DrankTank : The Beverage Blog

Vote Prohibition 2008

dshular — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:23:39 +0000

With the economy tanking, we run the real and immediate risk of a national crisis of alcoholism in this country. When things are bad, the devil in all of us will turn to the bottle. With a broken economy and millions of people out of a job, this intoxication could even lead to drunken riots, if not revolution.

Our polititians need to take immediate control of this situation before it is too late.

There is one man leading the fight: Gene Amondson, 2008 Prohibition Party Candidate for President.

Wow. This guy is serious.

Dranktank.com would like to take this opportunity to officially endorses Gene Amondson for President of the United States.

As a homebrewer, the bootleg opprotunities are just too attractive not to campaign for this guy. I wonder if I can get a campaign sign to hang above the kegerator?

busy, distracted, brewing, and drinking

dshular — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:47:17 +0000

Crazy times these are.

In the past few weeks we’ve made a batch of freshly-picked freshly-squeezed muscadine wine. Last night we juiced many bags of apples and ended up with 2 gallons of fresh juice now in the fermenter for fall cider. A few weeks ago I helped out with a mead presentation to a local group of bee-keepers.

I’ve been celebrating Oktoberfest like it’s going out of style (was it ever IN style?). I’ve been to 3 Oktoberfest parties and hosted one Oktoberfest beer tasting already, and have another party lined up for Saturday. My lovely woman gave me the best Oktoberfest present imaginable… A full set of lederhosen hand-made and brand-new from Munich. They will be inaugurated this Saturday.

I found out this morning I am an uncle. I am so happy for my brother and his wife and can’t wait to go see my new nephew Tate in a few weeks.

My father was laid off from his job yesterday. He had been with the same company for over 30 years; longer than I have been alive. I have never know him not working there.

I am scared about the economy, happy with this weather, worried about my own job, excited to be an uncle, worried for my parents, in love with a girl, skeptical of all politics, in need of a hair cut, in good health, and brewing an Irish Stout this weekend.

It’s been a hell of a month.

a brewer’s worst nightmare

dshular — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:31:48 +0000

Ug.
I am totally exhausted. I woke up at 6am to get a head start on a big brewday. My plan was to make a clone of one of my favorite seasonal beers, the Haufbrauhaus Oktoberfestbier. I had everything ready to go and things started off pretty good and I hit my protein rest mash temp dead on.

This was the most ambitious beer I’ve set out to brew in a LONG time, maybe ever. I decided to do a double decoction, which means you take part of your grains out and actually COOK them during the mash (most German beers use this technique to get that bold maltly flavor).

Strike 1 was I RAN OUT OF PROPANE during the first decoction! That sucks. A quick run to Harris Teeter solved that, and other than setting me back on time, no damage done to the beer.

The mash finished no problem… then it was time to sparge.

Strike 2: I have heard horror stories of STUCK MASH, but I have to hold a new world record for the worst stuck mash in history! Absolutly terrible. Normally, you just run water through your grains and you get out all the converted sugars. A “stuck mash” is when the sugar water you are getting out of the grains WON’T FLOW.

I tried EVERYTHING, including dumping my ENTIRE mash 2 different times. Over half of my wort was collected by literally sparging BY HAND with a freakin’ colender and a tiny bit of grains at a time. IT TOOK FOREVER.

Total brew time: 6am-3pm for 12 gal of beer.

When all was said and done, I somehow miraculously ended up with the correct VOLUME of wort at the correct starting gravity, and it was even reasonably clear. Amazing. I paid my dues to the brew gods, and I hope they reward me with my best beer ever, because it was without a doubt the longest brewday I’ve ever had for one batch.

I did snap a photo of my brewery (a pint of my latest Creamy Kolsch made it into the photo), which I don’t think I’ve ever posted on Dranktank:

Ale to the Chief

dshular — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:58:06 +0000

A blogger covering the DNC convention gets to try a pint of Avery’s Ale to the Chief.

We the Brewers of Avery Brewing Company, in order to form a more perfect ale, require a new leadership that can liberate us from our quagmires in foreign lands; embrace environmentally sound energy alternatives to imported oil; heal our ailing health care system; free us from tyrannical debt and resurrect the collapsing dollar. We hereby pledge to provide him or her with an ample amount of our Presidential Pale Ale to support in the struggle for the aforementioned goals! Hail to the New Chief! Not an “Imperial” pale ale, this is a democracy. It’s Presidential! Take the all-American pale ale, a bipartisan blend of malt and hops, increase to both Avery Brewing standards, and then, of course, dry hop the result with that most quintessential of American hops, Cascades, and you get this… Ale to the Chief. A brew worthy of the Oval Office! Brewed with Rocky Mountain water, malted barley, hops and yeast.

ale to the chief, avery dnc

Summertime Brews Festival

dshular — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:16:34 +0000

Saturday was the Greensboro Summertime Brews Festival.

As usual, the Battleground Brewers Guild (homebrew club) had the most popular booth. This year, we were sporting our bran new solid wood bar…

…and 19 varieties of homebrew.

An absolutely amazing fun party. My Jalapeno Gold was a hit yet again, along with several other unique beers including a Chocolate Mint Stout, a Coconut Porter, Watermelon Wheat, and a “Mountain Brew” (fermented mountain dew).
I think we all stuck by the “one for me, one for you” pattern so EVERYONE had a great time.

greensboro, homebrew summertime brews festival

rumor confirmed

dshular — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:38:48 +0000

Previously mentioned rumor has been confirmed.

Summer is officially over.

costco, oktoberfest sam adams

…rumors

dshular — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:05:59 +0000

I heard a rumor last night that COSTCO just kicked in the new season by stocking SAM ADAM’S OKTOBERFEST.

I’ll be there tonight to verify.

If it’s true, that’s the best news I’ve heard since about this time last year.

Sadly, Shularbrau brewery got so busy this summer that there will be no homebrewed Oktoberfest this year.

costco, oktoberfest sam adam's

Hazelnut yuck.

dshular — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:47:05 +0000

You know what is gross?

The smell of burnt hazelnut coffee. NASTY.

Yet, that is the smell in my office every morning by about 10am for the last few weeks. I rarely drink coffee made by my co-worker in that nasty machine, opting instead to bring my own coffee in a big thermous every day.

Second-hand burnt hazelnut coffee fumes should be on the list of OSHA hazards.

coffee, hazelnut office

My beer in print

dshular — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:28:28 +0000

YES WEEKLY, one of the Triad’s weekly “to-do” papers did a cover story about BEER.

On Saturday, I was at a fellow homebrewer’s house doing quality control tests on our SUMMERTIME BREWS FESTIVAL beers(coming up Saturday! Get your tickets). I did notice a guy with a notepad asking a lot of questions. Turns out he was doing a story on us and apparently the poor bastard got a taste of my JALAPENO TEQUILA GOLD ALE and kinda liked it. (see “Part IV: The Hobbyist” at the VERY BOTTOM of the article).

beer, homebrew, jalapeno, summertime brews festival YES WEEKLY

Drink/Ice ratio

dshular — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:46:47 +0000

Marginal Revolution, a great blog I recently discovered and have become a regular reader of, ponders the drink to ice ratio at restaurants.

drink ice