A Tall, Cold Pint of NightLife
All about how beer is brewed with music by DJ Kramer and Tamo
July 15th, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

There’s nothing better on a summer night than a tall, cold glass of beer. Have you ever wondered how beer is brewed? What ‘hops’ are? What the difference between a lager and a pilsner is? Join some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best microbreweries and beer experts, including San Francisco Brewcraft, MateVeza, Bison Brewing, Social Kitchen and Brewery, Elizabeth Street Brewery and others, to learn all about the art of brewing beer. All of these great beers will be available for sale tonight at NightLife.

Full details regarding the event can be found HERE. Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Richard.

Doors will open at 7am on Saturday for the Argentina v Germany match. We’ll stay open until the conclusion of the second match between Paraguay and the winner of the Spain v Portugal match later today.

Hope to see you at the ESB on Saturday! 7am – 3pm. (We’ll be closed on Sunday, July 4 to celebrate Addison’s 4th birthday).

Cheers,
Richard.

All,
Well, I’m still feeling numb from the whole experience in Chicago last week but the capper to it all was that the Imperial ESB called “Imperial Jack” named after my late Grandfather, that I brewed with the good folks at 21st Amendment Brewery, won Gold in the Other Strong Beer category at the World Beer Cup 2010 Awards Dinner. You can see the brew day report HERE.

It was such a shock at the time that neither Allie nor I were able to fumble the video camera quickly enough to capture the moment on film. However, you can check out pictures from the evening here.

I am traveling for work this week but have a number of other videos I can share with you soon. For now, enjoy the pics. You can read the 21st Amendment blog post, HERE. The plan is to brew it again during the week of April 26, so look for it in May at the 21st Amendment in San Francisco.

Cheers!
RIchard.

Shaun and Richard brewing the Imperial Jack, January 14, 2010:

Shaun and Richard back home with the Gold:

Enjoy and Cheers!
Richard.

P.S. Yes – that is the old intro music for the Chicago Bulls

Enjoy and Cheers!
Richard

I’ve decided to brew a wide collection of beers behind closed doors over the coming weeks so we can have some cool and interesting ales to enjoy at upcoming open-houses for friends, family and neighbors. I’ve received quite a few emails over the past 3 weeks from new people wondering what exactly goes on here at our homebrew pub (apologies to those I have yet to respond to) so it would be nice to have beers for them when they get here.

Saturday was interesting because we were technically not open but managed to get a crowd of about 30 people over the course of the day. Good to see old friends and make new ones but again, I found myself distracted from the task at hand. What started out as 10-gallons of American amber ale, in honor of the late Bill Brand (the second time I’ve tried to replicate the B3 Bomber Ale of last year) turned into 5 gallons of extremely strong, hoppy brew. Not sure how to categorize it yet but I have a feeling it’s going to knock my socks off. It was the first time using the PACMAN yeast (Rogue Dead Guy Ale yeast) and because I had two starters (for two 5-gallon fermenters) I decided to throw them both in one 5-gallon batch. My wife – and our dining room for that matter – is not pleased with that decision so far. Extremely active. Again, can’t wait to try this one.

Saturday also marked the first time in 7 years that I had to discard an entire batch of beer. It had been contaminated somewhere between the primary and the secondary and leaving it in the carboys for an excessive amount of time didn’t help. The beer is, quite simply, undrinkable. Therefore, I have the painful task of pouring it away. I’ve only poured 5 gallons so far… it was like crying in the sink. Not ready to do the same with the second keg. To make matters worse, it was a batch of our Daddy’s Chocolate Milk – a real crowd favorite – so I’ll have to get back to brewing another batch of it sooner rather than later.

We’ve been focusing a lot on the behind-the-scenes aspects of the ESB for a few weeks now. Saturday’s brew was, in all honesty, the first batch brewed on site since we welcomed in 2010. With the exception of brewing Imperial Jack at 21st Amendment it was the only beer I’ve made this year. That is all about to change. I need to play with recipes, tweak and challenge ideas of existing beers we’ve been making. We have a whole new group of “customers” coming to the pub and I don’t want their first impressions to be of sub-par ale.

So… look for more brew-day updates in the future – and a lot of them too. Which is good news for you. After all, someone has to drink it.

For now, I say cheers! Can’t wait to welcome you into the Elizabeth Street Brewery in the near future.

-Richard.

So now, yet another reason for me to A) play with my MacBook Pro editing tools and B) get back to work on finalizing that business plan, I give you my crude but fun highlight reel of yesterday’s appearance on NBC.

Cheers!
Richard

Yesterday marked the first day of Strong Beer Month in San Francisco. Hosted by Magnolia Brewpub and 21st Amendment Brewery, Strong Beer Month features 12 unique and special beers available. You can see a full list of the beers here…

Strong Beer Month Menu

I was extremely fortunate to be invited back to brew at the 21st Amendment. Two weeks ago we brewed a strong version of our Grandpa Jack ESB and have named it Imperial Jack. You can read about the brew day HERE.

John Foster of Beer School fame, was invited to brew a beer too. Together, he and I joined the enthusiastic crowd at 21st Amendment last night to officially open Strong Beer Month. Addison helped get things going by ringing the bell. Here is the event, caught on film. Enjoy!

You can read John’s account of last night HERE and check out his pictures HERE.

Cheers,
Richard.

Introducing Imperial Jack
Getting to brew on such a large system twice in just a matter of months was a true honor and amazing opportunity. Brewers Jesse and Shaun had the idea of doubling our ESB recipe from the GABF last year to create an “Imperial ESB”. A bitter that will boast an A.B.V. of around 8.5%, the beer had almost double the grain bill of our last batch (went from 550lbs of malt to 1,036 lbs). We knew we were onto something special from the very beginning.

Richard & Shaun get ready to brew Imperial Jack at the 21st Amendment

Shaun and I mashed in and the sparge went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, I had to take part in a conference call for my day job during the boil so Shaun handled the majority of the hop additions before I rejoined him for the end of the boil and the grain clean-up. Jesse tagged in for Shaun for the end of the brew when we added the yeast and transferred the wort to the fermenter. All-in-all it was a great day and I can’t wait to brew on that scale again sooner rather than later. Here are some highlights from the day:

Imperial Jack recipe snapshot

Shaun adds hops to Imperial Jack

Imperial Jack Transfers to Fermenter

Yeast blow-off after 1 day in fermenter – we’ve got a wild one here!

VIDEO: Adding yeast to the fermenter

VIDEO: Transferring Imperial Jack to the fermenter

Imperial Jack will be on tap beginning February 1 at 21st Amendment Brewery. See you there!

Cheers!
Richard.

Feel free to stop by for a taste or two during the 4-hour window this coming Saturday. Can’t wait to see you.

Cheers!
Richard.