| I dropped a toaster in here before! Oopsie! |
Sep
2
2010
You like Unibroue right? Who doesn’t? The Québécois brewery puts out some excellent beers: Maudite, La Fin du Monde, Trois Pistoles, and my newest fave, Quelque Chose.
Keep you eye on LadiesOCB because there are a LOT of fantastic things in the works! I’m really glad I have an opportunity to join the lovely ladies writing in that space—but fear not, I’ll still be over at BB writing away!
Aug
25
2010
Sunday I received an email from the lovely Amy Strauss. It went a little something like this:
Hey Mel!
Hope you are having a great weekend, even for today’s rain.So, I work for this local Philly ‘burb-based food company, The Town Dish, who tackles Chester County and beyond.
With the assistance of Southwest Airlines, we’ll travel to another city and back in one day, meeting a few food bloggers who are kind enough to to guide our way of eating through their town.
We are hoping for our first trip to connect the bloggers of our area with the bloggers of the newly trekked city (Tuesday we are going to Boston) — thus why I am connecting you. Being that between Philly, the burbs both my way and your way, there’s a ton of people that can be represented, but since Bathtub Brewery is unique and worth the national mention, I would love for your blog to be included in our traveling-out-of-state roundup.
Of course I said yes! What an awesome opportunity for one of our homebrews to wind up in the hands of someone else who most likely ALSO appreciates fantastic beer?
Ray was onboard from the get-go, so I selected a 12 oz bottle of our Barleywine (it’s been aging over a year now), made an impromptu label and, at the last minute, attached one of our business cards with a rubber band and staple, making it a not-quite-so ghetto tag.
Monday I passed the bottle (donning a classy brown bag) along to Amy, who then got it over to her boss Mary, who packed it along with all the other goodies. Early Tuesday morning she boarded a Southwest flight for Boston with her suitcase full of Philly-appropriate goods for a “Dish on the Fly,” where she spent the entire day running around Boston with the city’s local food bloggers who have the 411 on the food and drink scene.
Talk about friggin’ awesome.
Riding along with our Barleywine was a bottle of Summer Love and HopDevil from Victory Brewing Co. Talk about an honor to share a suitcase with their brews! The Victory beers were gifted to Harpoon Brewery, another excellent contributor to craft beer.
Courtesy of Mary of @wcdish
Our Barleywine went to Charlie Cummings, brewer of Harpoon Brewery, who is also a homebrewer (of course). Doesn’t he look so happy to have our bottle in his hand?
So, not only was this a great opportunity for Bathtub to represent Philly, but I think the heart of this project is facilitating a connection between like-minded folks across the country. Folks who care about what they eat and drink, as well as the people behind the food and drink (or in other cases, the services and products they purchase).
This is a trend that several business books have looked at, showing how people are opening their wallets, but with their values in mind. We don’t just want stuff, we want goods that have a story behind them. We want eggs from the farmer who packs each dozen in a beautiful assortment of colors to make his customer smile; we want to buy vintage cookbooks from a bookshop owner who spends her off-hours searching for treasures high and low; we want to buy jewelry from someone who created a tiny studio out of her home and makes each ring from scratch. We want a story.
The Town Dish’s “Dish on the Fly” does that. It connects bloggers and connects our stories. It also shows the country what the Philadelphia-metro area is capable of, and it’s capable of A LOT.
Aug
18
2010
Monthly Bathtub contributor Ryan from The Healthy Hog is back from vacation in the land of the north. Always mindful of those who might not be able to travel as much as he does, he kept a thorough account of all the beers he tried. Such a good lad.
Some rights reserved by Steve_Tango
When Girlfriend and I originally planned a week-long vacation in Canada to see friends and family, I never expected to find much by the way of beer. At the beginning of the year, I had turned a two-week vacation to Australia and New Zealand into a beer tour, but was disappointed in my findings. Only two or three beers (of the 30+ I’d tried) had been above par (the best being a stout from Tasmania), and I had similar hopes for Canada. Despite Girlfriend hailing from the Nova Scotia, the only real experience I’d had with Canadian craft beer was Unibroue—which I’m not complaining about. Other than that, I knew the usual: Labatt*, Molson, Stella Artois.
Our first night in Canada, we went to a place specifically because of its above-average beer and cocktail list**. The first thing I saw was “Pump House Seasonal.” I asked the server and he said it was a “Thai wheat.” Not knowing what the hell a Thai wheat was, I decided to go ahead with it, mostly because the brewery was in New Brunswick***. When I took my first sip, I tasted something delicious, yet familiar. It took me a second to place it, and when I did, I immediately texted Mel****. The server hadn’t said Thai wheat, he’d said chai wheat. The beer tasted like a wonderful, slightly spicy, slightly cinnamony banana.
The remainder of the trip had its beer highs and lows, but that particular beer was the highest. Later that night, I had the Pump House Scotch Ale, and anytime we stopped at a liquor store I picked up another six-pack of Pump House: Special Old Bitter, Blueberry Ale and Red Ale. The Red Ale was the best of the rest, coming in second to the Chai Wheat and edging out the Scotch Ale.
I was also able to try multiple beers from a local Nova Scotian brewery named Propeller: an ESB, IPA and London Porter. The Porter was easily the best, which could be due to a multitude of reasons: Porter is my favorite style of beer, it was late after a long night of “trying new beers,” and I don’t particularly like bitterness*****. I do remember the porter being an excellent beer, though, despite any sensory shortcomings at that point.
The other great beer experience on the trip came during a small two-day scuttle around Prince Edward Island, home of the best mussels in the world and only one brewery. Of course, I couldn’t pass that up: How many people do I know who can say they’ve had every beer brewed in a single city, let alone an entire province? One******. The Gahan House was my one requirement on P.E.I., so we swung in to have a little nosh and I got, of course, a sampler of every beer they brewed.
While I can’t really judge the 1772 IPA (there’s that bitter beer again), I can say with certainty that my two least favorite beers were the Harvest Gold Pale Ale and Sir John A’s Honey Wheat Ale—which sounds like it would be delicious, but turned out to taste like any run-of-the-mill lager. A step up were Cole’s Cream Ale and the Iron Horse Brown Ale, which I would drink again, but not as my first choice. Their two best brews, however, were the Island Red Amber Ale (which they steamed their freshest of the fresh P.E.I. mussels in) and the Sydney Street Stout, an excellent example of the style that necessitated I order an extra half-pint. I passed it around and everyone seemed pleasantly surprised.
Which sums up my beer experience in Canada: pleasant surprise. I had a few average beers and even a few terrible beers (stay away from Rickard’s Dark), but of the even 20 that I had, even the small beers in the various middles-of-nowhere we visited had their merits, some that would even draw me back. I’ve already told Girlfriend that any future trip to Canada will involve a stop in Moncton, New Brunswick to visit my new friends at Pump House.
* Don’t believe my scoffing at Labatt. Having spent plenty of time in Cleveland, I’ve come to appreciate it more than most macrobrews.
** I immediately noticed a distressing concept: all of our sub-par macrobreweries (Bud, Coors, etc.) are also brewed in Canada and therefore make the “Domestic” list on menus.
*** My newest quest: drink a beer brewed in every state and province.
**** See: The superior Boris the Spider Chai Oatmeal Stout.
***** Why do I keep buying beer with descriptions like “special bitter” and “extra bitter”? Who knows.
****** Me.
Aug
10
2010
Recently, Beer Advocate named its Top 100 Beers based on a nifty equation that goes a little like this:
weighted rank (WR) = (number of reviews for the beer ÷ (number of reviews for the beer+minimum reviews required to be listed (currently 1000) )) × review average for the beer + (minimum reviews required to be listed (currently 1000) ÷ (number of reviews for the beer+minimum reviews required to be listed (currently 1000) )) × the mean across the list (currently 4.03)
Or, in other words: weighted rank (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) × R + (m ÷ (v+m)) × C
Check out Beer Advocate’s post for a more in depth explanation of the math behind the list (look for it at the bottom), but in the meantime, peruse the list here and note which beers we’ve had off of the Top 100 list.
