Brew News

Can it be? We've nearly brewed our way into February. Well, we had a wonderful fall and holiday season. Lots of activity at the shop, lots of new items on the shelves and more general stock. And of course, classes, all-grain demos, and meeting more and more enthusiastic homebrewers. Cheers!!

Many of you have asked how Carnival — the caramel apple American red ale we brewed in the fall (see last post) — turned out.  Verdict: it's a hit! The malty red ale started out with a pronounced hard apple cider bite to it. Rather tart, but in a good way. Over time the cider notes have mellowed to a more benign apple flavor. Loving the combo of tart with the sweet malty goodness. We bottled five gallons and kegged the other five. During our January class we drew samples off the keg for the standing-room-only crowd.Our original recipe for Carnival is in our A&G recipe book at the shop.

Next on tap at the shop is our class, Brewing: 101 — The Boil, Tues., Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. We're breaking out the major parts of the process in our next few classes, now that we've done a few overview classes. Please register in advance as space is limited and interest is really strong. Cost is $8 per person. Please park at the garage or on the street. We only have 2 parking spots allotted to the shop — near our red door. Oh, and don't forget the all-grain brewing demos held the first Saturday of the month from noon to 3 p.m. (No charge. Yessah!)

We appreciate being part of such a friendly, creative and gosh-darn, just plain likable community of folks. See you down the shop! A-yuh.

Gretchen & Alex McDonald

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After a lot of thought "Brewzilla" Earth Eagle Brewings brew system under went a slight alteration. For a time we had our sytem living between my place and Butch's garage in Kittery. Once the shop opened we felt it was time to move this little beast over to the stock room and we would simply move her in and out as need for brewing. Well that proved to be more of a hassle then we wanted and during a brew session we began talking about an all electric system. How nice would that be to not have to move all of the components of our system around and not have to worry about being found on the floor in the back room passed out from CO2 exposer. A little research turned up a great website www.electricbrewery.com and soon I was off to the races in my dreams.  A few days later a little surprise found it's way into the shop. A customer of A&G decided that he no longer needed his electric control panel and donated it to the project. Thanks, Pete! Buying parts off of the recommended resourse list, I was building our water tight junction boxes and drilling holes in the side of our HLT and Brew Kettle getting ready for the electrician to install the 240v. A week later Brewzilla was all electric and ready to take down Tokyo.

Of course I was chomping at the bit and ready to brew something. So as I am usually listening to my Grateful Dead station, Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsys gave me inspiration to build "Machine Gun" a Black Rye PA hopped with Warrior and a couple other choice hops. Soon the HLT was switched on and the water coming to strike temps in no time. The strike water was added to the grains and the rest began nice and smoothe. But as we are accustomed to here at Earth Eagle Brewings something must haunt the project. As my protein rest came to an end and I switched on the pump, all systems tripped. A few choice words and a little brain storming brought me to the conclusion that the pump being connected to the metal frame was not properly grounded and tripping the fuse. I quickly removed the bolts holding the pump nicely in place and all systems were back on and running. Thank God! As far as the rest of the brew session is concerned, all went as planned and even 2 hours shorter than our old propane method. Machine Gun has now found it's way into a keg and will soon be ready to drink. I think I will tweek the recipe a little next time around, but the first attempt at a Black Rye PA has turned up a solid keeper.

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Here at A&G Homebrew Supply in Portsmouth, NH, we go the extra mile for our customers. Case in point: Alex is heading south later this month and will be making a special detour on the way back north. A certain location in Trenton, NJ, that's got us squirming with anticipation -- East Coast Yeast!

If you're not familiar with Al Buck of Bugfarm fame, he masterminds brewing cultures for homebrewers, brewpubs and small breweries. As his East Coast Yeast Facebook page notes, Al is a microbiologist and avid homebrewer and has been making and sharing brewing cultures for years.

East Coast Yeast just may be the only source for quality liquid yeast outside the Western US and they're not shipping during the hot summer months. So... we're bringing them to you!

We hope you'll check out our Yeast page on this website for a detailed description of the following yeasties that'll be hitching a ride north with Alex very soon:

 ECY03 Farmhouse Brett, ECY08 Saison Brasserie Blend, ECY10 Old Newark Ale, ECY11 (NEW!) Belgian White.

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Thank you Portsmouth (and surroundings) for your warm reception. We opened our doors three weeks ago and have enjoyed every minute. We have lots more in store in the near future, including classes and tastings. This being American Craft Beer week, we'll be brewing up a Saison this Sunday in the parking lot at 165 High St., Portsmouth. Alex and Gretchen's brother Butch, will be brewing on Sunday around noon. Store opens at 10.  Stop by, ask questions, bask in the aroma!

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