Author Archives: Stumblingpiper

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About Stumblingpiper

I've enjoyed my hobbies in many different states/countries. I like homebrewing, mountainbiking, bagpiping, and many others.

#25: The Flying Saucer (Ft Worth, Tx) (#39)

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My daughter and I had the good fortune of being near Ft Worth, Texas on 23 Dec 2010.  A perfect opportunity to head over to The Flying Saucer!  It’s always good to head to the original … this is place #25 for me on the AllAboutBeer.com 125 Places to Drink beer list.  The Flying Saucer is right next to the Bass Performance Hall — a place with a neat history and a great facade (see picture) …

Now on to the Flying Saucer.  I love this place!  I immediately joined the UFO Club in anticipation of completing their 200 Beer Competition.  The food was excellent, the atmosphere was great and the beer list was exceptional!  All three qualities I enjoy in a nice pub!  Here are a couple pictures of the exterior (sorry, taken with my phone … I forgot my camera)

Oh, I forgot, another great thing about this place is a very knowledgeable staff.  Here’s a couple of interior pictures … not the excellent German Sausage plates we had!

Finally, a took a (blurry) picture of the menu … like I said, this place has great character!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

“Improve Your Wit” Beer: Yeast Starter

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Yes!  The Yeast starter is working.  I had a slight temperature problem (my Man Cave is too cold right now).  Once I moved the yeast starter down to my bar area, it started going crazy (see pictures).  I will definitely be ready for the “brewing fest” on Sunday!  Hopefully I won’t have to add any DME to this before Sunday.

Beer Mentor

First Brew of 2011: “Improve your Wit” Beer

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In celebration of my friend Ray’s birthday today, I started work on my first brewing project for 2011: A Belgian Witbier.  In his honor, it will be spiced up with Coriander, Bitter Orange Peel, and Chamomile!  The first thing I did was to go to beertools.com and put together (actually modified) a (previous) recipe.  What a great site beertools is!

I had already ordered the ingredients I needed from Northern Brewer.  Those guys are fast and efficient!  Here’s my stash–all I needed was some orange peel and 10 lbs of grain … I already had the hops, coriander, chamomile, and yeast.

Although I already had the yeast, it was in my refrigerator.  I harvested it from a previous brew.  Here’s a shot of my stash and the yeast I picked to use.  This is a 2nd generation sample — I made a Witbier previously, and then a Belgian Session beer, so this yeast is perfect for my style!

The next part of the process was to get a yeast starter going — I’m brewing on Sunday, so it should be ready by then!  Here are some pictures of the process … first, everything should be sanitary–so, a big bucket of sanitizer (I use Star San).

I sanitized my flask and went ahead and pitched my yeast in!

Next, I combined 1/2 cup of Dry Malt Extract with 2 cups of water and boiled it for 10 minutes (to make sure it was sanitized as well!)

While waiting for it to finish, I enjoyed a nice Schneider-Weisse Hefe-Weizen … Yumm!

Next, I chilled my starter in a cold water bath … then put it in with the yeast!

Here it is … ready to begin “fermenting.”  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is a still active batch, or I might have to pull another vial … stand by for further updates.

Beer Mentor

#s 21, 22, 23, 24: London “allaboutbeer” Trip!

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Recently I had the opportunity to travel to London and was able to visit 4 more places on the allaboutbeer 125 places to drink beer list!  The locations, in order, were: #51 – The White Horse Pub, Parsons Green, #14 – The Market Porter, Stoney Street, #92 – Belgo Centraal, and #30 – The Olde Mitre Tavern, Ely Court, Hatton Garden.

What can I say!  Wow!  These places were all worthy additions to the list (I think).  If I were to rank them on this trip, I would say 1) White Horse, 2) Old Mitre Tavern, 3) Belgo Centraal, and 4) The Market Porter.  I’m sure if the times/dates I went were different I might change the order.  However, since this was my trip, I’ll talk about them (briefly) in this order.

1) The White Horse Pub.  An excellent pub.  Their beer menu is extensive (they had Westvlteren on their menu), I had the best Bitter I’ve ever tasted there (Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter), and I ate dinner here (Roasted Duck).  Wow.  Nice staff, great location–highly recommend it.

2) Ye Olde Mitre Tavern.  Any place established in 1546 deserves a visit from me!  We actually took a cab to this place — thank goodness!  The cab driver pointed down what looked like a sidewalk between two buildings … it was a very narrow alleyway … leading to this building!  The beer was excellent, but you go to this place for the locale!

This was the entrance to the alleyway … looks like a doorway …

3) Belgo Centraal.  This place was all about the Belgian beer (and food).  Once you get in this place, you realize all the wait staff are dressed in monk costumes!  Awesome.  We had dinner here … wow!  The food was great and there was a fantastic selection of Belgian Beers!

