Tag Archives: Shadow Girls

Over 200 lbs of Grain

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Just did a massive bulk order of grains to save a couple bucks down the road. 1 sack Chateau Pilsen malt, 1 sack Thomas Fawcett Pearl, 2 sacks Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter and a 1/4 sack of OiO toasted oat flakes. These sacks should help me really narrow down my core 3 beers I want to have at the brew pub. An Oatmeal stout, a Belgian golden ale and a NE IPA.

The next brews I have planned are as follows: This weekend NE IPA V2.0, Oatmeal stout V1,  barley/wheat/rye wine (cannot decide what grain to use yet), A kellerbier (my first lager) and lastly Belgian golden ale V1.1. In that time I will have bottled my barrel aged RIS, filled the barrel with the lambic I just brewed this past weekend, bottled and served the beer for Pencil Kit Productions and, bottled the Irish red I made with my cousin for his school project

So 2 weekends ago after I got back from Royal City I met up with my cousin and brewed up an Irish red ale for a school project he is doing. They have to do research on Ireland for architecture. Somehow he got the go ahead to make Irish style beer for his university class. This past weekend I brewed up a lambic beer doing a traditional turbid mash and long boil. took me 9 hours to get it into the conical for fermentation.

Cider fermentation is coming along well. Already have some good flavours developing after just a few weeks. Barrel aged beers are coming along nicely. Again a busy month but I’m starting to get more and more into the grove of it.

Cheers,
MD

Brew day at Royal City Brewing Co.

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This past Saturday I have the honor of being a guest brewer at Royal City Brewing Co. in Guelph. What? How? Why? Let’s back up a bit.

A few weeks ago my friend Claren contacted me about brewing beer as a fundraiser at an event. The event is produced by Pencil Kit Productions run by Claren and others. The event will be what I can only call an art installation. There will be art in a variety of mediums such as performance, visual and projector. I am very excited to be a part of this and to be able to serve my “art”. When I was asked if I wanted to help out I said “Hell yeah!” without hesitation.

Here is where things got interesting. In order to legal serve home brew for sale the beer must be made under licence at a brewery so that all taxes and such are paid into the greedy pockets of the government. I took to GTAbrews group to figure out how to do this. Long story short Doug -whom I had never met before- seemed like he made a personal mission to help me. Within a few days he had set me up with Royal City Brewing Co. If you have not had their beer go to the brewery! Some very creative and taste stuff. If you cannot make it to the brewery try the Hibiscus Saison or Smoked Honey from the LCBO. They are to die for.

We worked out the details over email and a brief phone conversation and we were ready to rock and roll. Saturday I showed up and was told I would be brewing with the owner and brew master himself! Cam was one of the coolest guys I have ever met. We brewed 11 Gallons of a Belgian pale ale with all American hops. Half will receive dry hop additions and the other half will be aged on spent wine chips and receive dry hop additions. As well Cam had me help move 35 hl of beer into a bright tank. I had an absolute blast hanging out with Cam for the day.

Here is a bit of information about the event (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)event

A huge thank you to the Royal City crew for accommodating me for the day. An even bigger thank you to Cam for sharing so much information and, being excited about what a home brewer is doing.

Hope to see a bunch of people December 9th and 10th!

Cheers,
MD