More Summer BBQ pix

Harden Family Summer BBQ pix

A couple of pix from the Harden Family Summer BBQ. Thanks for hosting, Bacharach's will be up next!!!

More Irish Stout Pix

Some additional photos from the Irish Stout brew sesh

we're back...

So, we dropped the ball a bit with summer travels and various family activities, but we're back in busy baby! We've had a couple of batches since the last post, some successful, some not so much. At any rate, we tasted the IPA last night and I think everyone can agree that it was the best we've brewed thus far. Aside from the IPA shits this morning, it was fantastic. Although, that could be from First Class' Sante Fe pizza with whole friggin jalapenos! Damn that shit was good, but I digress. This is a beer blog, not a pizza blog dammit!

Thanks to Tommie and Jaime for being such gracious hosts. As usual, a good time was had by all and I feel like we're cooking with gas now baby. The Dry Irish Stout looks like it's going to be a deliscious, heavy guiness like beer. I'm stoked and I know y'all are as well. Here's some pix to keep us all honest as wait...

Looking Good!

A couple of pix to keep us all honest. Things are progressing well and looking good!

Is that a krausen in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Dudes, I'm stoked on the krausen in the IPA. We should have a discussion relative to when we can crack open the Brown Ale. I'm assuming after the peeps return from the World Cup, we can do the tasting party. I'm happy to host.

Churning & Burning Baby!!!

It's on, it's on, IT IS ON!!! As you can see, we're well into fermentation and have a nice krausen forming. A quick pic and video from this weekend's activity. Keep it up Walls!!!

Russian River IPA!!!

Up to Round 4 baby! An excellent time was had by all last night as we prepared the Russian River IPA. It's resting comfortably in Wally's garage and will be readying for bottling shortly. A speacial thanks to Wallace and Erin for hosting the Brew Party. We can only assume how hectic things are right now, so thanks for putting up with us! Enjoy the pics!

Is this the face of the beer club mascot?

We need a mascot...

Bottling the Drunk'n Monk!

A great time was had by all last night. Props to Mike for hosting the bottling. A complete success and I can't wait to taste the batch. I'll pick up the next brew for Jeremy, a newcastle like brown ale. We can coordinate dates, time, etc. shortly, in the interim, enjoy some of the pix from last night and welcome Tommie!

First Official Tasting Party - April 16th!!!

Time to celebrate the fruits of our labor. Come one, come all, and bring the kids too! Let's sample the tasty brew on Friday, April 16th at my house. Bring your taste buds and any booze you'd like to drink/share in addition to the Desparation. I would suggest the wives coordinate to each bring an appetizer to share, nothing fancy, just some snacks to settle the stomach as we fill it with booze.

Drunk Monk - resting peacefully

Everything looking good. This was taken last Thursday, April 1st, at Mike's house.

Round 2 - Chimay Red Ale (Drunken Monk)

Wally, getting his teabag on as he prepares the wort!!! Nice bagging Wally.

Done & Done!!!

Well, we did it gents. The first batch, Desperation Ale, was completed and tasted last week. Other than the 3 explosions, I'm pretty pleased with the end product. Consensus was a bit too much sugar and hence over carbonation on some. Next up, TASTING PARTY!!!

Resting Peacefully

Just a quick pic of the beers resting peacefully. This was taken last Thursday night. At the time of bottling, we had some heavy silt going through, which, unfortunately, is to be expected. I'll check tonight as I'm hoping most of it has settled to the bottom of each bottle.

Why do you make the goat sad? Where were you last night?

TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT BITCHES!!!

It all comes together tonight my friends! Cleaning, Sanitizing, and bottling will begin tonight as soon as possible. Come on over whenever you can!

We're almost there!

One day until bottling gents!

Thursday it is!

With all apologies to those who cannot make, the votes are in and Thursday it is! Please feel free to come over whenever you would like, but I'd suggest no later than 5:30 (if possible). There's lots to do and we want to make sure we have enough time. Again, bring a 6-pack to share.

I'll stop by O'Sheas to get caps and any additional bottles. I'll take an inventory of what we have tonight and update accordingly.

It's looking like Thursday...

Still waiting to hear back from a couple of people, but the general consensus is Thursday would be much better for all. I'll have final confirmation shortly.

Cleaning, Sanitizing, & Bottling!

A quick pic of the finishing hops doing what they do best, finishing! So, there's been a little back and forth relative to which day is best for the cleaning, sanitizing, and bottling.

Thursday:
Paul
Jonti
Jon

Friday:
Mike
Jeremy

As I said in my e-mail, we're a democracy and majority rules! I'll let you know by the end of the day whether it's Thursday or Friday. Either way, bring a 6 pack to share. Of course we'll have games on.

Finishing Hops!!!

The above pics were taken this morning after I added the finishing hops last night. It's somewhat hard to tell, but there's definitely action. We can officially bottle next week.

Paul sent the e-mail out to everyone about bottling either Thursday or Friday. I'm easy either way, but we need to choose a day and stick with it. Mike, you're on notice buddy. Keep in mind, we need to clean and sterilize all the bottles and caps before we actually bottle. This will take some time.

Latest & Greatest

The 2 pics above were taken yesterday afternoon. I've included the shot of the top of the carboy so that you can see what the brew actually looks like. Notice the level of sediment on the bottom of the 2nd picture. I'll be adding the finishing hops tonight, nothing more than dropping the hops into the carboy and then letting it sit for a week or so. I'll begin the specific gravity readings today as well.

7 days and going strong!

In follow-up to my post from yesterday morning, it looked as if we were getting pretty close to finishing fermenting in the glass carboy and could consider bottling soon. I did a close inspection last night and, much to my surprise, we're still going strong. I'll get the hydrometer today or tomorrow to confirm the status of the fermentation. Remember, if we get the same reading (specific gravity) for 3 days, it's ready to bottle. I'll most likely begin the readings today or tomorrow.

If you look at the pic, it looks like there's a large head of foam at the top. This is actually not the case and that's merely sediment (krausen) that has floated up from the bottom throughout the fermentation and is now adhering to the sides. There's very little at the liquid line other than a bit of "froth" with air bubbles poking through every now and then.

According to everything I've read so far, the beer's doing exactly what it should be.

Beer Bottle Cleaning Crew - you know who you are!

Just a reminder, if you were one of the lucky saps enjoying beer last Thursday and not stressing over the process, you've been tagged as the Official Beer Bottle Cleaning Crew! You'll have loads and loads of fun cleaning and sterilizing all the bottles, and don't forget the caps!

In all seriousness, we need to establish a protocol and schedule for cleaning and sanitizing the bottles and caps. I'll do a quick rundown of the bottles we have from the other night and let everyone know how many we need. Based upon the product, +/- 5 gallons, we would need 64 12-oz bottles. We've got a mixed bag of bottles as it relates to volume, running from 12 oz to 16 oz to 18 oz. I would suggest we get a boat load of 12er's and then bombers for the rest. Lord knows we're going to break a few and they're cheap anyway.

Cleaning and sanitizing could, theoretically, be done in the dishwasher, but I think we would be best to clean everything in a water and bleach solution and then dry them in the dishwasher.

Mike, Jeremy, Scott, and Jon, you're part of "The Crew", so good luck and we're all counting on you.

03.09.10 - Resting Peacefully

This pic is taken from this morning at about 7:00 AM, everything looking good. I'll post another pic this afternoon and try to be more consistent on the timing. I'd like us to have a more "accurate" history of the brew. Speaking of pics, let's get the ones from the actual brew process up asap.

03.08.09 - Looking Good

This photo is from yesterday afternoon. Wally shared our status with a buddy of his who's got a bit more mileage under his belt when it comes to brewing. He indicated we may want to consider putting together a secondary airlock and tube that would drain into another bucket so as to eliminate any overflow and loss of precious product. I went to O'Sheas yesterday and went over everything with them. I told them about the whole process, including the minor mistakes, and then I showed them our pictures. They said we're looking really good and do not need the additional overflow set-up. We may want to consider it for future brewing, but he indicated you really only need it if it appears that the beer is really churning and will likely overflow. He said he thought it was ready to bottle, but to be sure we need to measure the specific gravity of the brew for 3 days. If the reading is consistent for 3 days, then we're good to go and we can bottle.

Pics are in reverse order

I'll get the hang of posting the pics by the time we're drinking! In all seriousness, the pics are in reverse order. The first pic on the post is from Sunday and the second pic is from Saturday. The video is from Sunday as well. In the future, I'll post pics under an individual posts.

Correction - Pics & Vid

My apologies for the double post, but I'm having some issues posting pictures. Here's the pic from Saturday, again. This was taken about 8:30 - 8:45 AM. Lots of activity and everything is looking good.



I was in LA for all of Saturday, into Sunday morning, and was very excited to see how the beer was doing when we got home. Needless to say, this badboy is cooking! Huge amount of activity throughout all of Sunday. All the liquid in the fermentor was churning and burning as the yeast did it's job. Really impressive stuff. Enjoy!

Some photos to keep you honest!!!

Things are looking pretty good fellas. I'm pleased with the progress. I checked the fermentor on Friday and I was a little concerned that I wasn't seeing as much activity as I would have liked. I even considered reaching out to O'Sheas for some feedback. Needless to say, it was all for naught!

I've included a couple of pics to keep you going. The first is from Saturday morning around 8:30 AM. As you can see, fermentation has begun.

Secondary Fermentation?!

At this early stage in our beer brewing education, I think we should hold off on the secondary fermentation. Also, from what I've read it doesn't seem necessary for the simple ale that we made. Dr. Stone, how is the fermentation going? Is there beer all over your garage?

what's that Disturbance???

Thanks to everyone for a great time last night. I'm cautiously optimistic that we've created a good product. We made a couple of mistakes, for which I accept full responsibility as Brewmaster, but all in all, I think we did a great job. We've got one under our belt, the worst is over, so let's get ready for the next one!

A couple of you have discussed starting the next batch when we bottle the Disturbance Ale. In most cases, we would bottle the current batch within 2 weeks. However, and as Wally indicated, we may want to consider a pour and secondary fermentation into the plastic bucket. We'd do this next week and then bottle after the batch has fermented in the plastic bucket for another week. Don't get your panties in a bunch, unless that's your thang (which is fine by me), we do not need to meet if we want to do a secondary fermentation. It's extremely easy to do and we have all the equipment. Let me know if you would prefer this method and I'll do it. As always, majority rules so get a damn quorum going!

Keep in mind, once we bottle, we've got another 2 weeks until we can officially pour and consume. As such, I think we should seriously consider starting another batch pretty soon.

Thanks again for a great time.

IT IS ON!!!

Today is the day gents! I picked-up the last few supplies last night and it is officially ON!!! Special thanks to Wally for suggesting we get a 5-gallon plastic bucket with a spigot. I went to O'Sheas yesterday and they said while we could absolutely bottle from our fermentor, they recommended we use a separate bucket, with spigot, for bottling. Well played Wally, well played.

For those of you who will be late this evening, no worries, we'll save some clean-up for you. For those of you who will be on time, come over whenever you can, but we'd like to start everything no later than 7:00 PM.

I leave you with these words of wisdome from Ace Ventura:

"If I'm not back in 5 minutes, just wait longer"

See you tonight bitches!!!

Final Prep!!!

A couple more quick hits before we get ready for tomorrow. So far, I haven't heard any complaints about pizza and beer. I'm thinking everyone should bring a 6-pack of your favorite beer, bring something unusual, something others may not have tried. Of course, a tall boy of Pabst or Beast will always suffice.

I'm going to try and get as much cleaning and sanitizing done by early afternoon so that we're not wasting valuable time. It should take about 3 hours, 3.5 max, to do everything (I think...), so why doesn't everyone come over between 6:00 and 7:00 PM. 6:00 may be a bit early for some, but you're welcome to come at any time. We'll begin the boil as soon as we have a quorum.

