The Koehler Brewery

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6371AX20100408?type=lifestyleMolt

Now, why didn’t we think of that at my office.

My parents recently drove down to Nashville to visit and brought these old Koehler Brewey signs with them. I’m pretty sure they came from my Grandpa Koehler, but I don’t remember how he got them. I need to ask my Dad or my Grandpa.

I’ve been receiving comments from people related to the old Koehler Brewery in Erie on the About the Brewery page. I don’t think my family is related to the brewery except in name, but I do like to see old Koehler Brewery stuff.

Koehler's - There's no better beer!

Jackson Koehler Brewery Erie, Pa.

Stephanie & I just got home from an awesome trip to Seattle & Bayshore (a fantastic Shelton area resort). Turns out that the Northwest is full of great people and great beer. I tasted about 20 beers I never had before, all unavailable in Nashville. Nashville is officially on notice for having crappy beer selection.

Prohibition Poster

I think I might keep brewing and drinking so as to avoid just that.

The Koehler Brewery has undergone a series of upgrades. Get your pants on, this is serious business.

(1) I purchased the koehlerbeer.com domain name. Now you can save yourself from having to type wordpress. before you type koehlerbeer.com. That’s an amazing 40% fewer characters.

(2) I setup a Google Apps account for my new domain. That means I have up to 50 email accounts @koehlerbeer.com. The public outcry for Koehler Beer email accounts makes me wonder why no one previously registered the domain. If you too are salivating over the idea of a shiny new Koehler Beer email account, ask away.

(3) I purchased a new More Beer 15 Gallon Heavy Duty Modified Kettle on sale from the Big Give Back. It’s monsterous and has a far heavier bottom than the 10 Gallon PolarWare Kettle I was using previously. The PolarWare has turned into a hot liquor tank.

(4) Along with the new kettle, I bought a new 50′ immersion chiller, also on sale from the Big Give Back. The old chiller has become a pre-chiller that will go in an ice bath to finish off cooling with a bang.

“I Am A Craft Brewer” is a collaborative video representing the camaraderie, character and integrity of the American Craft Brewing movement. Created by Greg Koch, CEO of the Stone Brewing Co. and Chris & Jared of Redtail Media…and more than 35 amazing craft brewers from all over the country. The video was shown to a packed audience of 1700 craft brewers and industry members at the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference as an introduction to Greg’s Keynote Speech entitled “Be Remarkable: Collaboration Ethics Camaraderie Passion.”

A program is in development to include even more of America’s amazing craft brewers. Please stay tuned!

More beer related maps via Jimmy.

Thanks to Jimmy for sending me this map, and thanks to whoever made it – check the link at the bottom of the map.

Tennessee did alright. One of the better beer places in the Southeast.

It’s been too long. Let’s get this blog rolling again.

I’ve been reading the Home Brew Talk forums a lot recently. Everyone there loves making an Apfelwein recipe from Ed Wort (‘apple wine’ in German in case you are extraordinarily bad with languages). Anytime someone has an empty carboy around and little or no time to brew, they whip up a batch of Apfelwein. The recipe is super simple and very quick, making it perfect for just such an occassion. Here’s the recipe and a 370 page thread discussing everyone’s experiences, questions, and comments about all the variations people have tried.

And people have made a lot of apfelwein- over 7500 gallons to date.

Yesterday I was lamenting the fact that I haven’t had time to brew recently – I haven’t posted to the blog in a long long time – and decided to go ahead and make some Apfelwein in one of the empty carboys I had lying around. Kroger had gallon jugs of 100% apple juice on sale and I had more than enough dextrose on hand for the recipe – all those extract beer kits I bought over the last couple of years all include a 4 oz pack of dextrose for bottling sugar that I have never used because I keg all my beer and force carbonate. I picked up a couple of packets of Montrachet yeast at the LHBS and got to work making 6 gallons.

The whole brewing process took maybe 15 minutes, including sanitation and clean up.

I stuck the fermenter behind the couch and Stephanie and I headed over to a Geoff and Alison’s house for some hanging around and baby entertainment. When we got home a few hours later, the whole downstairs smelled like sulfur/rotten eggs. Delightful. They warned me about this on the forums.

I went to work today and left Stephanie at home with the fermenting Apfelwein. Here are some of her thoughts submitted to me via IM over the course of the day:

11:00am

me:  hey – how does the house smell?
Stephanie:  horrible, the house smells really bad
we have to stay upstairs, the smell makes the baby mad
me:  lol – really? definitely no more apple wine then i guess
Stephanie:  i’m downstars now and i’m gonna pass out it smells so bad
me:  hahaha
Stephanie:  no one likes you

1:00pm

Stephanie:  it stinks down here!
me: still stinky?
Stephanie:  stinky, im hiding upstairs

3:00pm

Stephanie:  anyways, it stinks down here
/flail
me:  i can’t believe it’s still smelly
im going to need to move it outside or something
i didnt really notice it this morning
Stephanie:  well you need yr sniffer replaced
me: probably – it’s all stuffed up today
Stephanie:  yeah
Stephanie:  everytime i breath i love you a little less
good thing yr so cute
Stephanie:  ok i’m abandoning ship and going back upstairs

So things are going well I think.

I have another empty carboy somewhere or other…

In other brewing news, I’m brewing with Colin the last weekend of August – 3 batches in 3 days. Should be awesome.

Sweetwater Georgia Brown pours a reddish dark brown with a minimal head. The aroma is of malt. I get lots of caramel and nuttiness with hints of banana in the aroma. The flavor is again malty, with plenty of caramel and nuttiness, but with a hint of chocolate malt in place of the banana aroma. The body is relatively thin for such a malty beer; perhaps this is due in part to the very light carbonation. There is a very slight bittering quality in the drink that fades quickly, leaving a malty taste in the mouth.