Brewing the perfect beer....

I miss blogging.........

2010-03-25T20:19:00.002-04:00

I have given myself a new goal......actualy 2 new goals. 1. Brew more and 2, Blog more!

I've had 2 pretty significant life changing events happen to me this year....first, in January, I left my old company for which I had been at for 9 and a half years and started a new job. Second, and more importantly, I became a father!

Both experiences have been awesome. I wouldn't trade them for anything. But....it hasn't left much time for the 2 B's. I knew I wouldn't brew too much early on, but I never expected that I would slow...or almost stop....blogging!

So, I will once again try to blog AT LEAST once a week.

Tonight's post.....a review of Mayflower IPA. Hope you all have a chance to grab one!

Appearance: Amber/Copper in color. Nice 2 finger head that laces at first, but mid glass seems to dissipate.

Aroma: Slightly malty with nice citrus hops aroma. very nice and what I expect and IPA should be.

Taste: Nice bitterness from the hops is immediatley noticable. Not hugely bitter, but enough to remind you it's an IPA. the beer balances nicely with some bready and roasty malt flavor. Great mix.

Mouthfeel: Easy to drink. This beer goes down great and leaves you longing for more. carbonation is just right where your tongue gets prickled, but not like you're drinking a soda way too fast.

Drinkablility: Thank you bartender.....may I have another! I guess when you cruise through a 6 pack in an evening, it's a good beer!

Overall: A This is one of my new favorite IPA's. It helps that it's local, here in MA. I can't wait to get to the brewery!

Cheers,
Jason

Harpoon 100 Barrel Serises: Island Creek Oyster Stout

2010-02-20T20:04:00.003-05:00

I've been out of the loop for a while now. My new job is a little more demanding than my previous one, so posting at work is not possible anymore. I'm trying to be better, so you'll hopefully start seeing more posts out of me.

Harpoon has been doing a series of beers called the 100 Barrel Series. They're small batch beers that were originally started as experiments for the harpoon brewers and employees. Some of the beers they've turned out have been amazing, Session 28: Glacier Harvest '09 Wet Hop Ale and Session 4: Barleywine specifically and others, Session 26 - Catamount Maple Wheat, I didn't enjoy as much. So when I saw adds for Session 30: Island Creek Oyster Stout I had to try it. The description sounds both frightening, and exciting as well.

"This smooth stout is brewed with freshly harvested Island Creek Oysters. The roasted nostes of the stout blend beautifully with the mineral flavors of the oysters."

Wait....you actually brewed this beer with real oysters???? I'm scared......but I have to try it! Hopefully I don't get any sand in my bottle! :-)

Appearance: Black! Very black! Perfect 2.5 finger coffee/tan colored head. As it sits, the foam becomes frothy, almost like the cream on the top of a cappuccino. Head laces nicely on the glass as I drink it down.

Aroma: Nice roasted malt aroma mixes well with hints of coffee and butterscotch.

Flavor: Just as it smelled, the roasted malt packs a nice punch without being overpowering. Chocolate and caramel are evident and play a nice wingman to the roasted malt. Part of me thinks I can taste the ocean, but the other part thinks my mind is playing tricks on me. No bitterness.

Mouthfeel: This is a chewy and full bodied beer as I expected. Silky smooth as it coats my mouth.

Drinkability: This beer was fantastic. Although, I think you could put this side by side with the same beer but brewed without the oysters and I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. I was a little nervous at first....I wasn't sure what a beer brewed with Oysters tastes like, but it's damn good! Now I wish I could have found more than one of these. Definitely go try one if you find it.

Cheers,
Jason

Review: Sankaty Light - Cisco Brewers

2010-01-29T21:29:00.003-05:00

I met some friends at the Oak Room in Boston and had the chance to try Sankaty Light from Cisco Brewers in Nantucket, MA. I can honestly say, this is my light beer of choice from now on!!

I did have one issue with this beer though. The bottle says Sankaty Light Lager (despite the picture on the left), but the website says it's an ale. I emailed the brewer to get to the bottom of it, so I'll update when I get an answer!!!

A: The beer is a light gold color with a thin white head that stuck around and left a thick lace on the glass.

S: The aroma is of light malts and a pretty strong dose of hops for the style.

T: The taste is light and starts out a little bready with very little malty sweetness. A nice clean burst of mild hops bitterness follows. The malt character is thin as you would expect. Overall, it’s quite refreshing. The after-taste is slightly bready with a nice hop aroma to finish it off.

M: Crisp and very smooth, light body, medium-to-heavy carbonation, clean and dry finish.

D: Tasty, goes down very easily, not filling at all, perfect when you want something light. It’s well-worth drinking on a hot day and you’re not looking to get too hammered.

Serving type: bottle

A watched pot never boils.....

2009-12-30T16:26:00.002-05:00

...but if you turn your back it will always boil over!!

I brewed my American IPA yesterday out in the fridgid cold, and stepped inside to warm up a bit and had a boil over. It was so cold that the bolied over wort froze as soon as it hit the ground. Other than that, it was a succesful day.

I've been very lucky these past few months. Things at work were slow.....very slow. So slow that I had a lot of time on my hinds. Time to do things like plan out 6 brew sessions....Belgian Tripel (3 seperate batches), Munich Dunkel, Winter Spiced Ale 2009 and recently American IPA. I also had the time to look for a new job....which I accepted a few weeks ago and start on January 4th! :-) While this new job won't give me access to great homebrew shops like my old one did, it will put me right next to my favorite beer bar in Boston (Bukowski's) and give me a 45 minute shorter commute.....each way!!!

Anyway...enough rambling. My Winter Spiced Ale turned out ok, but had no carbination. So in order to fix this issue, I sanatized a keg, and dumped them all into the keg and I'm in the process of force carbinating it. My sister-in-law helped me make an AWESOME label (which I'll post when I can get it off my thumb drive which I don't have now) and I think everythin will be saved, just not in time for Christmas. Oh well.

I brought my Munich Dunkel today to a meeting I had at Cape Cod Beer. I was lucky enough ot have the opportunity to meet with Todd and Beth Marcus, Owners of Cape Cod beer, for some insight into the business and starting out as a brewer! It was awesome. And, in edition, he tried my Munich Dunkel and had some good feed back. They're going to serve a few of them at his next homebrew meeting and send me some additional feedback as well. SWEET!!!!!!

Other than that, my wife and I are getting ready to welcome our first child in March. I'm trying to get a few more brew sessions in before then, for two reasons. One, so I'll have enough home brew to last me through the summer, and two because I don't want to assume I'll have enough time to brew much at first.

I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year!!

Cheers,
Jason

I'm a winner!!!!!

2009-12-20T13:45:00.002-05:00

So, Alan who writes at "A Good Beer Blog" holds a yearly yuletide photo contest. He gets a lot of amazing photo's from around the world (I use one from last year as my desktop photo). So this year I decided to enter a few of my pictures that I took while at Magnolia's in San Fran.

To my excitement, I received an email from Alan this morning informing me that I was one of the winners. I won a copy of 33 Bottles of Beer. It's a beer diary sort of that allows you to review beers on a flavor wheel so you can visually see how your beers tasted. Very cool. Hell, you could have given me a free bottle opener and I would have been psyched. Anyway, check out what Alan had to say here. Thanks Alan!!!

Back to shoveling snow!!

Cheers,
Jason

Spam Comments

2009-12-07T10:57:00.001-05:00

I've had to turn on the comment moderation recently. I've been getting a TON of spam comments (15-20 per day) so I turned it on so people didn't have to see them all. Has anyone else had problems with this? It's really annoying!

Cheers,
Jason

Magnolia's Pub & Brewery

2009-11-24T13:34:00.004-05:00

Last week I was in San Francisco for a conference. The conference didn't start until Tuesday night, so my wife and I decided to travel out there early and take a few days to see the city. It was my first time there, so there were a lot of things I wanted to see like Alcatraz, Fishermans Wharf, Ghiradeli's Chocolate, Lombard Street and most of all the Haight Ashbury district.

I don't consider myself, nor have I ever, a Dead Head. I do like the Dead and even saw them when I was in high school down at Madison Square Garden. (Great show by the way). But this is a place where you can trace the historical significance back to specific period of time where an event or events happened. The 60's San Francisco music was that period of time, and the Dead where that "Thing" that makes this place famous!

About a year ago, there was an article I read inside All About Beer and a brewpub called Magnolia's Pub & Brewery. It talked about the great vibe, great beers and great location! Being that I was in that location, I had to stop by and check it out! We arrived a little early that day since we had a bunch of places to see. We killed some time by walking Haight street and grabbed a seat at the bar when it opened.

November was deemed "Belgian" month in the San Fran beer scene. Both Magnolia's and the 21st Amendment had predominantly Belgian beers available, with of course others. I started with their newest beer at the suggestion of the bartender, Destiny Unblonde. It was a Belgian Pale Ale and was very tastey. Unfortunately I didn't write anything down so no official review (until I go back and get more). The beer was a beutiful straw gold color and had a fruity taste and aroma to it. Very drinkable!

Next was the Deep Elem Dubbel. Again, no notes but it was a darker amber color with some raisony aroma and flavor! This was everything I'd imagined a Dubbel should taste like! Those, unfortunately, were the only two beers I had. We had to depart and get through the rest of the sites we wanted to see. I thought about trying to come back later in the week, but being with work folks and being at a work conference made it very difficult.

I will definitely make it back to San Fran and I know that this will be a place I spend some more time at. If you're ever in San Francisco, I highly recomend that you check out Magnolia's!!

Cheers,

Jason

San Francisco

2009-11-19T02:22:00.001-05:00

So I'm out in San Francisco for a work conference this week. Salesforce.com runs a user conference every year and it is an amazing show. Tonight they had a concert which featured the Black Crowes. Yeah, that's right.......the Black Crowe!! And.....it was free......AND, it was open bar!!! Wow!!

So, what does this have to do with beer? Well, they had a great selection. I mean, we're in San Fran so naturally there is some good beer locally. Anchor brewery, Magnolia's, 21st Amendment are some big names here in town. And, about 3.5 hrs away is Sierra Nevada. So, needless to say, they had some good beer served at the show.

My wife and I decided to come out a few days early and she was a trooper. She obliged as we went down to Haight Ashbury and scoped out the "scene" there. I'm a Dead fan so this is like Mecca!! Then we went to Magnolia's. A GREAT brewery restaurant right on Haight street. Its been writen about in All About Beer magazine so I felt I had to go.

I only had two beers. My wife had their Root Beer, which in her words was "AWESOME", and I had a sip or two and had to agree. They make a Root Beer and another fruit soda that escapes me at the moment (hey, I just left a crowes show...throw me a bone).

This week at Magnolias was Belgian week so they featured Belgian beers. I started with there Unblonde. Light colored, spicy/fruity aroma and taste. It reminded me of a mix between a german hefe and a belgian woit. Very good beer!!

Second waas the Dubbel. Cramel colpor and taste. Some alcohol warmth although I'm not sure why as it only came in under 7% (I think....hey, I'm foing this from memory).

Overall, it was awesome. We also got an order of fries (Pom Frittes as Jay Brookes calls them) and they were out of thid world. If your ever in San Fran, I highly recomend Magnolia's.

Cheers....here's to hpping the rest of this conference is as good as the first day!!!

Jason

Odds and Ends

2009-11-11T09:40:00.002-05:00

Boy, do I need to brew some beer!!!! My last batch was back in September. I brewed my Winter Spiced ale for this year. I'm changing it up. For starters, I brew it will all grain. Second, I'm not going to dry spice it this year with cinnamon sticks. I thought the cinnamon in last years batch was very overpowering and I really want to make sure the beer is what stands out, not the cinnamon. I still have 4 bottles from last years batch, so I'll do a side-by-side when this years batch is bottled and ready!

A little off topic, but a cause of why I have not been brewing, I just renovated my bathroom! This was a full renovstion, down to the studs and I did the vast majority my self, with the exception of the plumbing and electrical work. It is almost 100% complete which will be nice. We have a 110 year old home, so when you do these types of projects, there are always issues. We had many....which caused all the delays. I was planning on being done this past sunday, and then I was going to have 2 brew sessions this week after work, but this delays/issues keep piling up!! So, I'll brew soon enough!

Next up is 2 batches of Belgian Tripel. It was a big hit, so I'm going to brew a lot of it and trade it with some friends for some random things. This should be fun! I also think I'm going to brew up my brown session ale. I've been really craving some session beers lately, but all I have are the belgian tripels and some bigger IPA's. This isn't neccesarily an issue, but when you swill 4-5 of them you definitely feel it in the morning, which IS an issue!!

With the renovation of the bathroom, we rented a dunpster for all the demo. This allowed us to clean out the basement, which was long overdue. It was clutered with things we bought or collected over the years and have no use for. With this new found space, I'm going to try and carve out a space so I can brew down there in the winter. I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not to brew with a propane burner indoors, but I think if I do it by the door and have the door open, I'll have the proper ventilation I need to make everything ok. Besides, I've seen plenty of people in BYO or Zymurgy who have propane setups in their basements and it seems to be fine. We shall see!

Cheers,
Jason

Belgian Tripel

2009-10-26T16:09:00.003-04:00

Things have been a little busy which has forced a lack of posting on my end. But there are some good things to talk about, so onwards!

I brewed a Belgian Tripel back in July from an Allagash clone recipe I got from BYO. It's been bottled for a while now, and I'm almost all the way through the batch. The company I work for is based in France and we have a lot of ex-pat's from France here in the US that I work with. Some of them are big beer fans. I decided to bring some in and gave them each a few bottles from the batch. other co-workers saw this and wanted some as well. Needless to say, I gave most of this batch away. But, all is not lost. They LOVED it!!! And they now want me to brew whole batches for them. Of course, I can't accept any payment or profit from this, as that would be illegal, but the beer is going to be brewed again next weekend in hopes to get it to them after Thanksgiving!

I was really happy with how the beer came out. I had a wonderful frothy white head, a nice tan color and powerful aroma. Some hints of alcohol were present in the aroma, and packed a powerful punch when sipping. I am no doubt going to continue to brew this. My next task it to tweak the recipe a little so I can call it my own. Now that I have a strong base recipe, it will be fun to figure out how to make this beer a little different without making it worse!!

Also, the final design for the label was done. Thanks to my sister-in-law for helping out with this. I've printed them on Avery address label paper, which makes it really easy to stick it to the bottle.

Cheers,

Jason

Overdue

2009-10-20T10:09:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the long pause in between posts. I have many updates to write about, but no time right now. I'll get these posts up this weekend hopefully.

Upcoming Posts:

Belgian Tripel tasting and label update (Allagash clone)
Christmas Spiced Ale Brew Session
Munich Dunkel Update
Big Beer Idea

Cheers,

Jason

Fermentation Friday Round Up

2009-09-28T10:38:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the delay in getting the wrap-up posted. Thanks to everyone who participated this month. I have to apologize because I kind of picked this topic at the last minute without realizing it had been covered in the Session previously. But, I tried to relate it to homebrewing, and thankfully I think it worked out. On the the wrap up.

For GISBREWMASTER, it all started in Germany. Spaten Octoberfest was the magic potion. He's been trying as many new beers as he can since. And, as I suspected, this love of good beer brought him to Homebrewing!

Over at Brew Dudes, John and Mike came to craft beer very similiarly. For Mike it was his first Guinness. While John started with locally made Sam Adams, but his first real epiphony was also with a Guinness. The "magic of the nitrogen push" mystified him and kept him thinking about Craft Beer ever since.

Thomas over at Geistbear Brewing got hooked in Germany. At his fathers suggestion, he tried a authentic dunkelweizen and was hooked (You must have a smart father). After returning to the states, he found a bar/home brew shop and started brewing. Luckily for him, homebrewing has given him a job of late!

Jimmy, over at HopWild started out with a Pete's Strawberry Blonde but mostly developed his love of craft beer from experimenting and going through a "I'd like to be German" phase. But his real love and appreciation started when he started homebrewing and visiting breweries and festivals.

Thanks to everyone who participated this month. I promise next time I host, I'll get a better topic out there.

Cheers,
Jason

Fermentation Friday - Where It All Began

2009-09-25T09:45:00.005-04:00

For many people, craft beer is a luxury. For others, it's a necessity!! For me, it's both! It's a reward for long day at work, or a great workout or race one weekend. It's also the only option for me because when I want to reward myself, I want something special. Something that makes me feel like it was made specifically for me. Not some mass marketed product that is made to please the majority. A good craft beer is the only thing that will do.

It wasn't always that way though. I can remember back to my youth when I'd be sitting with my dad watching the Patriots, Bruins or Red Sox and seeing my dad crack open a few Michelob's or Coors. I remember that first sip he gave me. I remember thinking, "really, I can have a sip?" and cherishing that sip like it was the blood of Christ. I didn't like it, but it wasn't the quality I was looking for, it was the feeling that I had started to grow up and be "a man" because I had some of my dads beer.

As I got older my drinking habits, and reason's, changed. I no longer had a few sips so I could feel more mature and like a man, I drank because I wasn't allowed to! I drank to be a rebel! And, coincidentally, I drank whatever I could get my hands on which was always cheap macro lager.

This continued into and through college (yes I drank in high school once or twice) as the normal keger was flowing with Milwaukee's best, "The Beast" as we called it. It was no where near tasty, but it was cheap and it did the job. Most of all though, I didn't know any better. I didn't know that I could drink beer and actually enjoy it for the taste too, not just for how much fun I had while drinking it.

It was my sophomore year in college when I had my first taste of craft beer. We were having a small get together and he brought some Saranac Adirondack Lager. I couldn't believe how good it was. I mean, beer wasn't supposed to taste good, it was supposed to get you drunk. I remember staring at the bottle reading every word trying to figure out why it was so different. I must have asked him 100 times where he got it. The next day, I was at the beer store buying more, and was baffled to see they had even more varieties than just Saranac Adirondack Lager.

Throughout the remainder of my tenure at Hartwick College, I did continue to drink macro lagers and craft beers. Mainly because the macro's were cheap and I didn't have a lot of money as a college kid, and because that's what was being served at party's.

So how does this tie into home brewing? Well, my senior year I was in the beer store staring at the craft section trying to figure out what I wanted. A man came in and went right to the craft section and grabbed some Saranac Black Forest. As he was paying, the cashier asked him how the brewing was going. Was he a brewer? I needed to know. I quickly paid and followed him out and asked where he brewed. He told me he wasn't a professional brewer, he brewed at home. We chatted, and then he told me to come down to his store to chat some more and he would explain all he could about home brewing.

