The Lazy Brewer

This post marks my 100th post to the Lazy Brewer blog! I wondered if I’d get here with my little blogging experiment.  It won’t be too long before I blog about my 100th batch of beer.

New Chest Freezer for Keg Storage (and old upright fridge in the background)

Last week I picked up a 13 cu ft chest freezer, and Ranco digital temperature controller, for cold keg storage.  This opens up my existing upright refrigerator as a summer fermenting chamber.  Last Friday I brewed a batch of one of Brenda’s favorite beers I make, Colona, and it is fermenting away at appropriate lager fermentation temperatures in my brew shed’s refrigerator.

Brittannia Arms Pub in Monterey

Last weekend, Brenda and I celebrated our 29th anniversary in Monterey. We stayed at our favorite Monterey inn, The Merritt House Inn.  As always, the staff there treated us wonderfully and we enjoyed several wonderful fresh fish meals, as well as a couple sessions in one of my favorite pubs, Britannia Arms.  We escaped 109+ valley temperatures for two days and enjoyed fabulous mid-70s temps.

Tomorrow I’ll be brewing another batch of Black Widow Stout.  The keg just blew last week, so it’ll be a month or so before I have a standard stout back on tap.  I do have RIS on tap, so not all is lost, but it is far from a session ale:)  I plan on oaking five gallons of this batch of Black Widow Stout.  Several of my brew buddies have been experimenting with oaking stouts and IPAs lately, and I want to give it a go.  Steve’s oaked RIS is truly one of the best home brewed ales I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy, and I want to join that exclusive club.  Hopefully I can get an early start on the brew day (not Steve early!) so that I can have a glimmer of hope of chilling the batch.  Even with an iced pre-chiller, I’ve had problems using summer valley groundwater to get my wort down to suitable initial fermentation temps.  With the Colona still in the fermentation fridge (currently in the middle of a diacetyl rest), this batch will need to start out in the living room, so I do need to get it quite cool to start off well.

With the 4th of July just around the corner, we’ll be spending the day with the usual suspects!  Happy Birthday, America!

written by Mark Ranes \\ tags: Brenda, Colona, Monterey, stout

Stephen (formerly known as Some Guy:) and I got back home from NHC shortly after 11:00 a.m. this morning.  As much as I really enjoyed NHC, it was nice to get home to familiar, comfortable surroundings and my family.

The 2009 National Homebrewers Conference was without a doubt one of the best organized conferences, on any topic, I’ve ever attended – and working in the education field, I’ve attended my share of conferences.  I was really pleased with the variety of the breakout sessions, as well as the fact that everything started and ended on time.  Timeliness sounds like a given, but when it comes to conferences it is an often overlooked aspect.    The Oakland Marriott was a gracious host for NHC and they seemed to roll well with 1100 people wandering around with ale, armfulls of brewing stuff, crazy costumes and generally eccentric people.  Finally, considering that alcohol was a key component of the conference, I was very pleased to not see a single incident of stupidness or assholiness by conference attendees.  Amazing:)

Jay and Shannon from Utah

I had the opportunity to meet some really nice folks, like Jay and Shannon from Utah.  Rights like homebrewing are something that I take for granted, living in California, but I found out that Jay and Shannon were just recently legally allowed to homebrew in Utah.  They can now let the aromas of wort and boiling hops flow liberally from their brew house without fear of a visit from the local police department.  It amazes me there there are still antiquated laws on the books like prohibiting homebrewing in several states.  It’s really sad.  Jay and Shannon sat next to me at the Grand Banquet last night and I really enjoyed their company (and they put up with my jabs at Utah very graciously for most of the evening:)

@BrettGlenna - my new real-life (previous Twitter ) buddy!

I also got to meet up with someone I’ve been Tweeting with for a while, @BrettGlenna, and we got to visit a couple of times.  We talked about setting up a future beer exchange.  Brett has access to many east coast ales I’ll never be able to buy in California, and I found out he’s a bit of a hophead.  Boy, is he in for a treat with some of the aggressive west coast IPAs I have access to!

Stephen and I are already kicking around the idea of attending the 2010 NHC in Minneapolis.  I should be ready for a beer by then:)

Even though I previously facetiously blogged about coming home today to lovingly open arms on Fathers Day, I’m happy to report that it was indeed the case.  I had a shower of Fathers Day gifts from Brenda and DawBoy, and a nice “Happy Fathers Day” phone call from Meagan ( I drove past her apartment building, within 100 yards, leaving Oakland this morning)  this afternoon.  Brenda made a wonderful rigatoni dinner and we shared a lovely bottle of Merlot (yea, I said I was going to give my liver a break today, but Italian food screams for a glass or two of nice red wine!)

I also picked up my new iPhone 3GS, and I’m pleased to report that the migration went smoothly.  I simply backed up my previous iPhone and then restored the backup image on the new iPhone 3GS via iTunes and everything was there – even all my apps were in their same locations on the various screens.  Bravo, Apple for making things as simple as they should be!

The upgraded camera, with spot auto-focusing and metering, and 30 fps video are incredible.  The voice dialing (that should have been included in the iPhone Day 1) works perfectly and I was able to dial 3 out of 3 contacts perfectly each time, with no training.  Amazing!

Anyway, it’s good to be home:)

Here are the last couple of pictures from NHC:

Stephen, with his second wind - after a rough bout with Club Night

Sean Paxton - the Homebrew Chef

View of Oakland from my hotel room on departure day

written by Mark Ranes \\ tags: Brenda, iPhone, NHC, Stephen

Day 3 at NHC and I’m still alive!  Today I attended the following sessions:

Commercial Hop Production and Sales and Its Effect on Homebrewers with Ralph Olson (of Hop Union)

The Equipment Geek with Kent Fletcher

Maintaining Ideal Yeast Health: Nutrients Yeast Need with Dr. Tobias Fischborn (of Lallemand, Inc.)

Yeast: Build Your Own Library with Maribeth Raines

Yeast: Ask the Experts Panel moderated by Justin Crossley (of the Brewing Network), with Tobias Fischborn (of Lallemand, Inc.), Dave Logsdon (of Wyeast), Maribeth Raines, and Chris White (of White Labs)

My family left for home late this morning and I’m already missing them…

As promised here are some random pictures from the last 24 hours:

Charlie Papazian preparing to introduce Sierra Nevada Brewing's founder, Ken Grossman

Ken Grossman leaving the stage after the keynote

The Going Pro Panel Team

My favorite people at Pacific Coast Brewing for Friday night's dinner

Mmmm! Pliny the Elder and Green Flash Tripple

BOAT - Brewery On A Trailer

Some Guy

The Brewing Network interviewing Charlie Papazian

NHC Club Night crowds

More NHC Club Night crowds

Eddy didn't come to NHC, but I'm missing his cute underbite!

The BN's Bevo and Some Guy

Some Guy and Mike McDole

Me, Peter and Some Guy

Me, John Palmer and Some Guy

Me, Jesse from MoreBeer and Some Guy

This is what Some Guy looks like after staying for one too many ales at Club Night

Yeast - Ask the Experts Panel

written by Mark Ranes \\ tags: NHC, Stephen, yeast

The first couple of days at NHC have been blast!  I’ve been really impressed with the organization of the entire event and I’m particularly pleased that everything starts on time.  Kind of surprised that a bunch of beer guys (and guyettes:) can do that!

Sam Calagione

We saw a presentation at 9 a.m. this morning with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head that was great.  Sam is a fantastic presenter and a really funny guy.  He described how they originally developed their continuous hopping process for the 60, 90 and 120 Minute IPA. Sam said he originally found a vibrating hockey game board (you remember these from the 70’s, right:) at a Salvation Army store and had an idea to use it to vibrate a bucket of the hop mix for the IPA.  Unfortunately, the steam from the boil toasted the game board and then the brewer had to continuously throw in handfuls of the hop mix.  Eventually, they developed another automated system, but it was very cool to hear how the innovation process for those ales happened.

Sam also shared some Dogfish Head ales – Midas Touch, 90 Minute IPA and one of my top five favorite ales, Palo Santo Marron.  Noting like ales for breakfast:)

Here are the sessions I’ve attended so far:

Wood Fermentation and Aging with Matt Brynildson for Firestone Walker

Funkification: a 100% Brettanomyces Spontaneously Fermented Mind Dump with Vinnie Cilurizo

Extreme Fermentables with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head

Advanced Homebrewing & Science with Ray Daniels and Randy Mosher

Thinking about Recipes with Ray Daniels and Randy Mosher

Going Pro Panel moderated by Justin Crossley (of the Brewing Network), Tomme Arthur (of Port Brewing and Lost Abbey), Vinnie Cirluzio (of Russian River Brewing), Sean O’Sullivan (of 21st Amendment Brewing), John Pinkerton (of Moon River Brewing)and Keith Lemcke (Vice President of Siebel Institute)

Here are some additional random photos from the last two days.  More to follow!

Sam Calagione, Me, Ken Grossman and some guy who stuck his head into the picture:)

Charlie Papazian and me at the Pro-Brewers Night

At Pacific Coast Brewing

The Back Bar at the Trappist in Oakland

Sam Calagione

Allagash Hugh Malone Belgian IPA at The Trappist

Jamil Zainasheff leading the NHC opening toast

written by Mark Ranes \\ tags: Charlie Papazien, NHC, Pacific Coast Brewing, Sam Calagione, Stephen, Trappist

Stephen and I are off to the National Homebrewers Conference, in Oakland, tomorrow.  The conference is being held at the Oakland Marriott City Center, and there is a BART station right across the street, so the family is joining me to take in the sights of the city.  Stephen and I are staying one night longer than the family so that we can take in the Grand Banquet and National Homebrew Competition Awards Ceremony.  We’ll be heading home on Sunday (Father’s Day) where we’ll be showered with the love of our children and partner parenting units.  I will need to stop on the way home, at my local AT&T retail store, to pick up my new 32 GB iPhone 3GS (happy Father’s Day from me to me:)

The conference schedule looks interesting and comprehensive.  I can’t wait to hit the conference floor.  I just hope my liver holds out for three serious days of all things beer and homebrewing!

written by Mark Ranes \\ tags: iPhone, NHC, Stephen