Jean hooked a tour group yesterday. They had a few good things to say ’bout us over here. Check out the cool photo!

If last week was Victory, then this one was TROEGS Time. The Mrs. used to work for the brother’s and they’re family to us for sure. Great people, great company and great beer. Last Saturday we attended the 6th Annnual Harrisburg Brewer’s Fest A.K.A. Troeg’s fest. What a blast. I’ll tell you I’ve been to hundreds of beer festivals (no lie) and the summer routine gets old after a while. I always look forward to this one though. It’s well run and close to one of the best bars in town McGrath’s! McGrath’s has been helping people make bad decisions late at night with a great drink called the Moscow Mule. We line up for ‘em every year. Very refreshing. They’re also sort of home base for Troeg’s beer in downtown Harrisburg. We worked the festival with Paul and Collin from Iron Hill Lancaster and lots of help from staff members from both locations. Sam and Megan came from West Chester and I’ll have photos of their shenanigans later! AB sent a sales person to pour their Fake Craft Beer

Casey demonstrates why this car is a bad idea

Shocktop Wheat. Check out their car….a V.W. Bug with a mohawk! There is a faucet on the back of this thing. I am pretty sure that is NOT the message we want to be sending to the world. You know, pull up in your car and drink from the back of it. I’ll get off my soap box, but man.

I also ran into yet another woman sporting an Iron Hill Tatoo! I think she is like the 4th one. Now THAT is commitment to the hill. I think her name was Kristen. Nice art! One of these days we need to have a competition for Iron Hill Tatoo Havers…The fest was a huge success rasing over $100,000 for cystic fybrosis and even though we were rained on during the entire fist session I am still looking forward to next year. Keep up the good work guys and we’ll see you next year.

Just a little FYI for all you all. We just tapped the Highland Flame Scottish Ale. Come and get it.

Check out the web traffic our American IPA is getting over here. Nice!

Westcheserians in the VBC Brewhouse. Don't Touch!

I’ll tell you what, this week has been all about VICTORY! It’s cool that I’m so close to Downingtown now that I’m working here in West Chester. The Mrs. is a brewer over there…and I really like the beer too! The Victory pub is about four miles up the street and even though it’s so close we have a bunch of staff members who’d never been there. Field Trip! Tuesday night I gathered up a bunch of the crew and we headed over for a quick tour, some world class beers and a little app action. I still think it’s amazing how 2 happy hour beers can turn into 9:00pm and a headache the next day. Let’s just say I’m not in my ‘Sport Drinking’ prime anymore. George Eric, however, turned 21 on Tuesday. He WAS in prime condition and carried the ball for the rest of us. Happy Birthday George! We had icecream cake. My favorite!

Victory Number 2!  The week rolled on into last night with a Victory Beer

Nice logo...where's my sword?

Dinner at the Iron Abbey in Horsham. This place just opened and it looks like it’ll be one of the premire craft beer spots in the north suburbs in short order. It’s located right across from the air base, which is a little strange. There is a TON of traffic on 611 right there and they were totally packed when Mrs and I arrived for the dinner. The Abbey is really stepping right in with meet the brewers and dinners. If last night’s meal is any indication of what is to be expected my Quality of Life just went to 11. We were served 5 courses and 5 beers for $25!!! Granted, they were small plates… but I usually leave one of these things groaning and fussing about how much food I managed to jam down my throat. We met up with Tracey of Victory Sales Fame , and our friends Jesse and Erin Gilbert. Jesse works with me here in West Chester and his wife is the General manager back in North Wales. Good times. Of note were: the new Wild Devil. Rock and or Roll. Tons of Brett and

Best Dessert Ever! (and yes...I finished the bottle)

Very, very nice. It was paired with a funky Cheese on Lavosch. Best pairing of the meal. They also served a Baltic Thunder Parfait. Killer. Here are a couple of photos for you all. Cheers!

Chuck is running away!

