NHC Beer Scores

I had 6 beers entered in the NHC competition.  None of them moved forward into the second round.  Here are details on the beers, my impression, and the judges comments following the scores:

 **Rosemary IPA (Spice/herb beer) but I don't think it's "herbed" enough.  I probably should have put it in standard IPA
29.5 points
Judges said it had TOO MUCH Rosemary and just generally didn't like it

**Arc Porter (Robust Porter) I love this beer.  A nice, roasty porter
40.5 points and moved forward to the Mini-Best-Of-Show
"Very good example" which is a HUGE compliment
"Would gladly pay to drink this in the pub"

**Peach Pie (Fruit beer) It's an american Wheat beer with peaches.  It's not SUPER peachy, just a bit- but a delicious beer and we'll see.  I'm not super conidant in this one because the Fruit category is very very popular among homebrewers.
35.5 points
"Very tasty beer.  Peach character and choice of wheat beer base make this a very nice fruit beer"
"Well made base, fruitiness apparent but without a distinct peach character.  Non-specific pale fruitiness"

**Right Red Rye (German Roggenbier) A rye beer, but it is too hoppy to technically be in this category.  So- meh.  It has won 2 silver medals locally and it's probably my favorite beer that I brew, but it's not technically correct in any "style"
37 points, moved to Mini-BOS
"Very good example of a difficult style, believe that the hops are more appropriate to an American Style"
"Great tasting beer, very drinkable"

**Bonnie's Brown (English Brown Mild) A nice easy drinking brown ale.  This is actually an extract beer.
37.5 points, Mini-BOS
"Well made beer that fits the guidelnes well"
"Nice yeast selection and fermentation"

**Sesame Street Amber (American Amber Ale) Named for the grains being 4#, 3#, 2#, 1# the guy at the homebrew shop said "What is this, Sesame Street?"

30.5 points
"Malt presence a bit low"
"Adjust mash temp to ensure medium to full body"
"A bit one dimensional"

Must plan!

Sometimes, I get caught in a trap.

I know the beers that I like and that my friends like. So I brew those on a regular basis.

Many times, I brew "off the cuff" deciding at noon, that I want to brew in the evening.

The question becomes, WHAT I want to brew.  While working, then getting home to brew as quickly as possible, creativity tends to get dampened by time crunch.

SO- here are the brews I want to tackle soon-

Peanut Butter Cup Stout with Sean
Don't Know with Scott (HopHead Fred)
Popcorn Pale (more popcorn, and trying to get some popcorn flavor. 4% ABV) **DONE**
Larceny Lager (Uncle Bill told me a story about how he used to steal beer out of the Pabst lunch room fridge)
Peach Basil Wheat (Fresh AZ Peaches and Basil)
Grilled Pineapple Porter
Portly Squirrel (the last time was REALLY CLOSE, but not QUITE the same...)
Partigyle style beer (after I get a 10 gallon cooler)
Gluten free beer attempt #2
Ginger beer

Now I'm ready to roll :)
As soon as I get the time to do it

NHC Recap

What a great time I had at NHC.  Seattle was rainy and cold, and a welcome change from AZ.

The dinner was delicious, the people were wonderful to talk with, and the beer was fantastic!

I bottled Portly Squirrel the day before I left, along with Mr Nelson I Presume.  Drank them on Monday night, and they are GREAT!

NHC 2012

I'm all packed and ready to head to NHC tomorrow. Can't wait to see all the tingz!

The week has been homebrew free other than consumption.  I have 2 batches I hope to bottle today so it will be ready when I come home.

For club night I am Fed-Ex'ing 12, liter sized bottles to my hotel in a wine shipping box.  I'm confidant they will make it OK.

Sharing is caring!

The Empire

I have an online beer empire.

I have the Arizona Beer Events calendar hosted at http://www.malthopsyeast.com

I have an NHC info page at http://www.firstrunnings.com

I have a review site at http://www.yeastofyourproblems.com

Waiting in the wings are:
Beers For Your Ears (the podcast site)
and LiveLoveBrew (the beer crafting/paraphenelia/shop)

MWA HA HA HA HA HA!

