Stuff. Things.

I’m in the mood to ramble on about what’s in my head. So, if you’re not ready to peek into my brain…

You’ve been forewarned. Also, it’s Monday, and I had a bachelor party in Vail this weekend, plus the Super Bowl last night, so I don’t think I’m operating at 100%. Or even a passing grade.

Advised music for this post: Garden State Soundtrack.

Anyway, how’s it going?

Things are great here. Kell and I are moving this month. We’re leaving the house and moving to a condo closer to downtown. This is going to alter the brewing process considerably. It’s a smaller place, there’s no backyard (it’s a 3rd floor condo. There is an alley though…), and rent is about double what I’m paying now.

On the upside there, we have to learn to brew a lot more efficiently. Which is good. But ya, I have no idea where we’re going to store all the equipment just yet. It should be interesting.

Right now there’s one batch fermenting in the basement. I hope to bottle it before the move. I feel that moving boxes of beer is easier than moving carboys of beer. We bottled the stout recently, added coffee. Tasted good at the time. We shall see.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen with Breakfast and Brewing yet. I really enjoyed the first one we did, so I’ll figure it out. But for those excited about the prospect of bacon, eggs, and brewing, it’s not happening in February. Hopefully March.

The next few batches are all probably going to be dark beers. I honestly can’t find the desire to brew something light. Granted, it’s snowing today, so maybe that’s having an effect. But I just have this overwhelming desire to brew really dark, overpowered beers that rock your face off before you even pop the cap.

A solution to my lack of space and mind-blowing desire to brew dark beers is to open the brewery. So, I’m actually writing the business plan finally. Like, I have words. Written. And Excel files!

I’m also working on two other ideas. I don’t want to get into them too much on here just yet. They’re not revolutionary ideas, but they are good ideas, and I don’t want someone with money and no heart coming along and opening one of them in Denver, just because. Paranoia? Sure. Whatever. My ideas.

Unrelated. But I would totally make beer in this.

Anyway, one idea involves making beer. But it’s not the brewery. The other idea involves selling beer. But it’s not the brewery. Either one, or both, would hopefully be a faster startup with more immediate returns than the brewery, and would become supplementary income to float Mad Haven until it can hold itself up. You know, like the food part of a brew pub. But not food.

If you want to know more on that, buy me a beer. I’ll talk your ear off for many hours. I just don’t feel like posting the plan here, at least not today.

Oh, I think I’m going to try to make cheese soon.

What else.. Life is good right now. Really good. It’s stout month at Mountain Sun / Vine Street, so I’ll be there a bunch this month, hopefully. Moving is never fun, but I’m excited for the new place. I’m looking for freelance work right now, since my rent is doubling. So, if you know anyone looking for an awesome guy to write awesome code, let me know. (I write PHP / JavaScript / MySQL / etc. pjhoberman.com is my site. It’s not awesome. Yet.)

That’s about it.

And beer. Well, I still love it.

End ramble.

Event Recap: Vail Big Beers, Belgians and Barley Wines 2010, Part II

This is the second part of my event recap. For the first part of the story, please visit my post on the Hop Press.

Anyway, back to Odell. Chad poured me a Friek, a blended and aged cherry sour with a touch of raspberry, and the help of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. I’m not generally a huge fan of fruit beers, but the cheery was very understated. It was a great sour.

Bristol Brewing, one of the first breweries I ever experienced, brought their Flanders Red. It was a blend, aged for six years. Super tart and delicious. Not too much body to it, but absolutely amazing flavor. I shared it with Chad, and he explained that it had been aging for so long that a lot of the body has fallen out, letting the crisp sourness explode. Definitely a great beer.

I lived in Colorado Springs for five years while I was in school. I chatted with Boone of Bristol about our shared experiences in that town. Boone is a great guy. Very fun. He invited us to stop back at the booth at 6 for a special treat. More on that later.

Besides all the breweries, there were a few other kinds of booths. Draft Magazine was there, as well as White Labs, and a few others. I chatted with John Carroll from White Labs for a little bit. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Pointing at WLP007 Dry English Ale I like this one the best.
John: Yes! The James Bond yeast!
Me: Exactly! Sneaks in quietly, takes down everything in the room, and leaves without a trace.
John: I’ve never thought of it that way…
We both ponder the analogy, and then go on with our lives

Obviously, this was a little later into the festival…

At one point, I looked over at the Allagash booth and saw Sam Calagione serving. Apparently Rob needed a break, and Sam stepped in to lend a hand. I love this industry.

