There’s a Brewer’s Reserve Event coming up in Newark on Saturday November 15th. If you’re a fan of Real Ale, then get to this thing for sure. I’ll be there. We’re bringing a firkin of sweet, sweet love too! This is a great excuse for me to get on down to Newark and have a beer with Justin and the rest of the crew. Here’s a picture of last year’s event so you can get an idea what it’ll be like. Yeah, that’s a lot of cask in a little space. Besides, the Stewart’s guys (Uncle Rico and family) usually show and THAT is always fun.
I’ve been looking for an excuse to fill a gourd with beer for a while.
I love fall. I love the weather, the scratchy wool clothes, and the smell of dead leaves. But mostly I LOVE FALL FOOD AND FALL BEER! Oktoberfest and pumpkin pie? Bring it on I say. I also need absolutly no prompting to attempt stunts that might make a mess. At least 2 of my hospital trips have started out with a “Watch This!” Anyway, Doug and I made a crazy big Imperial Belgian Pumpkin Ale this year and we conditioned about 15 gallons of it in the biggest pumpkin I could find and still pick up. Someone was pointing out that bigger pumpkins were around, but that someone didn’t have to lift a full pumkin up onto the bar. ‘nough said about that. After the Big Brew we came back and smacked a firkin tap into the pumpkin and it didn’t break! I gave out glasses to everyone, and setteled into a booth with the Mrs. for a social evening of drinking with friends. The kitchen had a full menu of Killer Pumpkin Food lined up and we had one of everything. I’m still full, but it was worth it. Here’s a photo of me pouring beers from the pumpkin.
here’s the video:
I felt like a one armed man in a wall paper hanging comp by the time I made it to bed late that night.
What a weekend! Saturday was Big Brew up the street at Keystone Homebrew AND the Pumpkin fest. Doug, Pete, and I have been meaning to hang with the homebrew crew for a while we were able to do that this weekend. We decided to load up the trusty old homebrew rig and head to Keystone for a little group brew action. For the Big Brew a bunch of Keystone Hops club members get together and brew the same beer five and ten gallons at a time. Everyone except for Dave…he’s a little crazy. All of the brewers put their portion in a barrel and it ferments together. A few weeks from now they’ll divy up ‘the goods’ for consumption. This year Lou at the shop constructed a recipe for Belgian Strong Ale and we threw our 10 gallons on the pile. The fermentation is going on right now in Apple Brandy Barrels in the Keystone basement, and we are excited to see how it’ll turn out. Hey, OUR wort was great so even if the final product is marginal we can always blame Steve Robson…he’s in our barrel too. We turned a few heads this year with our super duper high speed program. People show up at this thing like 6:00 a.m. and sometimes aren’t finished until like four. Now I certianly enjoy a nice long homebrew session as much as the next person, it gives you plenty of time for the sampling of full flavored craft beer, but Doug and I had other things to do so we mashed in at the brewery (check out Doug’s mash cooler), filled a keg with hot water, threw the mash in the back of my car, and hot footed it 2 miles up the road to the event. We rolled in at 10:00 and our kettle was full and boiling by 11:15. We had our beer in the barrel hours before people who had arrived in the dark of night!!! If you’re not a homebrewer I’ll just say that having an unlimited supply of hot water cut our brew day in half. Lot’s of people were jealous for sure. Jason grilled up dogs and burgers and we had a blast even though it was raining. Perfect homebrew weather: Cold and wet. After the clean up we boogied back to IHB North Wales for the Pumpkin Tapping.
Ok, so this just dropped out of the sky and into my lap. I feel compelled to put it up. This was the “Large Brewpub of the Year” year. (2006) and yes, that is Mark getting his groove on in the Silent Disco on the floor at the GABF. For the record: 1) he earned it!!! 2) I did not shoot this footage.
We are now taking reservations for the Fall Beer Dinner. The menu for this event looks great and we are already about half reserved so call quickly if you’d like to join us.
We’ve made it our mission here at Iron Hill to spread the word about how better beer with real food can make your life better. Yeah, that’s right, it’ll make your life better. To be fair, the idea wasn’t ours. It came from our friend Garrett Oliver at Brooklyn Brewery. Garrett has a philosophy about beer and food that we think is right on the money. Check out this interview with him that appeared in the New York Times titled“When the right wine is a Beer”. Makes you just want to hug him, doesn’t it? He loves to take wine on head to head in food pairings and show how beer basically kicks wine’s butt. In any case, make your life better and come eat and drink with us!
There’s a Brewer’s Reserve Event coming up in Newark on Saturday November 15th. If you’re a fan of Real Ale, then get to this thing for sure. I’ll be there. We’re bringing a firkin of sweet, sweet love too! This is a great excuse for me to get on down to Newark and have a beer with Justin and the rest of the crew. Here’s a picture of last year’s event so you can get an idea what it’ll be like. Yeah, that’s a lot of cask in a little space. Besides, the Stewart’s guys (Uncle Rico and family) usually show and THAT is always fun.
