My first professional brew!

Hello there special friends! My life has been quite hectic as of late due to moving in to my new beautiful apartment with my beautiful girlfriend. While this has prevented me from posting on here, it hasn't stopped me from drinking a plethora of beer. The most exciting beer-related venture I engaged in recently was standing in on a brew at Cape Ann Brewing Company in scenic Gloucester, MA. This was the first of many breweries I queried, to allow me to do such a thing (much less reply), so I was incredibly grateful for the privilege. Dylan, the brewer, was mega helpful and allowed me to listen to all the shitty 80's cock rock that my little heart desired.
Some quick background: Cape Ann Brewing Co. was started in 2004 by a stock broker turned brewer, Jeremy Goldberg. The brewery utilizes a 20 BBL system. The beer that is brewed at their Gloucester location is for serving in the attached brewpub and and at numerous locations throughout the northeast. Their bottled beer is brewed at Mendocino Brewing Co. in Saratoga Springs, NY. Dylan worked in the restaurant business for a number of years and got into homebrewing with his friend TJ, now sales manager at Cape Ann. This eventually lead him to the company as well.
We started off the day at 8 AM when I was informed that we would be brewing pumpkin stout. I was also informed that this beer was Dylan's arch nemesis due to its tendency for stuck mashes. The last time he brewed a batch of this beer, the sparge took a sluggish 5 hours. Because of this, rice hulls were the first component to be added to the mash tun. These were to act as a filter bed that the wort could escape through. These do not affect the flavor of the beer in anyway.
The next step was milling the grain, which consisted of about 80% pale ale malt, some roasted barley and a small amount of flaked oats. We also tossed about five pounds of pumpkin flesh in. I would have thought this step was reserved for the boil. While we mashed, we scrubbed down the kettle in preparation for the transfer and boil. Luckily the sparge didn't take five hours, more like half. It still called for some back pumping to clear out the gunk from the lines however. In the time that this took, we sanitized the fermentation tank. I quickly learned that sanitation comprised about 90% of brewing, the rest is about 5% thumb twiddling and 5% brewing itself.
After sparging, we finally got down to the boil. Nothing was added until the end when we threw in the spices, chinook hops and kopakleer tablets for clarity. While we waited to add these components we engaged in the INCREDIBLY fun task of graining out. Dylan popped open the hatch on the side of the mash tun and we shoveled all the grain into a large bin so that the man known as "Farmer Pete" could come and retrieve it for his animals. At this point, the day was mostly over. When the boil was finished, we transfered the wort into the primary fermenter and oxygenated it as we did so. This was to ensure the yeasts success and rapid activity. In the first stages of fermentation, yeast is aerobic, thus requiring this oxygen. When it begins to process the sugars however, it becomes anaerobic.
All in all I had a total blast brewing at Cape Ann. I have to thank Dylan for making all this possible and being such a welcoming, helpful and all around stand up dude. I'll definitely be getting back up there as soon as possible to continue learning and to listen to Ratt and Skid Row records all day long (prepare yourself Dylan).

Some other fun stuff I learned.
-How to measure carbonation with a Zahm & Nagel volume meter or as Dylan calls it, a "Zahmbinater"
-For easy retrieval, storage and transfer, Cape Ann's yeast is kept in kegs
-Adding more yeast will simply cause fermentation to happen faster, not produce more booze as I had thought. To create more alcohol, create more sugar by upping your grain to water ratio in the mash
-Drinking lots of beer the night before brewing is TOTALLY detrimental, despite what you might think
-An auger is used to transfer the freshly milled grain up to the mash tun. It's essentially an Archimedes Screw.
-Baker's lung is totally messed up. Wear a mask when milling!


The Mill


Me adding rolled oats to the mash. These are not milled and they are added after every 2 or 3 bags of malt. Don't I look sexy in boots?


Pumpkin flesh, Mmm


Graining out

IPA!

Cracked open my IPA a few days early from its end conditioning date. Results are fantastic. It's medium gold in color, light head, very smooth mouthfeel and round earthy hops. Modeled after Stone's delicious award winning IPA. 90 minute boil, 2 oz of magnum, 1 oz centennial hops. 2 oz cascade added for dry hopping. Mostly pale ale malt and a pound of 10L and 20L crystal. Next time around will add some darker malts and more hops. A lighter IPA thats mega crisp and refreshing!

