Pittsburgh's Craft Beer Homebrew Club

The New Yorker did an excellent piece on Dogfish Head on November 24th, 2008.  A friend of mine suggested this to me and I’m now suggesting it to all you beer lovers and aspiring brewers.  It’s an excellent read for those who are passionate about brewing and seek inspiration from people who have become sucessful.  It starts out describing the creation of palo santo, covers a little history of Dogfish Head and craft brewing, and moves on to describe Dogfish’s run at making sahti, a rustic juniper-flavored beer originating in Finland around the 9th century.  I recommend everyone give this a read!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_bilger?currentPage=1

A little from the article:

Then again most brewers don’t make beer with rocks. When sahti was first brewed, in the Middle Ages, Calagione told me, Finnish farmers used wooden kettles. The wood couldn’t be set directly on a fire, so the brewers heated up rocks and threw them into the mash, caramelizing the barley and giving it a smoky flavor. Calagione wanted to use the same method, but he wasn’t sure that he had the right material. “I told my maintenance guy to get rocks without a lot of quartz in them,” he said. “Otherwise, when they get hot, they’ll explode in your face.” 

c.o.c.k.  Monthly Home Brew Club Meeting

Where: Barley’s and Hop’s in Bethel Park, PA - map

When: Last Monday of every month @ 7pm

c.o.c.k held it’s first Big Brew Day on January 25th, 2009.  The end result was 3 beers:

 A bold barley wine from the first sparge runnings with a SG of around 1.12

An ESB from the second runnings with a SG of around 1.060

 And both a pale ale and lager from the third sparge with a SG of around 1.040

Two separate mashes and boils were combined to prepare around 10 gallons of wort for each beer using two separate home brew systems built by Bill Oates and Steele Stenger.    Bill’s tried and true system is a tier consisting of 3 kegs and several turkey frier burners.  This is only the second brew for Steele’s and while some kinks are still being worked out, it is proving to be a very good setup as well.  Hopefully there will be future posts detailing both of these systems.

Tim, co-owner of Barley’s and Hop’s Beer Cafe in Bethel Park, PA provided a vintage bottle Chimay Peres Trappistes from 2002 which was enjoyed by all!

The brew crew spent most of their day outside in the near 0 degree temperatures and in the falling snow towards the end of the day.  Despite the frigid temperatures, fun was had by all.

For photos of the day, check out http://www.pghbeer.com/?page_id=6&album=2&gallery=1.