Friday, October 31, 2008

curriculum vitae

Well since you asked.

I'm a NH boy and grew up in Concord NH and went to Concord High. I then continued my education at UNH and studied Chemical engineering while falling in love with the seacoast of NH. I got a job out of school as a traveling sales man selling filter presses, filter plates and filter cloths. But after a year of that I got sick of my cubical and sick of airports. I had been home brewing since my sophomore year of college and was getting into it. So I decide to go to UC Davis and got my master brewers certificate. I made my way back east and asked Tod for a job. There wasn't one available so I worked at Mercury Brewing Co down in Ipswich MA. I kept in touch with Tod at least monthly to see what was going on, and one day he asked me to come in for a working interview. That was a year and a half ago now. And the rest is history.

cheers,
Tyler

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The seasons a changing

Hey all,

I apologize for not getting to all of these changes sooner, but I was away for the weekend at my girlfriend’s brothers wedding. Don’t you worry I was a dancing machine. Ride that Pony!

About the beer, we have to say good buy to a couple of favorites the Pumpkin Ale as well as the Hop Harvest two. Going to have to drink the Bottle rocket now all you hop heads out there. With these beers going quickly left us down two taps. Hence us bringing in Moat Mountain Weiss, which will bring back memories of summer as you sip this light wheat beer. But don’t you worry we have plenty of beers in the works, just not any that are quite ready yet. I am getting pumped since this is one of my favorite beer seasons. Big bold interesting beers coming left and right, Scotch ale, Barley wine, winter rye, YUM! I am interested to see how the Winter Rye comes out too. I wasn’t here for the brewing of it. Tod and Zach took care of it over the weekend while I was away. But I hear it has a Belgian yeast strain in it. So we will have to wait and have a Smoked Dunkelweizen in the mean time :)

The cask has changed and is almost out. The current cask is our Blonde with the addition of Stinging Nettle and Licorice Root. Which adds a nice spicy herbal note to the beer. When that goes we have a Blonde with Yarrow that I don’t know what it tastes like since I have never used it before. So again we will have to have an ALTernator and wait this one out too.

See ya all in soon for a pint!

Cheers,
Tyler

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Beer Mecca

OMG! The only fitting description of Ebenezer's is that it is Beer Mecca. First off the bar/resturant is attached to the side of the owners house (Chris) which is next to a golf course in Lovel ME. The place had 5 different Cantillon beer on DRAFT! De Proef Slaapmutske and the De Proef collaboration with Jason from Allagash, on tap; Black Albert along with a slue of the De Struise beers, on tap and in bottles; a bunch of vintage Stone products, on tap; just to name a few of the selections! Plus the Bottle list is crazy. I am defiantly going to have to go back sooner then later. All of you should go check it out when you get a chance.

Well I have to get back to planning my next trip.. uuuh I mean get back to work :)

Cheers,
Tyler

Monday, October 20, 2008

No milk in my oatmeal

Hello,

So the milk stout was enjoyed by all and is now gone. We have replaced with the oatmeal stout which is terrific as always. The smoked dunkel has really started to come into itself and tasting better day by day. Well its field trip time. We are going on a company field trip to Ebenezer’s! I'll let you know how it was later.

Cheers,
Tyler

PS Sean, no worries the B-wine is doing fine I just didn’t know how long out it will be ready. I'll put it back up there for you.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

It's Smoky Mc Smokington time

Hello,

So the Oktoberfest didn’t even last the month of October. You guys must have loved it! We replaced it with our smoked dunkelweizen. this dark wheat beer has a nice and not too overwhelming smoke character. This year we used lilac wood and it gives the beer an almost floral smoke character that balances well with the fruity and spicy notes of the weizen beer. And yes it is served Mit Hefe (with yeast).

Prost!

Tyler

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I am the ALTerator!

Hello all,

The Smutty Maibock is gone and is replaced by our Double/Imperial Alt that we like to call the ALTerator. This beer has the big malty profile of an Alt beer and it's 7.5% abv is balanced well with subtle German hops. A beautiful beer.

Tod did just get back from GABF, but sadly our Bluebeery, Kolsch, Smoked Dunkel, Hefeweizen and Oatmeal Stout didn’t win anything this year. Wish us better luck next year.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Smoked Belgian squash saison...WHAT?

Hello,

Well I wanted to let everyone know that the first Hop Harvest I has gone by the way side. We brought on a new fall beer for you all though. Our Pumpkin ale is pouring now. This beer has 200 lbs (in a double batch) of organic pumpkin that we add to the mash tun. The Pumpkins are from a local farmer and are a mixture of Dickenson and Cinderella pumpkins. The Cinderella’s look like the pumpkin carriage in the movie, hence the name. We hand shredding them and spread them out though out the mashing process. The color of this beer is amazing! We added some pumpkin pie spices, but not too much, to the boil with a light kiss of hops makes this beer delicious. We are truly in fall now.

To answer a few questions:

Mutual Fund Guru: We didn't participate in the Tettnang sale by the BBC. Mostly because we don’t use Tet in anything, and secondly for an interesting German flavoring hop we are playing with the new variety called Saphire. Imperial Pils? We will have to see. Also too bad to see that you are cutting back your visits here. I was hoping to get some investment advise from you since you are a Guru on the subject :)

David: The hostess, Rachel, that you spoke to when you were here is actually my girlfriend. (Sorry ladies I am spoken for!) But I am glad that you heeded her advise to contact me via the blog. Your request for a Belgian Style Triple Bock had Tod, Zack and myself scratching our noggin's this morning. First off Triple Bock is a trademark BBC (Sam Adams) product, aka not even a real style. Secondly a Bock is a German style beer. Though a Belgian yeast strain in a Bock beer would be interesting. But I think it would turn out to be a Belgian dark strong beer when it finished out. Those Belgian yeast strains kick of crazy esters and German beers are all about the clean finish of the beer. Most importantly so we don’t get sued, we have never or never will make a triple bock of any type. The BBC has great lawyers!

On the Smoked Dunkelwiezen, this years is going to be delicious. We added a kiss of smoke to the malt by house smoking 50lbs of malt with lilac wood. Milled it in to a malt profile of crystal and dark wheat malts along with some German pils and 2row. Making the finished beer a nicely "dark wheat" beer (aka "Dunkelwiezen" in German). It is still in fermentation most likely going to be finished this afternoon and dropped in temperature to start the maturation process. Don’t you worry though, it is going to be worth the wait.

Cheers,
Tyler