What's New!!!

Well let's see. Well let's start with the great news. I won second place at the Blacksburg Brew Do in the dark catagory with an Oatmeal Stout. The guy that beat me (with a Dopplebock) won best of show, so I was up there. It was a great day, my dad was down and the weather was great. I made the rounds and talked to all the brewers. Sounds like Jim will let me apprentice with him at Bull 'n Bones.

Brewed a couple good beers since then too. Did a Kolsch in October that came out pretty good. A really pale beer. Crystal clear, after a short lagering period. Slight grainy taste to it, like a warm Bud. But I guess they have a lot in common so maybe that's ok. I'm looking forward to a few reviews at the December Guild meeting. In November I brewed a Vienna Lager that is still lagering, but looks clear and should be kegged tomorrow.

That's the news that is news. Brew On!!!

Bull & Bones Brewers Dinner

Hello all. Well what an evening. Kevin, Bailie and I went to Blacksburg this evening to participate in a Brewmaster's Dinner held at Blacksburg's only brewpub, Bull & Bones. The dinner consisted of a 7 course meal with each course paired with one of Bull & Bones very own craft beers. In addition we were accompanied by the brewer himself, Jim Strickland, as well as the head of catering and dinner designer Matt Vaughan. What follows are pics, descriptions and opinions of each course.

















I have to begin with the initial set-up of the tables. In each section of the table there were two bowls with different grains, and a plate which contained some plug hops on top of pellets. All evening, each time the door opened and a breeze came in we'd get a whiff of hops. It was a wonderful experience.

Our first course was a salad with orange slices, onion and bacon bits with a blackberry (and if memory serves raspberry) and Grand Marnier dressing served with the Belgian Wit made with coriander & orange peel spices. The goal was to allow the beer to cleanse the pallet for each bite of a very flavorful salad. I particularly like the orange slices in the salad to match the orange peel in the Wit.

Our second course was probably the best food all night in a crab bisque. It was served with the All Night Light Pilsner. Again, this was to be a palate cleanser for the rich, creamy soup. I found the contrast of a bite of hot soup and a sip of cold beer very unexpected, not really thinking about it until it happened. I found the soup really brought out a grainy flavor to the pilsner (made with all malt, so it makes sense). I also found the creaminess accentuated the carbonation feel of the Pilsner. I must say again, the bisque was fantastic.

Our third course was my favorite overall. Perhaps it's the cheeseburger and fries personality opposed to steak and potato, but for this course we were served a bratwurst sandwich with cooked onions and peppers, and a little spicy mustard on the side. This was served on "pretzel bread", as best as I can describe it. The accompanying beer was their seasonal Oktoberfest. I really found the spicy mustard bringing out the strong malt profile of the Oktoberfest, and also a spiciness in the beer itself, perhaps from the hops or just a residual from the mustard. All -in-all I love a malty beer and bread combination like this. Very complimentary.

After the third course we were split into two groups and given a tour of the brewing facility. I must have been annoying since I talked so much, but I was there to learn. After the tour we were served our fourth course which consisted of a piece of freshly smoked salmon with a dill crouton and a dollop of sour cream. The suggested eating was to take half the salmon and half the sour cream and place it on the crouton and eat that before taking a sip. Again I found the "fatty" or creaminess of the fish and sour cream brought out the maltiness of the beer, which for this course was the Lunch Box Pale Ale, by the way. I also noticed an accentuation of the bitterness considering this was their pale ale and not the IPA.

Our fifth course was smoked chicken wings, done to your preferred level of heat, served with the IPA. The theory here is that you need a bold tasting beer to compete with a bold tasting food, in this case a spicy (hot) wing. What I've found in previous tastings is that while that is true, the beer will increase the heat effect of a buffalo style wing when you get up there in heat. In this case however, the wings were not terribly spicy and the two paired nicely. Although I think a slight decrease in malt flavor was noticed which took away from the beer a little.

