Greetings! Friday was a brew day! On Thursday I got a Flu Shot and a Shingles Booster.  Not recommended two at the same time, but necessary! Yes, the arm where the shot was taken had a sore spot and also every part of me felt the achy flu like symptoms. The yeast starter for the Kolsch recipe was insisting it go to work on Friday. So, I had a choice. Either sit around and feel achy or get active and just brew it! I can testify to the experience of barely being able to move and yet was very appreciative of the work I put into automating the brew system, which made the brew session go extremely well and left me with enough energy to keep my wits about me. Saturday I hung out with two very good friends and awesome brewers. They brewed a Belgian Golden Strong and we sampled beers from North Carolina and from my recent pilgrimage to Austin Texas. To me, it is pretty amazing the lengths serious beer officianados will go to in order to step outside the boundaries of the Three Tiered Distribution System to find new commercial brews.  Some amazing to the point of proclaiming like the French do when the encounter an incredible vintage, Dieu Existe!  Which translates to God Exists! Not exactly something that people take for granted, but meaning: "in all of my existence on this Earth, there can be no other beverage as great as the one I am tasting now".  Therefore: Dieu Existe!  In any case when I find a beer worthy of such a declaration, it is truly something special (IMHO). Ok, now back to reality. I will be hosting a local iteration of the AHA Learn To Brew Day at my Grover Place Brewery on November 2nd. This year my offering is in the area of brewery automation, and have been getting the spare parts in a row to be ready for any thing that may happen. Actually it is amazing how robust industrial automation truly is (famous last words). The recipie is a Baltic Porter.  Years ago I brewed a Baltic Porter recipe that I don't know why I didn't take the ball and run with it to every BJCP sanctioned contest in the world.  It earned very high scores in several national contests including the first round of the National Homebrew Competition with a score of 44 and 45 resulting in an appearance in the BOS and an invite to the next level of the competition, but never pursued. But being the busy worker bee that I was (that is how all of this is possible now), I did not pursue this recipe after that (back in March of 2014). Next Saturday will be a revival of that lucky recipie using the classic Polish hops, Lubelinski. I believe this is what truly adds the extra yards to the flavor component of this style of beer.  We shall see. To change the subject, I am a techno obsessive individual.  When I was a kid, Thomas Edison was my role model and my parents took me on frequent vacations to the transplanted Menlo Park in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan. So back to now, I have decided to make the AHA brew day more interesting with providing information accessible by way of QR codes placed on the various components of the brew rig. The QR codes are scanned by your I-Phone camera and link your phone to the website page that gives detailed information about that particular component.  Real Nerdy, lol. For the moment the Kolsch is very happily fermenting along. I have to go now to pull a sample for the Gravity and PH. Its a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. Lucky Me!

The last meeting of the Red River Brew Krew was held last night at Daqs in Bossier City. Had two notable beers: "Ghost In The Machine" a New England IPA style beer by Parish Brewing. Most notably the beautiful shiny haziness of the suspended wheat and yeast in the appearance.  The aroma is mainly focused on the use of tropical hops that give very strong mango and peach like aromas with a very low bready malt character. No alcohol notes were aparent even though the ABV is 8%, very well fermented without any fusels. The body gives the perception of moderately full more than likely caused by the use of wheat which also gives it a very pleasant silky mouthfeel.The flavor is like freshly squeezed mango/peach fruit punch, very re-vitalizing to the palate with low hop bitterness. The beer finishes moderately dry with some hop bittering lingering on the palate. The mouthfeel has a peculiar quality associated with having hop vegetal matter and hop oils in suspension, and that being a low subsequent hop derived astringency that tends to linger and tends to num the upper palate. The brewer might sacrifice some of the brilliant hop flavor by reducing the amount of hop vegetal matter in suspension by incorporating biotransformation during the later stages of fermentation instead of double dry hopping, but that might be something worth exploring to enhance the drinking pleasure of this fine beer. One of my companions pointed out rather humorsly that as home brewers focused on making award winning beers, we struggle to inhibit any haziness and now all is forgiven in the North Eastern style IPA.The other beer tasted by yours truly was a West Coast style IPA named "Hopsecutioner IPA" by the Terrapin Beer Company of Athens, GA. The aroma is of low toasty and carmely notes with low resiny/spicy hops dominating, without any alcohol notes even though the ABV is 7.3%. Nice restrained fig like low esters in both the aroma and flavor lead into a low but firm spicy/resiny hop flavor and bitterness. I would like to stop here for a minute and offer that the experience of drinking this beer is very  much akin to the British ESB, maybe this beer with its IPA moniker would be better served as being touted an American ESB???? I only offer this idea because of the low levels of both hop flavor and bittering which point it more toward an American Pale Ale style than an official IPA. In any case the low caramel notes were quite supportive of the firm bittering leading to a refreshing moderately dry finish without any hop notes lingering on the palate.Upcoming developments:August 8 through 9, judging at the Alabama Craft Beer Festival in Florence, Alabama. Iwill keep you posted regarding the outstanding beers that will be sampled! Stay tuned! Cheers GBrewins