Albany Area Brewers

[BrewMan13]

Here's the official link: http://thoroughbrews.org/kbotb1/
I'll be submitting 2 brews, only the second competition ever for me. Also, just joined ABC less than a month ago, wish I had done it sooner.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I am going to submit a sour just for giggles, first submission ever. Saw that last year only 9 in the category but the BOS winner was a berliner weisse so we shall see. I wish I had other stuff to enter that was worth the 8$ and 2 bottles.

 

[BrewMan13]

Yeah, I've been looking at the past results too. Outside of IPA, none of the categories had a huge number of entries, IIRC. Anyway, I'm submitting an oatmeal stout and brown ale. The oatmeal stout came out great. I just kegged the brown ale yesterday, so too early to tell, but it's getting submitted regardless. There's a guy in ABC submitting 6 brews, all in different categories.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Nice those sound tasty, i should have preapred more so I had a shot at more categories. It looked like a pretty strong boston/vermont contingent last year as well we will see what the massholes and mountain folk bring over. It will definitely be a fun time. I have a feeling I will be falling into an Uber to get home.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Just an FYI for anyone interested the deadline for knickerbocker entries is Saturday.

 

[ProblemChild]

Yeah, I've been looking at the past results too. Outside of IPA, none of the categories had a huge number of entries, IIRC. Anyway, I'm submitting an oatmeal stout and brown ale. The oatmeal stout came out great. I just kegged the brown ale yesterday, so too early to tell, but it's getting submitted regardless. There's a guy in ABC submitting 6 brews, all in different categories.

I am pulling my porter - so down to five. Did not want to carb. Never had that happen. I was worried as I accidentally added more priming sugar due to the tare being incorrectly set on my scale.

 

[BrewMan13]

Just an FYI for anyone interested the deadline for knickerbocker entries is Saturday.

Some places you can drop off up to the 19th.

I am pulling my porter - so down to five. Did not want to carb. Never had that happen. I was worried as I accidentally added more priming sugar due to the tare being incorrectly set on my scale.

I've had that issue in the past when I bottled everything. Had a barleywine that took forever. I had other issues with bottling, so I just keg almost everything now. Thicker beers still take longer to force carb though.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Ah yeah the 13th is just my drop off location.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

View media item 69459
My entry in the Wild Special category (28C)

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Got the opportunity to help out this past weekend, some really good beers entered for sure.

 

[BrewMan13]

Got the opportunity to help out this past weekend, some really good beers entered for sure.

Congrats on the win and getting picked to have your beer brewed at Frog Alley! Look forward to trying it.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Congrats on the win and getting picked to have your beer brewed at Frog Alley! Look forward to trying it.

Thank you thank you I was blown away by the response to the beer wish I had brought a couple bottles for people to try but I didn’t expect such good feedback so it didn’t even cross my mind.

Jesus am I hungover. Did not stop drinking fine libations until I dropped in the wee hours this morning.

 

[BrewMan13]

Thank you thank you I was blown away by the response to the beer wish I had brought a couple bottles for people to try but I didn’t expect such good feedback so it didn’t even cross my mind.

Jesus am I hungover. Did not stop drinking fine libations until I dropped in the wee hours this morning.

Hey Andrew, I was just looking back in this thread, and noticed you're into mead as well. There's a meadery near where I live in Delmar called The Royal Meadery. I go there all the time and talk shop with Greg, one of the owners, super nice guy & place; very knowledgeable about beer and cider as well (he actually judged mead and cider I think for KBOTB). A bit of a trek from Saratoga, but you should check it out sometime if you haven't.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Hey Andrew, I was just looking back in this thread, and noticed you're into mead as well. There's a meadery near where I live in Delmar called The Royal Meadery. I go there all the time and talk shop with Greg, one of the owners, super nice guy & place; very knowledgeable about beer and cider as well (he actually judged mead and cider I think for KBOTB). A bit of a trek from Saratoga, but you should check it out sometime if you haven't.

That is pretty cool, I haven't found a commercial mead I like yet so I have to make the trek down and grab some. I tried some a winery makes up here and it really wasn't great, but it was also 88% wine must and 12% honey so more of a fortified grape wine than proper mead I guess. I'll put that on the list along with Groennfell in VT. My mead-making is pretty amateurish so far, one JAOM under my belt and a sour cherry short mead fermenting now but am going to keep experimenting and see if I can make something halfway decent. At least I have yeast nutrients and degas now, baby steps.

I hope they change the blue law so those guys can expand, I never understood the no selling wine in the grocery store thing, NY has 4AM bar closing time but you can't get wine at a grocery store, seems weird to me.

 

[BrewMan13]

That is pretty cool, I haven't found a commercial mead I like yet so I have to make the trek down and grab some. I tried some a winery makes up here and it really wasn't great, but it was also 88% wine must and 12% honey so more of a fortified grape wine than proper mead I guess. I'll put that on the list along with Groennfell in VT. My mead-making is pretty amateurish so far, one JAOM under my belt and a sour cherry short mead fermenting now but am going to keep experimenting and see if I can make something halfway decent. At least I have yeast nutrients and degas now, baby steps.

I hope they change the blue law so those guys can expand, I never understood the no selling wine in the grocery store thing, NY has 4AM bar closing time but you can't get wine at a grocery store, seems weird to me.

Royal has a few full strength meads, and a constantly evolving lineup of "session" (~7%) meads. I've had a few of the Groennfell session meads and in a word, they're bland, and 2/5 cans were gushers. Royal is much better, and not just saying that because they're local. Never had anything full strength from Groennfell, though.
And there is a mead bill that Greg helped push through, not sure when it gets enacted though.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Royal has a few full strength meads, and a constantly evolving lineup of "session" (still 7%) meads. I've had a few of the Groennfell session meads and in a word, they're bland, and 2/5 cans were gushers. Royal is much better, and not just saying that because they're local. Never had anything full strength from Groennfell, though.
And there is a mead bill that Greg helped push through, not sure when it gets enacted though.

