Dented Cap Brewing

It turns out Dented Cap Brewing, as an entity, won't be coming to fruition just yet. I talked to a friend of mine who knows the guy who started his own brewery out of his home around here, and he told me that the only reason Paul's able to do it out of his home is because his home is actually zoned commercial. I'd need the real estate to do this in, not to mention the proper equipment, licensing fees for the labels, etc. The proper licenses from the state and feds would run me 1k-2k, and apparently that's the cheap (and somewhat easy) portion of the whole process... It's still a neat thought, though, you know? Something to keep in the back of my mind for when I win that lottery jackpot...

In other news, I finally did it. I booked my vacation for the late spring, to Brussels. Yes, Brussels. It hasn't quite sunk in for me yet, but I think it will once I pay the charge bill for it. :-) I'm heading there in April, and waiting on a copy of a book all about Belgian breweries as we speak. I figure maybe a couple of brewery tours, maybe a couple of day trips... but this is what I've been putting the money on the side for, you know? I don't have a wife, I don't have any kids, right now, I'm still living for myself. This trip, my trip out to Denver in the fall for GABF, all that kind of stuff - if I don't do it now, then when can I do it? :-)

Everything else is going pretty well, that I can think of - I have a brewery coming down to the next beer club meeting to do a tasting for us, and I have a pale ale in the fermenter as we speak. This one's kind of an experiment - a fairly standard pale ale, but I'm going to add in a pound of orange blossom honey tomorrow night, most likely. Wanted to let it get a little further through the fermentation before I added in more sugar. My holiday beer this year isn't too bad, just a little heavy on the cinnamon. Note to self - next year, STAY with the quarter teaspoon - don't up it at all. And I finally realized what I did wrong with my vanilla porter from last year - the wrong kind of vanilla. I used bourbon vanilla beans instead of Madagascar vanilla beans - live and learn.

Alright, that's enough for now - I'm a little tired and am going to turn in a bit early, in hopes of shaking what's left of this cold. Lots of tea FTW. I'm going to try to do more short updates like this, though, instead of the occasional epic update like I had been doing. Makes sense, yes?

-CB

...does anyone know anyone who knows anything about commercial law? Company formulation and all that?


Or, more specifically, about forming businesses and possibly about the "hospitality industry"?

Latest beer label idea - thoughts? Opinions?

Sorry, but it's not often that I pour a beer as nice as this. (And forgive me the clutter in the background of the picture...)


It's a homebrew - my fresh hop American Pale Ale from last fall, so it's been around for a bit, but it's still every bit as hoppy and delicious. The clarity on this beer is incredible, though, and the head is a nice off white, hung around for a while, and is lacing the glass as I drink it. If I have access to the fresh hops every year, I'll make this beer every year... :-) And I can see myself doing my barleywine again - I'm not sure when, but that one came out VERY well. Only problem was that it's undercarbonated, but I'd rather have it undercarbonated than overcarbonated.


And this time, I'll write down the recipe, not just the hop schedule. ;-)

Click me, I'm a link to something really cool.

It's just been one of those weekends. Been arguing with people, been up and down, mind all over the place. And proof that it's been a messed up weekend?

I got on the scale this morning. 211.5.

(and yes, I know, I know - you're supposed to weigh yourself at the same time every day, etc.)

Got on after dinner (which was a whole medium Papa John's pizza - portion control FTW!), but before my shower - 210.5


So somehow, after a light lunch and AN ENTIRE PIZZA, I lost a pound. I think that sums up my weekend in a nutshell. (also makes me wonder what I'd weigh if I didn't eat the pizza...)


But I digress. Racked my apple cider tonight from one carboy to the other - only picked up a small amount of yeast along with it. this should help it clear the rest of the way - no idea how long to let it sit for, but I'm not in any real rush for it, so... I guess we'll see what happens. A friend of mine said it will still take a while from here, but that's fine by me. Took a taste of it recently and it's definitely interesting - still has a bit of an apple smell/taste to it, but it's like it's layered on top of a dry white wine. So we'll see how it comes out. Also, need to get a couple of bottles of the holiday beer out to a dear friend of mine in Florida... sometimes, what happens in Albright Court stays in Albright Court. There's a lot to be said for the housing staff in that building, though... :-)

And I think, possibly, I'm going to make my Kitchen Sink Brown Porter this coming weekend. I'll be steeping almost 4 pounds of grain, but it's going to be exactly what it sounds like - a kitchen sink beer. All the assorted grains I have laying around are going into it. Just need to pick up the malt extract and the hops for it, which shouldn't be too too bad. It's going to be something like Sam Smith Taddy Porter - so by all means, live vicariously through me, spend a couple of bucks, and pick yourself up a bottle of it. It's nice - a little roasty, but not too much, and nice and dark. Should be a good late winter-early spring brew.


Also, Dad's birthday is coming up this weekend. Made him a batch of Russian Imperial Stout last winter, gave it a year to age. He'll get it this weekend - and I haven't tried it at all. Kind of hoping it's good. He'd drink it even if it wasn't, and the gesture won't be lost on him, but still - I'd feel terrible if it wasn't very good... I mean, by all rights, it should be just fine - a beer like that can stand up to age. I can see how it's going to go, though... I'll hand him a glass of it, tell him it's a new one he has to try. He'll tell me he likes it (his favorite beer of all time is a RIS from a brewery in PA), I'll say something like "Good - there's another 2 cases of it out in my car. Happy birthday." :-) I also have a barleywine that I'm currently aging - going to try that one out next weekend, too... we'll see how it is. Maybe I'll just crash at my parents house next weekend, since I'll be going to my sister's for the super bowl anyway - she lives in the next town over from them. I'm probably going to enter the barleywine into competition in May-ish... we'll see. I still have some time on that one - and if the porter comes out well, then I can always enter that one in, too...

Also, finally managed to snag myself a Roomba. It's broken in some way, shape, and/or form, so I got it for 29.99 and 5 dollars shipping. My piss-away fund (money from rebates and the like) was at 35 dollars, so this roomba really only cost me a dollar. I've been in touch with their tech support because the battery's not charging - if all it is is a bad battery, then I might've gotten myself one hell of a deal. Either way, I got it, I registered it, and according to them, I have a year's worth of warranty on it. In theory, that can be doubled to 2 years through my credit card - but since it wasn't new, I don't know how I'd have to spin it if I needed to bring the credit card company into it...


Alright. Enough blathering on here. Calling it a night, so I can go into work and suffer through that for the next few days. We'll see how that goes - I have a big project starting an office-wide rollout this week. Catch up with me sometime - I'll need the sanity. And so help me god, people, if you see me, ask me how the label designing is going - I have 3 that I need to do, 2 of which are for this coming weekend...

...I didn't thank two people who sent me particularly good holiday presents this year. Coincidentally, they both have the same name.


For years now, for some reason, various versions of the name Jennifer have been in my life in quantity. There was Library Jen, Rumble Strip Jen, Acupuncturist Jen, and I'm sure a few others that I've forgotten about.


I got a couple of holiday presents this year - care packages, if you will. Acupuncturist Jen sent me some of her homebrews - a bomber (22 oz bottle) of her stout, a bottle of her hefeweizen, and a bottle of her spiced IPA - which I have to say was pretty impressive. All the spices came through in the nose, but nothing too major in the taste. Well done, Jen!

Then, a few days later, Chicago Jen (yes, that's how you're getting referred to here - deal with it :-P) tipped me off that she was sending me a present. So I open it up - and I pull out the first bottle. New Glarus Unplugged Berliner Weisse.


Now if you've never had a berliner weisse, you haven't had a Good Beer. This is just a simple, low alcohol, very tasty, slightly tart/sour, refreshing beer. And the New Glarus one, if it's not the BEST one I've ever had, it's one of the top 3. So I smile, very happy that I got a bottle of it (I had tried it in October at the GABF), then I decide that I might as well unpack the rest of the box as well - take out the rest of the bottles.


And, low and behold - another bottle of berliner weisse. And a bottle of their Apple Ale. And, my personal favorite, a bottle of their WI Belgian Red. I LOVE their WI Belgian Red. (and once I figure out how to change the color of links in these posts, I'm going to add in some links in this post.)


However, for the time being, I'm going to call it a night. It's been a long week, and I'm exhausted. So until I get to write again...

-CB

Real quick little post -

There's a cemetary not too far from work called Lyceum. For some reason, I like the word - and it sounds like it would be a good name for my barleywine. So, I was going to go over there to take a couple of shots to see if there was something I could use to do the label. Ended up not going to that one, but another small cemetary near work and took a couple of pictures to see what I could find. I'm thinking this is the shot I'm going to use...

Thoughts? :-)

A quick post - just because I feel better if I get something in here every few days...


So, when last we left our intrepid adventurer, I had alluded to something re: beer that I found really interested me. Kind of like a sub-aspect of it. I get a kick out of reading about the history of beer - what it's meant over time, how it's helped people over time, how in some ways, it's actually been responsible for saving lives. There's a ton of people tied to beer through history - saints, gods, royalty, regular people who've made a difference in some way, shape, or form. Different types of beer - how some were almost extinct, until one brewery decided to start making them again. How some beers are pretty obscure just by their nature - go to your local distributor and tell them you want a zwickelbier, and tell me what they say. Or see who's making a good sahti or a good chicha these days. Some odd/unusual brewing methods - like making a steinbier. Exactly what it sounds like - you heat the beer to boil it by using hot rocks. (It caramelizes some amount of the sugars, which would be one of the benefits.) Just general beer trivia/facts, I guess. Anyone know any companies looking for a beer historian? I love just learning about all this. I find it completely fascinating. :-)

Other than that, life's been... well, life. Mini road trip going on this weekend.


But for now, I'm calling it a night. Have been trying something new over the past couple of nights, where I've gone to bed at 1130 and woke up at 6. (Out of bed at 645 after resetting the alarm, but up at 6.) And all things considered? I'm surprisingly awake during the day. So I think this might be working out well. I'm going to go grab a beer and call it a night - happy trails to you, until we meet again...

First entry in a few days, on my way back from GABF in Denver. Got to meet some good people out there, both people I only knew from online and fellow convention goers. Beer people are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet – because they all have the same common interest as you. I suppose you could say the same about any interest – “Knitters are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet” – but, obviously, I can only speak for myself and my passion here. ;-)

Some of the stuff I tried out there was wretched, honestly, but some of it… wow. If any of you really, truly love me, find me a bottle of Isabelle Proximus from Port Brewing in California. Chances are you won’t be able to find it, but just to have tried it in and of itself made me happy. I had never heard of it prior to this trip, but once I found out a little about the history, I think that may have made the beer taste even better.

Every once in a while, brewers with a high level of respect for each other and their products will team up and make some sort of interesting beer. The first example that comes to mind is the beer (well, both beers, actually) that the brewer at Brooklyn Brewery and the brewer at Schneider teamed up on. They made similar beers – but one year they made it in Brooklyn, and the other year they made it in Germany. In this case, with the Isabelle Proximus, there were 5 brewers involved. Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head), Tomme Arthur (Port Brewing), Adam Avery (Avery Brewing), Rob Tod (Allagash), and Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River) all went to Belgium – and knew they wanted to make a beer based on their trip when they got back. The result is Isabelle Proximus. When I was at a beer bar Thursday night, after the first session I went to, I found out they had the big cork/cage bottles of Isabelle Proximus for $60 a bottle. Retail on the bottle, from what I hear, is about $30 – and I would gladly pay that, then save this one for a couple of years/some sort of really special occasion. The beer is just flat out THAT good.

Got to have some stuff from one of my other favorite breweries as well – New Glarus Brewing Co., out of Wisconsin. Two friends who I love dearly (and know me well ;-)) got me bottles of their WI Belgian Red last year – generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of cherry. But, long story short, this beer is just phenomenal. It tastes like “cherry pie in a bottle”, as many people were saying. It was also kind of funny, in a way – there were all these other breweries adjacent to New Glarus, but none of them had lines. New Glarus ALWAYS had a line about 20 people deep. So of course I had a few tastings of their Red, but I also got to try another beer from them – their Berliner Weisse.

If you’re not familiar with a Berliner Weisse, I would advise you at least try it out. It’s a low alcohol (3-4%ish) beer, generally served in a smaller bottle – 8-10 ounces, as opposed to the normal 12. But what makes it particularly interesting is the taste. It’s not hoppy like some beers, nor is it overly malty like your typical Octoberfest-type beer. In a well executed Berliner Weisse, there should be this… tartness. Not in a bad way, but… you know, I’m actually at something of a loss as to how to describe it. In germany, they’re known to mix a syrup into the beer (woodruff, maybe?) in order to temper the tartness a bit. I prefer mine without anything added (not to mention woodruff syrup isn’t exactly something they’d carry at Key Food or even Trader Joe’s), and I’m still working on trying to decide what I think it tastes best with. So far the best pairing I’ve found is a “soft Muenster” cheese called Port Salut. There’s this subtle nuttiness to the cheese that the beer helps bring around. I’d love to experiment with beer/food pairings a bit more, but that’s a post for another time.

In spending some time with friends, I got to open a beer I had been looking forward to for a while. I had bought a bottle of Ommegang Ommegeddon a few months ago so that I could let it sit and mature a little. The thing about Ommegeddon is that it’s… well, inoculated (in a way) with a bacteria (I think it’s a bacteria, anyway) called Brettanomyces. The Brettanomyces, or Brett, give it this kind of musty flavor that works very well in this variety of beer.

There was one beer that I was looking forward to trying – Three Floyds Gumballhead – just based on reputation alone. Unfortunately, the brewery didn’t bring it out with them. So sad. :-P I did get to have some stuff from St. Arnold’s out of Houston again, and they were telling me in a few years, they may start distributing outside of Texas. Cmon, St. Arnold’s, you know you want to. ;-) There were also a couple of rauchbiers that I got to try which were very good – I keep thinking about making a rauchweiss, just to see how it would come out. There’s just one problem with that, though – rauchbiers are, translated, smoked beers. They’re good here and there, but I’d have to see if I really wanted 2 cases worth of them, you know?

Hm. Yeah, I’m probably getting kind of geeky right about now (either that, or I passed kind of a few miles back), so if anyone wants a little more detail about this, feel free to ask. If anyone’s still reading, that is. :-)

About an hour and a half left in my flight – and to the best I can figure, we’re going from Denver to LGA by way of Chicago. Flew over the lake a little while ago, now we’re over some semi-rural areas in… Indiana, maybe? Illinois? Ohio? I don’t mind the rural areas, but for some reason, I just like flying over more developed areas better. Maybe it’s just that there’s more to look down at/on than farmland that’s different shades of brown/gold/other colors that were in everyone’s kitchen in the 70s. You can look down and see these small towns, maybe some cities – and I’m the kind of person who looks at them and wonders just where we are. Of course, if I bought the DirecTV for $5.99, I could know exactly where we are – but it’s not that important to me. More just a kind of fun curiosity.

The only problem, though, is that there’s been kids yelling (almost) the entire flight. Don’t get me wrong, the older I get, the more I like little kids – my nephew and nieces are case in point. But the yelling is getting to me a little – even though I have my headphones, I can still hear them, and I’d rather not have to turn up the music so loud that it would piss the people around me off. Meh. At least the flight’s almost over. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff, you know? Soon enough, I’ll be meeting Dad at the terminal and will be on my way back to their place to offload and just… relax a little. I doubt it, but maybe I’ll see if I can convince them to get Chinese food tonight. Can’t hurt, right? Sundays were always order-in days when I was growing up, so…

Also, wonder what they’ll think of my new beer baron hat. Not that it matters – I bought it already, and I like it, but I like getting other people’s opinions of how I look in things. And yes, when I say beer baron, I mean the Simpsons beer baron episode. Why is that significant? When Homer becomes the beer baron, he gets himself a hat – and specifically wears it at a “jaunty” angle. This hat actually looks better on me at a jaunty angle. Pictures will be furnished upon request. ;-)

Alright, enough typing for right now – the nice Orthodox guy sitting next to me has been listening to all this tapping for a while and hasn’t said anything. I figure I should give him a break. (Not to mention I think he’s falling asleep, but I digress.) Either way, maybe I’ll just put my beer baron hat over my face and try to catch a few more minutes of sleep, or I’ll watch the scenery, or something. I think I’m going to write another post in a day or two, though, with what I’m thinking about doing/looking into as kind of focusing my beer passion. There was an article in one of the magazines I picked up out there that kind of got me thinking… so until then, keep yourselves safe and healthy.


I need all the readers I can get. ;-)