A Peek at Life as a Natic

Friday night we went with Dan, Bobby, and Kara to Gordon Biersch down in Buckhead.  Gordon Biersch is a brewpub / restaurant chain that has a few locations in the Atlanta area.  I had been wanting to try it out for quite some time but my fear of lagers has kept me away.  Well I was wrong.  I should have gone there years ago.

I am a big ale person and love my dark, bold, thick beers.  Since most of the American popular beers are lagers, I have built up a large amount of hate for this type of beer.  I should have opened up sooner.  These beers at Gordon Biersch were quite good!  They are not as heavy or as bold as the stouts that I typically like, but they were still quite tasty smooth and flavorfull.  I am a fan and will be sure to give more lagers a shot when out drinking at Taco Mac or similar bars.  I will certainly look for ales first, but I will not turn my head to the lagers anymore.  Well most of them that is.  I still dont care for the typical American Lager, but the darker more complex styles were good. 

The food there was also very good.  We had some hiccups with our order but they were polite and very quick to resolve them with no questions asked.  The management staff came by to make sure all was corrected as well which was nice.  Without a doubt, I would return to Gordon Biersch.  I really enjoyed it!

I would certainly recommend you give them a shot!  We loved it!

This afternoon I decided to spend about an hour and half brewing a new cider recipe that I had found.  The first cider that I brewed came out terrible due to a wild yeast strain that took over fermentation.  I recently brewed another cider which is currently in a keg to age in the garage.  Ciders are easy to brew and also very cheap, but unfortunately they need to age for quite some time before they become very enjoyable.  Knowing that, I decided to throw another batch together with the intent to age.  This particular recipe is kind of a hybrid between beer and cider but is supposed to be very good.  It has grains and hops added to it as well as 4 gallons of apple juice to complete the “cider”.  I am looking forward to this one and can’t wait to see how it turns out.

After brewing Bobby came over and we headed to dinner at Bucca di Beppo.  We had a great time catching up on events from the week as well as enjoying some good food.  I will say that I was very shocked by the new pricing.  It costs quite a bit more than Maggianos and the food is NOWHERE near as good.  That may be my last trip to that place for me.  Great atmosphere but those prices are kinda ridiculous even though you are supposed to share. 

After dinner we headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream and then to Taco Mac so that Bobby and I could have the limited beer from He’Brew called Jewbilation 13.  It is a 13% alcohol beer and is made with 13 hops and 13 grains.  It was pretty damn smooth for that kind of alcohol content and was a perfect way to wrap up the night.

notes:  The cider (Graff) has an OG of 1.064 (expected an OG of about 1.060).

So I got home after less than 24 hours from pitching the yeast to find this.

The yeast are working so hard so quickly that the beer is being pushed through the blowoff tube and into the bucket LOL.  This is a sign of a huge fermentation which is good to see.  If I had used an airlock instead of a blow off tube (like many do) it would have clogged it and sent a stream of beer so high that it would easily hit the ceiling and continue to spray like a geyser… fermentations are pretty cool.

On sunday morning I woke up early to head downstairs to brew… well, until I saw this:

RAIN!

Unfortunately it was POURING!  Since I have graduated to all grain brewing, I have to brew outside due to 6 or 7 gallons of water that must be brought to a boil.  The stove could never do that and finding a pot that would fit on a stove would be nearly impossible.  I then decided to redo my brewing space and brought everything into the garage.  I kept the garage door open and brewed right at the end of the garage.  I was making a winter spiced coffee milk stout based on a recipe that I found online.  This method of brewing is literally exactly how breweries brew their beer (except that theirs is all basically automated and they have bigger and more fancy vessels LOL)

The brewing setup

So the process is simple (well…. kinda).  You heat water in a beer keg with the top cut out (which then becomes a boil kettle) to an exact temperature and dump it into the cooler (called a mash tun).  You then add your crushed grains and let sit for about an hour.  You then drain the cooler of the liquid into the  boil kettle leaving behind the grains.  You then add more water heated to a higher exact temperature to “rinse” the grains.  Let that sit for about 10 minutes and then drain the cooler again into the boil kettle.  You then boil the liquid and add hops at a set schedule (for bitterness, taste, and smell) as stated in the recipe.  You then cool the boiled liquid down as quickly as possible by pumping freezing cold water through copper tubing placed in the boil kettle.  After cooling the “beer” you drain the kettle into a fermenter, add yeast, shake away to aerate, and let it ferment out for at least 3 weeks.  This process takes about 5 – 6 hours from start to finish – well at least for me it does LOL.  Some get it done much quicker, but I need to work on my process to get that time down. 

mash tun and mash paddle

So after brewing I took a shower and headed over to my parents house.  We had not been over there in a while and we were overdue.  We hung out and relaxed, had dinner and headed home. 

All in all it was a great day.  Can’t wait to taste this one!

My notes:  this beer’s efficiency was not quite so great.  Expected OG was 1.067 and i ended up with a 1.050.  Beersmith’s strike temperature for the mash was dead on.  Best to bring water higher, put into the mash tun to cool to strike water temperature.  The sparge I think was off.  Use 2 quarts per pound of grain next time at 170 instead of the instructed strike temperature.  Fermentation took off in less than 24 hours with a huge amount of blowoff.  Tested the gravity today (12/3/09) and it was at 1.024.  Estimated FG is 1.024 but that is with lactose.  I may need to skip the addition …. I roused the yeast today now that it is above the 60’s.  Hopefully this kicks fermentation up a little bit if there is anything left in there to ferment.

After work on Wednesday Bobby, Lindsay, and I headed down to the city to go to Sweetwater Brewery.  Lindsay had some free tickets to a tour so it worked out well. 

We took her car down there but after a few drinks at Sweetwater, I quickly offered to drive.  She doesn’t like to drive at night much and didn’t know where she was going so it worked out well.  Sweetwater had their Festive on tap which was awesome and they even had a cask version of festive with additional hops added to it.  MMMMM!  It was tasty!

Love this picture

After Sweetwater we headed to my favorite bar / restaurant in the city, Brick Store.  Lindsay had never been there but had heard about it so it was a prefect place to go.  When we got there they were fairly busy and were on a 45 minute wait.  We decided to just grab some drinks at the bar and eventually we decided to just eat there.  We had some excellent beers and some excellent food.  That place is just flat out excellent.

Mint Chocolate Cake

It was a great time and the perfect way to keep a great week going.

Saturday morning was a big day as Hector and Reagan were heading back to the 3d/4d ultrasound studio to get their gender confirmation and I was excited to watch the UGA Auburn game with Lin.  It was bound to be an excellent day!

So in the morning we woke up, got ready, and headed out the door to meet Hector, Reagan, and Geni and the ultrasound studio on Marketplace blvd to do their gender confirmation.  This was the same place that helped us out when we were in need and I highly recommend them to EVERYONE trying to get a 3d /4d ultrasound done.  See the bottom of this post for a full shout out.  We went back and confirmed…. ITS A BOY!!!  Looks like Preston is going to have another partner in crime to hang out with just like I did with Hector when we were young.  It is going to be great for these two to grow up with another family member their age.  I know it was huge for me.  After the ultrasound we headed over to ihop for breakfast with Hector, Reagan, and Geni.  We had a delicious start to the day and then headed off to go shopping at the outlet malls while they headed up to North Point Mall to do some shopping of their own.

After brekfast we headed up to the Dawsonville Outlet Mall to check out Baby Gap and pick up a few things for Preston.  I have fallen in love with that store and before anyone gives any lectures, I’ll be sure to mention that we buy things when they are on sale and they are no cheaper than any other place we look for clothes and they are much cuter and nicer.  We use coupons and watch the sale racks and love every bit of it.  I can’t wait to dress Preston!!!  We then grabbed lunch and headed back towards the house to meet up with Kara and Lin before the UGA Auburn game.

As you know I am a UGA fan and Lin is an Auburn alumni and huge fan as well.  Well… today was the day.  UGA was playing Auburn in Athens and it was bound to be a great game.  Before it all got started Lin and I headed out to Home Depot to pick up some double sided sticky tape and then over to Taco Mac to grab a few beers and watch a little bit of the games on the tvs there.  We had a some good guy time and then headed back to the house to meet up with the ladies.  We caught some shit about disappearing for a while, but hey… we had some bonding time right?  When we got to the house Jason Lucas had come buy on his way home from work to drill a hole in a keg for me before having to head back up to his house to get things done preparing for his move back to MD… damn you Jason…. we will miss ya buddy!  Courtney was also there as she was in the area to work for the night and stopped by.  I did not get to see her much but it is always great to see her.

We had Bobby, Danny, Kelly, Kara, and Lin over to watch the game and had a blast doing so.  Auburn took an early lead and then after the half it was a battle to the end.  UGA pulled off a HUGE win over the Auburn Tigers making my weekend!!!  GOOO DAWGS!  It was a great day full of things to do and excitement.  Congratulations to Hector and Reagan!  We are so happy for you two!

I want to recognize A Window to the Womb on Marketplace Boulevard in Cumming GA for helping us out when we were in need and providing such a great service to people.  It was a beautiful studio with a huge screen and amazing technicians.  If you are in the market for this type of ultrasound, please support them!  Window to the Womb

Last Friday evening Ifinally sent my banana beer to a carboy.  A carboy is a glass fermenter / holding container which is air proof.  It was quite interesting to see the inside of the fermenter with all of the bananas in there LOL.

Racking the Banana cream ale

After transferring the beer to the carboy it was placed in my kegerator (which has no beers on tap ) to crash cool.  During this time any additional yeast and other sediment from the bananas of brewing process falls to the bottom of the carboy.  After two days of being in the kegerator I pulled it out, sanitized a keg, racked it to the keg, and began carbonating it with co2. 

Fermented Bananas

It will take about two weeks to be fully carbed and actually may need a few more weeks of aging to ensure that there are no off tastes from the recently fermented bananas.  Hopefully within a few weeks this thing will be ready and tasting great!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of my banana beer here

On Friday I purchased 5 lbs of bananas to add to my banana beer that I am brewing along with 2 ounces of pure vanilla extract.  MMMM 

Once home, I sanitized a plastic container and cut up all 5 lbs of bananas (about 23 bananas) and placed them into the container.  I then took the glass fermenter and transferred the fermented beer into another fermenter.  This new fermenter had the 5 lbs of bananas and the vanilla extract in it.  The finished beer was then “racked” on top of the bananas to mix with them and the vanilla.  This will create another fermentation while the yeast eat up all the sugar that is in the bananas (AKA a lot ).  The fermenter is then sealed and an airlock is placed on it to make sure that it remains air tight to prevent infections.  Becuase the temperatures in the house result in the beer being higher than 68 degrees, the fermenters are are placed in a plastic container.  Water is added to the container to surround the fermenter.  Water bottles with ice in them are then placed in the container to chill the water around the fermenter.  A shirt is then draped over the fermenter to act like a wick to pull the water onto it, cooling the fermenter.  Almost 6 days later the air lock is still releasing air from the fermenter which are signs that the yeast are still fermenting the sugars in the bananas.  Unfortunately, I will still need to wait about two more weeks to be sure that this has completed before I can keg it.  Then the dreaded two weeks of carbonation before I can drink it

While I was out I also picked up 4 gallons of apple juice to use for a hard cider.  The last one that I brewed was terrible as wild yeast must have lived through the flash pasteurization that the apple orchard did resulting in a TERRIBLE apple cider.  We had to dump them all .  This time I used pure Apple Juice some grains (for taste) and yeast.  I did the normal with the grains, combined the liquid with the apple juice in the fermenter and added the yeast.  It fermented away like crazy and is now beginning to calm down.  Making sweet cider at home is tricky because yeast will eat sugars until there is none left, or until it consumes its maximum amount.  Well in this case it will take it until the cider is dry.  Some like it that way – I cant imagine that I would.  Since I am kegging, I can chill the cider down very quickly in the kegerator (which makes the yeast “sleep” and drop to the bottom.  Then I can transfer the cider to another fermenter with the hopes that I removed enough yeast to stop the fermentation.  This is what I plan to do.  Then I can keg the cider and carbonate it with CO2.