Some rights reserved by DR000
Based on my count, Ray and I have had at least 65 of the beers, so we’ve drank 65% of the best beers on the planet. Not too shabby! I guess we’ll need to start working on the ones we’ve missed, though.
One thing I noticed was that Stoudts Brewing Co. was not on the list, which I find odd. The Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal stout is top notch, and the DIPA is so smooth. Scarlet Lady is also a excellent beer … at least in my opinion they’re all worlds better than Sam Adams’ offerings.
Aug
9
2010
Back in late June I was all ready to share the recipe for the chai I brewed for Boris the Spider Chai Oatmeal stout. And I was, I really was. Then I discovered that the recipe, inked onto an index card had gone missing, but I gave you the process so you could play around and make your own (which is really the best way).
Well, the condo’s on the market AND I found my original chai recipe. Awesome, right?
Chai Recipe (cold brew)
1 oz of tea (blend of 5 bags of the Breakfast Blend and 3 of Darjeeling)
2 star anise
7-10 cardamom pods
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp coriander
3-4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tbsp whole clovesThe star anise, cardamom and cloves will all need to be cracked a bit, using a mortar and pestle. Don’t pulverize.
Place chai mix in a French press and add 8 oz cold filtered water. Stir, place top on and chill for 12 hours.
After the tea has brewed, push the plunger down and pour into a measuring cup. Add to your fermenting beer in the secondary and let it mull.
Jul
27
2010
Here’s monthly Bathtub contributor Ryan from The Healthy Hog on what it’s like to see brew day from outside our kitchen.
Mel explains about the types of hops used in the Bee Sting Ale.
On Memorial Day, Mel and Ray were gracious enough to invite Girlfriend and I and a few others over for a Brew Day. It would function as a small pot-luck, a beer tasting, and most importantly an instructional day for wannabe brewers like myself. And as an aspiring brewer who has no clue about homebrewing, it was important for me to see everything first-hand. Anyone can read a recipe, after all, but it always helps to see what the finished product should look like. Plus, there would be free food.
As we arrived, we were immediately treated to a tasting of a few of Bathtub’s previous homebrews—most of which I’d already had. After beer was lunch; after lunch was the main attraction. It was immediately apparent Mel had prepared everything for us just-so; hops were set out in little bowls to pass around and smell, (a sickly-sweet smell with a hint of bitterness; take a whiff of your strongest double IPA and multiply that by ten), malt was passed around for tasting, the water filter and wort chiller were on display, kettles and measuring devices were set up and ready to be used. The only things missing were a chalkboard and desks.
The first misconception of mine that was shattered was that homebrewing was hard. Yes, it is regimented: You have to get things to the correct temperature, add ingredients at the correct time, complete the steps in the proper order or your beer will taste awful. But, it’s also as easy as that. The temperature the mixture has to be brought to isn’t a secret; you don’t have to guess it on your own. Thanks to the abundance of recipes out there, you don’t have to guess at what kind of hops to put in or which other ingredients you need. It’s just a matter of doing things right.
Mel adds filtered water to the fermeter as Ray watches for it to hit the 5 gallon point.
Perhaps the whole experience was made to seem easier by having such good instructors. Mel and Ray were not afraid to pass things around for us to smell, to touch, to taste. They not only told us what they were doing, but why they were doing it and what it meant to the beer as a whole, the opposite of which is my biggest complaint in being taught something new. You can tell me what to do all you want, but I will be so much more likely to remember what to do if you tell me why it’s done. And Mel and Ray are the perfect combination for this: Mel is like the Please Touch Museum, Ray is the science center full of facts and equations.
Keep in mind, as well: these are people who have been brewing for years. They have everything down to a science, and they’re thinking outside the box. Coming up with their own recipes, adding different ingredients—but it’s still easy. This experience definitely showed me that, even for your first time brewing, all you have to do is relax and follow directions. Boil water. Add barley. Add hops. Add ingredients. Cool. Add yeast. Let sit. Bottle. Drink. Enjoy. The end.
Photos courtesy of Amy
Jul
23
2010
Ray adds the pilsen extract as Mel stirs the wort.
Because the Bee Sting Ale was such a big hit with friends and family alike, we decided it should be one our our first true repeats (though I should note that Ray’s Ginpel recipe was based off of the Belgian tripel we brewed waaaaay back when).
And to make it a little interesting, we decided to have friends over so they could see what homebrewing was like. And it was a success!
Ryan, LeeAnne, Amy and Bob joined us for a lunch of homemade pizza, accompanied by sides from LeeAnne and cheeses from Amy. The food was so good we almost could have skipped brew day completely, though I’m pretty sure our guests wouldn’t have appreciate that. Ray and I had them check out at our setup in the “brewery” and kitchen, smell hops and taste malts. We took turns answering questions, and cajoled Ryan into stirring the pot while I added the honey towards the end of the boil.
Ray pours the cooled wort into the fermenter.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the food, and the beer we had on hand. We sent Bob home with our copy of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, and everyone got to take home some bottles of homebrew, with the promise that once the Bee Sting was bottled, they could collect even more.
We kept the recipe the same, with the only changes being the specific alpha acids of the hops and the seeds of paradise. In our original brewing of the Bee Sting, we added the peppery spice to the last 5 minutes of the boil, as well as making an extract with the spice and vodka. This year, after having success with the chai tea in Boris the Spider Chai Oatmeal Stout, we decided to go the tea route as well. I’m curious to see how successful it is.
31 May 2010
Bee Sting Ale
5 gallons, 60 minute boil5.0 lbs Pilsen Light Liquid Malt Extract (60 min)
2.0 lbs Orange Blossom Honey (15 min)Specialty Grains:
0.5 lbs Crystal Malt 15L1.0 oz Chinook Hops [ 11.4% AA] (60 min)
1.0 oz Amarillo Hops [ 7.5% AA] (15 min)1 tablet Whirlfloc (20 min — clarifier)
White Labs California Ale Yeast WLP001
Seeds of Paradise tea — 16 g of pulverized seeds of paradise in 8 oz filtered water, chilled overnight
4 oz corn sugar (bottling)
———
Create a yeast starter 2-3 days in advance.
Add 3 gallons of water to kettle. Heat to 155°F.
Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains, turn off heat, add malt extract. Bring back to a boil. Add Chinook hops.
At 20 minutes, add Whirlfloc tablet.
At 15 minutes, turn off heat. Add orange blossom honey. Stir until dissolved. Return to boil. Add Amarillo hops.
Chill wort to below 70°F. Rack to fermenter and dilute to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast starter and aerate thoroughly. Allow to ferment to completion at 60-65°F.
Rack fermented beer to secondary fermenter. Add seeds of paradise tea. Age for 1 – 2 weeks.
Rack to bottling bucket. Boil corn sugar with 1 c filtered water and add to beer. Mix well.
Bottle. Age for two weeks.
Photos courtesy of the lovely Amy
Jul
22
2010
I feel like the brown ale often gets forgotten in the melee of its darker cousins, the crazy bourbon, oaked-aged stouts and chocolate porters (not to mention conventional stouts and porters). Who wants a simple brown ale when they can get something exotic?
But the standard brown ale is a great choice for a variety of occasions. It’s a session beer. It’s more substantial than a lager. It can be as roasty or as chocolatey as the brewer wants it to be, or it can be nutty and coffee like (remember our “Nuts About Coffee” Nut Brown ale?)
We decided to give the noble brown a shot with an original recipe this time, and after a little research, I decided to model the beer after Dogfish Head’s Indian Brown Ale, though it’s probably not as hoppy, but more on the roasty side.
10 April, 2010
Extra Fancy Brown Ale
5 gallons8 lbs Ultralight Malt Extract (60 min)
1.0 lb Crystal 60L
8 oz Chocolate Malt
2 oz Roasted Barley1 oz Magnum Hops (60 min)
1 oz Vanguard Hops (15 min)1 tablet Whirlfloc (20 min — clarifier)
White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001)
DME (bottling)
———
Create a yeast starter 2-3 days in advance.
Add 3 gallons of water to kettle. Bring to boil.
Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains, turn off heat and add liquid malt extract. Bring to a boil. Add bittering hops.
At 20 minutes, add Whirlfloc tablet.
At 15 minutes, add remaining hops.
At end of boil, remove all hops. Chill wort to 75°F. Rack to fermenter and dilute to 5 gallons. Decant yeast starter and pitch yeast. Aerate thoroughly. Ferment at 70-75°F.
Rack fermented beer to secondary fermenter. Age for 1 – 2 weeks.
Rack to bottling bucket. Boil DME with 1 c filtered water and add to beer. Mix well.
Rack fermented beer to secondary fermenter. Age 1-2 weeks.
We’ll have our tasting notes up in a couple of weeks, but a cool thing to mention is that we shared a bottle of the Extra Fancy with a homebrewer we met on a camping trip to Keen Lake this past weekend. Jay runs the Final Gravity podcast, builds all sorts of cool homebrewing equipment, and found some interesting spice notes (like cinnamon) in our brown ale as he sipped it with us by the lantern-lit picnic table. It’s always a boon to have new people try our beer — it let’s us learn so much more.
Jul
20
2010
Yes, I know Philly Beer Week has come and gone. This year, the revelries took place Jun 4-13, with 195 participants and more than 1,000 successful events. Suffice to say, the event freaking blew up from 2009—which had 700 events over the course of 10 days—with a lot of new faces and venues clamoring to get in on the action. Talk about a good thing gone great.
In 2009, Ray and I attended a couple of events, but it was tough with some of the more interesting ones being smack dab in the middle of the workday. However, in 2010, we missed every single event. Not because we have no love for Philly Beer Week, but because we were A. super busy with condo prepping and ACL sprains; and B. going to SAVOR. But I downloaded the Philly Beer Week iPhone app—designed by six members of Philly’s CocoaHeads—and was pretty impressed.
So a month and change has gone by, the Royal Stumble survived, and I just received a press release letting me know to prep my drinking arm, because Philly Beer Week 2011 will be back with a vengeance, spanning June 3-12, 2011. According to the release, PBW 2011 will see the return of the Hammer of Glory (HOG)—”the official keg hammer of Philly Beer Week, and its over-the-top journey across the city to arrive at the Opening Tap, conveyed by everything from kinetic sculpture to zip line to Philly Roller Girls”; The Forum of the Gods, with some of the biggest names in brewing for an informal round table talk; and tons of events ranging from beer pairings to meet the brewer to festivals. There is also talk of an enhanced iPhone app, inspired by the 2010 version. I will definitely be downloading that!
So consider this a “Save the Date” of sorts, and prep that drinking arm. If Philly Beer Week could grow from 700 to 1000 events in a single year, just imagine what’s in store for 2011.
Jul
15
2010
Waiting in line, in the rain, in good spirits, for Nodding Head's door to open
Saturday, July 10 was Nodding Head’s annual Royal Stumble, this year being the 11th for the unique beerfest. Talk about an institution! The theme was “It’s Always Sunny at the Royal Stumble,” but as I alluded to in my previous Wee Bit Stumble video, that was a misnomer. Why? Because it rained from early morning until well after Nodding Head opened its doors to a soggy line of people.
But could rain keep us down? Hell no! This is the Stumble! This is the fest where breweries are clamoring to make sure your glasses are full, and your buffet plates have a nice assortment of pub food. I’m betting Nodding Head could move the Stumble into the dead of winter and folks would still come out, brimming with craft beer love and non-douche-baggery.
