OBF 2008 Follow up

Sad I didn't get to meet the brewcasters from The BN - just wasn't in the cards, I guess... Maybe next time :)

Note - I will NEVER try to go (for fun) to the OBF on a Friday or Saturday again.. EVER. That was just retarded, the number of people they allowed into that tiny little space. They either need to expand the area for the fest, or start capping the number of people they let in by doing flights. There was no way we could have gotten to any of the taps at 5pm, the lines were 200 deep at each tap. You couldn't even see what you were waiting in line for, and in fact it could have easily ran out before you got to the front of the line. It was like watching cows charging the trough at feeding time.

Nope, not this kid. We turned in our GC for tokens and bailed after dropping off the O2 stone with Jeremie at the OBC booth.

The plan for next year?

Tuesday - Fred's beer & cheese tasting
Wednesday - Brewers Dinner
Thursday - Taking day off, going to parade and opening ceremonies for OBF. Perhaps volunteering for a shift in the morning, and drinking in the afternoon
Friday - Taking day off, golfing in the Brew-AM
Saturday - Ninkasi Breakfast
Sunday - HUB Hangover Breakfast
Monday - Liver Transplant

Ninkasi Brewers Breakfast, OBF 2008

Saturday Morning found us at the Ninkasi Brewer's Breakfast, at Kell's in Downtown Portland. This turned out to be a really great time! The breakfast consisted of Eggs, Home Fries, Biscuits & Gravy, Bacon, and Sausage, along with Tricerahops IPA and Oatis Oatmeal Stout.

We had a few minutes to talk with Jamie and Nikos from Ninkasi, and this is a pair of really stand up guys. Cards were exchanged, and I'll be speaking with them in the future about some club work.

Meet the Brewer @ The Green Dragon - Lagunitas

Went to the 2008 OBF Thursday edition of Meet the Brewer @ Green Dragon, and was treated to a great conversation with Tony Magee about his beers, Zappa labels, and his appreciation of our favorite bubbly beverage. He had apparently played guitar & sang earlier in the evening, but I missed that part. Seems like a pretty cool cat, though. Jeremie had a pretty good conversation with him about Kill Ugly Radio.

Lagunitas brought Pils, Pale Ale, Gnarlywine, and a Double Pale called Sirius to the table, and they were all great.

Met up with Jeremie & Jenn, and a great time was had by all!

The more I immerse myself in the local beer culture, the more I can see myself working in it. Maybe it's time I thought about getting a little more imbedded in the scene...

Hopworks Urban Brewery, Homebrew Demo Follow-up

This was great! We both had a great time, and Ben made sure we were all taken care of. If they do this again and no one from the club volunteers, I am all over this!

As soon as we have a release date on the beers, I'll post it here!

Meet the Brewer @ The Green Dragon - Roots

Jeremie and I quickly bottled our Belgian Rye Bock this evening using a CP bottle filler, then ran off to meet Jenn @ The Green Dragon. The guys at Roots had a pretty impressive selection to sample, and they were all pretty rare. I particularly enjoyed the 2006 Epic Ale, Mother Pucker, and their Flanders Red.

Also Ran into Corey Blodgett from CP Roadhouse and Ben from Hopworks. Had a discussion about the yeast we're going to use on the Saison we brew at the Homebrew Demo this Sunday. Said a quick hello to Jim Parker, and had to turn in early because of work the next day. Good Times!

Looks to be fun...

So, this Sunday at Hopworks Urban Brewery, Bree and I will be participating in a homebrewing demo.

The beer we make will be fermented at the brewery and placed on tap at a later date, which is mildly intimidating but nevertheless very interesting, since we'll have our homebrew on tap in a brewery :D

In any case, Bill from OBC and Mark from Plato's Republic will also be there on their respective systems doing the same thing, so we won't be alone in this.

We've decided we're going to do 10 Gallons of Saison. I've never made a Saison before, but the head brewer at Hopworks seems pretty excited that we're doing one, so I hope we do not disappoint.

If you're in the area, feel free to drop in! It starts around 12pm

Iron Brewer II Follow Up

Here's a few photos from the 2nd annual Iron Brewer challenge:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26448971@N07/sets/72157605519073906/

The basic premise for IBC is just like Iron Chef - everyone is given the exact same base ingredients, and a secret ingredient is revealed before you start. Once the ingredient was revealed, you had 30 minutes to declare a style and begin brewing.

We were given the following common ingredients:

Grain
5.5# Maris Otter
5.5# Pilsner
5.5# Wheat
2# Munich
2# Amber (Biscuit)
2# Crystal 60
1# Carafa II Special
.5# Roasted Barley
.5# Aromatic
.25# Scottish Peat
.5# Rice Hulls

Hops
1.5oz Glacier (whole)
1.5oz Magnum (pellet)
1.75oz Amarillo (pellet)

Yeast
WLP001 California Ale Yeast

The special ingredients were:
Oak Spirals
Wine (Pinot Noir or Unoaked Chardonnay)

After making a few trades, I ended up with a few extra ingredients and decided to declare American Stout as my style. My recipe was:

Batch Size: 4 gallons
10# Maris Otter
4# Pilsner
1# Munich
.5# Biscuit
.5# Crystal 60
1# Carafa II
.5# Roasted Barley
.25# Aromatic
.5# Rice Hulls
1.5oz Magnum
1.5oz Glacier
WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Mashed @ 153 deg for 60 minutes, Boiled for 90 minutes, 1.5oz Magnum @ 90 minutes, .75oz Glacier @ 30 minutes, .5oz Glacier @ 15 minutes, .25oz Glacier @ 0 minutes.

Now, I should have declared Imperial, as I ended up with a starting gravity of 22.8 Brix on the Refractometer, which calculates to 1.091 SG. Or I should have just made 5 gallons. AH well, it'll be tasty!

For the special ingredients, I plan to saw off about 1/3rd of each oak spiral (medium toast American and medium plus French oak) and use those in the secondary for about 1 week before bottling. For the wine, I'm going to boil the priming sugar in it, which will hopefully cook off the alcohol but leave the flavor intact.

Well, that's it for now. It was a great time and I look forward to hopefully winning the comp when beers are judged in August ;)