hey there mr c. was at sicilianos tonight and was chatting with wes about the class they had a couple weeks ago and mentioned having attended a couple of your classes. he was fairly interested and wants to get in touch with you. he said he would be more than happy to do some promotion for your classes. i also think he said they are trying to set up a new website for their store and wants to 'partner' with other stores and wants you and thingsbeer in on it. get ahold of him at sicilianosmarket@gmail.

by the way, is there a summer session for the mbc homebrew class in the works?

Cool Jeff, I'll have to drop him a line and see what we can get going. Glad to see other shops still having open sessions. Thanks for the heads up.

We are looking at July 19th and we have a ton of people signed up.

Yep, its gonna be a busy day. I may have to do a mash-in on friday night, or come in really early saturday to keep things simple. We still have not kegged up the last two batches we made in previous classes.

Need a hand?

Fred

funny that its that day, i was going to have ipanimal over and give him an allgrain lesson. the two of us may have to come crash your class.

Oh decisions decisions.........what to do..........what a delimma. These are the worst kind of choices! Jeff, maybe we should do the class one day and then do another one the next day at your place. SWIMO may be clearing out for the entire weekend. I'm trying to get a commitment on that.

MrCoffee, I pretty much have it confirmed and would love to be at your class on July 19 along with Jeff Williams. You got room for us?

i'm there, and i think that jason is going to stop by too. me and jason just want to hang out, but, mr c, if you can figure out a way for ipanimal to do a batch while there with my equip. that would be rad. not sure what your schedule for the class is but, just thought i'd throw it out there.

MrC

I have a CD copy of BeerSmith coming for the store and have Afilliate pricing for review. Also will have a copy for a prize at the class, I'll give it to TimO when I see him

Fred

We have about 30 people signed up fort the class. Bring the stuff Fred, your presence is an appreciated very much. I sent you a mail.

Jeff, IPAnimal, looking forward to seeing you there, come we will make room.We wil have some of the guys from the store keg up whats been brewed in the last couple of classes and maybe serve it to those in the class over 21, we'll see. Also,Jeff, bring some of your brews to try. Let me and MrC know what you want to brew, whether you will bring your equipment and, if you can, call in your grain orders a day in advance and let the guy in the store know its for the class the following day.

MrC and I don't know yet what we will do for an AG, I think its his choice this time. We will also do an extract batch and likely a partial mash to round it out.

Bring a camera.

TimO

talking to ipanimal, i think that we want to do denny's rye pa. he ordered the 2450 yesterday, so we will bring that with us. you guys know that recipe, so see what you can do to fix up those hops for us. i know i can't get any of those at sicilianos, so hopefully you guys do, or a reasonable substitution.

half the reason i'm coming is so i can bring in beers to pass around, so no worries there.

we will be bringing all our own gear, so also no worries there.

i think that he and i are going to do another brew fest the sunday after also, so we will probably be buying grain for another batch after class, but that really doesn't matter right now.

can't wait to see ya fellers.

I'll get with MrC and see if the hops are an issue, don't count on anything though and plan for subs. Don't forget to call into the store to get your grain bill done up early.

hopefully i can skip that call in step and send it directly to mrc via tastybrew...

heres what i need
11# pale
3# rye
1.25# crystal 60
.5# carapils
.5# flaked wheat
3oz mt hood
2 oz colombus

(my subs, that worked really well last time)
1 oz phoenix
2 oz challenger
1 oz sterling
1 oz cascade

mr c, if you actually need me to call this in, let me know, but if this is cool...

Sounds like it should be a good time.

Looking forward to meeting IPAnimal and seeing Jeff and the crew again.

Fred, we'll be looking forward to having you there and greatly appreciate the gift of beersmith that some lucky patron will recieve. We probably wont have time or resources for a decoction demo but we will definitely be needing help doing the demos of the other batches.

Jeff, I don't know about all the hops we have available in the shop (I haven't spent much time at all in the shop lately) but I'm sure we can work out something for a Rye Pale Ale. We may do that as our all grain demonstration so we don't have the monster mash tun mashing and taking up precious people space. I might be able to relay the message for you to have them get the hops and grain together but I can't ensure that I will have the time or memory. I'll let you know if I have let them know otherwise plan on calling it in the week of (they'll keep it all set aside for you) just have them hold off on crushing the grain till class time.

cool, that sounds just fine. more than happy to have ipanimal's first all grain be the demo for the day. from experience, i know that doing it that way will really set things to memory.

speaking of the big mash tun, how's that 'floored' beer?

Haven't tasted it yet, seemed to ferment out just fine. We'll probably be kegging that up around the time of the class. Hopefully it turns out, just lower in alcohol than expected. Now TimO has a bulkhead in there too which will help with the other issues we had with that crack.

Hopefully soon I should have a pump up in there to make it alot easier to just mash on one of our work tables. Less mash tun lifting...

Bulkhead was proven-out on a barleywine. All is good with it. I'll bring it for your batch IPAnimal. Its killer for monster size batches.

MrC is on his way to the PNW in Portland in the a.m. Don't forget my cool t-shirt MrC....XXL!!!!

Jeff, what you brewing?

Fred, will you brew?

TimO

i was gonna watch really, but if y'all want me to do a batch, i'm sure i could be convinced. i was gonna let ipanimal use my small tun to do the rye, and just kinda help him along the way. do you guys want another all grain for demo purposes? i'm pretty much up for anything, but my real intent for coming is just to hang out and bring some beers to share. let me know what is required of me and i will be sure to oblige.

Jeff, I was thinking the Rye on your system would be used for all grain demo purposes, you guys do the hands on and TimO, Fred and I will commentate. We'll also be doing an extract / partial mash beer and explaining that.

I'll certainly brew, or not, your call

How about a "Starter"

A Southern English Brown Ale.

Fred

cool, thats what i was thinking too. wouldn;t want things to get too hectic and muddeled.

Sounds good Fred!

Change of plans

A 10%+ Baltic Porter (targeting a Bourbon Barrel)

Fred

I wish i could make it to the class again but i have prior engagments. I will be send some of my home brew with Jeff for sampling.

I was thinkibg aout doing a similiar beer Fred. I want to do a high abv porter, but i was thinkibg of aging it on either apple wood chip, or apple cider soaked oak cubes. What do you think?

Are you talking about hard cider? Using fresh pressed cider (juice) is adding additional fermentables to the beer. If this is your thought try adding some hard cider to the beer first and taste it. Calvedos kegs have been used with success. Applewood would impart different flavor than oak, no reason not to try it.

Fred

So Fred, you do 5 gal and I do 10 gal and thats the first batches for the barrel.....correct? I'll need the specs soon but plan on a very generous slurry of ale yeast from the brewery for our porter.

Is this porter you guys are planning on intended for the class? 4 different batches going on sounds like a bit of a hectic day for as many people as we are planning on showing up.

I don't have to brew, especially if it is going to cause a problem, I can brew on Sunday.

Fred

I was thinking of coming by, but it sounds like a way full house.

If I promise not to get in the way, would it be alright?

mrc, hows it look for the hops for the rye? if you aren't going to have them, then i should probably get an order placed pretty soon here.

Fred: We'd love to have you brew but I think for this session it might be a bit much. You have my interest peaked with this barreled Baltic... It'll be great to have you out as you are a wealth of knowledge and we are expecting a large group of people, TimO and I could an extra educator. I'm hoping towards the end of the class when we are hanging out with folks and chatting we can get them psyched to come back for a decoction demonstration session where we just focus on all grain.

HH: I'm sure we could squeeze ya in.

Jeff: I'm almost positive that we will have both columbus and mt hood. It'll be my first day back from vacation on Monday, so I will be bustin hump I'm sure, and probably won't remember to check the store stock. Give the shop a call tomorrow and talk to Daniel, he can tell you, and put your name on some if you want.

Stop on by Leo, would love to see you again.

See you tomorrow MrC.

See ya then TimO. Got your shirtski.

Yay...new t-shirt and caustic all over me after tripping over the caustic circuit line to the tank. Sorry Mr C, will be more careful next time, at least we had a good laugh. Seems Leo, AKA Henry Hill, will be present at the class as an extra set of arms/legs to get things done.

Anticipation!!!!

Okay TimO, how much did you have to drink before you went to the brewery?

Heheh, it was a good time. 60gpm 176*F caustic water at 1.5" shooting two directions always makes for a good laugh =D. Consequently we also had a hot water hose burst today, now it is two hoses instead of one which makes it more convenient to lug around.

Tim Just stepped on the connection between two hoses where the tri clamp happened to be pointing up and slipped it right off. It happens pretty rarely but when it happens its usually pretty hillarious assuming no one gets scalded. Hope your pants don't dissolve

A bit off subject Mr. C but you guys are great - Things Beer the best! Thanks
Matthew

Didn't have any beforehand BB, but had one....or two....while I was there. I didn't get scalded, just got a wet pant leg that still hasn't dissolved yet.

Matthew, the service should be even better now that Daniel runs the store. Great kid, he and his wife are brewin' fools!!

Dan's the man TimO. He's who I placed my order with. You need to give him a raise. You have
all been great. The HBSs I've delt with before aways wanted to get my money( and then some) and get me the hell off the phone, though I do talk too much.

Hey MrC, just called Things Beer and no Mt Hood or Columbus. So I'll be in communication with Jeff on if we order those specific on-line or if we go with alternates.

Can't wait to tip a couple with you guys and I'll bring some of my Hopslammer Klone your boys helped me put together. My best beer to date no doubt. I'll probably bring some others to pass around and critique.

Was just over there Matthew, I mentioned you and they thought that was cool. I believe they just sent you a big grain order, right?

TimO

Yeah TimO, just a sack of 2-row, not a big grain order, but a month supply for me and my
little batches. Did they give Daniel that raise?

"...the service should be even better now that Daniel runs the store. Great kid, he and his wife are brewin' fools!!"

Yeah, now that jerk MrC isn't running that place =D No seriously Daniel is doing a great job running the shop now and since I've handed things over people have really had to step up to the plate and all seem to be doing a good job.

Daniel came up to me yesterday looking for 2 row brewers and we had to go track some down. We had some, it was just way above eye level on the shelves.

IPAnimal, weird about the hops. I would have thought that we had those in the shop still but who knows how they have those set out, they may only be available in kits. Talk to Jeff about it and I'll keep my ear to the ground and see if I can locate some of those variety. Looking forward to hanging out during and after the class.

think that we have the hops under control. good ole internet saves the day.

mrc, i think that ipanimal and i are doing a follow up batch the day after class at my place. we were thinking about old stouty...mmm....
um, i don't have the original hops written down, just what my subs were. what i have is 3 oz ekg at 60, 1 oz bramling cross at 40 and an oz of ekg at 5. what were the originals? seems like the ekg's are right, but what did i sub the bramling cross for?

starting to get excited...

Gotta love that Stouty MacGee. East Kent Goldings (6.6% AA) and Fuggles (5% AA). And its at 60 and 20. Nice and simple.

Reminds me TimO, I need to talk you out of some Fuggles specifically for that...

hmmm...me too.

wonder where i got the 60-40-5 from?

Sheesh.....didn't I hand you a pound of EKG's without wanting cash in return?

Lesee how much I've got. We will need to sit down, probably friday after your shift in the tanks to iron out the recipes and such stuff.

Hey TimO and Mr. C. This is Mike from Flint. I attended your class in Jan 2008 and it was great. Too bad you guys are doing the demo next Saturday, which is my B-day, because I will be up north. I hope to make it to another one soon though. You said you'll be doing an all grain class? Keep up the good work guys. Oh and BTW, I know a site that has MT. Hood hops for sale for $1.50 an ounce. I'll PM you TimO in the NB forum about the hops.

never mind, i read the other post