I will drink a Beer.

[Jon Heron]

Never made beer, but I'm jonesing to distill. I have 3 peach trees that I'm convinced would make some awesome brandy...

Well you need to make beer to make liquor so you may as well get started eh!?
I have thought about making a still er I mean condenser myself...
Cheers,
Jon

[Jon Heron]

There are some good ones, but I found many do not have the hop content the name calls for, .

Very true, the problem with big hoppy beers is you need to drink them when they are fresh for the best effect, hard to get fresh out of a can at the LCBO though eh...
If you have not tried juicy ass I recommend it, its a fine brew.
Cheers,
Jon

[Tom S]

Yes kegging is the way to go, I cant imagine bottling all of my brew...
I just have the keggle you see there and a 10 gallon mash tun, I make 11 gallon batches.
Do you guys have a decent brewer supply store over in Cayuga?
I used to work in and around that area, used to love going to the Erie beach hotel in Port Dover for the fresh perch and celery bread, is that place still open after all of our never ending lockdowns I wonder?
Cheers,
Jon

We've got a decent brewer supply in Hamilton (Brewtime), along with a bakery wholesaler who sells 50lb bags of malt to brewers for a good price. One of the fellows I brew with used to organize bulk purchases for the local brewing club (Hamilton Hosers) so he knows where to get just about anything. If I can't get something locally I get through Ontario Beer Kegs, who have been great to deal with.

The Erie Beach is still going strong. They have always done most of their business in the summer months and expanded their patio during the lockdowns. And they don't rely only on the Friday the 13th crowds like some other businesses in the town. I'm sure they're still hurting but they are in a better position than a lot of the other local restaurants. Best perch in the area, best chicken tenders for the kids (who don't know what they're missing), and the celery bread is fantastic. Did you every try the horseradish jello or the pickeled pumpkin they offer? We did our company Christmas dinner there one year, it was fantastic.

[MaxHeadRoom]

Very true, the problem with big hoppy beers is you need to drink them when they are fresh for the best effect, hard to get fresh out of a can at the LCBO though eh...
If you have not tried juicy ass I recommend it, its a fine brew.
Cheers,
Jon

Well the reason they were hopped in the first place is because Hops have a preservative effect.!.
As the name says, India Pale Ale.
During the British Raj of India, the ex-pats required a taste of home, i.e. some good beer, but the ships out of England were not refrigerated at that time and the hot traverse across the Indian Ocean tended to spoil the beer., they came up with an answer, more Hops,
Hence IPA.

[A.K. Boomer]

If you have not tried juicy ass I recommend it, its a fine brew.
Cheers,
Jon

I will keep that in mind now that i know what to look for --- these catz get a fair share of my paycheck right now,,, Eddyline brewing out of Buena Vista Co.

This is their Juicy Haze IPA and it's spectacular,,, i think it has mango and pineapple in it along with el dorado and mosaic hops, it packs a 7.4% ABV and i find that acceptable,

You can crack one open and drink it on an empty stomach and there's zero rot gut effect and you can catch a little extra zing off of it,,, One of the best parts is pouring it into an ice cold glass and looking at the body - it's incredible, does not cascade like a guinness but it's just as thick yet far better for being refreshing in the heat....

you have to keep in mind to swirl the can some before the last pour to get all the settlement out as it's part of the meal...

To date it's the best beer iv ever had... it's 16 bucks a 6 pack but they are pint size cans so not bad really as it's a regular sized 8 pack- or - like 12 bucks for a regular 6 pack...

Eddyline only has two breweries - one in buena vista and one in new zealand...

Now you know what to look for...

[Tom S]

Well the reason they were hopped in the first place is because Hops have a preservative effect.!.
As the name says, India Pale Ale.
During the British Raj of India, the ex-pats required a taste of home, i.e. some good beer, but the ships out of England were not refrigerated at that time and the hot traverse across the Indian Ocean tended to spoil the beer., they came up with an answer, more Hops,
Hence IPA.

The bittering hops yes, but you will tend to loose the aroma hops as an IPA sits. If we have a keg that sits without being served for a while we will often dry hop it again to get that aroma back before serving. My BIL brewed a west-coast IPA that was fantastic in my kegs when served fresh last summer, but the few bottles he has kicking around yet are no where near as good. They still have the the bittering hop effect and a bit of the aroma hops taste, but the beer has no smell. Strangest thing ever and not pleasant to drink because of that.

The hoppier a beer the sooner it should be consumed, because it's going to loose that aroma. Same goes for beer with coffee flavouring - the coffee will disappear over time. If you want to age some beers the better candidates are high ABV beers that are more malt forward, like trappist ales and stouts. They will develop new and good flavours while aging.

[Jon Heron]

That is great Tom!
We have a club here too called True Grist, we usually do a couple bulk buys per year and are lucky to have a couple really good local shops too.