Sam Calagione serving Allagash

There was one surprise guest. Michelob was there. They brought a few beers, and I tried their Whiskey Stout. It’s funny, the bottles all had Bud Light caps on them, so the bins had blankets over to hide the caps from us, the consumer. Anyway, the Whiskey Stout… It smelled great. It tasted pretty awesome initially. But it didn’t have much body for a stout, and the flavor died as soon as you swallowed. The guys at the booth were nice. I asked if anyone had given them grief for being there, and I guess one guy had been obnoxious, but for the most part people were intrigued. Comment on their presence as you will. They still can’t make a great beer.

Sam Adams brought some Utopias with them. I’d never bothered to wait in line at GABF for a taste, but here there was no wait. So I had a taster of the massive beer. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan, though I am glad to have tried it. At 27%, I’m not sure it’s really even beer. But, I had it.

After bouncing around to a bunch of other breweries, including Great Divide, Schmaltz, Gore Range, Left Hand, Deschutes, Stone, Upslope, etc., it was time to go back to Bristol. Boone had a bottle of Bristol’s Grand Cru. It was unmarked, just sitting in the cooler behind the booth. He affectionately referred to it as “The Shit”. I would not disagree. He described to me the contents of this brew, but I’m sad to say I did not write them down, and my memory of the exact words escapes me. But, “The Shit” adequately describes it. Pretty much, if you have the chance, take a sip, but I’m guessing it’s one of the harder offerings to find.

I tried a lot of other amazing beers. I really could go on for even longer, but obviously I’ve said a lot so far. There is one more beer I want to tell you about.

Altitude Chophouse & Brewery in Laramie, Wyoming, brought something amazing.

They call it Krampus. According to Wikipedia, Krampus is a mythical creature, not unlike our old friend Moloch. Apparently, he travels the world with St. Nicholas. Old St. Nick hands out the good stuff to the good kids. But the bad kids get coal? I think not! Krampus finds his pleasure in punishing the bad kids.

As a beer, Krampus is a spiced weizenbock. Following the rule of 58 – a rule I learned of that night, and I’m pretty sure involves math – the brewer combines the estery flavors of banana and clove with mulling spices, caramel, and raisin malt. Oh. My. If this is what I get for being a bad boy, I’ll never be good again.

Overall, the festival is absolutely amazing. If you’re able to go next year, I highly, highly advise it. The beer, the people, the town, it all adds up to the best beer festival I’ve been to.

I’d like to thank Laura and Bill of Highpoint Brewing for setting up the event. Also, Kell Benson and Phill Tearse took some wonderful photos. You can see more of their shots in this slide show, or their individual Flickr pages: Kell Benson’s Flickr – Phill Tearse’s Flickr

Market Research

Data!

I’ve started writing the plan. Plans, actually, but that’s for another post.

Thanks for your applause.

I had a question recently that has no straight answer. There are just too many variables. How fast does a bar go through kegs? Some variables:

• The bar
• The beer
• The bartender
• The week
• The weather
• Relative humidity in Antarctica

You know, variables.

Anyway, I thought it could be fun to gather some market research, and what better way to gather lots of data than through the internet! It’s ok though, this research requires people to go to bars.

Here’s the plan. Whenever you’re out, be it a bar, brewpub, restaurant with good beer, whatever, if it’s not too busy, ask the bartender how fast they go through kegs. Ask for as many different taps as you can, or as they know. Obviously Fat Tire will sell faster than 1554, for instance.

Once you have the information, give it to me. Two options: Twitter, or a form.

If you’re using Twitter, use the following format:

BREWERY - BEER - BAR - CITY - STATE - KEGS PER WEEK #bcrp

The hashtag #bcrp stands for Beer Consumption Research Project. Creative, no?

So, an example tweet:

Stone - Arrogant Bastard - Park Tavern - Denver - CO - 3 #bcrp

Or, fill out the form here: http://bit.ly/5c3lnZ

I’ll report the results after I have enough data.

Go! Spread forth and collect beer data!

Tenth Annual Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival – Vail, Colorado

This post is copied from my post on the HopPress

What are you up to January 7-9? Nothing? Then get yourself to Vail, Colorado, for the 10th annual Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines festival.

There will be dinners. Seminars. Competition. And beer. Lots of big beers.

The event starts Thursday night with a Brewmaster’s dinner. Adam Avery, Brewmaster/Founder of Avery Brewing, and Sam Calagione, Founder/President of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, join brewing and culinary forces for their Calibration Dinner.

Friday from 8:30-12 is the opportunity to show what you know about beer and brewing with Ray Daniels’ Cicerone Program.

Friday at 12, get ready to taste the big beers. All About Beer Magazine brings in beers specifically created for the 10th anniversary of this event.

At 1:30, the AHA-sanctioned Belgians, Barleywines and Strong Ales Homebrew Competition gets underway. Entries for the competition are due December 30th, so get on it!

2:30 is another chance to prove your beer industry knowledge with the Certified Cicerone Exam.

