Brew Day, Batch 342: Ginger Wheat Ale

Because Sumer is acumin in! Lhude sing cuccue!

One pound of chopped ginger. Cuccue, cuccue!

Brew Day, Batch 341: Rye Peppercorn Pale Ale

One of our favorites, as often noted on these pages- I need to make more to replace the keg I am sending to the AHA conference in San Diego....

Two ounces of freshly cracked Tellicherry peppercorns, waiting to transform good beer into AWESOME beer.

An Excellent Educational Resource

Have you got your Latitude 48 Deconstructed 12 pack yet? No? Go, get it, I'll wait here.

OK, now. Much of the world's finest hops are grown near the 48th parallel(s,) and Latitude 48 IPA uses 5 hop varieties from 3 principal regions: Hallertau Mittelfruh from Germany, (the signature variety in Boston Lager,) East Kent Goldings from (duh) Kent, and Zeus, Simcoe, and Ahtanum from the Pacific Northwest. Digression: there is another 48th parallel, and they are growing and developing some mighty fine varieties, as well.  Anyway, I think a parallel (heh) tasting is in order. Get yourself 6 tasting glasses per person. You're alone? Get help, this is too much beer for one person, and we'd rather you didn't waste any. The 12 pack contains 2 bottles each of the Latitude 48 IPA, and 5 additional versions of the same basic beer but with only one of the 5 varieties, so pour some of each one into a glass, compare, contrast, learn! Can you guess which one Mr. Cicerone does not care for?

Kudos to Boston Beer for a great and affordable learning aid!

Brew Day, Batch 340: Nugget Pale Ale

I like Nugget hops. They are a superior kettle hop, lending  a fine, lingering bittersweet character, and a fruity note that reminds me of black currants. (The fruit, not the leaves....) They are also not bad as a late addition. Today's beer is an American Pale Ale, target gravity 1.048, 45 BUs from 3 additions. Yeah, that sounds pretty bitter, but I'm using a decent dose of dark Munich plus some crystal 40 on top of a pils malt base, so it should balance OK.

Beer Camp

I know posting has been light lately around here, owing to real life's intruding ways, but we have been still living what my buddy Ray calls "the beer life." One item, documented by my li'l bro, was an educational program we've started at the instigation of our friends at Slows BarBQ: Beer Camp! Once we've put everyone at Slows through this brewer's boot camp, we'll start on the rest of the beer-slingin' population of Detroit....

Mark Your Calendars

Detroit Beer Week 2011 is in the early planning stages. Look for lots of cool events around town running from 14 to 23 October... chief organizers Jon Piepenbrok and Jason Peltier of Liquid Table have a Facebook page set up here and will post info as it develops.

Brew Day, Batch 339: Code Name SB40

I am brewing one of the beers we will use to commemorate my Li'l Bro's 40th birthday this summer, but details are being kept secret at this time.

One detail I can reveal: the dumbass almost, but ultimately did not, forget the salts.

Counting Down To The End

Or the rapture, or tribulations, or whatever....

The deck out back at Jolly Pumpkin Cafe seemed like a good vantage point to view the, uh, well, it *did* start drizzling after a while, forcing us to take our beers inside....

Ashley's Cask Fest line-up

The line-up, and the tapping times of each cask has just been announced. Read all about it HERE.

Ashley's Westland Cask Ale Fest

Ashley's cask ale fest is next Saturday! They have announced some of the line-up, and tickets are selling quickly!

See you there!