I went to his store, we chatted for about an hour, and I left with my first home brewing kit and ingredients for an Amber Ale. From that day on, I never looked at beer the same. I drank each beer and always though, "Can I make this?". I tried a few batches, and each one failed miserably. Poor sanitation was usually the cause, but mostly it was my lack of ability to follow instructions. I just threw some stuff in the pot, cooked it, added yeast and thought I'd get some beer. Not the case!

After college, I took about a 7 year hiatus from brewing and focused on drinking! It was fun, and I tried every craft beer I could, started reading about how they were made and finally decided to give it a go again....this time with much better success. I've been brewing now frequently for the past two and a half years and have tried to learn with each session. What can I do better? What other styles can I try? What would happen if I used this ingredient? There is a ton more brewing I need to do in order to considered advanced, but I think I'm getting pretty close. Just think, I might have never gotten here if it were not for that Adirondack Lager I had back in college!!

Cheers and happy Fermentation Friday!

Jason

Fermentation Friday - Where it all began

2009-09-24T15:22:00.001-04:00

This is just a reminder that tomorrow is Fermentation Friday. I will be doing my post tomorrow at some point. Please either post a link to your blog or email me your post tomorrow. I'll try and get a wrap up posted by the end of the weekend.

Cheers,

Jason

Food Magazine Promotes Beer

2009-09-22T16:04:00.001-04:00

A colleague of mine is a little bit of a foodie and she subscribes to a few different food magazines. One of these is called Saveur. It's very similar to Beer Advocate, but it's about food. It's a really nice magazine. One of the really cool things I saw was that in the current issue that she brought in for us to check out, there were a few articles talking about craft beer!!!

So, after seeing the magazine, I thought I should check out their website, and to my delight, they have a "Wine & Drink" section with a whole subsection for beer. There are beer articles from previous issues, reviews, and other general writing about brewery's and brewers!! So, because I was so impressed, I thought I'd pass it on. For those interested in pairing beers and food and have a general interest in both beer and food, here is the link!

Cheers, and Bon Appétit!!!

Jason

September Fermentation Friday - Topic Announced

2009-09-14T12:37:00.006-04:00

I'm excited to announce that this months Fermentation Friday will be hosted by me. After much deliberating, I've finally chosen a topic. "What turned you on to Craft Beer"

As homebrewers, we all enjoy quality brewed Craft beer. But, if you grew up like I did, there wasn't any craft beer around the house. My father, uncle's and cousins all drank Coors, Bud, Michelob and so naturally that's what I started drinking when I first drank beer. But something made me stray from the swill. So, this month tell me a story. How did you find your way to craft beer? Were you one of the lucky one's who parents drank good beer early one, or did you need to find it on your own??

I'll post a reminder when the date gets closer, but hopefully this will give you some time to reminisce some.

Cheers!
Jason

2009 Hop Harvest

2009-09-07T16:22:00.002-04:00

Happy Labor day!! I harvested my hops today. I got 2.45 oz. (wet) from the cascade and about 6 cones from the centennial. They are now drying. I'm hoping to get at least and oz. to use, which I'm sure I will.

Cheers,

Jason

Label Help!

2009-09-04T16:08:00.003-04:00

I'm bottling my Belgian Tripel tonight (Allagash Clone) and I need your help. I have two labels I made but I can't decide which label to use so I turn to you, my readers! Which do you like better? The bottle caps, or the Roman numerals? Leave a comment and make a choice on the poll to your left!!!

Cheers,

Jason

Almost Harvest Time!!!!

2009-09-03T20:02:00.003-04:00

Hops are almost ready to harvest for this year. I'm estimating that I'll get between 1.5-2 oz from the cascade and only 5 hop cones from the centennial. Hey, it's 5 more than last year. I'll be harvesting on Monday most likely. I'll be bottling my Allagash Tripel clone tomorrow night. Can't wait to see how it turned out!!

Cheers,

Jason

Fermentation Friday - Breaking Away From The Norm

2009-08-28T09:47:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Matt over at World of Brews for hosting this months Fermentation Friday. His topic this month, "Breaking Away From the Norm".

"Most home brewers I know and read about use the standard 2 row base malt and the 3 big C's for the hops and maybe a nice 1056 or 05 for the yeast. In my book that is kind of boring even though I do it myself. I want to know if and why you break away from the norm. Do you use Maris Otter for your base and Tettenger as the hop. Or have you ever tried using a specialty malt as a base (can this even be done)? Do you like to mix up the yeast or do you always stay the same. So bust out your out of the norm recipes and tell me why you chose what you did."

This months topic is relatively pertinent to me since just last month I did just that. I brewed my Allagash Triple Clone using Pilsner malt as the base. I am almost always using 2-row for my base malts in all my beers. It's cheap and it works well, but for some beers you need to use something different. This beer being one of them. Unfortunately, the beer is still in the secondary so I don't have an update yet as to how it turn out, but I'm going to be bottling next week so in a few weeks it will be drinkable.

Over the past few months I've been reading a lot of my old issues of Zymurgy and BYO and online homebrew forums like Tastybrew and lots of people are "breaking away from the norm" and using things like MO (Maris Otter) and other types of base grains. But in this economy and seeing that I don't have a ton of extra cash laying around, I like to use 2-row. It might not give you the same powerful flavor as MO but it's a great grain to use and it's cheap!!!

With hops, it's a little different for me. I rarely use the 3 C's (even though I grow Cascade and Centennial) and I am always on the lookout for the newest, and most pungent hops available. Currently, I've been trying to use a lot of Glacier Hops. They're not the easiest to find, but they have a wonderful citrusy aroma and pack a nice hop punch. For me, I like to use hops for the Aroma and Flavor they can produce. I tend to do a lot of 30 minute and under additions and those work the best there. I do like to big alpha hops, but I feel that when you're trying to put that many IBU's in through a bittering hop, the flavor and aroma get lost from that hop. So, I make sure the late addition hops I use pack a good punch for the nose!!

Make sure you tune in to next months Fermentation Friday as I'll be hosting (I think) here on Brewing the Perfect Beer!!!

Cheers,

Jason

Craft Brewing Statistics

2009-08-17T13:22:00.004-04:00

The Brewers Association released it's mid-year numbers today. The press release is located on their web site, click here to view the full release.

Some highlights:

Dollar growth from craft brewers during the first half of 2009 increased 9%, down from 11% growth during the same period in 2008.
Volume of craft brewed beer sold grew 5% for the first six months in 2009, compared to 6.5% growth in the first half of 2008.
The U.S. now boasts 1,525 breweries, the highest number in 100 years when consolidation and the run up to Prohibition reduced the number of breweries to 1,498 in 1910

The last point has me thinking a lot. First, for the craft beer industry this is fantastic! The US has more breweries than any other nation. The American Craft beer movement has taken hold and clearly doing well!! But from my side of the fence, I start to re-think my plans for my future. Is the market becoming saturated? Right now, I would say no but in a few years with the growth rate we're seeing, it will be very tough, even tougher than it is now, to open a new brewery. Now, that's not to say I'm giving up, but it just means I need to really focus on providing a product that stands out from the rest!

Cheers,
Jason

I am......AN IDIOT!!!!!!

2009-08-05T10:55:00.004-04:00

This is not meant to be one of those rants where I say "I thought of it first", BUT I REALLY DID!!!! And I have proof!!! (See picture) I had the idea for the "I am a Homebrewer" too, and I balked at the chance to do it!! DAMN IT!!!! As you can see by my post, I thought of this back in April. Chances are these guys did too, and it just took a while to get it out there. Kudos to them for actually going through with it!!!

Why bring this up now you say? Well, because I'm slightly jealous and I feel like an idiot. I should have gone ahead with the idea then I could be the one everyone is talking about! Ehh, oh well! Anyway, I hope you have seen the clip and enjoyed it. It's pretty good.....BUT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN US! :-)

Cheers,
Jason

Trappistes Rochefort 8 Review

2009-08-02T20:55:00.003-04:00

I took a trip to Julio's Liquor's, aka the candy store, and made the decision to get some beers I had wanted to try, but have yet to. The first of these beers is Trappistes Rochefort 8 from the Brasserie de Rochefort (Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy). I have been on a Belgian Beer kick lately, not only drinking them but brewing them as well, and this is one that is highly rated on BA both from the bro's and the readers.

Appearence - Pours a dark amber color with a frothy tan colored head. Lace marks the glass as I drink it down.

Aroma - Some fruity aroma's are preasent, maybe raisons or figs. Alcohol is noticable with slight hints of oak.

Taste/Mouthfeel - Velvety creaminess and alcohol come through instantly. Some oaky flavors are apparent but alcohol is the star. Fruityness is evident as well, maybe raisons or figs.

Drinkability - At 9% ABV, drinkability is somewhat limited. That being said, hang up the car keys and settle down. I could drink these all night....although that might not last as long as I want. This beer is very drinkable. The alcohol warmth and aroma with fruity fig/raison background make this a delicious beer. I can see why this is one of the top 75 beers on BA.

Cheers,

Jason

Fermentation Friday - Homebrew Clones

2009-07-31T11:53:00.001-04:00

For this months installment of Fermentation Friday, Rob over at PFIFF! asks:

"What beers have you attempted to duplicate in your own homes, or which ones have you always wanted to reproduce, but have been wary of attempting?"

This is the perfect topic for me this month, since just last Sunday I brewed a clone recipe of Allagash Tripel that I got from Brew Your Own magazine. This is my first real "Clone" brew having used the recipe that was calibrated by Rob Todd for us 5 gallon weekend warriors! So far, so good. The beer had a massive fermentation in the first few days. I had foam in the blow off tube as well as the blow off bucket within 12 hours!!! I also did a first for this brew, I made a yeast starter which I think contributed greatly to this vigorous and healthy start to primary fermentation.

I have really high hopes for this beer. In the past I was never a huge fan of big Belgian beers but recently I have been drinking more and more of them and really developing a love for these expertly crafted brews. The big alcohol and wonderful esters that come from these pushed me to try my hand at my own, and there is no better way to start than with a clone recipe that is proven! Now, I definitely don't expect this beer to be as good as the real Allagash Tripel, but I think it will be very good and very drinkable. And with homebrewing.....that's all you can ask for.

While the Allagash is the only beer I've "properly" cloned, I have tried to clone another beer. That beer is Sixpoint's Sweet Action. I didn't have any recipes from magazines, just a few glasses of this amazing beer and my imagination. I did try to get the recipe from Shane, the owner/brewer but was only able to get the hop varieties that were used. So, I did my best, from memory, to try and clone it. While the beer did not come out like a clone of Sweet Action, it took on a life of it's own and became a great beer that I served at my friends wedding with great reviews. I am definitely going to go back to the drawing board and take another stab at Sweet Action, but for now I'm going to focus on some new beers this summer.

Cheers!

Jason

F.X. Matt Brewery Tour

2009-07-30T15:44:00.003-04:00

Last week on the way home from my Triathlon in Geneva, NY my wife and I decided to take a quick detour through the F.X. Matt Brewery. It's kind of funny since Charlie Papazian just wrote about it this week, here. His post made me realize I needed to post this. The tour was great. You start out in a room that has a lot of antique's and old stuff from the Utica Club Days. P.T. Barnums desk is in this room and there is a grandfather clock which is worth over a million dollars......and it doesn't even work!!!

Next came the presidents room. This room/hallway was filled with portraits of all of F.X. Matt's former and current presidents. Basically it's the entire Matt family. Still, very cool. Next a room which basically had all their products on display. The tour guide talked about the Saranac Brands, their Saranac Soda and how they use barley and hops to brew there beer. Boring stuff for the homebrewer. The final room before we got to see the actual brewery was the prohibition room. It was a small room designed in the speakeasy fashion. He talked about how Utica Club survived prohibition and that they were the first brewery to sell beer after the 21st amendment was signed. They had beer on the trucks ready to ship 1 hour after the amendment was penned! Hmmm.....how'd they get that beer made in 1 hour????

Now to thew brewery. The first room housed the two large brew kettles. All 100% copper kettles which were a thing of beauty. The amount of equipment that was in this room was amazing. The picture below is only half the room. The other half to the right was the cereal cooker and the filter, which was about the size of a yellow school bus. Very cool!

After seeing the brewhouse, we took a quick trip through the grain storage tanks.....actually, just the top floor. It wasn't much because of the massive size, they were more than 2 stories high and so wide we could barely walk by them. Next we went to a room which had a view of the fermentation tanks. They would not allow us to go into the fermentation room because there are pipes and hoses all over the floor and they do not want to liability of someone tripping and hurting themselves. I understand....no biggie.

And finally, we finished in their pub! We were given 2 drink tickets each. I was the first to the bar, and I grabbed my favorite Saranac beer ( and probably one of my top 5 beers) Saranac Black Forest!! WOW, what an amazing beer. Great malty bite to it slight hop presence. My wife, since she was the best and offered to drive, had thier Root Beer. IT WAS AWESOME!!! It was so good, we bought a 6 pack. I also bought a 6 pack of the Black Forest and went through it the night I got home! SO GOOD!

As we Left, I snapped the above picture. It's the grain "dump" or whatever you call it. This is where the spent grain is put after brewing and local farmers come by with a truck, has the grain dumped in the back, and they take it away and use the grains for cattle feed. Very cool and easy way to dispose of spent grain!

If you're ever out near Utica, I highly recomend taking this tour. It's very easy to get too and it's a lot fo fun to see one of the oldest working breweries in the country!

Cheers,
Jason

The Obama Beer Summit

2009-07-30T13:24:00.001-04:00

There is a lot of conversation about this whole "beer summit" situation at the white house. There are articles and posts on major news sites and blogs around the country (here, here, here, here, here and here) Most of the beer world has a beef with the type of beer that was chosen (Bud Light for Obama, Red Stripe for Gates and Blue Moon for Crowley) while it seems that the news world is concerned with...well, I have no clue. Partially about the beer that has been chosen and partially happy because they think this makes Obama look like he's a down to earth American!! I think the choice of beer here was in poor taste (pun intended)!!! The home of the President of the United States of America should serve American beer!

Regardless if you are a supporter of Obama or not, I think this is a great opportunity for the Craft Beer industry to gain some notoriety. I also think that the choice of beers were sub-par. The industry has been given free press and EVERYONE in the media is talking about beer now! This could help spark a larger debate on the "sin" tax that is placed on beer, or the rising excise tax on brewers. This is an opportunity the industry can't afford to miss. It is definitely made harder by the fact that swill that the 3 men have chosen are not made by American Companies. I could go on and on about this, but I won't. Everyone else has said enough. But I will leave you with my suggested substitutions for them:

Obama = Bud light (replace with Sam Adams Light)

Gates = Red Stripe (replace with Yuengling Traditional Lager)

Crowley = Blue Moon (replace with Allagash White)

Cheers,

Jason

Local MA brewer to expand distribution

2009-07-30T09:52:00.002-04:00

I just got to reading this piece of news on BA about a local Massachusetts brewer Sherwood Forest. They will now be distributed by Stawski Distributing Co. based in Chicago and will now be available in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Colorado and Iowa.

Sherwood Forest is a small brewery located in Marlborough, MA. I've never been a huge fan of there beers. I would much rather have a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale over their Archers Pale ale, but then again I think I would have a SNPA over most beers! By the looks of their web site, they re-branded most of their beers and have spent some money upgrading the site. I'll have to grab some and see if their beers have improved as well!

This looks to be an exciting deal for them. Be on the lookout for there beers if you live in these markets!

Cheers,
Jason

Yeast Starter

2009-07-25T22:33:00.000-04:00

Tonight I made my yeast starter for the Allagash Tripel I'm brewing tomorow. I usually don't make yeast starters and I tend to just trust the Wyeast smack packs and the cell counts they advertise. But because of the high gravity of the Tripel, and this being my first Belgian beer, I thought I should do it right and make sure I had a proper fermentation with good cell counts, so I made a starter. Hopefully it works out well. We shall see.

So with this, I have a question for you all. When I made the starter, I didn't smack the smack pack and just poured the yeast in the jug. I decided to pull the smack pack out and see what it looks like. It's basically a small package of wort. You can see it in the picture just next to the starter. On to the question.....would it be feasable to save this and over time as I mack starters, keep them until I have enough Wyeast wort to make a starter with that wort instead of buying DME and using that? Also, if it would work, am I really cheap by trying to save $6? Let me know your thoughts, but I think I'm on to something.

Cheers,

Jason

Allagash Tripel Clone recipe

2009-07-22T09:56:00.001-04:00

Although I only got 7 of you to vote, it looks like the Allagash Tripel clone is the winner. I'll be brewing this on Sunday so I'll post a full report on Monday with stats and how the brew day went. For those of you who want the recipe, it is below. It is in the July-August 2008 issue of Brew Your Own Magazine along with recipes for Ommegang Witte Clone, Lost Abbey Devotion Ale Clone, Two Brothers Domaine DuPage Clone and Red Rock Brewing Pecome Blonde Clone. This is a great magazine that always has great recipes and articles about technique and ingredients. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for some home brewing magazines to read/subscribe to.

Allagash Tripel Clone:

Fermentables:
12.8 lbs (5.8 kg) Pilsner malt
1.6 lbs (.73 kg) sucrose

Hops:
2 oz (57 g) German Tettnang hops (4% AA, 60 minutes)
.4 oz (11 g) Hallertau Mittelfruh hops (whirlpool)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey Ale II) or Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) or White Labs WLP510 (Belgian Bastogne Ale)

Instructions:
Mash at 153 F (67 C). Boil for 90 minutes. Add sugar for final 15 minutes. Add whirlpool hops at end of boil. Ferment at high end of yeast strain's recommended range.

Cheers,
Jason

What to brew next?

2009-07-15T14:56:00.004-04:00

For the past 4 months I've been training very hard in order to complete in my first half-ironman triathlon. For those not familiar with triathlons, the race consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. The weekend is finally upon me, and on Sunday I will be swimming, biking and running my way to the finish line in under 5 hours and 30 minutes....I hope!! I'm really excited that the race is finally here. I get to see all that training that I did put to good use. The weather outlook looks great for race day, so I'm looking forward to a great day!!

Another reason I'm excited about the race being here is that all that time I spent training......can now be spent brewing!!! I haven't brewed since early May and I am in desperate need of a brew session. But, I'm having a small problem. I don't know what I should brew. Part of me is thinking I should brew the batch I brewed for the wedding, and try to incorporate some of the suggestions I had into the beer and attempt to perfect it. But the creative side of me wants to try something new. These past few months, I've been indulging in some Belgian beers. Mostly from Allagash and Ommegang, but I've made a list of some of the beers I'm going to try and track down from some of the trappist breweries in Belgium and try those. I've given up drinking for the past two weeks (which was not easy) so after Sunday, I'm going to get back on the wagon with an Allagash Curieux and either a Brooklyn Local 1 or Local 2. (The decision between Local 1 and Local 2 will be made by who wins the race....me, or my friend Shaun who is also competing).

