A few months back, the Barley Legal Homebrewers took a day trip to Flying Dog Brewery in Maryland. Back then, I didn’t have time to post all the pictures, but I wanted to post this toast, given by our gracious tour guide. Cheers!
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Flying Dog Tour Toast
Posted in Brewing, Good Times with tags Beer, homebrew on May 8, 2012 by VergeBarley Legal Big Brew Day 2012 – National Homebrew Day
Posted in Brewing, Fermenting, Good Times with tags Barley Legal, Beer, homebrew on May 8, 2012 by Verge
Cinco de Mayo. An annual event that is usually spent at a Mexican Restaurant eating crappy, over-cilantroed chips and salsa and swilling Coronas, Dos Equis and Sol while wearing a loud sombrero and fake, “dirty-mexican” mustache. In New Jersey, that is.
Need I say anything?
Barley Legal Big Brew Day (aka AHA National Homebrew Day). An annual event held by my Homebrewers club in Maple Shade on National homebrew day where a few hundred friends get together in a parking lot, make beer all day, and serve for free to anyone that shows up delicious, home made beer.
In 2012, the two collided last Saturday under an overcast sky at Iron Hill Restaurant in Maple Shade, NJ.
Monika, Craig and I left early because we had volunteered for the first hour of admissions desk duty…taking donations, selling raffle tickets, selling merchandise and id’ing and wrist banding all the brewers.
There were about 30 different stations where people were brewing and serving. Club members are pretty ambitious, so everyone set right up and started brewing as fast as you can.
We met up with Gina and Scott from my homebrew store and we had planned to do a joint 12 gallon brew of raspberry cream ale. President Obama showed up as well, started out with a beer, ended up having a few cigarettes, lost the suit for a Barley Legal t-shirt and caught a serious buzz.
One of the assistant brewer’s got up super early and got to Iron Hill to run a batch of Mash for us in the morning. This cuts brewing time for brewer’s in half. Basically, it cuts out the first step, which is basically pouring hot water on grains and waiting for two hours. This is us all lined up to get our sweet wort.
This is a member getting his “keggle” filled. That’s a converted half-barrel keg made into a brew kettle. The smell inside a brewery while mashing and sparging is simply delicious. No, it does not smell like beer. It’s not beer yet!
This still isn’t beer, but it’s a start. We had previously steeped grains, oats and rice and drained them into our keggle. Got it up to a roiling boil and stirred in some hops.
propane, huge amount of boiling water, and drinking high alcohol content beer. It’s amazing there aren’t any accidents on Big Brew Day.
well, almost none. Mike, from Isaac Budd Farm, brewed all day, then dropped the glass jug it was in, and lost it all.
Kreg keeping a close watch on our two keggles…er, one keggle.
This brewer was doing all the brewing himself, as opposed to having the brewery help out with the first step. As you can see, it get’s a little more complicated. But, it sure is a lot of fun.
We tried to finish up early so we could hang out, have some food, give out some of our beers and try some of the other brewers’. On tap, we had an American Cream Ale, Russian Imperial Stout, Magic Hat #9 Clone, and my Iron Brewer Contest entry, a Mint Chocolate Chip Dessert beer.
We mingled for a few hours. Craig, Scott and I smoked a few cigars. Then, the raffles started, and we hung out listening to numbers being announced for an hour or so while prizes were awarded. I didn’t win anything, but I didn’t really try, either.
Kreg found someone with a guitar and jammed on that for a while. I think at this point he was really feeling the scene. Afterwards, we helped clean up the site for about an hour before heading home.
My beer is bubbling away in the kitchen as I type. Should be ready in about two months. Just in time for Summer. Hope it turns out well. After all, we made it while drinking. If it does, hope you can try a sample with me! And, if you weren’t there, try to make it out next year. It’s always a great time with great people.
Special thanks to Beer-Stained Letter for some of the pictures you see above, and for being the un-official photographer of the day. And a shout out to Happily Hopped, who kept the first picture up on his blog long enough for me to steal it for mine.
Oh, and another special thanks to the officers of the club: Evan, Cleteor, Ryan and Devin. They worked hard as hell to make this all happen.
