Brew Basement, SE PA Oktoberfest and excuses...

Yeah, yeah I'm sure you've heard it before. This the obligitory sorry I haven't posted blog entry. For many months I've posted every other day or even daily. Then I started slipping to every three days. I'm still here though. I have another website I've been working on and some stuff around the house. Not to mention some family visiting.

Briefly though, I have been pretty impressed with http://homebrewchatter.com/. Check it out if you get a chance. Also, locally the Octoberfest weekend here must have been pretty great with Victory, Stoudts, TJ's, Philly Octoberfest and Sippin' by the River all underway. For my own part, I did make to TJ's to have a couple fest beers with my Dad. Ran into Brew Lounge Bryan with his wife. Big Dan was there and some others too. Lots of excitement around the liters of festbier being served and the Blind Pig being tapped. My quick taste of Blind Pig explained all the excitement. Thanks Byan. (no smoke btw ;-) Yeah, I said LITERS of beer.

The brew basement is still underway. I reflected a bit while ripping out the old cooktop in my kitchen (work before play...remember the out of commission oven). Many batches of wort have been boiled there. I think I might actually keep that cook top and put it to use as part of the brew basement. More redding up of the basement completed. Next, rip out the old carpet. (after the range installation of course)

Hopefully I'll get that indigenous ingredients post up for Fermentation Friday. Never too late is what Marcus said. Has a ring to it don't you think?

HomeBrewChatter.com

Here's a forum site worth checking out. I like the threads I've read so far. You'll find places for extract brewers, all grain brewers and many others that you might expect. I found one that was kinda out of the ordinary though. "Brewing Today!" Lots of pictures and some recipes. I like the idea that I could go here and find people brewing around the same time I am.

http://www.homebrewchatter.com/

247 members with 94 active...get in on the ground floor :-) There's even a welcoming forum called "Who are you?".

Over the last few days...

Dropping in to catch everybody up. I'm still working on cleaning out the brew basement. Of course that "little" oven problem I mentioned is getting more attention than the brewing related projects. Also looking to brew soon. It'll probably be with dry yeast. The theme will be cheap ingredients that I already have in stock. Shortly after that beer is ready to drink I'll be demonstrating extract brewing on Teach a Friend to Brew day.

Of course Fermentation Friday is afoot tomorrow over at Final Gravity. I'm going to write about what I hope to brew with indigenous ingredients, rather than what I've actually brewed which is nothing.

I've witnessed lots of pumpkin beer and Oktoberfest beer at the taps lately. T.J.'s in Paoli PA is having a big Oktoberfest celebration. They even sell liters! How cool is that? I just might stop in this weekend. Of course there's a ton of things going on this month. I rely on Bryan at The Brew Lounge to keep me up to date on Southeastern PA events and beyond.

The Joe's Ancient Orange Cinnamon Clove Mead we're making is just about ready to be tasted. That ought to be interesting. One week to go.

That's all for now. Hope things are going well out there in homebrew ...er beer land.

The Definitive Fermentation Friday Info Guide

LOOK its right over there in the sidebar ->

In addition to "What is it?" and the "Schedule". I'll be adding some other links including a post to all the Fermentation Friday events thus far.

I've also been working on some more personal blog posts that are tangentially related to brewing.

Sept. 2009 Fermentation Friday @ Final Gravity topic announced...

NOTE: Marcus posted his round up. Check it out! Below is the orignal announcement post.

Marcus the man behind Final Gravity has announced this month's topic. One I've been thinking about a lot these days.

"What indigenous brewing ingredient have you used or would you like to brew with and what style would that beer be?"

I wonder if we can get Mr. Papazian to blog about it. Actually he may have already :-) Join us on Friday September 26th and blog about indigenous brewing ingredients. See you then!

Fermentation Friday Schedule

The schedule...

• September 26 - Marcus @ Final gravity
• October 31 - Rob @ Pffft
• November 28 - Dr Joel @ The Grain Bill
• Decemberl 26 - Andy @ Rooftop Brew
• January 30, 2009 - Jim @ lootcorp
• February 27, 2009 - Matt @ World of Brews
• March - Bryon @ Homebrewbeer.net
• April - Jake @ Northerntable
• May - Ted @ TedBrews?
• June @ Brew Dudes
• July @ Pfiff!
• August: World of Brews
• September: Brewing the Perfect Beer
• October: CNYBrew
• November 2009: Just Another Brew Blog

If you're interested in hosting Fermentation Friday let me know. Send me an email or just leave a comment.

Brew Basement update...

Its still looking like a plain old basement down there, but, we are sorting and trashing stuff. The storage half of the basement is reallying moving along. My goal was to throw away half of what was there. I'm not sure that's happening, but, we've been piling up the trash.

Oh yeah....I think I died...and went to heaven...

Yes, that's right. I'm pinching myself right now. Ouch...I must not be dreaming. Two of the bars/pubs/restaurants nearest me are, well. smoke free. This is all thanks to Pennsylvania State Senate Bill 246. I didn't read it, but, I'll take their word for it. Thanks Bryan for the link to the Philadelphia Inquirer link.

• The Flying Pig (BTW They don't have a website)
  
• TJ's Restaurant & Drinkery
  

I really am happy. Seriously. I wonder if I'll go to these places more often. Hypothetically... think I will. We'll see.

Woot!

BTW I visited both TJ's and The Pig tonight and I'm not reeking of smoke. My car smells fine and a smoker at The Pig even mentioned that it was nicer inside now. Yeah...a smoker said that! Doesn't it seem obvious?

Is it true? Is it a smoke free Pennsylvania?

Bryan tells us it is over at The Brew Lounge. I guess we'll see. Maybe I'll even go out see who's makin' the change tonight ;-)

Brew Basement & Teach a Friend to Brew Day

My wife and I have been hauling junk out of the basement for a couple days now and I have to say I'm feeling pretty good about it. Unfortunately our oven just died so we have to divert some energy to that too. Its always something.

I received confirmation that I can demonstrate extract brewing at our block party on Teach a Friend to Brew Day. I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure it will be great :-) I'm happy that I'm doing something this year, because, I haven't really done anything in past years except blog about it.

What next on the brewing project list?

I have a few possibilities.

• I have no homebrew in the house :-( I need to brew.
• Brew a fresh hopped ale with homegrown hops (need to pick a brew date)
• Refinish basement into brewing/beer room (cleaning & throwing out now)
• Hoping to demonstrate brewing at our fall block party (its on teach a friend to brew day)

Anybody use http://rememberthemilk.com to keep track of this stuff. I just started using it. We'll see if it helps. The cool thing is that I can get to the lists via my cell phone.

What are you working on?

Rainy day brewing...

Well maybe not brewing, but, related. Fall will be here soon enough and I'll need a place to be when the weather is foul. Time to clean up that basement. Its finished, but rustic and well there's that drywall that needs to be ripped out and replaced. My wife told me she doesn't mind if I turn it into a beer room.

What have I been waiting for? Off to the basement!

What would it be like if everybody brewed their own beer?

Yeah, I'm still obsessed with this idea of everybody brewing their own beer. Hey its my show right? I'm wondering what it would be like. I mean, how often would they brew? What kind of beer would it be? How much would they brew?

The things we know.

• Typical homebrew batch is 5 gallons
• Thats 40 pints

As a starting point. If one person drinks on average one pint a day, they would need to brew a little more than nine five gallon batches in a year. One every five or six weeks. Would that be enough? What about their spouse? What about parties?

I would imagine most people would choose to brew something simple with character. Like an English Ale or California Common or maybe a new style called kitchen ale. My assumption is that they would use readily available ingredients and the simplest of processes.

So would people brew once every five or six weeks? Would they brew smaller batches? Maybe a gallon week or two to three gallons every two weeks? Can you brew a good beer in small amounts in a short period of time? Which brings me back to the Mr. Beer container! :-)

Video: Brooklyn Brewery's Garret Oliver test driving a Mr. Beer and an idea!

