probably too late, but I hope you didn't get your hopes up too high.

very nice beer, but I certainly wouldn't call it "special." Stone is one of my favorite breweries in the world and Belgian Pale Ale is one of my fave styles in the world. And while not a 2010+ hophead, I ain't scared of no bitter beer.

What I'm saying is I figured this could be my favorite beer ever, and I just think it's 3/4 at best. I definitely couldn't give it 3.5/4 - does that make it a 2.75/4?

obv, ymmv.
at work or at home? 'cause I wanted to ask you about your brewery's out-of-state sales for an up n' coming Central Florida distro. I'd really want to sample that rye saison, and would be especially excited to try both versions, if possible.

I didn't brew at home for like 2+ years and I've gotten back into full swing of late. Just such excellent folks making beer - and most making good-to-excellent liquid, too!

1.5 bbl in one day!!?!? pretty sweet, what type of system are you using at home?

If anyone cares, I just finished my keezer build. I was so damn sick of bottling, such a long and tedious process that felt more like a chore. I got a free freezer from a friend, which i sanded down and painted with chalkboard paint. I luckily found some old school perlicks on ebay for $10 a piece, I got 4 of them, and a kit from kegconnection. I'll probably add on to my regulator to make it a dual body so I can carb a keg and serve 2 at the same time.

Like my drip tray?


Inside View

That looks awesome.

I'm going to build one soon. Would you mind if I hit you up with questions via PM when I'm ready to build?

Drip tray is awesome . How hard is it putting the collar on?

Yea no problem at all, Im not overly handy so this is a build anyone can do. A few things I would have done differently but it was a pretty basic build.

The collar was very easy, as long as you are precise with your miter cuts and your measurements then it will go perfectly.

I love the freezer I got, 7 cu ft, it has a lip on the base where the lid used to meet. I measured the collar and it was a perfect fit inside that lip so I didnt even have to attach the collar to the base, just some caulk around the edges and its good.

I recently did a ton of work with a miter saw, so hopefully nobody gets upset about the woodworking hijack of the beer thread, but:

whatever your measurement, start the saw a bit outside of that, and lower the blade. You'll see exactly where the cut will be, and then you can move your wood closer to the blade. Rock the saw back and forth a couple times, inching the wood closer in, and you'll get an inch or two of wasted material in exchange for a perfect cut. I just got a miter saw with a laser guide, and trying to judge the laser, the saw blade, and the cut is a fool's game. Just sacrifice an inch of material, rock the blade down onto the material and inch it in, and you'll be happy.

Thats exactly what i did with all my cuts, its good advice for sure.

I actually don't have much more than a few random parts at my house since I haven't brewed at home in years. In fact, I've never brewed at my current residence.

Equipment came from one of my brew clubs, unfortunately the gear from my other brew club didn't make it due to a scheduling mix-up, so I was realistic and only brewed .5bbls of the Belgian Blonde since the second burner wasn't available. I think I'm gonna try the whole thing again tomorrow and basically brew three 10-gallon-batches, two at once and the last right after.

A few pictures were taken but this is us just heating up the mash water. It was overcast all day but didn't rain, which was a big plus 'cause Florida in July tends to be really hot and the clouds kept the sun off us. Also, by some miracle, we managed to stay dry, too. I'm the guy on the left.


Things didn't go amazingly smoothly at first, mostly because of my inexperience brewing at my house, but they started to click fairly soon. There was also the obstacle of planning to get grain, etc. on Saturday evening but finding out at the last minute they closed an hour earlier than expected, which required buying supplies yesterday morning and set us back about 90-120 minutes. In all, a satisfying day and good learning experience.

Looks good my man, I'll take a photo next brewday of my ghetto setup. Im going to go all electric in the fall but have been back and forth on the build, I want a small footprint with easy cleanup and something that will pack away easy in the closet. Im thinking about a Brutus 20e, anyone here have experience with a setup like that?

