News, Notes and Brewery Visits

It was a good day today. We toured Manor Hill Farmhouse Brewery in Ellicott City and had dinner at their restaurant, Victoria Gastro Pub. The duck fries were out of this world and I really liked my burger. While there, i tried Firestone's Nitro Merlin Milk Stout- a phenomenal stout that certainly struck a chord with me- and I also tried a porter from Ashland, OR called

The beers at Manor Hill were decent- not one was considered "bad" by any standards- but they all had a certain aftertaste. maye it was the water, who knows. Anyway, their IPAs were pretty good and I REALLY loved their Mild Manor'd Amber, which was basically a brown ale. It's not quite fall, but I wish they had more dark beer offerings...maybe a porter or lighter stout or something.

And now- for West Oak Brewing news...

I have tried the last three beers I brewed- StarHand saison (originally called Saisoff), For Non-Blondes blonde ale and Gimme a Beet! beet saison- and I must say I was pleasantly surprised overall with the outcome. StarHand saison didn't have any bittering hops so it's difficult to drink that beer without knowing that hops are missing from the recipe (well, flavoring and aroma hops were added at the end of the boil). The blonde all, For Non-Blondes, was a good one. I used Biscuit malt and it added a more complex flavor. The beet saison was really interesting and quite good for a beer with beets in it. I'm hoping to make that beer every fall.

After having a few people try my beet saison, I think I might enter it into the Good Beer Festival Homebrewing Competition in Salisbury MD this October (8th and 9th). It's kinda funky but it definitely tastes like beets without being too beet-y. I think it's definitely interesting and I want to see if people would like it. I'm taking two 12 oz. beers down to Salisbury tomorrow to Rubber Soul Brewing.

After struggling for so long to figure out what i want to do in life, I finally realized that I need to brew full-time. I want to create, to be my own boss, to make people happy, provide a place where people can go to escape from the world, to use local ingredients, give back to the community, embrace the community. I'm going to start small, but I'm going to START, that's for sure. Look out, world! Here I come...

Up next for the brewery...

An American Pale Ale in the spirit of Jack McAuliffe. ever since I started brewing more all-grain beers (this year), I am more focused on the water and water treatment/salt additions. This beer will be treated with brewing salts both in the mash AND in during the sparging process. So far, I've been doing simple salt additions thanks to reading Gordon Strong's book Modern Homebrew Recipes, but I want to perfect that and go deeper. Who knows- maybe I'll go back to Gordon's way. Maybe I'll find that Bru'N Water, EZ Water Calculator, John Palmer's water calc, Kai Troister or Water Witch is the best calculator. Maybe it'll be some crazy combination or all or some of those. Either way, I'm moving on and trying to get better.

After the Pale Ale, I might do a nice Pumpkin Milk Stout or a Pumpkin Ale- just in time for the season. I'll let you know how those brew days go and how I fared in the competition in Salisbury.