Which brings me to the reason for this post. I can't decide what to brew....so I'm leaving it up to you, my readers. I'll post a poll for this and you can vote over on the left side. Brew day is going to be Sunday, July 26th and it can't come soon enough!! If you have a suggestion that isn't in the poll, leave a comment and I'll consider it!!

Cheers,
Jason

ACBF Recap

2009-06-21T17:37:00.002-04:00

ACBF 2009 was a success! Being the second year of it's existance (I think) I was impressed. It has definitely gotten more crowded as people get word of how good it is and how fun beer festivals are. The crowd was definitely tame and the beers were excellent. I had originally set out with my list of beers that I didn't want to leave without trying. Unfortunately, I only ended up having 7 of the 13. 3 of them were not even on tap on Friday night (that was upseting) so I only missed 3 really. The line at Allagash was huge. It went from their booth all the way accross the middle of the venue, so I thought I would skip it. I'll just have to trust that it's good and buy it!!

One thing I did notice that was different this year was the lack of head brewers. No Sam Calagione, Garrett Oliver, Drew Brosseau (Mayflower and local favorite beer of mine). I did spot Hugh Sisson (Clipper City) walking around grabbing some samples himself which was pretty cool. Not that I base my experience on celebrity brewer sightings, but it's always cool.

Tow things that were vastly improved upon, and not as important as the beer but still importants, was the food and bathroom situation. Last years lines were ridiculous for both and the porto Johns inside made the whole place smell like crap...litterally! They put the porto's outside this year and they had 2 food stations and multiple cashiers which made it quick and easy to grab some grub!

On the the beers. I am becoming a huge Sixpoint Fan. I was hooked on their Hop Obama last summer, then this winter was introduced to the Sweet Action. This time around I had the Bengali Tiger and I was amazed. It is an old english style IPA with a big malty backbone and a huge hop presence. Perfectly balanced and only having 2 oz.'s made me want more.....lots more! This was by far my favorite beer of the night.

I was however not a fan of the Watermellon Wheat from 21's amendment. This is by no means a knock on 21st Amendment, but I just don't like the watermellon beer combo. Not sure why since I love both by themselves. I noticed this year there was a large amount of American Wheat beers with fruit. I'm not sure if this is the latest push to try and get more women into craft beer but it was noticable. Some of them were very good (Saranac Pomegranite Wheat) and others weren't.

I'd love to hear your experiences if you attended either of the 3 sessions. I know Brew Dudes went Friday as well and Rob went Saturday night so I'm sure he'll be posting as well. Can't wait to read them.

Cheers,

Jason

ACBF update 4

2009-06-19T20:47:00.001-04:00

Kennebec River Brewery continues to please. I rafted there last year and enjoyed there summer ale and tonight its awesome.

ACBF update 3

2009-06-19T20:18:00.001-04:00

Morimoto from Rogue is amazing. I will definitely buy this in the future

ACBF update 2

2009-06-19T20:14:00.002-04:00

the beer here tonight is awesome. Just had a Hazed & Infuzed and it was great. And.....we had a pseudo Brett Michaels siting! I will try to get a pic!

Cheers,

Jason

ACBF Update

2009-06-19T19:17:00.002-04:00

So far so good! I've noticed that this year is A LOT more crowded than last, but the beer lines are moving quick. I've been able to hit most of the brewers but some didn't bring some of the beers as advertised. Oh well, I'm still having fun and drinking some great beer. The best one yet was Sixpoints Bengali tiger! Absolutely amazing beer!

Cheers,
Jason

American Craft Beer Fest

2009-06-19T11:31:00.001-04:00

Tonight is the first night of ACBF. I'll be heading in with a few friends to enjoy some of the best craft brewed beers in the world! There are 75 brewers attending pouring over 300 different beers. I have my list of beers I'd like to get to. I have 14 beers on my list that I don't want to leave without trying, in no particular order (but yes, I have mapped them out so I can get to them easily)!!

Midas Touch - Dogfish Head

Watermelon Wheat - 21st Amendment

Cuvee de Cardoz - Brooklyn Brewery

Hazed and Infused - Boulder Beer Co.

Oak Aged Never Summer - Boulder Beer Co.

Flashback Anniversary Ale - Boulder Beer Co.

Morimoto Soba Ale - Rogue

Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale - Sierra Nevada

Bengali Tiger - Sixpoint

Confluence - Allagash

Oak Aged Mad Hatter - New Holland

Toasted Brown Ale - John Harvard's Cambridge

Jack D'Or - Pretty Things Beer and Ale

The only one of these I've had before is the Sierra Nevada, but it's such a good beer that I want more. I chose these because either I've never had a beer from the brewer, or had the beer. Sixpoint is my new interest. I've written about their Sweet Action and they continue to impress me. We shall see! I might try to post a few from the fest, but don't quote me on it. I'll definitely post a recap though!

Cheers,

Jason

Wedding Brew and Benmarl Winery

2009-06-16T13:57:00.002-04:00

This weekend was the weekend where I served my Newest American Pale Ale, aka CrystALE recipe, at my friend's Kate and Shaun's wedding which was at the beautiful Benmarl Winery in Marlboro, NY. The weekend was awesome. We spent a lot of time at the winery, setting up for the wedding, the rehearsal and then for the actual ceremony and reception. We didn't get an official tour, but I took it upon myself to nose around a bit and check it out. The wine cellar was my favorite. There were stacks of full barrels, a "Vintage" room filled with bottles from the 50's and 60's and then through the barrels there was the fermentors, bottling line and label station. I could begin to see the start of my brewery with all the fermentation equipment and barrels around. I was in heaven.

My biggest excitement came on the actual wedding day. I had brewed 4 cases of my beer for the reception. All 4 cases were gone by the end of the cocktail hour (actually more like an hour 40). I was extremely happy, and slightly bummed I didn't make more. All night I had people approaching me telling how awesome my beer was. My sister-in-law, who is a graphic designer, helped to make the labels which were also a huge hit. We didn't' start making the labels until Wednesday and they had to be done on Thursday, so needless to say it was rushed......which would be why I missed spelled "bottled". Oh well, It was a gratifying experience nonetheless. One of the guests was actually a brewery at the Barrington Brewery & Restaurant in Great Barrington, MA. I spoke with him for a while about the beer, brewing as a profession and other things and the one thing I remember fondly was the constructive criticism he gave. He was very impressed with the beer and though it was a very marketable beer. He also though there was a hint of an off flavor in the finish of the beer, but couldn't detect what it was exactly. I had hoped I could have had more so I could have reviewed it again myself, but I guess I could have worse problems.

Cheers,

Jason

Self Distributing States

2009-06-16T11:52:00.000-04:00

I was doing a little research on states that allow self distribution by brewers and I found some good information on the Brewers Association website which was very helpful. But the list they gave wasn't enough....I wanted a cool way to display it........maybe on a map. Then, I stumble upon this site, which allows you to make customized maps with whatever information you want! VERY COOL! So, as you can imagine....I created a map called "Self Distributing States". Hopefully this is helpful to people doing research on distribution options. If not, hopefully you can have fun playing with maps!

Cheers,

Jason

Beer Taxes

2009-06-02T14:33:00.006-04:00

I've been reading a lot of blog posts and articles online lately (here, here and here) that have to do with the issue of beer excise tax and the governments proposal to raise it. Like the authors of these posts, I strongly disagree with the notion of raising the beer excise tax.

I have two views on this issue, first as a beer consumer. I think it is ludicrous that I, as a beer drinker, should be taxed strictly because I enjoy beer. This is unfair to me as a consumer and I personally think that if the government needs to raise taxes on something in order to generate additional revenue (to supplement all their spending), shouldn't all American's share this burden? A fair way to raise taxes would be for income tax to be raised which effects everyone and doesn't force beer drinkers to pay for our "sins". Although, it's my opinion that in this economy taxes shouldn't be raised in the first place.

Second, as someone who is working towards owning a brewery, I try to look at this from the brewers perspective. Lets say you were a small independent craft brewer. You have steady sales, but in this economic climate, things just haven't taken off. Then, you get hit with an additional excise tax on the beer you produce. This additional cost can not be absorbed by your business and you are forced to pass that cost on to your consumers. Some consumers see this price hike and go shopping for alternative beers to yours, thus decreasing your sales even further ultimately forcing you out of business. I have a hard time looking at this scenario and saying "it is what it is".

In the comments of Lew's post, he got into a deeper discussion on this issue and put it as plain as it can be!

"Are you telling me that if the government taxed, what, bacon that would be okay as long as people kept eating it and paying the tax? A tax on beer makes no more sense than a tax on bacon. So why tax bacon or beer?"

On another note, there is a great article (pdf format) from the Tax Foundation on the effect of cross border sales of beer due to sales and beer excise tax. I got it from J's blog. It's a long read, but very interesting. Enjoy!

Cheers,
Jason

Fermentation Friday - Brewday Joy & Stress

2009-05-29T09:29:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Ted over at Ted's Homebrew Journal for hosting this months Fermentation Friday. This months topic is Brewday Joy & Stress.

"...for something a bit more light and fun, this month's topic revolves around the brewing activity itself. Brewing is an extremely rewarding endeavor, especially after sipping on the end product....a delicious pint of cold carbonated beer. But in the process of making it, it's not always 'a walk in the park'. I'm interested to hear about what areas in the brewday brings joy and stress"

To start, I can say for sure that I'd rather be home brewing a fresh batch of beer. I have about 4-5 potential recipes that I've created that I want to try out and also try and re-formulate and try and make my friends wedding beer (crystALE) a little better and closer to Sixpoint's Sweet Action. But I digress....

I think one of the biggest and best reason I (and I'm sure almost all homebrewers) get joy from brewing is being able to drink the final product and know you made it. But I'm not going there.....I have a feeling a lot of people will cover this well and I don't need to go any further. So, for me the one things that brings the (second) most joy in the process is being able to re-brew a previous batch and make it better. I've been doing a lot more of this lately trying to get more consistent with a few of my beers. Because I hope to open my own brewery someday, this is essential to my success. I need to be able to open the doors with high quality beers AND be able to make them consistently.

On the contrary, I do get very frustrated at times when I brew. For example, BOILOVERS!!!! I hate them!! I know the cause, and I have found a way (heard from a friend) about a way to reduce these by using a spray bottle and spraying the foam as it rises and try's to spill out of the kettle. I can tell you from experience that this technique works very well!!! Another are that brings frustration, and this stems from not being the most patient person ever, is the wait from brewday to the most exciting point, the first sip!!! I know it's something that I can't change, but it's frustrating to me. I guess I'll need to space my brewing sessions out so I can pop open a first bottle from a previous batch on each subsequent brew day......but that's a whole other post for another day! I need more time in my day!!!!

Brooklyn Brewery Tour

2009-05-18T13:12:00.002-04:00

This past weekend, I was in Brooklyn for a bachelor party. Luckily, the party started at the Brooklyn Brewery! We took a tour and sat in the "tasting room" (it was more like a bar) and sampled their awesome line up of beers. I left there a very happy beer lover! I took some pictures, which are the the bottom. Sorry about the quality, but they're from my cell phone.

The tour was short. Not in time, but in distance traveled. You move from the tasting room, over to the brewery room and listen to the tour guide talk about the history of Brooklyn Brewing Co, the building and their current state. All in all, it was about 30 feet. As someone who wants to open my own brewery I thought the tour was very cool, and yes they started as home brewers!!! At the start, they did contract brewing with F.X. Matt (Saranac) up in Utica, NY. To this day, the majority of there beer is still produced at the Matt Brewery. Only a few beers (Local 1, Local 2 and others) are actually brewed in the Brooklyn Brewery.

Next we moved back to the tasting room and sat at some of the tables they had set up and began to sample their brews. I started off with the Brooklyn IPA, which they called E.IP.A. (East India Pale Ale). This was golden in color and had a great head. Huge hop aroma's and it packed a wallop of hop bitterness.

Next up was the Brooklyner Weisse. Their Bavarian yeast strain gave it lots of the traditional Banana esters and some great flavor as well. I've had some Hefe's that were just too overpowering with the banana/clove ester combo, but this was perfect. It didn't get in the way of the backbone of the beer, the wheat!

Beer 3 was just a quick sample, the Intensified Coffee Stout. Had this beer been lower in alcohol (8.5%) I probably would have had a few, but since we had a LONG day of bachelor party drinking to do, I only gave it a taste. WOW!!!! I could smell the coffee aroma before I even stuck my nose in it! The first sip was amazing. Big coffee flavor, with a great rich malty backbone. The maltiness and coffee flavor really mask the alcohol in this, which is part of the reason I shied away from it.

The Brooklyn Brown was next. I'm a huge brown ale fan and this beer did not disappoint. It poured a deep dark brown color and had hints of some roasty malt character. The chocolate malt was evident and very pleasant. The hop character was a little restrained from what I was expecting. Not a lot of bitterness, but subtle flavor and aroma. One of the main reasons I liked this beer so much was it reminded me of my American Brown. When I brewed it, the judges told me it had a roasty character that is not traditional in the style, and it was too dark. Color wise, my brown is the same. It made me smile and I know I will be back to the drawing board to figure this one out!

As we were leaving, I grabbed two bottle to take home.....famed Local 1 and Local 2. I have yet to try these but I've heard and read a lot of great reviews on them, so I'm very excited to get into them. If you're ever in Brooklyn, or NY for that matter, definitely take a trip to the brewery and check it out. You won't be disappointed!!

Cheers,
Jason

Allagash Curieux - Review

2009-05-07T21:43:00.004-04:00

I haven't gotten into doing reviews much, but I'm starting to explore this more so I can expand my knowledge because I think reviewing beers and thinking about how and with what these beers are brewed will help me to better understand how to brew them.

First up, Allagash Curieux.

Appearance - It comes in a "standard" Allagash 750 ml bottle. The beer pours a pale color and a champagne like fizz popped from the glass. A small bright white head formed and quickly disappeared.

Aroma - Sweet alcohol with pleasant hints of bourbon. The aging in the Jim Beam barrels certainly helps.

Taste - At first sip, bourbon flavor is evident. Warm alcohol coats the taste buds. There is a taste of something I can't pinpoint, which is nice and enjoyable. The website says hints of vanilla and coconut are evident, but I don't think that's what I was picking up. Either way, I enjoyed it a lot. I guess it will be forever a mystery.

Mouthfeel - As I suspected from the champagne like fizz when poured, the carbonation is a bit prickly at first. The tulip glass I was using has a ridge on the edge which can contribute to this fizz as it agitates the beer as it passes over the ridge. It had a nice creamy mouthfeel which became silky and soft towards the end of the sip.

Drinkabilaty - AT 11% alcohol, I'm thinking this is a very nice treat to have once in a while. I "could" definitely drink a few of these, but it would definitely have it's effect on me. This one took me about an hour plus to drink and I had a nice buzz. This beer would be a great after dinner drink and something to sip with a wonderful dinner. I'm not sure what I would pair it with for dinner, but I'll figure it out and make it one night. To be continued.....

Next up, Pike Brewing Company's Tandem.

Cheers,

Jason

Wedding Brews - Progress report

2009-05-04T13:44:00.001-04:00

The two brews look like they have completed primary fermentation. I had moved them to the basement one day after they were brewed because the temps in my kitchen where I usually keep the carboys got up to the 80's. I was a little upset that I didn't plan for that because they had been fermenting very nicely and formed a nice foam krausen on top, but the agitation from moving them to the basement caused a little of that to sink back down into the beer. As you can see from the picture, some of the chunkies are floating around. You can also see how high the temp was from the stick on thermometer on the first carboy.

This week I'll transfer them to the secondary and dry hop them. I'm looking forward to seeing how they turned out from being hot, and then chilled to the lower temps of the basement. I can't wait for that fruity aroma from the Glacier hops!!!

Cheers,

Jason

Wedding Brew Weekend

2009-04-27T12:48:00.003-04:00

As I've mentioned in previous posts (see Witbier and Two Brew Weekend) I was asked to brew some beer for my friends wedding. With the final beer being chosen in early April, I set out this weekend to brew it up for the big day......twice. Early in the week I decided to make two batches. I thought that for an entire wedding reception, 2.5 cases just wasn't going to cut it (now that I said that, I bet there will be a ton left over).

The first batch went off without a hitch. The mash settled perfectly at 152 and stayed there for the entire 60 minutes. I had a small boil over at the beginning mostly because I was paying more attention to drinking some of the last batch and watching the Red Sox. Post boil, I ended up with 6 gallons, which is what I planned. Chilled, racked and pitched. Batch one down!

The second batch went off.....but not so much without a hitch. To set the stage, it was close to 90f in Natick on Saturday, I had gone for a 7 mile run about 2 hours prior to starting the first batch, had one bowl of oatmeal to eat all day, and about 6 homebrews by the time I started batch two. Needless to say, it had it's effects on me. I didn't realize my mistake until the boil, but it turns out I used an extra gallon of water in the mash. DOH!!!! (sorry Chappy, the beer will be fine, I promise)

Sunday, after I had sobered up, I went through my notes and realized where I went wrong. In an attempt to be more efficient, I started batch 2 while batch 1 was still chilling prior to pitching the yeast, so I didn't have the availability of my Blichman boilermaker with the volume sight gauge on the side. Instead, I went back in time to my "pre-boilermaker" days and used a wooden spoon I had notched out at the gallon marks. Apparently I mistook the 5g mark for the 4g mark. Other than that slight mix up, the batch come out well. It's a little lighter in color but it's fermenting away.

Both batches have a very nice krausen on them and are vigorously fermenting away right now. I'm a little concerned that because of the ambient temp in the room, that I might get some bad esters in the beer, so I might move them to the basement. But then basement is on the cooler side of the temp spectrum. Probably in the high 50's. I did give myself a few extra weeks, so if the fermentation slows, I think I'll be ok. Recipe is below.

So here's my questions.....do you think I should blend the two batches prior to bottling to essentially make them one large batch? If you could let me know your thoughts and experiences with blending, that would be great!

Cheers,
Jason

CrystALE

OG - 1.050
Batch Size - 6 g

Fermentables:
8 lbs Two-Row
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lbs Munich .25 lbs Brown Malt
.5 lbs Flaked Barley

Hops:
.5 oz Columbus (13% AA, 6.5 AAU, FWH)
.5 oz Magnum (14.5% AA, 7.3 AAU, 30 min)
.25 oz Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 30 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, 15 min)
.25 Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 10 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, DH)

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Beer Wars - The review......

2009-04-17T14:23:00.003-04:00

Last night I spent the evening with my wife in Framingham MA attending the well talked about Beer Wars Movie. And to be honest...I'm still not sure how I feel about it. To answer the questions I posted about yesterday, Yes...I was entertained and No, I didn't learn anything new. So, if you're still planning on going to see the movie and would hate to know all about the movie before you saw it (Leah and Luke are brother and sister....wait, wrong wars) then don't read on.

The start of the movie was, to say the least, rough. I felt like I was watching a track meet and someone tripped when the gun went off. Not good. Anat Baron (Filmmaker) struggled in the opening of the the movie, which was live. Whoever was holding her cue cards probably got fired today.....and we'll leave it at that. I guess that's what you get with live production.

Once the movie actually started rolling, things went a little better. The beginning of the movie went through Anat's background working in the "beer" industry. Ahem....she worked for Mikes Hard lemonade....not quite beer, but a malternative none the less. Oh, and she is allergic to alcohol so she can't drink it. Now, I am in no way saying she's not allergic to alcohol, but to make a movie about beer....hype the crap out of it....then admit you don't drink beer seems a little hypocritical! To quote a good friend....."that's like me making a movie about dresses". It just doesn't work, and my attitude toward the movie quickly shifted to "damn, I just wasted $32 on this movie....should I make my wife stay through it all?"

She then proceeded start us through a journey of beer giving the history of beer in America and transitioned into the big 3 brewers and how they got to be so big. The rest of the movie jumped around from topic to topic, starting with Sam Calagione. She highlighted his/Dogfish Heads rise to Cult status and talked about the expansion to there brewery. The other interview subject was Rhonda Kallman, founder and CEO of New Century Brewing Co. Rhonda also happens to be the co-founder of Boston Beer Co, the makers Sam Adams. New Century is launching a new beer called Moonshot, which is a light beer made with Caffeine in it. This was probably the most interesting part of the movie personally because it highlighted the struggle that start -up craft brewers have to face with the big 3 pushing you off the shelf in stores.

The rest of the movie seemed more like a clip from a Michael Moore film. It showed clips of here trying to track down (stalk) August Busch IV. Then clips of Anat in DC discussing the Beer Lobby and the 3 tier distribution system. I started to get excited that I might learn something about the 3 tier system, but nothing. No more than 15 seconds were spent trying to explain the system, or why the lobbyist are fighting to keep it in place so hard.

Then......it was over! Time for the live panel moderated by Ben Stein. The panel consisted of Charlie Papazian (AHA), Greg Koch (Stone), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head), Rhonda Kallman (New Century), Maureen Ogle (Author, "Ambitious Brew"), Todd Alstrom (Beer Advocate) and Anat, and man was it awkward. Some of the questions Ben asked made it seem like he didn't watch the movie. I forget the exact wording of the question, but it was the second one he asked and the movie had touched on the same question and Greg Koch answered it in the movie.......STEIN.........STEIN.........STEIN?

All in all, I kind of wish I had waited for it to come out on DVD or better yet....You tube! I know Anat had good intentions of showing how the Big 3 are trying to push the Craft Brewers around, but it fell short of the target. Some segments should have gone deeper, some shouldn't have gone at all, but I can say I was entertained!! I'm looking forward to hearing how others felt about it. I'm sure there will be TON'S of posts on blog around the country!!

Cheers!
Jason

CNN BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!

2009-04-17T09:40:00.006-04:00

I'm not sure about you, but when I see that come across my email, my heart skips a beat. I think back to 2001 when I received the same email about the twin towers, or in 2005 when 16 Navy Seals were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan that was hit by an RPG, and one went MIA for 2 weeks. So, naturally when I saw today's CNN BREAKING NEWS email, I said to myself "oh no"......quickly followed by "ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME?".

"-- Ashton Kutcher is first to reach 1 million followers in Twitter contest with
CNN."

Is this what the news world has been reduced to??? The fact that anyone should give a shit that Ashton Kutcher reached 1 million followers on Twitter is, to say the least, RIDICULOUS!!!!

Our country is in the middle of one of, if not the, worst recessions EVER. We're still fighting two wars overseas (agree with them or not, they are still going on), Pirates are attacking ships delivering relieve supplies to 3rd world country's and CNN has the balls to send a breaking news alert about Ashton f-ing Kutcher reaching 1 million followers???? WOW!!!!

Sorry for the non-beer rant, but that just pushed my buttons!!!

Cheers to real news,

Jason

Email posting & Beer wars

2009-04-16T16:35:00.003-04:00

This post is brought to you via email for the first time!!! I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but maybe it will help with my lack of posting! WOO HOO TECHNOLOGY!!!

Tonight, I'm heading out to see "Beer Wars" with my wife. I have mixed feelings about this movie. One on hand, I'm wondering how they can pull off a documentary about beer to a bunch of craft beer drinkers who already despise the macros....I mean, are we going to learn anything that the converted craft beer drinkers of America don't already know?? On the other hand.....I'm pretty sure I'll be entertained which is the point of going to the movies. Plus, I get to spend a night of beer watching, and most likely drinking, with my wife which is always good!! I'll post another day on what I thought about the movie!

Cheers,
Jason

Pike Brewing Releases Monk's Uncle Tripel Ale as a Year 'round Offering & Pike Tandem Double Ale is Reformulated with Belgian Ale Yeast

2009-04-01T21:29:00.003-04:00

Seattle, Washington, March 26, 2009
There once was a little boy. He didn't want to be a racecar driver, a cowboy or a fireman.When he grew up he wanted to be a monk. Not just any monk, but one who brewed beer. He expressed his ambition to his parents. "But son, we're Jewish!" they told him. He became an artist instead.

Being Jewish didn't stop Charles Finkel from introducing Orval Trappist Ale into the USA years later. When the Abbot of this famous monastery brewery, established in 1028, was told that the best importer had been identified to distribute their beer, he was also told that the principal was Jewish. "So was our lord," the Abbot was reported to say, and Finkel got the exclusive U.S. agency. Among beer connoisseurs Orval, like the five other Trappist beers in Belgium, is regarded to this day as "holy beer." Miracle of miracles, the cultivation of barley and the beer brewed from it was imported from the Middle East to the West by the crusaders who introduced the new concept to the Roman Catholic Church. While it is the monks who get the credit, it was the nuns who did the brewing. Hildegard Von Bingen, the Abbess of the Convent of Bingen in Northern Germany, is credited with introducing humulus lupulus (hops) to beer around 1067AD. Europe's first big businesses were three breweries owned by the Monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland during the dark ages. At a time when most people were illiterate, the monasteries communicated the gravity or strength of their beers with crucifixes. One cross was for a single, a brew to be drunk on a daily basis; two crosses, a double, for special occasions; and three, a triple, reserved for religious holidays. As people learned to read and write, the cross became Xs. Multiple Xs on a bottle, still to this day, indicates a strong drink. Secular brewing got its start in the Middle Ages when people began to move to cities; many of today's breweries trace their origin to the church. Seven monastic breweries continue to operate in Belgium and Holland.

Beers of the double and tripel style are made by monasteries today including Westmalle and Rochefort. They are the benchmarks for these distinctive styles, though many more doubles and triples are brewed in Belgium by secular breweries who, prevented by law from calling these old fashioned beers "Trappist," call them Abbey Ales.

In 1989, Charles and Rose Ann founded the Pike Place Brewery in Seattle's famous public market. In 1996, the company, now called The Pike Brewing Company, expanded to its current space - a gravity flow steam brewery and pub, one-half block uphill from its original location. Michael Jackson described the new Pike as, "a shrine to beer." The Finkels sold Pike, along with Merchant Du Vin, their beer importing company in 1997. After an eight-year "sabbatical," they re-acquired Pike in 2006 and since that time, have worked to realize their dream to own a world class brewery. Pike's original line of beers was already well established and all were brewed with yeast originally imported from England. Remembering his childhood dream to be a monk, Charles wanted to add completely different tastes for Pike customers: a double and tripel in the monastic style. Since Charles and Rose Ann were tandem bicycle enthusiasts, they named their new Double, "Pike Tandem." In the Abbey style, Head Brewer Drew Cluley added organic sugar and coriander to a gold medal winning brown ale.

Monk's Uncle Triple, brewed as a spring seasonal, became the first Pike beer to use Belgium yeast. Introduced at Brouwer's Cafe in Seattle, it became a cult classic, selling out at each release. Monk's Uncle won the readers choice award for "Best Belgian Ale" 2008.

With the addition of more fermentation tanks to expand the brewery's capacity, the decision was made to add Pike Monk's Uncle Triple to the Pike lineup of beers brewed year round. Since the yeast, a strain from Westmalle Monastery, could now be propagated from one batch to the next as the brewery has done with its English style yeast since 1989, it was decided to brew Pike Tandem with the same Belgian ale yeast as well.

Pike Monk's Uncle Triple 9% alcohol by volume is brewed with organic malt and organic sugar. It is golden, full-bodied and complex with a yeasty nose, fruity esters and malty dryness. There are hints of honey, spice and exotic fruit that play with the senses.

Pike Tandem Double is cocoa colored, smooth, round, nutty and complex with flavors of freshly baked bread. It is stylish and sensual without bitterness. In addition to hops, coriander is used as a seasoning.

According to Finkel, drinking these beers is a, "religious experience!"

Fermentation Friday: Spring Fever

2009-03-27T12:21:00.005-04:00

I'm joining the ranks of the Fermentation Friday crew and posting on the topic. Bryon, at HomeBrewBeer.net is this months host and will post is roundup here. This months topic is "Spring Fever".
"How will you grow or change as a homebrewer this Spring? How will you
embrace your Spring fever and channel it toward your homebrewing
endeavors?"

This spring is going to be a crazy one for me. I have a lot going on and to be able to fit in some brewing sessions here and there will be key. As I've posted before, Ive been asked to brew some beer for my friends Kate and Shaun's wedding. So, naturally I'll need them to taste it before I brew the official batch. Almost all of my brewing this spring will be focused on this. I'm hoping to be able to get two good batches that they both like so I can have them for the wedding, in June!

On top of that, I've signed up to race in a Half-Ironman triathlon in July and I need to start getting a lot of training in and weekends are a great time for long runs and rides.....which eats into my brewing time. But, the good thing is that in the pat few months I've brewed a few batches so I'll have some tasty homebrew when I'm done my training sessions.

IF I had the time I want to dedicate to brewing, I think my main focus would be on consistancy. I have two recipes which have come out great in the past that I want to perfect. My APA and my Brown Session Ale. These beers are my best beers and If I can perfect them to a point where brewing them is like riding a bike, then I can kill two birds with one stone. First, I'll have two great recipes to base starting my brewing (whenever that may be) with, and second is, naturally, I'll have two awesome beers on tap at all times! WIN WIN for me!!

The other area I'd like to focus on, and I imagine a lot of others will too, is being more economically sound with my brewing. With the consistancy of the two brews mentioned above, I'd like to be able to make them for less. Hey, money doesn't grow on trees (someone should tell Obama that) so being frugal and trying to brew for less will be a big plus for me!!

Fermentation Friday was started by Adam over at Beer Bits 2, and it’s a chance for all homebrew bloggers to sound off on a singular theme at a set date - the last Friday of each month (check out Adam’s post explaining the origins).

Cheers,

Jason

Beer's Economic Impact

2009-03-06T10:15:00.003-05:00

I came accross a great site today called Beer Serves America. The site goes into great detail about the impact beer has our nations (and states) economy. There is a tool on the site that allows you to view by state, and by district within your state, the economic impact the beer industry has. It was pretty amazing stuff. In 2006, Massachusettes employed just under 25,000 people in the industry earning wages over $255 million.

Now, I'm not an economist, but I read a great post (actually a few) on Lew Bryson's blog about taxes on beer/liquor/cigarettes etc. and how they don't work. With Govenor Deval's push for the new "Wellness Tax" I thought I'd point out this site. As Lew's post points out, NJ Tried this with smokes in order to help curb a budget crisis, and it backfired. People either stopped smoking or drove over the border to get their smokes and the State actually lost revenue.

Let's pray that the Wellness Tax doesn't go into effect. Because not only will your beer be more expensive, but that bag of skittles from the vending machine will be $2 soon!!

Cheers,
Jason

Two Brew Weekend

2009-03-03T09:50:00.003-05:00

This weekend was one of the first weekends I've had this year where my wife and I didn't have to travel anywhere, or have any plans to do anything, so I took full advantage of it and was able to brew two batches of beer. The first batch was an attempt at making a clone of Sixpoint Craft Ale's Sweet Action. I used a lot of crystal malt to try and pull out the sweetness, and decent amount of high alpha hops to try and balance it out. The second batch was brewed at my neighbors house with another neighbor and fellow homebrewer. It was our goal to recruit one more person into the homebrewing club, and I think we were successful (Matt??).

The reason for the Sixpoint clone is two-fold. First, It's an awesome beer with a great balance of big sweet malt flavor and big hop aroma and flavor. So naturally, when a homebrewer likes a beer, they try and clone it! Second, my good friend Shaun, who lives in Brooklyn, is getting married to my other good friend Kate. As I've mentioned before, they've asked me to brew some beer for the wedding. We've collectively been trying to come up with a beer that would be enjoyed at the wedding, and one I'm able to brew successfully. A few beers are on the list, but this one was next so I gave it a shot. I posted a few comments on the TastyBrew forum about the original recipe that I created and was told I had WAY too much crystal malt in the recipe and that it would be ridiculously sweet. So I took some out, and added some other malts to try and balance it out and added some more hops for balance as well. I still think I'm on the sweet side with about 23% crystal malt, but we'll have to wait and see.

CrystALE

OG - 1.050
Batch Size - 6 g
Pre-boil Volume - 8 g

Fermentables:
8 lbs Two-Row
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lbs Munich
.25 lbs Brown Malt
.5 lbs Flaked Barley

Hops:
.5 oz Columbus (13% AA, 6.5 AAU, FWH)
.5 oz Magnum (14.5% AA, 7.3 AAU, 30 min)
.25 oz Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 30 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, 15 min)
.25 Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 10 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, DH)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

On Sunday, Rob, Matt and Myself brewed at Matt's house. Matt has been asking Rob and myself to teach him to brew for a while now, and we finally were able to make it happen. We took a walk (through the snow) to Barleycorns and picked up a kit for Matt to make. He chose an English Ale called Burton's Best Bitter. "Best Bitter - Mid level gravity and more malt flavor than the ordinary, also with a touch more hop character" It was reasonably priced at $44 so we picked it up and went back to brew. The day went off without any issues and we were able to show Matt how easy homebrewing can be. With an extract/grain recipe, our brewing time was about 90 minutes and we let the wort cool in the snow which took another 1.5 hours or so, during which we drank beer and stared at a fire. Two of my favorite things....beer and fire!! I don't have the exact recipe, but my attempt from memory is below. I was surprised how much hops were used, 5 total oz for a 5 g batch, but they were mostly low alpha hops.

Burton's Best Bitter

Fermentables:
4 lbs amber malt extract
3 lbs light malt extract
1 Victory Malt
1 Carastan Malt
.5 lbs Two-Row

Hops:
2 oz Goldings (5% AA, 60 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, 30 min)
1 oz Goldings (5% AA, 1 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, DH)

Yeast:
Safale S-04 dried yeast

I'm looking forward to finding out how these both come out. Next up, I'm brewing my American Pale Ale for my fantasy baseball draft. I don't have much time so I'm going to have to brew it one night this week. More brewing...WOOO HOO!!!!!

Cheers,
Jason

Patriot Homebrew Contest results

2009-02-22T21:35:00.002-05:00

I received the results from the Patriot Homebrew contest. I entered two beers, Robust Vanilla Bourbon Porter and American Brown Session Ale. I scored a 33.5 out of 50 for the porter and a 32.6 for the brown ale. Although the score was lower, the feedback was much more positive with the brown ale and it scored second place in Category 10 C. I was pretty happy with that, and the criticism I received was deserved. I knew I had an issue with this recipe, as I stated in my previous post, because I added Munich malt. The biggest criticism was it had a roast malt flavor so when I brew this again this weekend, I'll replace the munich with Cara-pils.

Next up, the Sam Adams Longshot Homebrew contest.

Cheers,
Jason

Lagering - Part 1

2009-02-18T14:42:00.004-05:00

I took my first step in being able to brew a lager. This weekend I converted my basement fridge into a lagering fridge. No, I say "converted" but all I really did was reinforce the bottom shelf of the firdge with a piece of plywood and braced the shlef to be able to withstand the weight of my carboy. I know, it's not much. But it's a step in the right direction and I can now fit a single keg on one side of the shelf and the carboy on the other.

I've already put together a Munich Dunkle recipe that I'm going to try out. It's second in line now to my Sweet Crystal Ale, which I'm hoping will be close to the Sixpoint Sweet Action I wrote about. Hopefully I'll be able to brew the dunkle before I leave for Red Sox Spring Training in March.

Here are my questions to you....have you ever brewed a lager? Was it difficult? What did you brew?

I'm not set in stone to brewing the Munich Dunkle, so if you have a good recipe, let me know.

Cheers,
Jason

Organic Belgian Wit

2009-02-02T11:08:00.004-05:00

This weekend I tasted the Organic Belgian Wit that I bottled from the keg. It was my first time force carbonating in a keg, and I definitely need to study up a little more on that. The beer was pretty close to flat. It was in the keg at 50 f under 18 PSI for 5 days and it had very little carbonation. I used the keg carb stone and it still didn't work. I have my APA II in there now, so I'll see if I leave it in there longer if it will help.

Besides the carbonation level, the beer was pretty good. Great spice from the coriander and orange. I used marmalade based on The Bearded Brewers recipe, and it went well. The marmalade I used had bits of orange peel in it as well. The one taste issue I had was with the aftertaste. It had a heavy orange peel bitterness to it at the end of the bottle that i was not expecting and was unpleasant. I'm not sure why, but I will re-make this with either a different kind of marmalade or with regular dried orange peel. The staple cloudiness of the beer was perfect and the color was very light pale, almost white. Not a bad beer. I will definitely go back to the drawing board with this one as I think it could be a great beer.

Cheers,
Jason

Sixpoint Craft Ales

2009-01-25T10:43:00.004-05:00

I was in Brooklyn yesterday and found myself in front of the Sixpoint Craft Ales brewery. Our goal was to get a tour and be able to chat with the brewers and taste some of there fantastic ales. Sixpoint doesn't have a phone number, so we just had to show up and hope they were open. To our dismay, they weren't. We decided to grab a seat at the bar just next door and have a few . Hey, it's as close as we could get. If you would like a tour, you need to email them in advance (which we soon found out)

I had two of Sixpoints beers. Sweet Action I think is their version of an American Pale Ale. The sweetness from the carmel malt is amazing and balanced perfectly with the hop bitterness and flavor. Very delicious beer. The second I tried was their Righteous Ale, a rye ale that had great hop flavor and malty taste. Also a good beer.

