Beer Diary...

Attention homebrewers : one of the most important elements for a successful relationship between you and your significant other is the ability to communicate that they come first over your brewing hobby. This seems at first glance a simple and obvious statement,  (or maybe just crazy talk) but how often do we ignore what is seemingly common sense? As passionate homebrewers we often move through the world with a maniacal focus on all things beer related, occasionally coming up for air now and again to see what the rest of the world is doing. Only then do we realize how we've completely ignored those that are important in our lives.  This is the moment when the questions arise 'what can I do to make this right?' Initially you might make the authoritative declaration, 'I'm not going to talk exclusively about brewing tools, techniques, equipment, the latest hop, the next beer festival, why my beer...

Please click on this link Brewed For Thought where, as a guest blogger I summarize my complete coverage of the National Homebrewers Conference. It gives all the sordid details of my sun up to sun down beer tasting exploits in San Diego. I'm not sure what was happening here.

This article investigate the absense of Afro american brewers and other ethnicities for that matter. according to google (statistics) after talking with andrew it hit me like a ton of bricks cultural? economics? historical? a hidden sect of brewers add your input and experience and eye witness events, etc. theodore Mach and the peoples's brewing company- first black owned brewery in the country in 1970 closed in 1973 (stopped by the big brewers?) Black Pride, Inc. label of contract brew from the The West Bend Lithia Co. out of chicago.  from above article. "Traditional brewing materials will be used and traditional procedures followed in the production of "Black Pride" lager beer, the founders of Black Pride, Inc., being convinced that blacks have no unique product characteristic preferences beyond that of high quality. To insure consistency in such product quality, Black Pride, Inc., will contract with an independent brewing laboratory for routine pro...

Four days later and my head is still spinning from the non-stop, beer fueled festivities of this years National Homebrewers Conference, held at San Diego's Town and Country Resort. A reported seven hundred kegs of homebrew kept the attendees in high spirits as we continuously rotated through impressive educational lectures and investigated the latest gadgets in the retailer displays. Not to mention rubbing elbows and trading homebrew stories with each other, the brewing pros and the homebrewing super stars alike. Day One After registering and gladly accepting a fully loaded 'swag bag' , a cornucopia of beer do-dads, including a taster glass and specially bottled beers for the event, I made my way to the hotel's grand hall for the opening ceremony where thousands of homebrew hobbyists were in attendance. As pitchers of beer were circulated through the room, Gary Glass, president of the American Homebrewers Association announc...

On day three of the National Homebrewers Conference I was able to video Peter Zien of Alesmith as he talked about brewing outside the box and not being afraid to develop your own recipes. Along with this encouraging speech he talked about his new venture into craft cheese making. Again, sorry about the aggressive photographer that needed an excessive amount of time to get that perfect shot of Mr. Zien right in front of my camera. He eventually goes away. Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Hope you've enjoyed these uploads and were able to get a little out of this conference. I will be posting some of my notes from some of the other lectures and other beer related stuff. I just need to get back home, rest, sober up and get creative with it.

Stone Brewing's Mitch Steele give an interesting and informative presentation on historical extreme beers. Locating and deciphering early brewing recipes and techniques used in creating high gravity ales. This is video from Friday's conference schedule. I really enjoyed the fact that no heads injured the quality of this production. Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

As promised, here is the video of the day at the National Homebrewers Conference for Thursday June 16th. Warning: this is the most beer geeky video you will ever watch but is extremely informative if you are brewing or planning on brewing with brettanomyces.This lecture is presented by Chad Yakobson and is a total of one hour long. Also, there is a short segment in which the guy in front of me eased his larger than normal sized head into the frame. Please click on the additional links for parts 2, 3 and 4. Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Threading highway 101 through the ag lands that blanket the space between California's Southern coastal mountain ranges and the Pacific ocean, Christina, Mauricio and I stopped in Beulton to Visit the  Firestone Walker tap room for lunch and a pint but decided to make a quick detour to Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co.  A short distance down the road, and located in a commercial section of town, Figueroa is the new kid on a block that could use a few more new kids.   I know I just uploaded a guest post regarding Figueroa Mountain but since head brewer AJ Stoll is a personal friend from Santa Cruz, it didn't feel right not stopping to say hello myself. Lucky for us, AJ was in the process of loading a truck for a beer delivery and was gracious enough to take time out and give us a quick tour of the facility where he's brewing award winning beers. AJ recently moved down from Ukiah where he turned around Ukiah Brewing, transforming the mediocre and ...

