TyPA

Hey there!

Yesterday I brewed Pillbox's new TyPA, a beer designed for Tyler, one of our premium members!! Tyler asked for something like the 90 minute IPA by Dogfish Head brewery, so I tried my best. I tried a few new things:

1. whole leaf hops. Usually, hops come in pellet form. This time I used try whole leaf hops - pretty cool

2. 90 minute boil. Usually, I boil the wort for 60 minutes with 2-3 hop additions. In this recipe, I boiled the wort for 90 minutes with 12 hop additions! 

3. Wort chiller. This helped cool the wort quickly, which improves taste and clarity.

4. WyYeast instead of White Labs. Pretty cool yeast product. I love it!

I'm really excited about this one. I can't wait for you to try it.

There's still some Snoring Puppy if anyone wants to come over for a pint!

-Brendan

Snoring Puppy Pale Ale Party!

Last night, about 12 of the members got together to try the new brew from Pillbox: Snoring Puppy Pale Ale!

We began the night with pizza, hot wings, chips and salsa, and crackers and cheese while admiring the sunset

Jamie tastes the first beer of the night: Laura the Wise (n bock), a dark german wheat beer. Really sweet and delicious!

We all enjoyed the weizenbock together. Tyler noted flavors of honey and belgian yeast.

We moved inside where the Brewmaster explained his unique process of brewing plus some really interesting facts about homebrew

Everyone was served a glass of the new Snoring Puppy Pale Ale. Big hit!

We all got a chance to evaluate the beer based on color, bitterness and body. Some flavors noted were caramel flowers, lemon, tropical fruit, grapefruit, citrus bouquet, a stampede of horses, and puppy scents!

I will definitely throw another one of these tasting parties this summer. Hope you can join us!!

-Brendan the Brewmaster

New Brew: the TyPA

Our new member, Tyler Allred, has designed Pillboxes upcoming beer after Dogfish Head Brewery's 90-minute IPA! I'm going to do my best to try to live up to their infamy, but while I can't promise that it will be identical (and I know identical), I know it will be delicious!! It will involve a unique hop schedule where you combine all hops and add them .25 oz every 8 minutes over 90 minutes! On top of that, there are 2 additional ounces of dry hops! Crazy!!

In other news, "Laura the Wise (n bock)" is ready for your consumption! It is super strong and almost tastes like a Trappist ale. I would love to hear what YOU think of it though. Laura loves it :)

Just a reminder, the Pale Ale Party is coming up on Sunday night! Hope you can come!!!

-Brendan the Brewmaster

Keg, Puppy, Party

Just last week, Jeff Busby, my homebrewing hero, generously loaned me his kegging system. Every October, Jeff brews and kegs 25 gallons of beer and hosts his own Oktoberfest at his house. The rest of the year, he lets his equipment sit in his garage. This year, he said, "Brendan, you can use my kegging system whenever you like!" So I called him up! He gave me 5 5-gallon kegs, a CO2 tank, and taps!

What's more, I just kegged Pillbox's brand new ale: Snoring Puppy Pale Ale!! It's delicious. Super aromatic, slightly bitter, light in color, rich, very sweet, you can almost smell/taste cotton candy or something like it. I can't wait for you to try it...

SO, I will be hosting a tasting of Snoring Puppy in the near future (date, time, and place TBA)! I will invite all Pillbox members and their friends and family and you can have as much ale as you want! Of course I'll be keeping track so each beer comes out of your yearly total :).

Weizen-bottled!!!!

"Laura the Wise (n bock)" (Pillbox's newest weizenbock ale) is now available for your enjoyment!!!

I bottled it last night and was very pleased. You see, every time I move beer from one location to the next (i.e. siphoning from the carboy to the bottling bucket and from the bottling bucket to bottles) some beer manages to spill into a glass and I hate to put it to waste. I tasted the flat weizenbock and was very excited about its flavor. I offered my roommate some, and after joking "what, is it sweet tea?" he sipped it and said, "it tastes like sweet tea!!" It does, kinda. Very sweet, strong, and pleasantly pungent from the german barley and hops.

Pillbox members can pick this one up any time. It will be ready to drink in 2 weeks!

Please take your time to thank Laura for designing this delicious ale, modestly titled "Laura the Wise (n bock)"