I had first heard of Sixpoint when a friend of mine bought me two growlers from their brewery, Hop Obama and a Belgian triple. The Hop Obama was a great beer with a MASSIVE hop presence. Not too overpowering and it had great balance with malty sweetness. The Belgian Triple was amazing as well. I think it was actually their Grand Crue, (Belgian barely-wine) but there was no label on the growler, so I'm not entirely sure. The alcohol was definitely present and after finishing the growler, i was feeling a little saucy...which isn't a bad thing.

As we were leaving the bar, we noticed a small building across the street and through the windows we saw new oak barrels stacked 3 high, potentially filled with delicous Sixpoint Craft Ales. I'm going to keep my eyes open for some barrel aged beers coming out in the near future. I suggest you give them a try if you can.

Cheers,

Jason

The Pike Brewing Company kicks off their 20th Anniversary Year with the release of Old Bawdy Barley Wine 08 and aVertical Tasting of Archived Vintages

2009-01-25T10:37:00.005-05:00

Seattle, Washington, January 14, 2009. Old Bawdy Barley Wine is Pike's most extreme beer. With a high, starting gravity of 1.096 Old Bawdy has 10% alcohol by volume. The color, like a shiny new penny has amber highlights and a nose that is floral and sensual, like a bouquet of freshly picked flowers. Old Bawdy was brewed by Head Brewer Drew Cluley, second Brewer Dean Mochizuki and the Pike team of brewers and brewsters. The grist blend is made with enormous quantities of the finest biscuity malts. Pike Old Bawdy 2008 is sweet and earthy with the flavor of pale, crystal and wheat malts playing off of one another like sunshine on a field of barley. Balancing this liquid bread are incredible quantities of an herbal blend of Columbus, Magnum, Chinook and Centennial hops, all from the Yakima Valley. On the palate Old Bawdy is powerful, rich and complex with a smooth, full round mouth-feel and a fine balance of sweet and bitter, drinking as if it were much lighter in alcohol. The finish is long and satisfying with a slight essence of grapefruit.

Pike Old Bawdy, brewed only once a year, was first introduced in 1991. As the beer has been brewed through the years an evolution in taste has occurred as we strive to create a classic, particularly one that is a great accompaniment to food. Since The Pike Brewery was founded in the LaSalle Hotel one of Seattle's most infamous bawdy houses (brothels), the Old Bawdy label features a red light bulb in reference to "Naughty Nellie," the beautiful madam who converted an old seaman's hotel into a luxurious home away from home for gentlemen visiting Seattle's historic Pike Place Public Market, America's oldest. Though strong beers called barley wines had been brewed in Great Britain for centuries, by the late 1970s most were no longer being produced. At the time that Old Bawdy was introduced under Head Brewer Fal Allen, it was among the first of a new breed of hand crafted American barley wines and was an immediate success. Pike Old Bawdy was brewed from 1991 through 1997 at which time Pike founders, Charles and Rose Ann Finkel, sold the brewery and the beer was discontinued. The Finkels re-acquired The Pike Brewing Company in 2006 and in restoring and re-organizing the brewery, unearthed a treasure trove of the elixir from earlier vintages in both kegs and bottles. Earlier vintages, like 1996 and 1997 had matured beautifully. The 2006 vintage was lovingly brewed and released in early 2007. By contrasting this vintage with significantly older ones, the potential for aging was evident and the decision was made to establish a library of each year's beer. Customers look forward to experiencing each vintage.

2009 marks Pike's 20th Anniversary. To celebrate, special events will be held throughout the year culminating in a week-long celebration leading up to our actual birthday, October 17, 2009. On Sunday, February 8, 2009 Pike's Microbrewery Museum will be the venue for A Vertical Tasting of 1994, 1996, 1997, 2006, 2007 and 2008 Old Bawdy Barley Wines. This event will be limited to 100 people; we recommend reservations.

Pike Brewing Vertical Old Bawdy Barley Wine Tasting

1994, 1996, 1997, 2006, 2007 and 2008 Vintages

Sunday, February 8, 2009

2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

$18.00 per person - $15.00 with WABL (Washington Beer Lover's) passport

Pike Microbrewery Museum

1415 1st Avenue

Seattle, WA 98101

R.S.V.P. to Michael St. Clair mstclair@pikebrewing.com (206) 812-6613

The Pike Brewing Company, founded in 1989, is a family-owned gravity flow craft steam brewery and pub in the heart of Seattle next door to the entrance to historic Pike Place Public Market. It was one of the earliest American craft breweries to offer styles like Imperial Stout, IPA, and Barley Wine.

Pike Brewing Company honors Scottish poet Robert Burns with Pike's Robbie Burns' Evening

2009-01-19T21:21:00.002-05:00

Seattle, Washington January 18, 2009.

Robert Burns loved ale as well as whisky and it seems only natural that as the brewers of Pike Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale and the purveyor, at the Pike Pub, of some of the finest malts of Scotland, that Pike should honor the bard on his 250th Birthday.

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 pm

Whisky Master Ari Shapiro will conduct a tutored tasting of Lowland, Highland, Speyside and Islay single malts from such classic distilleries as Lagaluvin, Oban, Singleton, Glenkinchie and Talisker. Ari will discuss the history, culture and taste of each whisky providing an opportunity for guests to increase their understanding of single malt whisky, one of the world's sensory gems. Tasting Seminar: $25.00 per person

5:30 p.m.

Pike owner, Charles Finkel, will tap a firkin of Pike Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale, seasoned with oak that was sterilized in Lagavulin single malt Islay Whisky. $6.50 per pint

6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

The Elliot Bay Pipe Band will "Pipe in the Haggis," a traditional ceremony that includes a reading of Burns' Ode to a Haggis. Haggis, is a traditional Scottish dish of intestines stuffed with a mixture of meat, oatmeal, onions, cayenne, pepper and salt. In addition to authentic haggis, a vegetarian version will also be served. Scottish specialties to accompany the haggis will included Cockie Leekie soup, smoked salmon from Solly Amon at Pure Food Fish in the Pike Place Public Market, organic vegetables, tatties (mashed potatoes) and neeps (mashed yellow turnips,) and bread pudding with Kilt Lifter Hard Sauce.

Traditional Burns' Night entertainment will include a poetry reading by Scottish speakers, an extraordinary pipe and drum concert, songs and lots of old fashioned fun. Buffet and entertainment: $25.00 per person plus tax and gratuity.

Burns was born in 1759, a time of revolution in Scotland, France and America. He remained a man of the people throughout his short life and preferred to write in the Scottish dialect rather than English. January 25 is Robbie Burns' Day, a national holiday in Scotland. He was raised on a lowland farm and had six siblings. Whisky was kept on the sideboard and a dram or two was enjoyed afore breakfast and spending the day toiling to grow plump summer barley, the lifeblood of both beer and whisky. In later years "The Bard," as he became known, wrote "John Barleycorn, Thou king o'grain!"

Called the "Scotch Casanova," "Rabbie," as he was known to his wives and girlfriends, sired almost as many sons as sonnets.He wrote: "One night as I lay on my bed, I dreamed about a pretty maid. I was so distressed, I could take no rest; Love did torment me so. So away to my true love I did go. To the green bed I and my love did go. What we did there I'll not declare"
A folk philosopher, he authored: "When neibors anger at a plea, An' just as wud as wud can be, How easy can the barley brie cement the quarrel! It's aye the cheapest lawyer's fee, To taste the barrel."

Burns' began writing poetry, about his first love, Handsome Nell, at 15: 'Tis this in Nelly pleases me,'Tis this enchants my soul; For absolutely in my breast, She reigns without control." Tam O' Shanter, Coming Through the Rye, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose, and Auld Lang Syne crown a mosaic of over 500 works as sensual and pertinent today as when they were penned in the 18th century. The Elliott Bay Pipe Band will perform traditional Burns' songs, and at the end of the evening, a stirring rendition of Burns' classic, "For auld lang syne my dear, for auld lang syne, We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne."

American Pale Ale II

2009-01-13T08:50:00.005-05:00

This beer is a re-brew of the recipe I brewed for Teach a Friend to Home brew day. This recipe was the third IPA/APA I've brewed and the first two had to be dumped because the first one (American Patriot IPA) was just flat out horrible, and the second (Fresh Hop Harvest Ale) was spoiled by bacteria that was on my home grown hops that I dry hopped with.

This APA came out awesome and I was very pleased. The hop presence was very well balanced by the malt flavour and the sweetness from the crystal malts. Because it was originally brewed for TAFTHBD, I gave almost all of it away. So, this one is just for me!! I was little upset because I missed my OG by .005. This is the second beer in a row where I've missed by OG. I suspect it's because I'm not adjusting my efficiency % when I calculate the recipe on Tastybrew, so I will have to test it out. I want to do an efficiency test on my system soon also so I can know my actual % instead of estimating. Thankfully, no boil-over like last time. I'm finally able to adjust the temp on the burner to prevent the boil-overs. They have been a big headache for me since my swtch to all grain.

I had a different issue with this brew. When I was transferring it to the carboy from the kettle, it seems the trub screen I have inside my boil kettle got clogged with hops. Unfortunately, I had to use a wooden spoon to clear it which didn't work all that well, so I switched to my auto-syphon and racked it with that. I ended up with a lot more trub in the carboy than I wanted, but oh well. After I used the spoon, I realized it wasn't the one I had sanitized, so hopefully it won't ruin this beer but I wanted to make note in case it goes sour. Recipe is below.

Brewed - 1/10/09
H20/Grain ratio - 1.2
Mash Temp/Time - 155/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.050
IBU - 41
SRM - 7

Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory

Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)

Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale

Cheers,
Jason

Organic Belgian Witbier

2009-01-06T09:21:00.004-05:00

Ah yes....my first stab at an all organic beer! This year, I had the awesome pleasure of being asked to be a groomsman in one of my friends weddings which is this June. We attended Hartwick College together and both swam and played water polo. Since college, we've also both gotten into triathlons, him a little more successful than I (injuries suck, but I'm back this year...watch out chap). So when he asked me to be in his wedding I was psyched and truly honored.

Knowing that I'm a home brewer and having sampled my beers in the past with much delight, he came up with an idea that to this day still makes me smile! I've been asked by the engaged couple to brew some beer to serve at there wedding. Of course I said yes, and since then I've been trying to improve my brewing. I should also mention that the bride to be is also a good friend of mine and one of my wife's best friends. She has also asked my wife to be in the wedding, which adds to the awesomeness of this event!!!

This Belgian Witbier will be the first tasting. We're all meeting back up at our alma matta on Jan 31st and will be sampling the witbier. I took the organic idea from the Bearded Brewer since his Inky's White Ale was such a hit and I also used his trick with orange marmalade instead of the orange peel. The other reason I chose all organic is because my friend, the groom to be, works for a company called Vote Solar. Vote Solar is a company that's committed to bringing solar energy into the mainstream through legislative ways like tax incentives and the such. With that in mind, I thought it might be a good idea, and fun, if I were to brew this as an organic beer. Now id I could only get a boil kettle that can operate on solar power. Anyway, below is the recipe. Sorry for the long diatribe!!!

Date brewed - 12/30/08
OG - 1.046
Batch Size - 6g
Water/Grain ratio - 1.3 qts/lb
Mash temp/time - 152/60 min
IBU - 18
SRM - 3
ABV -

Fermentables:
5 lbs. Organic Belgian Pils
6 lbs. Organic White Wheat Malt
.5 lbs Organic Flaked Wheat

Hops:
1 oz. Organic Belgian Saaz (3.5% AA, 60 min)
1 oz. Organic Belgian Saaz (3.5% AA, 10 min)

Additives:
1 oz. Organic crushed Coriander (5 min)
1 tbls. Organic Orange Marmalade (5 min)

Yeast:
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

The yeast took a day to actually get started, but then started with a bang and i had some blow off, but neglected to use the blow-off tube initially. This brew is also a big milestone for me. I've purchased a Co2 tank and regulator and I'm going to force carb this in a keg, then bottle using my blichman beer gun. the bottling will definitely take longer, but I'm just psyched to be able to force carb my beers now. The brew day went very well. It was freezing cold, so my brother and I (he came by to learn how to brew and drink some beers) spent a lot of time inside, only going outside to quickly add hops. One small boil over at the end occured because I left the lid on the kettle after the 10 min hop addition.

If anyone has an experience with either the Blichman beer gun or a counter pressure bottle filler, let me know. I'm still debating on which one I should buy.

Cheers!

Brew Years Resolution

2008-12-29T21:32:00.007-05:00

In the spirit of the new year, I've decided to put together a list of my 2009 new years beer resolutions.

1. Brew at least once a month.
2. Enter more homebrew competitions (in order to get better feedback about my beer)
3. Finish my business plan (if I'm ever going to get this business started, i need to finish it)
4. Learn and understand more about water composition in certain styles
5. Buy a grain mill so I can start buying bulk grain
6. Find a place to store the grain
7. Post more on the blog (goes with brewing more)
8. Post more educational information about brewing (for the beginner readers I have)

So....I know that's a lot, but I figure if I can get half of those done, then I've accomplished a lot. I hope you all had a great holiday and have a happy new year. I'm brewing my Belgian Wit tomorrow so I'll post the recipe and notes after.

Also, I finally popped my Winter spiced ale with a few friends over Christmas, and it was a big hit. My brother and I were very excited as you can see. When I originally tasted the first a few weeks ago, the cinnamon was overpowering, but the extra time in the bottle really allowed the cinnamon to mellow and balance very well with the nutmeg and ginger. I was very please, although Christmas night I had a few too many of them and had a hard time walking home. Oh well!!

Cheers and Happy New Year!!

Jason

Pike Entire Wood Aged Stout

2008-12-07T20:41:00.004-05:00

I was recently sent a bottle of Pike's Entire Wood Aged Stout. Since I can't get Pike here is MA yet, Linda, the marketing manager for Pike offered to send me a bottle. I received it this week and finally had the chance to pop it open. Below is my review.

Appearance. Pours a dark black color with a thick creamy two fingered dark coffee color head. The head was very slow to disappear and left a decent lacing on the glass.

Smell. I think I didn't give it enough time to come down to proper temperature, but there was not a big aroma. I got hints of coffee and some malty bready notes.

Taste. The malty backbone of this stout is very obvious. Very well brewed on it's own. Hints of caramel came through and sweet chocolate flavors were present. There was a small hint of oak early on in the glass, but by about half glass the oak was very obvious, but not over powering. Very pleasant.

Mouthfeel. Mouthfeel was very smooth. Velvety was the word used in the press release and I agree. At the end of the sip the crisp carbonation came through a little.

Drinkability. I was very pleased with this beer. I can picture having a few of these after dinner. The high alcohol (9.5%) was very warming. The hints of oak and chocolate were perfectly balanced with the stout base and blended together well.

Overall, I was very impressed with this beer, although it didn't start out well. The neck and cap of the bottle were dipped in wax, which presented the bottle nicely. Unfortunately, it was a huge pain in the ass to get off. This is my first encounter with a waxed dipped bottle and I was not a fan. The contents inside where more than capable of making up for the wax issue. I can't wait until this beer makes it's way out to Boston. I can already see it becoming a favorite treat at the candy....i mean beer store!!

Cheers,

Jason

Weekend comes to a crashing end

2008-12-01T16:13:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving each year for me is shared with my wife's family in PA. Since there are so many of them (28) we celebrate thanksgiving and Christmas together, and then my wife and I spend Christmas with my family. This year, instead of going to my wife's aunts house, we all rented some condo's in the Pocono Mountains in north eastern PA.

The week was great, minus the fact that there was no good beer around. Thankfully I thought ahead and brought a bunch of beers, plus some of my own (Brown Session and VB Porter). I gave some tastings to some family members and they all loved them. I think I've secured beer duty for all future family gatherings.

When we got home and unpacked, I had to re-stock the fridge with all the left over beers ( i brought beer for everyone, but apparently only needed to worry about me and my wife so I had a ton left over to bring home). I was in the basement about an hour later and heard a sudden crash come from the fridge, and then the door flung open and out poured bottles of beer, shattered glass, waves of beer spilling from the broken bottles, and a few bottles which thankfully didn't break.

Apparently it's not smart to fill a shelf made of glass with 2 + cases of beer, because it will shatter and spill everything on it. The real problem is that I didn't label my last two beers (Brown Session and VB Porter) because I was going to enter them into homebrew contests and as most of you know, labeled bottles are frowned upon. I had it all down though, the VB porters on the right side of the top and bottom shelf and the Brown Sessions on the bottom shelf. Well, when the shelf shattered, it mixed them all up and now they got all mixed up and I don't know which ones are which. So needless to say, I might be entering them into the wrong categories. Oh well....Might as well start drinking the little that is left over and find out which beers are which.

Hope you all had a good turkey day!

