For those of you who don't know, erstwhile Falcon and brewer of all things "MEGA", Jonny Lieberman, is a Senior Editor at Motor Trend. Basically, he gets handed lots of cars, free gas and an excuse to swear and write funny things about motors in print.
Was out with Marlen on other errands this morning and she spotted the brewery sign on the side of the big blue building and told me, "turn around!" We did and then I followed my nose. They were brewing. We didn't try to get a tour, but probably could have talked our way in if we had wanted. But the taproom is open as well, two buildings to the south. So what is it? Golden Road Brewing in Glendale is open now. We went into the taproom for a quick pint. Today they had four of their own beers up on tap. I had the Point the Way IPA and Marlen had the Schwartz Stout(served on a nitro tap too).
The big number arrived by voice mail Monday. Depressing. Bewildering. Large.
I put out a plea for the number of another plumber on the yahoo email group. The first response was back-channel from a DIY (do-it-yourself) Falcon who ended up changing the course of the brewery construction.
The none-too-delicate suggestion was that I stop typing so much and pick up a wrench.
If some of you are hoping this means I won't continue to prattle on endlessly about every valve and coupling, guess again. The total blog reads may suffer, but not more than you, dear reader.
No word from the plumber. The dogs have stayed in the yard. I have to admit, life would be simpler with propane.
It's been a busy week, but not for the brewery. My plan to let the plumber take some time evaluating the BTUs has worked splendidly. Not a peep.
I have had time to ponder the advantages of propane. I had the feeling some brewers I communicated with were rooting for propane, kind of like someone might root for a sports team. Looking back, I can certainly see advantages.
Today marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution thanks to the votes in Pennsylvania, Ohio and (oddly enough) Utah. Federal Prohibition officially ended on December 15th, 1933, but the important day is December 5th 1933 as the day it all officially went down.
Walnuts or Pecans (I use large bag of pecans at Costco: ¾ of the bag makes 3 batches)
4 – 6 Large Hershey Bars or any kind of chocolate (4 bars makes 3 or 4 batches)
2 cubes of butter (½ lb)
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Water (Sometimes I substitute “Beanie's Big Ass Porter” for the water)
Items you'll need:
Non-stick sauce pan (cleans up easier)
Wooden Spoon
Parchment paper
Cookie Sheet (9” x 13”)
Chopper or food processor
Container for the nut/chocolate mixture
Butter knife
Dearest Falcons!
I just wanted to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to bring a toy to our 3rd Annual Spark of Love Toy Drive. We collected 3 big boxes and 3 giant Hefty bags full of toys for the children. We delivered them to the Fire Department on Fallbrook. They were truly astounded to see how many toys we were unloading from the car. They asked us to thank all of you for your generosity.
Hey so I am trying to put together a list of rock & roll/blues genre songs that reference beer or maybe just drinking, and it seems like it is harder than I thought. I've got a few like Roadhouse Blues ( btw- according to fellow Doors member Ray M it's "Got myself a beard" in reference to sleeping for multiple days), Hey Bartender, One Bourbon one Scotch one Beer, Old Taylor, What Good Can Drinking Do (first recording of Janis J), any other suggestions from the group that has beer on the brain?
Thanks
Craig W
There will not be a Brew 101 class for the month of December. As most people are busy during the holiday season, we will start new classes in the New Year. Happy Holidays!
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
My own double fantasy is getting a brewery going again while keeping my dog in the yard. Strangely, the two dreams continue to revolve around each other.
(addendum: The line "Life is what happens..." is from the song "Beautiful Boy" from John Lennon's 1980 album "Double Fantasy", http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Lennon )
Sitting in the backyard, watching the sparge water gently seep
through the grains and pour into the boil kettle that sweet, caramel
colored wort that will be beer in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the luscious
scent of bratwurst and warming buns lets us know lunch is almost ready.
And no heavy propane tanks to lug around. Let the Gas Company do the work!
Wham! Back to reality! According to our plumber, I can't afford
to supply half a million BTU's, just in case I need them later. I
really have to figure out how many I'll likely need and pay to install
My dad and I used to brew at least a half dozen batches a year. But
not anymore. Why? It's too much work.
We gather the ingredients, including propane, the day before. And
then on brew day we construct, deconstruct and reconstruct each piece
of the system for each stage of brewing. By the end of the day, we're
both exhausted.
If only we had a system that was already put together. One we could
just wheel out and just start connecting hoses to. One that ran off
From TheFullPint.com comes news that Dave of Lucky Baldwins passed away today.
