flyawaywithbill.com
A Unique Perspective
 on the World…
and Life
  • Home
  • Films and Books
  • Of Coffee and Chai
  • Travel & Adventure
    • Restaurants & The Vegan Chronicles
    • Amusement Parks
    • High Adventure
    • Inns and Resorts
  • Blog
  • Mixology, Wine & Beer
    • "Cult" Winemaker Series
    • Craft of the Cocktail
    • My Beers
  • Contact

My first beer released!

5/28/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
 Woo-hoo! After many years of wishing and pondering on making beer, and after many weeks of first brewing, then doing all the necessary follow up work (tasting, nibs/vanilla bean additions, kegging, etc.), the 4-year veteran of homebrewing and friend of mine, Jeff Patterson, who helped me brew my first beer in Pleasant Hill, CA and myself finished up the process and bottled a Robust Chocolate Porter (with hints of vanilla). The whole process has been amazing, and has taught me firsthand that making beer is mostly about sanitation (think: "Glorified Janitor" as job description), with a generous dose of waiting, sprinkled with as liberal-as-practical amounts of beer drinking and rapping about our favorite beers and breweries, and then somewhere in there is a light fairy dusting of actual brewing and fermenting the beer itself..(oh, and the shopping for ingredients! Much fun in and of itself-like when you were a kid planning your big adventures on paper..).
  So how did it turn out? We were pleased. It was a beer that I would want to drink myself, and that's what I wished for at the beginning.  It was as good, if not better, than I expected. Ten gallons were brewed, and we each took half. Jeff will be bringing the beer to the 34th Annual National Homebrewers Conference (www.ahaconference.org/) June 21-23rd in Seattle, WA; wish Jeff the best with it! As for public reaction so far, I've sampled it for my co-workers at my restaurant (Mankas Corner in Suisun Valley, where I'm behind the bar), as well as for my partner Lynn, and the response has been very solid and positive. It's rich, dark, chocolatey and tastes great by itself, and with some good dark chocolate! We look forward to brewing this beer again soon, but first will be tackling an organic, caramel-amber Rye, with some mild aromatic hops to it. Looking forward to that. Cheers!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Bill Kelley

    Man of many passions and gifts from God

    Archives

    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    January 2014
    August 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Ashland
    Beer
    Breweries
    Cocktails
    Filmmaking
    Hiking
    Life
    Mountain Climbing
    Pisco
    Restaurants
    Sheakespeare
    Sommelier
    Theater
    Travel
    Video
    Wine

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn