Brewing Florida Style
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Gluten Free Lagering
Monday, August 1, 2011
Chrysanthemum, Boston Beer Company, and Epcot
Now on too Boston Beer Company aka Sam Adams. I love Epcot it's my favorite of the four major parks at Walt Disney World. I went out of my way to sweat less when they had Sam Adam Brick Red on tap at the Fife and Drum outside the American Adventure. The only place until sometime last year to get Brick Red was at the Sam Adams brewery and then Epcot. It said a lot to me when the American pavilion started offering Sam Adams. To me it was a sign that American Craft represented American Beer now. No longer were we to be painted with the pale yellowish brush of Bud, Coors, and Miller. The full flavor of American beer was back and on display at the number one tourist destination worldwide Walt Disney World. I have railed against Disney for the lack luster beer selection in the hotels and sit down restaurants, with the best option always being Sam Adams Boston Lager and Sam Adams Seasonal. Great beers ... but they could do so much better, and now they lost my favorite beer in the whole resort.
My plea to Disney. There is are two large empty spaces in the American pavilion build a microbrewery partner with Sam Adams. Offer an adventure into the America's beer history more then once a year during the Food and Wine festival. If that is too big of an undertaking get Big River to crank out some more beer and sale it in the American pavilion. Not interested in that, okay easy way out, expand the selection of draft American Craft Beer at your sit down dining options and at the resort bars. Twice a year we stay DVC, and I bring a case of my homebrew. Not just to save money, but because I know when I get down to the pool or before dinner at the bar I have two options, not that either of them are bad ... just I've had them before the day before at the pool or before dinner.
Monday, July 18, 2011
New Commitment
Monday, February 21, 2011
Lagering for the First Time
Monday, January 24, 2011
Slacking
Okay I am sorry I have not blogged in a while, meanly because I have not brewed in a while. I started a lager since I was traveling for a couple of weeks straight and would not be home to keep an eye on a ales primary fermentation. The lager is like most everything else I brew, influenced heavily from my Cuban grandmother , growing up in Florida and my time as cook and understudy to some guys with serious cooking/chef chops. I am brewing what I hope reminds my mother of summer vacations in Cuba before Castro. Style wise it is a premium American Lager, infused with fresh sugar cane, mint, rum and aged on red cedar.
During my recent travels, I did get to spend too much money at the Brick Store in Decatur and Hop City in Atlanta. If you are driving in GA and want to bring back beers you can’t find in Florida go to Hop City, and until Cigar City gets to GA take some with you for trading. The Brick Store was great, good food awesome bottle list and great tap selection. I am not going to recommend anything because it changes so often. What I will recommend is hitting the Sweet Water Brewery. I don’t know why the tours are only Wed-Fri 5:30 – 7:30, but I will tell you the tour, glass and 6 half pints are well worth it. Better yet, bring a friend that doesn’t drink or hates real beer, get their drink tickets, and have them drive you home. Big thanks goes to my boss who has started to drink craft and homebrew this last couple of months, however he is a one or two beer guy so I got his 4 leftover tickets. The brewery is the from what I’ve seen the largest craft brewery in the south east and is a sight for those looking for start-up inspiration.
Visited the Titanic brewpub in Miami last week and it was a breath of fresh air for the no existent south Florida beer scene. Good traditional ales and they did all Belgium’s for their winter seasonal offerings. Also found a place today I have not visited but I am thinking about it call the Democratic Republic of Beer. 500 bottles and a dozen taps. Since Miami is the Manhattan of South America and the Caribbean they carry every crap pilsner made south of Miami. However, they also have over 100 Belgium bottles and all of Hitachino Nest beer exported to the States and the two beers from Lao, which are perfect with Thai Curries.
Okay back to the day job, I’ll be brewing soon with tasting notes on some of the items I bottled recently.