Yards Philly Pale Ale wins the Royal Stumble for 2010!
This year, Ryan and LeeAnne joined us after I talked their ears off nonstop about how the Stumble is one of the quintessential fests of the year. Making our way up the stairs, Yards was the first to grace my glass, pouring me a tall one of their Philly Pale Ale. Crisp and hoppy, it was a great way to start. Yards also managed to kick their keg first, giving them the honor of being the RS winner. Yay for Yards!
After getting our first pour and winding through the boisterous crowd, we commandeered a table (like you do) tucked in a far back corner and went to the buffet in shifts to get pulled pork, mini latkes, mac salad, and for those interested, hot wings and franks. It was a nice spread that was replenished often, without being over the top, dry or skimpy.
The offerings for the day were:
Mmmm...beer!
Dock St.: Saison Du Potts
Dogfish Head: Festina Peche
Earth Bread + Brewery: Glutenus Minimus
Flying Fish: Farmhouse Ale
General LaFayette: Barren Hill Best Bitter
Nodding Head: Grog
Ommegang: Rare Vos
Philadelphia Brewing Co: Pennsylvania Pale Ale
Sly Fox: Helles
Stewart’s: Coffee Stout
Stoudt’s: Heifer in Wheat
Triumph: Saison
Troegs: Sunshine Pils
Twin Lakes: Greenville Pale Ale
Victory: Helios
Yards: Philly Pale Ale
There were a lot of familiar beers in the line up, as well as a few welcome surprises. Earth Bread + Brewery’s Glutenus Minimus knocked my socks off! The beer is gluten free and sits at 2.5% ABV. Despite the low ABV, the beer packed a punch in the flavor department. At first I thought I was drinking Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche when I snagged a sip from LeeAnne’s glass. Nope! It was EBB’s Glutenus, and the flavor sang of fresh, succulent peaches. I could sure use a growler of that!
Twin Lakes Brewing Co.’s Greenville Pale Ale was an organic offering and nicely showcased Cascade hops. The gentleman manning the taps was jovial and full of information about the beer and brewery, and it was nice to see a new face at the fest.
As always, Festina Peche was a welcome refreshment, as was Stoudt’s Heifer in Wheat (I proudly told the brewery rep that I was married there, which he thought was pretty damn cool). Triumph’s Saison was spot-on for the style and General LaFayette’s Barren Hill Best Bitter had a pleasant nuttiness about it.
I think the beer that surprised me the most was Sly Fox’s Helles Golden Lager. I have to admit, I’m not really a lager girl. I respect the style and how accurate a brewer needs to be with lager beers, but they’ve never been on the top of my list. However, I found the Helles exceptionally crisp and refreshing, with a little je ne sais quoi that made it really enjoyable. I also had a chance to chat with Philly’s one and only Beerlass Suzy about the state of beer in NJ, Denver-area breweries, and my awesome Oskar Blues Canarchy t-shirt (which looks to be unavailable now, per the website).
LeeAnne and her 5 lb bag of artisan coffee from Stewart's
While Ray, Ryan and I were steadily getting our drink on, LeeAnne — who’s not a huge fan of beer — set about the challenge that Stewart’s Brewing Co. had put out: For every pour of their Coffee Stout you had, you would earn a sticker. The person with the most stickers got a 5-pound bag artisan coffee — the same kind that was used to brew the stout.
So LeeAnne, extroverted and friendly as she is, managed to amass 146 stickers, while not drowning herself in the stout (which was delicious, by the way). Instead, she went from person to person collecting stickers, all the while trying the beer a few times. Talk about entrepreneurial spirit.
We left the Royal Stumble shortly before the end with five pounds of coffee in tow, heading off through the humid, wet streets of Philly in search of our next great adventure for the weekend: roller derby.
Derby girls are faaaaaaast!
