Chimay Grand Reserve (Blue Label) Tasting

9% ABV, 20 IBU

Enjoyed 08.08.14

I came home from work to a totally unexpected surprise from my amazing wife Mrs. Hacksaw. I just finished my master’s degree from Penn State and was greeted with a steak dinner, balloons and most importantly - Chimay Grand Reserve or as I like to call it – Blue Label. I think of Chimay sometimes like I think of Johnny Walker – call me a rebel that’s just how my mind works. She chose the Blue Label to show enthusiasm for Penn State of course! I did a bit more than taste this 25.4 oz of Belgian Dark Strong excellency – I polished the bottle off over the course of the evening.

Learn to Brew - Part III

Learn to Brew! 

This is the third in a series of posts on how to get started homebrewing. Click for Part I, Part II.

Part III: Bottle Your Beer

So it’s been a couple of weeks, and now this is it. The final push before you can sit back, crack a homebrew, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. The bottling process is a bit time consuming, but not nearly as long as brewday. Without further ado, let’s get this thing bottled so you can drink it soon!

Homebrew Recipe: James Brown Ale

Two admirers of your homebrew want a batch to split for themselves? This was a problem I was practically born to solve! There was some debate over what style of beer they wanted, but once a brown ale was settled on I was off to the races. This is a style I’ve brewed several times and I was eager to put my newly discovered all grain skills to work. Seeking to make an easy drinking but satisfying brown ale would prove to be a good test indeed.

Hacksaw Hop Growing

Gardening - it's probably my second biggest hobby after homebrewing. The wonderful thing about homebrewing as it has allowed me to blend the two hobbies together in the glorious pursuit of hop growing! I grew hops last year on a homemade trellis in 5 gallon buckets just off the back porch of my apartment. People called me crazy until they had the beer I brewed with the hops that I grew!

Now that I'm a homeowner I had this master plan to grow my hop plants up the posts of the pergola that I built in the back yard. I learned quite a bit... for example - hops don't like to wrap themselves around 4X4 posts very well at all. Halfway through the summer I made the move to some yarn lines dropped from the top.

Beer Tasting: Hardywood Park Bourbon Double IPA

Hardywood Park Bourbon Double IPA
9.4% ABV, 80 IBU 
Enjoyed on 8.9.14

A particularly arduous business trip saw me returning home on Saturday evening with only a few hours of sleep. True to form, I opened the fridge and found that my wife and personal beer goddess had gotten me a surprise: Bourbon Double IPA. If that won’t chase the travelling blues away, I don’t know what will!

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.

Learn to Brew - Part II

Learn to Brew!

This is the second in a series of posts about how to break on to the homebrewing scene. For Part I, click here.

Part II: Your First Brew Day

Now that you have all of your supplies and ingredients for your first brewing creation, it’s time to walk through the first brew day. I’d like to give some serious props to John Palmer and his How to Brew for teaching me when I started out. He goes in to much more detail, and it’s a great read if you want to know more about the science and the “why” involved in brewing. Hacksaw read The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by the infamous Charlie Papazien before starting his homebrewing adventures. John Palmer is the preferred read but Charlie’s work – while dated - is still a classic and very helpful.