Dogfish Head Brewery visit.

A couple weeks ago I was sitting at Lord Hobo with a good friend and fellow beer enthusiast and posed him with a simple question. "When was the last time you went on an adventure?" He didn't really know how to respond other than..."I don't know, but I'm listening". A few pints later we had our finalized plan for our adventure. We were going to DELAWARE! I know I know, some of people reading this are saying what's in Delaware? And the rest of you are saying that is an easy question to answer. In a few words, Dogfish Head Brewery, and DFH Brewpub.

I have been wanting to make the trip down to visit DFH ever since I turned 21. I have a friend who lives down there too so that made it even more tempting because I had a place to crash. Soooo I finally decided spontaneously on a Wednesday night of drinking/recruiting my beer bud that we were making the journey that Saturday. We got up (a bit later than scheduled) and left Boston at 6:50am. The road trip was interesting and I could write and entire blog about that alone but lets stay focused. This is a beer blog. So we made it to Delaware around 1:30 that afternoon, but had to keep venturing to south Delaware to the final destination. We hit beach traffic...like halfway up the state...apparently people in DE love the beach. At this point we were racing against the clock. The last tour was at 3:30 for the entire weekend. Did we make it? If so what time? Well those are great questions. We made it to the brewery at 3:27 and were allowed on the last tour which was already full. Already the trip was worth it. One of the most amazing things about DFH is how fast it is expanding. I think it is a great example of how big craft beer is becoming in America. They actually can't keep up with their demand right now and had to pull out of a few smaller states to fulfill their orders in the larger states. Positive problem to have. Anyway I'll post some pictures below and captions from the tour.

The tasting part after the tour they were sampling 4 beers. 60 min IPA, Burton Baton, Raison D'Etre, and Palo Santo Marron. The only one I had not tried was the Burton Baton because it was new but very good. It was a blended beer between an Imperial IPA and and English style old ale. 10% ABV and aged in oak barrels for a month. I would recommend getting some if you see it on the shelf. My new favorite though is the Palo Santo Marron. I think I had only had it once before and it was when I already had been drinking but it is a 12% ABV brown ale aged in a giant barrel made of Palo Santo wood. Very malty and delicious.

The original brewery

The Brew deck to the back left

 A lot of the small fermentation tanks. They recently added these a few years ago to keep up with demand! Also they are cutting holes in the ceiling to put in newer taller fermenting tanks across form these ones.

 Our tour guide John. A great guy who loves DFH.

 10,000 gallon aging barrels. On the left is one of two oak barrels and the one on the right is the Palo Santo barrel (wood is from Paraguay and it costs about 8x more to make than the oak barrels)

 The note we left for their wall of visitors.

 The tasting room/store.

 The Steampunk Treehouse

Scott outside the brewery with some of their large fermenting tanks next to him

 The DFH brewery!

After the brewery tour and tasting we went about 20 mins down the road to the DFH brewpub for dinner where we met my friend and her roommate. All DFH beers on draught and really good food. Best part though, the bill for four people (4 entrees and 7 beers on it) was only $75. You can't get that in Boston. If we had the same amount of food and drink around here it would have been at least $100. We finished up at the brewpub, jumped in the ocean because it was right there and then drove back to crash for the night at my friends apartment. Next morning, drove back to Boston. Total trip time 36 hours. Great success.

I want one of these, and I want it YESTERDAY!

Whoever invented this beer can selector/launcher should mass produce it and become wealthy. I mean this is exactly what Americans need. Something that makes it so they don't even have to get off their lazy ass to get another beer. Genius!

This was the best comment on the video by far too:

"Bud Lite presents Real Men of Genius

*Real Men of Genius*

Today we salute you, Mr. Mini Fridge Beer Cannon Creator!

*Mr. Mini Fridge Beer Cannon Creator*

Only you are lazy enough to not get off the couch to get a beer, but energetic enough to waste countless hours in your garage making a fridge that shoots a beer across the room and to your seat.

*Watch your head!*

One beer or seven, it doesn't matter. Send me a whole 12 pack the same way you would an email; through the air.

*You've got mail!*"

I love those ads

More homebrew action.

I recently (about two weeks ago) brewed my first all grain, original recipe. It is a Porter and I'm calling it my Pacific Northwest Porter, because it reminds me of Seattle. I used some pale malt, roasted barley, and chocolate malt. It smelled like heaven while I was mashing and boiling and I tasted some after fermentation before bottling it yesterday. I have to say it was quite delicious. Tasted like a true Porter and better than most the beers I have made thus far. I honestly think it's because I didn't use any extract in my recipe. For those of you who do not know the difference between an all-grain beer and an extract beer it is pretty simple.

All-grain: all of the wort is extracted from combining hot water with a specific amount of grains and mashing them together to break down and extract the sugar from the grains (bags of grain, below).

Extract: You buy malt extract which is either in a powder or syrup form and you add it to water to create your wort. (can of malt extract)

The trade-off between brewing all-grain versus extract beers for homebrewers is that all-grain is harder to do. Basically, extract you just combine things in a big pot. All-grain you have to mash the grains with water at a certain temperature for a while and then you can go onto boiling and other things.

Below are some pictures and descriptions of whats I did.

Picture 1: I had to drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of a fermenting bucket to create a false bottom to basically strain the used grains out from the wort after mashing. This bucket goes inside another bucket and you have a make shift lauter-tun.














Picture 2: This is just water boiling up to about 175 F. I add this to the grains inside my "lauter-tun" and then with the amount of grain I had it dropped the temperature around where I wanted it so it could efficiently extract the sugars.

Picture 3: Starting to add the grains to the lauter-tun because the water was close to the temperature we wanted.

Picture 4: Me mashing the grains inside the lauter-tun keeping an eye on the temperature

Picture 5: John (old roommate and also a homebrewer) came over and helped with the mashing of the grains. It is hard work especially when you are standing over hot water, so we took turns mashing the grain back and forth

Picture 6: The finished product from the mash. 2.5 gallons of wort!













Last but not least, here is a somewhat comical video of me talking about making my beer while mashing.

...and for some reason it cut off about 10 seconds at the end but it's not that important.

Big news for all you Dogfish Head lovers out there.

Today an announcement was made via a blog post on Dogfish's website that the 120-minute IPA drought will be over for a number of states within the next few days to few weeks (depending on shipment schedules and wholesalers). For those of you who are not familiar with Dogfish 120-minute IPA here is a description from the Dogfish website:

 "Brewed to a colossal 45-degree plato, boiled for a full 2 hours while being continuously hopped with high-alpha American hops, then dry-hopped daily in the fermenter for a month & aged for another month on whole-leaf hops!!!Our 120 Minute I.P.A. is by far the biggest I.P.A. ever brewed! Between 15-20% abv and 120 ibus you can see why we call this beer THE HOLY GRAIL for hopheads!"

Basically for those of you who have had it and enjoy it a lot (like me) it is a hoppy, heavenly, high-alcohol beer that is matched by few. I'm pretty sure this beer was what turned me into an extreme beer enthusiast because it was my first exposure to an extreme beer out of the norm, or in the words of Dogfish themselves, "Off-centered".

If any of you ever watched Brewmasters on the Discovery channel this past fall you are well aware that Dogfish had to dumb their last batch of 120-minute because it did not meet the high standards for quality they have set. They basically lost not just a batch of beer but also hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now don't expect to see it everywhere. The brewery only made a smaller batch and are going to be releasing it pretty much immediately to their wholesalers and then depending on shipping times and other factors it will be hitting shelves in the next few days to few weeks. It will only be available in 19 states though. This is due to the fact that some states do not allow the sale of beer this high in alcohol, and some states just don't get Dogfish beer. 

Read the full post from Dogfish about the new release and to see if your state made the cut for 120-Minute IPA here

Enjoy Dogfish founder Sam talk about the 120-minute IPA

MLB Relief Pitcher by day, Brewmaster by night.

So I found this cool article today about one of the pitchers for the Seattle Mariners, Chris Ray. He recently teamed up with Fremont Brewing Company to make a limited edition IPA to benefit Operation Homefront. He says that he started home-brewing a few years ago when he was in the Minors with some of the guys on his team. His plans after baseball are to start a brewery with his brother in Virginia, where he is from. You can read the full article here..."The Mariners' Relief Pitcher of Beer"

This is pretty cool. For multiple reasons. First, dude likes beer. Second, dude is a professional baseball player. Third, he realizes he wont play forever so he is going to turn a hobby he has into his future career. Best of luck to him. Someone in Washington should try the Homefront IPA when it comes out and tell me how it is. Or you can send me one.

