Craft Trip to the Northeast

      I finally finished the video for our trip up north. I got a new GoPro to start documenting these craft journey's better. It allows me to film continuously without worrying about the battery life on my phone. I still get to take loads of pictures and I get continuous video to boot. I need to work on steadying the shot a little more and I might need to rig up a tripod. It would help with the time lapse sequences if the camera was a little more stable. I'm going to work on getting better sound bites as well. This one is 15 minutes but it was shot over a 5 and a half day period. We toured 15 breweries on this trip and hit some fantastic brewpubs. Pop some popcorn and enjoy the show. Cheers!

 

                                 Video Link:  Northeast Craft Beer Trip - January 2012

Gratis Fest, Terrapin Fest and Classic City Brewfest

     Where to start? Well this incredible weekend all started with a leftover can of truck bed liner. It made the perfect brew-deck sealer. Re-painting the brew-deck twice a year was getting to be a hassle. Luckily, that will soon be a thing of the past. We had leftover paint from the kegbox refinish that we tackled the week prior. Unfortunately, we weren't done with the keg box in time to have draught beer at Gratis-Fest. That probably was for the better.

       We started Gratis-Fest the day before with a quick run to the brewstore. I had ordered super fresh lambic yeast and they had to ship it in. It arrived Friday afternoon and it is a funky looking yeast!

       I started setting the brewery up at 6am. This time I had gotten smart and hooked the hardware up the night before. This meant that I could start the burner at 6:15am. That was awesome and really helped us keep on track. We were mashing by 8:30am.

       We had a fantastic crew of folks. Every time someone moved or breathed we tweeted it. You can see the smart phone team in action here. They were busily texting, tweeting and facebooking the entire day. Well done team Gratis.

      The above picture is the initial Dough-In. Jeff Hall, one of the original Misty Mountain Cloggers, is up top stirring and Puddin' is pouring the grain. These guys got up at 4:30am to make it down in time to brew. The Mash process for the lambic was intense. It required five steps to get to sparge and they were averaging 20 minutes per increase point. 

     We started at 122 degrees and held that for 30 minutes. We hit that target right on the nose. That was impressive for a chilly morning. Our grains were basement temperature but the outside air was hovering in the 40's at this point. 

        The next mash steps were: 139 for 20 minutes, 144 for 15 minutes, 162 for 20 minutes and 172 for 10 minutes with a sparge at 172. I've never sparged over 170 for fear of off flavors. This might just be the key to a successful Lambic. The wurt was very grainy. I question the step process using modified malts, it seems unnecessary but so does having to age hops in your garage for three years. 

         Here's everyone at the lunch whistle. Let me add at this point that Jen Roth did an incredible job of taking care of all of us all day long. That woman was a machine. I would also like to point out that our "Rawlph Haus" sign does kind of look like "Rawlph Balls", hilarious! 

       Here are our three year old hops. They are dry and brittle and only slightly aromatic. They are perfect for a lambic, but they are useless for most modern styles.

        Here we are chiiling the wurt and adding it to the ceramic fermenter. Why not use the conical? Well. brettanomyces is a super agressive wild yeast that likes to hide in every nook and cranny. I don't want to risk having an infection that would require a day to get rid of. So we will keep all "brett" beers in the glass carboy and ceramic fermenter. This fermenter is designed for suerkraut fermentation so it is perfect for lambics. This beer will take one to two years to finish. That's a long time to tie up a vessel. 

 Here is the whole crew on our way to Terrapin's 10th anniversary party. I surprised the guys with Gratis shirts and they surprised me by choosing to wear them to Terrapin. We looked like an official brewery. We were locusts about to descend on a barley field ad we were about to have a great time.

      Cheers to all the guys that came out to help brew and a big Cheers to Julia and Dustin at Terrapin. They added us to the VIP guest list and we felt like Rock Stars! The event was incredible and the beers were awesome. Tree Hugger was great and it bested itself in the casked, oak version. We parked in the cask tent and had a great time catching up with old friends.

       Like these dudes! Russ Yates, Charlie Meers and Owen Ogletree. Owen is responsible for creating what I think is the greatest craft beer festival in America. Classic City Brewfest is awesome and it was happening the next day. Three truly great beer dudes. 

     Here's Denver and Caleb on the ride home. You can see that we all look like the Joker from Batman. We couldn't stop grinning. That's how awesome the day had been up to this point. 

       We got back to Gratis by 7:30 after picking up pizzas on the way back. This is shortly before we all headed to the fire pit for a relaxing evening. It was a great time and we "gestungled" every beer imaginable. That's where you take a hot poker and jam it into your beer. It caramelizes the sugars in your beer foam and heats it up like a marshmellow. The bottom stays cool and refreshing. It's a lot of fun.

     Here is tent city the following morning. We did some urban camping to cap the an already great day. Luckily they kept the pit going all night and stayed super cozy.

     This is a picture of me drinking Easy Rider on Cask. This was the beer to end the weekend. We were tired and had just finished attending another incredible brewfest. Spike is the brewer, and cofounder of Terrapin, he is responsible for this great cask beer. 

      A quick video of the German sauerkraut fermenter in action. It has a really nifty water-lock rim that I poured Starsan into. That's why it' s foaming so much. I love this sound. Much more vocal than a blowoff tube going into a bucket. 

       We also threw a portion of the batch into a carboy. I did this mainly because I wanted to watch the pellicle form. The pellicle is a microbial laver that forms and helps to make the lambic sour over a long period of time. It's a symbiotic relationship. One day in the fermenter and it already looks funky and sour. I hope your weekend was as great as ours!