The Festival!

When I last left you, faithful readers, I was pretty jazzed up about the Shelton Brothers Festival being held at Copper & Kings Brandy Distillery. Well, it was all that and then some!

The lines were long, but very well handled. Folks were moved into the fest very quickly for the first session, and even more quickly for the 2nd and 3rd sessions. I'd been concerned about where they would fit all the brewers attending, but Copper&Kings did manage to wedge them all in...space was tight, though, with the lower level looking and feeling much like a Japanese train station at rush hour. A larger venue would certainly have improved the event.

Rinse stations were available, though somewhat limited by overall space limitations. Many of the brewery tables were also quick to rinse your glass, not wanting your last fill to influence your experience of their fine offerings. Rinse stations, dump buckets, more rinse stations...they don't need to be any more fancy than a jug with a spout, but they make everybody so much happier!

The Festival provided some lovely tasting glasses. They're going to be absolutely fantastic for bottle-shares and other tastings, However, being little mini snifters, and widest at the bottom, they completely defeated my beer lanyard. :-(  I have some ideas to overcome this challenge, and I'll be sure to get back to you with any promising prototypes!

There were so many outlandishly tasty beers at this festival. Of course, Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen brought lovely samples, and being such recognizable names, had the expected loooooong lines. But there were delicious brews to be had from every vendor, and the lines would come and go. I seriously did not encounter a single beer that left me thinking "i coulda passed on that."

One of the brews that I really, really enjoyed was Ritterguts' Bärentöter Sour Gose Bock. Think malty gose with some cinnamon...yum! I thought it was a really interesting take on this traditional style: it certainly stayed within style expectations, while subtly exceeding them.

All in all, a fantastic event, and I will seriously consider attending the next one, regardless it's location!

Upcoming Brewfests in Kentucky

Nothing going on in the kitchen this week, faithful readers, but I did want to give ya'll a quick heads up about a couple of upcoming brewfests.

October 28th and 29th, Copper and King Distillery in Louisville is hosting this year's Shelton Brothers The Festival. This will be my first chance to attend this festival, which is hosted in a different city each year, but it looks to be an absolutely awesome fest! There will be 3 separate four hour sessions: Friday from 5-9 pm, Saturday from 11-3 pm and the final session will be Saturday evening from 5-9pm. (I'm going to have to pace myself carefully to make it through the weekend intact! LOL) Tickets are still available for all three sessions at $65 per session, and there is a weekend pass for $175, saving you $20 if you want to attend all three. VIP tickets sold out like Dark Lord Day tix and the Early Bird savings tickets are all sold out as well.

They have an absolutely astonishing list of beers being poured at this year's festival! So many tasty choices! I plan on making a "must-try" list, but mostly I think I'll just play this one by ear...there are just a ton of amazing breweries on this year's list that I could hardly go wrong!

So far as the physical location goes, Copper and Kings has a very nice campus, though I'm not sure how they'll fit in the entire list of brewers! Their Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrels Brandy Barrel Beer Fest in 2014 was a lot of fun, and they had plenty of patio heaters available and a huge fire pit! Dress for the weather though...y'all can always step back from the fire pit, but you might not be able to crowd in as close as ya might be hoping!

I do hope Copper and Kings has their rinse stations out! They do make a brew fest so much more pleasant! (And I hope other brew festival organizers take note! Rinse stations don't have to be as fancy as Copper and Kings, but they shouldn't be an afterthought at any brewfest!)

Ya'll are prolly reaching the point where you'd poke me and remind me, "John, you said a couple of upcoming brewfests!"

And yes, tickets have gone on sale online for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth's 4th annual Kentucky Kicks Ass Brewfest! (Early Bird special is only $20 until November 1st!) This fest is held indoors at the Grand Reserve. It is indoors, so no worries about the weather. They'll have some live music and several food trucks in attendance. If your politics line up with KtC's, they'll even let you use your ticket as your yearly membership dues! The best thing about this brew fest is ALL the breweries represented will be Kentucky breweries! You are supporting local industry, and they are all within driving distance if you need another taste soon!

Hope to see all ya'll soon!

Asheville Beer-cation Babbling

I recently posted some random babbling about the 20th annual Brewgrass Festival in Asheville, NC, but failed to mention any of the fabulous spots in Asheville I visited....so entirely in the interests of remedying those sins of omission:

But before I redress those particular omissions, I have to add one more detail regarding the 2016 Brewgrass Festival. I did a terrible job taking pictures at the fest and an even worse job of taking notes. The one time I did get all fan-boy and insist on getting a picture was at Brown Truck Brewing's tent:

Brown Truck had a tasty little Brett Saison on tap and sounded like they were on track to make some truly outstanding beers. (GABF judges seemed to agree!) Loved the perspective on brewing and the results!

(This pic occured quite near the video of me dancing a jig mid-field, but fortunately that video hasn't surfaced. I assure you, any copies of such you may find are entirely photoshopped!)

And on to Asheville! This was my first trip to Asheville, so certainly neither the definitive guide, nor by any means conclusive. There are a bazillion more fantastic places in Asheville that you simply MUST visit, this is just a short description of the few that I've managed to get to!

Started the weekend at Wicked Weed. This is a pretty busy place and you can wait for a table, but you should ask to be seated at one of the large family-style tables. It's quicker and you will meet some wonderful new friends who enjoy good beer and good food. The house burger was excellent, and went really well with Wicked Weed's Dark and Stormy ale (Their take on brewing towards the taste of the rum/ginger beer cocktail. Once you've eaten, head downstairs for a broader selection of brews, including some on cask. (Is that even how you'd say that? On cask? Cask ales. Beer out of big wooden barrels, ffs! LOL Didn't try any here, mostly for lack of noticing their availability.) 

We'd planned on hitting Burial next, but got distracted by Brahmari. They had some lovely beers, food and some decent live music out on the patio. Did not have enough of any of these, so they are definitely on my list for future visits! They are the first Untappd "Verified Venue" I've had an opportunity to visit. I hadn't known this while I was there, but it will definitely influence my return visit. 

Burial Brewing also had some lovely beers, as well as some incredible artwork on the way to the can. All in all, Burial had the most interesting physical location of those I visited over the weekend. Very cool space indoors and out.

After Burial, it was on to the Funkatorium, Wicked Weed's barrel-house. Lovely sour&funky brews on tap and some great pesto flatbreads and other snacks that complemented the brews very nicely.

Green Man is nearby and also has some lovely brews. Around the block from Green Man, Catawba Brewing has another Untappd Verified Venue. And just a short jaunt up the street from there you'll find Twin Leaf Brewing. Gaming fans will love Twin Leaf: Foosball, ping pong, board games galore and 2x4 jenga tournaments!

These are just a few of the brewpubs in Asheville...I'm definitely on my way back soon!

After a night of pub-crawling, don't miss out on brunch at Biscuit Head! Biscuits big as a cat's head, flights of gravy, a bacon of the day and other deliciousness!!! Don't be discouraged by the lines at either location, it is totally worth the wait!!!

Farm Burger has some delicious burgers (who'd of thunk it?) but I have to say it: why does every place in the south double-dip their onion rings? We don't need a quarter-inch thick armor of breading protecting the delicate onions from our industrial grade robotic teeth, ffs. Slice your onions thin, soak them in buttermilk, then dip them in your lightly seasoned flour (with mebbe just a hint of cornmeal) ONCE. Dip them ONCE, then drop them in the fryer. Lovely crispy light delightful tasty treats that no one would ever mistake for used auto parts.





I was fortunate enough to visit two very lovely, but very different bottle-shops in Asheville. I've heard there are other exceptional bottle shops there, but I've only visited these two:

Tasty Beverage Company is right across the street from Funkatorium. Very wide aisles, decent organization. Lots of seating and a really bright, wide open feel to the entire place. Engaging, personable staff. Great selection for their ten taps and a beer-tender willing to speak boontling! If I lived nearby, this would probably be my go-to spot for picking up a few. Any friend of Dave's is a friend of mine!

Bruisin' Ales is a tiny little shop with an absolutely amazing selection. (They can ship to most states if you aren't able to visit.) Fantastic selection of NC brews, and a good selection of Belgian and national brews. Super friendly and helpful (even helped carry my cases to the car!) My sole and piddly nit-picky beef is they put their price tags on the front of the damn bottles. Sure, it's easy to see how much it costs without turning the bottle around, but for those of us who like to take pictures of our beers it's a pain to remove the gd price tag. And WOW, that looks like an even more piddly whiney ass gripe than I imagined. Still...

Anywhos, Asheville is a lovely little town with a boatload of breweries, tasting rooms, restaurants and all kinds of sights to see and music to hear. Go hungry, go thirsty and don't forget to grab an Uber back to the hotel!

Brewgrass Babbles

In closing my last post, I mentioned how excited I was getting about my trip to Asheville, NC for the 20th Annual Brewgrass Festival...well, the fest was all it was cracked up to be, and then some!

Arrived in Asheville the night before the festival, so after checking into the hotel, there was definitely time for a some brewery-hopping downtown. I won't burden ya'll with a brewery by brewery account of the pub-crawling in this post, but you may have to suffer through the boozy details in some future post, so be whining about a lack of warning! Anyhow, much fun was had, many tasty beers sampled and some tasty treats eaten! There are a multitude of brewpubs and tasting rooms within walking distance of each other in downtown Asheville, but if you need a ride to and from the hotel be sure you have Uber set up on your phone: Lyft is not yet available in Asheville. :-(

The Brewgrass Festival was held at the Memorial Stadium and ran from 1 PM to 6 PM. There was quite a line of folks prior to the gates opening, but the staff got tickets and IDs ck'd pretty quickly once it was time for the event to begin. Plenty of folk brought camp chairs, beach umbrellas and the like, as there wasn't a whole lot of shade or seating available. (Memorial Field is a football field, after all! Lots of AstroTurf, very little shade.)

Unlike many beer fests, there were no tickets provided with your tasting glass: tastings were limited only by the length of the lines and the length of the event. The 60 participating breweries all had tents lining the outside of the football field. Though there were a handful big name breweries there, the vast majority were from North Carolina. North Carolina has an absolute boatload of amazing breweries though and fifty-four participated this year, were so there was no lack of choices!

There seemed to be quite a few jalapeno IPAs and several mole-flavored stouts available this year...hot new trend sor just what folks had on hand for the fest? Valley River Brewery brought their Holy Mole Porter, which was one of my personal favorites from the fest.

One of the best things about this beer/bluegrass fest was the inclusion (at every single table!) of jugs of water for rinsing and dump buckets. Every brewer's table had at least one big jug of water and a bucket nearby. Fest sponsors, brewery participants, attendees...insist on these at every brewfest! It makes for a more pleasant experience for everyone.

There were a number of food trucks/tents towards one corner of the field (about 15 beers in, if you were lining up at every tent!)

The music stage towards one end of the football field, The sound setup was decent and the music sounded great throughout the venue. The big name this year was the Travelin' McCourys with Peter Rowan, but all the artists provided some fantastic tunes to go with the great beers!

Fantastic brews, fantastic tunes. What more could anyone ask for?!? I'll certainly be going back next year!

Farmhouse Finale

Well, faithful readers, the farmhouse foibles have drawn to a close: Stone Blind Horses has finally been bottled! I pulled a sample prior to dumping the batch in my priming bucket, and the two weeks of dry-hopping with two oz. of French Aramis hops added some subtle interest without overwhelming the apricot flavor or the light peppery notes the Belle Saison yeast added.We'll pop open a bottle in a couple weeks and see how well it's carbonated.

Some of ya'll may have run into me at the Lexington Fest of Ales down at Cheapside Pavilion Friday evening. Tasty beers and much fun to be had by all, but no signage anywhere? Would a few sheets of posterboard and a Sharpie break the bank?

There were just boatloads of wonderful beers brought by both local and national breweries, as well as a couple from outside the US: Rodenbach from Belgium brought their delicious Grand Cru and Omnipollo from Sweden brought their lovely Bianca Raspberry Lassi Gose. My personal favorite sample of the day was the Salted Caramel Bourbon Aged Porter that Anderson Valley Brewing brought...keep an eye out for this one! :-)

Just a coupla weeks till BrewGrass20 and I'm starting to get pretty excited! This will be my first visit to Asheville, NC and I'm pretty cranked up about getting to visit some of the awesome breweries there, as well as visit a bottle shop or two and bring back some tasty beers that aren't available here in Kentucky!

Further Farmhouse Foibles

When I left you last, faithful readers, my bigass farmhouse, Stone Blind Horses, had been ported to a secondary on top of 60 oz. of apricot puree and a fresh packet of Belle Saison dry yeast and still very active. Well, it finally settled down and after a week of no noticeable activity, I ported the batch to yet another fermenter. Partly to get the brew off the yeast, but partly just so I'd have an excuse to see what the hell was going on in there!

Despite the extensive time in the living room, the repitch and all the other fumbling about, the beer's FG tested right at my original target of 1.010. The addition of the apricot puree and all the water included should reduce the actual ABV of the end result some, but I figure it's close enough for my meager mathematics. The tasting from the gravity test sample was OK: light apricot flavor, peppery in the middle with the 11% ABV being quite noticeable.

It's been sitting in my living room with no activity for a couple weeks now, so I popped the top and tossed in 2 ounces of Aramis hops pellets in a hop bag. I'm hoping this will bump up the spicy, peppery notes while it's fresh.

Thanks for dropping by for more Kitchen babbles!

Farmhouse Foibles

Having offered both my faithful readers an extended respite from my babblings, (and considerable time for you to reconsider said status as faithful readers...from this point, any time wasted here is surely your own responsibility!) I'm back with more babbling from the Kitchen!

Before I get into the latest Kitchen goings-on, I'd like to mention two absolutely outstanding books I've recently read: The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver and American Sour Beers by Michael Tonsmeire.

Pairing the right food with any beer can often turn a humdrum dining and drinking experience into something unforgettable. The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food, by Garrett Oliver, is THE book on beer/food pairings. Engaging and informative, Garret Oliver provides not only wonderfully instructive pairing suggestions, but also a broad overview of the most common beer styles and their history. Throughout the book, he provides insight on how the way each style of beer produced influences which foods they best are paired, as well as specific breweries and beers that best exemplify the style. I've linked to Amzn's Kindle version, but if you prefer "real" books, The Beer Trappe has copies autographed by the author available! (Now there's a no-fail gift suggestion for the beer geeks on your gift list this year!)

American Sour Beers by Michael Tonsmeire (of The Mad Fermentationist fame) is a fascinating read for any homebrewer interested in the scary/dangerous but absolutely enthralling possibilities of cooking up your own sours or wild beers. He provides detailed information on both the scientific principles involved and practical examples of how respected, established breweries have deal with/overcome specific challenges involved with sour/wild fermentations.

Well, now that both ya'll have been caught up on what i've been reading, you're probably wondering "When's he gonna get around to talkin' about cooking up some beers?!?" Wait no longer, faithful readers...here is everything you never knew you wanted to know!

Ya'll may remember my first attempt at a raspberry wheat: Red Dress Raspberry Wheat. I pretty much pulled the same beer with a can of raspberry puree added. Results have been so-so...nothing really off, but nothing to get all "OMG" about... Pegged target OG and FG, with the 3# can of raspberry not making any significant changes.

May have been a little enthusiastic in my bottling process...at least one bottle had a good deal more puree leftovers than anyone would hope for...live and learn.

Next brew I tried cooking up was supposed to be a bigass farmhouse: 11% abv with a Saison yeast. Well, the Wyeast smcak-pack showed up pretty damn hot, despite the ice-pack ordered with....and I was a little concerned when it expanded, but never got "tight." I figured "close enough" and went ahead with the cook. Everything went smoothly till I dropped the wort into the primary and prepared to pitch that questionable smack-pack.  11$ ABV is a hefty beer and the yeast is gonna want an oxygen rich environment to get started so I dropped in the airstone, and turned the oxy on...and no bubbles at all! Dmn thing was empty as yesterday's shoes. I went ahead and pitched the questionable smack-pack with a wish and a prayer.

Two weeks in, with no activity showing from the airlock for at least a week, I ported the batch into secondary on top of 6# apricot puree. Gravity test showed the questionable yeast had only taken the wort from 1.088 to 1.055...a long way left to the expected target FG of 1.010! I'd been anticipating a stalled fermentation, so I had rehydrated a pack of Belle Saison to pitch into my secondary. (Completely beside the point, that 1.055 sample was incredibly delicious. If I'd had the equipment to keg half the batch then and there...)

So I've repitched on top of 6# of apricot puree. I expected some active fermentation, but we're at three weeks and i'm seeing a solid bubble every nine seconds: When it stops, i may have to port to a tertiary fermenter? It's nerve-wracking, but i'm sure the beer will be fantastic...