Pourin' beer like there's no tomorrow

So there are these new beer pouring mechanisms that are popping up across the world pretty much. The machine is called the Exactap. Here are the remarkable things about it...

1. It can pour a perfect beer in 4 seconds
2. Can drain a keg in 15 minutes
3. Guinness gives it a 5 out of 5 rating

I would like to see one of these things in action and make my own judgements. It kinda takes the fun out of being good at pouring beer though, but I guess that's what automation has done to most things. Fenway has a couple, I'll have to check it out when I go to a game this summer. Here is the article.

On my way to the West Coast...

Sorry it has been a bit since I last posted. I have been busy with work/I forgot my password for my blog account. Anyway, what's new? Well I'm glad you all asked. A couple of things. First of all, I don't know if everyone knows that craft beers are starting to can their beers which is pretty cool. It's cheaper for the brewers which in turn means it should be cheaper for you! Yay!!!! Harpoon said theirs should be hitting the shelves as early as this weekend in some areas. Harpoon tweeted this pic earlier with the caption of "A man among boys"

In other news...Illinois has passed a law that allows small breweries (producing less than 465,000 gallons per year) to self distribute their beer. This is huge. There is a three tiered system in America that is pretty much monopolized by B.M.C. and so unless you have sold your company to them or have some other way into the distribution warehouses you are pretty much S.O.L. I think it is great that the small guys are starting to win against the big ones. Cheers to them. (full article here)

Lastly, I am at Logan airport right now waiting for a flight to Seattle (well Dallas then to Seattle) but I saw a Cisco Brew Pub in terminal B and I had to go in. It was good food. Great beer (I really enjoy Cisco, they are local to MA based outta Nantucket) and the service was awesome. One thing that made me laugh was a couple that came in to grab something to eat and drink. The man had to go to the bathroom when they got there but told his wife to order him a Bud Light. When I heard that I started to chuckle but then when she ordered it and the bartender said "We don't carry Bud Light, we are only micro-brews." This brought a smile to my face and almost a tear to my eye. I just hope that more places start popping up that only serve local craft brews and stop wasting money buying shit light beer. And just for the record they did have a light beer on tap that was from a Microbrewery (I didn't notice the brewery or name of the beer) but the gentleman ordered one after sampling it and said that it was really good. TAKE THAT BMC! I myself enjoyed a 22oz. Bailey's Blonde Ale which was delicious, especially while watching the Red Sox run train on the Indians. 

P.S. Go get 'em tonight Bruins!

Who is looking for something to do this weekend?

Well people, if you are in the Boston area and are of the legal drinking age there is a way to celebrate the American Craft Beer Week. Harpoon brewery is having a festival for a couple of reasons. 1) It is the beginning of summer. 2) They have been in business for 25 years. And 3) It is ACBW. So what better way to celebrate than to grab a couple friends take the T down to the brewery and enjoy the beer, food, entertainment and (hopefully) nice weather. For complete details (costs, who is preforming, and what beers are being served) Click here.

I am particularly excited to try the new 100-barrel series that the founders, Rich and Dan, brewed. It is a Rye IPA. Basically what that means is IPA is my favorite style of beer. So I have high hopes and expectations. The last 100 barrel was good so hopefully this one will be just as good.

Hope to see ya'll there.

America! Hell yeah!

It's American Craft Beer Week. It's like Hanukkah for beer lovers. A whole week dedicated to the great beer artisans of this country that have created on of the fastest growing industries in our country right now. Rejoyce, drink up, and be merry!

I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is...beer sales are down 1.0% in America overall. The good news is...Craft Beer Sales are up 11%! I think in this case, the good news definitely out weights the bad. Read the full article here: Beer Sales Continue to Fall But Craft Brews Keep Growing .

Beer Snobs! Unite!

<-----(That's a lot of head)

Hopefully good things to come from this.

"Grocery store owners are planning another push to make it easier for them to sell beer and wine in stores.

Under current law, grocery store owners can only sell beer and wine once they receive an alcohol permit from their local communities, but they are not allowed to hold more than three permits in the state – making it difficult for chain grocery stores to sell alcohol.

