A watched pot never boils.....

...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!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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