Monday, April 29, 2013

Going to the 2013 National Homebrewers Conference in Philadelphia?

Yes - 26%
No - 73%

When I posted the poll, my plan was to use this recap post to announce that I’d be attending the National Homebrewers Conference… sadly that doesn’t look like it’ll happen. I fought through the internet congestion and bought my tickets the day they went on sale. However, a good friend of mine is getting married in San Diego the weekend prior to the conference, and it proved impossible to resist sticking around town to help out at Modern Times.

I’ve never attended NHC, and I was happy that it was finally within easy traveling distance of where I live (it was in Baltimore the year before I moved to DC). I’ll be there (Grand Rapids) in 2014, I promise. The Publisher for Brewers Publications has been encouraging me to put together a presentation for next year as well. So I’m sorry I won’t get to meet the 46 of you who responded that you’ll be attending, but hopefully I’ll get to meet many more of you while I'm at Modern Times during July and August!

The Modern Times crew has been talking about getting a batch of my 100% Brett IPA into a tank soon after the brewery opens. It’d steal some Citra from Fortunate Islands (hoppy American wheat), but we should still be able to make it until the fall harvest. In other news the pilot system is up and running, with multiple test batches of the Lomaland saison currently fermenting. We’re trying the same blend of saison strains (Dupont and French) that Odonata pitched during their brief run, as well as a combo of Dupont and American ale, which I am less optimistic about.

I’d also like to thank everyone who has already supported the Modern Times Kickstarter, making it the most successful campaign of any brewery to date! This is the last call as it closes Tuesday night. Earlier today the last brew day with me was claimed, but there are plenty of other rewards left (including one to design a recipe on the pilot system). Jacob recently added a few new ones too, like being a brewer for a day on the big system, and a mega LA bar crawl.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Mike,

Is the brett trios out yet? I know its slated to be a year round strain but it hasnt shown up at my local shop.

Is the plan for the saison to ferment both strains together? At least in the pilot stages...

The Mad Fermentationist (Mike) said...

WL Brett Trois is available at a few online stores that I checked. Might be worth asking at the local to see if they'll add it to their next order. On the commercial side everything is year round, there are no seasonal strains.

Yep, mixed fermentations on both the small and large scale. The idea is to get flavor from the Dupont strain and more rapid attenuation from the other strain. Doing separate fermentations could result in bottle (can) bombs unless the two strains were equally attenuative. The only issue with a mixed fermentation is that the ratio will drift, meaning you have to buy a fresh pitch more often.