If this recipe looks familiar, it is. Just check out the recipe for my Classic American Pilsner to compare. This is basically the same with the exception of the yeast. In this case I prefer the clean hard working yeast from Safale US05 fermented at temperatures between 60f. and 65f. This is a quick and easy way to brew an ale that sort of mimics the light lagers that I make during the colder days of winter. With the temperatures rising now I don't have a way yet of producing lagers, so cream ale is a convenient alternative. (If you know about some type of miniture air conditioner that I could place in my fermentation chamber, leave a message in the comment section.) This style of beer is also clean, light, low alcohol and refreshing for the hot days of summer where all you want to do is sit back in the shade and quaff copious amount of cool homebrewed beer. Oh yes. Yellow goodness Once brewed, I try and let it sit in my kegerator for as long as possi...

For those interested in my take on the Monterey Beer Festival that just went down on Saturday. Please go see my guest posting here at Brewed For Thought . See you at the Nation Homebrewers Conference in San Diego. Peter B's pours through the Randall!

I'm heading South this week to attend the NHC from Thursday through Saturday and I've got plans to post my experiences here at least once a day if not more. Tentatively, I will try and get one video post per day that will feature a presentation that I have the most interest in. Those would be: Brewing With Brett: speaker Chad Yakobson on Thursday the 16th. Historical Extreme Beers: speaker Mitch Steele on Friday the 17th. Non-sour Barrel Aging: speaker Tomme Arthur on Saturday the 18th. These are suppose to be one hour lectures and so I will be breaking them down into 4 - fifteen minute segments. At least this is the plan. It's a long process loading video onto my computer, editing and then uploading to YouTube but I'm going to give it a try. Along with the videos I will be trying for some candid pictures, interviews and such, of the other activities I attend like the Pro-Brewer night and Club night. So, if you're not attending this event, check back here...

As the warm weather (and rain) hits the central coast it's the signal that the season for beer festivals has begun.  This year my intention is to attend all the beer related events occurring in my neck of the woods, that is the Santa Cruz, Monterey bay area. First up, the  California Beer Festival . This event is the biggie for me because it's happening just a few short miles away from me in Aptos. For those that have been following Beer Diary... for awhile, you know that I've moved to nearby Capitola from Aptos a couple of years ago, so to attend a beer fest in Aptos would be like going home for me. Going home for beer that is. According to the CBF website: ...With over 60 craft brews on tap, four live bands, mouth watering food and bocce ball. CBF will be the event of the year for any beer enthusiast! CBF's main goal is to shine a light on the craft beer movement and celebrate grea...

On a regular basis people who sample my beers will ask 'can you sell this?' and I have to concede that, no, you can't sell homebrew.  Even if I wanted to, it's against the law to commercially produce and market beer to the public without a license. Actually, several licenses from local, state and federal authorities. Authorities that make a sincere effort to prevent most people from doing as they please. But for me, more importantly is that I don't want a job as a brewer, it's too much work and besides, it's not about making money. I'm content to keep my brewing at the level of hobby. To brew for the enjoyment of the process and take pleasure in the results of my efforts. To share with family and friends and gain the satisfaction of seeing the delight that crosses their surprised faces when they ask 'Is this really home made?' But man does not live on beer bread alone. A certain quantity of protein is needed in his diet to keep him in the uprig...