Wednesday, March 25, 2009

This week I'm bottling up the Hellsmoke Porter that was brewed in February, and will be getting it out next week. Will be putting out word of where and when early next week.

Weekends are the only time I can get any good amount of work done, so I'll be working in the brewhouse this weekend and not getting to the '09 Spring Craft Beer Festival at Nassau Coliseum. There will be some great beer there, though, so please go and enjoy! (Be sure to stop by the Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts table.)

I'm in the midst of exploring various ways to increase the amount of beer I can brew in any given brew session, so stay tuned...

Cheers,
Paul

Sunday, March 15, 2009

I'll be smoking and brewing up more Hellsmoke Porter today.

Yesterday, I accompanied Regina to a meeting in Riverhead of local organic farmers, as I'm interested in the possibilities of using local organic wheat (and possibly barley) as well as organic potatoes if my potato stout experiments pan out.

If anyone is interested in local organic, you might want to check out http://nofany.org/index.html (Northeast Organic Farmers Association -NY Chapter). Another good resource is Local Harvest ( http://www.localharvest.org).

Well, I didn't do great job keeping the yeast happy during the fermentation of my Wheatley Hills Weizenbock. After conditioning and bottling, it is unfortunately clear to me that while the Weizenbock is OK, it doesn't have all the character that I was aiming for. So, while it is drinkable (I'll be drinking and serving it at home), it isn't something I want to ask people to pay for. So, the Wheatley Hills Weizenbock won't be hitting shelves in the near future.

Meanwhile, more of the Hellsmoke Porter is currently fermenting and conditioning, so that will be out again soon. I'll be next brewing up beer more appropriate for Spring, and fresh batches of my Weizenbock should be making an appearance this Fall.