The annual trip to Delaware for the horseshoe crab survey and visit to Dogfish Head was this past weekend. The weather was lovely and the counting was a challenge. We use a sampling technique and don’t count them all, but we estimated that there were about 15,000 crabs on the…
Last Saturday I needed to be in Berryville, Va in the morning. I decided to see where Adroit Theory Brewing was in relation to Berryville. I had been wanting to make a trip there for some time and this might be the opportunity I was waiting for. Turns out that…
I love to sample different beer. My favorite local establishment offers samples that are almost too small, but still gives me the opportunity to try a bunch in one visit. Some places do these little shot glasses, some offer 4 or 5oz pours. That seems a little more reasonable to…
About a year ago when we made our four ‘big’ beers, we realized that we needed to bottle them so we could drink some, age some and share some. It’s harder to do those things when the beer is in a keg in my garage. Bottling meant that we would…
It’s fun to be able to share a beer with friends, but on a cold winter evening, it’s nice to be able to enjoy a tasty beverage in the comfort of my own home. But wait, I can have my cake and eat it, too – or perhaps that should…
Chris brewed the third beer for the Oktoberfest. I showed up around hopback time to pick hops, finish the brew session and clean up. The hop vines were much improved this year. They were picked and put directly into the hopback for flavor and aroma. This is called wet…
Yesterday we brewed more sours. About three weeks ago, a first batch of sours in 2014 was brewed. Our standard batch volume of about 18 gallons results in three 5 or 6 gallon carboys. That gives us the ability to have a single recipe to which we can add three different…
Last weekend the Brewers had a bottling session for the last two big beers that were brewed this spring. Beer #14 was Brewer Joe’s imperial smoked porter. It smelled and tasted great with the smoked character coming through well. My experience is that the smokey essence tends to get reduced in…
We bottled Tom’s Barleywine on Saturday. The other brewers chose 22 oz. ‘bombers’ for bottling, but I decided to use half liter containers (about 17 oz.) and go with plastic PET bottles. I have never used them before, but heard good things about them. They sure were easy to carry…
Last weekend Joni, our Canadian friends, and I headed to the beach for our annual Horseshoe Crab census trip. We go out onto the beach at the evening high tide and count crabs for a long term research study. We have been doing it for 11 or 12 years. As…