Brewing my First All-Grain Beer
Posted in Brewing with tags Beer, homebrew on January 29, 2012 by VergeI figured I should step my beer making up a notch, especially since I work in a Homebrew supply store, and I really should know my shit. The next step up from extract brewing, which is what I was doing in my older posts, is partial mash brewing, or mini-mash.
But, while pondering what I would have to do to make a mini-mash, and knowing my real goal was to step into all-grain, I figured I’d just skip the middle step and go for it. The differences between these three types of beer making I often equate in difficulty to baking. Extract brewing is like buying one of those pre-made logs of cookie dough, cutting it up and baking it. Pretty damn simple and hard to fuck up.
Partial mashing is a bit more difficult. It’s like buying a box of brownie mix, adding the egg and water to the premixed batch, then baking the resulting glop. Still pretty hard to ruin, but you might actually have to know complex things like how to crack an egg and use a measuring cup and whisk.
All grain is the most difficult. That’s like taking you grandmother’s 100 year old recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies ever and making them from scratch. You measuring out everything yourself. You need to find the right ingredients and know that baking soda is not baking powder. 2 tsps of salt is definitely not the same as 2 tbsp of salt. Folding is not mixing, sifting flour is not sprinkling it in. There is more than 1 type of sugar and confectioners is not raw is not white is not brown. There are actually vast differences in dark and milk chocolate, and it can be chipped, morsels, shaved or grated.
Yeah, cookies can be that complex, and I’m just scratching the surface. All-grain beer is like that. Instead of using pre-measured amounts of grain, hops and yeast, you’re actually crafting beer from it’s raw ingredients completely. It’s the closest thing to actually brewing like a real brewery a home zymurist can get (unless you live on a farm, grow your own barley and hops, have an oast house and know how to malt grains)
Fist thing I needed to make was a mash tun. When you make extract beer, all the fermentable sugars are in a can or in powder form, and you simple add them to water. All-grain requires a brewer to get all those sugars out of the grain themselves, and that is called mashing. You must add very precise amounts of your grain bill to very specifically amounts of water which have been heated to very specific temperatures.
Luckily, for about 45 bucks, you can get one of these from Home depot. They're big, they hold a lot of hot water, and they keep the temperature fairly constant over a period of time, which is critical in mashing. And, it's exceptionally easy to take off the stock nozzle and replace it with a kettle valve.
on the inside of the kettle valve, you need to install some sort of screen. This one screws into the valve and fits so perfectly into the cooler that it's clear the manufacturers specifically made it for a Home Depot cooler. Amazing!
After mashing grain in the cooler, you need a way to slowly add water as you drain water out. This serves to wash the sugars out of the grain bed, which sounds simple, but can be a disaster under certain circumstances. I decided to get my buddy at work, the machinist, to help me fabricate a "rotating sparge arm" from scratch.
We have a ton of cool toys at the Lab and can pretty much build anything from scratch. Hugh, the guy on the right here, like to make things. If it can be done simply...it's not getting done that way! He like to make things really fancy.
building this thing required some actual precision for it to work properly. I even had to calculate the area of a circle, and got to use Pi for the first time in years.
well, here it is...kind of. this is the sparge arm mounted on the mash tun (removable,and height adjustable, of course). It has yet to be hooked up to the hose and pump.
this is the whole setup. I actually don't have any pictures of it working, because at that time I was not in any position to be taking pictures.
When you step it up into all-grain brews, it really helps to make a "yeast starter." In extract, you go for simplicity and just toss a dry packet of yeast in your beer to start making alcohol. A yeast starter you make the day before. It's like a little tiny batch of beer that gets the yeast multiplying, that way when you pitch it into your all-grain, it's nice and hungry and gets to work quickly and efficiently.
well, here it is. this is during the mash part of brewing. Basically, a waiting period of about an hour. After this part, I really don't have any photos because 1. I was busy brewing and 2. I was busy drinking.
here's the whole scene, complete with my patio heater. Came in handy, it was pretty damn cold out there. The whole things took way longer than we expected. But, that's what all grain-brewers tell newbies like me. We didn't have any huge disasters, but it certainly didn't go perfect. Nevertheless, I about to rack the beer into a secondary fermenter tonight, and will be drinking the beer in a few weeks. Oh, and one more thing. This particular beer is a clone of Fat Tire Ale, and you welcome to come try one at my house in February! Cheers!
