Big A$$ed Brew Out in New Jersey

[olllllo]

eric_duel
cbg3868
foxbrew

Still waiting on Soulive.

 

[Brewiz]

Had I seen this earlier in the week (working sh*t load of OT) I would have jumped on a jet and come up, but at least I'm brewing!!!

 

[c.n.budz]

Hope you guys are having a good time. I wanted to make it down but can't due to my annoying car issues at the moment. I'm with you in spirit though

 

[janzik]

Me, a friend and my father (joejaz) brewed out a SNPA clone today... still a little tipsy... been drinking since 10:30.. woo! hope you guys are having a good time!

 

[Bobby_M]

Successful brewday, 70 gallons of beer and 5 of mead. A few brewers backed out due to early rain the the day shaped up nicely. It got really cold but I fired up the firepit to take the edge off once the day turned from brewing to drinking. Everyone took off by 6pm and I'm ready to pass out. Olllllo very cool of you to make the effort to come out here.

cd2448, foxbrew, bobby_m, eric_duel, ollllo

For the other NJ guys that didn't make it, let's plan ahead for an all grain learning session. It's probably easier when I'm not running around hosting.

 

[cd2448]

thanks for hosting, bobby_M, i learned a lot and hope to one day make the jump to the big leagues!

 

[Eric_Duel]

The hospitality was much appreciated, especially for someone never having even spoke with anyone there!

I had a good time and even picked up some good tricks. Probably would have learned a lot more if I had made it earlier in the day (mash time instead of boil time). It really was a pleasure meeting some fellow brewers.

Thanks!

 

[olllllo]

It really was a great brewout, Bobby. I'll post pics when I get home.
Good to meet some HBTers. The Whales (www.WhalesClub.com) are a great bunch of guys and Chris an Eric should consider joining up.

I had a few Lambics and Gueuzes with landhoney, Mrs landhoney and two of their friends at Monks. Awesome bunch of people. If anyone hasn't already noticed, land is a real resource here for those that are interested in sours.

Well we had such a good time, I missed my 4:15 and nor I'm on the 6:20...

I mucked up the drive to the airport and decided to re-visit NJ and pay them an extra $3.

Oh well, I have more time to drink here at the bar. Victory Hopdevil and Stoudts All-American so far...

I had a great trip, thanks to all.

 

[cd2448]

It just gets better - I was explaing the AG procedure to my wife, and she became frankly outraged to hear that I'm not making beer properly like you guys, and that taking all these short cuts (DME/LME) is just cheating. Looks like AG will be on next summer.


In any case I want to get the rest of the process sorted out first - I'd hate to go through the whole AG process, only to mess things up doing the easy stuff like racking and bottling.

 

[landhoney]

Awesome bunch of people.
Well we had such a good time, I missed my 4:15 and nor I'm on the 6:20...
I had a great trip, thanks to all.

You're the awesome one olllllo ! I hope you had as great a time as I did. I won't fully detail your generosity for fear of setting a dangerous precident whenever you meet up with other HBTalkers , but you were really too kind. I had heard that Monk's only flaw was the service/rudeness, but our server/s where very nice/helpful. They took their time on a few orders, but we were certainly not acting like we were in a hurry. Sorry to hear you missed your flight, hope Mrs.olllllo wasn't too upset.

We enjoyed:
-Monk's House Gueze - tap -blend owner made at Cantillon w/various Cantillon Lambics(excellent, low carbed(wonderful), nicely sour, moderate funk, a Delight!)
-Rodenbach Grand Cru - tap <- On Tap! We should all be so lucky!
-Kasteel Rouge - tap (OK, bit too much of a fake cherry flavor)
-De Dolle Oerbier Special Reserva 2005 - bottle( as a second option -turned out soo good)
-Monks Flemish Red - tap ( nice low sourness, good complexity)
-Drie Fonteinen schaerbeekse kriek - bottle (very good, maybe not worth the price, very intense cherry flavor - low funk/wood/everything else)
etc. etc. (the above were the 'interesting' ones)

My favorites were Monk's Cantillon Gueze and the De Dolle Oerbier Reserve(sour brown oak aged for two years). I/we got the Oerbier because they didn't have the Still Nacht Reserve, I was diappointed they didn't have it until we received the backup Oerbier and it turned out to be so great. I think we drank it a bit too cold, the last few sips seemed to be the best.
(And now looking at beeradvocate it appears this was a 13% ABV beer! Holy Crap they did a good job with this! There's no way I'd think it was 13%, half that maybe. This would be good be to clone and try to try kill the Brett/etc. by upping the ABV until they die in order to leave some body/sweetness. )

Sorry this is so long. To summarize:
1. If you get a chance to meet olllllo, do it - he's a great guy
2. If you get a chance to go to Monk's, do it
3. If you get a chance to do both at the same time, :rockin:

Thanks again olllllo, anytime you're in Philly......it's on!

 

[olllllo]

Just got back. Time 4 bed.

 

[Soulive]

I'm quite pissed I missed out. SWMBO's sister went into labor on Friday and gave birth early Saturday morning. So yeah, my weekend was spent inside the hospital

 

[Bobby_M]

Hmm, I could see if it was your SWMBO who went into labor but a future sister in law? Pspphht! ;-)

 

[Soulive]

Hmm, I could see if it was your SWMBO who went into labor but a future sister in law? Pspphht! ;-)

That's what I'm sayin

No but seriously, I want to go AG once I get that 7.5'er from you. I'd like to check out your next brew session since I've never brewed AG...