5.2% ABV
OG: 1.045
FG: 1.006

DELISH. If you want some get at me!

Hoppy Feet by Clown Shoes Brewing Co. Ipswich, MA

clownshoesbeer.com

After hearing the name of this beer, that it was brewed here in Mass and that it was a black IPA, I felt I needed to immediately go out and procure a 22 oz bottle for myself immediately. The beer is brewed under contract by Mercury Brewing Co. in Ipswich, the same guys that brew Ipswich Ales.

The beer pours dark brown and builds up a huge tan creamy head. Sharp grapefruit aroma up front with toasty chocolately undertones. The flavor makes an awesome transition from hoppy citrus into a deep dark coffee. There's a sharp and fine carbonation and a dry mouthfeel. All this amounts to a great beer thats very light and drinkable. This being my first black IPA, it's definitely not what I expected. I was looking for less of the blackness and more hops to contribute to the IPA-ness. Regardless of this, its is a delicious and unique beer. I've since had a few other black IPA's and they were closer to what I had anticipated with this brew. Though I enjoyed them a great deal, I'm glad that Hoppy Feet stands out on its own.

Watch City, Waltham, MA

Just a note: I realized that I haven't been specifying how the beers have been served, whether out of bottle or on draught. This is because nearly every beer I have tried has been served on draught. Unless I say otherwise, assume that this is the case!

watchcitybrew.com
Now that I'm back home in my native Boston, I'm hard pressed finding local brewpubs because well, there aren't any. Wait, we have Rockbottom! Oh wait thats a corporate chain. Oh we also have Deadwood! Oh...thats a chain too. Boston Beer Works? Chain. John Harvard's Brewpub? Fucking chain! It seems counter-intuitive that one of the oldest cities in the country has a serious lack of truly local beers but that's just the way it is. Thanks to a recent issue of the Yankee Brew News, I found a few promising leads. The most interesting of these was Watch City in Waltham, MA. Just minutes from my new apartment, it's a delicious gastrobrewpub with a fantastic beer menu to match.

Titan Ale 6.1% ABV
Dark brown in color with little to no head and little to no lacing. Big hops in the nose with a hint of nuts and sweet maple. This beer has a slightly creamy body and hints of fruit, nuts and spices. The sweetness is perfectly balanced out with some mild hops. It finishes dry and leaves a malty flavor on the tongue.

Golden Cream Ale
Served on cask. Light gold in color with a surprisingly huge head and slight cloud. No carbonation visible. Woody, toasty and malty in aroma. The taste is slightly bitter, hints of apple and light spices. The body is smooth and creamy, no carbonation detectable, as with most cask aged beers. The finish is wet and mildly fruity.

As for the food, good shit. Grabbed their lamb burger with a feta spread on it. Definitely one of the tastier burgers of my life, and I'm pretty damn picky. Haven't had anything else on the menu but I'm willing to bet its all pretty good. Just a quick word of advice for those looking to purchase a growler. Do not show up on Sunday to do so because they can't sell you it. The damn puritans still continue to ruin Bostonian's lives this very day.

The bahhh


The Titan


The super sexy beer reviewer at work


The brew house. Brick jacketed kettle? Neat


No more iPhone pics. I promise!

SUCCESS! The first Bronze Age Brews!

And Voila! I have just consumed my first homebrewed beer! Its an incredibly delicious weiss. Nearly opaque due to sediment and lack of filtering, it pours light gold in color, with very thick lacing. Has a spicy, yeasty aroma with a sharp carbonation and refreshing taste of citrus and clove notes. It has a crisp yet slightly thick body. Next time around, my brewing partner Evan and I decided to cut back on priming sugars as it was a bit over carbonated. Overall however, this beer is pretty damn good for a first attempt. In addition to sampling this brew, we bottled our long awaited IPA. Due to my impatience I gave the beer a try pre-conditioning. Good shit; super hoppy with a decent earthiness to it just as I had hoped. Can't wait to try the final product.
Through very rough calculations laid out on the chart which came with our hydrometer, we found that each beer is incredibly alcoholic. This would make a whole lot of sense as I have only had three in total and I'm definitely ready to just lay down. No noticeable alcohol taste or big flavors to mask strength in either. Just solid beers with big ABV's. Awesome.

