The Beer Monger World Beer Tour Project

To quote a great man: "I have a dream!"  I bet most of you out there do as well; if not several.  Well, one of my dreams involves traveling the World.  My wife and I Love to travel, and want to see as much of this World as we can during our time here on Earth. 

I want to see it ALL!

Since we also Love good beer, however, why not combine the two Loves and try to find a way to tour the World in a quest to visit every production brewery in the World?  This, my dear friends, is the Beer Monger World Beer Tour Project. 

At the moment the project just a dream; my dream.  But I'm going to do the legwork and lay the groundwork for what I'm hoping will eventually become an either television or web-based show/series focusing on my Love of good beer and my travels around the World in the quest to try every beer the World has to offer. 

It would probably be best to focus on just one continent at a time so the show could focus on specific beer styles and the regions the originate from.  I mean, I don't want to be visiting a brewery in California one day and try to be visiting a brewery in Hawaii the next.  Oh wait; bad example.  ;)  lol   But you get the idea.  It would probably be best as well, at least financially, to start off with the show in America.  It could be something as simple as taking a motor home across the USA, stopping at every brewery. 

The World's First Beer Recipe?  Who knows.

Next up I'd have to say Europe; where it all began.  OK, OK, there are theories that brewing actually started in Africa, and I'd want to get into that debate somewhere within the show.  After Europe, we'd proceed to Africa, South America, Asia and... are there any breweries in Antarctica yet? 

As a preliminary 'warm up', and so I can get the feel of doing it, I may start bringing a video camera with me each time I visit a new brewery locally, as I often do, so I can make a little10-15 minute 'show' out of each visit.  I'd try to setup tours and possibly even interviews before my visit with the brewer and/or other staff.  It will also help me hone my woefully out of practice video editing skills. 

My current equipment (I guess I need a sponsor!)

If I can manage to pull this thing together, in the future you may see a PayPal donation link here on my blog as a way to help me start building funds to get the show off the ground.  Subscribers to the show would get to live vicariously though my wife & I, as we travel the World, and explore every nook and cranny of the brewing World. 

Drink responsibly and stay safe out there. 

Seattle Beer Week Rolls On

Today, Monday, May 23rd, is the 5th day of Seattle Beer Week.  The first four days have already been a whirlwind of amazing beer-related events and activities, and we still have 6 more days of fun to go.  Thankfully I have today and Tuesday off, but heading back to work Wednesday is gonna be so hard!

So far, I've been able to attend the following Seattle Beer Week events:

Day 1 - Thursday, May 19

-Seattle Beer Week Kick Off at Maritime Pacific Brewing:
You can read all about my experience at this event HERE.  It was a great night filled with good food, great beer, old and new friends alike.  Everyone was having an amazing time in the great weather, and enjoying the Official Seattle Beer Week beer: Decompression Ale. 

At the Jolly Roger Taproom at Maritime Pacific

I followed up the SBW Kick Off at Maritime with a brief stop at Uber Tavern.  I wanted to drop by because I'd heard they were having Dogfish Head World Wide Stout on tap as well as Dog Fish Head 120 Minute IPA.  Now, I've had both of these beers before, but it's rare to find them on tap.  Both were amazing. 

-Cask-O-Rama at Beveridge Place Pub:
This is an annual event at BPP.  Casks cover the bar and you can have a pint or go with a taster tray.  I chose the latter.  You can see my selections and read a bit more about what I thought HERE.  I hung out here, enjoying myself and the great lineup of Cask beers until nearly 10:00PM, my last event for the night (I had to be at work on Friday!)

My Taster Tray at Cask-O-Rama

Day 2 - Friday, May 20th

I was unable to attend any SBW events on Friday due to the monthly meeting of my homebrew club, The Impaling Alers.  I had a great time at the meeting with my fellow members, enjoying some great homebrew, and some delicious hummus and salmon dip, both provided at the meeting by my beautiful wife, Lynn.  By the time the meeting/socializing wrapped up, it was nearly 11:00PM.  Time to call it a night. 

Seattle Beer Week Kick Off at Maritime Pacific Brewing Company

Yarrr, me mateys!  Yarrr!