 

[Bobby_M]

If we can get a few guys together, I have no problem running an all grain batch in a more relaxed environment, my house or where ever. A big brew like this is kinda hard to learn from in anything but small tidbits.

Oh, here's a little blog entry with pics taken during the event. I'll probably update it once ollllo gets me some of the pics he took:

http://www.suebob.com/brew/brewevents.htm

 

[njnear76]

If we can get a few guys together, I have no problem running an all grain batch in a more relaxed environment, my house or where ever. A big brew like this is kinda hard to learn from in anything but small tidbits.

Oh, here's a little blog entry with pics taken during the event. I'll probably update it once ollllo gets me some of the pics he took:

http://www.suebob.com/brew/brewevents.htm

Sounds good. I bought an extract kit this past weekend. It was marked up 10% because of the hops shortage. AG just makes sense in the long run. Cheaper and most likely better brew.

 

[Soulive]

Sounds good. I bought an extract kit this past weekend. It was marked up 10% because of the hops shortage. AG just makes sense in the long run. Cheaper and most likely better brew.

So that makes 2 of us interested in some AG tutorial?

 

[janzik]

So that makes 2 of us interested in some AG tutorial?

That makes 3 of us!

 

[Bobby_M]

It's on whenever you guys can all agree to get together on the same day. Your place or mine, your equipment or mine, your recipe/ingredients or mine. Either way. I'm available most weekend days. I've been looking forward to doing another blonde ale which would be super cheap and easy. If any of you guys have an extra propane burner/tank we could run two 10 gallon batches side by side and split it 4 ways at the end. Maybe BM's Centenial blonde recipe?

 

[Soulive]

It's on whenever you guys can all agree to get together on the same day. Your place or mine, your equipment or mine, your recipe/ingredients or mine. Either way. I'm available most weekend days. I've been looking forward to doing another blonde ale which would be super cheap and easy. If any of you guys have an extra propane burner/tank we could run two 10 gallon batches side by side and split it 4 ways at the end. Maybe BM's Centenial blonde recipe?

I'm pretty open on the day/time. I'd really like to split one of the 10 gallon batches with someone. I can provide ingredients, propane, one Banjo burner, 5 gallon MLT, and bottled water. I'd prefer to brew something malty and/or darker. Just lemme know


edit - my place won't work since its a townhouse complex

edit x 2 - if we only have one MLT, we can brew parti-gyle

 

[Bobby_M]

We can brew in my garage. I'm centrally located to everyone anyway. I've got the 12 gallon MLT so that's not a problem. We can do a staggered mash/boil so that the second batch is mashing while the first is boiling. That's why I was thinking of having the second burner. Partigyle? It would work but not necessarily a good example of what a new AG brewer would try pulling off. Malty and dark, um, maybe an Irish red, 80 shilling, ESB, or barley wine. See, I wouldn't mind doing a single 8 gallon barley wine and split it 2 gallons each, but it's an A-typical process and takes 12 months of aging. Also not a beginner's bag.

 

[Soulive]

We can brew in my garage. I'm centrally located to everyone anyway. I've got the 12 gallon MLT so that's not a problem. We can do a staggered mash/boil so that the second batch is mashing while the first is boiling. That's why I was thinking of having the second burner. Partigyle? It would work but not necessarily a good example of what a new AG brewer would try pulling off. Malty and dark, um, maybe an Irish red, 80 shilling, ESB, or barley wine. See, I wouldn't mind doing a single 8 gallon barley wine and split it 2 gallons each, but it's an A-typical process and takes 12 months of aging. Also not a beginner's bag.

Yeah the partigyle and bigger beers are probably bad for this occasion. I've got 30+ pounds Maris Otter and I'm not sure what hops I have but I should have like 4-6 ounces. Do you still have that Vienna? An ESB could be a nice option...

 

[Bobby_M]

I've got plenty of Vienna left. Only used 15lbs on a Vienna Lager on Saturday. It's also lager season so I'd be open to doing a pils or american premium lager, Sam BL clone, whatever. I guess let's see what styles the other guys like and we'll compromise. I don't necessarily need a share if it's something I don't like.

 

[Soulive]

I've got plenty of Vienna left. Only used 15lbs on a Vienna Lager on Saturday. It's also lager season so I'd be open to doing a pils or american premium lager, Sam BL clone, whatever. I guess let's see what styles the other guys like and we'll compromise. I don't necessarily need a share if it's something I don't like.

I can't lager but if that's what people want, I'll just go along with the grain bill. I can't imagine a solid grain bill tasting bad with any yeast...

 

[olllllo]

Brewout at full boil

The heat/stress failure point was discovered early in the brewday. The ladder cannot support and heat 2 keggles.

Music editor: add Transformers Music.
Caption: Never underestimate the resiliancy and ingenuity of a homebrewer.

It's On!

 

[Bobby_M]

Must be some taiwanese aluminum in that damn ladder that I garbage picked. What do you mean it can't hold up to 130,000 btu's of direct fire AND hold up two kegs full of water. That's BS.

 

[olllllo]

Bobby's Keezer with some Mountain West regionals

Various brewrigs

 

[olllllo]

Bobby. I didn't want to mention that the aluminum offgassed a GBH like substance and most of us went into a coma for most of the afternoon.

 

[Bobby_M]

I knew that. That's when I went around looting everyone's brewing supplies. However, you'll note that I wasn't able to steal Jody's incredible high temp keggle insulation jackets. He got them from work for free.... that'd be $250 each keg for mere mortals like us.

 

[PseudoChef]

Someone was just making fun of me at our group brew day this past Saturday for using cat litter buckets for my sanitizer. Cheers!