It’s official. Chuck Norris’ Beard is the Most Baddest Beer we’ve ever brewed. Witness it trying to leave the fermenter yesterday. For those of you who don’t know Chuck, it’s a Super Hoppy Belgian IPA. 90 IBUs and about 9% Alcohol by volume (well we will see how much of the wort the Chuck Yeast decides it wants to eat. Oh, and it’s red just like the Man’s beard. We used and entire mini-bale of Amarillo hops for aroma. That’s too many hop cones for the kettle so Jean

Mash Tun Full o Hops

used the mash tun a as a hop back. Fans of the Mahalo, Apollo will be happy with this offering too we think. Incluces Kung Fu Action!

Saturday we hosted the local homebrew club’s annual competition. The club here is called  B.U.Z.Z. Which stands for Brewers Unlimited for Zany Zymurgy. Yeah, the clubs always have names like that. I’ve been tight with the Keystone Hops homebrew club for years now and was happy to discover upon arriving in the W.C. that these guys are great too. In fact lots of the membership overlaps! (Some people just can’t get enough good beer. Nice.) Landing in a new place and hosting a homebrew comp is like going from zero to 100 in your car. I still don’t even know where everything here IS yet. No bother, Jean and the rest of the crew jumped right in and the comp went off

Best of Show Flight, BUZZ Off '09

without a single hitch. I judged Belgian Strong Ale in the morning, had a very long flight after lunch with some great people and then did the Best of Show panel to wrap up the day. I am prepping right now to Judge the Great American Beer Festival but I’ll tell you what, there are some GREAT judges in the local group. Nice work gang.

Whit and I had dinner Monday night with the Brysons. You all know my friend Lew I hope. His wife is a hoot too and it’s been too long since we had a chance to sit down. Man, I love those guys…and I have got to quit eating so much. We had dinner at the brewery which is a but uncreative, but the menu in West Chester is new. I am obligated to try everything on it, right? Well Whit insists that I don’t have to try it all TODAY but what’s the fun in waiting? Good times!

First off HOPZILLA is on tap right now. 65IBUs, American IPA.

Jean on Color Patrol

Now down to today. Right now we are brewing an old favorite of mine called Highland Flame. There’s a funny storie behind the name of this Scottish Ale: about 10 years ago I was asked to make a beer for the Scottish Highland Society. This group is a hoot. You know, men in skirts with daggers, LOTs and lots of bagpipes, little girls dancing, scotchscotchscotch. In any case they needed a Scottish Ale for their Highland Games (mostly head butting, rock throwing and drinking. My kind of people) and they had the name all ready to go. They wanted to call it Highland Fling which is the name of a famous highland dance. Turns out I can’t hear so well and all of the t-shirts and signage came back with HIGHLAND FLAME on ‘em. The beer rocked and all was forgiven. They did give me a sport kilt which they made me wear to the tapping party….

On to the beer. Highland Flame is a Scottish Ale low in alcohol and high in flavor. I like to think of it as dark beer for the summer. We used just a touch of this killer new smoked malt from Briess which I am also excited about. I stopped by Rock Bottom last night to borrow some Edinbourough Ale yeast from my friend Brian and have a few beers. I’m in fine ’Scottish form’ today, so this thing should be over the top. Expect a smoked porter made with the smoked malt soon too. Here’s a shot of Jean checking out the wort color. Sure looks tasty doesn’t it?

If you haven’t been in for a while…well, shame on you! The draft list is exploding. Wahooo! Jean is back from his trip to Belgium and appears well rested considering the jet lag. We’ve jumped into the summer like you wouldn’t belive. I am so not used to having this many fermenters and it totally rocks. By the end of next week we should have as many as 16 beers on tap here in West Chester. Now I don’t think that’s a record, but you’d better believe we’re gunning for one. By this Friday you can expect to see Dunkle Weizen, Hopzilla IPA, American Brown Ale and the Soon To Be World Famous Summer Ale Mahalo, Apollo. Come and get it!