Friday night at 8pm is the Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Brewmasters’ Dinner. Featured brewmaster Peter Bouckaert of New Belgium will be joined by international featured brewmaster Lodewijk Swinkels of LaTrappe at Bierbrouwerij Koningshoeven.

Saturday morning’s seminar should be really interesting. It’s brought to us by  White Labs Yeast, and is on the recent explosion of experimental brews. The seminar is entitled “Brewing Outside of the Box: Brewers Gone Wild!” This seminar is followed by another by International Featured Brewmaster, Lodewijk Swinkels of LaTrappe/ Bierbrouwerij Koningshoeven. Immediately after is a seminar by Colorado Featured Brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert of New Belgium Brewing Co. Both of these seminars will be on topics of each brewer’s choice.

And finally, the event you’ve all been waiting for. From 2:30 – 7 is the commercial tasting portion of the festival. With around 150 commercially produced brews, the homebrew competition award ceremony, and a beer and food pairing challenge, this event is definitely something you don’t want to miss. Here are the breweries participating in the event:

Alaskan Allagash Altitude Anchor Brewing Anheuser-Busch Avery BJ’s Bosteels Boston Beer Co. Boulder Boulevard Breckenridge Bristol Bruery Cambridge Caracole Carver Chouffe Corsendonk Delirium De Ranke Des Rocs Deschutes Dogfish Head Dry Dock Dubuisson Dupont Duvel

Eisenbahn Flying Dog Flying Fish Glenwood Canyon Gouden Carolous Grand Lake Grand Teton Great Divide Green Flash He’brew/Schmaltz Hoegaarden Jolly Pumpkin Kapuziner Kasteel Koningshoeven Klumbacher Leffe Left Hand Lindemans Lion Lost Abbey Maredsous Meantime Mendocino Moinette New Belgium Odell Ommegang

Orval Oskar Blues Pagosa Brewing Papago Pinkus Port Brewing Pumphouse Redstone Meadery Rogue Russian River Samichlaus Samuel Smith Sierra Nevada Silverton Ska Slaghmuylder St. Bernardus St. Feuillien Steamworks Stone Thomas Hardy Trinidad Uinta Urthel Val-Dieu Victory Westmalle Wynkoop

I will be the festival all day Saturday, and if work allows, all day Friday as well. I’ll have a full write up here, so if you can’t make it, you can read all about it. It looks like an awesome event, and I’m really excited to check it out. Plus, it’s in Vail. Anyone up for some turns on Sunday?

For more information on the festival, check out their website at bigbeersfestival.com.

Domain Name Ideas?

I’m thinking of moving this blog from being hosted by WordPress.com to it’s own domain. StartingABrewery.com is taken.. Thoughts on a name?

Some ideas:

• BeerAndWebsites.com
• MakerOfBeer.com
• PJMakesBeer.com

etc. Let me know your thoughts!

Breakfast & Brewing #1

The first ever Breakfast & Brewing is planned for this Sunday (12/20).

Around 11am, we’ll have omelets, bacon, coffee, and more, and maybe even some Fraggle Rock or Pinky and the Brain.

Around 12 or so, we’ll kick off the brew. I’m not sure what style we’re going to make yet, but it will be a partial-mash of deliciousness.

If you really want to see a certain style, leave a comment or ping me on Twitter. And make sure you sign up for the newsletter to get these notices ASAP.

Whether you want to be a part of every step of the process, or just hang out with like-minded beer people, this should be a fun day.

If you want to join, reply to this email. I need a head count for bacon purchasing, and I’ll give you directions and whatnot.

See you Sunday!

BrewAdvice.com

My friend Taylor (@tbeseda) and I started a new site called BrewAdvice.com.
BrewAdvice is a knowledge sharing experiment. The focus is definitely on brewing, but questions of all beer-related nature are welcome. For example, I asked about pairing beer with mussels.

Check out the site. Ask questions. Answer questions. Participate.

You can follow the site on Twitter at @brewadvice, where questions are posted every two hours.

Here are some example questions, and the selected answer. Each question can have many answers.

Alternatives for priming sugar

Q: If you happen to be out of priming sugar, but really want to bottle your beer, what are the alternatives? Let’s assume a 5 gallon batch that’s fully fermented – call it 1.010-1.014.

A:

• Corn syrup
• Regular olde sucrose
• Malt extract
• Brown sugar if you’re desperate

See A Primer on Priming and How to Brew.

Pairing with mussels

Q: What’s a good style or specific beer that would pair with mussels?

A:

First off, mussels steamed in beer is FREAKING amazing.

Second off, the perfect pairing for mussels depends on the sauce in which they are prepared.