The sixth course I felt was a little weak. The ribs were wonderful by themselves. They were tender and delicious. They were served with the Maroon Effect, which is basically a hoppy version of a standard brown ale. But because it had a lighter malt profile, and the ribs had a strong sweet sauce on them, the beer was really destroyed. I can say that because I had had a Maroon Effect just a little before as an opening pint and as my favorite beer offered there I know what it should have tasted like. The beer became a water version of it's former self in short. I would suggest leaving off the sauce next time, or pairing the beer with a hardier porter or perhaps the stout.

Last but not least we were treated to not one, but both deserts that had been offered. The first was a truffle, with raspberry drizzle, served with the stout. In addition we were given a second half glass of stout to which a small scoop of vanilla ice cream was added. A stout float in fact. Separately all components were delicious. The sweetness of the truffle really masked the malty sweetness of the stout and in fact accentuated the roasty character of the beer. In the case of the float, the ice cream was a welcomed addition to add a silky texture and creamy edge to the roastiness of the beer.

Overall a very well done presentation. It will be interesting to see if the beer lineup changes any to allow for other future pairing. A hearty porter for example would really go well with a smoked meat. A spicier gumbo would be a nice pairing with the IPA. The stout in a cream brulee. The possibilities are limitless.

Brewed Today...

I set out to recreate the Belgian inspired APA from last year's special ingredient competition. I hadn't remembered it being this big, but since I used the same recipe, I guess it is. I ran into a couple problems. Seems as though I was a little short on the sparge water and had to add about 2/3 gallons to the boil, and I was still a little short. I'm sparging way too quick with the pump. Thinking of switching the HLT and Mash Tun locations next time and using gravity to sparge. All in all I think it'll be good. Hit my OG of 1.066. I think it might be a shade darker than last time. Little worried about putting a big beer not really light into the light catagory of Blacksburg Brew Do. Maybe it'll be better as a specialty after all.

No report on the Roggenbier. Needs another week or so to bottle condition. Oatmeal stout still a little flat, but tasty.

Had a wonderful day today with friends. did up a wonderful pork butt with a rub from Beer Advocate and some wings.

Nailed it...

Well, had a great brewing day. Today's brew was a Roggenbier, a German rye ale, similar to a Hefeweizen, with rye in place of the wheat in the grain bill. Of course I had worries with that much rye, 6 lbs. plus a pound of crystal rye, and no husks. So I used rice hulls for the first time. Everything went great. Hit my target gravity and quantity. Just cooling it down before I pitch an American Hefe yeast.

The red lager turned out well after all. Nice session ale. The Oatmeal stout is very decent. Slightest alcohol aftertaste, probably due to a slightly high starting fermentation temperature. Should be a contender in the September club competition.

Other than that all is well. Good selection of beer available. Having people over tomorrow to hopefully renew some people's interest in my brewing and possibly turn a couple new people to the beer side of the force.

Where've I been...Slackin'

OK, so the Saison was a bust. Since then though, we've had a 10 gallon red beer split in two with one Irish Ale Yeast and one German Lager that needed help (thank you dry lager yeast), an Imperial Pilsner, and thanks to Carol S. for winning the auction to brew with me, what will be a fine oak IPA.

The Red Ale is pretty good. Clean, most importantly, but it's lacking some character. A fine session ale perhaps. The Red Lager will be kegged tomorrow, stay tuned. The IPA will go on the oak chips tomorrow too hopefully.

Next up, the Sept. competition beer, Oatmeal Stout.

I was having a terrible time with my efficiency on 5 gallon batches with the big blue cooler/mash tun set up. Down around 50%. Funny thing was on 10 gallons I was hitting 75%, easy. A case study in grain depth and efficiency if I do say so myself. Anyway, the previous mash tun set up was a Rubbermaid 10 gallon cylindrical orange cooler with a s/s false bottom. Well I sold it to Kevin. (Dumb). But I know it works, so I built a new one. I know I can get 75% out of it. That's how I justify the expense. 25% efficiency worth of grain for each 5 gallon batch. That's a few pounds of grain. About $5 a batch worth of savings. So now we will use the orange for 5 gallons and big blue for 10.

Last up, I was bored at work so I made a logo.