Lawmakers will hear testimony to change that restriction Tuesday during a Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure hearing." -BostonHerald

Personally, I think this is a good thing. I mean sure there is the possibility of small mom and pop shops getting closed. However, they could just apply for these permits and obtain the ability to sell alcohol at their stores. I used to live in Washington state and the system they have out there (and I believe in the rest of the NW) is you can buy beer and wine in any grocery store but you have to go to a liquor store to get any other type of alcohol. I would also like to mention that you can get beer and wine until 2am at the grocery stores on the west coast. On the east, everything closes at 11pm. I like the WA way better than the stupid system that we have in Mass. I mean if you are having a party and you have to go to the grocery store to get a bunch of food, it would be so much more convenient if you can get a couple of 18 packs while you are there. All in all, I hope this movement passes.

Four Loko is back.

I don't know if everyone is aware yet, but Four Loko is back in stores (I think as of this past weekend). I am making that assumption because I just saw it for the first time since it was banned when I was at two different liquor stores this weekend. The catch? No more caffeine. The plus? Still 12% ABV and comes in a 24oz. can.

George Washington, Brewing like a Champ.

George Washington Drank Here

"Even George Washington needed to take the edge off sometimes.

The founding father and first president of the republic was a man of the people when it came to his drink of preference. His "Notebook as a Virginia Colonel," dated from 1757, includes a handwritten recipe for "small beer."

That recipe, along with many of Washington's other papers, is part of the New York Public Library's collection. This month, the library is joining with Shmaltz Brewing Co. to recreate a modern version of the porter to celebrate the centennial of its Stephen A. Schwarzman building.

Just 15 gallons will be brewed and offered for tasting. Local brewers Peter Taylor and Josh Knowlton have taken the liberty of tweaking the recipe, which the library has dubbed "Fortitude's Founding Father Brew."

The brewers made batches of the beer, one with molasses—which Washington used—and one without, substituting malted barley for the fermentable sugar.

"Back then, they didn't really have quite the same understanding of brewing science that we do now," said Mr. Knowlton.

Of Washington's beer, "it's pretty light, pretty dry, medium-bodied but roasty," Mr. Knowlton said. "We used some roasted malts in there so it's definitely got some of a roasted, chocolaty, little bit of a coffee flavor."

The ingredient list is fairly basic: bran hops, yeast and molasses. The concoction is to "stand till it is little more than Blood warm," in Washington's words.

Jeremy Cowan, founder of Shmaltz Brewing, which also makes Coney Island Lager, among other beers, called the recipe "tricky."

"The ingredients in the brewing process that he used are kind of pre-modern," he said.

Mr. Cowan figures Washington probably sketched the outlines of the recipe, tweaking it and adding ingredients during the actual production.

"They obviously did a couple of things that aren't written down here, like a grandmother would," he said.

The beer will be showcased at a library gala on May 23. The public can sample it on May 18 at Rattle N Hum in Manhattan."

-WSJ By: Sumathi Reddy

This is cool. I like that beer was such a big part of everyone's life back in "ye olde times". George Washington, the man of the people, our founding father, the first president of the USA was a home-brewer. Cookin' up some "small beer". I wish Obama was brewin' in the basement of the White House or had some sort of large production brew house at like Fort Knox or something. All procedes go to paying off our enormous debt. Thats what we should do...buy out ABInbev and just take all the profits and pay off our debt in like 10 years....yup thats right I just fixed the economy. Beer saves the day, once again.

Osama is dead, Navy SEALs get hammered...

"A bunch of Navy SEALs based in San Diego celebrated their faces off last night ... toasting the UNBELIEVABLE raid carried out by their fellow SEAL brothers by reveling at a S.D. bar ... a bar which happens to be owned by a retired SEAL.

TMZ spoke with American bad ass Greg McPartlin -- owner of McP's pub -- who told us when the news broke, SEALs from the nearby Naval Base Coronado quickly packed the house ... many carrying American flags.

We're told the soldiers went through 8 kegs, 15 cases of beer and TONS of cocktails in just four hours ... while leading the bar in several "USA!" chants.

McPartlin tells us, "It's great -- Osama was expecting his 72 virgins, instead he got 24 Virginians!" (The Navy SEAL team that executed the mission is based in Virginia.)

FYI -- the Naval Base Coronado is the home of the USS Carl Vinson ... the ship from which Osama's body was dumped into the North Arabian Sea.

