2

Hoping to make it up to NEBCO on Friday, gotta figure out a time (considering 11:30am because I have nothing else to do that day except hang out with a m8 I am going with). Will update Dan on this when we figure out a time and confirm that we are going.

Currently drinking Genesee Cream Ale - opened the case for the Super Bowl because at $12/30 it is a perfect beer to keep around for when I don't want to need to share a large quantity of good beer with people who probably won't enjoy it.

A friend's band is playing across the street from there later in the day. Pretty sure NEBCO closes at 6, and that show starts at 6:30, m8s band goes on at 8:30 if the show isn't running late. Comedy option is that the show is at a "teen center" and I can't bring beer in, but it's a metal/hardcore show and the dudes that I'll be hanging out with will be 21+ so hurray.

surprisingly was able to pick up a bomber of rogue shakespeare oatmeal stout at the local liquor store. pretty ofc

i like that beer

kind of meh that it was in a cooler, but im clearly that high tier of a beer snob to care

imo oatmeal stouts are clearly the haymaker of flavor, but really good anyway. is apparently distinctive though, and people either like them or are unimpressed. same strain of yeast maybe or something for all their beers. its also more carbonated than other oatmeal stouts ive had, so thats something different.

i thought it was good too, had it on tap twice and bottle of it...wouldnt go out of my way for it but enjoyable

dont think ive actually responded to this toilet legitimately in a while, and considering i used to love being a huge beer faggot, had these recently:


http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22/30
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22/3635

loved these first 2


http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/180/1421

thought this one sucked


no dates on bottles that i could tell by a quick glance, didnt do a full inspection

I didn't like any of the Delirium beers. La Terrible was excellent though, and Unibroue's offerings are usually the best thing French Canadia has to offer.

You beat me to it, I have been unimpressed with every delirium offering i have tried.

clearly drinking any commercially available beer tonight, just my homebrewed stout

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63/29209

top notch ipa

I envy the west coast. If I had a van that could make the trip and back I would go out and experience the west for a month, fill it with beer along the way and make the trip back with two tons of cargo.

Tonight's drinking includes:

New England Brewing Co. Sea Hag IPA (three so far)
Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale (DALELOL) (only one as of now)
Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin' (just opened, going west as I drink on...)
Victory Old Horizontal (this one is for later, I will have it as I become more horizontal)

you have plenty of beers i cant get, though if i could drive east id fill a uhaul and drink myself silly

annual exchange student program?

we should really do this

The west coast though has Belgiums, the east clearly so much. I envy the west coast for that.

And by that I mean made by American breweries clearly just imported

and this would be the quad that needs more time in the bottle to pick up some more carb

The only thing I envy the west coast for is Russian River. I have somehow found a way to hoard almost every sour they make. (THANK YOU PHILLY FOR BEING THE ONLY EAST COAST CITY THAT GETS RUSSIAN RIVER.)

Speaking of russian river, Pliny the Younger was released on saturday...

and a minor note for bubbajew... shelton brothers located in Maine is one of the leading importers of belgian beer in america. They are responsible for de struise, cantillon, westmelle, 3 fonteine, chimay and a whole slue of others that im too lazy to type out

as far as american brewers making belgian styles, im anxious to find any other than Russian river who does them good consistently... ok ok, having a seth moment here.. ommegang is decent out of NY but they are owned by duvel so go figure

yea and golden monkey triple is pretty good. Unibroue but that is Canada land

I am sure new belgium has special release stuff that is gr8 too

btw I fucking want russian river

new belgium la folie is one of the most sour beers i ever tasted
im drawing a blank with any other belgian style beers that i like that are made in the US

lost abbey is pretty ofc but they are west coast with pretty solid distribution

I dont think you can really call southampton public house a belgian style brewery but the brewmaster there is 100% dedicated to farmhouse ales so i give him credit for that. i think he wrote at least 1 book on the subject

adam, lmk when to ship you beer
just clarifying that its gonna sit here until you tell me its clearly too cold

k thx

I'll check the weather report but I think Monday would be fine. I got a few pages that arrived very cold though nothing was traveling through -20 degrees last week in the midwest

I found a mystery beer review with no hint as to what beer I am talking about. From October 15, though I haven't been able to find anything about it based on my pooping here, or on BA. I would like to get this beer and have one so I can finish the review.