Cheers,
Jason

Press Releases

2008-11-21T17:58:00.003-05:00

So...from time to time, you might start seeing press releases from Pike Brewing Co. Linda Stratton, from Pike emailed me and asked if I would post them and even though I have yet to have one (she is sending me a sampler of their beers) I feel that if I could help spread the word about craft beer, I should. I know I have at least 4 readers so if 4 people are informed about something, then I guess it worked. And if you've had any of Pikes beers, let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,
Jason

Pike Brewing Company Releases Pike Entire Wood-Aged Stout

2008-11-21T17:52:00.001-05:00

Seattle, Washington November 20, 2008. Pike Entire is a blend of three beers: Pike's XXXXX Extra Stout, original gravity 10.73 / alcohol 7.00%; the same beer aged for more than half a year in oak Bourbon barrels; and an Imperial Stout original gravity 10.98 / alcohol 12%. The Entire blend contains 42.7% barrel aged beer and finishes at 9.5% alcohol. The taste is complex with velvety malt tones, a coffee aroma, and a palate and finish of bitter chocolate. The biscuity character of pale and crystal malts, along with roasted barley, is balanced by a generous amount of Yakima Valley Willamette, Goldings and Columbus hops in the boil; finished with even more Willamette and Goldings. Adding complexity are the underlying wood tones perfumed by the caramel sweetness of wood-aged Kentucky Bourbon.
Pike Entire was unveiled for the first time on November 8 at the Washington Beer Lover's (WABL) Third Anniversary Party in Seattle that featured 20 local "rare and hard to find" beers on draft. The next morning, Seattle P-I beer writer, Geoff Kaiser, commented: "this was everything I hoped it would be.... It had plenty of bourbon and oak character without being overwhelming and it still allowed the stout to do most of the work. Quite lovely, and easily my favorite of the night."
Until the 18th century, malt was "kilned" over wood fires making most beers dark brown or black, and contributing significantly to the pollution in cities like London. The use of coal allowed brewers a little more control, but it was not until coke, a bi-product of coal, was introduced as a fuel that pale malt could be made. Pale malt yielded more sugar than black malt. Because the Thames was polluted, soft water was drawn from wells, ideal for dark beers, but yielding unpleasant flavor to black beers unless they were blended with the paler beers made by country brewers who had access to hard water. These country brewers also bought dark beers from London and aged them in large oak casks. After aging they sold them back to the London brew pubs as highly desirable, "stale" (aged) beer. Home brew houses then began to blend the black, pale, and stale beers and the result became known as "three threads", a corruption of "three thirds." Ralph Harwood's Bell Brewhouse, one of London's original common brewers and was the first to market an already blended beer to other pubs, called "Entire". It is believed that he blended his own black beer with purchased pale and stale. Since it saved publicans the chore of blending their own three threads, it became an immediate success and the beer style of choice that was sold by London's train porters. Ultimately the style became known as Porter. As brewing moved away from the brew pub to common brewers, Harwood's creation became London's great contribution to beer. As the British Empire expanded, "Porter," later known as "Stout Porter," then simply "Stout," became the world's most widely distributed beer style. In order to brew a beer in keeping with the original style but still distinctly American, Pike acquired oak Bourbon barrels last year and filled them with Pike XXXXX Extra Stout in April 2008 to be blended back. Pike Head Brewer, Drew Cluley, describes the beer as "complex and chocolaty with a great vanilla wood overtone." On Monday, November 24, 2008, Pike Entire, in wax-dipped 22 oz. bottles, will be released. It will have very limited availabilty at the Pike Pub and in select bottle shops, primarily in the Seattle area. A few quarter-barrels will be released for sale on draft. The Pike Pub will tap its one and only quarter-barrel of Pike Entire on Friday, November 28.
The Pike Brewing Company is a family-owned gravity flow craft steam brewery and pub in the heart of Seattle next door to the entrance to historic Pike Place Public Market. Founded in 1989, it was one of the earliest American craft breweries to offer styles like Imperial Stout, IPA, and Barley Wine.

Catching up

2008-11-19T10:01:00.003-05:00

It's been a few weeks since I've last posted, but I haven't been able to brew since TAFTHBD so I haven't had much to write about. A few things have happend since then. Firts, my company laid off 1500 people in the first of 3 rounds of layoffs. Thankfully I was spared for now. Second, I tasted my first all-grain batch (American Brown Ale) the other night and I was very pleased. Great sweetness from the carmel malts, and just the right amount of bitterness I was looking for. The was some bready/malty flavors that I think came from the munich malt and it was a little darker than expected, but still great. Next time, I will leave out the munich and use some cara-pils for better body. This beer had good carbonation and head retention, just didn't have the prickly co2 bubbles in the drink itself. I'll post a proper review when I get a chance.3

Also, we're bottling up the APA from TAFTHBD this weekend. My friend is very excited since this is his first beer, and I am too since I only have to split it with one other person! More beer for me!

I posted a question on the tastybrew forum about when I should bottle my Winter ale. So, I will ask you, my readers, as well. I brewed this beer in early October and it's still in the carboy aging. Should I continue to age it in bulk in the carboy, or bottle now and let it sit until christmas? My plan is to age it until christmas regardless of where, but I'm curious to see if it is better to age all togther, or in seperate "batches" in each bottle. Let me know you're thoughts!

Cheers,
Jason

Teach a Friend to Home Brew Day - APA

2008-11-03T12:24:00.005-05:00

TFTHBD was a good success, brewing wise at least. Only had one of my friends from work show up and my neighbor (who brews as well) came by for the afternoon. The day started pretty early (around 10:30 am) and we cracked open our first Pale Ale from Opa Opa. It was great beer, and get our creative juices flowing.

We chose an American Pale ale as our brew and decided to drink those types all day. The mash went well, although we were a little on the warm side (158) which I'm not too happy about, but thats what happens when you put the lid on, then go drink and don't check it for an hour! I tried to add our first hop addition as First Wort Hops (FWH) to prevent a boilover, but that really didn't work and I once again had a pretty big boilover. Hopefully it won't effect the IBU's too much. We hit our target gravity right on the money, 1.055. That made me happy because my first all-grain batch was a tad bit off the mark.

I used Magnum for the first time and I was very please. Very high alpha (ours were 13.5) and awesome aroma. The recipe is below.

Stats:
Brewed - 11/1/08
H20/Grain ratio - 1.3
Mash Temp/Time - 158/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.055
IBU - 41
SRM - 7

Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory

Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)

Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale

It is bubbling away pretty good right now, so I'm excited for this to be done. Tonight, I bottle my Brown ale. I took a reading last night and had a great fermentation, slightly more than I had planned though.

Cheers,
Jason

Vanilla Bourbon Porter tasting

2008-10-28T15:00:00.003-04:00

I popped open the first bottle last night and was unpleasantly surprised. The Vanilla had mellowed A LOT, almost to the point where I couldn't taste it. And, the carbonation was lacking to say the least. I've had it in the bottle for exactly 3 weeks, and the only thing I can think of is that it's too cold in my kitchen where I store them. I moved them into the dinning room right next to the heating vent last week. Hopefully that will have an effect, but I don't know.

I had big hopes for this beer, and it still tastes pretty awesome, but the carbonation sucks and I need more cowbell.........I mean vanilla. Any hints on what went wrong or how to fix it? I primed with 5 oz. of corn sugar. Do you think the addition of the bourbon killed off the remaining yeast which would lead to little or no carbonation??

Let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Jason

Brewing Calculations site

2008-10-21T12:13:00.002-04:00

Marcus over at Final Gravity found a great site on brewing calculations. It has temp corrections for Hydrometers, Refractometer conversions to gravity from Brix/Plato, yeast pitching rate calculator and a fermentation calculator. Very cool site. I'll post the link on the sidebar on the left as well for permanent use.

http://www.brewcalcs.com/

Cheers,
Jason

First All Grain Batch

2008-10-19T19:42:00.011-04:00

Today, I made the jump to all grain brewing. It's been a long time coming. I've been saving up so I could upgrade my equipment to allow me to do all grain. I recently bought a 10 gallon Rubbermaid mash tun from more-beer and a 60,000 BTU propane burner. Added to the blichman brew kettle my wife bought me for my b-day, I'm ready to rock.

I wanted to do a somewhat easy beer, but something I could brew a lot and make my "house" beer. Lately, I've been hooked on Harpoon Brown Ale. It's their rendition on an American Brown, with some good up front bitterness, and balanced malt sweetness. I'd probably tell you it's my favorite beer right now, but that's because I have one in front of me.

My goal for my first batch, was simple.....clone the harpoon Brown and I'm good. So, I went out their site and noted the stats (they don't list malts or hops they use) and hoped to try and match that. I've been listening to Jamil Zainasheff over on the Brewing Network and he had a show on American Brown ales, so I took his recipe and scaled it down to a 6 g batch and reduced the IBU's so it would be closer to Harpoon. I had a problem though, because the day before i was listening to his show on APA's and when I was going through my notes I seem to look at the APA recipe at the last minute and made a change from cara-pils to Munich, why I don't know. Not sure how much of a difference it will make, but we'll see. Below is the recipe and stats.

American Brown Session Ale

OG - 1.052

FG - 1.010

ABV - 5.5%

quarts per lb - 1.3

Fermentables:

10 lbs American 2-row

.25 lbs Victory Malt

.5 lbs Munich Dark

.75 lbs Crystal 40L

.25 lbs Crystal 60L

.5 lbs Chocolate Malt

Hops:

1 oz Phoenix (10% AA - 60 min)

.5 oz Amarillo (7% AA - 15 min)

.5 oz Amarillo (7% AA - Flame out)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1.056 American Ale

Grains were mashed in 4 gallons of water. Dough in was at 164 f and mash stabilized for 60 min at 150. The mash temp dropped to about 148 f by the last few minutes, but I think it was because I had the top to the mash tun off a bit then getting ready for the sparge. Sparge was with 5.5 g of water at 175 f. The wort boiled down to about 6.5 gallons and I collected about 5.5 in the carboy.

Cheers,

Jason

Catching up - Christmas Ale

2008-10-06T09:47:00.004-04:00

I've been a little distracted lately. I've been on the hunt for a new job, interviewing and traveling almost every weekend for some reason or another, and entertaining family a few weeks ago for my B-day. My B-day was a great one. I was pretty bummed about turning 30 this year, no0t because I think it's old, but because I feel old. I used to be a great athlete back in college (I'm usually modest, but I'm 30...time to be proud), but since then my lazy attitude toward training, and ridiculously busy schedule has led me to gain a ton of weight, and constantly injure myself. So, needless to say, even though I was turning 30, I felt like I was turning 60.

But my attitude changed greatly, when my wife pulled out the best gift a home brewer could ever get....a shiny new Blichman Boilermaker 10g brew kettle complete with the Brewmometer, ball valve spigot and borisilic glass sight gauge (yes, I know...my wife rocks). So, what to do with my new kettle....well, brew DUH!

So this weekend, I spend the few hours of free time I had brewing a Christmas spiced beer. I was always a fan of the Saranac Seasons best beer in college, so I wanted to make a spiced ale for Christmas. My brother has always said he has a Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale every Christmas eve while putting the kid's toys together, so I told him my goal was to make one to replace that. My intention wasn't to clone it, but to make a very big, warm and spicy beer that you can enjoy by the fire on Christmas eve, or anytime during the winter. Hopefully I hit the mark. The recipe is below:

Christmas Spiced Ale (recipe created on tastybrew)

Target OG - 1.082

Actual OG. - 1.084

Fermentables:

6 lbs light DME

4 lbs light LME

1 lbs wheat malt

1.5 lbs Munich light

1.54 lbs crystal 80L

Hops:

2 oz. Kent Goldings pellet (5%AA - 60 min)

1 oz Tettnanger plug (4.5%AA - 2 min)

1 oz Hallertau pellet (4.5%AA - 2 min)

Spices:

.5 tsp fresh ground cinnamon (10 min)

.25 tsp fresh ground ginger (10 min)

.25 tsp ground nutmeg (10 min)

1.5 cinnamon sticks, 2 inch (secondary)

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale (primary)

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale (secondary)

I was hoping to have a little more aroma and taste from the spices when I racked it to the carboy, but it was very faint. Next time I will definitely shy away from the plug hops too. They broke apart and clogged by auto-siphon and it was a pain in the ass to get it to the carboy. I will add the remaining cinnamon sticks to the secondary to hopefully get some more spice in the beer. That all depends on how it turns out.

Cheers,

Jason

White Water Rafting on the Kennebec River

2008-09-09T10:14:00.008-04:00

I spent this past weekend with some friends up in The Forks, Maine doing some white water rafting with the Northern Outdoors company. I've never been rafting and I was very excited. My wife, not so much. She was petrified! But, she faced her fears, and got on the river and loved it. We rafted on the Kennebec river leaving from a Hydro electric dam about 20 miles north of where we stayed. Luckily for us, Saturday was a scheduled dam release, so the normal 3,400 CFS (cubic feet per second) was more than doubled to 8,700 CFS. That made for some pretty big rapids, two sections were class IV. It was a long day, but we all managed to stay in the boat without getting tossed by the rapids, thanks to our guide Nick Atwood. I recommend him if anyone goes up there. He knows the river well and will make the trip a lot of fun for you.

The best part of the weekend happened when we got to the lodge and I realized that not only was this an outdoor adventure company, but they were a brewpub too. They had 5 beers on tap this weekend, Kennebec Logger (a pilsner lager), Kennebec Summer Ale, Big Mamma Blueberry Ale (named after the big mamma rapids), Ripogenus Red (amber ale), Magic Hole IPA, and were out of their Class V Stout which according to all the guides is there best beer.

My personal favorite was the Ripogenus Red, but I really liked the blueberry. It was a lot darker than most commercial blueberry's I've seen, but it tasted every bit as good. Although we didn't eat dinner there, we had breakfast and lunch and both were fantastic. I am definitely going to plan another trip. They also raft on two other rivers up in Maine, The Dead River and the Penobscot river. The Dead river is supposed to have equally big rapids, but they last almost the entire 15 miles. It has the most continuous white water than any other Eastern river and some are even class V. The Pennobscot is a much bigger class river with bigger rapids, mostly class V, but they are short technical sections. Our guide is pushing us to come up and do the Pennobscot next as he said it's so much better.

Cheers,

Jason

Robust Vanilla Porter

2008-09-01T15:39:00.010-04:00

I had high hopes for this beer. After making a test batch and missing the mark, I decided to move forward with a full 5.5 g batch. I used tastybrew for the recipe formulation and couldn't wait to get brewing. The brew day started off very well, and I noticed as I was steeping the grains there was a frothy foam in the kettle. I figured that was from the flaked barely, which helps with the head of the beer.

I went into the boil, and hopped as scheduled. After I cooled the wort and topped off to 5.5 g, I took a gravity reading and to my surprise, I overshot it by a mile! I couldn't (and still can't) figure out why I overshot it that much. After the session, I re-did the recipe in tastybrew and in my spreadsheet thinking I miscalculated, but it was exactly what it should be. My only thought is that the guy at my LHBS didn't hear me right and gave me more than asked for. I guess I'm going to have to start re-checking everything I buy, which sucks.

I bought two Madagascar vanilla beans which I'll boil to sanitize and add them to the secondary and most likely will add an additional packet of yeast. I'm still confident this beer will finish well, just not exactly like I planned. Sometimes, that's not a bad thing I guess. Recipe and stats are below.

Batch Size - 5.5 g
Boil volume - 4 g
Mash ph - 5.0
Target Gravity - 1.057
Actual OG - 1.082

Fermentables:
8.5 lbs Dark Malt Liquid extract
.5 lbs British Crystal 135-165
.5 lbs Black Patent
.5 lbs Chocolate
.5 British Brown
.5 Flaked Barley

Adjuncts:
2 Madagascar Vanilla Beans (secondary)

Hops:
.5 oz. Challenger (7.5% AA - 60 min)
.5 oz. Challenger (7.5% AA - 30 min)
.5 oz. Fuggle (5.1% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz. Fuggle (5.1% AA - 1 min)

Yeast: - Wyeast 1275 -Thames Valley

New Notes:
(9/2) - Fermentation started with a bang. I woke up this morning to see that overnight, it had blown through the blow off tube into the collecting bowl and already dissapated back down into the carboy. It's still bubbling very frequently (every 2-3 seconds) and hopefully will ferment all those extra sugars I apparently put in.

(9/9) - It's still bubbling away. The bubbles have slowed to about once every 20-30 seconds, but it still going. Once it slows considerably, I'll rack it to the secondary and add the vanilla beans.

(9/15) - I racked it to the secondary yesterday and took a gravity reading (1.020). It still has a little ways to go. I halved the vanilla beans and they are soaking in 1/2 cup of Basil Hayden's small batch bourbon. I'll add that to the secondary tonight.

Cheers,
Jason

Fresh Hop Harvest Ale

2008-08-21T19:36:00.013-04:00

I had a great bewing day today. I was able to harvest a small amount of my cascade hops (I took 1 oz) and brewed my Fresh Hop Harvest Ale using the Cascade hops right from the vine as well as some Centennial pellets. I used Tastybrew to pull the recipe together since my recently created spreadsheet is not reliable at this moment. I was able to hit my target gravity right on the money. Below is the recipe and brewday stats.

Stats:
Water PH - 5.4
Mash PH - 5.0
Target Gravity - 1.056
OG - 1.056

Fermentables
7.5 lbs Amber Malt Liquid Extract
2 lbs. Pale two-row
.25 lbs Belgian Biscuit
.25 lbs CaraPils
.25 lbs Crystal 20L
.25 lbs Crystal 40L

Hops
.5 oz Centennial (pellet, 10.5% - 60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - 30 min)
5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - 15 min)
.5 oz Centennial (pellet, 10.5% - 5 min)
.5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - Dry hop in secondary)

Yeast
Wyeast #1056 - American Ale

New Notes:
(9/2) - Primary fermentation went great. When I woke up the next morning, the bubbles were vigourusly popping. I racked to the secondary 8 days later (8/29) and added another .5 oz of fresh picked hops. Thankfully, I have another ounce or so on the vine which I'll dry and store for later use. The hop smell was amazing. Fresh cascade aroma filled the air as I racked the brew. I gave the .5 oz that I was dry hopping with a big squeze and rub to release some more aroma and dropped them in. I'm getting very excited about this beer.

(9/15) - I bottled this yesterday. When I uncovered the carboy to bottle, it had an interesting white film on the top of the beer. It tasted fine as I sipped the hydrometer sample (1.012) so I'm not too concerned. Hopefully the hops didn't have a bacteria on them when I dry hopped. Anyone have any experience with this or have seen this film on their beer before?

(10/6) - Bad news.....I tried the first bottle and it is completly ruined! It tastes like vinager so I'm going to jhave to dump them all. I'm am not happy. I guess thats the risk you run with fresh hops....lots of bacteria on them. Next year I will make sure that I boil them all and not dry hop with them. I had real high hopes for this one....oh well!!!

Cheers,
Jason

Me vs. A Big Bear

2008-08-13T16:20:00.004-04:00

It's a slow day here at work, but a friend of mine sent this to me today and I had a good laugh and thought I needed to share. We were at a post wedding reception "after party" and I got in a slight tussle with a bear. I totally kicked that bear's ass. I mean, if it were alive....I would have killed it! Anyways....back to work.

Test Porter and Starter Session

2008-08-13T11:24:00.004-04:00

Last night was a busy night for me. I brewed two 1 gallon batches. One was just a gallon of un-hopped wort for starters, and the other was a 1 gallon test batch of a Porter. And the most exciting part about last night was it was the first time I got to use my new wort chiller that I bought from Beer-Wine.com.

For the 1 gallon starter batch, I was able to squeeze 9, 500 ml bags of starter wort to save for later use. I separated them out in Ziploc bags and put them in the freezer. My goal here is to start to save and re-use my yeast for future batches. Not only will it help with the cost aspect (I hope to be brewing a lot more now) but a friend of mine tuned me into the tidbit that if I plan on making a lager, that the best results come from 3rd or 4Th generation yeast. That being said, I'm starting. I'm going to order some test tubes so I can store them in the fridge and label them easily.