I cant wait for both of these to be done!  I will most likely carbonate the cider and then bottle it up so that I can free up the tap for the banana cream ale.  Either way it will be a while before that happens.

Note:  The cider started out at 1.052 and finished at 1.010 on 11/6/09.

A friend at work emailed me this today – excellent!

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed.
Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery
and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they
might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say
to myself, ‘It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams
come true than to be selfish and worry about my liver.

- Jack Handy-

A great quote… so great, that it is my facebook status.

Okay so yes, this is another post about Taco Mac LOL. 

So, I keep up with the Taco Mac blog which is kept up to date by a guy named Fred.  He is the beverage director for Tappan Street Restaurant Group and keeps everyone ramped up about new beers that are being poured all over the Metro Atlanta area.  His blog can be found in my blogroll on the right hand side of the page or here.  Because I like to keep up with new beers and what my local Taco Mac is serving, I read his blog site often.  Well the other day I was reading and came across a post in which he was offering tickets to the first 20 people to ask for a free brewery tour (with samples) for Atlanta Brewing Company (the brewers of Red Brick – an Atlanta based beer).  I tired to reach him by email but was confused where to go about finding him so I called Tappan and they transferred me to him. 

We spent several minutes talking about beer and the local breweries and he told me that he would send me a bunch of tickets so that I can bring some friends along with me as well.  It was really cool of him to offer out tickets to people (plus the real reason is that it will support our awesome local breweries) and even cooler of him to take some time out to BS with me.  He seems like a great guy.

If you have never been to a Taco Mac and you live in GA, you are missing out big time.  They offer about 150 beers on tap and about 200 in bottles at most of their locations.  They also do a passport club in which you are rewarded from trying different beers.  Eventually you are given a larger mug (for the same price people pay for the smaller servings), name on a plaque on the wall, and eventually some gear.  As you should know, it is our local bar of choice.  We go to the location here in Cumming because of their awesome employees and we recommend you do the same.

We are going to Sweetwater this weekend and cant wait to go to Atlanta Brewing Company soon!

Dan came over this morning to finally botlle the beer that I brewed for him (Caramel Vanilla Creme Ale).  I had been meaning to do it for several weeks (okay nearly months now) but just had not gone ahead and done so.  I guess I was just dreading bottling beer again when kegging is sooo easy LOL.

I grabbed all of the bottles and got them ready to be sanitized.  We spent about 2 hours or so getting everything sanitized, adding the vanilla extract (a whopping 5 ounces of it!), and adding the bottling sugar.  The beer came out damn near perfect.  I am glad that it was a successful batch for him as after all he did pay for the ingredients LOL.  He will need to wait about 2 weeks before he can drink it, but it should be great when he does. 

For my own notes, this beer finished at a perfect 1.012 final gravity and we added 5 ounces of vanilla extract

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our day at Serenbe at pictures.neilnatic.com or here

Serebe Farms!!

Holy crap… where do I start???  We had such a great morning / afternoon!

In June Alisha read on a friends blog about a place called Serenbe Farms.  It is an all organic community based around the farms.  The pictures she saw looked gorgeous!  She had been asking to find some time to go down there and check it out as it looked like a great time.  Well before we left to PA for vacation I had been playing on Facebook and saw that Sweetwater Brewery was doing a small event at Serenbe Farms.  They are brewing a new one-time brew that they need blueberries for – 750 POUNDS of blueberries that is!  Sounds like a win – win.  I get to pick blueberries for Sweetwater and “contribute” to this one time beer and we get to check out Serenbe Farms like Alisha wanted to do. 

