Categories: Brewing
Our SF Beer Week event is being planned for Saturday February 13th, 2010. We want to brew a collaboration beer with Jack’s Brewing Company prior to the event for two reasons.
First, we will have this beer on tap at the event for all our faithful fans to have while they enjoy our show.
Second, we will brew this recipe scaled down from 10bbls to 10 gallons on our current pilot system out front of Jack’s to show what ingredients go into beer and what the finished product is like.
We have a couple ideas for what we want to brew, but I am curious if any of you have any input or recommendations for what you would like to see. Post up a style or three you think would be cool and we’ll throw it into the mix in our final collaboration discussion.
What: Homebrewing Demonstration put on by 510 Brewing
When: Saturday, February 13th, 2010 @ 12:00PM
Where: Jack’s Brewing Co., 39176 Argonaut Way, Fremont, CA 94536
Cost: High Five and/or a Hug
If you are attending, and you are on Facebook. Join the event invite here.
Categories: New Toys
One thing that has stuck with me since childhood is the excitement of getting something shiny and new. I like to think of it as being a child at heart. That being said, as we get closer to opening up we will be accruing some toys to help make our lives a bit easier.
A few weeks ago, Austin Homebrew Supply had a special deal going on for Refractometers. One thing that we always forgot and/or were too lazy to do was take gravity readings all throughout the brewing process to effectively measure efficiency and alcohol content of our beer. That and we hated wasting all that beer using the hydrometer tube. I think the technical usage is place liquid under the “flap” and look through the eye hole at a something bright.
Through the eye hole you can get a brix reading of just about anything in liquid form. Since we haven’t brewed since we got it, I have taken a reading of a blueberry, tap water, diet pepsi, and orange juice. When we actually get to brewing another batch of beer, we found this handy little spreadsheet from MoreBeer which helps track fermentation and alcohol percentages along the way.
Categories: Brewing
SF Beer Week is coming up soon and we have been invited/asked to get something together for the party. By ask I mean I volunteered us to get something together to the organizers of the event. In looking at the events, there is a lack of “homebrewing” events as well as a lack of events in the East Bay. So why not kill two birds with one stone.
What we want to do is bust out our brewing rig into a public venue like the parking lot of a brewery/brewpub and maybe have a couple other homebrewers do the same. I would love for someone who does extract to come out as well so people can see how easy it is to actually get their foot in the door. If any of you out there are extract brewers, give us a shout so we can get you included in the event.
There are a few hurdles, however, that I think need to be overcome before we just show up and start brewing. I am clueless to the laws needed to get such an event up and running. I have sent a request over to CA’s Alcohol Beverage Control to try and get their help. I also pinged the guys from More Beer, since I know they put on events like this every so often. If anyone has some useful information on how to get it setup or activities we should do for the event, please speak up.
Thanks to olllllo for sharing this link with us:
Ohio University homebrew crew busted after seemingly being set up by officials
======Updates from California ABC below======
Read the rest of this entry »
Categories: Startup Woes
I stopped by and talked with Adam from Linden St Brewery over the weekend and had an interesting discussion about starting up a brand new brewery from scratch. For those of you who aren’t aware, Adam just got licensed to produce beer in Oakland earlier this year after trying since 2005. He is now the first production brewery in Oakland since 1959.
Adam got the lease to the building back in 05 and finally had equipment put in around 2007. However it has taken him an additional 2 years to get the proper work done to be able to make and sell beer to the public. We began talking about the challenges 510 is going to face over the next few months/years and the idea of contract brewing was brought up. At first I thought, “No way, this is my brewery, I want to make the beer.” Adam had the same thought back in 2005 and it’s taken him 4 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to be able to sell beer.
I know I am an optimist (my wife calls me unrealistic) and a bit naive, but I do know there is a lot of time and money that is going to have to go into starting a brewery up. Specifically money. I think it is safe to say that any bank I walk into right now will tell me to kick rocks if I want the kind of money needed to buy the things I need. But what if we took baby steps and started doing contract brewing through a local brewery to get our name out there. Let another guy worry about busted equipment. It seems like a logical move to get the ball rolling.
What is everyone’s opinion on a beer that is contract brewed vs the actual company making the beer?
Categories: Uncategorized
We’re all for new and exciting beers, especially when two rock stars come together and make something like Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada did. Life & Limb and Limb & Life are basically two beers made from a single batch using only ingredients from the Dogfish and Sierra farms.
The Life & Limb was simply breath taking. This is a great beer now and will continue to be a great beer years from now. Dean picked us up a few bottles to cellar for a few years, so we’ll know in 2012 if we were wrong, unless the world ends and California falls into the Pacific Ocean.
The Limb & Life was a little less spectacular. It started out great with an amazing head, but it just felt a little light bodied and too….tree sappy for our tastes. I would love to see how it tastes later down the road as it mellows, but it’s only available in kegs.
To make up for it, Peter let us try some of his Firestone XIII. This is another beer that will age well for years to come. If you see it at your local store, pick up a bottle or two and try it. I promise you won’t be let down. If you are let down, then you are probably a terrorist and we don’t want to be associated with you.
Posted on December 14th, 2009 by tsmith
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