The 1 gallon test batch was a little different. I completely missed my target gravity (reached 1.046, target was 1.057). After the boil, I had to add some chilled water to try and top off to a full gallon but was unable to reach a gallon before the gravity was already at 1.046 (I originally measured it at 1.096 after I chilled it). I have no clue how that happened. I followed my recipe from tasty brew to the T, but was still not able to make it happen. Unfortunately because I was trying to multi-task my two brews while watching the Red Sox/Rangers slug fest, I took horrible notes and now can't go back and review. It's currently in the jug fermenter (Carlo Rossi jug....thanks for the idea Ted) so we'll see how it comes out in the end. It looks and smells fantastic, but I was a little dissappointed when I took the gravity reading. I guess this will be a good learning experience....if I can ever figure out what the lesson is?!?!?!?

1g Starter:

1 lb extra light DME

Boiled in 1 gallon of water for 10 min, chilled and bagged.

1g Test Porter:

Fermentables
1 lb Muntons Dark DME
4.2 oz Chocolate Malt
2.1 oz Crystal 120
4.4 oz British brown

Hops
.5 oz UK Challanger (7.5%AA - 30 min)
.5 oz Cascade(6.6%AA - 15 min)

Wyeast #1275 - Thames Valley Propagator

Cheers,
Jason

Almost Harvest Time

2008-08-05T15:00:00.005-04:00

The hops are growing at record pace and I'm psyched. I'm working on the fresh hop APA that I'm going to make with them, along with some centential pellets. I can't wait. I couldn't believe how quickly they grew from just 2 weeks ago. I gave them a squeeze last night and they are still a little ways away from being harvested and some of them are weeks away. I'll post the recipe and pictures of the harvest as it happens.

Cheers,
Jason

Designing Great Beers

2008-07-30T10:46:00.005-04:00

I just finished reading the first section of Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. The first section talks about what goes into a recipe, from the malt bill, color characteristics to hops, calculating bitterness and yeast. I'm a few chapters deep into the second part of the book which goes into details of the various classic styles of beer that are out there. I highly recomend this book for anyone who is trying to learn how to create your own recipes.

After I got through part one, and highlighting all the formulas and good things Ray had to say, i decided to try and put together my own recipe spreadsheet that has the calculations for IBU's, water needs based on evaporation and other factors, beer color ( I use HCU's and convert to a range of SRM's) and hop bitterness. Overall I think it's a good spreadsheet. I designed a recipe using the sheet and compared it to one of the online recipe calculators and I was damn close to exact. That made me smile. I have yet to brew the beer because it's an all grain recipe and I am in need or 4 stainless steele fender washers to complete my mash tun and for the life of me can't find a damn place that sells them. I'm hoping to have them soon, and FINALLY make the move to all grain!

On to the point of this post......I wanted to ask some people out there if they would take a look at my sheet, test it out and let me know their thoughts. Just post your email and I'll send it off to you. I'm a firm believer in feedback, and I think a lot of readers of my blog are brewers and coudl help me out with this. It should actually work for extract w/specialty grain recipes as well as long as you know the gravity of the extract and efficiency. So, post or send me an email and I'll send it off to you. Thanks for you help in advance.

Cheers,
Jason

Hop buds arrive

2008-07-17T17:17:00.005-04:00

I guess I am proof that you can grow hops in a planter. The buds on my centenial hop plant are blossoming in large quantities and looking great. They are all over and there is more than i though there would be.

I haven't decided what type of beer I'm going to make with these, but I'm hoping to get enough to strictly use these hops and make a fresh hop ale. I'd like to make it close to what Sierra Nevada does with their hop harvest. That's probably one my favorite highly hopped ales. I had the Southern Hemesphere Hop Harvest at the ACBF in Boston last month and it was amazing.

Cheers,

Jason

BBC - Framingham

2008-07-11T11:40:00.004-04:00

It was much to my delight, that last night while driving down rt. 9 in Framingham I saw the beginings of the newest British Beer Company location. If you've ever been to a BBC, then you know how great a beer bar it is. It has a large selection of beers from around the world. Mark Anderson wrote about it on his blog, Beer Paradise. I have only been to the location in Hyannis, and I was very pleased. It definitely doesn't compare to Bukowski's in Boston, but it made me smile.

Two great things for the area, 1) prior to this, there is only one brewpub in the area to go to. 2) it provides a little competition for the only other brewpub in that area, which I hope will improve the beer made at John Harvards and the selection from the BBC as they battle it our for ownership of the Natick Mall stretch of Rt. 9. If any of you are familiar with this stretch, there are too many restaurants to count, but up until now John Harvards was the only brewpub.

I'm looking forward to having a little more selection now when I want a good beer and some good food. Can't wait to see it finished and the doors open!!

Cheers,

Jason

Back in the Saddle

2008-07-07T21:27:00.002-04:00

Well, it's been some time now since I've last posted. I had a pretty busy month of June. Unfortunately, there was only one brewing and it was the last recipe post I had. I ended up kegging it and priming with sugar since I don't have the funds right now to purchase the Co2 tank and regulator. I did, however find a great website that sells tanks and regulators for pretty cheap.

The kegging went pretty good. I read somewhere that when you keg with the same amount of sugar as you would use when bottling, the beer can be over carbonated. So, I let a little pressure bleed out twice in the two weeks it conditioned in the keg. The beer ended up being a little under carbonated, so I'll make sure I don't release the pressure the next time. I'm going to be brewing a traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen and kegging it for a party in August, so I'll post the recipe as soon as I brew it and get the stats.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Month, and a great 4th of July (for those in the US).
Cheers,
Jason

Hops growing on the Trellis

2008-07-07T21:18:00.006-04:00

The trellis is FINALLY built and in the ground. It's kind of funny how simple it was, I guess I'm just lazy! Anyway, I decided I didn't want to transplant them from the pot into the ground and risk killing them, so for the first year they will remain in the pot.

The hops are starting to show signs of small buds on some of the shoots. I'm hoping they are actually cones and not more leaves.

Cheers,

Jason

Hops Update

2008-06-13T11:49:00.005-04:00

The Hop plants are moving along pretty good. A squirrel or bird bit off the tops of both of them a few weeks back and I was nervous they we're going to keep growing, but they're doing well. Can't wait to see the buds!!

Cheers,

Jason

Red Tide Amber Ale #2

2008-06-01T20:18:00.005-04:00

This is a re-brew of the Red Tide Amber I made a few months ago. After getting the results back from the home brew competition, I decided to make a few changes and brew it again. One change that I made was swaping out 8 oz of Victory malt for 8 oz of Cara-pils ans 1 oz of Perle hops for 1 oz of Halertauer. I'm hoping that this won't change it too much, but just slightly enough.
I think the reduction of alpha's from Perle to Hallertauer will please me a bit more (probably not the home brew judges, but oh well). I like my hops, but this beer is for my family reunion an my family isn't into the hop bombs, so I'm giving this one a shot.

OG=1.050
FG=1.012
ABV=4.98%

Fermentables:
1 lb. 2-row
8 oz. Vienna
8 oz. Crystal 40l
8 oz. Cara-pils

5lb 8 oz. Amber Malt Extract

Hops:
1 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 60 min)
.5 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 45 min)
.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 45 min)
.5 oz. Hallertauer(4.25% AA, 30)
.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 30 min)
.5 oz. Fuggles (4.75% AA, 15 min)
.5 oz. Fuggles (Aroma)

Yeast:
Wyeast #1272 American Ale II

Mashed grains @ 150f-155f for 90 min in a cheese cloth bag. Mashed out at 168f for 10 minutes. Removed grains and brought to a boil. Follow the hop schedule from above and boil for 60 minutes. Cool to 75f and rack to carboy. Pitch yeast and let ferment. When fermentation is slowed to 1 minute between bubbles, rack to secondary.

Cheers,
Jason

Raspberry Wheat

2008-05-15T18:05:00.003-04:00

Wow....it's been a long time since I've last posted. I've had a horrible couple of weeks personally, and on top of that work has been really busy. I have been struggling with time to do anything so with the few free hours I found, I brewed. I only had a few hours, so I decided to take the easy/road and do an all Extract brew. I'm ok with it though, because the extract brews I've done have turned out great, so why not. I needed to reduce the insanity in my life, and anything helped. Here is the recipe. I'll bottle it this weekend, so i'll update with the outcome.

Fermentables:

6.6 lbs. Wheat Malt Extract

Hops:

1 oz. Cluster (6.5% - 60 min)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale

Fruit Extract:

4 oz. Raspberry extract

OG - 1.044

Boiled for 60 minutes, chilled to 80 f and pitched yeast. Racked to secondary on 5/8. I think I might have racked it a little too soon (stupid I know) because there was still some action in the primary, but very sporadic, so I decided to do it anyway. It's slowed significantly, so I will bottle this weekend with 5 oz of priming sugar.

Cheers,

Jason

Hops - 7 inches tall

2008-04-30T20:22:00.004-04:00

My hops are now a full 7 in. tall. This one is growing very rapidly, and I'm psyched!! The Centennial plant is growing, but hasn't popped through the surface yet. I had to dig down to see if it was even growing, and thankfully it is!! Time to start building the trellis one night.

Cheers,

Jason

Home Brew Competition - Results in

2008-04-27T20:37:00.002-04:00

I received the results from my entry into the South Shore Home Brew Competiton. I was very happy with the reviews I got from the BJCP judges. I received a 33 out of 50. Below are the reviews.

Judge #1:
Aroma 9/12 - Balanced hop aroma and malt sweetness, very pleasent I thought. Malt has caramel aroma
Apperence 3/3 - Very clean, dark amber color, big initial head
Flavor 12-20 - Good balance between malt and hops but both were on the low end of the style. There was a lingering bitterness.
Mouthfeel 3/5 - Medium body and carbonation. Carbonation was a little prickly. After I reduced carbonation, body seemed much thiner.
Overall Impression 6/10 - This beer was well brewed with a very pleasent aroma. I didn't detect any obvious flaws. I would suggest that making this beer bigger would improve it significantly, and would help it compete better. Nice brewing job!
Total - 33/50

Judge #2:
Aroma 7/12 - Citrusy hops, predominate malt component is clean, but could be more pronounced.
Appearence 3/3 - Crystal clean, dark amber, creamy head
Flavor 11/20 - Some creaminess up front, but not enough. Finishes quite bitter. Bitterness lingers too long in throat. Clean
Mouthfeel 4/5 - Med mouthfeel, high carbonation
Overall Impression 7/10 - Well-made, clean beer. Try adding more caramel malt to the grain bill. Balance is too heavily in favor of hops. Cut back on flavor & finish hops.
Total 32/50

Back to the kitchen to make this better!!
Cheers,
Jason

Growing Hops - First sprout

2008-04-22T20:47:00.005-04:00

I came home Sunday from a week in NYC to see the first sprout from my hop plants. The Cascade I planted is growing at record pace. As I write this post, the shoot is already a half of an inch taller than in the picture. The Centennial has yet to pop a shoot out of the dirt, but I think I might have planted that rhizome upside down and a little deeper than the Cascade. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!

This weekend, I had planned to build the trellis so I can get it ready as the shoot continues to grow. I purchased the materials already ($12 at home depot for a total of $30 to grow these hops inluding the soil, fertalizer and planters) so I just have to get it in the ground. It's supposed to be awesome out this weekend, so hopefully I'll get that up and get a brew session in.

Cheers,

Jason

South Shore Home Brew Competition

2008-04-21T16:10:00.002-04:00

My first official home brew competion that I entered and the results are in. Drumroll please................I didn't win! :-( But thats ok, I really only entered for the feed back from the club. Hopefully I'll be receiving that in the mail soon. As soon as I do, I'll post what was said. Hopefully it wasn't too bad and they weren't very harsh, but if they are then I'll roll with it.....and then perfect the next batch!

Cheers,
Jason

Red Tide Amber Ale

2008-04-11T17:54:00.004-04:00

This was the second recipe that I created and it came out pretty damn good. I entered it into a local homebrew competition, and they did the reviews today. Haven't heard back yet on what they though, but I'm very axcious. I have't written a review for it yet, but I have almost finished it all. I will put one down on paper this weekend. I was so happy with it, that I just kept getting another and not writing anything down...shame on me!! Here it is:

Brewed 2/17/08
Racked to Secondary - 2/26/08
Bottled - 3/1/08
Tapped/Drank - 3/20/08

Grain Bill:
1lb. American 2-row
.5lb. Vienna
.5lb. Victory
.5lb Crystal 40L

5.5lb Amber Malt extract

Hops:
1oz Perle (8%, 60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 45 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 30 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 15 min)
.5 oz Fuggles (4.75%, 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (aroma, 1min)
.5 oz Fuggles (aroma, 1min)

Yeast:
Wyeast #1272 - American Ale II

Grains were steeped in a cheese cloth bag for 90 mins. at between 150-153f. I mashed out at 168 for 10 minutes before bringing to a boil. Fermentation was a little slow to start, but finished in about 4 days. I didn't rack until the next week since I was not around that weekend. Secondary had very little action. It was bottled 13 days after brew day. I put some in my mini-keg, and bottled the rest. Priming sugar was used for the entire batch. Next batch I will force carbonate the mini-keg and prime the bottles to see the difference. It was a little cold in my kitchen so the carbonation took some time to come about, but when it did it was right on!

The beer came out better than expected. After my first original recipe, I was a little nervous this would suck, but I am a big fan. I think I could tone down the grains a bit. It did have a strong malt character, that I was hoping was a little less week, but it did balance nicely with the hops.

Cheers,
Jason

Refocusing: Back to the basics

2008-04-08T13:37:00.006-04:00

When I first started this blog, it was my goal to write about things that pertained to my dream of opening a brewery. I had dreams about posting my recipes and brew sessions and starting discussion from other home brewers that read this blog. That lasted for about a month. Then, I got caught up in the kingdom of beer blogs, trying desperately to grab readers attentions and "boost my stats" so I could be one of the big guys in the blogosphere. But there were two big things I realized that swept my leg like Johnny did to Daniel-son in Karate Kid......I'm not a writer by any stretch of the imagination, and I don't work in the industry and thus don't have the contacts available to spread the word about my blog. Hmmm....time to refocus!

Throughout the time I've been blogging, I make it a habit everyday to visit the "big guys" of the beer blogosphere. Each day I visited blogs like Appellation Beer, A Good Beer Blog, Beer Culture, Lew Bryson's Beer Blog, Stonch's Beer Blog, Roger Protz and others written by beer writers and other people who have been in the industry for a while. Then it hit me......I realized the struggle I was having trying to get tons of visitors and be a respected beer blogger was similar to the struggle that craft brewers once went through when trying to break into the beer market back in the 70's and 80's against the "Big Guys" of the macro world. And please, by no means am I comparing those writers to macro brewers of the US. They are all great writers, and are doing wonders for the craft beer industry, (hats off the them all) but they are the big guys of the blog world.

After realizing this, I started to think about how the craft brewing revolution finally got some traction. The answer was easier to figure out than I had hoped. They stopped trying to be just like the macros, and started to create an identity of their own. BRILLIANT!!!!! Be yourself, and the rest will take care of itself. Shouldn't this be the motto of every entrepreneur? Distinguishing a different product and offering a choice to their customers? (note to self....do this when you start you're brewery. Express yourself through your beers). I am reading Sam Calagione's book, Brewing up a Business so this is where all these ideas and realization are coming from.

Another great blog that I like to read daily is Ted's Homebrew Journal. Ted is a home brewer from Chicago who is extremely detailed about his brews and essentially does what I originally set out to do. He brews beer, posts about his brewing session with brew stats and his notes and thoughts. Lots of comments on each post discuss his beers, techniques he used, and results. He frequently experiments with yeast's to determine fermentation profiles of yeast strains, brews odd beers like Dandelion wine and herbal beers mixed with ginger, fennel, cardamom and fresh sage. He is a great resource for home brewers and I'm sure he is one hell of a brewer (Ted, if you're reading this.....I'd love to sample some of your beers).

As Pablo Picasso once said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal". So, with that being said, I'm stealing his blog! No, not literally, conceptually. His blog is exactly what I had wanted my blog to be like only I will also post updates as I get closer to opening a brewery, but still very similar. I know, I know.....how can I write about getting my own identity and not following suit, and then copy someone else. Well, here's how. That's what I was trying to do in the first place. Just because I'm copying his format, doesn't mean I'm copying him. Would you say that Harpoon copied Sam Adams? No...they are similar in the fact that they are both craft brewers, but the content of what they brew is a style all their own. Which is what I hope to do.

I'll continue to participate in The Sessions but I am re-dedicating myself to writing about my adventures in beer. I hope you all stick around and continue to read and comment on things I am doing, and your comments and suggestions will be important in helping me. I'm going to try and figure out how I can get a possible distribution list pulled together so I can use some of you as samplers. If you're interested, drop me a line with your address and I'll see what I can do.

Cheers,
Jason

Boston Beer Voluntarily Recalls Select Bottles of Samuel Adams Beer

2008-04-08T11:40:00.005-04:00

Boston Beer company has voluntarily recalled bottles of their beer that were bottled by one of their vendors. If you have 12 oz. bottles of Sam Adams with the code N35 OI, seen at the leaft, please bring the bottles back to your beer store. For more info and the full story, check out the story on the Boston Beer Co. website, or go to Beer Advocate. This is an great move from Boston Beer Co. to protect their customers, and to get on top of this before the complaints come in, if they do at all. Hats off to Jim Koch, and the rest to the folks at Boston Beer Co.

Cheers,

Jason

The Session #14 Beer People - The Bier Kaiser

2008-04-04T09:33:00.011-04:00

This months Session (hosted by Stonch) is about beer people. "I'd like you to write about people. Choose someone you know personally. That person might be a brewer, a publican, someone who sips at your local, or maybe just a friend who is passionate about beer."

So, for my first session post, I chose my good friend and former colleague The Bier Kaiser! The Kaiser and I met when I started my current job. He had been in the role for quiet some time when I started and like all people when they start new jobs....I knew nothing about him, or anyone else on my team for that matter. After a few weeks on the Job, my team went to lunch. That lunch transformed our professional relationship, to a beer camaraderie.

While at lunch, we somehow got on the topic of beer and brewing. The Kaiser started his basic explanation of how beer is made. His explanation of how yeast works was my favorite part of the story.."the yeast in the wort eats the sugars. then as it eats, it pee's out alcohol and farts out CO2" Couldn't have said it better.