Pours black with a touch of amber around the edges and a rich brown head. Aroma is almost absent of malt, primarily a combination of light hops. Taste is very smooth and clean, the malt is significant and well-balanced, but it seems to simply offer a "body" character, while the taste is almost entirely hops. The mix of hops in this style works out quite well, unlike any I have had - the hops are a cornucopia of sweet, citrus, and aromatic. The body is

black ipa?

Temp rising up to 63 degrees by this weekend.

If all things go as planned I'll be brewing 25 gallons of beer this weekend.

Saturday will be 10 gallons of a Belgian single. 5 gallons is going to a homebrew club to be aged for a year in a sour 55 gallon barrel that was previously used by the bullfrog brewery. The other 5 gallons I'm keeping and doing my own mock barrel aging with oak cubes and dregs of wild yeast from some of my favorite sour beers.

Sunday I'll potentially be brewing 15 gallons of a stout. 5 gallons to be kept plain and 10 gallons to be aged in one of my brandy barrels.

I envy you. I need to step up my homebrewing setup with a few more primary fermenters and carboys, as well as pricing out an all-grain setup.

I've made up my mind that for sure I am brewing the 10 gallons on sat. Sunday is up in the air. Instead of blasting out 15 gallons of a new, original recipe I might back it off to only 5. That way I can tweak it until I get it where I like for the barrel fill. NN filling a barrel with half-assed only decent stout. I want to fill the barrel up with delicious black love.

All grain is the way to go. My cost per gallon is significantly cheaper. Also it tastes so much more fresh. When I brewed extract there was always that lingering stale extract flavor that was present in every batch no matter what style it was.

Its also cheaper since you get grain almost free i think

For all-grain brewing, is it necessary (or almost necessary) to have one of the fancy pots with a thermometer built in right above the false bottom, a spigot, etc? They seem to be the way to go, but also quite pricey.

It's nice to have that and it's what I'm currently upgrading to. But you can brew all grain with a Coleman cooler or two plastic buckets.

Instead of a keggle with a false bottom, I use a 120qt Coleman extreme cooler with a cpvc manifold that I built. I'll poop pics later or find a link to something similar. I do my boil in a yuengling half barrel that I cut the top off of

$65 for a 50-55 pound sack. My brews lately have been grain bills between 13-20 pounds.
Hops are what I get or free along with some select strains of yeast

I can't even picture this but await pictures eagerly.

Any cooler will work and I can link you to a possibly simpler contraption for you mash tun that adams pvc.

I have used a cooler for all of my all grain brews

This is the "broke-ass" version of all grain using 2 fermenting buckets where the one on top has holes drilled in the bottom of it to act as the false bottom:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17-2.html

And this is somewhat similar to what I use

only instead of cutting slits in it, I drilled holes with the finest drill bit i had

basically, that piping goes on the bottom of the cooler and it goes through the drain port on the bottom of the cooler.

the grain is crushed and placed on top of the piping

hot water is added

the grain rests to let the enzymes work their magic turning starches into fermentables

after an hour the valve is opened and the wort is slowly drained out

rinse/repeat

boil and add hops

cool as fast as possible after an hour

oxygenate and add to fermenter

pitch yeast

wait

carbonated

drtunkate

ocean city purchase:

750ml evolution migration series, winter 2010
bourbon barrel dark ale
bottle 478 / 1150

thoughts?

I'd buy it. Everything I've ever had from evolution was better than average and I seek them out when I head south. Their one ipa is nb nb. Knowing they are barrel aging some stuff is pretty awesome. I bet the price was reasonable too y/n?

I was thinking that I had to be able to boil the water in the mash tun I am going to consult with the brew crew on this and figure out if they want to go to all-grain on the group efforts right now.

Negative, mashing is just soaking the sugars out of the grain and that can take place in any container so long as it can withstand upwards of 180 degree water. Using something like a keg gives you the added security that if the temps are too low you can turn on a burner to bring them up.

I made the purchases last night to brew 10 gallons of the Belgian on Saturday and 5 gallons of my new stout recipe on Sunday or Monday.

Must remember to make a yeast starter tonight for the Belgian though