Last night was the kick off for Seattle Beer Week.  I arrived at Maritime Pacific Brewing's Jolly Roger taproom early, so I'd be sure to capture all the action.  Early on, 3:00 or so, the place wasn't crowded at all:

The Calm Before The Storm

As the day progressed, however, it started slowly getting more and more crowded:

The Crowd Was Growing

My friend, Brian Williams (Of SnootyDrunks.com), and I had some great seats staked out at the bar, but later found out that the first keg/firkin of the Official Seattle Beer Week beer: Decompression, would be tapped out in the brewhouse; so when 5:30 drew close, out we went. 

It was now 5:30, the line ahead of us wasn't too bad, but little did we know they were not pouring Decompression yet.  They couldn't start pouring it until the Official reading of the Mayor's Proclamation, declaring Seattle Beer Week open.  However, since Brian & I had given up our bar seats to head out to the brewhouse, we decided to wait right there until they started pouring it.  It turned out to be a great place to wait too, because a few miutes later, the reading of the Proclamation took place:

If the video link above is not working, you can also view the video on Youtbe HERE.  

You can see the rest of the photos from this album/event that are not included in this article HERE. 

After the reading of the Procclamation, Brian got the very first pint of Decompression from the firkin and I got the 2nd.  Not a bad way to kick off Seattle Beer Week, 'eh?  We hung around at the Jolly Roger for about another hour, gretting friends, meeting new ones and enjoying the festivities, but then decided to move on to another stop. 

Ironically, with the plethora of events listed for Seattle Beer Week, our next stop wasn't even on the list!  We had heard that Über Tavern (7517 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA), had Dogfish Head's World Wide Stout and 120 Minute IPA on tap.  Now, I have had both of these beers before, but finding them on tap is extremely rare, so to Über we went!  We hung out there long enough to have a World Wide Stout each and share a 120 Minute IPA (remember, moderation people!) 

My Cask-O-Rama Selections

After that, it was off to Beveridge Place Pub for Cask-O-Rama.  We each got a sampler tray of six different cask beers.  My selections included:

-Big Al Old No. 1 Barleywine (On tap for the firs time anywhere).  This was probably my favorite of the 6 I tried.

-Elysian Prometheus IPA.  I'd had this one before, but it's a good one so I had some more. 

-Naked City FNG ESB.  A bit on the 'grainy' side, but drinkable.  Meh.

-Schooner Exact Ealiente Golden w/ Serrano & Anaheim Peppers.  Unfortunatley, this brought back my dislike for chili beers immediately.  My impression?  A distinctly dishwater taste - I didn't finish it. 

-Three Skulls Poison Dry-Hopped Winter Warmer.  This one was extremely grainy.  I felt like I was drinking the grains the beer was made from.  I didnt' finish it.

-Two Beers Evolutionary IPA.  A decent beer, but Big Al was the winner here for me. 

My Tray & Brian's Tray of Cask Beers

By now it was approaching 9:00PM.  We both had to work the next day (today), so off we went on our way.  All in all, a solid opening day for Seattle Beer Week.  Today I may only have time for one early event before I head to my monthly homebrew club meeting, so I'll have to choose wisely.  Watch for many more photos and videos as Seattle Beer Week rolls on.

Drink responsibly and stay safe out there.  



Puget Sound Pro-Am Results & Big Brew Day 2011

Last weekend was the 2011 Puget Sound Pro-Am homebrew competition.  There were a total of 403 entries made by 109 different homebrewers.  By last Monday, the results were posted for the homebrew competition.  Congratulations to the winners! 

Just this past weekend, however, was the time for the majority of the breweries involved to select which homebrews from the competition they wanted to scale up and brew on their own systems. 

The participating breweries included:
Ram Restaurant and Brewery
Elysian Brewery
Big Time Brewery
Rock Bottom - Seattle
Rock Bottom - Bellevue
Big Al Brewing
Baron Brewing
Diamond Knot Brewery
Snipes Mountain Brewing
Naked City Brewing
Harmon Brewery
BJ's - Tacoma
Powerhouse Brewery
Issaquah Brewhouse
Silver City Brewery
Elliott Bay Brewing Company

Each of these breweries could select one of the homebrew entries from the competition to brew.  It was not necessary for the breweries to select a beer that placed well in the actual homebrew competition, but most did. 

Here is the list of what each brewery decided to brew:
Baron Brewing – Mike Ritzer’s Grunge Effect, North German Altbier
Big Time Brewing – Ken Reister’s Reisterbrau’s Czar Russian Imperial Stout
BJ’s Brewery Tacoma – Trevor Nichol’s Biere de Printemps Biere de Garde
Elliott Bay Brewing Company – Tim Hervyford’s Black Pepper Porter
Elysian Brewing Company – Travis Nye’s Rye PA
Harmon Brewery – Ben Schielke’s Expedi-ale New American Pale Ale
Issaquah Brewhouse – TBD this week
Ram Brewery Tacoma – Jonathan Permen’s Fruition Raspberry Biere de Garde
Rock Bottom Seattle – Jesse Perez’s Siberian Baltic Porter
Rock Bottom Bellevue – Dan Hansen’s Bohemian Pilsner
Snipes Mountain Brewery – Karl VanEvenhoven’s Cascadian Dark Ale
Naked City Brewery – TBD this week
Silver City Brewery – TBD this week

Recreational
Big Al Brewing – TBD this week
Powerhouse -Ryan McGee's Mai Sharona, Maibock
Diamond Knot – TBD in a few weeks

Once again, congratulations to those selected!  They will soon have the opportunity to see their own beer on tap at these breweries.  What an honor, and a great way to celebrate and share their homebrew with their fellow brewers and friends. 

I didn't have any beers ready to enter for this year's Pro-Am or this year's National Homebrew Competition, but I hope to have a few things ready to enter for both events next year. 

AHA Big Brew Day:
This past Saturday, May 7th was also AHA Big Brew Day.  It's an annual event where homebrewers are encouraged to gather together in groups to brew for the day.  Bringing along, family, friends, and anyone else interested in learning more about or getting in volved in homebrewing. 

For me, the closest place to celebrate Big Brew Day was at Larry's Brewing Supply in Kent, WA.  I didn't have the means to bring my own system down to Larry's (I brewed later at home - video coming soon), but I was there for the festivities (as well as there to assist with the brewery selections from the Puget Sound Pro-Am homebrew competition - so I was rather busy). 

There were plenty of brewers at Larry's that day, and everyone was having a great time and brewing batch after batch of beer.  The smells coming from all the brewing were amazing.  I took a short video you can check out, to see how crazy/busy it was, but also how much fun!  You may need to 'Like' Beer Monger on Facebook in order to see the video. 

As for myself, I brewed my Oktoberfest Lager this weekend.  Its currently sitting in it's fermenter at 42 degrees in my beer fridge, and I plan to slowly raise the temperature to 48-50 degrees over the new few days.  There it will sit, fermenting for three weeks before I raise the temp a bit for a dicetyl rest and then lower the temp again before kegging the beer to allow it to Lager for three months.  It should be ready to drink by September 17th, the first official day of Oktoberfest in Germany this year.

Drink responsibly and stay safe out there.

IPA Brewing Video - Part 2 - Racking & Dry Hopping

It has now been 8 days since I brewed my batch of IPA on March 20th.

Today, I have a video for you, showing the process of racking (siphoning/moving) my beer from the primary to the secondary fermententation tanks. After racking the beer to the secondary fermenters, I will also show you the process of dry hopping the beer. You can view the video HERE.

I'll be back 6 days from now with a new video, showing the process of moving the beer from the secondary fermentation tanks to the kegs and starting the carbonation process. I hope you enjoy the video, and please 'Like' us HERE on Facebook.com.

Drink responsibly and stay safe out there.

My First Batch of the Season

Water Being Heated in the Hot Liquor Tank

PLEASE NOTE - MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS BREW SESSION HAVE BEEN ADDED. PLEASE 'LIKE' US ON FACEBOOK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS!

Yesterday, for the first time in a few years, I finally brewed again! This will be my first batch of many to come this year.

Overall, things went pretty smoothly. My only mistake was underestimating how much water I needed to use for sparging. I used 8 gallons to sparge, but I should have used 9-10. Don’t know what sparging is? I’ll get into that below. I also think I lost a bit more due to evaporation during the boil than I’d anticipated. As a result, the batch came out to be just about or slightly less than 9 gallons. I’m OK with that though. The whole brewing process went pretty smoothly, and in 4 weeks time I’ll have a nice, tasty batch of IPA ready to go!

I took a few photos as I was brewing, as well as a video. I’ll share the photos here as I go over the brewing process. The video will be posted as soon as I can find the time to edit it all together.

The Brewing Process:
Step 1: Relax. Don’t worry. Have a beer.
This is a saying I basically stole from Charlie Papazian, homebrewing pioneer and author of, “The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing.” The actual saying is: Relax. Don’t Worry. Have a homebrew. However, since I haven’t homebrewed in a while, I didn’t have any available to drink.

My Selection For Today's Step 1

The Brewing Process:
Step 2: The mash.
Beer is made from grains, water, hops and yeast. The first step involves cracking open your grains and then adding hot water to starting the mash. After the grains are cracked open using a grain mill (you want to crack the grain husks open, not crush the grain), hot water is added to the mash from the ‘Hot Liquor Tank’ (basically, a big kettle for heating up the water for mashing and sparging). The idea is to hold the grains at a temperature range of about 150-155 degrees. It is at this temperature that the ‘mash’ happens. That is, the starches in the grains are converted into sugars.

Grains to Add to the Mash

Yeast uses sugar and oxygen in order to create alcohol and CO2 (carbon dioxide) so this is, obviously, a very crucial step in the brewing process. You have to account for the temperature drop that will happen when the hot water is added to the room-temperature grains in the mash tun. To hit my target mash temperature of 150-155 degrees, I usually start with 170 degree water in the hot liquor tank. I also use a 10-gallon drink cooler as my mash tun, to help the grains remain in the target temperature range.

The Spiggot On My Mash Tun - To Allow the Wort to Flow into the Boil Kettle

The Brewing Process:
Step 3: The Sparge.
After the mash is complete, it’s time to sparge. Sparging is the process of spraying water over the grain in the mash tun in order to wash all the sugar from the mashed grain into the boil kettle. In my brewing setup I currently use a spinning sparging arm (called Phil’s Sparger – no longer made). This sits atop the mash tun and rotates while slowly and gently spraying the grains with hot water.

The Sparge Arm; Spinning to Gently Shower the Grains With Water From the Hot Liquor Tank

As the grains are sprayed with 170 degree hot water from the hot liquor tank, the spigot at the bottom of the mash tun is opened a bit to allow wort to start flowing into the boil kettle. Wort is what we call the sweet liquid flowing out of the mash tun. This should be a slow process. You want to make sure you wash out as much sugar as you can from the grain in the mash tun into the boil kettle. My sparge for this batch took 70-75 minutes. I wanted to collect 12 gallons of wort in the boil kettle, but I underestimated the amount of water I needed in the hot liquor tank for the sparge so I only wound up with about or just under 11 gallons of wort in the boil kettle.

Wort Flowing Very Slowly From the Mash Tun into the Boil Kettle

The Brewing Process:
Step 3: The Boil.
Once the sparge was complete and the wort was in the boil kettle, it was time to boil. I lit the burner under my boil kettle when the sparge was nearly complete and brought my wort slowly up to a boil. It’s important to bring your wort to a boil slowly to help avoid the possibility of a boil over (which can be a nasty, sticky mess!)

As soon as the wort reached a boil, it was time to add the first bittering hops and start the clock. The length of the boil can differ depending on the style of beer being made, but the average is right around one hour (which was the boil time for this particular batch). For the next half hour, I monitored the boil kettle; making sure the boil kept rolling but was not in danger of boiling over and gave the kettle an occasional stir.

A half hour in, or halfway through the boil, I added the second batch of bittering hops and kept monitoring the boil. I also got my wort chiller ready and started preparing my fermentation tanks.

The Brewing Process:
Step 4: Finishing Hops and the Cool Down.
When there was 5 minutes left on the clock for the boil, it was time to add the finishing hops. The hops added earlier in the boil were for bittering (imparting that familiar bitter bite to IPA beers). Finishing hops don’t add much bitterness, but affect the ‘nose’ of the finished beer; giving it that nice, floral hop aroma.

Just a couple of minutes after adding the finishing hops, I cranked up the heat on the boil kettle and plunged my immersion wort chiller into the kettle (I cranked up the heat for just a minute, since the cold wort chiller can knock the boil off for a few seconds). At this point, there was no water flowing through the wort chiller. The boil still had 2-3 minutes to go.

As soon as the boil clock reached 60 minutes, I turned off the burner and turned on the hose faucet, to allow cold water to start flowing through the wort chiller. You want to get your wort down to the proper temperature (in this case 68-70 degrees) as soon as possible.

The Brewing Process:
Step 5: Transferring to Fermenters and Pitching the Yeast.
The wort took about 10 minutes or so to go from boiling to about 68-70 degrees. Once the target temperature was achieved, I turned off the hose feeding the wort chiller and grabbed the first of my two carboys.

Unfortunately, I don’t currently own a fermentation tank large enough to ferment whole 10-gallon batches. So, I just use 2 6 ½ gallon carboys and put half the batch in each. (See my previous post regarding my ‘dream fermeter’).

I put just over 5 gallons into the first carboy, then stopped the flow and put the second carboy in place. I was only able to fill the second carboy to just under the 4 gallon mark. That means, my batch actually wound up being right around 9 gallons instead of 10 (just over 5 gallons in the first carboy – and just under 4 gallons in the second one).

As I said at the start of this article, I think my only error was not adding enough water to the hot liquor tank for the sparge. I ran out just a bit early, so I wasn’t able to collect a full 12-12.5 gallons of wort. I got a little less than 11 gallons. The rest was lost to evaporation during the boil.

Once the wort had been transferred from the boil kettle to both fermenters, it was time to pitch the yeast. You want to pitch (add) the yeast at the proper target temperature of 68-70 degrees. After adding the yeast, the fermenters get agitated (Shaken) for about 5 minutes. This shaking is to oxygenate the wort, since the yeast uses sugar and oxygen as its ‘food’ to produce alcohol and CO2.

Now we wait. After one week in the primary fermentation tanks, it will be time to transfer the beer to the secondary fermenter. This is done to get the beer off the trub (pronounced – troob), the layer of spent yeast that collects at the bottom of the fermentation tank. Once the beer is in the secondary fermenters, I will be ‘dry hopping’ it. Dry hopping is the practice of adding hops directly to the fermenter, in order to add more hop aroma and flavor to the finished beer.

After one more week in the secondary fermenters it’s time to either keg or bottle our beer. I usually do half and half (keg half and bottle half). Having my batch split into two separate fermenters makes this quite easy to accomplish.

I did manage to take a good amount of video as I was brewing this batch. I’ll get the video edited and posted up for you all to see as soon as I can.

Drink responsibly and stay safe out there.

On Tap For This Weekend

Hoppy Friday! I hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day! Now it's time to turn my attention to the approaching weekend. I don't know about you, but I've got big plans!

Time to Brew:
I've been rather annoyed at myself for slacking off on my homebrewing for the past couple of years, so I decided it's finally time to brew again!

This weekend, I plan to clean all my brewing equipment, head to the homebrew supply shop to pick up some new hoses and fittings, buy the necessary ingredients to brew a batch of IPA - maybe a double IPA, and then brew! I'm also going to go ahead and make a batch of cider. I haven't decided on what flavor yet, but I'm thinking strawberry or perhaps blueberry.

The gravity-fed, propane-fired brewing system I have allows me to make 10-gallon all-grain batches of beer. I can bottle or keg my homebrew (in 3 or 5 gallon Cornelius Kegs), and I usually do a half and half. That is, I keg half of each batch and I bottle the other half (for easier transport - the kegs are for home consumption).

Since it’s still a bit chilly in the Northwest (our avg. daily temperature is still in the low 50’s), I have two choices for keeping my fermenters at the proper temperature of 66-72 degrees for ale fermentation. The first option is to simply carry the fermenters upstairs into the house after they’re filled. It sounds simple, but the fermenters are pretty darn heavy when full!

An Aquarium Heater

The other option, and the one I’ll probably go with, involves using a tub of water and an aquarium heater. It may sound odd, but hear me out. I brew 10-gallon batches with my brewing system, but my largest fermenter (I use glass carboys as my fermenters) has a capacity of only 6.5-gallons. To get around this problem, I always split my batches into two 6.5-gallon fermenters – putting 5 gallons in each. Then, I simply place both carboys into a large tub of water, and put the aquarium heater in the water, set to about 68 degrees. I’ve found this a very effective way to maintain a steady fermentation temperature, even with the carboys sitting in a garage where the temperature can fluctuate quite a bit through the course of the day.

Splitting my 10-gallon batches into two separate fermenters, as I mentioned above, actually has a few advantages as well. Since I often keg half of each batch and bottle the other half, having the batch already split in two makes this much easier. Also, it’s very handy if I want to experiment with what effect different yeasts will have on the taste of the finished beer, by using different yeast strains for each half of the batch. I’ve found this method pretty useful over the years, in helping me determine the appropriate yeast for some of my beers. It also makes the fermenters easier to move around if necessary (you try lifting a container that holds 10-gallons of liquid).

My Dream Fermenter

I do have a 'dream fermenter' I’d like to pick up at some point, but it carries a price tag of $1,895 for the base 14-gallon model and $2,449 for the ‘ultimate’ model (with a rapid heating/cooling system to maintain proper fermentation temperature for ales or lagers).

