Keg hopping

We are kegging our Old Man Pale Ale today. Jason is currently keg hopping the pale ale with Galaxy hops. This beer was inspired by his father who was able to join him on the brew day. From what I understood he really enjoys the hops they used in this pale ale and we are hoping he will be able to try it soon.

A little bit about this beer. It's a 4.7% galaxy single hopped pale ale. Pre carbonation the smell is citrusy and hoppy, mouthfeel pre carbonation, it's refreshing sitting outside here, good amount of bitterness as a pale ale should , but a little watery . 

Good news.... I think the clarity and color is great ! Looks more like a IPA  though. 

Business is business

So for a little over a year we have been working on our business plan. However just recently I have actually been organizing the plan and its coming together. I thought I was done but turns out I would like to put more facts about craft beer in it, and do a better version of a budget.

I would love to say we will be a running brewery In a year but that is nowhere near reality. However we are getting close ... In July I'm hoping to have the plan completely done... At least the 1 st draft. I plan to present it to someone interested in investing and possibly get a good look at our next steps.

For the past couple weekends we have been brewing every weekend. Well we have family coming into town this weekend but that might not stop us from brewing or... Doing something beer related ;)

Hoppy Easter

Hoppy Easter everyone! We know its a holiday, but what better way to spend the holiday then by eating a lot of good food and brewing a good beer?!
Before the beers that we have been doing have been with extract and now we have made the switch to all grain. Actually the past couple brews have been all grain. I think it's working out good. We tasted last weeks beer and let me tell you ... It's pretty darn tasty.

We have done more work on our business plan, but still have a ways to go. Some artwork has been done,but yet again still ways to go. We are just trying to figure out the best logo, colors, scheme, what ever you may enjoy. There is definitely a lot going on and in excited for the future

Mystery mystery

Today is a brewing day. For my husband that is. Jason and his buddy Tyler (who we "unofficially" hired as one of the brewmasters) are brewing an all grain beer today. However, this beer is a secret. More like a mystery to you. So stay tuned and find out possibly in August (I know,long time away) before the details of this beer can be revealed.

Oh yeah and Layla says she loves brew days!

Been a long time

Wow it has been such a long time since we last posted . We have done quite a bit of brewing and getting married, as well as traveling . Lets see... We did a cider from windy hill apples. Which was a huge hit at our ugly sweater Christmas party. There was also a pale ale with no name yet that is tasty. Jason has been siting on some sours for about a year now and I must say it looks pretty disgusting, but they say its supposed to look that way.

I apologize for the quickness and the grammatical errors as I'm trying out the app on my phone for the blog. That way we can keep you all up to date as much as possible and we won't have to go a year without posting.

On our honeymoon in October 2013/ November 2013 we spent most of our time going from bar to bar around England, Brussels and Paris. We also made Pitstops to couple brewery's . Most memorable is fullers and of course cantillion. Just trying different beers was our goal .

Since then we havn't had time to actually do a brew day but hopefully soon because Jason is definitely getting that itch .

There is a picture of Jason's hop bouttinier whih are SC grown hops from our friend Matt's farm ,and some beers we have and on our honeymoon . Enjoy

Trench Run, and some porters experience

I am proud to say that the Trench Run Pale Ale, Jason made is definitely the best beer we have made so far. at least top runner compared to our Local Engagement IPA and Yes,Dear Kolsch. Usually I am not one for tasting the beer before carbonation, but when Jason said it was pretty awesome, I just had to try it. Well consensus is... it is Awesome. I think it will serve its name properly. We ended up bottling the beer last week, and are awaiting the day that we can crack one open and try it fully finished. Our own recipe, for the first time had turned out great!

We also had made a porter, we bottled a couple gallons of just the porter. Then of course our love for experimenting with different flavors came into play with this porter. One gallon is fermenting right now with Tart cherries. (can you tell we really like the flavor of cherries?). One gallon is fermenting in soaked oak chips of Ballast points Three Sheets rum. (YUM). The last gallon is fermenting with Starbucks Italian Roast coffee beans. All of these we of course have chosen based off of what we have tasted in the past and decided we would like to try our own with our favorite items. Of course we don't sit around eating tart cherries, i think our goal is to try and make a really good beer with a good amount of cherry flavor that isn't too overpowering. We already made a stout, and by everyone comments that have tried it they really like it, but wish it was more cherry flavor. We agree, and this time instead of using cherry extract we decided to go with the real thing, Tart cherries and their juice they are sitting in. Then of course who doesn't love to have coffee flavored porter? its morning in a cup as i say when i cracked open my favorite, while in las vegas, the morning of my birthday (Black Butte was the exact beer. my top rated). I think the rum was inspired by a rum porter we had once, cant remember the brewery or the beer, but also want to think my dad had some influence too, even though it might not have been, but he does love his rum!.

We are heading to Indianapolis for a week at Christmas and I'm hoping that we can get some ideas of where the brewery would be a great fit, and possibly try and get some paperwork/literature to read over for opening up a brewery in a state we have not lived in yet. We currently reside in South Carolina, where laws are starting to get better for local breweries, but i just don't see the market for it quite yet here, although we have some great friends who are hoping their brewery opens here in Columbia very soon, and we are super excited and will be huge supporters so keep your eyes and ears open, I think word of mouth is the best form of marketing, plus the beer i have had so far is da' bomb!

Till next time (more like a month with my track record)

-A

You win some... you lose some

The Cherry stout did not come out as well as we would have liked. We did not add enough sugar which in the end did not let it carbonate enough so it is flat. However, the batch that we used the smoked woodchips with merlot wine from Biltmore Estates turned out amazing. Probably my favorite one out of the 4 experimental batchs. Smoked woodchips soaked in bourban was the  next best, you can really taste the smoked oaky flavor. and the last experimental with the two different smoked chip batches mix which made it a smoke chipped bourbon merlot cherry stout turned out decent. Very flavorful. Eh you win some you lose some right?

Jason brewed a wheat beer using two types of hops. We called the the summer plunder... It is actually my favorite. Not too hoppy, not too bitter but just enough bitter towards the end. Easy drinking for anytime of the year really. Jason and his best guy friend Guy started brewing up an ipa one weekend. We are going to bottle it this week so hopefully in 2 weeks it will be good to go.

Now for the not so fun part, the legal part of investigating the opening of the brewery, which is my forte i suppose than Jason's.  I was able to get more information about the laws of distrubution in Indiana as well as the permits needed. Our business plan has been coming along greatly, thanks to no help from anyone but myself and marketing statistics on the Indiana.gov website, but like i said, its more of a me thing than Jason. We are heading up to Indy for Christmas and at that time i would really like to look into getting more information from possibly chamber of commerce, and maybe pick up some literature about small business laws and a good couple of locations to start the brewery. I really enjoy Uplands view point, which is have a main brewery, but spread over the area are small tasting rooms to really get their product out there. Then again from what i have been told about Three Floyds i really enjoy how they are so localized and state wide available,  but low key.

Well more research will be needed and spreadsheets will be made. On to the next experiment of beer.

-A