I think I know why they call it Blind Tiger...

Members enjoyed a very nice and summery Friday afternoon at the Blind Tiger in Manhattan on Bleeker St. It was the perfect day; not a cloud in the sky, not too hot, great beer, company, and food. Blind Tiger is just a few blocks from the Christopher St station off of the Path, right on the corner. They have large windows that you can people watch from and the interior is quite rustic; hardwood floors, wooden bar and tables and stools. The bar itself is a blocky Z-shape and also not that big. On the wall behind boasts 26+ different craft beers on tap.

 

The beer list is mostly Belgian inspired, but there are other interesting brews that are unfamiliar. For example, there is one that is a sour beer made with sea salt (Barrier Gosilla), and as you guessed it, it was very sour and salty. The good thing about his place is that if you're unfamiliar with the beer, you can get a taste first before ordering a full pint.

This is a very popular place. It was packed at lunch time, then the numbers dwindled after the lunch crowd left, but then picked back up again about 2 hrs later. So, if you're thinking about going there, go at 1:30p. It is quite easy to get lost in the sheer numbers of beers, but also tempting to try as many as you can. As I can recall, they had Ommegang Witte, Six Point Stout (very dessert like with lots of cocoa notes), Houblon Chouffe (a Bel IPA that tasted like an American IPA)...The food menu had some good chicken wings (not overly sauced and right amount of heat), decent sliders - lamb and pulled pork (albeit they only give you one, so it should be "slider" on the menu, not "sliders"!), the dip platter was good (a mix of olive tapenade, hummus, and a romesco sauce) and served with toasty pita triangles, cheese plate, and other bar food.

Everybody had a good time, some more than others!

New Beer App if you're a fan on Yelp!

If you like to check out new craft brews, then download this app called Untappd!

Untappd is a social discovery and check-in network for anyone that enjoys beer. It helps you find nearby craft beers and bars, and see what's trending, and what your friends are drinking.

When you find yourself a beer that you like, you can track, rate, take a photo, and share it with your friends.

Brooklyn Brewery Tour

Last Saturday, a few members visited the Brooklyn Brewery, yes, in Brooklyn, NY, and got out of the heat and enjoyed some of their brews. The brewery is located about 5 blocks from the Bedford Ave station right off of the L train. If you're driving in from NJ, here's a good tip from one of our members, Steve, which I also took: Park in Chelsea, around 18th St between 8th and 9th Avenues, and take the L train to Brooklyn. There were some empty street parking that were free for the whole day. Parking in Brooklyn seems to be a nightmare.

BB is open from noon-6pm on Saturdays, and offer tours every half hour from 1pm. You must get in line an hour before the tour you want. Although they have limited tickets (40) per tour, you can just stand in line for the next available one. I got in line at noon, but counted 45+ people in front of me, and when I got to the guy who gave out tickets, I ended up getting the 1:30pm tour, no biggie.

 

The facility is quite large and clean, compared to some of the other breweries I've been to. As you enter the building, you face three large copper fermenters. The office and the way to the bar is to the left. They don't have free tastings, so you'll have to get tokens: $5/token or $20/5 tokens.

They have a nice, AC'd open bar area where you can get a drink and wait for the next tour. There are picnic tables that line the wall and modern alternative music playing through the speakers. Once people start piling in, though, the noise level really goes up, and you could barely hear what your friends are saying.

On tap, they have a number of IPAs, Saisons, a smoky porter, a Weiss, and lager. My favorite was the Ridgy-Didge, which is a Saison made with Australian hops. I also liked their Weisse. One of their favorites that will get you drunk quick is the "Blast" at 8.5% ABV. It tasted good, but I ran out of tokens before I could get one.

We started the tour with our guide, Tim, at the mashing room. Tim talked about the owner, who had an interesting life as an AP reporter stationed in the Middle East back in the mid-90s, and often had good craft beer in Ex-pat bar hangouts. After leaving his post to pursue life in other ways, his friends gave him a parting gift - his own homebrew kit. So, after arriving to NYC, he started making his own beers. One thing led to another, especially meeting an investment banker, he opened the brewery (I left out a lot of the story...can't remember). Close to 15 years later, Brooklyn Brewery became the 7th largest craft brewer in the US and produces 85k barrels per year. Very impressive!

Here are a couple of other pictures:

This is Tim - good storyteller

Bottling machine

Thibaut, Steve, and Joycelyn

 

Me and my designated driver

Cheers!

First Home Brew Session of 2014 - Pumpkin Spice Porter

On Saturday, March 29th, fellow members brewed their first beer for 2014, a Pumpkin Spice Porter. As you can see from the brewing spec's below, it does not have any pumpkin in it, rather a blend of spices. This was also Jelena's first introduction and initiation to home brewing. Other members, like Steve, Craig, Simon, Tofu and Joycelyn, helped Jelena with techniques and know-how. It was a nice afternoon of brewing indoors when it was raining and cold.

As always, when you brew you have a brew. We enjoyed a couple of home brews and commercial crafts: Tinyee's Belgian Blond Ale, Tinyee's and Craig's Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Benediktiner Weissbier, Lagunitas New DogTown Pale Ale, and Stone Brewing Ruination IPA.

The Pumpkin Spice Porter is the Brewer's Best Kit.

Here, Steve and Jelena are preparing the grain sock for steeping the specialty grains (top left). The grain bag is nicely steeping to give a deep and dark color to the wort. Then after about 20 min at 160 F, the bag is pulled out.

Then extract is added as the wort comes up to a rolling boil (top left). Once the wort is boiling, the first addition of hops is added, being careful that the wort doesn't boil over due to excessive foaming, i.e. hot break. The 55 min boil time starts. After the second addition of hops and spice pack are added, the wort needs to be chilled quickly. Here, we use an immersion chiller to chill the wort to about 75 F (bottom left). The wort is siphoned to the fermenter, where water was added to make up the volume difference, gravity checked, and yeast is pitched.

The beer is fermented at around 65-70 F for a couple of days before it will be transferred to a secondary fermenter, and continue fermenting for another week and a half.

We will be bottling in about 2 weeks, so stay tuned...

Important Links for Homebrewing

Here 's a compilation of links for homebrewing. I will update this list as I see fit.

The Brewing Network: News, events, forums, and live Beer Radio

50 States, 50 beers we love: Drink your way through the USA

Hitting your target Gravity: How to calculate gravity units (GU) for Extract and All grain brewing

Making your Own Immersion Chiller: YouTube Video

Mr Malty: Lots of info about beer yeast

Skip the Sparge!: Use more grain and simply drain: The “no-sparge” method makes brewing easier and produces a rich, smooth, pH-stable wort.

Lautering Efficiency: There are two components to brewing efficiency: mashing efficiency and lautering efficiency. Mashing efficiency is all about the conversion of malt starches to sugars. Lautering efficiency is all about the extraction of those sugars to the kettle. There are several factors that determine lautering efficiency, but they all boil down to uniformity of flow.

Craft Brewery Startup Workshop: Help create business plan, develop capital and business infrastructure, determine how to market and grow your business.

American Brewers Guild: Online brewing education

Wort-O-Matic: Homebrewing Gadget Website

Home Brewing Calendar: Every brew has its season. This guides you what needs to be brewed and when.

BYO Resource Guide: Brew Your Own's Magazine Resource links to to help guide you through the incredible choice of yeast strains, hops, grains, and adjuncts.

Printable Resources for Homebrewers: PDF recipe templates for all grain, partial mash, extract brewing and check-lists, and beer tasting sheets.

High Point Brewery Tour

On Saturday, November 9th, club members visited High Point Brewery in Butler, NJ, home of the Ramstein beers. This was an open house day, where they debut their Ramstein Oktoberfest. They only have 4 of these open houses a year, and at each open house, they debut their latest concoction. High Point follows the strictest of rules for making real German beer. By law, they can only use 4 ingredients: Water, Wheat or Barley, Hops, and Yeast. They do not use any adjuncts or flavoring ingredients, and do not artificially carbonate. All of the flavor comes from the brewing process and the yeast.

Greg Zaccari, founder, has worked in a brewery in Southern Germany, and has brought his expertise and proprietary yeast to the US to start High Point Brewery. Originally, he wanted to open his brewery in High Point, NJ, because of its pristine location and beautiful landscape. However, the water was not pure. So they moved to Butler, NJ, where they had access to pure mountain water.

The tour that Greg gave was very educational, and he was very approachable, in case you had additional questions. They had served 5 or 6 different styles of beer. The hefeweisen and doppelbock were two of my favorites. They sell growlers anywhere from $5 to $40, depending on how ornate you like it. You get 2 tickets at the door, then pay about $4/ cup. There were other vendors that sold pickles, flattened bottle ornaments, stone hearth pizza and sausages. 

We all had a really good time! The size of the brewery is similar to Cricket Hill and also difficult to find. It's hidden in the back of brick-lined warehouses. 

This is what happens when you drink too much!!

The Ship Inn - NJ's First Brewpub

On Saturday, October 19th, club members visited New Jersey's first Brewpub in Milford, NJ, The Ship Inn. Like many Ship Inns in England, this brewpub serves English pub food and beer. One thing that is special about this place is that they brew in the Olde English style with open fermenters (see picture). They import their grains from England and cook them in a brick-lined cooker. On tap they had a Golden Wheat, Extra Special Bitter, a Red Coat Ale, and Shaak's IPA. On the hand-pump, they had Best Bitter and Dark Charger. For a full list of beers that they brew, check out this link.

I had the Red Coat Ale, Dark Charger, and the Best Bitter. In my opinion, the Red Coat ale and Dark Charger are mild beers with good color, but similar in taste. The Best Bitter was not as hoppy nor bitter as I liked, given the name, and would feel it to be even less hoppy than a Sierra Nevada.

As for the food, the British faire was comparable to standard. Half of the group had the mac-n-cheese, which was quite cheesy and yummy. Mike had it with bacon and local ham. They source local meats and cheeses, especially from Bobolink Farm. I had the British Sampler that included a Scotch Egg and Piccalilli, Cheese & Onion pie, Tiddy Oggie, and Sausage Roll served with traditional HP sauce.

It was nice meeting members' s.o.'s, and the kids had a great time. After lunch, a few of us visited the Bobolink Farm to taste their artisan cheeses and bread that they make on site. Do check them out as they have cheese and bread tasting. They make unpasteurized cheese. They also have pig roasts and meat from them sell out quickly. After that, the little ones enjoyed hiking at Ringing Rock park where they banged on rocks with hammers.

Until next time...drink a beer!