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Flavor Combinations

A few people have recently asked us, “how do you pick your flavor combos?!” Super Berry Cider, Blackberry Mint Sour, and Ginger Lime Seltzer, are just a few we’ve brewed recently. We simply tell them: We’re always thinking of beer.

Every time we go out to the grocery store, a new restaurant, or to visit a brewery, our eyes and minds are always open. Sometimes we just wander through the grocery store and see what we can find and start with one ingredient and build from there. If you start with a tart ingredient, you cater your brewing style to add a bit of sweetness or if you use a bitter tea, there’s no need for a ton of bittering hops.

We also recommend to scour the internet not just for beer recipes and ideas but for anything edible. You never know where your inspiration will come from. Sometimes we look up cake recipes and see how their built and their proportions and build a recipe based from something unrelated.

We always look forward to recipe creation because it helps us put our creative foot first and let our brewing skill show the rest. What do you do for recipe creation? How do you handle developing new recipes? Let us know… there’s always room to grow!

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Upcoming Beer Fest – Homebrew & Chill

We’re very excited to be part of Greensburg,’s craft beer week. We put together some incredible beverages that we’re really proud of:

-Mango Hard Seltzer

-Blueberry Pie Milkshake IPA

-Darjeeling Blonde Ale

-Blackberry Mint Sour.

Details for the Beer Fest are below. We hope to see you there!

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TICKETS ON SALE NOW

The official home brew competition & beer tasting of Greensburg Craft Beer Week! You won’t want to miss the chance to sample these great beers — and possibly discover the area’s next brewer.

This a ticketed event where guests will be able to taste and vote for their favorite home brews entered into the competition. Enjoy live music, food trucks and the photo booth then grab some GBGCBW swag at the merch tent!

30 Home Brewers will be present, attendees will be able to taste over 60 beers!

Best in Show Winner – Will be able to brew their beer with a local brewery

People’s Choice Winner – Collabs with First Sip Brew Box

VIP Admission (2-6pm) – $50

– Early Entry (2pm)

– VIP Hour with lite bites (2-3pm)

– Collaboration Beer Tasting Hour (2-3pm)

– Signature Tasting Glass

– Live Music

– Food Trucks will be parked and food available for purchase

General Admission (3-6pm)– $35

– 3pm entry to the event

– Signature Tasting Glass

– Live Music

– Food Trucks will be parked and food available for purchase

Designated Driver Admission – $10

– Entry to the event (GA or VIP)

Please be aware of your entry time. VIP gets entry at 2pm, General Admission gets entry at 3pm. No exceptions.

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Growing Hops Dangerous for Dogs?!

Apparently, the cones are the threat when a dog eats enough of them. Hop cones can cause a potentially fatal condition in dogs called “malignant hyperthermia.”

The symptoms are restlessness, panting, and vomiting. In some reported cases, symptoms progress into seizures and life-threatening high body temperature.

Greyhounds appear to be the most susceptible breed – of nine documented dog-related deaths to eating hops cones, eight of them were the greyhound breed.

Hop vines can grow 20 feet tall or more. The primary concern for pet owners should be when the mature, yellow-brown cones fall to the ground. If a pet owner monitors the harvest season and makes sure their dog can’t reach any low-hanging cones, they should be in the clear. Personally, my wife and I built a fence around our hop garden so everything is contained and away from our dogs and other wandering neighborhood pets.

A bigger worry for me is my pup getting into bags of stored hops, hop pellets that fall on the ground during brewing, or trub/hop sediment that I dump into the compost pile after brewing and fermenting. I do my best to store all hops in the closed freezer and turn the hop trub into the compost pile after dumping.

What are some things that worry you about hops and your animals?

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Hard Cider Follow-Up

I had a few requests to follow-up from the 8/1/19 post regarding a Sparkling Berry Hard Apple Cider. I figured we’d ferment it again and show you some results. Even the curious brewery dog was interested.

We began fermentation of the cider on 8/15/19 – AKA we dumped Aldi apple juice into two fermenters and sprinkled Belle Saison yeast on the two batches.

They fermented until 8/19/19 when we added cherry pie filling and two cinnamon sticks to one batch and 4 bags of berry medley to the other.

I cold crashed on 8/27/19 and added Potassium Sorbate and a Campden Tablet to each batch as per the original recipe:

Below is the final product:

The Super Berry version came out at 5.9% ABV (1.005 FG). It was dry with tons of berry flavor. The tart of the berry hit up front and the berry sweetness lingered on the end.

The Cherry Pie version came out at 6.8% ABV (1.005 FG). The extra ABV came from the sugar within the Cherry Pie filling. The taste was light cinnamon upfront with cherry tartness at the end.

I liked both versions dry and didn’t back-sweeten either as the original recipe calls for. However, I could see adding 1 can of apple juice concentrate to each to give them a bit more body and sweetness. We are now carbonating them for upcoming beerfests – I think the folks will enjoy.

Extra pic below of fermented fruit left over – I find it so cool that the color of the fruits is extracted during fermentation and left behind in the cider. The strawberries are an eerie white color and the cherries are a yellow-ish white.

