It is with great pleasure that I announce the newest addition to my homebrew setup…. A WORT CHILLER!

My girlfriend, Chrissie, ordered one up for me the other day for my birthday (thanks baby), and I can’t wait to put it into action.  The plan for this saturday is to make another batch of “the 44th” as I am dangerously low on my reserves from the first go around with this recipe.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it comes before then, or else its another slooooooooow chillin’ in the sink.  The coolest thing about it (aside from dropping the temp of my wort faster than 20 minutes) is a built in shut-off valve on the in pipe.  No running to the spicket when I need to turn it off… sweet.

Assuming I get it in time, I’ll let everyone know how it works out, but I’m sure its gonna be awesome!

California based Sierra Nevada Brewing Company has teamed up with microrefiner E-Fuel to turn wasted yeast into high-grade ethanol.  Thats right.  That seemingly useless muck that ends up in the bottom of our own empty carboys of homebrew (historically sold off by the big boys to be used as dairy feed, which may explain the relative ease of cow-tipping), is being used as biofuel to power Sierra’s delivery trucks and a few hundred other vehicles.

This is the next step in the natural progression for the green minded brewery.  Sierra Nevada already makes use of such technology as fuel cells and a massive solar installation.

“This has the potential to be a great thing for the environment and further our commitment to be becoming more energy independent,” Sierra Nevada Brewing Company co-founder and president Ken Grossman said in a statement.

Enjoying a good beer and helping save the planet.  Sounds like a plan to me.

Russian River Brewing Company has announced the shipment of one of my favorite Imperial IPAs.

From a local distribution stand point in the North Bay & the Bay Area we shipped most of the kegs of Younger out over the last few days to local bars, restaurants, and taverns.  Most places put it on tap the minute our drivers delivered it.  The same holds true for Southern California, Stone Brewing Company, our SoCal distributor received all their Younger kegs on Wednesday and have shipped many of the kegs already to your favorite on premise outlets.  Stone also received their draft Consecration and bottles of Consecration.

One of our local pubs has carried Pliney in the past and I, for one, am keeping my fingers crossed they have received a keg or two of the Younger. If you are near Redondo Beach, CA go check out Naja’s for yourself. And don’t worry, if there is no Pliney the Younger there are about 80 other beers on tap to choose from.

Get the full story at Russian River Brewing Company’s official website

February 6th-15th

More than your average beer festival, SF Beer Week has redefined the word “week” to include an extra three days to accommodate “as many as 150 events” in celebration of the craft beer movement. Check out sfbeerweek.org for more info.

SF BEER WEEK will be a ten-day celebration of that legacy, showcasing the Bay Area’s brewing heritage with as many as 150 events. The week will be anchored by the Bistro Double IPA Festival, the Toronado Barleywine Festival and will end with a bang at the Celebrator’s Best of the West Beer Fest. In between there will be beer dinners, cheese and beer pairing events, other gourmet food events savoring our world-class cuisine, meet the brewer evenings, homebrewing demonstrations, music, films, and even a museum exhibition exploring the history of Bay Area brewing, from Monterey to Sacramento and beyond.

Welcome to Brewlog, the blog of three friends who enjoy home brewing beer and drinking it.

Hopefully, this not only helps us keep a log of brews but also inspires anyone who views this site, and has ever harboured even the slightest interest in making beer, to give it a go. While one of us has been brewing for some time now, the other two are new and…well…totally hooked. I can personally say, it is one of the most rewarding endeavors that I have undertaken. But enough about that and on to bigger better things.

Areas under construction:

• Recipes
• Labels
• Photo Gallery
• Online resources / Links

Cheers