Mussels in white wine or wit beer sauce — Flavor of mussels is light and delicate and need not be overpowered with extreme beer. This style goes best with a Wit Bier, Hefeweizen or a Saison.

Mussel marinara — Tomato sauce is highly acidic and needs a beer with a higher hop content. I would go with a Pale Ale. If the marinara is spicy, I would go with an IPA.

Mussels in curry sauce — Usually prepared with a cream (coconut) base. The heaviness of the cream and the spice of the curry makes this an excellent pairing with lighter styles — such as a Czech Pilsners — as well as maltier styles — such as a Belgian Dubbel or Dobbelbach.

When in doubt, the saison style is my favorite pair with mussels.

How do you choose a yeast?

Q: What characteristics do you look for in a yeast to pair with your recipe? Is there a common reference?

A:

For me some styles showcase yeast like Belgians, Hefes, some English styles, etc. Others showcase malts or hops and yeast shouldn’t play much of a role. For me I generally stick with some clean ale yeast like 1056 or Pacman for IPA’s, Blondes, etc. And then obviously for something like a hefe I choose 3068.

As I reference, if you car about style guidelines, look at the BJCP style guidelines for whatever your making. They will usually mention what role yeast character should or should not play.

Why are you still here? Go to BrewAdvice.com and play!

Featured Interview with The Wench

One of my best friends, TheBeerWench (Ashley in her former life), is doing a series on beer bloggers, and I was her first victim. Take a look!

http://drinkwiththewench.com/?p=2219

The Wench and I

Movember Party

Summary:

• Party
• Monday, November 30, 2009
• 6-9pm
• $15 – Admission includes food and drink
• Mustache contest
• Proceeds benefit prostate cancer research through the Movember fund
• Awesomeness

Great Divide Brewing Company
2201 Arapahoe Street (map)
Denver, Colorado 80205

If you can’t make it, or even if you can, and you want to support me and my team’s efforts to raise money, you can donate through me at http://us.movember.com/mospace/82274/.

In other news, I have a sweet stache. Show up Monday to see it.

Read more after this cool image:

This post is taken straight from the Great Divide blog.

Ever heard of the month Movember? Yep, Mo not No.

 

“Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues – specifically prostate and testicular cancer.” according to movember.com. As part of a worldwide fundraising effort, Great Divide is proud to host a moustache contest party at the end of the month.

 

Official contest rules state that contestants are to register, then start with a clean shaven face on November 1st and grow out the Mo all month, ending with a friendly competition on the 30th. Well, we realize not everybody may have known about the competition on Nov 01, but you can still compete! Although if you start growing it now, you may not be eligible for the GRAND PRIZE (Man of Movember title with a sash you can wear proudly!), but we’d love to see as many Mos as possible, even if they are only grown out a couple weeks. Heck, even if you don’t want to grow one, show up with a fake and join the party!

 

Ladies, there is a prize up for grabs for you too! Title and sash for Miss Movember, the Mo Sista who has supported and encouraged the Mo Bros. This means you have a true appreciation for the Mo and have recruited the most Mo Bros for the competition. Wrangle up your men and get them to start growing a Mo!

For the party on Monday, Movember 30th, creativity is encouraged. Costumes and other creative efforts are encouraged and DO help your chances of winning. Admission (includes beer and food) is $15 and proceeds benefit the Movember fund, which supports the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Party runs from 6-9 pm.

 

Check out the official Movember website for official rules, details and style guide.

Let’s brew

Too many cooks in the kitchen? Psh. Found this image at Ruthie Cherry Fine Art. Check them out, it's good stuff.

I have an idea.

Ok, I have a lot of ideas. How cool would it be if you could blink and be somewhere else in the world? See? Ideas.

Anyway, I have some ideas based in reality as well.

After some pretty intense discussions with my roommate Jim this weekend, I have an idea that I’m going to do right now. Do you have any idea how awesome it is to have good friends who push back on your ideas? Over good beer? It’s a great thing to have in life.

Right. My idea.

I’m going to make beer.

And you’re invited.

Starting in December, at least one Sunday a month, I’m going to do Breakfast and Brewing. Fancy title, I know.

Here’s the plan. Come over around 11am on a Sunday. We (we being the collective housemates of.. our house) will make breakfast. Bacon, eggs, coffee. There may or may not be awesome cartoon watching – narf! – and there may or may not be bloody mary components available.

Then around noon or 1, we’ll make beer. No matter your level of brewing experience, you can help. I, or someone else with some brewing knowledge will explain things in as little or much detail as you want. If you help, you get to take some beer home with you (a month later).

There are many more details, but that’s the gist of it.

What do you think? Want to come over and help me make some beer?

[edit] If you want to be alerted to these awesome Breakfast and Brew days, or to new posts in general, sign up for the mailing list.