Thursday, August 16, 2012

Featured in an AP news story!

Well, this is just awesome.  About a month ago, Michael Hill from the AP contacted me after reading this blog and asked to feature me in a story about finer beers at weddings.  Well, that article posted today, and the links are pouring in!




 Very cool!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Mission accomplished!!

Wedding went flawlessly. All beers came out perfect, had great carbonation and tasted as expected. The IPA and the kolsch were the favorites by far, but the wit had a strong following too. The pale ale was the least drank with only 5 gallons accounted for as drank. 10 remaining are being sent to a friends housewarming party. The only equipment failure encountered was a broken o ring on one keg, and was fixed by other brewers without finding me. The supplication 3 liter sat on the wedding part table but once we poured ours, we invited people up to have some. Went through all t 2 inches of it, which we sampled the morning after but it was too flat to enjoy then. Opened really foaming on pours but no massive spill or bottle bomb.

The wedding bourbon porters were almost all given out except 1-2 bottles and a growler for our anniversary.

All in all a complete success. But obviously the beer is only part of things. We had a great wedding, all vendors did as expected, all friends and family were accounted for and got there and home without issue... The scariest parts of the weekend were getting the bug there (bad fuel pump was stalling) and towed back home and the truck loaded up with 1000 lbs of food beer, kegs, and open container violations back to the house. Exhausted we got it all back and thanks to an amazing bridesmaid, everything was put back and our bags were packed for us for the trip so we could sleep.

On a flight from Austin to Chicago now. Next stop is Brussels.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Two days before the wedding!

Did a lot of work this week and weekend getting things ready. One of the most important, of course was testing the beer out. The first three things on tap were the Haus Pale, the Kolsch and the Wit. Got the kegerator plumbed for all three gas and liquid sides and found what I will be using for labeling my beers. I still need to make that third tap handle soon!

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For the porter, I decided to give those as gifts because they likely need more time aging. However, I do have a 6 month old growler of the same recipe that I am going to bring along for the select few that appreciate a good porter.

So that was bottled, and wax topped, and are awaiting the wedding labels that I will likely get done today or tomorrow.

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Monday, April 18, 2011

Not brewing related... the toast beer is here!

Whew!   With 12 days to go - I got this in the mail today!

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To put it in perspective - those are 5000ml and 2000ml beakers behind it.  This will be the wedding toast beer - it's not available anywhere near Texas.  Especially not in a 3L format.  Either way, the wedding party has no idea how lucky they are that the bride and groom have insane beer tastes. 

Getting excited now!  Almost everything planning wise is done.

Remaining work (short list)
  1. Clean and box all the pints
  2. Label and wax top the Porter - I decided I would gift these and keep a growler for our 1 year anniversary.
  3. Clean fridges and kegerator to a presentable shine
  4. Complete kegerator gas sides - simple once I take apart my charging snake!
Phew.  Wish us luck!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

8 kegs wasn't quite enough

Upgraded the force carbing rig to add the additional 10g of IPA that finished dry hopping last night!

Only 5g left to be prepped - the Vanilla Bourbon Porter - easily the most complex of the beers we made.   I feel like this has been a massive task and it's finally winding down.

All that is left is that 5g, then figuring out the logistics of cooling and serving.

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Completed most of the kegging this past weekend

We finally kegged all but 15 gallons of the beer we made.

Each carboy is 5 gallons, and we kegged two kolsch, three pale ales, and three honey hibiscus wits.  The IPA is dry hopping now, and the Vanilla Bourbon Porter is aging in vanilla with bourbon.

Getting ready and set up
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About half done
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One more keg to be done!
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Yeast washed for more beer later!
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Our force carb rig for 8 kegs.  Pretty neat.
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8 kegs sitting at 30 psi
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Friday, April 1, 2011

Dry hopping and racking!

Earlier this week, I dry hopped the 10g of IPA with 2 ounces of Yakima Golding whole hops, 1 ounce of Yakima pellets, and .5 of Amarillo Gold.

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Looked and tasted great, and was a perfect 1.005 for a 6.5% ABV

Tomorrow is kegging day for 40 gallons of beer (8 kegs!)

15g Pale Ale
15g of Honey Hibiscus Wit
10g Kolsch

The IPA will get kegged next weekend.   I still need to add Vanilla/Bourbon to the porter, and then oak age it at least two weeks.  Due to time, I actually might skip the oaking to ensure carbonation.  The VBP is getting bottled since it is pretty heavy for on tap.