As an update for those of you who are will be attending the 35th anniversary party,  the schwarzbier I am contributing is now comfortably lagering at 34 °F.  For some reason, this beer seems to do better with a relatively short lagering period (4-5 weeks) than some of my other lagers, particularly my O'fest. 

Speaking of parties, I am off to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver with my good friends Roger Bott and Jay Long next weekend.  Anyone else from the club going to be there?

Beannie thanks everyone who has joined in his Home Brew Custom Smoked Malt Challenge and wants you to know that if you need more smoked grain or if you missed the meeting and would like some smoked grain. . . . please contact him at 661-312-5819 or email Beanie's Wife @ susanwebster@sbcglobal.net.

So, i like a low alcohol beer once in a while, but we all know commercial lite beer sucks.  And, you can't get a good mild beer since they have very short shelf life.

The club members have been making great english style milds for a good while now, putting their various spins here and there, but I wanted something different.

I wanted to make a mild beer that tastes like a good california pale ale, just low in alcohol.  It needs a malty backbone and hops you can taste.  Homebrewing is the only way to get there.

Dr. Ian O'Neill of Discovery Space has just posted an article that summarizes a Czech study of the impact of warming temperatures on the region's Saaz hop crop. In short it finds that in connection with steadily rising temperatures, the hops have decreased steadily in Alpha Acid percentage as well. Now those 2.6% AA Saaz make sense!

Discovery Space - Now We Have A Problem: Global Warming Is Impacting Beer Production

Ok - I have been homebrewing for a little over 2 years but it was my first Maltose Falcon Club meeting yesterday.

I am amazed.  I thought I made decent beer but was overwhelmed at the different styles and quality of tastings.  I am also impressed about the collective knowledge in the room.  I don't know why I did'nt attend until now.  I'll be back for sure.

Thank you Beanie for the smoked grain.  Living in SCV - I need to come over and check out your brew-sculpture some day.

 No big surprise that I'm as big a fan of food as I am of malted barley concococtions. The other night Amy and I decided to run back home to Florida for our dinner inspiration and it was a damn good meal, so here it is for you. (Oh and for the beer content, all I can say is it's amazing how well Firestone Walker's Union Jack IPA goes with fried catfish)

Drew's Fried Catfish

4 Catfish Filets

1.5 cups flour

1 egg

0.5 cups coarse Cornmeal

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne Powder

one small container Crisco

Brutus 10 Brewing Stand

Here is my first blog: I went to great lengths to buy all the steel, pumps, pipes, love temp guages and yet been able to put my Brutus 10 stand together. The problem is that I have very few friends that know how to weld, or want to help. In addition, I travel all over the U.S. for work, but home on the weekends, which puts a time crunch on my efforts at finding a friend or co-brewer to help.

Drew guilted me into including my recipe for yesterday's brewing festivities.  It's been tweeked a little bit fro mthe last time I brewed it, we'll see how it tastes.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Schwartzbier
Brewer: Matt Bourbeau
Asst Brewer: Paul Resendi
Style: Schwarzbier (Black Beer)
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning.  Normally on a Saturday, that would meen I was a dumbass and forgot to turn my alarm off the night before.  But not today.  Today was a brew day.  I don't normally brew a lot this time of year, and I certianly did not plan on it being 100+ when I decided to schedule a brew day today, but that's the way the ball bounces.  I decided I needed an early start.  Fortunately, my brother-in-law Paul came over to help, which was invaluable, particularly for clean-up.  We doughed in at 8:00 and took the mash trough a 4 step, direct fire mashing schedule (125 °F

Hey guys . . . just wanted to let you know that if you have AAA Card the rate is a tad cheaper than the Maltose Falcon's Block room rate for October 17th.  $107 + tax  (Anyone over 62 can get the room for $101/night so it pays to be old . . . .Beanie missed it by a mere 3 months)

Check-in is 4:00 but if you request an early check-in they will try to accommodate that and check-out time is 12:00 the next day.

Oh, and here's the phone number for reservations:  1-818-887-4800 OR Toll Free:  1-800-MARRIOTT

I've never actually bothered to Blog about things befroe, but given the hard work that went into the design of this new web site, I 

feel obligated to give it a try. 

Last evening, I began what I refer to as my lager ritual, that is, the start of my yeast starter for a lager.  Those of you familier with my brewing philosophy know

that I firmly subscribe to the notion of pitching large quantities of yeast, particularly in my lagers.  This approach was given a challenge this year as I finally upgraded my boil kettle to

Just got done judging the LA County Fair Best of Show a few hours back. Bruce Brode did his usual superb job keeping an eye on the motley crew. With me were Steve Cook, Paul Sedwhick and Jim Wilson. Sitting down we were faced with 23 or so entries. Irene quickly pulled each of the bottles and we each poured a small sample. The routine:  sniff, swirl, taste and notes. After running through all the contenders, we start nominating beers we don't think will win or have a flaw. In the blink of an eye, 23 becomes 12, becomes 9 and finally becomes 6.

Wow! Great party up there in the mountains. The early birds got hit with that all too rare Southern California phenom - rain. Reports had everyone huddling under a couple of popups, cooking breakfast and enjoying each other's company. Turnout was a little smaller, thanks mostly to the homebody element's fear of a little rain. Too bad guys, cause this fest was awesome - cool, pine scented and with an amazing view from atop the mountain. And all of it a short 70 minute-ish drive from the Valley.

I just got back from Sunfest up there on the mountain (Mt.

It's going to take some getting used to, no complants so far.

 Welcome to Day 1 of the new MaltoseFalcons.com. Personally I blame everything about this site on Jonny Lieberman. About 2 years ago, he hit me up with the idea of creating a new site that would allow the Falcons to come in and modify the bejezzus out of their world. Post stories, pictures and recipes, talk with their fellow club members, etc.

I can feel the anticipation growing. Hopefully by week's end, everyone will be able to see this site! Lots of work left to do though!