Prepping for brew day

Stopped by BrewTensils this morning to prep for my DCP homebrew feature and to pick up ingredients for tomorrow's brew session. Good talk with Darren Link, BrewTensil's manager, about the community aspect of brewing, and with Mike Schwartz, Belmont/BrewTensils owner about upcoming events. Also met several all-grain brewers at the Belmont brewout. Good group.

Trying a few new things tomorrow. Going for an all-grain RyePA. We'll see how gummy malted rye really is. I picked up some rice hulls--hopefully that will help. This will only be my second IPA, despite over a decade of brewing (the first was a Victory HopDevil clone and my first partial grain).

At Jim Witmer's advice, I also picked up 5.2 mash stabilizer--buffering salts so that I don't have to muck with pH levels. Heard that I'll see better efficiency rates. That's great, but I'm happy just to not have to worry about the pH level.

Finally, trying dry yeast for the first time since my first brew. Built up a starter using Goya Malta - the hop and malt based soda. We'll see how it goes. More notes tomorrow.

Cavalier Distributing Earthquake Relief

Cavalier Distributing is donating $2 to a relief fund for every new email address added to their weekly newsletter. Cavalier is one of the two or three local distributors responsible for the great craft beer selection in the Miami Valley and their newsletters are always interesting and informative, so this is a can't miss. Here's the text of their release on the project:

Cavalier Distributing will donate $2.00 to tsunami relief efforts for every new subscriber to our email newsletter between now and March 25, 2011, up to $10,000. Please forward this message to fellow craft beer fans in Ohio to make this effort a success.

If you are receiving this email as a forwarded message, please click the following link to subscribe: Subscribe to Cavalier's Weekly Newsletter

Update: So far we have added 632 email addresses to our weekly newsletter. Please help get the word out so we can reach our goal of donating $10,000.

Technorati Tags: Calavier Distributing, Japan, tsunami, earthquake, beer, craft beer, brewing, homebrew

Fizzy Green Beer is for Wussies

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! The family is clad in green and the boys ate their customary green-dyed breakfasts (this year, it was Blarney Cereal, which is just regular cereal with green dye in the milk. Gross, but the kids love it).

Green dye is fun for the kids, but it has no place in beer. To avoid it, check out my alternatives to green-dyed Budmillercoors in this week's Dayton City Paper. All are good alternatives, but my personal favorites are Guinness Extra Stout (I know, obvious choice, but classics are classics for a reason) and Conway's Irish Ale from Great Lakes Brewing Company.

Technorati Tags: St. Patrick's Day, Murphy's, Guinness, Great Lakes, Heavy Seas, Wexford's, Saranac, Irish Stout, Irish Red, beer, craft beer, brewing

Lenten Beer

As a follow-up to my recent article about the connection between beer and food, here's a story of a newspaper editor who plans to emulate European monks by limiting himself to only beer and water for the 40 days of lent.

Technorati Tags:Lent, monks, Abbey ale, Trappist, food, beer, craft beer, brewing, homebrew

Beer and Food Pairings

I'm late in posting this due to an insanely busy week, but this week my article on beer and food pairings ran in the Dayton City Paper.

Big thanks to Gina, my wife, who took the photos. Only cost me take-out at Taqueria Mixteca and a chocolate torte (which the kids actually ate most of). There were two other photos that I really liked that didn't run, so I've posted them here. The cake one is my favorite.

News: Thai9 Tapping Cask Hopslam Tonight

Thai9, the Thai and Sushi restaurant with a great beer list in the Oregon district, is tapping a cask of Bell's Hopslam tonight. I'm told it's one of two such casks in Ohio. This is a great beer in bottles and on tap, so I can't wait to try to the cask version. Beer flows around 7ish tonight.

Also, Thai9 is part of the Dayton Growler Co-Op (although I'd be shocked if Hopslam is included), which, along with Trolley Stop, South Park Tavern, and Blind Bob's, allows customers to pick up and fill growlers to enjoy their favorite draft beers at home. Here's the link to Blind Bob's blurb about it, as well as an article with more details by Mark Fisher of the Dayton Daily News.

Technorati Tags: beer, brewing, craft beer, homebrew, Bell's Hopslam, Bell's Brewing, Hopslam, Thai9, Growler Co-Op, Blind Bob's, South Park Tavern, The Trolley Stop, Dayton, Ohio, cask ale

Critic's Pick: Chappy's Beer Club

Just a quick note that I've been meaning to post for several days now. I have another piece in the current edition of the Dayton City Paper (the 2/2 edition). It's just a quick Critic's Pick, but it highlights the Chappy's Beer Club. If you aren't familar with Chappy's Tap Room and Grille, they've got on of the best beer menus I've seen. Lots of great beers, but more importantly, lots of information about the various beers, so it's easy to find something that suits your mood.

Technorati Tags:beer, brewing, craft beer, Chappy's, Chappy's Tap Room and Grille, Beer club, Chappy's Beer Club, Dayton City Paper, Epicurean, beer, craft beer, brewing, homebrew