A media relations spokeswoman at the base tells TMZ there are currently no celebrations taking place at N.B.C., in part because, "Our boys had a lot of fun over at the Irish pub last night!""  -TMZ.com

Not only are SEALs good at killing people, but apparently they are good at killin' kegs, cases, and any other form of alcohol they can get their hands on. I wonder how many of them there actually was that killed the 8 kegs 15 cases and TONS of cocktails? It had to have been a ton. However, let's be honest pretty much any Navy SEAL is 10 time more badass than anyone who is not a SEAL. So it was probably like one SEAL per keg limit and if they finished in an hour they got a case of beer and then anyone who was late to the party had to drink sissy cocktails. Anyway, I hope they enjoyed the celebration. Like I constantly say...beer is made to be shared, celebrated, and most importantly drank with friends.

In closing...America!

J. Wilson made it!

(CNN) – "J. Wilson has survived his 46-day beer-only fast and found some unexpected spiritual insights.

Wilson, who lives outside Des Moines, Iowa, was emulating a Lenten tradition carried out by German monks hundreds of years ago. In keeping with tradition he ate his last solid food on Ash Wednesday and broke his fast on Easter Sunday.

“I made a bacon smoothie and that’s what I broke the fast with,” Wilson said." Full Article here

I posted this a couple of weeks ago when he had just started his beer fast for lent. J. Wilson made it all 46 days and then eased back into eating food with a bacon smoothie. Interesting choice of smoothie but his doctor told him that he shouldn't really eat solid food the first three days after breaking his fast. I am actually inspired by this and think it would be a nice challenge for next lent. 

Who thinks I should do it?

Meadhall: Soft Opening Today in Kendall Square

"Soft opening today in Kendall's former Quantum Books (aww man, really?), this loungy, semi-industrial beer castle plates upscale lunch-thru-late night vittles (from an egg-topped steak tartare w/ anchovy vinaigrette to a signature VT turkey, bacon & avocado club), and pours over 100 draughts (including Peak Hop Noir, Wee Heavy Scottish Ale, McChouffe Brown, Hoptical Illusion, and Storm King Stout) in a 32-table (plus upstairs lounge) space rocking high ceilings hung with faux candle chandeliers, and comfy leather couches that overlook a massive 36-seat copper island bar lit by a series of elegant banker's lamps -- though try all the beers available, and the only one being carried will be you." -Thrillist.com

This sounds like a sweet set up. Looking at the picture of the draught menu, I only have one question...where is the Mead? If you are going to call yourself Meadhall, I would expect to see at least one Mead on tap. I'm thinkin' of going to check it out today after work. Anyone want to join?

Source: Thrillist

This is what beer should be about.

United They Craft: Local brewminaries collaborate for annual beer week.

"It was a brewer de force Friday as nine Fort 
Collins brewers joined together for the first 
time to create a collaboration beer in honor 
of American Craft Beer Week.
Brewers from C.B. & Potts, Coopersmith's, 
Crooked Stave, Equinox Brewing, Fort 
Collins Brewery, Funkwerks, New Belgium 
Brewing Co., Odell Brewing Co. and Pateros 
Creek converged in Old Town early Friday 
morning to start the brewing process, 
which was split between Cooper-smith's 
and Equinox's facilities." - Coloradoan.com

Honestly, I think this is awesome. Seriously, beer is meant to be drank, celebrated and 

shared amongst friends. I know that whenever I make beer I always invite over a friend or two

just because it is more enjoyable that way. Really a cool article and worth checking out

The latest and greatest piece of shit beer to come from Anheuser Busch-InBev.

"The 2011 Anheuser Busch-InBev shareholders meeting on Tuesday was never going to generate news. “We’ll have a press conference but you won’t learn anything,” a spokeswoman said.

First-quarter results are due to be presented on May 4, so the company didn’t want to jump the gun, although the so-called “quiet period” before earnings is a cultural choice, not the law.

What the company did want to talk about was the new alcohol-free drink rolled out by home unit InBev Belgium, the Hoegaarden 0.0. The Real Time Brussels team agreed to taste-test a six-pack, as it did for the Jupiler Force.

The H0, of course, is named after the classic wheat Hoegaarden that says Belgian summer like a day at the beach in Ostende or reading a book in a Brussels park.

Under CEO Carlos Brito, AB Inbev invests considerably in flashy marketing. And the Hoegaarden 0.0 is stylish, with design centered around a Gothic rendition of “0.0”, that looks like two ghost eyes, printed on a light yellow can with white wheat germs.