4) Finally, the last place on my list (but second visited) is The Market Porter.  I liked this place (a lot) but because I went there myself, and it was very close to closing time, I think this one deserved more of a chance.  Next Time!!

Yep … and then I had to take the London Tube back to the hotel … sweet!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

#20: Deloween! Dogfish Head Brewpub (#91) + Brewery!

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Once again my beautiful bride accompanied me to my next destination on my list of “pubs.”    We decided to make a weekend of it (over Halloween this year) and went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for what we call “Deloween!”  I convinced her to travel to both the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton AND the original Brewpub (#91 on the allaboutbeer list).

This is the outside of the brewery in Milton, DE.  The owner bought this treehouse from the artist … the style is steam-punk.  I thought it was pretty cool!  What was more cool was having the opportunity to see the inside of the brewery.  Here are a few candid shots of the inside.  Specifically, if you are a dogfish fan, you can see “Sir Hops Alot” plus some candid shots of equipment and ingredients … all quite interesting.  Additionally, the tour guide was quite knowledgeable …

From the brewery in Milton, we went to the Brewpub (original location) in Rehoboth Beach.  Here are some shots of that locale … you can see hops growing on the side of the building …

Here is a shot of the inside.

Yeah … it was good!

It just so happened that it was also Sea Witch Festival in Rehoboth Beach.  Cool.  We stayed at the Bewitched Bed and Breakfast … and strolled on the beach.  All in all, a great weekend!

Oh, and I took in a good haul of “goodies” at the end … a new bike jersey … plus they are making “distilled beverages” now … so we bought a bottle of Vanilla Vodka on site.

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

Jamestoberfest 2010: Biergarten Haus, DC

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Yes!  For my birthday this year, my lovely bride organized a birthday party for a group of our friends at the Biergarten Haus in Washington, DC.  What is this place?  Exactly what it says — a German-style beer “garten” in the heart of DC.  I love this place!   The staff were very accommodating for our group, the food was excellent, and the beer … well, wunderbar!

Of course, we encouraged folks to dress the part … and Jill and I upheld our end of the bargain!

Here’s a few more random shots of us having fun with our friends!  What a great time!  Jamestoberfest 2010!  W00t!

Beer Mentor

 

Mad Fox Brewery

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In a previous post, I had mentioned Mad Fox Brewery and that I planned on visiting.  I finally did … I made a mistake on what beer I tried at the NoVA fest (I got the name/style wrong) but I didn’t make a mistake visiting this new brew pub: here’s their link.

As soon as you walk into this place, the first thing you notice is the smell! Awesome!  You get that nice “wort” smell from a brewery … I can’t remember what they had been brewing but it was wonderful!  The bar/restaurant setup is great — loved the atmosphere.  Folks were very nice.

Was able to get myself a sampler (and a couple of more <smile>) …

Their American Pale Ale (from the cask) was wonderful.  Highly recommend that one — also, the Kolsch is nice, die weisse bier, the 80 schilling, and the Porter were all excellent as well.

Definitely worth a trip to Falls Church …

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

#19: The Dubliner (Washington, DC) (114)

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Getting closer to my magic 25 for this year … only 6 more left in 2010 … can he do it!

This place is right outside Union Station on Capitol Hill.  Here’s a couple of shots of this wonderful building (Union Station).

The Dubliner is in the bottom of this hotel … so you can have a few and then have place to stay … sweet!

The Dubliner has been serving the DC area since 1974 … and they do get it right … from the wonderful Irish Food to the great beer selection–I can see why this one is on the list!  Go ahead, give it a try!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

Imperial Walker IPA

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I’ve had my Imperial Walker IPA on tap now for about 6 weeks … and I’m underwhelmed to say the least.  Don’t get me wrong … this is a good beer … it’s just not great.  I used both my homegrown hops AND the hops I brought back from my visit to Belgium.  I think I picked my homegrown hops to early last year and they just didn’t have the alpha acid to give them the kick I wanted.

This is a balanced (high octane) beer … it just doesn’t have the hops kick I was expecting.  It is actually over 9% ABV … so it is an Imperial … it needed more kick from the hops.  Here are some pictures of the transfer from secondary fermentation to kegging.  Notice the picture that shows the final gravity … yes… I had an excellent mash efficiency (78.2%) and a great attenuation (82.2%) … OG was 1.082 and FG was 1.013.  Wow.

Oh … and check out the “spent hops” picture … I did dry hop this beer … and, although (as I stated earlier) it didn’t come out quite how I wanted it to, the spent hops still looked great!  Great effect … just not great results!  Oh well … it is still a very nice beer when I come home from work!  Next brew: A Wit Bier!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor