Flossmoor Station Brew Day

Here are some pics of my brew day at Flossmoor Station Brewery. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Matt and brewing my Biere Bella recipe. Matt is a cool guy who knows how to brew awesome beer. Everybeer that I tried down there was great! I also got a chance to meet Michael Pelter, president of the B.O.S.S. Homebrew Club as well as a few other members. Everyone was great and it made the experience that much better having people to talk beer with.

Whats Coming Up

Well this Memorial Day weekend I'll be heading down to Munster, IN to Three Floyds Brewery to take the brewery tour and to imbibe in everything, and I really mean everything that they are serving up down there. I will also be heading across the border into Flossmoor, IL where I will be visiting Flossmoor Station Brewery. I will be spending the day with Head Brewer Matt Van Wyk while we brew a scaled up version of my Biere Bella recipe, a Belgian Golden Strong Ale inspired by the infamous Duvel which I'm sure if you are into Belgian Beer you know all about. I'll post pics and whatever video I can once I am home and I'll let you know how it went. Should be a fun weekend. If you know of any other breweries or good beer bars in that area, drop me a line because I will be on the prowl for good beer Saturday night while I'm down there.

Cheers!

Brian

Neat Little Package

I found a way to help myself keep my hands off of beers that I want to cellar for a while instead of drinking them up. I figure if I put a little extra effort into the packaging like bottle wax or even doing up some labels I will be less likely to blow through them before they are aged properly. I guess I have a harder time popping open a neat little package for my own consumption over my more sessionable beers that will not be stored in a "neat lil package". Worth a shot anyway. I have severe lacking in the will powerdept.

Drinking With Satan!

Drinking with Satan from Jeffrey Meyer on Vimeo.

Bottling Extravaganza!

I know now that i really MUST love Belgian beer. I am staring 35 gallons of beer in the eye and I know that I would hate myself for kegging this up and tearing through it in no time instead of bottling it and letting it bottle condition the way I like. I just can't bring myself to keg up a Belgian style beer--something about opening that bottle i guess. Well I just bottled the Saison that I did as well as the recipe that Sean Paxton and Urbain from De Struisse put together. They have only been in bottles for about 4 days now but impatient as i am, i had to pop one open of each beer. I am so stoked about both of these. So young and so good. I can't wait until they are in their prime.

(EDIT)

HERE IS A SILENT BEER REVIEW OF MY SAISON. SOMETIMES YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING.



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Saison & Archaic Beer

Wow, I forgot what it's like to brew a beer and actually be able to bottle it within a few weeks. I've been doing so many beers with bugs that I haven't bottled or kegged anything in forever it seems. My Belgian Dark Stong Ale is all bottled up and the Saison and Archaic beer are tasting like they are going in the right direction. Both of them should be down to final gravity within a day or two here. I am going to let the Archaic beer sit on the yeast for a few days after it is fully attenuated to let that yeast absorb some of the off flavors that are created during the fermentation process. I'm not sure if I will do that with the Saison because that yeast is probably going to break down (Autolysis) because I have been fermenting it at 85F for the last week or so. Yeah that's right, I said 85F. On purpose none the less. I thought at those temps that the yeast would eat through this beer in a few days but it is still going at about 10 bubbles per minute over a week later. I should coin Bubbles per minute "BPM". I'm claiming that. I am getting ready to bottle a Berliner Weiss and an All Brett Beer within the next two weeks or so too so I will most definately be buying returnables from my local beer store.

Biere Bella

Hey all, I just got the results from the Titletown Open that was held this last weekend at Titletown Brewery in Green Bay and my Biere Bella--Belgian Golden Strong Ale (named after my beautiful little girl)took first place in the Strong ale category. The results say that my club is the "Marquette Area Homebrew Club" but really it is the "Bay de Noc Brewers". Not sure how that mix up occured. The competition was put on by the Green Bay Rackers. I'm still waiting for the results from the "Homebrew at the W.E.B." competition. That competition was held on the same day. The aren't announcing the best of show until May 16th at the World Expo of Beer. All other results should be posted soon.....I HOPE! Waiting sucks.