Who’s going?
Michelle’s (my wife) sister is interested in learning all about beer so I am taking her to three sessions…Thurs, Fri, and Saturday afternoon! We also have tickets to the Farm to Table pavilion for Friday night!
Anyone that is coming I’ll buy a beer…lol!
Saturday night we will be hitting a local favorite sports bar(can’t remember the name) for college football.
Hope to see a bunch of you!
Cheers, Rob
The Chi Company has just started carrying White Labs Yeast.
http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=261_270_289
This is the best all around deal I have found for price, and more important – freshness.
Standard WLP vials are $5.90 each.
They are shipped once a week directly from White Labs!
That means they are very, very fresh.
I just received six vials – four were expiration dated 11/30.
That means they were packaged on 7/30!
(Four months is yeast standard for WLP, six months for bacteria and brett.)
The other two were expiration dated 12/5!
I have never bought yeast this fresh before.
No more yeast close to, or even over the expiration date ever again.
Two thumbs up for the Chi Company from me.
- Kickstand Jac
This past weekend I brewed my first batch using the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) method. Typically, from setup to clean up, my brew days take 7 to 8 hours to complete using my normal fly sparge setup. With the BIAB method I used this past weekend it took about 4 hours from start to finish.
I made a simple American Pale Ale and had no problems with my mash pH or hitting my desired starting gravity. I mashed just under 13 pounds of grains in 8 gallons of water at 152 degrees for 70 minutes, removed the bag and let drain over the kettle while heating the extract to boiling.
After the boil I had just over 5 gallons in my carboy and 1 gallon remaining in the kettle with an OG of 1.060. The carboy is in my temperature controlled chest freezer for fermentation.
I will update this posting as things progress and let everyone know how it is looking. If I can get my act together I think I should be able to get it kegged so that I can bring a growler to the July meeting for people to taste (it will only be 2 and a half weeks old).
I see two main advantages to using this method. First, it makes for a much shorter and simpler brew day. Second, it is potentially much easier for someone to switch from extract brewing to all grain brewing. The only equipment you need is a kettle large enough to handle the extra water and grains and the bag of course.
There are some disadvantages but that is for another dicussion.
Patrick
I have a refrigerator that is about 8 years old that has recently stopped staying as cool as it should. i decided to replace it rather than repair and i was going to keep it as an extra fermentation chamber (it stays at about 50 degrees) but have decided i need to make more room in the garage.
its free to any of you who might want it.
you can email me at strutnakid74@yahoo.com
John
Any updates on the Enchanted Brewing Challenge…
I know I have said on more than one occasion that I had no desire to take the BJCP judging exam but I think I am changing my mind. Is there any chance that there will be an exam given again this year? I know it has typically been around the State Fair judging, which gives me some time to beef up on my beer knowledge.
Thanks, Rob
Is the club organizing anything this year? I cannot host but was looking for somewhere to hang out and bring some beer! I see Santa Fe is the only site in NM registered on the AHA website.
Cheers, Rob
LOL!
I see Ben has an appearance scheduled at Jubilation for the release of SA’s Longshot that features his winning beer. The event is scheduled 4/17 from 2pm-4pm, the same time as the Identic-Ale tasting at De Smet Farms. 
Guess, I will miss out on having a bottle of Mile High Barleywine signed by BEN….
Cheers, Rob
Why do our posts have to be approved? I posted yesterday and can’t find it on the site. I would like a conversational forum, but if I have to wait a couple days to get posted, well I won’t bother. Just my 2 cents.
-Tom
I was wondering how many of you have experimented with growing your own hops? I have five different varieties that will start the 2nd growing season this summer. I am already getting lots of shoots and really big ones! I am growing Fuggles, Newport, Northern Brewer, Centenial and Cascade. Last year which was the first year, they easily grew 15 feet up a rope trellis.
