The Power of Steam

Hello all!

Happy "Boxing Day" to all you Canadians!  I return from our Christmas hiatus with a fresh enthusiasm for Steam!

I found a great article by Kelly E. Jones on using steam injection for Mash tuns on the Brewing Techniques website called "Direct Injection of Steam for Mash Temperature Control".  It is well written and does a great job delineating the advantages and dangers of steam use.  For details as to why home brewers may be interested in steam injection give this article a thorough read.  :)

Thanks Kelly!

Some time ago I picked up this aswesome old book on Steam Generation and use. I decided it would be appropriate to put it up here.  :)

Enjoy the pics!

Also, remember my fellow beer lovers... there is currently a limerick contest which is rapidly approaching the final day (yes, I know he said one week... but it's our contest and we can do what we want.. and we are extending it for you stragglers! ).  The contest is open to ALL who wish to participate and the prize is some as of yet undetermined article with our catholicbeer logo on it.

ENTER  HERE

Pour one for me,

joel.

"Beer Swap"??? What a simply divine idea!!!

Hello all,

As part of my ongoing effort to make people aware of the great beer blogging that happens around the world I wanted to mention a great idea that I saw on a great blog called "I Might Have a Glass of Beer".  Now, I am sure that having a "Beer Swap" was not first introduced to the world here, but since it was the first I had heard of it (at least in being so nicely organized as a global parcel swap) I am giving all the credit to Barm.



Thanks Buddy!   I'll be implementing your wisdom soon...

To the rest of you, start thinking about what 5 beers you would include in a beer swap.  Probably sometime after Christmas pocketbooks have healed, I will very likely implement this as a catholicbeer tradition!  :)

Also don't forget to put your entries for the best beer limerick on our most recent contest.  The winner will get something cool (we're still waiting for Brian to announce what).

Pour one for me,

~thesaint

Sanitation Cyclone: Featuring "The Acolyte"

ANOTHER CONTEST?! SO SOON!?

I heard a song on KEXP today about beer.  They actually named a few brews like Arrogant Bastard and Fat Tire.  It did my heart good.  It inspired me to want to compose a little ditty.

A while ago, I had a haiku contest on my other blog.  This time, let's have a limerick contest.  Now there was some confusion with my haiku contest regarding structure.  To clear up the confusion, a limerick has AABBA rhyme structure.  To get the nitty gritty, go here.

The limerick MUST follow the correct rhyming structure, and MUST have something to do with beer, and MUST be totally awesome.

And to the winner of this contest???  I don't know- probably something with the Catholic Beer logo on it.  I will check back to the blog in ONE WEEK and decide which poem takes the cake.  So get those creative juices flowing (beer will probably help) and post your entries as comments on this blog.

Good Luck you lushes.

-The Zealot

Brewing away...

Brian and I are proud of our little bundles of joy. ...and this is especially poignant considering that 31 years ago today I myself was making my parents proud, as their little bundle of joy.

Cheers world! Celebrate my naissance by pouring one for me!

~thelittlebundleofjoy

Here they come...

Five winners, five shirts.  On their way out tomorrow.

Beer History Lesson by the Zythophile...

Hey all.  There are tons of great beers blogs out there and I have decided that I should take some time to mention these great contributors once in a while.  The Zythophile is a blog I have been following for some time.  Full of great content such as this little which was also recently plugged by Stan Hieronymus author of Brew Like a Monk.  It's a great little taste of beer history and the interwebs wouldn't be the same without it...  give it a read!

"The long battle between ale and beer" ~ thezythophile

Pour one for me,

thesaint.

Not so long ago

Catholic Beer circa December 2008

from left to right: Timothy Pieter Morris, Benjamin Andrew Gomes, Joel Hanson Morris, Brian Lee Wigand

photo by Candace Morris

Snowy Welcome... and welcome indeed!!!

My landlord offered to set me up with some free welding equipment (SCORE!) and I was waiting to hear from him as to when he needed help moving it into my garage... but lo and behlod...



Awesome Tom.  You are the best landlord..  :)

Lost Abbey Pizza Port and stories of San Diego Beer..

Brian and I recently gave Lost Abbey a try. The brewmaster is the same guy for Port Brewing company who you may or may not recognize as that awesome pizza joint in San Diego.

Lost Abbey has a really interesting approach to business. I think it's probably best delineated by their "Ten Commandments":

Our Ten Commandments

1. The most imaginative beers are our crusade
2. We believe we are all in this together
3. We strive for honesty and integrity in our lives like you
4. Fresh beer is great, aged beer is better
5. Now that you have found us help us spread the message
6. There is good and evil in the world – our beers are good
7. Passion isn’t something you can buy at the corner store
8. We believe an inspired life is worth living
9. Life is about choices, The Lost Abbey is a great choice
10. We are not perfect, but no one is

Lost and Found is the beer we tried which is Lost Abbey's attempt to homage the great monastic ales of Belgium. And even though such attempts often include interesting adjuncts which clearly violate the law of Reinheitsgebot... yes, we approve..

From the brewery website:

Original Gravity: 1.065
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol by Volume: 7.5%

Malts: Two Row, Wheat, Medium and Dark English Crystal, Special B and Chocolate Malt.
Hops: German Magnum and German Tettnang
Yeast: Proprietary(read "secret") Belgian Ale Strain
Adjunts: Dextrose and Raisin Puree.

The one we tried actually said it was 8.0%... apparently they vary a bit from batch to batch.   Here is what we noted on our tasting:

Color of a slighty hazy red rose tea
Smells slighty fruity, classic belgian yeast
First taste is almost entirely at front of mouth. Later, moves carmelly flavors to roof of mouth and sides of tongue.

Tastes cidery at bottom. 

All in all  a decent ale but not enough  to really encourage me to buy it again soon. 


Pour one for me.  :)


~ thesaint

Brewing 101

Hey inebriates,
The Saint and I are working on a video series on the craft of brewing.  This is the first installment, and is meant to be a basic explanation of brewing that you can give to someone who's just trying to be polite and make small talk by saying, "Oh, you brew beer?  How do you do that?"

Enjoy.

-The Zealot

Posted using space-age technologies

Greetings from smoggy nowhere's-ville California on I-5. Blegh, what
a waste of earth and sky... It's like Urban-Sprawl itself spewed forth
a by-product of it's endless consumption of Los Angeles county and
deposited it on the far side of the nearest mountain range.

Humpf... I bet they have shitty beer here.