Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tired of the same old hair?
The Detroit Wig Out is an unrestrained, one-night party where you can sport a new look, an alternative guise, or simply enjoy good live music and fun in the name of wiggery.
Where: The Magic Stick, the iconic Detroit rock-n-roll club at 4120 Woodward Avenue; (313) 833-9700
When: Saturday, June 6, 2009; Doors Open 8:00 PM
Why: To benefit Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit.
www.detroitwigout.com
Entertainment: Black Jake and the Carnies, Silverghost, Dale Beavers & Bootsey X, Spag Burlesque, and DJ Adam Stanfel. Hosted by Creepy Clyde. Wig Walk and Live Pin-up Station for photos with burlesque gals. Details on Entertainment page.
Tickets $10: Available now at Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit in Royal Oak, at the door, or through Ticketmaster.
Don’t want to wear a wig? That’s okay... there will be a small non-wig-wearing surcharge of $2 at the door (and feel good that it’s going to benefit programs at Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit).
Contact: info@detroitwigout.com
Pre-Wig Out Primping: Just announced... On Friday, June 5, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Flip Salon in Ferndale will be hosting a Wig & Wine event to style and prep wigs the night before the Detroit Wig Out.
SCHEDULE
8:00 Doors Open
9:00 Silverghost
9:30 Wig Walk
10:00 Spag Burlesque: ACT I
10:30 Dale Beavers & Bootsey X
11:30 Spag Burlesque: ACT II
12:00 Black Jake and the Carnies
...Full post
Rex speaks!
The Brewing Epicenters of the World
A Class & Tasting
w/ Rex Halfpenny
Ashley's Westland
Tuesday
June 9th
7 pm
This is our second class in a series on beer education.
The room was full for our last class so make reservations today!
Rex Halfpenny is the publisher of the Michigan Beer Guide. A national beer judge, he has recorded the evolution of the craft beer industry in Michigan. Those that have met Rex before know his passion and knowledge of beer is something to behold.
For more info & to Buy Tickets on line:
http://www.ashleys.com/beerclass.html
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Real Ale at Slows
Tomorrow, a firkin of Old Speckled Hen will be tapped at Slows. We have further been informed that future selections will include Ruddles Bitter and Greene King IPA. WooHoo!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Batch 300
Batch 300 itself was inspired in part by a great commercial beer, Weyerbacher 12. I am a great fan of rye as an adjunct, and had been starting to dream up a strong beer for batch 300 when a friend gave us a bottle of this extremely tasty, viscous beer. Unlike so many commercial beers featuring rye, this one showed off the great distinctive spicy, bready character of the rye instead of burying it with hops. Yeah, something like that... I prefer to use flaked rye instead of the rye malt that Weyerbacher used, so the percentage of rye in the recipe is less, but should have a similar, ie massive, impact on the character of the beer. Charlie P, at this point, would say "enough with the shuck and jive, on with the recipe." So, why not:
48 lbs Canada Malting 6 row malt
20 lbs flaked rye
2 lbs Crystal 40
3.2 oz Nugget hops, 12% alpha for 60 minutes
1 oz Saaz hops, 3.2% alpha for 20 minutes
1 oz Saaz hops, 3.2% alpha for 10 minutes
1 oz Saaz hops, 3.2% alpha for 5 minutes
Because 70 lbs of grist is more than double the practical maximum my little 10 gallon brewery can accommodate, we apportioned the mash between two 10 gallon and one 12 gallon cooler style mash/lauter vessels. We made a very thick mash, .75 quart/lb., so that we could do a protein rest at around 125F before boosting to saccharification temperatures with infusions of boiling water. This was all planned out in advance, on the back of a discarded envelope. Strangely, we were required to do a fair amount of improvising on the fly to get the job done. And of course, one of
the three lauter tuns proved to be balky and sticky, refusing to cough up the sweet wort. Skip had to dump the whole thing into a kettle and heat it up to 170F, return it to the tun, vorlauf, lather, rinse, and repeat. Runoff was slow but steady from the other two lauter tuns, and eventually we'd collected about 13 1/2 gallons of sweet wort at around 1.084. We boiled vigorously for about an hour before adding kettle hops. I didn't gauge the evap rate as well as I could've, so we ended up a bit high on volume, with an OG of 1.095. Close enough for amateurs. Due to the prodigious hot break, even casting out of the kettle was bog slow. 
