The Bar Towel

Hi folks, Just to give some examples of how fast things have changed in Ontario ... IPAs over the last 2 years -- they've gone from being one-offs for IPA Challenge to mainstays. Wine barrels in the last six months. Spring Oddity showing up in the LCBO at a surprising price point in a lovely bottle....

i'm just curious about the business of brewing. there enough microbreweries out there that someone must be making a buck. i was wondering out loud if its a lucrative career option or not. No, for most brewers, it isn't. They do it 'cause they like beer. Like working with their hands. And, well, let...

It's ~ $600k to open up a 10 hectolitre production brewery, depending on how extensive your renovations are. You need a floor that can support the brewhouse; fermenters; kegs; brights tank. You need drainage (you don't want to be the guy mopping up 800l of beer on a Monday morning). You need gas and...

I'm going!

Arriving on Monday, going to White Labs on Tuesday, flying back on Sunday.

Jason

Something else to consider with IPAs is that oxygen kills hop flavours and aromas, at VERY low concentrations. Many brewers leave their IPAs unfiltered (instead relying on finings, crash cooling, even lagering to clear things up) so that the filter won't add oxygen into the beer. This can lead to .....

Hey, looking for someone on here who wants to do a road trip to Vineland area with me. I am going to pick up a brett-infested wine barrel some time this spring. Are you talking about a full 225l barrel? That's ... an awful lot of barrel for a homebrewer. I don't have much experience with barrels, b...

more of a pleasant/augmentary flavour instead of a brett punch to the gut. guess i'm looking for some barnyard aromas. flavourwise, not overly sure what to expect with the Dunkel. you suggesting i go for 1 month of bretting vs 3? thoughts? Well ... if you're up for an experiment, pitch the brett an...

i'm now debating....wondering if the brett will kill the hoppy flavour in the dunkel i brewed. considering dry hopping it as well. any thoughts? Hmmmm ... I'd imagine that a bretted-up dunkel would lose much of its sturdy body and delicate malt / hop aromas to the barnyard. After about a month, bre...

I'd recommend picking up the book Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow -- it will give you a solid foundation for experimenting with soured / funked beers. Otherwise, brett can chew through long chain sugars (and even some wacky things like cellulose) that regular ale yeast can't metabolize. It /will/ find so...

I put the beer into a keg, add priming sugar, then use a Beer Gun to get it into bottles. I have a couple taps, but ... let's be honest ... quaffing 20l of a 9% Belgian is waaaaay beyond my capacity. If it's in bottles, I can give some away, age some more, and enjoy it at a more leisurely pace than ...

I don't mind waiting for brett to do its thing. I'm looking to get more sour/cherry than horsey beer, if that helps. If you're looking for sour over barnyard, what you probably want is either a sour mash or lactic acid bacteria (pedio and lactobacillus). Brett can produce lactic acid, but it's neve...

Brett in secondary. It really doesn't matter all that much. alright...two completely opposite opinions! :P How about a third? They're both right :) The literature says that brett goes barnyard in anaerobic conditions. If you pitch it at the beginning of fermentation, brett will eventually produce i...

I'd love me a berliner weisse though... Well ... Volo has a couple sours on tap, one from House Ales (note: I made it) and one from Great Lakes, This Hour Has 22 Pine Nuts. I'm not sure if they'll last the evening (the GL beer was on over the weekend, the HA was tapped yesterday), but they should s...

My Beer Store just started carrying Blanche de Chambly and I had never tried it before last night. Just wondering everyone's thoughts on it. I enjoyed it and would buy it again but it just seems like there is a little something missing. I'm a regular Mill Street Wit drinker and enjoy that one a bit...

Hmmm ... Have a look at this, http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html , lots of information on off-flavours. It could be an infection (the licorice flavour could be something phenolic [think band-aid]), stale / off ingredients, trub (AKA, the crap the settles out from boiling [hot break] ...