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Spent Grain Dog Treats

My wife was able to utilize spent grain from a Marzen I brewed last weekend to make some dog treats.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cups spent grains
  • 2 cup flour
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 egg

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
  • Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl. Mix to combine.
  • Use a rolling pin to roll out dough on a floured surface. Use a cookie cutter to cut out treats. Alternatively, you can shape treats by hand.
  • Bake treats on cookie sheet for 30 minutes.
  • Remove treats from oven and lower heat to 200 degrees.
  • When oven has cooled, return treats and cook on 200 for about 2 hours to dry them out.

Credit for the recipe: https://dining-alfresco.com/spent-grain-dog-treats/

Spent Grain Dog Treats
Spent Grain Dog Treats

We did the 2x recipe. Let’s just say the Gooddest Boy was happy!

PS: Stout is a small black lab (40 lbs). We got him from a rescue and we think he’s a lab and beagle mix.

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Sparkling Hard Berry Cider

Credit: http://brulosophy.com/2017/12/14/bru-it-yourself-sparkling-hard-berry-cider/

Please. Give. This. A. Try. Follow the Brulosophy article and enjoy!

This one got me into ciders. I use this recipe but only back-sweeten with 1-2 cans of frozen apple juice. Give it at least one week to ferment and then another week to sit on the fruit and ferment out any off flavors. I tried to rush this once and I had a sulfur flavor in the keg – ended up dumping it. Do yourself a favor and give yourself 3 weeks for this.

Let me know your thoughts.

Ingredient List:

5 gallons preservative-free apple juice (Aldi – 10, 0.5 gal jugs – sometimes you get strange looks for buying so much)
1 pack Belle Saison yeast (MoreBeer.com)
4 lbs frozen mixed berries (Aldi – you can substitute with any berry or frozen fruit in the same manor)
3 cans frozen apple juice concentrate (local grocery store)
15 mL 88% lactic acid (local homebrew store)
1 Campden tablet (local homebrew store)
2.5 tsp potassium sorbate (local homebrew store)

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Water Chemistry Series: Sulfate

Sulfate (SO4)

Sulfate ions, in contrast to chloride ions, tend to accentuate hop flavors and bitterness. This often leads to a perception of a drier and cleaner finish. Sulfate levels above 200 ppm are best reserved for hoppy beers (read West Coast IPAs).

Available forms: Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) and Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate)

Effect on beer taste: Adds crispness and hop bitterness.

Note: The Sulfate to Chloride ratio can be stated simply as the ratio of Sulfate (SO4) ions to the concentration of Chloride (Cl) ions. Divide sulfate by the chloride ion concentration. A ratio of around 1:1 (or 1.0) is considered balanced in that the water will neither enhance the malt or hop flavor. Ratios below 1 (higher chloride than sulfate) tend to lend more malt character and those above 1 (more sulfate than chloride) tend to enhance the hop character of a beer.

Brewing water, typically, has 50-250 ppm of Sulfate and 0-250 ppm of Chloride. It can be noted that the strategy of maximizing both ions at the same time to emphasize malt and hops does not work – excessively high sulfate and chloride levels at the same time leads to harsh flavors.

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Water Chemistry Series: Chloride

Chloride (Cl-)

Chloride, not to be confused with chlorine, is a common addition to brewing water. If you’re looking to boost the malt character of your beer, you want to focus on chloride content. The easiest way to increase clhoride is by adding NaCl (table salt). Adding 0.8 tsp. (5 grams) to 7 gallons of brewing water will increase chloride to about 115ppm. Note, it will also increase sodium by about 75ppm.

Available forms: table salt, calcium chloride

Effect on beer taste: accentuates malt characteristics, enhances beer flavor and palate fullness, high concentration leads to salty taste in finished beer.

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Observations from Europe

Culture, especially in bars and restaurants is an interesting thing. Visiting Europe opened my eyes to a few things, listed below. (I will note that we visited Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. If your experiences differed or were the same, let us know below!)

1. Most restaurants still allowing smoking – even in eating areas.

2. Cafes, restaurants, and bars are a great place for no-cost bathrooms (most bathrooms in Europe charge you to use). So if you go to a bar/cafe and purchase and item you get to utiilize their WC (water closet / bathroom) for free or a reduced charge.

3. Trough toilets and low/no-flow toilets are the norm here. Even in older pubs, toilets have been upgraded for conservation.

4. Big breweries don’t seem to be common. Many small restaurants produce their own beer.

5. Very few IPAs/Bizarre beer varieties. Most place have a light beer and a dark beer – typically a lager and a dunkel. They may also have a Radler. The places that make their own beer will have more variety but it’s still not as vast as USA breweries.

6. Most places are more relaxed and social. You’re not bombarded by the wait staff. They wait for you to ask for something. You have to ask for your check. Tip % is much lower (10%). You can wait at the table as long as you’d like without feeling pressure to leave so the waiter can “turn tables over” to make more money.

7. Water isn’t free. You pay for it. Sometimes it’s tap water and sometimes it’s bottled.

8. In some countries you have to specify still water – otherwise you get sparkling water.

9. Outside seating is all the rage. With minimal AC, most people eat outdoors because the inside of restaurants get hot. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy outdoor eating?

10. Cash is king. Unless you run up a large bill, most places prefer cash.

11. Try not to grab beers at your hotel. Drinking a block away at a local pub can save you 60% on the cost of beer and food.

Similarities:

1. Bartenders are still great and happy to recommend options nearby.

2. All types of alcohol are still available – beer, wine, and liquor.

3. Drinking is still arguably the best way to meet people.

A few photos from the trip below: