A Real Festival

I've been invited to the Oregon Brewers Fringe Fest this coming Saturday at the Belmont Station in Portland. Some beer was invited too. This sounded so like my kind of festival that I wrangled another couple days away from the pub. That's how it should be, really; a few days away every now and again. I like seeing the words "brewer" and "founder" in the listings. There should be some good elbow-rubbing and lore-exchanging going on.

As this last weekend's Mountain Bike Oregon event decimated by ready supply of firkins, I have to be careful of what to bring so as to keep the home front steadily supplied. I'm even brewing two days in a row this week, today and tomorrow, to make sure that all those empties get filled when I get back. The selection is going to be "Wotcha", a golden Best Bitter, ABV 4.4%, and "60 Love", a hoppy amber liquid refreshment, ABV 5.4%. This last one is exactly the same as the last batch of "This Time For Sure" that was poured at the Belmont Station back in April, but using 60 Lovibond Crystal instead of 15. This will be the first cask of the batch being tapped, so I'm hoping it doesn't turn out to be rubbish.

TYNDA Rally

We had a well-behaved international motorcycle rally here back on the 26th of June. I just discovered some photos in my grainy iPhone archive. The other side of the street was equally endowed with well-loved machines. I didn't notice any Dneprs or Urals this year, but it might've been because I was pulling a lot of pints behind the bar.

Adventures in Dry Hopping

I was gently prodded by another blogger last night that I hadn't blogged in a while. I knew that, and one of these days I'll explain why (hint: long hours). I do have a backlog of exciting and provocative topics in the queue. This is one of them.

Having ready access to firkins in their beautiful simplicity, seeing as I'm the guy that washes and fills them, I recently conducted raw science on levels of dry hopping in aforementioned vessels. As you all know but I'll say it anyway, dry hopping is a way of increasing the hop aromas in that pint that you are feverishly clutching. Here at the The Brewery I use Type 90 Hop Pellets, for reasons that for the time being will remain in my queue of unposted topics. These (hint: convenient and space-saving) objects are measured out and dumped into the cask prior to hammering home the shive. The last two batches of "This Time For Sure" (BJCP style designation: Hoppy Pale Liquid Refreshment) employed 50g of Cascade/firkin. Batch 3 was the victim of true science, for I bunged 100g in one of the eight casks, and another received 150g.

Take Home Lesson: Don't do it; unless you want to annoy the publican attempting to draw the first few pints. It clogs up the hop filter at the end of the tap, and seems to get stuck in other things as well. After a couple water rinses through the line and a few pints dispensed in the time-honored gravity method out of the cask, a normal state of dispense was achieved. The gravity pints, albeit delicious, were left with a thick green sludge at the bottom.

I'm brewing another batch today, since somebody drank the last eight casks. I think I'll try 75g/firkin this time, across the board.