While he'd been sick for the past year, this is still hard news. I'm just glad that he beat the odds and opened his third and final pub before things had progressed too far.
Do you love craft beer? Have you ever considered learning how to home brew beer, but did not know how to get started? Well do we have the class for you!
On the second Tuesday of every month, the Maltose Falcons host a Brew 101 class at the Home Beer Wine and Cheese Making Shop in Woodland Hills. For the month of November the date is the 8th at 7:00 p.m.
You will learn how to brew using the basic equipment and ingredient kits sold at the shop. The class is taught by experienced brewers from the Maltose Falcons. It will take about 3 hours of your time, and is only $5 for the class.
Sad moment in science the other week with the Fermilab shutting down their collider projects. This was the switch that terminated the last experiments. Think of the can as the connection for a light switch. Remove the can, stop the science, drink the beer in memory of the science.
Another year, another set up rumors about brewery mergers. The name of the game on the big end of the brewing business is all about volume. For all we talk about flavor, passion and craft, it turns out that to be truly successful you need to remove a bunch of the first, have the second for money and use the third on marketing and business strategy as you try and push another 3 cents profit on a can of beer.
It looks like beer and particularly Belgian beer has become popular enough that folks want to open a chain of cafes here in the US. Think.. well, the Starbucks of beer in a way.
September Membership Meeting Minutes
September 11, 2011
Congratulations to all who will be serving on the next Maltose Falcons Board. I am sure you will lead the Falcons through a great year full of new ideas, activities and great beer. The new Board will be:
President- Nancy Gold
Vice -Presidents- Ed Kochanowski, Steve Rosolio and Jeremy Hynd
Treasurer- Kent Fletcher
Activities Director- Kris Schmidt
Membership Director- Martin Carman
Publicity Director- Diane Van Wagner
Secretary- Cullen Davis
Grand Hydro and Webmeister- Drew Beechum
Newsletter Editor- Mark Poliner
Basic Brewing recently released their video on Club Night at the 2011 NHC. The video is hosted by James Spencer and Steve Wilkes. At the end of their video, their guest, Andy Sparks, noted that he believed the best beer of club night was Maltose Falcon's nine year old Lambic. Congrats on the person that brought it to NCH.
Nestled in the El Dorado Casino is the Brew Brothers Brewery. They tag themselves as the "best brewpub" in America. While their aspiration are bold, the reality is a little more middle of the road.
Atmosphere was pleasant with but reminded me of a TGIFriday or a Chili's. Brew Brothers offers live entertainment. Lighting was muted, which helped create a comfortable ambience amidst the dark wood and leather interior. As with most brewpubs, the brew kettles and conditioning tanks were present behind glass windows at the entrance to the pub.
There is no meeting scheduled for the month of August. The event for the month is the Sunfest campout at Mt. Pinos. The next meeting will be held on Sunday September the 11th. This is postponed a week due to the Labor Day holiday.
If you'd like to get something (or multiple somethings) leave a comment below with type and quantity, once I have a good feeling for our numbers, we'll settle on a small subset of strains we'll get and I'll get back a price and people can pay online for their yeast.
Hi everyone!! We had 50 people at our meeting today! For those of you who could not attend, here are the minutes of today's meeting for your perusal.......
GRAND HYDRO- Drew gave us a mini-version of his fabulous Saison talk he gave at the AHA, complete with samples. He served us his Saisons all made with the same wort but batched into 5 different versions with different yeast strains. He also served us commercial samples of DuPont Avril and La Chouffe.
All Surfliner competition Adambier entries will be due at the Home Beer Wine and Cheese Making shop no later then the July 10th club meeting. No entries will be allowed after that date. You must submit 4 bottles per entry, and please have them labeled accordingly as far as brewer, etc.
The Adambier judging for the top 3 entries for the club will be held at a later date since there are approximately 30 beers to judge. Steve Cook will be in charge of all aspects of the judging.
Thanks!
Diane
We will be judging the New Grain Recipe contest beers at the July 10th club meeting. Those of you who have created a recipe and have entered it at the shop, please bring at least 3 bottles, a growler, or a keg of that beer to the meeting. Please bring a copy of your recipe as well.
The recipe must contain at least two of the new grains now stocked at the shop.
The winner of the contest will have their recipe printed up and posted on the shop recipe board. The winner will also receive a keggle built by Kent Fletcher.
