Brooklyn Homebrew

Greenpoint Harbor Brewing & Barrier Brewing Co.

2011-05-21T13:57:00.002-04:00

We have to thank DJ Swanson and Greg Doroski of Greenport Harbor Brewing Co. for letting us stir their pot.

Thanks guys. You were gracious hosts. We had a great time hanging out in the middle of your brew day.

Interestingly, they were in the middle of brewing a 2nd batch of Greg's rye-based "Spring Turning Saison".

Some of you may recall that as a home brewer, Greg won the First Place Judge's Choice award at the very first Brooklyn Wort home-brewing competition at Sycamore Bar, last August with the very same beer. Now he is producing it professionally at Greenport Harbor Brewing Co.

Make sure you keep an eye out for it in bars near you. You should be able to find it at Bar Great Harry, in Brooklyn as well as other bars around the city.

Speaking of the Brooklyn Wort competition, registration for the 3rd competition is now open to brewers. Since the event will be at the end of August, it will again be held at Sycamore Bar & Flowershop, so we can all enjoy their beautiful backyard space. We have changed things up just a bit this time around. It is free to register on Brown Paper Tickets, and there is no limit to the number of brewers that can initially register. HOWEVER, we will then hold a random drawing at Sycamore Bar on June 1st at 8pm, to choose 25 brewers to compete in August.

We have had so much interest in the event, that we wanted to find a way to give equal opportunity to everyone, so some new blood can potentially compete.

We also want to congratulate Evan Klien and Craig Frymark of Barrier Brewing Co. , for receiving the prestigious honor of Best Brewery in NY State, at the 14th annual TAP New York Brewers Festival. We want to thank them as well, for letting a few of us here at Brooklyn Homebrew get in the way during their brew day a few weeks back. We had a blast!

Check us out on WNYC's Niche Market, and our very own Kyler Serfass, our friends Josh Bernstein, Chris Cuzme, the New York Homebrewers Guild, and some of our loyal customers also featured in a WNYC story!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2011-01-23T20:52:00.035-05:00

Cantillion: Founded in 1900, now the last traditional brewery still operating in Brussels, Belgium.

I won't name names, but that artificially sweetened "framboise" stuff so commonly seen in the United States is not really Lambic. There are no legislative mandates in Belgium regarding what can and cannot be labelled as such. Pictured above is one example of the real deal! Rosé de Gambrinus: 2 year old Lambic is blended with fresh raspberries and aged another 5 to 6 months. Finally, it gets some young Lambic added to it before bottling, which provides enough sugar to carbonate the beer. The distinct flavor difference between Cantillion's traditional creations, and what many mistake for lambic is a bright, tart, acidic taste. Traditional lambic is practically devoid of any residual sweetness. Its light, effervescent, and complex. Which makes it very easy to drink, and an excellent beverage to drink with rich foods.

If you would like to replicate what Cantillion does so so sooooooo well, then you should do it by god! You will need 65% malted barley (German or Belgian pilsner malt), 35% un-malted wheat, and aged hops (1.69% of the total weight of the combined grains).

The malt is poured through a chute on the floor above, passes through a grain mill, then falls safely into the mashing vessel. The grain mashes for 2 hours, starting at 113°F and ending at 161.6°F. This process, as most of you already know, converts the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars.

Cantillion still uses most of the original brewing equipment. Using very "low-tech" methods, they create some of the worlds best beers. The sweet "tea" created in the mash tun, is boiled in these large copper kettles. The boil takes about 3 to 4 hours, which evaporates 25% of the original wort volume. It is durning this boil, that the aged hops are added. Lambic brewers use hops not for flavor or aroma. They are primarily using hops for the naturally preservative tannins in them. By using aged hops (a.k.a. "de-bittered" hops) the lambic brewers can add a larger quantity of hops to the beer without making the beer excessively bitter.

Steam heated, belt driven. Very steam punk!

Here is the place where the real magic happens! The attic. Somewhat contradictory to what brewers are taught, that you should cool the wort as quickly as you can for fear of contamination from wild organisms, this "contamination" by the airborne cultures of Brussels is one key element to the flavor of traditional lambic. After boiling, the hot wort is pumped up to the copper "cool ship" in the attic. The cool ship is a wide shallow vessel in which the wort is left overnight to cool to between 64.4°F and 68°F. Because Cantillion uses naturally occurring cold night air to cool the wort, they only brew from the end of October through the beginning of April. In the far bottom left of the photograph you can see the vents that allow the air outside to blow in and cool the wort.

