Fleming's Irish Red Ale

Sorry for the delay in posting, but November 11th, 2012 was a great brew day. Jon's spirit was with us that day. We all had a great day, with great company and great food. Jon's wife Joanne and Jon's best friend Jeff Pranger came to visit and watch us brew Fleming's Irish Red Ale. Mama Granoth made a big batch of homemade chili complete with all the fixins. 

We decided to brew two batches that day. One batch would be bottled and given to Joanne to share with friends and family. The other batch will be kegged and enjoyed by SBBC members.  I decided to to further honor Jon's memory by numbering the batches with Jon's badge numbers. Batch 289 (Jon's Campion Ambulance number) and Batch 207 (Jon's VEMS badge number) were brewed. The beer came in at 1.046 SG and finished fermenting at 1.016 FG. That gives if a total ABV of 4.5%, which is perfect for this beer style. I was able to bottle the beer right before Christmas. I ended up printing the labels myself. The original plan to order them online would have taken too long.

Please take a peek at the photos below. I'll be adding photos of the brew day later tonight.

Both batches in the fermenter

Batch 298

Batch 207

Krausen cap on one of the batches

Checking the color and ABV %



Getting ready to rack the beer in to the secondary fermenters



Racking to secondary

Both batches in secondary fermenters

Asst. Brewer Joe D. checking progress as we rack into the kegs for carbonation

Racking into the kegs

Racking into the kegs

Both batches in kegs carbonating

Batch 298 bottled, waiting for labels

Bottled and labeled

Trying to be artsy with my photo



Fleming's Irish Red Ale 2012

Jon getting ready to serve some warrants. We will miss you brother.
Keep an eye over us. Love ya.

Pumpkin Porter Update

The Pumpkin Porter that was brewed on September 22nd was racked into a keg last night. It'll now sit in the fridge carbonating with CO2. It should be ready to enjoy on our next brew day on 11-11-2012. Here's a pic and quick video.

CLUB BREW DAY 11-11-2012

Good Morning All:


The next SBBC brew day will be Sunday, November 11th 2012. 12 noon start. We will be doing a double brew day as voted on by the membership last Sunday.

We will be brewing an Irish Red Ale in memory of a good friend to many of us, Jon Fleming. Jon was 36 when he passed away on October 3rd. He was a Paramedic at Campion and VEMS and a former volunteer firefighter in Avon.

We will be brewing one 5 gallon batch to give away to Jon's friend and family and one 5 gallon batch for ourselves to keg and enjoy. I hope to invite some of his former co-workers and maybe his wife as well to join us for the brew day. The brew kits were ordered on Monday morning and should be in tomorrow. I'm also working on a memorial label for the bottles. A sample of the label is posted below.

Brew Club Meeting 09/28/2012

Good Morning Everyone:

We will have a Brew Club Meeting on Sunday, October 28th. 5pm at my house. I'm thinking beer and pizza. We will be discussing the next brew and the SBBC shirt order. Please bring any dues that need to be collected. Please call or email me with any questions. Thanks.

Mike

Pumpkin Porter Brew Day

Yesterday, September 22nd, was our 2nd Club brew. Not everyone was able to make it, but it was a good time. Thanks to all who attended. Thanks to Joe D for making the meatballs and sauce. They were excellent.

 

I'm happy to report the Pumpkin Porter is fermenting away. The airlock is bubbling nicely. The OG was perfect at 1.065. Pumpkin spice flavor was perfect. Not overpowering or too little, just right. I'll see how the pumpkin flavoring is when we rack it to the secondary and adjust it accordingly. It should be ready to drink in early November.

 

We are planning a Vanilla Stout for the Holidays next.

SBBC's Second Club Brew Day

Good Morning Beer Lovers:

We will be having our 2nd SBBC Brew Day on Saturday, September 22nd @ 5 pm. We will be brewing the Pumpkin Porter for the holidays. Joe D. will be making sauce and meatballs for meatball grinders. Grab a six-pack and some snacks and come on over.

Brew Club Meeting 8-26-12

Good Morning Beer Lovers:

I'm hoping to have a Club Meeting this Sunday, 08-26-2012. 6pm at my house. Snacks and Beer as usual, are welcome. Please remember that Dues are due this week as well.

I would like to finalize plans for our next few brews and also pick a color for the Club shirts. I was able to find the shirts online for less that we had originally planned.

We will also start the dry hop of the Rye IPA and keg it next weekend (9-2-12). If we get the dues in this weekend, we can order our next recipe kit and brew it on the same day we keg the Rye IPA.

Please call me with any questions.

Mike

SBBC Inaugural Brew Video

Just a little video I made with photos and a video from our brew day. Enjoy!

I am a Craft Beer Drinker! Awesome video for us Craft Beer Lovers. Check it out.

Brewing Club's First Official Brew Day

Sunday July 29th, 2012. A day for the record books. Our first brew as a brewing club. It was a good day to brew. We brewed the Denny's Rye Smile IPA kit from Northern Brewer. NB Denny's Rye Smile IPA 

Nice weather, great friends and lots of great beer. That explains my hangover the next morning. We had beer boiled hotdogs, pizza and variety of snacks. We also had a few new members join us for the brew. Welcome to Dan Chieffo and Dave & Allison Demarest. The brew went well. No problems. Club members got to see what goes into brewing a beer. Lots of prep work sanitizing and readying the equipment and ingredients. The Rye IPA is now happily bubbling away in the fermenter. 

The recipe kit has arrived.

Yeast starter with Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite 50.

Beer boiled hotdogs for lunch. Yummy!

Rye IPA towards the end of the boil.

Dom takes a turn at stirring the pot.

Mike checking the propane burner.

Boiling away.

Dom catching some of the leftover wort. (It was very good)

The brew is in the fermenter.



Brewing Gear Upgrade

Yesterday was a great day in Stars & Bars Brewing land. Fed-Ex delivered our first ever kegs and kegging system. I bought this system from Midwest Supplies. These are refurbished ball lock sode kegs. Other than a few dents and dings, these things are good to go. I spent about an hour scrapping decals off of them and gave them a quick scrub and rinse. This system also included a dual output CO2 (Carbon Dioxode) regulator and tank. This will allow us to carbonate and serve from both kegs at a time. This will also decrease the workload of bottling as well. 

Midwest Supplies

Cooperstown, NY Breweries and Beverage Trail

My family and I recently spent 5 days camping outside of Cooperstown, NY. It was a great trip. I planned to visit a brewery or two, especially Brewery Ommegang and Cooperstown Brewing. Upon visiting town, we found out about the Cooperstown Beverage Trail. There are six destinations, all in about a 30 mile loop. Three breweries, two wineries and a cider mill. At each location, you receive free gifts when you purchase the tastings. The tastings average $2-$3. Once you complete the trail, you receive a free wine or pint glass. Free glassware and fresh, local beer, sign me up!

Our first stop was Cooperstown Brewing Co. Cool brewery with great beer. I bought a few six packs and pint glasses. Their Benchwarmer Porter is a great beer. Next stop was Bear Paw Winery. I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I humored my wife, just as she humored me at the breweries. The final stop of the day was Fly Creek Cider Mill. Awesome place. Plenty of great food including apple cider donuts, hard apple cider and local cheeses.

The next day we visited Butternuts Beer and Ale. This small brewery is owned by the same guy who owns Cooperstown Brewing. Different style of beers and packaging. No bottles, all cans at Butternuts. Two 12 packs and pint glasses, we were on our way to Rustic Ridge Winery. More wine for the wife and I.

I think we saved the best for last. Brewery Ommegang. This brewery specializes in Belgian style beers. While I am not a huge fan of the style, I still wanted to visit. Well, I was wrong. They brewery and beers were excellent. The building is styled like a huge farmhouse. After you pass through the tunnel in the middle, you find a huge field with the warehouse and Welcome Center. The Welcome Center houses the store, Cafe and tasting room. We did the tour and tastings. The brewery is nicely planned. Brewery on one end and the fermenters in the next room. The tunnel in the center of the building acts as a crossover to the bottling area. Their beer is bottle conditioned, so it spends time in their warm cellar to age. After the tour, we were brought back to the tasting room. Each member of the tour is given a 2.5 ounce tasting glass to keep. We sampled some of the mustard's and spreads made with their beers. We sampled their Witte, BPA, Abbey Ale, Hennepin, Rare VOS and Three Philosophers. All six of the beers were outstanding. I bought a 4 pack of the BPA and a bomber of their newest release, Biere D’Hougoumont. This is a Biere de Garde style beer, aged on oak and maple. I haven't even tried it yet. Overall, it was a fun trip and I got some great beer and a bitchin pint glass.