I'm taking over the world!

I made an Android app through Andromo which is for NHC attendees.  Find it at Firstrunnings.com

A weekend tale

This weekend was AWESOME!

Bonnie and I had a chance to hang out with a couple of homebrewers on Friday.  Now, granted, we were laze-ing around in their pool for 5 hours, not brewing, but... The entire conversation revolved around beer. Of course.

Saturday we cleaned the yard (and tidied up the brewery) then headed off to a big Homebrewer BBQ.  The fella who hosted it has a completely computer controlled, 20 gallon system.  Basically, he could brew from his couch.  He also makes a SICK brisket, and some roasted chicken of the highest standard of excellence.  And a pool.  Of course.  Then we proceeded to the after-party at another homebrewer's home.

Sunday was brew day!  Jeremy came over.  He did all grain in the Brew In A Bag process, and wanted to see my all-grain process.  So from 11-12 I got the brewery ready and he arrived at noon.

ONE WOULD THINK that we would get brewing at noon, right?  Well recall the Saturday BBQ and Afterparty?  There were some lingering effects which a quart of blue Gatorade helped with.  For him.  I was a bit slow, but not hung over :) yeah, that's the ticket...

We brewed a batch and he loved the process, it's really simple on my system.  Which is sort of unfair to other brewers who plan on brewing all grain after they see my system.  Like I said, I could brew with my eyes closed, I have the system so dialed in.

After 3:00, other guys started arriving (and my mom and dad) and we got the grill fired up for some delicious dogs and burgers.  At this point, my mash-in was in process for my second brew.

Brew 2 finished, cooled, and in the fermenter.

Can you imagine a better weekend?

This is the brew day schedule:

NHC Schedule

FINALLY the NHC seminar schedule was posted.

I created a few documents


Google Calendar Link:
https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=snig8mcfmmm4e31mhi38qjgcvk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Phoenix

Google Doc (text):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oslwIkO2yuXdX4z9vHXOIW7NbccWKmyp42P-I39mHf4/edit

Google Doc (spreadsheet):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoKRRO48eB2AdG9MbzVFRVc1UldHY2lkWTZtblExQ0E

Podcasts

I listen to podcasts ALL the time.  I really loathe having to listen to the radio, and I have a 45 minute drive to work.

Now, podcasts come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Wait, let me back up again.  Podcasts are shows produced most often by the creator, and posted on web sites.  They are not reviewed, broadcast over the radio, and the user (listener) has to actually SEARCH them out and either download or stream them to listen.  Therefore, they are more free to use off-color language and discuss a FAR wider variety of topics than you will find on normal radio.

Good, now that we covered that...

They can be 5 minutes long or 4 hours long, or 75 hours long!

What I like about brewing podcasts is that there is a professional network, The Brewing Network, who produces incredibly high quality content.  There are also several excellent podcasts which I listen to- BeerSmith, and Basic Brewing are among the best.

What makes a good podcast for me? It has to have good audio quality.  It should "flow" well, and be entertaining.  For me, it also helps if there is a regular schedule of broadcast, so I know I will have something to listen to.

What makes for a bad podcast?  Poor sound quality.  Bad edits with "dead air". When 50% of the show is burp and fart jokes. BOOOOORING delivery

There are a lot of unlistenable podcasts out there, to be sure. Seriously unlistenable. (And they have "sponsors".  What the hell?  You'd put your company's name on a show of that piss-poor quality? That's about the dumbest thing I can imagine)

Another thing that has made me crazy lately is that I want to listen to a couple of podcasts whose content is only accessible through a Flash player.  I have a pretty awesome Android phone.  Still, I can't listen to these in my normal stream of podcasts because the content is not in a standard audio format.

So why am I pontificating about a subject which I know about as much about as I do brewing?  Because it's time to have a brewing and overall beer podcast coming out of the DaH house.

We've toyed with the idea for about a year, and it's time.  We will be recording a few soon, and posting before NHC.

Here's hoping people enjoy what Bonnie and I have to say about fermentation :)