Tim’s cousin took us to the Tun Tavern in Atlantic City when we visited him, even though it’s like 45 minutes from his house. But he knew how much we loved beer! We sat at the bar… and immediately noticed that their beer taps are flanked by Bud taps. REALLY?!?!

But…. it is very cool that they post the OG/FG/IBU/ABV of their beers!

FYI: OG is original gravity- basically how much sugar the beer has before you add yeast, FG is final gravity- how much sugar is left after the yeast has had its way with the sugars and producing alcohol and CO2, IBU is international bitter units (the higher the number the more hoppy and bitter the beer is, usually), and ABV is alcohol by volume.

We got the sampler, of course. 

Beers we tried:

All American IPA       bitter, little wincing, light bodied, slightly mild flavor           2.75

Devil Dog Pale            aroma and flavor of hops but no bitterness, smooth and drinkable, like dissolving hops in water, interesting not bad   2.75

Dopplebock     little syrupy, grapey    2.75

Irish Red         funky aftertaste, plain, like made with bad water      3.5

Leatherneck Stout       light bodied, but drinkable, mild flavor          2.75

Tun Light        Light   nicely carbonated, nice fresh and crisp, plain but drinkable   2.5

And we got dinner too… started with the calamari which were pretty good. I had the mushroom ravioli (the sauce was like french onion soup with mushrooms. So yummy. Very rich). Tim at the PHD- this ridiculously HUGE sandwich that was very good. 

All in all, the place was “eh”. Definitely cool to have craft brew in Atlantic City, but you can tell they cater to tourists who may already be very drunk. Would not come here again unless I happened to be in AC again!

<3 Jamie

Tim and I took a bus from my brother’s place in West New York, New Jersey to Port Authority in Manhattan. The minute we stepped off the bus, my eyes were greeted with a glorious sign- The Heartland Brewery. So before visiting the obligatory tourist spots (this was Tim’s first visit to NYC), we of course had to stop at the brewery for a tasting.

We sat at the bar and were greeted by a very friendly bartender and a fun rooster tap (an inside joke). 

We ordered a sampler, of course, with EIGHT beers!

(and of course after the bartender realized we were beer connoisseurs, he gave us a 9th on the house.)

Here’s what we had:

Cornhusker Lager       Lager   corn, teeny bitter, pale ale-esque, plain, better than other similar lagers         2.5

Empire Premium Beer Czech Lager    not flavorful enough, plain but very drinkable, like Heineken           2.5

Farmer Joe’s Oatmeal Stout    Stout   very creamy, light espresso flavor, light body, not carbonated enough for me            3

Harvest Wheat            Wheat  very light, 2-row, no banana, light citrus. Not really a wheat 2.5

Indian River Light      Light   citrus, coriander, biscuity/wheaty, lots of flavor for a light, prolly my fave light ever            1.75

Indiana Pale Ale         Pale     lightly bitter, good with spicy food, little floral and bitter     2.5

Kelly’s Quad Bock      Quad Bock      anise, licorice, root beer, black jelly bean flavored. So interesting. 12 malts and 12 hops. 10% alc         2

Not Tonight Honey Porter      Porter  honey, molasses, good sweet but not too sweet, delicious, little bitter finish            1.75

Red Rooster    Red     Caramel and munich malts. Red/brown, drinkbnle, smooth, toffee/caramel, not too bitter/malty/hoppy- great balance       2

We also got some food- buffalo chicken spring rolls were DELICIOUS! Inexpensive, delicious AND friendly—- it really is like the Heartland (the brewer is from Indiana and all the beers have at least something to do with the midwest.) Home sweet home for me in NYC. 

<3 Jamie

So during February Vacation, Tim and I took a road trip down the East Coast to visit family and breweries! I will post more detailed info about each of these places, but I wanted to make a list of all the places we visited so you all would be impressed :)

New York:

• Brooklyn Brewery
• Heartland Brewery
• Bell House (Music venue with great beer selection)
• Brouwerij Lane
• Beer Boutique
• Park Slope Ale House
• Paulie Gee’s (pizza place with great craft beer!)

New Jersey:

• Tun Tavern Brewery
• Spirits Unlimited

Delaware:

• Dogfish Head
• 16 Mile

Virginia:

• Capital City Brewery
• Paradise Springs Winery (not beer, but still delicious!)

Look forward to pictures, descriptions and beer rankings from all these fine establishments!!

<3 Jamie

I have been wanting to visit this brewery for a LONG time and just finally got to go this weekend. We went on a Sunday, which was apparently a big mistake. I will have to go again on a not so crowded day so I can get a better experience of this place. But for now, it gets 3 stars. 

We walk up to the brewery and there is a HUGE line. We wait at least 15 minutes in the cold to get in. When we finally get in, we go to the “tour” which wasn’t really a tour, but more like a lecture in a huge lecture hall. Hundreds of people were standing in a crowd and being talked to by the “tour guide.”

He was HILARIOUS and fun to listen to, and we did learn a couple of things (which is rare on a brewery “tour” since Tim and I make our own beer and know a lot of the ins and the outs of the process) … like, for instance, the fact that “hop head” refers to the relationship between the marijuana and hops plant. (also the guy had a great quote- he was describing the difference between light and dark beers and the fact that the color doesn’t necessarily determine the taste and how you should just try any color beer. When he was 12 years old apparently, his dad gave him some great advice….If someone puts a beer in front of you, you drink the &#@!-ing beer.)

Anyways so after the “tour”, we went to the “tasting room” which was a huge room FULL of people with a HUMONGOUS line which was NOT moving. You could wait in the line for some free tastes of beer, or wait in a different line to buy token and then wait in the big line to get pints of beer ($5 for one or $20 for 5). Ugh.

We definitely did NOT want to wait that long in line, so left…. So we did not get ANY beer! UGH! Thankfully I’ve had Brooklyn Brewery beers in bottles and at beer festivals, but I would have loved to have gotten some beer at the brewery. Maybe one day…

Tim and I came up with the name “Hoppy Holidays” before we even decided on a recipe. Obviously it needed to be a hoppy beer with winter spices. Apparently brewers don’t generally do combine hoppiness with wintery-ness. But I am not afraid! So I got to work on my new beer software- BeerSmith -and came up with a seemingly delicious recipe. And on November 16, we invited our friends Al, Jes, Cheeks, and Katie to assist us!

Recipe:

1. Take yeast out of fridge and activate.
2. Crush the grains. (using our NEW grain mill!) 
3. Heat 15 qts (3 gallons) to 180. 
4. Add water to mash tun 
5. Stir and wait till water is 170. 
6. Add crushed grains gently and stirring to prevent clumps. 
7. Place lid on mash tun and cover with blankets for 1 hour. 
8. Test temperature after 10 minutes. Goal: 152. (149-156 ok)
9. Prepare hops and spices. 
10. Heat 4.75 gallons of sparge water to 200. 
11. Check for conversion. (taste test AND iodine test AND gravity reading- target 1.048)
12. Slowly drain ½ gallon of wort and put it back on mash. Keep draining ½ gallons until wort runs clear.
13. Pour sparge water SLOWLY with strainer to rinse wort from the grains. Slowly collect wort until collected enough wort. (7-8 gallons). SHOULD TAKE ONE HOUR. 
14. Boil wort.
15. When boil starts, add hops and additives.
16. 15 minutes left: add irish moss.
17. Chill wort as quickly as possible to 80-85 degrees
18. Add wort to fermenter with strainer.
19. Take gravity reading.
20. Aerate wort (SHAKE) and pitch yeast at 70-75 degrees 

<3 Jamie

Since our original attempt at a Pumpkin Beer wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, we decided to try again on October 21. 

We started by heating water to 165 F.

Waiting for the water to heat up…

Then we mashed the grains for 1 hour:

Then we sparged the wort and boiled for 90 minutes, adding pumpkin at the start, .75 oz Northern Brewer at 30 mins, 1oz Kent Goldings at 60 minutes, and cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger at 80 minutes. We then cooled the wort with the wort chiller and ice bath:

Added wort and yeast to the carboy, and set up a blow off tube. OG= 1.060

<3 Jamie

On October 17, we brewed our first (and ONLY) extract beer. We both agreed that it was too simplistic— SO easy ANYONE could do it! We bought a kit was Beer and Wine Hobby in Woburn. (I also think this will be our last “kit” beer. Time to come up with our own recipes!)

The only tricky part was crushing the grain (dark wheat and caramel wheat). We didn’t have a grain mill yet, so we used every tool in the house. Turns out the metal flashlight worked best.

In the garage we put the grains in a muslin bag and put it in 2 gallons of water at 154 F. Steeped for 20 minutes, then added LME, 1 oz hallertau hops and .5 oz of Saaz hops. 

Boiled for 45 minutes.

Then we added .5 oz of saaz hops. 

We put 3.5 gallons of cold water in the carboy and then added the hot wort and put the carboy in an ice bath.

We agitated the carboy and then added the German Wheat yeast. 

<3 Jamie

On October 15th, we bottled our Hefeweizen… named “Eruption”. The FG was 1.010, tastes GREAT- a great banana flavor, very light bodied. I’d give it a 1.75.

Sanitizing:

There’s our glorious carboy filled with glorious beer!

Tim is surprised by this picture apparently :) He’s filling up the bottles with our bottle wand.

And my job is capping the bottles:

Here’s a completed bottle:

up close label:

<3 Jamie

To continue this ridiculous beer weekend, on Monday night, October 1, after bottling the Octoberfest at Barleycorn’s, I came home and brewed a Hefeweizen with Tim!

1. Heat 9L of water to 122 F.

2. Add water to mash tun, pour in grains (5lb domestic 2-row, 4lb wheat, .5lb carapils), protein rest for 15 minutes. 

3. Heat 4.5L of water to 200 F and add to mash tun. Temp= 152 F inside mash tun. Mashed for one hour. We cover the mash tun with blankets to keep the heat in.

4. Vorlauf and sparge, collect wort in brew pot.

5. Added 1oz tettnang hops.

6. Boil for 1 hour.

7. Clean the carboy. 

7. Chill the wort to 70-80F with wort chiller and ice bath.

8. Pour wort into carboy. Add Weihenstephen Yeast. 

OG: 1.030

<3 Jamie

Went to Barleycorn’s on Monday October 1 to bottle 24 22-oz bottles of the Octoberfest I brewed. 

Sanitizing the bottles in the high-tech machine:

I can’t wait to own for these:

All clean now and on the bottling tree:

Filled bottles. And of course I filled my glass a bit :) tastes GREAT! very light and drinkable. little malty, little spice.

We named it Autumn Petrichor. Petrichor is a great word by the way. It means “the scent of rain on dry earth.” The word is constructed from Greek, petra, meaning stone + ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology. (Thanks Wikipedia)

Yay beer!

<3 Jamie