The verdict on taste was mixed. Your correspondent found the drink akin to a watered-down lemon Fanta. OK — refreshing even — if you know what you’re getting.

“It’s lovely, like a Hoegaarden shandy,” said a female colleague, referring to a beer and soft drink cocktail.

Male colleagues’s reviews were more bitter. “Like sweet dish soap,” said one.

In the end, Mr. Brito said in brief remarks at the press conference, the point of a big beer company is to offer brands for all tastes, or, as he put it, “you want a portfolio [of drinks] that allows consumers to stay within your franchise.”

Anheuser hopes its range of alcohol-free drinks will help its campaign for responsible drinking, and balance out sluggish beer sales in Europe. “Some beverages, like water, and soft drinks,” are doing better than beer, Mr. Brito said" -WSJ.com

_________________________________________________________________________
Anheuser Busch-InBev is rolling out a new beer, just in time for the summer. It is a 0.0% abv take on, an actually pretty good beer, Hoegaarden. This article was just too good to not read and laugh at. If anyone has ever had Hoegaarden they know it is a wheat beer made in Belgium. It is also one of those beers that got bought out by InBev-Anheuser Busch a while back and they still sell it under the Hoegaarden name but essentially it is made by Anheuser Busch-InBev, the same people who bring you great beers like Budweiser and Bud Light (definitely being sarcastic). So it comes as no surprise to me that they go ahead and take a fairly good tasting beer and turn it into complete crap.


Some of my favorite parts of the article...
1. When they talk about the flashy marketing that AB InBev is known for: This is kind of a no brainer. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising their beer every single year, because nobody would drink it unless they were force-fed adverts that associate the beer with football, hot chicks, and awesome cars. 
2. "It’s lovely, like a Hoegaarden shandy,” said a female colleague, referring to a beer and soft drink cocktail.": First of all, a woman would say this....Second, what the hell is a shandy? I think we should take her talking privileges away.
3. Male colleagues’s reviews were more bitter. “Like sweet dish soap,” said one. <--- That's more like it. 
4. "Mr. Brito said in brief remarks at the press conference, the point of a big beer company is to offer brands for all tastes, or, as he put it, “you want a portfolio [of drinks] that allows consumers to stay within your franchise.” : In other words they are going to keep flooding the beer market with horrible beer paired with clever advertising to brainwash the masses and give beer a bad name. 
5. "Anheuser hopes [to]... balance out sluggish beer sales in Europe. “Some beverages, like water, and soft drinks,” are doing better than beer." : Easy explanation...people in Europe are smarter than the majority of the people who fall for the AB InBev ads.

Please, save us all form AB InBev. Do your part everyone, support your local craft brewers.

I could stare at this for hours...

Literally, for hours. I have a new goal. Try each beer from every state on here. Oh and also it looks like Idaho needs a microbrewery. Prospective state to start mine? Thank you Colin Skinner for showing me this.

Click on the map so you can actually read it and understand what I am talking about

It doesn't look like I will be getting any Viagra beer

I looked into the pricing on getting a bottle or two of the special beer for the Royal Wedding. Looking like it is going to cost 50 British Pounds or 83 U.S. Dollars for one bottle with shipping and everything included...

Anyone want to donate to the cause???

Arise big Willy!

It is just one week until the Royal Wedding and it is all the buzz on TV, the internet, and apparently even in brewing news. A Scottish brewery, Brew Dog, has made a beer to commemorate the upcoming royal wedding. This isn't your typical celebratory beer though. No, this beer is made with some extra special ingredients to hopefully give the newly weds an extra special wedding night. The beer is called Royal Virility Performance and it is basically laced with some form of herbal/natural viagra, chocolate, and some other weird stuff to get ya in the mood ;-) 

Yup you can always count on the Brits to have a good sense of humor when it comes to sex and beer. I don't really know what I mean by that but they are usually pretty sarcastic about most things. Anyway I think this is hilarious and I applaud Brew Dog for pulling it off. I hear they already sent Prince William a bottle. Let's be honest though...with a shit eating grin like this does he look like he isn't getting any "attention" from Kate in the bedroom?

I am tempted to try it just because it is an IPA, and that is my favorite style of beer. However, I am also curious to see if it works. They say that three bottles equals one viagra. The real question is would one be too drunk at that point for the beer to work its "magic". I mean I have no experience with viagra so I don't know much about it other than it is made for old dudes who are still gettin' lucky. The brew runs about $17 a bottle and there is only a limited amount being made (1000).