Also, lets talk smoked beers, I have never found one I liked...ever. Im not even sure I will ever enjoy them but Im going to give it a valiant effort in the coming weeks. A local homebrew competition is coming up in October where they released a secret ingredient during Philly beer week a few weeks ago. The ingredient was a house smoked CherryWood Smoked Rye, 2lbs to be used however you like. But Im not sure I even want to brew a smoked beer until I find one that I like...

Thanks, but this is closer to what I had in mind for Sunday:


Brewed 20 more gallons Tuesday at a friend's house using his gear too. He even had that two-burner stand which we used to heat water ahead of time, which was helpful. It's not pictured, but there was another burner which we boiled half the wort in.

Even though this project didn't go as planned, there were only minor troubles, and I won't repeat my mistakes.
I don't care too much for smoked beers, but once in a while one of them works for me. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen is my favorite, but I also like their Weisse. Occasionally I'll buy one to share with 2-3 friends just to blow their minds. Still, I'd love to try that CherryWood Smoked Rye, but my advice is to use a very small amount in your first 10 gallon batch. You'll have plenty left over if you find you need more, but I think you'll be surprised how far that amount will go. Personally, I wouldn't go much past 4oz to try it out.

I tried this Smoked Double IPA not too long ago and I enjoyed it a ton.

Had Clown Shoes Tramp Stamp Belgian IPA Sunday and it was quite terrific.

Haha I just read about the controversy surrounding that beer. Pretty funny people get all bent out of shape over stuff like that. Fwiw the controversy was that the image/beer title is sexist etc...


So this weekend my friends dad gave me a mason jar full of homegrown/homemade honey. What do you call honey that comes from a house? Anyhow, trying to think of a beer to do with it where the taste of the honey is somewhat noticeable as I would like to give him a few bottles to repay the favor. Any ideas? All I can really come up with is like a honey wheat type beer. I'm a bit scared there may not be enough honey to do a 5 gallon batch of anything and it be noticeable still so I may do a 2.5gal or something.

Stone Smoked Porter is great, but with a porter, the smokey flavor blends in a bit anyway....

Went to Dogfish Head's brew pub. Had a ton of their limited edition beers.

I'll try to list all the ones I had...

Tweason'ale - A Strawberry Gluten-free beer. Surprisingly tasty. It starts out sweet with the taste of strawberries and finishes with a tart, crisp, refreshing taste.

Black & Red - This was by far one of the strangest beers I've ever had. It was thick and minty and unlike any stout I've ever had (not that I've had many stouts though).

My Antonia - A strong hoppy pilsner.

Namaste - The lightest DFH beer I've ever had. Quite tasty, citrusy and refreshing.

Sah'tea - Another one of the strangest beers I have ever had. I can't even describe it. Look at the description on their site.

Theobroma - The description says it has lots of chocolates and chillies but I don't remember tasting them. Pretty delicious regardless.

Pangaea - This beer has different ingredients from all of the continents. I really enjoyed this beer.

I also had Burton Baton and 75 minute IPA on cask. I've never had a cask beer. It was a mixture of both 60 and 90 minute and was a little warmer which made the hops seem less bold and extreme. It was very smooth and frothy and I loved it.

So jealous you got to go there. Sounds like a blast.

Mark are you going to the 4th annual craft beer expo on the 23rd? Gonna be like 35+ casks. I'm gonna head there as the second part of my birthday gift from my fiancé :-).

First part was 4 beers and a member ship to the beer store today. Weeeee

This one keeps coming up when Im researching smoked ales, so I guess Im going to have to try it out.

The Rye smells incredible, its smokey for sure but not overwhelming. If you want I could send you a few ounces, I certainly wont be using all 2lbs. My brew partner got 2lbs as well so we have more then enough.

Arghh, good call I should have thought of that one. I'll try it this weekend.

Lectio Divina from St. Somewhere, Burton Baton from Dogfish Head, Chainsaw Ale from Left Hand, and TNT from Left Hand.

Minus the Lectio Divina she picked the rest out. There's a reason I love her . Also her aunt asked her what to get me for my birthday and she told her "craft beer". So aunt brought home a 6er of Newcastle . Pretty good day, and I'm already slightly drunk weeee.

Your local spot used to be my local spot. Been going to WOB for years, first the Clearwater one in HS and college then lived right by the Westchase one for years.

Do you play at the downs? I live in CA now but tons of my old buddies are WOB regs.

nope, I can't make that event.
dude, there are dozens of WoB's around the Southeast US now.

I live near the Westchase location, but closer to the Land O' Lakes one now. There are St. Pete, Hyde Park, Tampa Palms and Carrolwood stores on this side of the Sunshine Skyway, and others all over the place.

The poker room at Tampa Bay Downs is called "The Silks" and is my favorite place to play in town, but I haven't been to Derby Lane since the remodel. Come to think of it, Derby Lane is very close to the St Pete WoB too!

Yeah WoB is pretty awesome. The brewery nights are really fun. I've never heard of the Downs but I've played at Club 52 which is in Melbourne.

UK beer.

Ok, I accidentally managed to approximate - close enough - the SN Torpedo I love using some of the beers over here in the UK. Mix 4 parts Brewdog Punk IPA with 1 part Brewdog Hardcore. Hardcore's a true monster (150 IBU ), very untypical of anything else here, while Punk is a bit light & flowery, so the wee booster from Hardcore makes it good. Very reminiscent of Torpedo - to my decrepit taste buds at least. Also gives me an excuse to guzzle 5 in one sitting too...gotta keep my arithmetic simple, ya know

YMMV but tbh, so many so called premium beers here just don't match up to the good stuff from the US craft brewers. Hobgoblin...meh. Bunch of fancy bottled but limp wristed India pale ales, etc [...ducks for cover ....]





btw, I'm a brit so I'm allowed to say such heresy.



I'm still searching.

A little TR for my 2 latest brews:

Kolsch--Was a little apprehensive as I didn't know as much about the style, so forgive me if my impressions are way off base.

Appearance: Nice straw color, could be clearer, cold conditioning might help that. Thin, fragile, white head. Bubbles constantly coming from bottom of glass to top throughout the drink.

Aroma: Nice, light, fruity smell. Refreshing. Hints of apple and pear possibly?

Mouthfeel and Flavor: Fruity flavor definitely present. Effervescent, not to the point of cider or champagne but very nice. Thin on the mouth, very drinkable. Slightly dry finish, no aftertaste. Nice balance of fruitiness to bitterness.

Overall impression: Nice, light summer beer, very drinkable, can sit and drink many of these. A refreshing beer. Didn't know if I would be able to drink 5 gallons of it, but somehow now I don't see that being an issue . Overall 3.5/5

Hefeweizen: One of my favorite styles!

Appearance: Toward the orange/deep gold end of the color spectrum, attractive. If I wanted to go for a lighter straw color we could use unmalted barley next time, but I like this color. Good head and retention. Appropriate cloudiness.

Aroma: Banana and clove very present, makes me want to put my nose into glass and inhale deeply.

Mouthfeel and flavor: Again banana and clove are very present. Stays on the tounge but not thick or sticky, enjoyable all the way down the throat. Refreshing, with a bit of sweetness, finish is not overly dry. Might be too much flavor for some tastes but it's just the way I like it.

Overall impression: Happy with the way this turned out. Reminiscent of Alpha Dog In Heat Wheat. A good beer. Overall 4.25/5.

Need to get some pictures before I drink them all and post them.

Too much green apple flavor in a Kolsch could be a sign of acetaldehyde but it sounds like you had just a touch of apple/pear which is correct for the style. It sounds really good to me -- based on your description I would certainly enjoy drinking it.

My first Kolsch I racked off the yeast and fined too soon and that one definetely had too much acetaldehyde although it was still a nice beer.

I have another fermenting right now that I'm going to leave on the yeast cake for 3 weeks, then bulk cold-condition for 8 weeks at 40f and then only use finings if I need it. Hopefully this one will be better than the first.

The hefe sounds good too. I also love me a good hefe weizen especially in the summer.

How does this sound?

Mark this is what Im working on for that Cherrywood Smoked Rye I sent you.

Adjusting for my awful 63% efficiency of course.