Listen to Garret Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery as he walks us through the process of brewing with Mr. Beer.



Why am I thinking about this Mr. Beer thing? Well, a friend of mine has an old Mr. Beer kit. He'd like to have some fun with it. I suggested brewing a cask conditioned ale. Might be just the thing for a party. Brew some English Ale in short order and have it ready to serve for a party right from the "Mr. Beer Plastic Cask". Then proceed to drain it via gravity like you would a firkin of cask cond ale over the next day or so. I would be supplying alternate ingredients. The ones in the kit are kinda old.

Donovan tried it with some success and recorded the experience. Anybody else try this? Sound like fun?

Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day November 1, 2008

Why would anybody want to teach people how to brew? Why not? Why keep all that cool brewing knowledge to yourself? You don't know how to teach people stuff? Who cares! Just brew and let them watch. If they get too outta hand take their beer away ;-)

So, I guess I still have plenty of time to get something going for this event. Read more about it at the AHA website. I'd like to get a bunch of people together for this. Time to put it on the calendar and plan.

If your in the area, around Eastern PA, reading this let me know if you might be interested. My wife says the weekend is clear ;-) I'll be brewing no matter what. If you know how to brew or you want to learn, just stop by. If I get any takers, I'll be sure to have some snacks on hand.

Now this really gets me thinking...soon it will be time to harvest the hops, do I have enough ingredients, isn't it time I upgraded to better burner, what about making that keggle? Looks like my homebrewing break is over. Yeah...I wonder if I'll get any choke cherries or elderberries to brew with this year?

Saison, American Ale and an IPA for a fishin' weekend...

I was goin' fishin' with my son and my father this weekend. While contemplating what beer to take along for the weekend at my Dad's I thought of the homebrew on tap, Brother John's Ale and some Sly Fox in the fridge. Then my neighbor Bryan gave me a ring at work. He was standing outside my house with a Saison he bottled a few weeks ago. I directed him to stash it in the bushes and I would grab it when I got home. I also added some Brother John's and even picked up some Marzoni's Avalanche IPA along the way. We were well stocked with fishing tackle and some beer for my Dad and I to taste.

So after a few hours on the road and a warm welcome my Dad asked me to break out my homebrew. Nothin' like sharing a homebrew with Dad. He liked it, but, it wasn't quite bitter enough for him. I'll have to make a note of that.

Onto the next beer of the night, Bryan's Saison. (pictured above) I was very anxious to taste this one. After a few months in the fermenter and some concerns about fermentation temp we finally bottled it. At that point it tasted good. Nothing offensive. A bit ordinary for a saison. No funky bready citrussy flavors. Kinda sweet and malty. Well let me tell you, what a difference three weeks in the bottle makes. The sweetness was there, but, it wasn't the predominant flavor. Grapefruit rind spiciness seemed to come out of nowhere. I can't wait to see what happens to this over the next few months. Great job Bryan! Great inspiration for my next batch.

The last beer of the weekend was Avalanche IPA from Marzoni's. Overall I've been happy with their beer when I get to sample it. The core brews are usually the best. The rotating "seasonals" have been just OK. The first taste of the Avalanche blows you away with hoppy freshness in the nose and in the early moments of the tasting. The finish leaves you wanting a bit more malt backbone, but, all in all a good bitter and freshly hopped experience. All that I pretty much expected.

What I didn't expect happened the next night. We sat back each with a pint of this Avalanche IPA from the two thirds full growler and noticed something different about the beer. Its taste had actually improved. The beer just smoothed out. It wasn't so forcefully bitter and hoppy up front and it let you down gently at the end with a more rounded out body. What happened? My guess is the air in the growler. The oxygen changed the taste slightly, for the better. I guess it could be attributed to less CO2 fizz as well. Hmmm...interesting. Anybody else have this happen?

So did we catch any fish? Sure did. Mostly pan fish, but, we kept a bunch so my son could experience eating what he caught. All in all a good weekend. Three good brews, family and a fish fry to boot!