Not sure what to do with it yet. Might through it on a T-shirt like my Tailgate logo. Might start a new group in Roanoke with it. Not a homebrew club, just a fans of craft beer group of some sort. Maybe meet at a different bar once a month and rate there taps/bottles. Should Microfestivus fail, as some have foreseen this year, perhaps a new festival could be started called the Craft B.E.E.R. Festival. Like I need more work.

As always "eat, drink and be merry my friend; for tomorrow may be the end".

Haven't posted in a while so here we go. The Saison was a failure. Tastes great, but it clearly was bottled before it was done fermenting and now all the bottles are bombs essentially. As soon as you pop the cap it overflows. Lesson learned. I brewed my next beer today, an Imperial Pilsner. Went with the double decoction. Hopefully it turns out well. I'm still not hitting my target gravity. But a good brew day none the less.

March Competition Meeting

With what could be a record 17 entries in this quarter's competition for American Brown Ale, I'm proud to say I won second place. The reviews were interesting. I may have overheated my mash to lead to some astrigency, or so the judges say. I'll keep an eye on that. I also think it could be something from the crystal rye. All in all not a bad night. I'll need to score well on the rest of the compeitions to be in the running for Brewer of the Year. I'm already 8 points down despite the 2nd place finish. The blueberry ale met with some good response. I think it's maturing and that "grainy" taste is aging away. We'll see. Next up a review on the coffee sweet stout in a week or so, and brewing the Saison next weekend.

CHEERS!!!

Brewed this weekend/Sitr Plate is up and running

Had a beautiful 70s degree day here in Roanoke this weekend. I got started early on a sweet stout to which I'm going to add some cold brewed Chocolate Velvet coffee to at kegging time. I finished with about 6 gallons at 1.044. A noticable miss from the 1.056 I was shoting for. Perhaps a half gallon less would have put me closer. I'm still playing with my new system. But as always a fun time. I had the company of Kevin C. and we sampled some interesting spruce beers he made.

An update on the stir plate. I had to switch to a 500 Ohm pot but it looks like we're in business. As I type it has been stiring water for about 5 minutes. Quite impressive.

Built a stir plate

So I came across this blog: http://blogs.hundredmonkey.net/brewblog/?p=7

That plus an article in BYOB from July/Aug 2007 on building a stir plate resulted in this:

As you can see I've got a hard wired plug connected to and on/off switch which is then connected to a potentionmeter to control the speed of the fan. However it really doesn't control the speed well. Glued onto the fan are two magnets. And it fits into a "project box" from Radio Shack. On order are some stir bars and we'll see what happens. Wish me luck.

Welcome to Tailgate BBQ and Brewery

Welcome. My name is Will. Tailgate Brewery was founded in January 2007 as a home brewery. My first homebrew, an imperial stout kit to which I added flaked oats, was brewed on the back of my Dodge truck.

Hence the name Tailgate Brewery. Since then, this little 5 gallon system has grown into a ten gallon, all grain, RIMS (recirculating immersion mash system) operation as seen below:

To date I've brewed about 20 beers. My favorite being an American Brown Ale. A well balanced beer using my special ingredient, crystal rye, and a nice amount of hops. Other special brews included a Belgian Pale Ale for which I won a first place in the Star City Brewers Guild quarterly competition, and a pumpkin ale I was quite pleased with.

I am also the treasurer of the Star City Brewers Guild (starcitybrewers.org.). A great group of knowledgable, beer loving, fun men and women whom I came across shortly after moving to Roanoke, VA from Boston, MA.

The final piece to this site will be my love for good bbq and grilling. I have recently acquired a wonderful grill from Char-griller that is 1/2 gas grill, 1/2 charcoal grill, with a smoke box on the side (not shown).

I've only just started working with it smoking a pork butt, some ribs, and even this past Thanksgiving's turkey.

So welcome and enjoy. I'll be posting pics from my brewing experiences and grilling adventures and possibly some recepies, projects and more.

As my logo reads, "sit and have a beer with me and soon you'll see, good friends we'll surely be"