That sounds good, I like the strong stuff and the more sessionable strength I will have to take a trip on down to pick up a few bottles.

 

[BrewMan13]

That sounds good, I like the strong stuff and the more sessionable strength I will have to take a trip on down to pick up a few bottles.

They currently have a sour cherry, apple cyser, cranberry orange, and "queens" for full strength options. Queens is the boldest flavored of those offerings as it has some buckwheat honey in the mix - my favorite of the bunch.
Also a brewery literally right next door.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Figured I would throw this out here for the Albany area folks.

for 2019 I am going to start buying base malt by the bag, was poking around on prices in the area and found that the Homebrew Emporium is selling NY 2-row: https://beerbrew.com/.

At 90$ for a 55lb bag I am torn between the cost and supporting in-state maltsters. Anybody use empire 2-row before? I don't have a ton of experience with base malts so far(only used Great Western Malt Company 2-row and Munton's Pure Marris Otter so far). Any thoughts on how it performs vs price etc? Any insight is appreciated.

 

[BrewMan13]

I've used a bag of that before, since I too really wanted to support in-state companies and farms. However, since 2-row is such a neutral "utility" malt, I can't say I noticed a heck of a lot of difference and so I went back to the regular breiss stuff.
As a side note, I'm not sure if it's available to homebrewers, but there's another local malt company some places in the area have been using called "convergence craft". Reports are that it's "huskier" than what they're used to. So you either take the efficiency hit, or do something like double grind.

 

[ProblemChild]

a lot of the NY malt does need a finer crush. efficiency is good but will not be if you use a normal crush. For most malt, a .045 gap in my three-roller mill does just fine. NY malt probably should be crushed closer to .035 and you have to check to see if a second pass is needed. Good tasty malt and efficiency is only slightly less than other malts, you just need to pay close attention to the crush.

 

[63belair]

FYI - Homebrew emporium does a bulk buy either once or twice a year.

I'd love to support local maltsters, but $90/sack of 2-row is too rich for my blood for base malt.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Anybody throwing any entries at the Hudson Valley competition coming up in March? Thinking of sending a mixed ferm gose I have over there.

https://hvhb.brewcomp.com/

 

[ProblemChild]

Putting in a couple. Porter, American Strong, Pale Ale, Saison.

I am bringing my porter to Saratoga and Albany brew clubs due to results drinking more like a Baltic Porter and I need input.

I tried to cold brew my dark malts. The results were smooth and very tasty, but the roast and chocolate are so restrained it might miss style.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Putting in a couple. Porter, American Strong, Pale Ale, Saison.

I am bringing my porter to Saratoga and Albany brew clubs due to results drinking more like a Baltic Porter and I need input.

I tried to cold brew my dark malts. The results were smooth and very tasty, but the roast and chocolate are so restrained it might miss style.

Very nice, well if you are coming up to Saratoga tomorrow for the meeting I will see you then! Although I won't be much help telling the difference between a Porter and a Baltic Porter. I am also wary of style for my entry so I'll probably just punt and throw it in mixed ferm. I don't know why but I am hesitant to have it judged as a historically accurate Gose. I'll also look for feedback tomorrow and see.

 

[ProblemChild]

Very nice, well if you are coming up to Saratoga tomorrow for the meeting I will see you then! Although I won't be much help telling the difference between a Porter and a Baltic Porter. I am also wary of style for my entry so I'll probably just punt and throw it in mixed ferm. I don't know why but I am hesitant to have it judged as a historically accurate Gose. I'll also look for feedback tomorrow and see.

Need to get into sours this summer. Any kind really. Just love them

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Need to get into sours this summer. Any kind really. Just love them

Me too, this is the year of the sour for me. Lots to learn.

 

[BrewMan13]

I've dabbled in sours a little...still got some bottles of my first sour (blueberry lambic-style), which came out pretty good all things considered. My first completely wild fermentation will be on fairly soon as it's approaching a year. I'll bring it to the March ABC if it's any good (got a personal story behind it to share, so fingers crossed that the beer lives up to my hopes for it). Also have a "flanders red" style going with the same wild yeast, but that one's a ways off...

 

[ProblemChild]

I've dabbled in sours a little...still got some bottles of my first sour (blueberry lambic-style), which came out pretty good all things considered. My first completely wild fermentation will be on fairly soon as it's approaching a year. I'll bring it to the March ABC if it's any good (got a personal story behind it to share, so fingers crossed that the beer lives up to my hopes for it). Also have a "flanders red" style going with the same wild yeast, but that one's a ways off...

I do want to hear about it for sure - especially the Flanders red.

 

[BrewMan13]

I do want to hear about it for sure - especially the Flanders red.

Obviously I can tell/show you in person, but I'll likely make a post of my wild yeast adventures on here.
Since the Flanders red is also using the captured wild yeast, it's not "authentic" Belgian-style, but I tried to approximate the recipe of said style. Just did that in November, so a ways to go, but I'll take a peak to see how it's progressing when I rack the first one.

 

[ProblemChild]

Putting in a couple. Porter, American Strong, Pale Ale, Saison.

I am bringing my porter to Saratoga and Albany brew clubs due to results drinking more like a Baltic Porter and I need input.

I tried to cold brew my dark malts. The results were smooth and very tasty, but the roast and chocolate are so restrained it might miss style.

Got some great feedback in Saratoga tonight. Astringency is creeping in and I need to get a few things corrected on recipe balance. Got things I can work on now.