Packing for and reminiscing aboutBelguim Comes to Cooperstown

Friday my father and I will be hitting the road for Belgium Comes to Cooperstown at Ommegang Brewery. I still haven't packed a thing. We're camping so I have to make sure I bring the right stuff. What's first on the list? Homebrew of course. Just can't decide which keg. I guess I can think about that while I'm getting the other stuff ready. I am bringing other stuff.

A well deserved long weekend starts tonight. See you back here soon. Until then I thought I'd leave you with some stuff back in 2006 that I was reminiscing about.

• Wrap up of BCTC 2006
  
• BCTC 2007 slideshow Takes a minute to load, but, it's worth the wait.
  
• The 2007 recap
  

:-)

Tourist view on Thomas Jefferson's Monticello & Beer

"I am lately become a brewer for family use, having had the benefit of instruction to one of my people by an English brewer of the first order." Jefferson to Joseph Coppinger, April 25, 1815

Our visit to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate revealed a beer related exhibit.

While walking through the North (I believe) allweather passageway we came across a restored beer cellar.


(above photostitched images)

Interestingly enough wheat and corn substituted for barley as he did not grow barley. Also, I should note that there were probably hops growing in the garden, but, I didn't see them nor did I think to ask. I suppose the father in me suppressed the beer guy for once. Ghah!











You can read more on the subject in the article, Beer - Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. In this article it is noted that Jefferson referred to a book by Michael Combrune, The Theory and Practice of Brewing. (link to the text at The Internet Archive)

Toby Jug or what I learned on my trip to DC

Can you guess what my kids did when I found a collection of Toby Jugs in the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum?

Well they didn't really say anything more than, "Daaad". Then rolled their eyes and moved on.

Beer is everywhere :-) I hadn't heard of a Toby Jug until that moment. I guess I didn't know everything after all.

Back to the Brickskeller in the rain...

Brooklyn Cuvee de Cardoz, De Dolle Oerbier and that's all she wrote.
Last time I was here I was into McEwan's Scotch Ale. Things change.
Sat at the bar upstairs and forgot the bottles come up via dumb
waiter. NIN on the juke followed by Johnny Cash.

Earlier we had dinner at Gordon Biersch (sp?). Wonderful beer and
food with the family.

Posting this via the phone so pardon my spelling and terseness.

Adam

--
Sent from my mobile device

Blue Mountain Brewery captures my dream :-)

I'll throw these pictures up here so you can see what the place looks like. Not sure I have time to write a full review right now.

About twenty minutes from Charlottesville, VA you'll find orchards, wineries, beautiful rolling hills and a view of the blue ridge mountains that just doesn't quit.

Among the foothills Blue Mountain Brewery sits next to the hopyard and farm house.


I'm pretty sure they're thinking. "Why does he always take pictures at beer places? This isn't normal." :-)












There are about two hundred hops plants growing adjacent to the brewery. Pretty cool.

The food and beer were good as well at the service. I purchased a six pack and a 750 ml to go. I'll give you my thoughts on those later.

I'm a little disappointed that I live so far away :-|

Have you all seen this homage?

Thanks to Bryan at TBL for passing this on. I like it :-)

Darrell the Barreler, I like it :-)

Now I'll have to try it. Brewvanna tells us about Darrell.

The General Lafayette Inn & Brewery needs you.

The General Lafayette Inn & Brewery is a wonderful place to visit. I don't get there often enough. Stop over at The Brew Lounge and/or Jack Curtin's website for more info about their financial situation. It doesn't look good.

dark momemts

rain pounding on the bricks out front with a splatter
distant booms
animals lying close
wet air washes by
funky sour malt flavor in the glass

ringing guitar
steady drum
thoughts of the dark
vocals bringing me closer to the night
reaching out into oblivion

I'm looking forward to Ommegang BCTC

Important information...or not you decide. (odds and ends)

What's happening?

• I'm going to Begium to Comes to Cooperstown 2009. Picked up some VIP tickets last minute!
• The two coil immersion chiller seems to work pretty well for summertime brewing. One coil in icewater, one coil in the wort, run tap water through cold side first. Less water used, but, had to buy bags of ice and required more equipment. I like that it used less water. By the way I try to reuse as much water as possible. Right now we use it for watering our plants :-)
• Pickup tube in the 16 gal kettle worked OK. I added this so I can grab as much wort from the bottom of the kettle as possible without using a separate siphon. Flexilbe copper tubing was used with a stainless steel scrubber on the end as a screen. I realized I need to clamp the scrubber onto the tube somehow. Nice to empty the kettle by just opening the valve.
• Hops at Gavin's are doing well. Some Japanese Beetles are appearing and eating leaves. Something he'll have to monitor.
• Bought a Brew Hauler for lugging around those carboys. Work very nicely. I would recommend it.

TODO

• Don't even ask about the brew basement.
• Three tier system is next up. Need to start brewing all grain.
• The three tier system will also serve another purpose. I'm interested in creating a brewing station that I can wheel out of my garage. Tired of all the bits and pieces scattered all over the place.
• Hops drying racks.
• Waiting to see how many hops we'll have at Gavin's.