I had sent the contact at Serenbe Farms an email when I read the Facebook post from Sweetwater and reserved our spot on their list.  They claimed that they only had 30 spots so I was really excited about making it in.  As the day grew nearer they asked for a headcount of who was planning to go and warned that there was a limited number of people that could come.  We really wanted to invite all our friends to come down and check out Serenbe and had already mentioned it specifically to Bobby as well as Krystle and Phil.  Once we found out that there was a limited number of people allowed we warned them that they may now not be able to go but told Serenbe that we wanted to bring them with us because we had already told them.  They were equally as excited about going as we were.  On Thursday night I sent the Serenbe contact a message to follow-up and she said that there should be enough room for them as well.

Fireman Phil

Last night Krystle and Phil were talking about this breakfast biscuit place called Mr. Swiss on hwy 9 near downtown Cumming.  They were saying that they had the best biscuits ever and that they were going to pick them up on the way to our house.  We had to leave our house by 7:45 (yes AM) in order to make it to the blueberry patch by 9:00.  It was crazy early to be waking up on a Saturday but it was definitely going to be worth it.  Well, Krystle and Phil were right.  Wow were those biscuits good!  They got Alisha, Bobby and I a bacon egg and cheese biscuit and it was devine!  Okay we each had two but that is besides the point damnit!  We drove out to the farms which is a little South of the city on I-85 and parked at the blueberry patch.  When Phil got out of the car he was rocking Ryan’s red fireman hat.  It was pretty funny LOL.  We then walked over to the lady from the farm and she taught us how to pick the ripe blueberries and gave us basketsreusable bags to put them in while in the fields. 

SWEETWATER BREWERY!

It was a great time.  We got to pick and eat while out there.  The day was perfect.  Sweetwater had a camera man who was there taking pictures for the website and facebook page.  He was hysterical.  He was joking around with all of us the whole time.  He told Alisha to stop whining about being hot that there was beer at the end of this and we said that she was pregnant and he was like “oh.. .i thought you were just fat” LOL  He was very much kidding and kept this same sense of humor throughout the morning.  We picked blueberries for about an hour and half or two hours, before throwing in the towel and heading to the Serenbe marketplace.  On the way out Steve from Sweetwater gave us all some beer, a free admission card for the brewery tours,  and a few Sweetwater pint glasses.  While we were drinking our beers and talking to him, I asked him what it was that he was brewing.  He said that it was a specialty beer that requires 750 pounds of blueberries!  They had professional pickers out there all last week, us this weekend, and then professional pickers again at the beginning of the week.  He also mentioned that they will be doing a release party and that all of us that helped will be emailed to come out to it for a tasting.  He said in their trial batch of this beer the beer has so many blueberries that it actually pours purple!  We cannot wait to taste this beer.  It is going to be freaking great!  In addition, Sweetwater has added a Saturday brewery tour and tasting to their schedule beginning August 1st!

Horses like Sweetwater too!

After picking and talking with Steve, we headed over to the horse stables to see the horses on the farm (not serenbe – the farm with the blueberries on it).  We met the owner of the property who was a great guy and told us a lot about it and how much he loves it!  He was a great guy and was very nice.  Alisha and Krystle had a blast with the horses.  Krystle used to have three of them and loved playing with them.  I had never really touched horses before and was totally astonished that they were so soft!  It was sooo cool!.

We then headed over to the Serenbe marketplace before it closed to check it out.  They had a variety of fruits, vegetables, honey, jams, etc.  It was pretty cool.  The little community is GORGEOUS!  They have housing there that is beautiful and a few restaurants and shops.  It was just indescribeable  I would love to live there.  Just so serene.  We walked around, shopped, grabbed lunch, and then headed home.

mmmmmmm blueberries!

The day was so perfect.  The weather, the blueberries, the town… all of it.  If you have not been to Serenbe Farms, I strongly suggest you take an afternoon and go.  Sundays are great too because there is an inn there that serves a fried chicken dish that is supposed to be the best thing on earth.

A huge beer contest led some of my favorite Atlanta beers to some much deserved medals!

The US Open Beer Championship led some medals to Terrapin, Sweetwater, and Atlanta Brewing Company for some of their best beers.  Check it out here. 

As you should know by now Terrapin is one of my favorite breweries and is located right there in Athens.  We tour the brewery often and enjoy their beers on tap when we visit.  They are a great brewery and it is really cool to see that they are getting continued national recognition.  They came in as the number 7 brewery in the country.  Sweetwater came in just behind them at number 10 and with some great medals as did Atlanta Brewing Company.  All three breweries are excellent and deserve it and landed in the top 10 breweries in the country!

So Dan has decided to not renew his lease at the apartment that he had in Athens.  While he wants to stay so badly, he just can’t justify the monthly payment for rent any longer when he can stay at my parents house for free.  He needed to be out by Monday so we made plans to help him move some stuff out and then go out downtown to enjoy the city we love so much!

Friday night we got back to the house pretty late, but I woke up (yes I… Alisha is a little LOTsleepier than I am) at about 7:30 and took the car to Acura to get a transmission flush done.  After that, I headed over to the Sport Clips right by our house to get a quick haircut .  Alisha finally woke up while I was there so I headed back to the house to spend some time with her before we headed out to Athens.

We decided to take Envy over to my parents house before going to help Dan and while we were on the way I got a text from Jason Weber asking what we were getting into.  I told him we were heading to Athens and asked him to come along with Amber.  They decided to do so and met us at my parents house, rode with us to pick up Bobby and the 5 of us took Bobby’s truck up to Athens.  When we got there we busted our asses to move out what was left and crammed most of it into the van.  Dan and I took quick showers and headed downtown for some fun!

As always, we went to Copper Creek for dinner and our initial drinks.  I LOVE this place.  It is my absolute favorite place in Athens and my mouth just waters every time I think about it.  If you are ever in Athens you HAVE to go.  Do a search (search bar in the upper right corner of this page) on Copper Creek if you would like some more information from previous posts on this excellent brew pub.  After dinner and a few drinks at Copper Creek we headed to another bar called All Good.  It has an awesome upstairs area where it is open and they also have an excellent selection of craft beers.  We grabbed a few there before heading over to Generals (a redneck southern bar), then to the Globe, then to Trapeze (another excellent bar with a hell of a beer selection) where we wrapped up the night.

We had such a great time.  From laughing at the guy with back hair from hell (look at the above picture – it is hard to tell but this dude literally had just as much back hair all the way up his neck as he did on his bushy head LOL), to watching the guys come out of the bathroom without washing their hands (and Amber calling them out to their face lol), to just kicking back with great friends and family.  Athens just brings a smile to my face… the whole environment is just great!

I love Athens.  Period.  I wish I went to school there, but then again, I most likely would not have made it through college.  I can’t wait to go back again… hopefully we make it soon!

So I just got an email from Terrapin (nationally recognized brewery in Athens Georgia) to give their quarterly beer update and I almost peed myself I was so happy!  Terrapin is getting together with my 2nd favorite brewery, Left Hand (out of Colorado) to make another collaboration beer!!

The Left Hand Milk Stout is absolutely one of my favorite beers ever.  It is a sweet stout that uses lactose (where the milk in milk stout comes from) to sweeten it.  This beer is simply phenomenal!  Last year when Terrapin and Left Hand got together they made a dark lager which was incredible.  This year they are making ………….  an Espresso Milk Stout!!!!!  This will use the local Athens coffee (Jittery Joes) which is the same coffee that they put in the Terrapin Wake and Bake which I LOOOVE!

I could not be any happier about this.  What great news to make a Thursday a great day! 

Now that all of you think I am crazy… I’ll continue on with my day of bliss!