Hard Cider
Posted in Brewing with tags homebrew on October 7, 2011 by Verge
Monika went apple picking with Cynthia last weekend. I would have loved to have gone, but I was stuck at work at the Mart. We had more that a couple could handle, so....
...we juiced that bumper crop of apples with a genius plan. This is our new juicer, the Breville made famous by that movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (check it out)
yeah, so that thing works WAY better than our old juicer, which actually worked pretty fine all on it's own anyway. Now I had some of this fresh juice, and it was delicious. Fresh apples, hours off the vine, taste just like October should, but we had other long term plans...
instead, we simmered the juice to make a batch of hard cider. Damn straight. That's what Autumn is all about. It's natural. Fruit falls, ferments, and makes me happy.
cooled the cider, pitched the yeast. It's been bubbling like crazy ever since. Should be ready in a few weeks. You should stop by one Sunday afternoon when we cook it up in a crock pot with some pumpkin spice and cinnamon sticks!
and, for a bonus, check out these pictures over at Cynthia’s Facebook page.
Cape May Continued…Dogfish Head Brewery and Brewpub
Posted in Daily Pictures, Good Times with tags homebrew, Jersey Shore, Vacation, vegetarian on August 6, 2011 by Verge
Marla and Rob got to leave the kids behind and go for an adult only adventure on Thursday to Delaware
Cape May - Lewes ferry takes your car to Delaware, and has bars on board...and takes credit cards
this is the outside of dogfish head brewery in Milton. It's such a tiny town to have such an awesome place in it. We still hope one day we will get an invite into the treehouse, but I think we'll have to move to Delaware and get a job at the factory, which isn't such a bad idea.
we arrived with no reservation for a tour, but got on the wait list, and had no problem getting in on one of the tours, which is what I kinda expected.
unbeknownst to us, it was International IPA Day. IPA is short for India Pale Ale, my absolute favorite style of beer. It is very hoppy, very bitter, and beautifully delicious.
on tap was 60, 90, and 120 minute IPA, the last of which is extremely rare this year, extremely expensive, and exceptionally tasty. Find some, if you can. Also, they served Burton Baton, poured through Randall the Enamel Animal, which is fresh grown hops, and was also delicious. All for free, too!
the tour of the brewery was just about the same as last time Monika and I visited, but was still pretty interesting. Our tour guide was very animate, and entertaining. This is a shot of the beginning gear of Dogfish Head, and as a home brewer, I really appreciate that this stuff has been saved and turned into a kind of museum at the brewery.
rocked the brewpub in Rehobeth Beach. They have an awesome menu with more vegetarian options that your average brewpub, which we obviously appreciate immensly. And, they have tons of Dogfish Head Beer, which I drank it all!! And we also filled a growler (which I brought from home), and scored a bottle of their Jin and their completey amazing peanut butter Vodka. dropped some cash!
waiting in line for the ride home to Cape May
scored some more beverages on the way home. We went to Delaware on a vassel named the New Jersey, which was relatively ghetto compared to the posh Twin Capes ferry we returned upon.
the top deck was windy and windy, but we got a pretty good view of everything and everyone, including Rob and Marla.
we joined the inside at the bar. An hour and fifteen minutes is a lot of time to party.
which Marla made good use of
but the day came to a close, on our way to Cape May.
Cape May Continued…
Posted in Daily Pictures, Good Times with tags Beer, homebrew, Jersey Shore, Vacation on August 3, 2011 by Verge
storm Monday night. I didn't really have a tripod, but I took some bulb exposures anyway, and tried not to let my drunk swagger ruin it too much
this is looking across Delaware Bay (or, essentially, Delaware River) towards Delaware.
the light show was pretty amazing, I just had a hard time holding the camera completely still for 60 second exposures
went to dinner not far from the house, rocked some frozen drinks
with the fam...
and this guy, Sal, who was awesome
we chatted with him after his second set, and ran into him in Cape May the next day while he was driving. hilarious
appetizers
dinner
a rare picture of the author!
Tuesday night we had a bonfire, probably against the wishes of the home owner, but who cares
Monika makin' some smores, but for other people, cause smores aren't vegetarian 😦
went to Cabana's to check out some Cape May Brewery beer. This is all I got, the last half pint in the whole place. But at least I got it for free.
only place in the world to try their inagural beer, but I hope to be able to find it closer to home soon. Not too bad...tasted like my home brew, to tell you the truth.
and we spent the afternoon in downtown Cape May, and managed to not spend too much money, avoided the impending rain, and had a great time.
The Ninth of May, Two Thousand and Eleven
Posted in Daily Pictures with tags Beer, cats, homebrew, nfl films, vegetable garden on May 10, 2011 by Verge
Poe chilling on the old kick drum I turned into a flower pot
Due to certain "cutbacks," my job took all the free coffee stations out. This is the temporary station that one of my coworkers set up to replace them. tips accepted.
over the weekend was National Home Brew Day. Hung out at Iron Hill and drank...a lot. Didn't take too many pictures.
This is the eight keg system that the president of Barley Legal Homebrewers set up. Had some of his classic "thong remover." It did not cause me to take my pants off, luckily.
first trip to Pope's Gardens to grab some plants and start the veggie garden.
for the planting session we brewed some sun brewed tea.
this is the garden before, post a generous dose of compost from the last year.
the garden after picture. not really that much to see yet. stay tuned.
I guess most people take a lot of pictures of their kids doing stupid stuff and attending “fun” activities. I take pictures of my cats doing stupid things and my garden just kinda sitting there (not even having fun). But, we don’t have kids and I spend most of my time in my garden with my cats. I think we both like it that way just fine right now.
Recent Random Pictures
Posted in Daily Pictures with tags Beer, homebrew, kitties, vegan, vegetable garden, vegetarian on April 30, 2011 by Verge
a recent batch of beer chilling off in my kitchen. I can't remember which one this is partially because...
...Kreg and I have been making a lot of beer lately. On the left is Mojoito Wine, Imperial Pale Ale (now on tap at my house) American Ale, Mexican Cerveza. The little guy in front is a yeast starter after I added an air lock.
this is Winston Churchill, my brother's family bunny. He pretty damn cool and I had to pay him a visit the other day when kreg and I stopped by his house.
faux Colosso. this is probably the wild cat that got kreg's cat pregnant last year. If you have one of his kittens, this is the father.
Eno defends his palace! kind of looks like Batman.
a shot of my hops growing like wild fire.
they shot up to 6 feet so quickly I added another 6 feet to the top using the bamboo tomato stakes from last year's garden.
I blogged about this earlier, but seriuosly, what chance did this little girl have when you named her "Misery?"
Recently subscribed to Suburban Organics, who wend you locally grown organic fruits and vegetables on a schedule every week. They are awesome. This was what we got last week for 25 bucks, delivered to our front door.
Valentine Day 2011
Posted in Daily Pictures with tags holidays, homebrew on February 16, 2011 by VergeI went shopping for some presents for Monika in the morning while she was at work last Sunday. On the way home, we were diverted to the site of the second of two landmark fires in Atco. The first was Sally Starr’s pizza joint near the center of town. The other…
the Golden Nugget kitchen, after someone had an so-called "accident." We were told that it had burned to the ground. It didn't, but Monika saw the inside and said it was well destroyed.
later, we headed into Philly with our friends, to eat sushi and have cocktails at Swanky Bubbles.
...
and after that, while watching the Grammys, we made chocolate covered strawberries (real ones). not that easy to find fresh strawberries in February, I've found. although, dirt cheap roses are sold at every gas station. go figure.
we rocked the champ, too. what else would you have during the grammys?
the next night, we gave a shot at our Valentine's Day beer. It stated as an American Cream Ale, but I decided to add Chocolate Malt, Sparkling Amber Malt, and...
fresh strawberries (and some blackberries) to add some sweetness to the brew.
if it turns out well, I'll have a glass for all of you. I tried a glass after just one day, and was satisfied, and as I write this, I can hear the persistent blub of bubbling brew in my kitchen and the batch ferments away.
On The Verge of Tears 