we brewed up 5 gallons of the peacemaker this afternoon. we ended up with an og of 1.090. holy shit. luckily we came prepared and racked el dorado over to secondary, then pitched the peacemaker right on top of the yeast cake. its been about 3 hours since we pitched it and the blow off tube is already bubbling like crazy. we also bottled up the rest of the hoppermaker and bier van mythische dieren, which will both be entered in the august homebrew competition. kris is also going to bottle up some cap'n berrill's crunchmaker, netting us 3 entries in the competition. wish us luck!

checked out the evanston brewfest yesterday, got to fill my tiny mug with all the samples i wanted... definitely took full advantage. plenty of good beer from new belgium, bohemian, deschutes brewing, and a nice surprise from odell brewing from colorado. really good extra pale ale. a little disappointed with sierra nevada, alaskan, and suds bros. who did not represent well. suds bros. did have beer battered brats which were delicious, but their beer selections were raspberry wheat and light mexican lager... fail. baker couldn't come because he was hurtling down a river elsewhere in wyoming... sad.



-kris

we brewed up the berrill dorado golden ale yesterday, didn't go smoothly... mash tun had a bad leak, had to transfer water back and forth several times and finally had to reheat it when the leak was fixed. almost spilled half the grain on the garage floor... luckily, we didn't. ended up over-filling the mash tun and had to drain it off to fit all of the grain. had a couple boil overs. amazingly, we ended up finishing the session with almost exactly 10 gallons and were more efficient on our mash than planned. ended up with an OG of 1.064 and the elephant riders gave the fermentation a kick start with their rock. should end up with a tasty, slightly stronger than planned beer.











-kris

added a brew schedule to the blog. check it out here. this should help us keep our brews nice an organized. we are currently planning out this holidays batches which should net kris and myself around 24 bottles a piece. right now were looking at doing a bourbon vanilla imperial porter and a double abominale. two high point beers that should help us stay warm this winter.

-bake

bottled off the last of the mythic beast (the unofficial dadmaker ale) today, and updated my keezer. i also ordered up the berrill dorado golden ale which we'll hopefully be brewing up on saturday.


the last of the beast, except for the full keg at cupcake's.


i did my best at plagiarizing baker's hoppermaker design

-kris

i was just reading online about a new discovery channel show coming this fall called "brewed". its going to feature sam calagione from dogfish head traveling the world and experiencing different cultures of beer!

------press release------------------------------------------------------
XPERIENCING THE WORLD ONE PINT AT A TIME DISCOVERY CHANNEL RAISES A GLASS FOR BREWED, NEW SERIES ON THE WORLD OF BEER ANNOUNCED FOR FALL 2010
(Silver Spring, Md.) Beer is the drink of the masses. If you look into a glass of beer you can see the past, present and future of mankind. Cicero lauded it, Genghis Khan fought for it and now Discovery Channel celebrates it with a world premiere series, BREWED, exploring the culture, history and variety of beer.

Meet Sam Calagione: maverick entrepreneur, family man and owner of Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. As an ambassador to the world of craft beer, Sam travels the world to experience what every culture brings to its own special brew.

In BREWED, Sam shows viewers the other side of the bottle, sharing the stories of beer sub-cultures as well as exploring life inside The Dogfish Head Brewery. BREWED goes behind the scenes at Dogfish Head as Sam’s merry band of creative brewmasters concoct new taste varieties.

“BREWED taps more than just kegs and barrels, it unlocks a fascinating history of beer making, showcasing the ingenuity and passion behind our love affair with those alluring suds and how it played a role in building civilizations,” said Clark Bunting, President and General Manager of Discovery Channel.

Running a successful business also requires inspiration, so BREWED hits the road for the ultimate beer tasting road trip. Along with archeologist and beer expert Pat McGovern, Sam sets out to recreate “ancient ales” that have been discovered at sites around the world from Egypt to Peru. He travels to Rome to research old world Italian beers as inspiration for a new site in New York with Mario Batali. A visit to New Zealand introduces the idea of making the “first tomato based beer.” And back home, Sam is tasked to come up with a commemorative beer called “Bitches Brew” to celebrate the 40th anniversary release of Miles Davis’ famous recording.

“Beer has always been my passion. It is so much more than what you see in the glass. I’m excited to share the diligence, daring and creativity that we pour into our work,” said Calagione.

BREWED is produced for Discovery Channel by Zero Point Zero Productions. Chris Collins and Lydia Tenaglia are executive producers. Tim Pastore is executive producer for Discovery Channel.

About Zero Point Zero
Zero Point Zero is a television and film production company founded in 2003 by Executive Producers Chris Collins and Lydia Tenaglia. Since its inception the company has produced over 300 hours of nationally and internationally airing television programs, including the critically acclaimed and award winning series: Anthony Bourdain No Reservations and Diary of a Foodie. In 2009 Zero Point Zero received five EMMY nominations, including a primetime nomination for Best Non-fiction Series for Anthony Bourdain No Reservations series and a win for Best Cinematography. Other recent productions include the 2009 EMMY-winning Diary of a Foodie and 2010 EMMY nominated, Adventure’s with Ruth for PBS; the 2010 series, Brewed, for Discovery and Frontierman for History Channel. This year the company will produce a landmark 100th episode of No Reservations, which features celebrity chef and New York Times best-selling author Anthony Bourdain’s travels and explorations of food and culture around the world. Specializing in distinct storytelling with a handcrafted look and feel Zero Point Zero has produced television shows in over 100 countries around the world.
------press release------------------------------------------------------

went over to princesses house the other night for a little bbq party. apparently kris has been stocking up for a while, we tried out a fairly large selection of beer including:

wasatch:
jalepeno cream ale
organic amber

dogfish head:
60 min ipa
90 min ipa
indian brown ale

berrillmaker:
bier van mythische dieren
cap'n berrill's crunchmaker

thats right, we finaly got a taste of cap'n berrill's crunchmaker. it had only been on the gas for a week but it was definitely a hit at the party. i personally couldn't taste too much peanut butter but thought it still had a great nut brown flavor, others were saying it tasted like a reeses peanutbutter cup.

about a week ago we brewed up a double ipa extract kit, a prize from brew magazine. we also racked 20 gallons of beer and had a chance to try out hoppermaker. it had only been on the gas for a week but tasted pretty good. all in all it was a very simple and straight forward brew session.


kris and his sack... of grains.


used a glass carboy for primary so we could see the magic happening. notice, we ended up a little short on volume and couldn't take a gravity reading due to using the carboy. my guess is that this over condensed double ipa is going to fuck you up.


-bake