Hello from PA

[MGamber]

I'm Mark in Lancaster, PA and I've been an avid reader for a couple years but only recently posted my first message concerning Bissell Brother's "Swish". I've been brewing almost every Saturday for 2 1/2 years, more or less, and always brew IPAs since my wife loves them and will never complain about the cost (I love IPA myself). About 18 months ago I took a tour of Allagash and ended up talking with a brewer who told me how Allagash did things and then went into how he did things as a homebrewer at length. Armed with that information, I seriously stepped up my brewing game...closed system, everything done in kegs, oxygenation, fermentation chamber, yeast starters...etc. After a while I ran some growlers of my take on Swish around to various people including a pro brewer who said I should consider entering it into a local competition. I was nervous about it but I did and lo and behold, I actually won out about 197 entries! So now I have two ribbons, I can brew a clone of the best IPA I've ever had any time I want and a local brewpub, Mad Chef Craft Brewing, has 220 gallons of my beer fermenting as I write this! What an awesome hobby!

I would like to thank the kind people on this site, Allagash, Mad Chef Craft Brewing, Bissell Brothers, Lancaster Homebrew and various friends who have provided countless invaluable information over the past 2 1/2 years. Cheers!

 

[tieflyer]

Congrats on those ribbions and the beer. Mark at Lancaster Homebrew is a great guy and always willing to help out. Keep up the great work. Post some of your recipes here so the rest of us can try your award winning beer(s)!

 

[jpb2716]

Congratulations!

 

[MGamber]

Congrats on those ribbions and the beer. Mark at Lancaster Homebrew is a great guy and always willing to help out. Keep up the great work. Post some of your recipes here so the rest of us can try your award winning beer(s)!

Mark and Greg are both pretty awesome. Greg is the MacGyver of the place. I walked in there one day with two halves of a spunding valve and he managed to find something to connect them. The recipe for Gambler IPA (Swish) is at https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/418464/gambler-swish-

That's right, 18 1/4 ounces of hops for a 5 gallon batch. It's not a cheap beer but it sure is good and still way cheaper than the real thing and doesn't require the 1000 mile drive.

 

[JohnSand]

Congratulations and welcome aboard.

 

[MaxStout]

Looks like you're way ahead of the game here...congratulations! And welcome to HBT!

 

[MGamber]

Thanks guys! And you bet if a little is good, more is better!

 

[JensenLewis]

In Lancaster myself, Mount Joy to be exact. Have yet to make my way to Mad Chef but I think I may have found my reason! Congrats man that’s awesome!

 

[MGamber]

In Lancaster myself, Mount Joy to be exact. Have yet to make my way to Mad Chef but I think I may have found my reason! Congrats man that’s awesome!

I love Mad Chef. Excellent food, excellent beer, great atmosphere...it reminds me a lot of the places I visit in Portland, ME except it's two miles away. The brewers and the Mad Chef himself are all great guys, I had an absolute blast brewing there. The release date should be about two weeks from today so stay tuned for Mad Gambler IPA.

Yes, that's a play on my name but an unintentional one. A neighbor got me a tap handle for Christmas but the guy screwed it up. She was all upset but I said screw it, I'll just rename the beer I do most often (Plush) to "Gambler". I figured I'd call this batch "Mad Gambler" so it was something I wouldn't forget and...well, it's a new check in on Untappd.