Fealing anxious.

                 On April 11, 2015 will be hosting an International Table Top day at my Millgrove Brewing Company, in Allegan Michigan.  It will be 2 to 10 pm.  It will be open format, meaning that playing any game available at any time, I will bring my library, and some of my friends will bring theirs. 

                I find myself worrying about 2 linked but very different things:

  1:  What if no one shows up?  Of course that is something that everyone hosting an event worries about.  I will have humiliated myself and wasted a day I could have done something more productive like rake a yard clean a bar or even better brewed up some beer.  Ironically this scenario is my preferred of the two worries.  At least it will be semiprivate. 

  2:  What if, to the surprise of everyone it becomes packed at the bar.  We get so many people that show up that we have to turn people away because of fire code.  I know this event is very unlikely but it is not impossible.  It would be a disaster.  Not for my event that day, but for my goal for the event. 

What is my goal?

  My goal is to showcase board games and card games both old and new, to people of my small town.  To bring together people to play games in person, to look someone in the eye, not in the video screen.  To build a base of people that can get together and play games at public or private events later.  To build an email list, use my group page for a place to organize events. 

               

                Time will tell what will happen, even if it is just me paying Zombie Dice with myself at that bar, so be it, at least I tried.  Can’t wait until the 11^th!

  Here is the link to my event page.  

https://www.facebook.com/events/379774538881721/

Answering brewing questions.

  Recently a friend asked me some questions about home brewing in a Facebook message, not having a short quick answer I decided to make a blog for my response.

Question 1:  How big of a stock pot is recommended for 5 gallon batches of all grain brews?
Answer:  Well that depends on a couple of things.  Are you looking for doing a Brew In a Bag set up or are you looking for a more traditional, multi-vessel setup?  Doing a all grain batch you will want to go for a full wort boil, meaning you need a pot of at least 8.5 gallons to have enough to boil for 60 minutes and have about 5 gallons left.  If you are in fact doing a single vessel BIaB setup at least a 10 gallon pot would be my minimum so you have enough space to mash the grains to get mid ranged gravity.  Now if you’re going for big gravity brews +7.5% abv then maybe up to a 15 gallon pot would be good for you.  Personally I am looking into getting this new 16 gallon pot with all of the toys for doing a single vessel setup http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0082X3D06/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687662&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B007V493PG&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0F1ZCRKSSB3J2CN2EDFF  giving me the versatility of doing either a full boil high gravity beer (5 gallons) or a mid range 10 gallon batch.  If I was starting over again I would get a 10 gallon pot with a spigot. 

Question 2:  What additional equipment would I need for doing all grain brewing? And what equipment would you suggest to just make things a little easier?

Answers:
  For all grain brewing if you have a good stockpot and don’t want to invest a lot of money in new equipment all you would need is a mesh bag for the BIaB method.  http://www.morebeer.com/products/bag-29-brew-biab.html  All you do is mash in the brew kettle and after the mash lift out the bag.  It’s just like making a big batch of tea.
  Or if you don’t mind the dishes, modified Igloo cooler mash tun makes single step mashing like a Ronco infomercial, just set it and forget it!  Once I hit my strike temp stir in the grains and put the lid on it will under normal situations only loose about a degree and a half an hour!  Mash starts at 156F 2 hours later, with no work, it still at 153F!   http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermenters-favorites-all-grain-brewing-cooler.html
  If you are looking to cut time on a brew day, one of the best investments you can make is in a serious beer burner.  The turkey fryer is great for getting started but at 30,000 BTU’s it is going to take a long time to get that water up to temp.  A good burner can cut hours off from your brew days!  http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/brewing-equipment/burners-1/edelmetall-bru-burner.html
  And finally my last suggestion for easier (quicker) brew day is a wort chiller.  Not only will this help reduce the time you are waiting before you pitch you yeast it will reduce infection chance at the most vulnerable time in the brewing process.  http://www.homebrewing.org/50-Wort-Chiller-with-12-tubing-and-garden-hose-fittings-_p_859.html


The links used are just for examples. 
Hope that answers your questions, let me know if you have more.

Luke G

From brew pot to grill.

I have this desire to gernerate content so here we go....

  I have been home brewing for a little over 2 years, and it has changed me.  One day a few months ago I picked up some raw Chicago style sausage from the local store.  With raw sausage and chicken my usual procedure is to parboil the meat before I place it on the grill.  I looked at my clear water and said, what a great opportunity I have been missing to add fresh flavors!  Not just your standard beer brats that everyone does, but fresh garlic, onion right into the water to infuse into the meat at the absolute first opportunity of cooking.  The results, delicious.
  Now I am sure, being something so simple I am not breaking any culinary ground but for me it was my aha moment.  My own personal apple hitting me on the head that changed the way I think about cooking.  The home brewer in me wants to do an experiment just to find out what benefit I get from the infusion.  The food lover in me hates myself for not figuring this out years ago.  Experiments to come!

Never miss a chance to infuse flavor!
Luke G