Beer Fest and the beers we'll be pouring

If you are local to the Orlando area, come see us tonight at the Sunshine Challenge Beer Fest.  We'll be pouring from the homebrew booths of Brew Club of Seminole County and Volusia County Homebrewers Guild at the event.

Haven't seen a blog post yet this week?  We've been working on toward Beer Fest.  We have banners, business cards, a dry erase board to help promote the clubs.  We'll have over 12 homebrewed beers between all of us which we will share with attendees.

Beer List (mostly there but incomplete)

• Anal Retentive Dishrag -  English Barleywine
• Galileo's Bane Pumpkin Porter
• XXX Tripel (still rather new but packing lots of promise)
• Steam Monk Belgian Dubbel
• Independence Ale 2013, Mosiac and Centennial hopped American Pale Ale)
• Dim Wit Monkey - the 7+% ABV Belgian Style Witbier from Bionic Brewing
• Rye Pale Ale - from Bionic Brewing
• Blackberry Wheat - from John with Beer Chasers
• Spicy Chocolate Cherry Stout - from John with Beer Chasers
• Belgian Strong Dark - again, courtesy of John with Beer Chasers
• A Saison
• An IPA (or two)
• Homegrown Hops IPA - courtesy of the Sanford Homebrew Shop  (Florida Grown Hops)

Now that is quite a list.  So come on out tonight if you are in the area.  Greet me as Galileo's Bane or Dunerbrew and get a free sticker.  Cheers!

What can I say? The place is good to me.

A new location has been added to the list. To which list do I refer?  I could call it the "Relative Time and Space" list.  This is the list of places in which time becomes somewhat blurry ("timey wimey stuff").  When I go to such a place the expected return times are rather, should we say, relative.

My wife keeps a list of such places.  Here is an example.  "Honey, I'm going to stop by the Brewshop.  I just have to pick up one thing.  It'll take about 5 minutes."  This has been translated to mean, "I'll see you in about an hour...and a half."  And why?  Because they are good to me at the Sanford Homebrew Shop.  I get to talking beer and brewing and the time simply melts away.

The new addition to the list?  ABC Fine Wine & Spirits in Lake Mary.  I get there, and from the beginning the sheer amount of craft beer choices almost puts me into a decision coma.  What is worse, if I begin talking with the Manager about the newest craft beer additions or to a Distributor behind his/her sampling table, then heaven help us all.  Might as well plan on the dinner getting cold.

We've been married a long time, and she is a smart woman.  "Honey, I'm stopping by ABC on my way home."  She has learned this means to add another 30-40 minutes to my commute time.  What can I say, the place is good to me.

And yesterday was no exception.  It's a good thing I had a coupon...too many good finds from which to choose. (Sadly, I did have to leave some behind.)

Oh, there is a coffee stout missing from the photo.  That was my penance of sorts.

Life is short, talk about and drink good beer!

Brewing at the Homebrew Shop

We showed up and brewed right there at the shop.  After all, they refer to it a "your Homebrew shop."  I was glad to assist by brewing in front of the shop for the AHA Big Brew this year. It coincided with a local art festival as well, so there we a lot of people passing by, checking us out and talking all things beer.

Check out the story and photos here on the Sanford Homebrew Shop site.

Yep, that was me hanging with the Renegade Reps and Cigar City. They must have been very impressed with the low tech nature of my brew system.  But you know what, at the end of the day I was the one with the proper Original Gravity.  ;-). It clearly isn't the size of the brew system that counts, now is it?

We were both brewing the Belgian Blonde Ale.

It was a great day, I learned a lot about brew systems and got to meet some more great beer people.