Saturday, September 20, 2008

Time to Get Serious



Tomorrow, I brew! It's been a while so I can't wait to get at it again. I've kegged my last batch from last brewing season (for me, brewing stops in the summer) which I've renamed December Lager since its nothing like a pilsner like it was suppose to be (more on that later). I was coming back from running an errand in Lansing so I stopped by the Michigan Brewing Co and picked up 50lbs of 2-row and some rye malt. I'm going to attempt an Imperial Rye P. A. This will be me first attempt at a high gravity beer, so it will be a challenging way to start off the brewing season. I'm hoping to get a barrel to age it in as well. The barrel age rye from Founders I had a the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beerfest was amazing. The beer below is the December Lager (aka Mystery Pils), kind of dark for a pilsner huh?



Sunday, September 7, 2008

The politics of brewing

Summer is a slow blogging time for me. It's also a slow brewing time for me as well. I just now kegged my "pilsner" I brewed in December. Its not true to style in the least; more of a bitter lager with flowery notes. I'm starting to like it though...that was the last beer in a carboy, so I will have to start the mash fire soon.

This is a beer blog so there will be no partisan politics this election season from me. However, I thought it would be interesting to see who was making the decisions on the three most important beer related political events of the last century: prohibition, the repeal of prohibition and the legalization of homebrewing.





President Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) Vetoed the National Prohibition Act, however as we all know, this veto was over-ridden by congress and the USA went beerless from 1920-1933.




FDR (Democrat) repealed prohibition in 1933 when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act. But, those 13 years virtually destroyed brewing in this country and only the past few decades have seen brew-culture regain its proper standing.




Congress passed a bill in 1978 legalizing homebrewing (whoo hoo) which President Jimmy Carter (Democrat) signed into law in February 1979. Thanks for the valentine Jimmy!





Agian, this is a non-partisan blog and I'm strictly an independent. However the Presidential Beer score is Democrats 3 - Republicans 0.