The wort was promptly turned over to some very active and hungry yeast, Wyeast 1056, which had a full head of steam up within a couple of hours. While I was seeing to my other job as pitmaster, Skip conducted a second mash and lauter and filled his kettle up. We decided that that wort would be treated to a full course of Cascade goodness; one big late addition and one kettle addition for a total calculated 35 BU. This should be nicely balanced with the OG 1.054 wort we ended up with. This, in its turn, was fed to more 1056, and joined its big brother in the Circus Room. Then, the brewing staff turned to feasting....
...Full post
48 lbs Canada Malting 6 row malt
20 lbs flaked rye
2 lbs Crystal 40
3.2 oz Nugget hops, 12% alpha for 60 minutes
1 oz Saaz hops, 3.2% alpha for 20 minutes
1 oz Saaz hops, 3.2% alpha for 10 minutes
1 oz Saaz hops, 3.2% alpha for 5 minutes
Because 70 lbs of grist is more than double the practical maximum my little 10 gallon brewery can accommodate, we apportioned the mash between two 10 gallon and one 12 gallon cooler style mash/lauter vessels. We made a very thick mash, .75 quart/lb., so that we could do a protein rest at around 125F before boosting to saccharification temperatures with infusions of boiling water. This was all planned out in advance, on the back of a discarded envelope. Strangely, we were required to do a fair amount of improvising on the fly to get the job done. And of course, one of
the three lauter tuns proved to be balky and sticky, refusing to cough up the sweet wort. Skip had to dump the whole thing into a kettle and heat it up to 170F, return it to the tun, vorlauf, lather, rinse, and repeat. Runoff was slow but steady from the other two lauter tuns, and eventually we'd collected about 13 1/2 gallons of sweet wort at around 1.084. We boiled vigorously for about an hour before adding kettle hops. I didn't gauge the evap rate as well as I could've, so we ended up a bit high on volume, with an OG of 1.095. Close enough for amateurs. Due to the prodigious hot break, even casting out of the kettle was bog slow. 
The wort was promptly turned over to some very active and hungry yeast, Wyeast 1056, which had a full head of steam up within a couple of hours. While I was seeing to my other job as pitmaster, Skip conducted a second mash and lauter and filled his kettle up. We decided that that wort would be treated to a full course of Cascade goodness; one big late addition and one kettle addition for a total calculated 35 BU. This should be nicely balanced with the OG 1.054 wort we ended up with. This, in its turn, was fed to more 1056, and joined its big brother in the Circus Room. Then, the brewing staff turned to feasting....
...Full post
Recovering, Slowly
Some might ask why on earth anyone would think it a good idea to brew your ambitious batch N on the day you have a party to celebrate said milestone. Some might ask, "Shouldn't you know better by now?" Or, "Isn't that too much work?" Well. It's the idea of the thing. Or stupidity. But you know what?
We did it. So there.
Here's batch 300 on the right, accompanied by batch 300A on the left, fermenting merrily away.
There will be a separate post detailing the brewing activities. While Annette returned to the kitchen after having left off at 10PM previous, Skip, Richard, and a little later, Roy, came over to help with brewing and miscellaneous setup eeearly in the morning. The water was started heating at 7AM, Batch 300 was settled into fermenters by about 4PM, with 300A following by about an hour or so.
