New Books to check out and other stuff

My network of home brewers and beer geeks has grown greatly over the last year which means I've had an opportunity to learn all kinds of new fun stuff. I just finished reading The Brewers Apprentice by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn and now I'm starting Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher, both excellent books to pickup if you are wanting to expand your knowledge in the craft or if you work for the industry side and need to learn a little more on the who's, why's, and how of the beer world. I have also decided that I'm going to try and get Cicerone Certified this coming year and study to take my BJCP test some time next year too. Time to go stick my head in a bottle and get studying, thanks for reading!

OK, it's been a while...

I could give you a bunch of excuses on why I haven't been updating lately, but I won't...  Brewing hasn't stopped though, The Chocolate Bock was bottled and turned out delicious! My two Meads are still bubbling along. I just started a Honey Cream Ale. and ESB is still aging. I have some big aspirations for the rest of this year with the ultimate goal of making a Vintage Ale and aging in in an oak cask. I'll be back on here more often throught this spring and summer! Thanks for reading!

Finally, an easy way for Home Brewers to label their Beers!

Playing around the net on my lunch break today, I discovered two of the coolest things I didn't know I needed! One of them was an accessory for my iPad (iBallz) but the one relevant to this blog is the simple solution for labeling your home brewed beer. Onlinelabels.com makes all kinds of pre-cut label templates in any shape or size you need, along with the Word or Pdf template for you to design and print them out. Even if you're not a home brewer but were looking for foil Christmas tree labels, they have them. The one I'm buying is this one Beer Label Template .Their prices are very reasonable too, 100 sheets of 4 for 22.95! Imagine the possibilities!

Reason to Brew your own Beer #127

127. Your local package store might be going upside down! Where I doubt that our great country is going to run out of liquor stores any time soon... The number of stores that has hit the Black List has doubled and tripled in some locations over the past year and a half. The "black list" is the individual states list form the department of alcohol and tobacco of stores that haven't paid their tabs. When they make the list, they get cut off, if you get the picture. Where I'm sure a few sober up and pay the bill, If the business's financial practices aren't pretty to begin with it may be the kiss of death.

So brew your own beer, it's cheaper in the long and it can be any flavor you want! And if you go out of business, it's your own fault!  I buy all my stuff here if your looking for a knowledgeable place to shop!