Did you every try the horseradish jello or the pickeled pumpkin they offer?

No but that sounds like something to try if we are ever let out of our house again and can actually eat inside a restaurant! lol
I used to do a lot of work at the coal plant by Nanticoke before they shut it down, we would make it a point to go to the Erie beach hotel every chance we got, best fish and chips around along with great service.
All the best!
Jon

[darryl]

I like to have some beers. Lately I've been trying out SteamWorks. One that I like is Heroica Red Ale. One of my hiking friends of the past made beer, and I helped him sometimes. He made something similar to the Red Ale, but boosted it to 12%. Now that was something to come home to after a long day on the trail. Problem for me was that I would meet him at his home so we could take his truck- but then I'd have to drive home after a few of those beers.

At any rate, it was good tasting beer. Another I liked was called Dark Matter. One place in town has it, but at $8 a glass I'll learn to like something else. I've considered brewing my own beer, but the enthusiasm has never stayed long enough for me to commit to it. I'll keep trying different ones until I have a few that I really like, and those will become my staples.

The taste and smoothness with which it goes down are more important to me than alcohol content, but it is nice to get a good buzz on without having to drink a ton of it. Some of the beers that are around 7% are just right for me.

All this talk about beer- I think I'll go pick up a box. I'll tip one to you all, with best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year. If you don't drink beer, no matter- tip a nice glass of fresh clean water. That's probably closer to health and prosperity than beer anyway. Cheers!

[Jon Heron]

Cheers to you too Darryl!
Jon

[darryl]

I have a beer in front of me as we speak- Caribou Honey. It was a cheap one, but I don't mind it. Here's to you all-

[Paul Alciatore]

Talk to your doctor. They DO have meds for that.

The only time I enjoy beer is with pizza. I recently bought my first six pack in over 20 years to go with a frozen pizza. Both were excellent. But I need another pizza to finish the other three off. Perhaps this week.

I'm at the age where if I have 1 beer, I'm up 4 times a night just to get rid of it!

[MaxHeadRoom]

I have a beer in front of me as we speak--

How does it go?
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy !
Tadah

[darryl]

Ha ha. Several beers in, that's how I feel- like I've had a lobotomy. Sometimes I get to the third beer, but most of the time I stop after the second one. I don't have that urge to keep going, and going-

I had one last night- and you know, I'll have to evaluate the effect is has on me. I don't get drunk anymore- I just get a little cloudy or something. After 13 or 14 fireballs I also get a little cloudy- but I attribute that to the chemicals they put in the dishwasher.

[JRouche]

I made 11 gallons of beer yesterday! A northern English brown ale called Homers Breakfast...
Cheers,
Jon

Very nice!! Cool to see other brewers on the site. I started doing all grain around 1995. Got to the point where it was too much around 2001. Had a massive sears freezer converted to a frig and had six Cornelius kegs along with two carboys lagering in the same frig. I stopped brewing all together. Sold everything cept for a few kegs and CO2 system.

I liked drinking my IPA and lagers. Nothing too dark.

Here are some pretty good books for some nice grain bills.

Nice safe setup there Jon. My ale carboys were just on the floor. One whole room just for brewing. Wife hated it JR

[Tom S]

Very nice!! Cool to see other brewers on the site. I started doing all grain around 1995. Got to the point where it was too much around 2001. Had a massive sears freezer converted to a frig and had six Cornelius kegs along with two carboys lagering in the same frig. I stopped brewing all together. Sold everything cept for a few kegs and CO2 system.

I liked drinking my IPA and lagers. Nothing too dark.

Here are some pretty good books for some nice grain bills.

Nice safe setup there Jon. My ale carboys were just on the floor. One whole room just for brewing. Wife hated it JR

Very cool. That's a lot of beer to go though.

I think it you were to start brewing again you would find that while the basic processes are the same, there has been a lot of changes with technology that can make brewing either as simple or as complicated as you want. We brew using a propane burner, some thermometers, and a timer - but on the other end of the scale there are guys out there with fully automated PID controlled electric systems. You had books and personal connections for sharing recipes, with the internet it can often be recipe overload and you can tap into the experience of a vast number of people (for better or worse...). Plus the software that now makes it easy to develop your own recipes. I use one called Brewfather, where I can input all the ingredients and the process and it will tell me what to expect with all the different aspects of the beer, and how it compares to the 'standard styles'.

Right now I'm playing around with a recipe for a Baltic Porter, but since we don't have a good lagering setup I'm tweaking it to use a Kviek yeast that ferments clean like a lager at up to 77F. However, the attenuation of the yeast is higher than a lager so I play with the ingredient levels until I've got things in the same range that a traditional lager yeast would achieve. My goal is to have a Baltic Porter that can ferment like an ale but still be crisp like it has been lagered. We'll see how it turns out.