the top of the awesomeness tast...

As much as I enjoy enjoy drinking, writing and talking about beer, I actually have no interest in trying to make any for myself. It’s kind of like sausage. Huge fan, don’t want to know or be involved in any part of how it is made. (I’m sure it’s a totally non-gross process that wouldn’t involve bits and scraps and snouts or anuses at all...)

My first encounter with home brewing was none too impressive. My fr...

“See the TURTLE of enormous girth!

On his shell he holds the earth.

His thought is slow but always kind;

He holds us all within his mind.

On his back all vows are made;

He sees the truth but may’nt aid.

He loves the land and love the sea,

It’s true, I’m not much into beers that don’t have I, P and A in the title. Well, that’s not totally true. I like to think that I’m open to a great beer in whatever style it comes. You got a great blueberry ale, I’m gonna try it. You got a good Boch, I’ll drink down those hearty and bready malts with the best of them. And I’m really starting to get into Belgian Triple and other styles.

Howev...