After that conversation, I let him know that I too was a home brewer....and from that day on our productivity at work went down the drain. He has been an advisor to all things I do regarding brewing. I've already told him that he will be my "Brewery Advisor" once I get my business started whether he likes it or not. He has since left our company and resides in Central Ohio. So, in the spirit of the Session, I decided who better to talk about the Kaiser, then the Kaiser himself. Below in the interview I conducted with him. You can check him out on his Blog, Noch Eins. Enjoy!

JF: Where are you from?

TBK: I was brought up in central Ohio, having lived in a couple of different towns in and around Columbus.

JF: How were you introduced to craft beer?

TBK: I started home brewing based on inputs received from several of my clients. I was consulting at a large bank and a couple of the guys there had been brewing for about six months. They brought in some beer which I tasted and I became very intrigued with both the process and the potential end result!

JF: How long have you been home brewing?

TBK: I brewed my first batch of beer in 1991. It was a brown ale which I suspect is the first batch brewed by at least half of all home brewers.

JF: What got you started into home brewing?

TBK: After my initial foray into home brewing, I took a consulting assignment in Germany and worked there for about a year and a half. This offered me the opportunity to sample a great variety of lagers, pilsners, wheat's and alts. When I returned to the States, I wanted to begin replicating these beers at home. At the time, the range of German beers available in the local beer retail shops typically included Beck’s, St Pauli’s and Lowenbrau, which was actually brewed in the US by Miller at the time, and perhaps Henninger, if memory serves. That was about it! I concentrated initially on wheat beer and managed to produce a product that was consistently faithful to the style – good cloves and banana flavor and a light crisp taste. At this point, I was hooked!

JF: Do you still home brew?

TBK: I have taken a break for about a year as we move house. We have unfortunately been caught in the mortgage meltdown and are still trying to sell our old house. For the duration, we have put quite a bit in storage, including my brewing equipment. Additionally, I have been working out of town during the week on a consulting assignment which puts an additional crimp on my brewing style. I am definitely looking forward to firing up the brewery once we get things sorted out. In the meantime, I have been keeping sharp helping out several of my friends who are avid brewers. Hey, I work for beer!

JF: What is the best beer you have ever brewed? Worst?

TBK: Best - I have made several batches of Hefeweizen that simply rocked! Worst – My initial lagering attempts were fairly awful, there was one batch that was so bad, I couldn’t even justify using it to boil sausages – which is the usual alternative for my bad beer batches. It was definitely skunked and probably had one or two yet undiscovered microbes floating around inside.

JF: Who do you admire most in the craft brewing world? Why?

TBK: Not to be macabre, but I seem to be partial to the recently departed – Bert Grant, Karl Strauss and Michael Jackson. I am still fascinated by Grant’s concept of continuous fermentation. I suspect that it is really just another form of a perpetual motion machine and hence impossible. However, it just may be possible to flow wort over yeast in such a way that fermentation occurs, the yeast remains viable and does not mutate and all remains hermetically sealed so that beer and yeast are not infected. As for the other two, Jackson basically made popular the concept of the sophisticated beer connoisseur and is probably responsible for preventing the demise of more than one beer sub-style by raising the awareness level of these non-mainstream beer types. Strauss is to be admired for re-introducing traditional central European brewing sensibilities at both the micro- and macro-brewing levels within the American market.

JF: What is your favorite beer memory?

TBK: Oh God, this is a tough one. Beer memories for me, at least, are both the drinking of great beers and doing so with good people. The best beer in the world drunk by oneself is not necessarily an impressive beer moment. A beer memory of note would be an evening I spent near the small town of Vent in the Austrian Tirol in Autumn 1992. I was with a group of perhaps a dozen and a half Europeans and Americans on a two day hike of the Kreuzsptize which is a mountain in the Alps right on the border between Austria and Italy. On day one we climbed up to an alpine lodge which was at about 2800 meters elevation, the Kreusptize itself tops out at 3457 meters. For the novice hiker, like myself, the climb was exhausting. We got to the lodge, which was a solidly constructed stone building about the size of a small church, at around 3:00 in the afternoon.

After a short rest, I was persuaded to cross the glacier to the Italian side of the border to take a late lunch at a lodge there that was famous for its bean soup. It was an hour’s hike to cross the glacier, but the soup was worth the trek. On the way over, I was informed by my traveling group that we were crossing at almost exactly the spot where Ötzi, the iceman, was discovered the previous year. Ötzi, as you may recall was the mummified corpse of a Copper Age man found in the retreating portion of a glacier in September of 1991. He was dated at approximately 3300 BC and is the best preserved mummy found to date in Europe.

Well that night we were all surprised to find out that we were part of the one year celebration of the discovery of Ötzi and that Austrian, Italian and German television crews were at the lodge to document the celebration. Most of the other guests at the lodge were somehow connected to the events of the previous year involving the discovery of the iceman. Our group managed to secure a large table and we enjoyed an extended session of food, drink and round after round of a dice game called Lugen, which is basically a form of Liar’s Poker.

The food was simple, hearty fare and the beers were Austrian and Bavarian standards including Spaten, Ayinger and Stiegl. However, this particular session was truly magical. I have thought about this often and reason that multiple reasons come into play here. Clearly a six hour hike built not only hunger but thirst. The piping hot goulash stew and coarse bread begged for a crisp Bavarian Lager which elevated simple thirst to a near fatally parched state. And when it came to quenching this thirst, the elevation had its affect. The elevation at the lodge was around 9,000 feet which, though insufficient to cause altitude sickness, was capable of inducing a markedly light headed state which made the first beer feel like the third or fourth and the third or fourth feel like the seventh or eighth. This sense of heightened euphoria was shared by our entire group and engendered an intense camaraderie and positive spirit.

After dinner we spent several hours talking in a combination of German dialects and English, playing Liar’s Poker and giving interviews to the various TV crews who were keen for a story from us concerning our role in the discovery of the iceman the year before or how his discovery had impacted our lives in the year since. Let’s just say, as the evening wore on, that we all tended to claim somewhat more connection to the not so recently deceased. Our interviews with the news crews became a type of informal one-upmanship to see who could spin the most convincing tale of his or her relationship to the discovery of our good, dear, departed friend Ötzi.

The evening ended with multiple rounds of beer drinking songs and toasts, in several languages and the passing of the Stiefel, or beer boot, all around. To this day I still remember the admonishment given to me about drinking from the boot in broken English, “toe in – that’s no sin; toe out – watch out!”

JF: Where is your favorite city for beer in the US?

TBK: I don’t think I’d win any creativity points for picking Portland, Oregon; but the city is truly deserving of its beer credentials. For the beer drinker, it actually has a couple of things going for it. The most important, obviously, is great beer and beer tradition. As one of the cradles of the American micro-brewery renaissance, Portland enjoys well established local breweries which have had years, even decades, to enmesh themselves into their neighborhoods and become fixtures of their local societies. McTarnahan’s comes immediately to mind as not only the purveyor of great beers, but a destination spot for the locals of that area to meet, socialize, conduct business, or just simply get out of the house for awhile. Another ace up Portland’s sleeve is the mass transit system.

Drinking and driving is a fool’s game and this city solves that problem nicely with an urban rail system. The Trimet is actually a combination of urban light rail and a trolley line loop that provides access to most of the central core of the city. For less than $5 a day, a pub crawl can become significantly less taxing on one’s knees – just make sure to bring an umbrella!

JF: If you were stranded on an island with only a random 6 pack and a bottle opener, what beers would you want in the six pack?

TBK: Another tough question! I’m taking this question to mean I can pick six different beers and let’s assume we have refrigeration on the island, so that I can pick something other than IPAs. Can I assume the Swedish bikini team is also on the island? Well, back to beers, my “select” six would include the following:

·Schneider Edel-Weisse – my favorite unfiltered wheat beer and a great brew for hot, dry, deserted islands;

· B.B. Bürgerbräu – my favorite Bohemian Lager and a great accompaniment for the fish I am determined to spear and grill;

· Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold Lager – my call for the best lager brewed in the US and a nice pairing for the sea birds that I will trap and roast;

· Hofbrau Maibock – a stronger brew to help me get through those cool nights tending the signal fire;

· Anchor Steam Porter – my call for the best Porter brewed this side of the Atlantic and one that will undoubtedly go well with the wild boar that I plan to snare and roast; and

· Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock – this is the strong beer I will bury deep in the sand to keep it cool and the one I will save to drink when I am rescued!

JF: If you could change one thing about the Craft Brewing Industry, what would it be, and why?

TBK: The obsession with hops in many US craft brewers drives me a bit crazy. Hopping is one of those things that takes on a near-religious tone when brought up in beer discussions. No doubt over-hopping is a straight forward way to a distinctive beer taste. But, what is the point? Beer should be all about the balance and the way the components of the beer work together. Great beers don’t necessarily need to be complex beers, but they do tend to benefit greatly when their components meld harmoniously. Overwhelming all other components with hops – to my taste at least – defeats this purpose.

My other beef on this topic is the impact that excessive hop usage has on the overall hop market. As we have seen earlier in this year, hops are scarce and are a choke point that major brewers can utilize to destabilize the economic fundamentals of craft brewing. If a certain segment of the craft brewing industry is utilizing hops at an excessive rate, it has a negative impact on the whole industry.

JF: Any last thoughts?

TBK: I’ll leave you with the motto of the Flatlander’s Brewery: “Drink good beer, be kind, tell the truth.”

Many thanks to The Kaiser for doing this interview.
Cheers,
Jason

Sam Adams Irish Red

2008-04-02T20:00:00.006-04:00

A) Poured from a bottle into a beer clean pint glass. Clean, light brown frothy head formed in the glass. The beer was a deep red color, as it should be.

S) Smelled of sweet maltiness. a mild hop bitterness was present.

T) First sip was a mouthful of pleasant maltiness. Hints of caramel came through. Hop bitterness appears towards the end of the sip as expected. Very good balance of malt and hop bitterness.

M) Carbonation was great. Bubbles were present with every sip and held through the end of the mouthful.

D) Great beer. Again, Jim Koch over at Sam Adams has created a fantastic beer. After the first one, I was scrambling to my fridge to grab another. This is probably one of my top 5 from Sam Adams.

Cheers,

Jason

Growing Hops - Planted

2008-04-02T19:38:00.006-04:00

Well, since I received my rhizomes a little early, I thought if I left them in the sandwich bag in the fridge they might get ruined. So, I decided to plant them indoors. I put them in two large planters and I have them in the room that gets the most sun in our house. I'm hoping that in the next few weeks it starts to warm up and stay warm so I can get them outside permanently.

I found a link online to a hop farm called Puterbaugh Farms, so I emailed them to make sure I could plant them in the planters. Elizabeth, from their staff was great and emailed me back in no time with this response:

On 3/28/08, HopsDirect.com Orders <orders@hopsdirect.com>
wrote:
Hello Jason,
Thanks for the inquiry. Hops will typically grow any which way you
train them to grow. Putting them in pots would be fine, as long as there is good
drainage.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or comments.
Regards,
Elizabeth
HOPS Direct, LLC

So, with that re-assurance, I planted them. More updates once I move them outside!

Cheers,

Jason

Growing Hops - Update

2008-03-25T21:05:00.004-04:00

I find it extremely ironic that I first posted about my hops today. Much to my ironic surprise, when I got home I was greated by............MY HOP FUTURE!!!!!!!! They look so cool. Here they are. I guess I'm officially a hop grower. They came a lot sooner than I had though, which I guess is good. I now have to go to home depot and start building the trellis.

Cheers,

Jason

Growing hops....Oh boy!

2008-03-25T12:35:00.007-04:00

So, in this time of rising hop prices in the world and brewers struglling to cope, I've decided to take my homebrewing to the next level in their honor. I'm going to start growing (or trying to grow) my own hops at home. I purchased 3 rhizomes from Northern Brewer and I designed a trellis to build for the hops. I have limited space so I'm going to give it a stab by growing them in large pots on the south side of my house.

My experience with growing hops is ZERO! I previously (and successfully) had a pepper garden and grew some fantastic hot peppers. There is a large difference in the plant, but I figure what the hell. Why not try it. The rhizomes were only about $5 each, so it was a small investment for a large potential for fun and great beer!

I've treid to do some reading on growing hops, and I know that I won't get a great crop, if any, in the first year. I'm hoping to maybe get at least an ounce or two from each plant as they normally yield over a pound per plant, so we'll see.

The ryzhomes won't arrive until april sometime (oops...see above), so once I receive them I'll post an update with some picture of the crop. If you've grown hops before and have some tips of the trade, please let me know!

Cheers,

Jason

The Session: #14 Beer People

2008-03-18T13:00:00.006-04:00

Since I'm new to the beer blogosphere, I have yet to participate in the Session which was started by Stan Hieronymus from Appelliation Beer. This months Session is being hosted by Stonch and is sure to be a good one. The theme: Beer People.

"On Friday 4th April, the date of the next Session, I'd like you to write about people. Choose someone you know personally. That person might be a brewer, a publican, someone who sups at your local, or maybe just a friend who is passionate about beer. Let's read some pen portraits of your companions on the path to fermented enlightenment."

Be sure to check back for my post and also check out Stonch's blog around the 4th of April for the full re-cap from other beer bloggers.

Cheers,

Jason

2007 Craft Beer Industry Statistics...my thoughts

2008-02-29T09:45:00.005-05:00

The Brewers Association released it's 2007 Craft beer industry stats earlier this week. I posted the press release below. After carefully soaking up the stats, I was amazed. 8 million barrels of craft beer is a whole lot of beer....and it only makes up 3% of total us beer sales. But the real amazing thing is that out of the 1,449 breweries in the US, 1,409 are craft brewers. So, 97% of the US brewery's, only produce 3% of the total barrels. I knew that the craft brewery sales made up a small portion of the beer market, but that's amazing. Brewpub closings were down 43% and since the brewpub is a restaurant, and restaurants have such a high failure rate, that is pretty impressive.

I think the greatest thing that I got from this, is that it makes you realize that you have a lot of great choices of beer out there. From coast to coast, there are lots of craft brewers are making lots of great quality beer for consumers like us to choose from. And unlike other industries, brewery's work together to help each other. From guest brewer series, to offering Hops to other brewers to lend a hand, the beer landscape should be called "the Craft Beer family" rather than the Craft Beer industry. I doubt Target would ever reach out and sell some cotton t-shirts to Wallmart if there was a cotton shortage. Hopefully this will help the Craft Beer Family break the misconception they all beer drinkers like watered down beer, watch nascar and eat domino's every night. That's not the case. Craft beer lovers are sophisticated, and have sophisticated palette's, like complex foods and watch other things than nascar.

The other day I heard a radio commercial from a local convenient store about their coffee. The "actor" bought a coffee, and the were asking him if because he drank that coffee if he liked beer instead of wine or trucks instead of sports cars (I'm not quoting it correctly) but when I heard the "beer instead of wine" comment I was taken back a bit. Why does mainstream America think wine is so much more sophisticated than beer. Is it the name? Or have the other 3% of the brewers in this industry tainted the image of beer drinkers? Either way, the Craft Beer Family is growing, and hopefully that will continue, because as a consumer I am very happy to have this many awesome choices when I go to my local beer store!

2008 will be a tough year for small craft brewers with the much talked about hop shortages, but seeing how the members of the Craft brewing family are already coming together to keep themselves strong during this crisis, I am very positive that they will find a way to get through the hard times and make some outstanding beers. Personally, I can't wait to see some of the new beers we get to choose from this year! I'm sure they will re-invent the Craft Beer landscape as we know it....and that is fine with me!

Cheers,
Jason

Craft Brewer Sales Continue To Soar Past Other Segments

2008-02-29T09:23:00.004-05:00

Brewers Association Announces Retail Sales Up 16 Percent

Boulder, CO – Thursday, February 28, 2008 – In what has become a true American success story, the craft beer market again grew by double digits in 2007, leading all other segments in the beer category. The Brewers Association reports estimated sales by independent craft brewers up 12 percent by volume and 16 percent in dollars for 2007. Craft brewers' share of the beer category is 3.8 percent of production and 5.9 percent of retail sales.

The Brewers Association annually polls the country’s craft brewers to estimate the total volume of beer sold by brewpubs, microbreweries, and regional craft breweries in the United States, and uses scan data to estimate sales. Results show that the U.S. had 1,449 total breweries in operation in the U.S. during 2007, including 1,406 small, independent, and traditional craft brewers¹. Nearly 70 percent of craft breweries are brewpubs that sell most or all of their beer on-premises.

“Since 2004, dollar sales by craft brewers have increased 58 percent,” said Paul Gatza, Director of the Brewers Association. “The strength of this correlates with the American trend of buying local products and a preference for more flavorful foods and beers.”

The Brewers Association estimates the actual dollar sales figures from craft brewers at more than $5.74 billion, up from $4.95 billion in 2006. Sales in barrels equaled 8,011,141 (one barrel is 31 U.S. gallons) up from 7,147,050 barrels in 2006². The 2007 increase totals 864,091 barrels, which is the equivalent of 11.9 million cases or 285 million 12-ounce bottles of beer.

For more statistics visit the updated 2007 Craft Beer Industry Statistics Web page. A more extensive analysis will be released April 17 during the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego, California. The Association's full 2007 industry analysis, which shows regional trends and sales by individual brewery, is published in the May/June issue of The New Brewer.

1. The definition of a craft brewer as stated by the Brewers Association: An American craft brewer is small, independent, and traditional. Small: Annual production of beer less than 2 million barrels. Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beer for purposes of this definition. Independent: Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer. Traditional: A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

2. Note: 2006 adjusted to include Carlos Alvarez/Gambrinus companies (Spoetzl, BridgePort, Pete's, Trumer), Ommegang, Ramapo Valley, adding 411k bbls to 2006 total.

Rogue Chocolate Stout

2008-02-23T21:04:00.008-05:00

Tasting number 3 from my Julio's Trip. This was poured from a 22 oz bottle into a beer clean glass.

Apearence: Dark black! I held it up to a light and saw nothing but blackness. Great head formed and left a nice lace as I sipped down the beer.

Smell: The first smell was full of malt tones with some slight hints of toffee. My first thought was "wow....they found a way to make a beer that tastes like an ice cream sunday". I'm getting very excited!!

Taste: The frist sip had hints of un-sweatened chocolate. Soon after the toffee flavor fights it's way back to the palate. A slight hop bitterness is present and it finds a great way to mixs with the chocolate/toffee flavors.

Mouthfeel: Very smooth as it rolls across my mouth. The carbonation is definitely noticable, but not too overpowering.

Drinkability: I think it goes without saying that if a beer reminds me of a sunday....it's very drinkable. I'm a big fan!!

Cheers,

Jason