Hacksaw's Apartment Brewing Adventures

So you have jumped into homebrewing and are dominating with your extract brewing. You're making good beer and are into the hobby for the long haul. Perhaps you really want to convert to all grain brewing because you've realized it isn't that hard, it will save you some cash, and you feel it will make you more awesome in general (all three of which being obviously valid reasons).

Anniversary Weekend Beerventures

Last weekend my wife and I celebrated our 5^th wedding anniversary.  Since we both possess an affinity for beer, the weekend was destined to feature its fair share of fancy and delicious brews.  The plan was to head west into the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains to stay at a friend’s cabin, take in the fall colors, and flat out relax.  Our road was going to take us through one of the pockets of breweries around the Charlottesville area, so we decided to stop for lunch at Blue Mountain Brewery.  With a huge patio, lovely view, and respectable food and beer offerings, this was a great start to the weekend.

Wort City Brewers - September Meeting

Back to Wilmington Homebrew Supply Store for the September meeting and the members of the club really turned out. Maybe it was because they knew we would be sampling all the IPA entries from the quarterly competition? Maybe it's because sitting around and drinking homebrew while discussing homebrew is just plain awesome.

Sometimes this is a forum for people to show off and provide inspiration to fellow homebrewers. This night was no exception with one member bringing a giant bag of Zeus hops he had grown. He has so many hops he brought some in just so everyone could get a smell of them. If that isn't inspiring - I don't know what is. Makes me want to plant about 10 more hop plants and run trellises from the second story of my house!

See One. Do One. Teach One.

I bought my brother a brewing kit for his 21^st birthday. He hasn’t fully embraced brewing like I had hoped, but I hold out hope. Labor Day weekend he wanted to come down and it was the perfect opportunity for a little teaching session.  Things really got interesting when he brought along a friend who was interesting in learning how to brew.

Newly Wedded Wheat - The Adventure

When I found out from Mrs. Hacksaw that it had been requested for Hacksawing Brewing to provide beer for the wedding in which she was to be the Matron of honor - I was ecstatic. This was the highest honor I had received as a homebrewer and knowing I was being given the opportunity to be part of making their wedding day awesome was exciting.

Brewery Visit: Northern California

Okay fine, Northern California isn’t a single brewery.  I’m on vacation out on the ol’ left coast, and I’ve been able to drag my family to quite a few breweries along the way.  I’ll be out here through the end of the week, but since the first week was riddled with beer sampling in the Bay Area, I thought I’d write a brief update.

Why I'm Not a Farmer

A couple years ago, fresh off of a few successful DIY homebrewing upgrades, I decided it would be fun to grow my own hops.  After a bit of research, I quickly realized the yield would only be enough for really one batch of beer.  This was ultimately fine with me, it just seemed like a neat thing to do, plus the hop bines look really cool!  So that was it.  Expectations?  Managed.

One Year Old Birthday Bash

Seeing a keg at a 21^st birthday party wouldn’t seem all that out of place – but when you homebrew you get unique opportunities. How about bringing a keg of homebrew to a 1 year old’s birthday party? When you have mobile keg abilities and homebrew available, a multitude of gatherings suddenly transform into homebrew tasting sessions and conversions to craft beer are made.

Wort City Brewers - August Meeting

A grim and rainy weekend led into a rainy Monday which was finally brightened by some delicious homebrew sampling at the monthly meet up of the Wort City Brewers. This is my local homebrew club in Wilmington, NC and although I only joined a few months ago I cannot for the life of me figure out why I did not join sooner. Every meeting is like a mini-beer festival of which you not only get to try others beer, but you get to have lots of reviews of your own beer if you so choose to bring any. It is a downright paradise for homebrewers and beer nerds alike!

This was the first time the club had a meeting at local restaurant – Hops Supply Company – and although there were fewer attendees than usual, the homebrew samples and beer discussion were top notch as always. Before diving into some of the inspiring… and not so inspiring samples let me share a couple of interesting things from the meeting.

Beer Venture 2012 in The Triangle

After planning for several months, starting with a mere piece of printer paper, a marker, and the power of the inter-webs, BeerVenture 2012 finally happened as summer began.  This was our first attempt at cramming as much driving and beer-related tourism possible into one day.

Quadruple Brewday

Once or twice a year the stars align we go out of our way to ensure that Hacksaw Brewing and Down the Hall Brewing get to do a joint brew session. Typically Every time we up the ante on the scope and go bigger and better. This most recent QUADRUPLE brew day was no different… except it was by far our worst joint brew day to date. It wasn’t as if there was one major disaster that happened but more of a compilation of issues that resulted in this being the worst. Allow me to explain!

First off, let me lay out what QUADRUPLE brewday was all about. The idea was to brew two huge beers and then take the second runnings from each of those beers and create two more beers. Naturally we didn’t want a partial batch with the second runnings – we wanted a full 5 gallons. In order to accomplish this we had to go REALLY big on the first beers. I’m talking a Russian Imperial Stout and a Double IPA of which the goal was minimum 10% ABV. With the recent discovery that my wife enjoys bourbon barrel beers (because of the less bitter aftertaste), the Russian Imperial Stout would be hit with a heavy dose of bourbon soaked oak chips.

National Beer Expo - Richmond, VA

A couple of Saturdays ago, I was able to attend the National Beer Expo in Richmond.  Much to my chagrin, my lovely wife had to work and was not able to attend.  However, my friends Nathan and Chris made for solid companions on this beer excursion.

The Expo ran from 2:00-6:00 with almost 60 different breweries slated to attend, we didn’t want to miss any of that time but, we also wanted to be on our feet when 6:00 came around. A hearty carb-heavy lunch at Panera did the trick and then it was gametime. 

In my limited beer festival experience, I have always wanted to try at least one sample from every brewery in attendance.  I realize that in larger cases, such as the Great American Beer Festival, this is a highly ambitious—if not impossible—goal.  However, some of these east coast festivals seem to hover right around the realm of plausibility.  So, this was our strategy going in.

We found a parking spot (finally) and were on our way.  I armed myself with a notebook and bottle of water, while Chris and Nathan sported the most stylish pretzel necklaces you could imagine.  Oh yes, these guys are serious.