Monday, March 14, 2011

We're Back!

We brewed this past Saturday for the first time since early last year. The occasion for the resurrection of the Beer Brothers? My brother's wedding in May. The idea is to brew something close to Surly Furious, an awesome IPA with a copper hue, huge grapefruit hop flavor and strong malty backbone, and one of the bride and groom's favorites. This was the test batch for the brew I'm planning on bringing to the event, since I want to assure that the flavor is dialed-in enough for Dustin and Bethany's big day. I found the recipe on the Northern Brewer message boards. So, after cleaning up all our lonely, forgotten equipment, Ron and I got started firing up the kettle.



Here's the recipe we used for a single mash infusion (5 gallons):

9.75 lbs 2-Row Pale Malt
1.5 lbs Caramunich I
0.25 lbs Caramel 60
0.5 oz Warrior hops (boil)
0.5 oz Magnum hops (boil)
1.6 oz Amarillo hops (boil)
1.6 oz Simcoe hops (boil)
1 oz Amarillo (dry hop)
2 oz Simcoe (dry hop)
Wyeast 1335 British Ale II

Optimally, we would have used Golden Promise and Crystal 55, which are closer to what Surly reportedly uses for the brew, but we were unable to score any at our local homebrew source. Depending on the results of this test batch, we may have to order some off the interwebs to make it more authentic.

After consulting my trusty copy of Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy Of Homebrewing to get a crash course refresher in the all-grain process (it's been awhile, and we had trouble remembering all the steps), we broke out the old DIY mash tun for sparging the grains.

The heavy amount of hops made this the hoppiest beer we've brewed to date, as well as the first attempt at an IPA. All whole leaf Amarillo hops made for a difficult straining exercise when we were transferring the wort to the carboy.

And here's the result of the day's work. After a week and a half's worth of dry hopping, we'll probably rack to the secondary or throw this guy into glass for a little bottle conditioning. Right now, it's bubbling away happily and filling the room with the sweet smell of hops.




Thursday, May 13, 2010

This Week In Beer - 5/10

Lots of new stuff available since the last post; summer brews are out in force. Here's the rundown:

New Releases:

* Terrapin Monk's Revenge
Originally released in the side project series, this Belgian-style IPA debuts in 4pks in the Monster Series.

* Newcastle Summer Ale
New seasonal beer, supposedly light & hoppy.



Summer Beers:

* Abita Strawberry Lager
* Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy
* Flying Dog Woody Creek White

* Clipper City Red Sky At Night

* Thomas Creek Vanilla Cream Ale

* Kona Wailua Wh
eat





Returning to the Area:

* Anchor Steam

* Anch
or Porter
* Anchor Liberty

* RJ Rockers Buckwheat Ale






Limited Release Beers:

* Stone Imperial Russian Stout
* Unibroue La Terrible

* Weyerbacher Old Heathen Stout
* Weyerbacher Merry Monks Ale
* New Belgium Lips Of Faith: Belgian Style Blonde

* Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot
* Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale

* Rogue Somer Orange Honey Ale


New to the Area:

* Pike IPA
* Pike Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale

* Pike XXXXX Stout

* Pike Double Tandem Ale

* Pike Monk's Uncle Triple

* Pike Pale Heirloom Amber

* Caracole Nostradamus
* Brasserie des Rocs Triple Imperiale

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Growler Update.

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Here's what can be found in town this week:

Total Wine:

Terrapin Hopsecutioner
Sweetwater IPA
RJ Rockers Son Of A Peach
Kona Pipeline Porter
Thomas Creek Red Ale
Stella Artois

Green's:

Stoudt's Karnival Kolsch
Terrapin Rye Squared
COAST ALTerior Motive
Smuttynose IPA

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Week in Beer - Week of 4/19


Lots of new stuff already this week, including the return of St. Bernardus; let's dig in...

Total Wine
* Avery Maharaja DIPA - great aggressive Double IPA
* Victory Whirlwind Wit - summer seasonal
* Southern Tier Hop Sun - summer seasonal in 6pks
* Terrapin Side Project #1o - Captain Krunkles Black IPA
* St. Bernardus Tripel - back after a year out of the state
* Brasserie Caracole Nostradamus - Belgian Strong Dark Ale
* Widmer Prickly Pear Braggot
* Redhook 8-4-1 Expedition - Oak Aged Imperial Brown Ale
* New Belgium Lips Of Faith Belgian Style Blonde
* Rochefort 10 - back in stock
* Rogue John John Ale - Dead Guy oaked in Rogue whisky barrels

Green's
* Caldera IPA (new from Oregon - in cans!)
* Great Divide Espresso Aged Yeti - Oaked & Coffee-d imperial stout
* Hoppin' Frog Barrel-Aged B.O.R.I.S. imperial stout
* Ommegang BPA - Belgian Style Pale Ale
* St. Bernardus Triple / Prior 8 / ABT 12

Monday, April 12, 2010

Germany - Beer Diary

Just got back from a week-long vacation in Munich, the biergarten capital of the world, and it didn't dissapoint. From huge liter mugs of helles lager to cans of the beer abortion known as the Radler, this city had it all. Here's an encapsulation of the beer side of the trip, in pictures...