Weiss and IPA labeled by color on caps (you can't tell due to crappy iPhone picture)

Cody Brewing Company Amesbury, MA

codybrewing.com

**I'd like to preface this entry by apologizing for the blurred pictures and announcing that tomorrow, Bronze Age will be bottling our IPA! As we do so, we will be sipping on our newly ready weiss! Get ready for an onslaught of deliciousness. Updates will be posted. Now on with the blogging...

The past few weeks I've been doing my best to track down smaller, lesser known breweries in the area. Most recently, my search led me to the small historic New England town of Amesbury, MA where Cody Brewing Company calls home. This 7 Barrel operation is run by Sean Cody (and a few friends), who spends nearly every day of the week there brewing like a maniac. Unlike most brewers I've met, Sean fell into brewing rather than seeking it out as his career path. He began the company in 2006 as a brewshop/brew your own beer operation, aptly named BYOB. Overtime it evolved into the brewery it is today.
While I was on location, I had the delight of sampling four of Cody's brews. I was initially quite impressed with their seasonal Hefeweizen, dubbed "Dog Daze." At first taste one would imagine that a crapload of bananas was tossed into the boil, however it is characteristic of the particular strain of yeast employed in this brew which gives it this very specific and recognizable flavor. Light notes of citrus and spices balance this out perfectly. Right out of the fermenter, this stuff was delicious. I reckon I'll be grabbing a growler of it next time I stop by. It was what I took home this time that really took the cake for me however.

S.O.S. Belgian Pale Ale 5.8% ABV
While this is a year round offering, it was quite a divine substance to imbibe on this hot summer day. It pours light brown in color with a thick creamy head and has a delicate lacing. The aroma is very yeasty, probably due to the fact that it is unfiltered. There's also some malt and some hop undertones in there. This beer almost drinks like an IPA, but the wheat used gives it a crisp, slightly thick body and the hops are quite up to the IPA standard. There's a sharp but fine carbonation to this beer and it finishes off hoppy. Delicious. I will be purchasing this brew again.

The brewery itself


A "beer gun". This is what Sean uses to fill bottles rather than purchase a mind numbingly expensive bottling line. Smart stuff


The S.O.S. MmmMMmM

McCoy's Kansas City, MO

mccoyspublichouse.blogspot.com

After arriving in Kansas City, I very conveniently found that within 100 yards of where we had parked, there was a fantastic brewpub. I immediately headed for it in hopes of imbibing delicious beverages. My hopes were realized.
McCoy's is a craft brewery with multiple locations. Their Kansas City location has a fantastic outdoor deck and bar where I set up shop. I started with McCoy's sampler to get an idea of the spectrum of beers they produce. The roster features an above average, mega hoppy IPA, a delicious not-too-sweet ginger shandy and a solid brown ale of perfect consistency known as "the hog pound". While all these beers were great, it was the beers that were not on the menu, or included in the sampler, that really left an impression on me.

The Triple B 11% ABV
I enjoyed the fact that the bartender called this beer "unidentifiable" and noted that its some sort of a bad ass barleywine/ESB hybrid. Awesome. It pours medium cloudy brown in color, with a gold head, lots of fizz dancing through it. It smells of light hops and spices up front with an underlying maltiness. The taste is bitter right up front, thats the ESB. The mouthfeel is dry and the finish is almost like a that of a cognac. Alcohol is highly noticeable. Huge, bold and will put you on your ass. A+

St. Elizabeth Double IPA 10% ABV
HUGE head on this bad boy, light brown in color and smells like hoppy apples. Definitely a powerful IPA with a fruity and earthy taste, noticeable alcohol. Crispy and slightly thick mouthfeel up front but finishes dry with a spicy aftertaste. Definitely wheat in this one. Has an overall sweetness probably given to it by the 50 pounds of honey added to the boil. Would drink again.

Honorable Mention: The Razzle Dazzle, a 50/50 mix of McCoy's IPA and Raspberry wheat. A local favorite!

The sampler

The Triple B

The DIPA, just look at that head!

New friends Chris and Jessi! Thanks for the beers guys!