I’ll try to make sure I take plenty of photos as I clean up my equipment and brew my batch of IPA. No promises, but I’ll also try to make a video of the brewing process as well for you all to see. That may take a few days longer, as I’ll have to edit it after shooting it.

Hitting the Books:
Next up is study, study, study! As my regular readers know, I’ve decided that I’d like to go for my BJCP Beer Judging Certification. It wasn’t until I’d made that decision that I realized what a large undertaking it really is. I was planning to take my first BJCP exam next month but, after looking over a sample test and study guide, I realized that I’m nowhere near ready.

The exam involves much more than just testing your taste buds. You must be able to identify and describe (in painstaking detail), the aroma, appearance, flavor, mouth feel, etc. of every style of beer outlined in the BJCP Style Guidelines, as well as name commercial ‘classic examples’ of each style, name the desired as well as undesirable flavor descriptors (such as acetaldehyde, diacetyl, oxidized, phenolic, etc. etc. etc.

It’s a mountain of material to memorize. Even the starting ‘interim study guide’ I picked up is a whopping 67 pages and covers such topics as the beer judging process, full details of the entire brewing process and it’s ingredients (including delving into the alkalinity, pH and hardness of your water and how to adjust these factors, different types of brewing malt and other adjuncts, etc.), information on the life-cycle of yeast and fermentation by-products and, of course, detailed information on each flavor descriptor beer judges utilize when judging beers.

There are some places you can find BJCP Exam study classes or study groups, but I think I’m going to study/prepare for the exam on my own. I was always a lone-studier in College and it worked out pretty well for me back then.

So, between hands-on brewing and written theory about beer, brewing, tasting, etc., my weekend is going to be all about beer. I’d just better not drink too much of it this weekend, though. I’ve laid out a pretty ambitious to do list for myself. I just hope, after all the studying, I don't wind up like THIS guy!

Drink responsibly and stay safe out there!

Ready For More!

If Dr. Seuss was a heavy drinker... lol

Seriously though (and it's really sad that I have to actually say this in this day & age), please understand this is parody. NEVER drink beer in a car or drive drunk - and I don't advocate getting 'slammed' either. Yes, I enjoy a good beer buzz, but a responsible drinker knows when they've had enough, and especially when to NEVER get behind the wheel. If you want to drink beer in a box in your socks, however, that's up to you.

Please excuse my absence the past few days, but I've been a bit sidetracked with a pesky little thing called 'real life'. It can get so annoying at times! But I'm back and ready for more new beer experiences.

First a few general updates:

BJCP:

I've been 'browsing' my BJCP Study Guide, but beginning this weekend, I plan to dive in head first. Read through the entire study guide and further investigate the first steps I need to get my BJCP Certification.

Seattle Beer Scene:

There have been a lot of changes recently in the Seattle beer scene. We got a few new breweries in town last year (including Epic Ales, Emererald City Beer Company (Which opened up shop in a portion of the Old Ranier Brewery, whose current primary occupant is Tully's Coffee), Northwest Peaks Brewery and more. All in all, there were 12 new brewery license applications in the Seattle/Puget Sound area in 2010.

There were also some big personnel changes. Jeanelle Pritchard resigned from Trade Route Brewing and Chris Miller resigned from Snipes Mountain for a new opportunity in California.

Also, in a change that affects me personally, since this is one of my regular haunts, Bill Jenkins is leaving as head brewer of Big Time Brewing Company in Seattle's University District. Bill has been at Big Time for years, making truly world-class beers (as well as a few 'experiements', some amazing, some disappointing). If Bill has to go, however, what better replacement than his brewing brother (in law), Drew Cluley! Drew has been the head brewer at Pike Brewing Company for several years, but he is leaving The Pike to replace Bill as the new brewer at Big Time.

Seattle Beer Week:

Yeah, yeah. I know it's still two months away. I just want to make sure you're all keeping it on your radar! Let me just give you their website for now: SeattleBeerWeek.com Maritime Pacific Brewing Company will be brewing this year's Official Seattle Week Beer.

Tonight on my way home, I'll be making a trip to my local bottle shop, 99 Bottles. I will, of course, pick up a few favorites, but I'm also planning to grab a few new beers, so I can continue to improve my tasting abilities, and provide all of you with more in-depth beer reviews.

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Drink responsibly and stay safe out there!