2 Days and counting...

I completed the final inventory last night and we're good to go. There are a couple of optional items that I think we should seriously consider adding to the inventory to make the whole process run smoother. In all likelihood, I'll run down to O'Sheas to pick them up either today or tomorrow.

We do NOT need to meet in advance of Thursday's planned meeting. I'll begin the cleaning and sanitization process fairly early, so that we can get to cooking as quickly as possible on Thursday. I'm assuming pizza and beer is ok for everyone? Our address is 1 Via Apuesto, 92673, my mobile is 949.632.4977, and home is 949.492.1062.

Our inventory thus far:

- Official San Clemente Beer Club Brew Bible (I've put together a binder for notes and such)
- Brew Kit (all the goods in 1 lovely package)
- 20 qt. brew pot
- Plastic Spoon
- Tablespoons and Measuring Cups
- Glass jar
- Fermentor
- Airlock
- Sanitizer (I'll make this the day of with a mixture of water and bleach)
- Thermometer (optional, but I think it will be beneficial)
- Appox. 5-7 gallons of distilled water (this can be the arrowhead water from Ralph's)
- Bleach
- Large Plastic Bucket (this will be used to sanitize some of the smaller items as well as for storage of equipment as we go through the process)

A couple of final items to consider, we need to exchange mobile phone numbers and preferred e-mail addresses. It sounds as if most of us do not want to use our "work" e-mails, not surprising, and would prefer to use our "personal" e-mails. We can include everyone's contact info in the above-mentioned binder. Lastly, the kit and 8 grolsch bottles were a total of $138.17, so bring your friggin check books!

Thursday, March 4th

Good Morning Fellow Brewmeister's!!! The day is fast approaching. I will be preparing a final inventory tonight, I know I keep saying that, but tonight is the night! I've prepared some materials for the first batch and I know Wally has some great information too. We should be good to go. I'll provide the inventory first thing tomorrow. Until then, here's to happy brewing!

First Brew - March 4th???

As it stands, we're planning on the first official brew to be this coming Thursday, March 4th. I'll coordinate with whomever would like to have a pre-meeting final inventory checklist, most likely Wally and Paul, but welcome to anyone who would like to join us. I'll put together the final checklist of what we have this weekend and e-mail it out to everyone, but I'm fairly confident we have everything we need for "Brew Day".

Opening Entry

We've been talking about starting this club for a while, this is a blog is for a bunch of guys whose wives are all in the same "book club". Yes, "book club" is in quotes because I refer to our wives' club as a wine club with a book reading problem. The last meeting they had didn't end until midnight and I have no idea how many bottles of wine they drank (and neither do they). That is what has motivated us to start this club. Rather than hide behind some charade of a more legitimate purpose for a club, the idea here is for a bunch of guys to get together and drink beer, talk about beer & brew beer, no BS excuse. We'll see how it all works out.

Right now we are trying to arrange our first meeting and one of our members sent out the message below to try and get us all motivated:

"You are receiving this email because all of our chicks love to pretend to
read books but instead get together to booze on wine - while leaving us home
with the kids (or dog in Worm's case). It is time we grow a "pair"
gentlemen, and form a manly club where we:
(i) brew beer,
(ii) drink beer,
(iii) talk about beer,
(iv) belch and maybe stink up the room.
This email is the official launch of Beer Club, much cooler than Fight Club. Dr. Stone has
all of the brew materials and knowledge. Burkhart has brewed before as well.
Dr. Kenneth Noisewater, well he can do just about anything (at least that is what he tells
me). Me (Gordon Gecko), FatAss and LeBron are professional drinkers - so this elite list is
invited to our first official meeting. I suggest that we have our first
meeting at ----- ---- in San Clemente (El Camino Real) at 7pm on February
4th (because this month sucks ass for me). We can have pizza, sample real
micro brew on tap and set our agenda for the upcoming months. Please
confirm that you can make this date and time for the first meeting and that
you accept the challenge. Consider this a free hall pass from the females
as the news has already been broken to several of the wives - and you know
how they talk."

So, starting next month, it looks like the San Clemente Beer Club will have its' first meeting.