Should I get some?

So I changed my mind....

...I decided to syphon my beer into another bucket to let it settle a bit more after getting a lot of the large sediment out. In the process of doing this I may have tried some of it, and I have to say...I think I may have pulled off another great tasting, alcoholic batch of beer (and that was while it was room temperature and flat). This calls for a celebration.

Filtration/Conditioning, Carbonation, Bottling, and of course...Drinking

Tonight! I bottle my latest batch of beer, English Brown Ale. It should be done this weekend. Here are the final steps in the brewing process. I'm about to educate y'all in some home-brewing steps so take notes.

1. Filtration-When I get home I am going to be syphoning the beer out of the current fermentation bucket into another bucket. This transfers all the beer and leaves behind most of the sediment. If I was really going for some real clear beer I would let it sit and settle for a little while longer so even the smaller sediment falls to the bottom of the second bucket (this would be considered the "Conditioning" step for a home-brewer).
2. Carbonation-Then I add some priming sugar to carbonate the beer. If you don't know how this works it is pretty simple. Yeast are living organisms that are put into beer and they consume all the sugars and they turn it into carbon dioxide and alcohol. In a sense, they eat sugar and poop CO2 and alcohol.
3. Bottling- Next, I syphon the beer into bottles and cap all the bottles. I throw them back into the cabinet for a few days while the yeast do their job to carbonate the beer. Once that is done, they go into the fridge to chill...next thing you know, we have nice cold, alcoholic, carbonated beer.
4. Drink- Even if you don't make your own beer, I'm pretty sure you can handle this step.

Cheers!

P.S.- This is kind of what my English Brown Ale will look like...

Good beer and football (soccer) belong together.

It is the way it has been for so many years all around the world but especially in Europe. Three years ago I did a study abroad for a semester in London. And whether you are at the 'football' game watching from the stands or in a pub watching on the television one thing is always true there is a beer in your hand. The reason I became interested in beer was from that time I lived in London and it was an interest in only good beer because that is pretty much all they had to drink. Therefore, I associate good beer with soccer.

This leads me to my next point/piece of news. As most people know, soccer is becoming a more popular sport in America. The MLS is growing and so is the culture around it. Now most of these MLS teams just play in that city's football stadium. The relation of beer to American football is also strong, but it is a different kind of beer. Shitty beer. BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors) are pretty much the only types of beer served at any American football stadium. If you want to know why those are pretty much the only beers available in Football stadiums, ask me to blog about it later because I can go on for days about it. Anyway, as a result of the already in place beer system in these stadiums, BMC is also what is served at MLS games. To me...this does not sit well. Watching a sport like soccer, I feel one should be enjoying a good beer (just like everyone else in the world does). Which is why I am happy to share this recent article titled Redhook Brewery Now Official Craft Beer for Seattle Sounders.

Thank God. Redhook and Qwest/CenturyLink Field management are partnering together to bring Sounders fans good beer to consume while enjoying a soccer match. Some people are saying Redhook was able to get around the red tape of the current beer on tap, because Redhook is owned by InBev (which isn't true, but they do have a distribution relationship with them). However it came about, I don't care because I think it is great. Redhook makes some good brews, ESB, Longhammer IPA, both are expected to be served, and it is beer like this that soccer fans want and deserve.

I'm not surprised and find it fitting that this is happening somewhere in the Northwest. I believe that it was Safeco Field that started this trend about a decade ago. Safeco offers one of the largest selections of craft and micro brews (over 40 types) out of any major league sports venues in America. It makes sense because of the amount of micro and craft breweries in the Pacific Northwest.

There is however a downside to every good thing. In this case, it is probably going to be the price. I recently read and article where the Cleveland Indians' Progressive Field was charging 30 bucks for craft beers. That's not justice. I'd rather pay a fine for smuggling beer into the stadium than pay that obscene amount for a single beer.

Hopefully it will all turn out okay.

A new toy I found...

Scratch my last toy (kegerator) and replace it with this bad boy. It is the 120 Beer Arcade Machine. Holy crap it is anything anyone could ever want. 

1. Video games...it has 200 racing games plus Playstation compatibility. 

2. It has a clutch pedal. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to play an arcade racing game and think you have to actually drive the car like a standard when you choose a manual gear box. However it always turns out there is never a clutch so you let your foot off the gas while you are "shifting" gears and you just start falling back. The set up on this is much more accurate and I'm sure realistic. 