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Fresh off the airplane, Dustin & I spied and made our way back to the beer section of a little grocery-type store in the Munich airport. Behold...Duff Beer!

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This tasty looking little gem is Desperados, some sort of tequila flavored beer. I'm assuming it is like that Tequiza crap, but I didn't have the cojones to try one.

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Ah, there it is...the radler. Named for the german word for a bicyclist, this concoction is the marriage of lager bier and lemon lime soda. Supposedly this was first developed for bikers who wanted to enjoy several beers and still be able to ride home without plowing into a tree. They can be found everywhere. And they sorta taste horrible.

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Here's me enjoying a Tucher Dunkle Weiss in the hamlet of Augsburg. This is an old town where my dad was stationed while in the army. It was a fun little place. This picture was taken in the square in the middle of town, where we enjoyed people watching. There's a funny video of some crazy drunk guy dancing to his Walkman that I took from this spot, but that'll probably end up on youtube some other time.

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Schneider Aventinus. One of my favorite beers. Enjoyed this guy fresh at the Weisses Brauhaus, the only beer house to serve Schneider brews in Munich (that we found). This place was one of our favorites, as they had a larger beer selection, as well as the Schneider / Brooklyn collaboration beer "Hopfen Weiss". Delicious and the only way we found to get our hop-fixes in town.

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The Pagoda at the Chinesischer Turm. Awesome bier garden in the English Garden.

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The fellas enjoying Hofbrau brews at the Chinesischer Turm.

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This was at the Augustiner Grossgaststatte, a cool traditional beer house near the middle of Munich.

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This is the beer we drank.

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A really big beer barrel at the Augustiner Brau Salzburg. We didn't make it inside the place, but we did enjoy posing with the barrel.

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Dustin & I near the entrance to the Hofbrauhaus. Nice place. Touristy, but not a bad place to have a beer or four.

The Paulaner Brewery.

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Sign to the brewery.

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Door to the brewhouse.

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Brett & I inside the brewhouse. Notice the sweet vests they made us wear on the tour. Not quite sure how necessary they were, but we sure did look cool.

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The control panel inside the brewhouse.

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Old carved barrels.

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Kegs. Many, many kegs.

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Metal kegs that look like wooden kegs. They were super awesome. We totally need some of those for homebrew.

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Outside the gates of the brewery.

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After the tour, they treated us to lunch & a beer. The food was a bit strange looking, but surprisingly tasty.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Growlers...

For those who like to pick up their beer in large glass jugs, here's what's out & available in Greenville this week:

Total Wine -
* Kona Pipeline Porter - (brewed with 100% Kona Coffee)
* Terrapin Hopsecutioner - (new IPA from the Athens, GA brewery)
* Yuengling Bock - (spring seasonal)
* RJ Rockers Star Spangled Stout - (draught-only release from the Spartanburg brewery)
* Stella Artois

Green's -
* RJ Rockers Star Spangled Stout - (they've got it too)
* Bell's Oarsman - (berliner weisse styled brew from the Michigan brewery)
* COAST Harold Stout - (one of the newest offerings from the Charleston brewery)
* COAST Boy King DIPA - (tasty & highly-rated limited brew from COAST)

Friday, April 2, 2010

This Week In Beer - 3/29

Here's some of the new stuff that rolled out to the masses this week...

* Sierra Nevada Fritz & Ken's 30th Anniversary Ale (Imp. Stout)
* RJ Rockers Fish Paralyzer (Belgian-style Pale Ale)
* RJ Rockers Black Perle (Black IPA)
* Great Divide Samurai (Rice Ale)
* Southern Tier Backburner (Barleywine)
* Southern Tier Oak Aged Unearthly (Imp. IPA)
* Southern Tier Jahva (Blue Mountain Coffee Infused Imp. Stout)
* Bell's Oberon (Summer Wheat Ale)
* Shiner 101 Pilsner (Brewery's 101st Anniversary Ale)
* Shiner Black Lager (Schwarzbier)
*Highland Seven Sisters Abbey Ale (Spring Seasonal - Belgian Style w/ Trappist Yeast)