Home Brew Tapping with SmallBar Division St. for Community Park

SmallBar
and Stephen Freshnock present
a HomeBrew Tapping

Thursday, June 3 at 7pm

featuring homebrewed
Coffee Bean Brown Ale made with Star Lounge beans
and
West Coast Double IPA in the spirit of a certain “elder”

A $5 donation is suggested per pint
Proceeds to Benefit Commercial Park

www.freshbrewlog.blogspot.com for more info and behind the scenes with the brewer!

SmallBar Division St
2049 West Division
773-772-2727

----------------

Here is a great opportunity to quaff some home brewed ales and support a great local cause. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Iron Brewer Competition

Looks like I have the opportunity to participate in another unique Home Brew competition. Many of my Home Brewing peers are involved and its always interesting to see what recipes they concoct.


From http://ironbrewer.com

After a hugely successful Simply Beer Brew-off, I’ve decided to spin the brewoff into its own event, IRON BREWER! Similar concept, but like the Iron Man Triathlon which features 3 unique events combined into 1 competition. The concept is simple, there will be 3 unique ingredients and you’ll need to combine them into a a one of a kind, unique, and most importantly delicious homebrew.


Does this interest you? If your a homebrewer, it should. It is a heck of a lot of fun, just ask the folks who did the Simply Beer Brewoff.

Leave a comment below if you want to participate!

The Rules!

The rules are simple but must be followed.

3 required ingredients, All the ingredients must be used in some manor in the brewing process and completed in 8 weeks from the announced start date
6 competitors per round and you must send at least 2 12oz beers to each of the other competitors and to Iron Brewer Organizer (Peter Kennedy of Simply Beer).
Agree to have your recipe published on Iron Brewer.com. Iron Brewer is not taking the rights to your recipe, but sharing it with other homebrewers. All recipes will be published.
Participate in a wrap up Skype podcast with all the other competitors.
The honor system is in place here. This competition is meant to spur creativity, collaboration, and community with other homebrewers.
The Winner!

If there are rules and a competition, there must be a winner. The winner will be determined by the participants in the round and Peter Kennedy. The winner will be the one who made the best use of ingredients to create the best tasting beer. As of now there is only bragging rights for the winner, but I’m working on a small prize package for the winner.

Pliny The Elder Part Two

By special request I am attempting the Pliny Clone once more. I have retooled the recipe to reflect my current mash efficiency and the knowledge I have around hop utilization. This one should be drier and have a touch more bitterness than my first attempt.


You can see the first recipe here.. PLINY!!


The following recipe is set at 85% efficiency, my set up is a beast at small amounts of grain. There is also 1lb 10oz of dextrous in this ale. Which is going to dry out the ale and drive up the ABV to 8%. 115 grams of Columbus at 14.2% Alpha Acid bring the bitterness, 30g + 71g of Simcoe bring the flavor & aroma. I allow for a gallon of hop debris and trub to be sure to collect 5.5 gallon of clean ale.

OG 1.070

PG 1.049

FG 1.011

EFF: 85%

ABV: 7.9%

SRM: 5.3

Mash at 151F for 60 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes. A healthy starter of Wyeast 1056 or US 55 dry yeast.

11 lb 4 oz 2 Row

8 oz Caramel 40

8 oz Carapils

1lb 10 oz Dextrous (corn sugar)

115 g Columbus 90 min

23 g Columbus 45 min

28 g Simcoe 30 min

71 g Simcoe Flame Out

28 g Centennial Flame Out

Dry Hop 1

28 G each of Columbus, Simcoe and Centennial

Dry Hop 2

7g each of Columbus, Simcoe and Centennial

Watch this space..

Thank god winter is over.. lots of brewing has already begun and will be posting pics and recipes shortly..

#XBREW A Cross Country Brew & Swap. Podcasts.

Chicago winter has finally hit and put a damper on how much I can get out and brew. As soon as it stops precipitating I will be firing up WTF Saison and possibly an Sticke. In the mean time I was invited to be part of a cool project. Several Home Brewing Twitter junkies were invited to brew a chosen style on the same day, add local flare to it and then swap with everyone involved in the project. You can read more about it at http://homebrewcallab.wordpress.com/. I will be cross posting from that blog but feel free to check it out the other participants beer at that link.

One of my beers will be featured on an upcoming episode of the BGP (Beer Genome Project). Done by a few friend's I have met through the awesome internet home brew community. Check it out at http://beergeno.me/. I will post more info when that episode is out. Finally I had a chance to help out Ken and Brad with the Three Floyd's Beer Dinner episode of Hopcast. You can check them out here, http://www.hop-cast.com/.

Single Hop APA and WTF Saison

I am in love with the happy accident which was My last Saison. The Wyeast Saison yeast gave out at about 1.022 and it remained in Primary for almost 6 months. While in primary it picked up a pleasant sour character, that despite many veteran brewer's warnings, has only got better with age. While I know this can not be duplicated, I still have a thirst to brew Saisons as they are fast becoming one of my favorite styles. There is a lot of freedom one can take with a Saison, while it might not meet BJCP standards, they are all unique and delicious.

This particular Saison is a play on the previous recipe. I have cut back the amount of Rye, subbing Grains Of Paradise for a more subtle spiciness. Going to keep the early additions Hallertau but the late additions are going to be some peachy citrusy Amarillo hops. I want to avoid the long wait to get this one to finish out. So I am going to start with the Wyeast Saison, after three days I am going to hit it with Wyeast Trappist High Gravity to dry it out. Thinking of setting aside some unfermented wort and aerating it heavily. Creating a super started for the finishing yeast. Anyone with yeast mixing experience, please chime in!

Today I am brewing a simple single hop APA with Simcoe. I really love this hop and want to get a good grasp on its profile. I want to give a shout out to the folks at Brew And Grow for helping me with a Carpils sub today but also for letting me know you read the blog, THANKS!! You should always support your local home brew shop.

Boulevard To Collaborate With International Brewer - Brewmasters will partner on new Smokestack Series offering

My favorite home town brewery announced it's first collaboration and in Boulevard style it's unique and innovative. Taken from the press release.


"KANSAS CITY, Mo., October 9, 2009 – Boulevard Brewing Company today announced that Jean-Marie Rock, brewmaster at Orval, the renowned Trappist brewery located in southern Belgium, will team up with Boulevard brewmaster Steven Pauwels to create a small production, limited release beer. The joint effort, a first for the Midwestern craft brewery, will take place during Rock’s late October visit to Boulevard’s Kansas City facility. The brewers, both native Belgians, will produce an Imperial Pilsner similar to a lager brewed by Rock at the start of his career. It will, according to Pauwels, be a tribute to Pilsner beers; full flavored and refreshing, brewed with 100% Pilsner malt and 100% Saaz hops, using time-honored techniques.


“The beer will be made in a very traditional way,” said Rock. “The methods by which it will be brewed, fermented, and lagered are no longer employed, though they made this beer fantastic. It is time to get a beer like this back in a glass.” For his part, Pauwels is thrilled by the chance to work with his notable colleague. “In this, Boulevard’s first collaborative effort, we are pleased to honor a brewer who has had such an enormous influence on me and on so many other craft brewers. Jean-Marie mastered dry hopping and brewing with wild yeast long before craft brewers began experimenting with the techniques here in the U.S.”


The beer, to be packaged in 750ml bottles as part of Boulevard’s Smokestack Series, is expected to be available in January, and will be distributed through Boulevard’s wholesaler network. "