3. There is a Keg in the back of the driver seat...enough said

4. This goes with 3...the tap is just to the right of the steering wheel...again, need I say more.

5. Everyone knows drinking and driving is really bad and nobody should ever even consider it, but this is just a video game...and it is drinking and driving to the extreme. I'm pretty sure if I had this I would accidentally open the tap instead of shift to 3rd gear. In the end, it would be okay because I might lose the race, but I will have a full beer at the finish line.

Obviously this is kind of an intangible thing (considering it costs $6K) at this point in my life, but hey, a man can dream! Plus when I am rich, because of my brewery I am going to start in a few years, I will be able to afford it and then and can provide my own kegs for my private virtual drinking and driving endeavors. Score.

Never actually drink and drive folks. Cheers!

Harpoon Brewery...take 3

So some of you may know that I have been trying to go to the Harpoon Brewery for some time now (basically since I turned 21 in January). I got turned away two previous times because they had sold out for the day. But I was given a free pass for two tour tickets on one of those failed attempts. Well, you know what they say, third time's the charm.

Yesterday I finally went and got there in time to make a tour. Overall, the experience was awesome I couldn't ask for anything better. I got in for free because of my pass I had. Normally the tour is just 5 bucks for a ticket so either way it is well worth it.

Basically you get your ticket head up some stairs to the gift shop/tasting area and then the tour starts out on the brew deck. You go out to the deck show your ID get a tasting glass (which you get to keep) and right away it gets filled with some fresh Harpoon UFO. Next there is an introduction, a crash course in brewing and he explains a few of the more important pieces of equipment (mash, boiler, whirlpool, etc). After the brewing process is explained you go down to the lower level where the fermentation tanks are. By this time everyone is about done with their first beer and so while the fermentation process is being explained they go around and pour some of the beer that has been fermenting for a while so we get a taste of unfinished beer. From there we moved on to the area where filtration and kegging happens. A quick stop at the bottler and finally the warehouse where there is literally wall to wall cases of beer. It's kind of like heaven.

Of course after that part was all finished there was about a half hour left over for tasting. So you go back up to the tasting room and get your drink on. Basically you have free range on everything they have on tap at the time. It was great.

A couple of highlights and fun facts about Harpoon:

Tasting area/Store

Fermentation Tank

Current Keg machine (1keg/min)

Warehouse...aka Heaven

Oyster Stout!

-Oyster Stout: This was basically what sparked my motivation to make it out there this week. They had just finished their 36th offering of the 100 Barrel Series. (Read about it here) But the beer was freakin' delicious. I was so happy I finally got to sample it. **side note: It did not taste like oysters. The idea behind the oysters being added to the beer is that they have minerals in them that bring out certain characteristics and flavors of the stout and really make it pop** I definitely recommend it to all. I walked away with three 22oz. bottles.
-Keg situation: Currently the brewery seems to be doing a bit of expansion. One piece of equipment they recently got, but still have to assemble, is a new keg machine. Right now their current one spits out one new keg about every minute. This equates out to about 500-600 a day. It hasn't been keeping up with their demand so they bought a new toy which will do about a keg every 15 seconds...wow they quadrupled their production of kegs. Sweet mother.
-Because of the Prohibition: many breweries were shut down for a 13 year period when alcohol was made illegal in the US and then after it was made legal again there was a 25 year period where no brewing went on in Massachusetts. Cue Harpoon 1986 brewing licence #001 in MA. The state had reset the numbers and so officially Harpoon was the first production brewery in MA post prohibition.
-Last fun fact: It may seem like a crap ton of beer that they have in their warehouse when you are standing there but the fact is their stock is pretty much an infinitesimal amount in the large scheme of things. Americans drink so much beer that their entire Boston warehouse only accounts for a fraction of a quarter of a percent of the total beer consumed in America daily. And if they were the only available beer to be drank in American the would sell out their entire stock in 3 minutes. Wow. 

There is loads more to talk about but honestly who really wants to listen to me when you can go and pay 5 bucks and have your own memorable experience. It's a great thing to do if you find yourself up early enough on a weekend (tours usually sell out by 2pm but run from 11:30am-5pm every half hour), or if you have someone visiting from out of town and are looking for something fun to do. For more info check out Harpoons website.

Cheers!