Photo by the ever talented and lovely Marissa, who writes the most excellent Food in Jars.

It seems like eons ago, but on June 4 Ray, my dearest friend Rach and I served nearly 10 gallons of Bathtub Brewery’s homebrewed beer to a crowd of beer enthusiasts. And it was AWESOME.

We joined the BeerCamp crew earlier in the year, meeting 1-2 times a month at IndyHall where we would taste each others beer, chat and slowly figure out how we wanted the event to turn out (though really, Kelani, Johnny, Dave and Alex were the logistical masterminds behind ALL of it…we just made the libations!)

And then the first weekend of June rolled around and we hauled 4 cases of our bottled beer into the patio/garden area of the Jamaican Jerk Hut on South Street. We iced down some bottles, poured chilled beer into mammoth pitchers … and then got to drinking our fellow brewers’ beers during the VIP Brewers Hour.

Mel and Rach behind the table, working the crowd. Gotta love Rach's "Say wha?" face.

The three of us worked seamlessly as a team, with 2 people pouring while the other either cracked open bottles, ran to get food, or took a bathroom break. Rach and I attracted quite the crowd from time to time, and it was funny to see guys’ reactions to the fact that I was a brewer, not just a “table babe.” Ray and I fielded a fair amount of questions, and even Rach picked up enough lingo to explain what she was serving. We’ll make a brewer of her yet!

We served the much hailed Bee Sting and a new beer, simply named Cherry Wheat (recipe to be posted soon). We were happy with our offerings, but what blew us away was people coming up to the table and saying, “So we heard about this Bee Sting …” Say wha?! Apparently our fellow brewers were sending folks our way, heaving praise on our little hybrid pale ale. Talk about an awesome feeling.

Parker samples a Bee Sting as a friend looks on

And we surprised more than a few people with our Cherry Wheat. Typically you say “Cherry Wheat” and people shudder at the Robitussin-like memory of a bottle from Sam Adams. But our brew was far from that. Instead, it was light, wheaty and a balance of sweet and tart. Attendees were shocked and asked for seconds.

After sampling the beers of my fellow homebrewers throughout the night, I’m proud to say I was part of BeerCamp, and I’m pretty sure Ray would agree with me. Why at least half these brewers aren’t pro already floors me. What I was drinking that night was innovative and downright delicious.

Tom (far left) and the rest of his Big Spoon Brewery crew

Tom, from Big Spoon Brewery, brought his Wobbly Bass Brown, Mmmmm Creamy Milk Stout—and for the lucky—some bottles of his Russian Imperial Stout brewed with coffee. We were blown away and super happy when he took the Brewer’s Choice Award at the end of the night. People’s Choice Awards went to MelloProto Brewing’s Blood Orange Berliner aka B.ö.B., Saint Benjamin Brewing Co.’s Transcontinental (a California Common or “steam” beer) and B WeeRd Brew D’s CHOCRILLA, a stout brewed with sarsaparilla.

The food was fantastic, the beer superb and the company we kept was excellent. I can’t wait until the next BeerCamp Philly event!

Last 3 photos courtesy of Ray who isn’t in any photos because he was too busy taking them!

Brewfests, Homebrewing 3 Comments »

Victory Brewing Co., based in Downingtown PA is a power house of a brewery. I seriously wish we lived closer so we could mull about in the mammoth brewery and restaurant and sip pints on Friday nights. But for now we have to admire from across the water.

And here’s a new reason to envy all the other PA folks who live close enough to the brewery: On Oct. 15, Victory will debut a new beer called Otto, a Belgian-style, bottle conditioned dubbel ale available in 750 ml corked bottles.

This won’t be just any dubbel—which are pretty fantastic in their own right. Otto is brewed with smoked Munich and Belgian caramel malt, German hops and Trappist yeast. The ABV will ring in at 8.1%. Yum.

According to the press release I received, co-founders Bill and Ron developed the recipe for the smoked malt dubbel based on their experience with the style during a 1987 trip to Bamberg, Germany (Note: I was 5 in 1987). The combination of the traditional smokey flavor of a rauch beer married to the Belgian caramel malt will give the beer “a perfectly harmonized final flavor,” according to Victory’s founders.

“The complimentary flavors of smoked malt and Belgian yeast seemed like an obvious combination,” said Bill. “As far as we know, no one has bothered to put them together until now.”

Breweries, Craft Beer Comments Off

To kick off the recent Memorial Day weekend, and our roadtrip out to Ohio for two of my cousins’ graduation parties, I planned for Ray and me to have dinner and beers at Appalachian Brewing Co.’s Harrisburg location. Ray picked me up from my office that Thursday evening and we headed west … right into a horrific storm.

Luckily for us, the storm didn’t kick in until we reached the Harrisburg area, but it was awful. Visibility was nil, winds buffeted the car, and the finishing touch was the hail. We made it to the motel, only to find out they were without power, so we trekked into Harrisburg. The brewery would have power, right?

Technically ABC did have power, but the storm had knocked out the POS system, so servers had to go back to each table, retake orders and get them into the kitchen. The manager explained that they weren’t serving anymore and our faces fell. It was 8:00 pm, we didn’t know the area, and we had salivated over the menu on the way there.

I mentioned that we had driven all the way from Philly, just to visit the brewery and restaurant on our way out west. The manager paused for a moment and said, “Let me see what I can do.” After waiting a bit, he came back, got us seated and ran back into the fray of the busy dining room. Twenty minutes later he swung by our table, dismayed that no one had waited on us. “Let me get your drink order … first round is on me!” he told us. Our new friend’s name was Jeremy and he would spend the next hour giving us some of the best customer service I’ve ever received.

We both ordered the IPA on cask and were rewarded for our wait. Crisp, yet creamy, it was exactly what we needed. Jeremy came back around, took our food orders and in seemingly no time at all I had a cup of cheddar ale soup in front of me. It was rich and flavorful and I should have ordered a bowl or two. Definitely a dish I want to replicate at home.

Ray ordered a beast of a meatloaf, seated on Texas toast, topped with mashed potatoes and gravy and sprinkled with fried onions. My grilled cheese with tomatoes looked positively puny next to it, but it’s exactly what I wanted to eat.

We finished out the night with a second round, Susquehanna Stout for me — so rich and chocolatey — while Ray enjoyed the Anniversary Maibock, which had a lovely honey finish.

We chatted with Jeremy some more, thanked him for getting us a table and taking care of us, and selected a 4-pack of ginger beer and a 6-pack of white birch beer for the road (both of which are delicious). We’ll definitely have to go back to visit and sample more of Appalachian Brewing’s beers, but even though the brewery opened a new location, I feel like we’d need to go back out to the Harrisburg location to show our loyalty to excellent service.

Breweries, Brewpubs, Craft Beer Comments Off

Photo by the ever talented and lovely Marissa, who writes one of my favorite canning blogs, Food in Jars.

Yeah, I know, we disappeared again. Bad homebrewers. BUT, during those 2.5 months, we brewed 10 gallons of beer, which we served to fest goers on Saturday for the 2011 BeerCamp Philly event. We had an AMAZING time and served possibly the best rendition of our Bee Sting Ale to date. Ray and I were incredibly proud of our beers and our fellow homebrewers.

I owe you our newest recipe, the Cherry Wheat Ale, which we touted as “NOT Robitussin—OR Sam Adams Cherry Wheat.” People loved its light, tart flavor. Perfect for summer.

So stay tuned!

Brewfests, Homebrewing 2 Comments »