Never a truer work spoken about you! ;-) Yes, you.

Some fun for a Friday. Sent to me by Josh, that bastard. Lovely little piece on people like you (the beer bits 2 reader). An excerpt...

"The Beer Geek
The beer world equivalent of a Trekkie, this fan is forever making pilgrimages to far flung festivals and conventions, will belong to any number of beer associations (and wears the T-shirts to prove it) and has never had sex with a woman where there wasn’t money involved. Beards are common and they have a powerful fetish for steins. " Read the full article.

Not me of course, I'm just one of those normal beer bloggers on whom family members employ their active listening skills. "Uhuh, really, uhuh, of course...not to be rude, but, can we talk about something other than beer?" ;-)

Carbon Dioxide is significant in brewing.

Sure its in those little bubbles that tickle your nose. Sure it helps spread the flavor of the beer around your mouth making those big heavy beers foam like fizzy pop rock candy. Of course it carries aromas to your nose enhancing the flavor perception of beer. You might even enjoy the burping, but, carbon dioxide is so much more than that.

Carbon dioxide is the protector of beer, especially its flavor. That's right CO2 plays a large role in keeping your beer fresh from the moment fermentation starts to the moment it is dispensed from a keg or bottle. Some things to think about...

• Why does a keg of beer go bad when you use a picnic tap to pump air into it?
• Why put airlocks on our fermenters?
• Why evacuate the air from a bottle or keg before packaging?
• What does oxygen do to a finished beer?

What would beer be like if we didn't have CO2? It wouldn't retain its fresh flavor for very long. Here's why. Beer and oxygen don't get along very well. When beer comes into contact with air the oxygen changes the flavor of the beer. CO2 can help protect your beer from air.

CO2 and beer are inseparable. Any time brewer's yeast is involved, CO2 follows. When fermentation starts and CO2 is produced it is released into the atmosphere. Where does it go? That largely depends on where it can go. Imagine a dinner plate full of beer fermenting. I know it seems kinda silly, but, bear with me. CO2 is heavier than air so think of it running off of the plate of fermenting beer. Now, let's consider one other item that helps CO2 do its job, a vessel such as a cup, bowl, fermenter, bottle, anything that can hold the fermenting beer. Now imagine the fermenting beer filling three quarters of the vessel. What occupies the remaining headspace during active fermentation. CO2 of course. It is that headspace filled with CO2 which preserves the beer even in the early stages of fermentation. Comparing the plate full of beer and a deeper vessel we see that the deeper vessels have an advantage. They have a place to hold a blanket of CO2 over the beer.

Once fermentation is complete and the beer is finished we proceed through all other activities such as racking, bottling and kegging risking oxidation at every turn. This is why we should do our best to eliminate air from our packaging process. I presume bottle conditioning helps this by creating a closed environment for fermentation where the oxygen is used by the yeast.

I'm rambling a bit here so let's wrap it up. Yeast eats the sugars. Carbon dioxide is released into the beer. CO2 floats to the top of the fermenting beer and lays on top of the beer filling the vessel's headspace and displacing the air. This blanket of carbon dioxide protects the beer. Beer fermented without this CO2 blanket wouldn't taste the same. It makes you wonder how important earthen vessels were to the earliest brewers.

So, is Carbon Dioxide the most important thing about brewing?

Note: Edited for clarity and readability 7/10/09. I'm sure I'll be yet again.

"Are you a homebrewer? Do you have a dream?"

"Are you a homebrewer? Do you have a dream?" That's Bryan's post title which leads us to an MP3 over at Basic Brewing. In that MP3 you'll find a recording of Ken Grossman's keynote for the National Hombrewers Conference. I gave it a listen and found it inspiring. Any story I hear about how somebody stepped up to the challenge, stalled and somehow kept it going really resonates. Check it out.

July 2009 Fermentation Friday at Pfiff! : Homebrewed doppelgangers

Real quick, Rob's on for this month :-) Here's the announcement.

I'll get the schedule updated soon thanks to all volunteers. We could still use more.

Carbon Dioxide is the most important part of brewing, but why?

Ok, maybe it isn't the most important thing, but, I think it is just as important as barley, hops, water and yeast. Do you?

barley is grown, harvested and dried
hop flowers are grown, harvested and dried
barley is malted and cracked
hot water extracts fermentables
boiling begins
runnings are made into wort
hops added here and there
wort cooled
transferred to a fermenter
yeast pitched
yeast takes up residence in the wort
carbon dioxide created along with other things

What function does the carbon dioxide serve in the fermentation vessel?

Edit: To read my attempt at answering this read this.

How important is carbon dioxide to brewing?

I think its the most important thing about brewing, but, I'm curious about what you think. Why is carbon dioxide so important?

Edit: Read my attempt at an answer.

Brewing with Honey...

Today Brew Dudes posted some interesting reading about brewing with honey. The simple vs. complex sugars thing never occured to me. Hmmm...

I do have pics of 18 foot hops :-)

Wow! Rain & sun, rain & sun...really gets these puppies growing.

1, 2, 3, Hop bines over 18 feet tall
4. And we have burrs!

Edit: Not spurs, but, burrs...heheh.