In and around the brewing and setup of chairs, tables, canopies, etc, there was some cookin' going on. As noted in a previous post, a couple of things were cooked the day before: pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, trifle, gumbo. The morning and early afternoon saw roasted garlic and onion jam/blue cheese pizzas, couscous pilaf, smoked turkey legs, salads, two legs of lamb, a big ol' salmon, sangria, and probably a few more things my fatigued memory cannot bring forth just now. If it wasn't meat, then Annette did it, and I could scarcely stay on top of the few food items I was responsible for. And, of course, since there were many brewers in attendance, there were many other contributions to the feast arriving all day. There was a lot of food. A lot. And almost no leftovers. There was beer, too. The final lineup:
Helles
Pils
Maibock
Imperial Pils
Schwarzbier
Rauchbier
IPA
Pale Old Ale
Big Brown Ale
Irish Stout (cask)
Of course, there were lots of bottles and growlers of various delightful things being shared around, as well. We are estimating that there were 60 people in our tiny yard at peak, with people coming and going until pretty late. By 3AM, though, we were down to two very tired Cicerones and a couple of dozing guys around the fire.
That was a lot of work, but totally worth it. Thanks to all that came to help celebrate this minor milestone, and especially to those that worked so hard to help us pull it off. We toast you with the pints of cask stout we're enjoying, on its last night of viability. Cheers!
...Full post
We did it. So there.
Here's batch 300 on the right, accompanied by batch 300A on the left, fermenting merrily away.
There will be a separate post detailing the brewing activities. While Annette returned to the kitchen after having left off at 10PM previous, Skip, Richard, and a little later, Roy, came over to help with brewing and miscellaneous setup eeearly in the morning. The water was started heating at 7AM, Batch 300 was settled into fermenters by about 4PM, with 300A following by about an hour or so.
In and around the brewing and setup of chairs, tables, canopies, etc, there was some cookin' going on. As noted in a previous post, a couple of things were cooked the day before: pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, trifle, gumbo. The morning and early afternoon saw roasted garlic and onion jam/blue cheese pizzas, couscous pilaf, smoked turkey legs, salads, two legs of lamb, a big ol' salmon, sangria, and probably a few more things my fatigued memory cannot bring forth just now. If it wasn't meat, then Annette did it, and I could scarcely stay on top of the few food items I was responsible for. And, of course, since there were many brewers in attendance, there were many other contributions to the feast arriving all day. There was a lot of food. A lot. And almost no leftovers. There was beer, too. The final lineup:Helles
Pils
Maibock
Imperial Pils
Schwarzbier
Rauchbier
IPA
Pale Old Ale
Big Brown Ale
Irish Stout (cask)
Of course, there were lots of bottles and growlers of various delightful things being shared around, as well. We are estimating that there were 60 people in our tiny yard at peak, with people coming and going until pretty late. By 3AM, though, we were down to two very tired Cicerones and a couple of dozing guys around the fire.
That was a lot of work, but totally worth it. Thanks to all that came to help celebrate this minor milestone, and especially to those that worked so hard to help us pull it off. We toast you with the pints of cask stout we're enjoying, on its last night of viability. Cheers!
...Full post
This Thursday at Fort Street
Two new beers, including the return of Piston Pale Ale.
Sez Doug:
...Full post
Sez Doug:
I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend! It was very lonely for all of us at the brewery, so we hope now that you're back home, you'll come visit us!
This Thursday, May 28th, "Piston Pale Ale" returns! Our annual summer IPA is made with 50% wheat and 100% Amarillo hops. Citrusy and refreshing; it's the taste of summer (especially for hop heads)! In addition to "Piston", we'll also be tapping our 103rd cask-conditoned ale. "Terry's Red Shine" is "Corktown Red" with some home-made moonshine added to the cask. Our celebrity guest tapper will be our biggest celebrity guest to date! If you're a sports fan, you know him well. If you're not a sports fan, then I guess he's just another guy. But we are very pleased to have Terry Foster tap this cask. You may know him as a writer for The Detroit News, or as co-star of the "Valenti and Foster" radio show, or perhaps you've read one of his two books. Either way, he'll be here, and so will alot of other cool and popular people. Of course, you know the key to being cool and popular is to do what other cool and popular people do. So, we'll be expecting you around 8 p.m.
...Full post
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