Please feel free to take a peak at the pics and links below:

Cooperstown Beverage Trail 

Cooperstown Brewing's Benchwarmer Porter and Pride of Milford Special Ale



Cooperstown Brewing's bathroom

Cooperstown Brewing Co.



Fly Creek Cider Mill. Hard Apple Cider

Fly Creek Cider Mill



Rear of Brewery Ommegang

Pilot Brewing System

Brewery Ommegang's Visitor Center

Front of Brewery Ommegang

Me standing behind Brewery Ommegang

Beer from Brewery Ommegang

Brewery Ommegang



Butternuts Beer and Ale Variety Pack

Butternuts Beer and Ale

All of the beer I brought home from Coooperstown.

Name Change and Update

Well, good morning kids. I just wanted to post an update. You might have noticed a new name a logo on the site. We recently had our first Officer's Club to hash out the Club details, our next recipe to brew and enjoy some beers. We decided to update the name and logo to more closely reflect our true passion of homebrewing. Thanks for stopping by and please visit again soon. I'll have some info on Cooperstown, NY beers soon.

Firefly Brewing, Bristol, CT

So I was skimming through Facebook on Saturday morning. I know, i know. I was just wasting time, but occasionally it proves worth it. CT Beer Trail had a listing for a Car Show in Bristol. It also mentioned a new brewery would be handing out samples. A nice ride, nice weather and free beer. I'm on it. I decided to take the kids for a ride and get out of the house. It was a nice ride and the kids enjoyed looking at the awesome cars. My daughter was roaming around taking photos with her iPod.

Firefly Brewing is a new brewery in the planning stages. They are working on setting up shop in an old factory in downtown Bristol. I met Bill and Dana from Firefly. Both were really nice guys. Dana took some time to chat with me and tell me about the beers. All three brews were phenomenal. I have high hopes for them. Please feel free to check out there website and please try to donate to their project. Local beer is always a worthy cause.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200559997/firefly-brewing-company-craft-beer?ref=users

Left Coast Beer Heaven

West Coast, the Left Coast, whatever you want to call it is up to you.  But I want to call it Beer Heaven. My good friend Clint and his much better half, Cathy just returned from a cross country RV camping trip from CT to Seattle and back. When he left, I made a single request. Please see if you can find me any West Coast beers, especially any Black IPA's or Cascadian Dark Ales. As anyone who follows my beer related ramblings here, you know that Black IPA's and CDA's intrigue me. Dark beers with big hoppiness excite me. Like a fat kid in a candy shop excited.

So anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah. Back to Clint and Cathy's Cross Country Camping Adventure. Oh holy hoppy happiness, did they hook me up. Poor Cathy said she heard my name way too many times on this trip. Sorry Cathy. Last night, Clint handed me a big ass box of beer. It was like Christmas morning for beer lovers. Not one, not two, not eight, but 9 (NINE) different beers. Two CDA's, two Black IPA's, four IPA's and an Amber Ale. Nine beers from six different states. Half of the breweries I had never even heard of until now. These are some awesome beers that we can't get on this side of the US. Please feel free to peruse the photo's and links below.

And to Clint and Cathy, a huge thank you and I love you too guys.

Left Coast Beer Heaven



Laurelwood Brewing

Ink Heart Cascadian Dark Ale

Laurelwood Brewing Ink Heart CDA



Deschutes Brewery

Hop in the Dark Cascadian Dark Ale

Deschutes Brewery Hop in the Dark CDA

Bridgeport Brewing
Dark Rain Black IPA

Bridgeport Brewing Co.



Firestone Walker

Wookey Jack Black Rye IPA

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack IPA



Fremont Brewing
Interurban IPA

Fremont Brewing Interurban IPA



Silver City Brewing

St. Florian IPA

Silver City Brewing St. Florian IPA





Grand Teton Brewing
Teton Ale

Grand Teton Brewing Teton Ale

 

Big Sky Brewing
Big Sky IPA

Big Sky Brewing Big Sky IPA



Snake River Brewing

Pako's IPA

Snake River Brewery Pako's IPA



 



 

Cascadian Dark Ales and Black IPA's