Even more importantly, as the cooling progresses, the indigenous yeast and bacteria in the cooling room, and blowing in the window, inoculate the beer once it has cooled below 104°F.

No additional yeast is needed. You can attempt this in other parts of the world, but don't expect the same (or even drinkable) results. If you want to increase your chances for success, simply inoculate your wort with the Wyeast Lambic Blend #3278.

The brewers consider this room a sanctuary of sorts, and they take precautions to protect the unique micro-organic fauna within the brewery.

The wort is then placed in oak or chestnut barrels with a capacity of between 59 to 132 gallons each, where it undergoes its spontaneous fermentation. The barrels must be left open on top for the CO2 to escape safely. Otherwise there would be some pretty violent explosions of wood and wort. As much as 1 to 2.5 gallons are lost from each barrel during the early stages of this violent fermentation.

Now the waiting begins. "Time does not respect what is made without him." The wort transforms into lambic in the barrels. It will rest quietly in the barrel room for between 1 and 3 years. The concentration of sugar in a 3 year old lambic will drop down to 0.2%. In the course of the maturation period, a good deal of evaporation takes place. After 3 years, 20% of the liquid evaporates away. And unlike wine makers, lambic brewers DO NOT top off the barrels to compensate for evaporation. To protect themselves from the air space in the top of the barrel, some yeast form a flora or pellicle at the top of the lambic which isolates the beer from the air above. After three years a barrel of a 105 gallons will have reduced to about 84 gallons! One of the reasons it is an expensive product to make.

Before being bottled the lambic is pumped from the barrels through a 5 plate filter, then into steel tanks seen in the background. These tanks sit above the bottling room below.

Though the straight unblended lambic can be ready to drink in much less time, fruit lambic uses the 2 year old lambic which has even more acidity. In the summer months of July and August, 132 gallons of the 2 year old lambic is placed in these tanks with 330 lbs of fresh raspberries (Rosé de Gambrinus), cherries (Kriek), apricots (Fou'foune), merlot grapes (Saint-Lambvinus), or white muscat grapes (Vigneronne) to macerate for at least 3 months. At that point the lambic is blended with 1/3 part young lambic, which provides enough sugar to carbonate the beer. After lightly filtering the fruit lambic, its bottled up for conditioning and aging.

The brewhouse pest control incudes a cat named "Cat," and lots and lots of spiders. There are cobwebs hanging from everything. Obviously in the summer months it is inevitable that fruit flies will try to get there dirty paws on the precious lambic. However, using toxic chemicals is not only bad for humans and the environment, it would likely destroy or alter the valuable airborne organisms that inoculate the wort in the attic. The FDA in all of its devine wisdom would never allow that in this country. Spiders are far more dangerous to our health than fecal spinach, prescription drugs, shit-filled meat from cannibal cows, teaching kids that ketchup is a vegetable in our school cafeterias, or imported seafood high in mercury that every other port of entry in the world previously rejected first. Right?!?

On display, an example of a bottling machine no longer in use.

The relatively small but effective bottling line operated by 2 or 3 brewers can fill, cork, and cap 1,200 Champagne-style bottles in an hour.

Cantillion's Gueuze is perhaps the best example in the world. The brewer blends 3 year old, 2 year old, and young lambic together in one bottle. The straight unblended lambic is always still (un-carbonated) because the oak and chestnut barrels allow the natural carbon dioxide to escape. In a gueuze, much like the fruit lambics, the addition of the young lambic provides sugars for re-fermentaion in the bottle. After bottling the lambic, the bottles are stored on their side for several months or more. This cellar when full contains 11,000 bottles. On average though, the brewery permanently stores 60,000 bottles. A well made traditional gueuze stored in a proper cellar can be matured for up to 25 years.

The best part of the tour..... the tasting. After smelling the sour oaky beer aroma that fills the building, we are ready for a drink! The Cantillion bar is simple and charming, and they offer plates of delicious gueuze cheese and tasty charcuterie to snack on while you drink.

Included in the price of the tour is a glass of traditional gueuze, and a glass of either the raspberry (Rosé de Gambrinus) or cherry(Kriek) lambic. Don't stop there! Order a glass or bottle of some of the other lambics. The Mamouche is a magical and aromatic beer made by maceration of elder flowers in the lambic. Faro is a fantastic and unstable lambic that is better to taste in Brussels, rather than trying to take a bottle home with you. Caramel candy sugar is added to sweeten the beer. It is ever so slightly tart but the sweetest of all the lambic beers. But because of the added sugar, the re-fermentation in the bottle is very strong, and risk of exploding bottles is a real possibility. They should be consumed within 3 to 4 weeks at most after bottling.

Raspberry lambic.

Mamouche (lambic with elder flowers).

Look for these other Cantillion beers: Grand Cru Bruocsella, Iris, Marmalade, and "Lou Pepe."

Our sincere thanks to Cantillion, for doing what you do, and for providing the information and much of the text used above.

CATCHING UP

2010-11-17T22:48:00.023-05:00

What a delay since the last posting! Thanks to all of our great customers! We have been fighting to keep up with demand since the weather has taking a turn in the right direction. We are selling about 160 packs of yeast liquid yeast per week (and who knows how many dozen packs of dry), which definitely helps keep it fresh, but makes it really hard to have the ones you need, when you need it. It may be time for more refrigeration! We've been selling tons of whole leaf hops from this years harvest as well. Fortunately for the brewers who prefer pellets, the hop-gods have begun pelletizing many varieties from this years hop harvest, so we will have Amarillo pellets again! Yipee! We really are grateful for your business, and your patience while we expand and train our staff to keep up.

Some fantastic news: As of Friday Nov. 19th, brewers will be able to sign up for the 2nd edition of Brooklyn Wort! Thanks to the guys at Sycamore Bar & Flower Shop for their help

getting this event together. This time around will be even better than the last. We have many news sponsors, like Valley Malt, Wyeast, Beer Sessions, Greenport Harbor Brewing Co., and many more to be announced, as well as all of the great sponsors that made the 1st Brooklyn Wort possible.

Because the competition will take place on February 26th, and its likely to be cold as f#%k. So in order to accommodate 25 brewers (that's right, 25 brewers this time) the event will be held around the corner from Brooklyn Homebrew, at The Gowanus Studio Space. Brewers should be on the lookout this Friday @ Noon if they want to sign up! Go to brooklynwort.com for details on participating.

We never had a chance to share some photos from Jamil Za inasheff visit to Brooklyn Homebrew. It was a great time, and a fantastic way to kick off another crazy NY Craft Beer Week. Many thanks to our friend Jaclyn Elder for taking these great photos. She is available for any type of beer related event you need!

We now have some hop teas available (blended in house!), which would make a great gift. We also have our equipment kits available in boxes, to make them easier to gift wrap. And maybe some bows will be added as Christmas creeps closers!

We have reorganized our grains, and added even more information to the grain bins to help you learn about the ingredients in your beers. When buying beer kits to give as gifts (from us or online) keep in mind that beer ingredients ARE perishable. Malted barley can keep very very well when it's un-cracked (un-crushed, un-milled, etc.), but beware of buying beer kits in which the malted grains have been pre-crushed. Once the tiny grain has been cracked open, exposing air and moisture to the center of the malt, it not only loses its delicious aroma, but its flavor will quickly fade. Even worse than loss of flavor, if the grain oxidizes or hydrolisis of the lipids (fancy words!) within the grain takes affect, then you may end up with an unpleasant or even metallic taste in your beer. So if you buy a beer kit as a gift, make sure the grains are crushed for you at the time of purchase and not in advance, because you have no way of knowing how long ago the grain was milled. Or, when you buy the kit, make sure they are not milled at all. By the time you give the "gift of grain" to the brewer on your Christmas shopping list, a full month may have nearly passed already..... and who knows when they will have time to brew the beer. Let the person you give the beer kit to either mill the grain themselves if they have a way to do so, or let them take the grain to the friendly neighborhood home-brew shop (Brooklyn Homebrew) and ask them (us) to mill the grain for them right before they brew.

And finally, we want to congratulate our good friend Mark Zap (who played a big part in helping us get our store up in running last January) for his amazing creation that he recently unveiled. Brewing as Art. Mark and his co-creator and metal sculptor friend, Scott Van Campen have been working hard through the summer months to get this done. A hand-made mobile sculpture piece that actually functions....... it can make 10 gallons of beer! My photograph (below)

doesn't do it justice. You really need to see it in person to appreciate the amount of work that went into every detail of the brew sculpture. Hopefully he will be blessing us with his sculpture at the next Brooklyn Wort!

Brooklyn Wort Season 1

2010-08-22T22:39:00.017-04:00

Congratulations to all the winners! And a big thanks to all the brewers who participated, all of the guest who attended, the judges & sponsors, and most of all to the owners and staff of Sycamore. It was a blast!

Quaffing homebrew.

Deliberations at the judges' table.

Greg Doroski - "Wry Saison" - Rye Saison

1st Place - Judges' Choice

Clinton Stauffer - "Wallonian Summer" - Farmhouse Ale

2nd Place - Judges' Choice

Brad Hillman - "Suspicious Package" - Dark Farmhouse Sour Ale

3rd Place - Judges' Choice

Jonathan Moxey - "Electric Blanket Saison" - Saison

1st Place - Peoples' Choice

Christopher Pagnotta - "Rager's Revenge IPA" - IPA

2nd Place - Peoples' Choice

David Elder - "Spur of the Moment No. 1" - American Amber

3rd Place - Peoples' Choice

All the Votes are in......... let's do this again!

Adventures in New Glarus, WI

2010-07-10T15:22:00.035-04:00

The gorgeous new Hilltop, New Glarus Brewery (in the town of the same name) Wisconsin.

The beautiful new brewing facility allows visitors to wander about, taking a self-guided tour at your leisure free of charge, and without getting in the way of the brewing in progress.

As you enter the brewery, you get a glimpse into New Glarus' brewing prowess and a little history of the brewery. Above: The many medals the brewery has won are proudly on display.

The brewery is complete with their own waste treatment facility at the bottom of the hill.

Happily, many breweries are taking steps to reduce or reuse their waste in ethical ways.

You know, like monks have done for centuries. Feed your left over yeast to your livestock, and your grains can be composted or fed to chickens and pigs.

Beautiful and shiny copper kettles for mashing and boiling! If only we had room in our garage for a couple of these puppies (if only we had a garage :(

This place is really state of the art! SO MUCH Stainless steel and healthy yeast at your fingertips.

Guest that visit the brewery are discouraged from drooling (for sanitation purposes of course).

From the left: the Weiss beer room (separate tanks from everything else), more steel tanks whose only purpose is to make homebrewers jealous, and the "stairway to heaven" as the brewers have affectionately dub it. It seems like an alright way to die... a 4 story fall into vats of fermenting beer. Will that get us into heaven though? I think so, but consult a priest for more details before attempting this!

Check out the bottling line in action!

The tasting room/gift shop is, hmm..........well, tasty! For $3.50 you get any 3 tastes of their standards on draft or

the bottled specialty beers.

And you get to keep the glass when your done. We were lucky enough to score an extra taste from a nice women

who had had her fill, so we got to try everything.

While you sample, you can stroll around outside and enjoy the beautiful rolling green hills in the distance.

One last stop at the brewery... the "Beer Depot." We must buy some bottles for future sampling. The "Enigma Unplugged," "Golden Ale," "Raspberry Tart," "Cracked Wheat," "Moon Man," "Fat Squirrel," "Two Women," and the "Wisconsin Belgian Red."

Before leaving town, you may notice the original New Glarus Brewery (referred to as Riverside) down the road just a bit.

This humble building is still functioning today, and within its walls are GIANT wooden barrels used for

some or the breweries more "wild" beers.

As we drove out of the town of New Glarus, we were surprised to find ourselves back in Brooklyn almost instantly. Wormhole? Maybe, but this doesn't look like the Brooklyn we know?

Finally, we made it back to Chicago... to have some beer flights at the new brew-pub there, Revolution Brewing. Really delicious beers. We were happy to be back in Chicago, and not be drinking Old Style (or Molson, like we had to on July 4th)! Boy, those residents of Wisconsin are mighty kind and really do enjoy some amazing Brats! Thanks Matty!

Drunk History Presents St. Arnold, Nikola Telsa & Mark Zap

2010-06-30T13:21:00.010-04:00

Not only is July the celebratory month of St. Arnold, Patron Saint of Brewers, but it is also Good Beer Month here in NYC! There will be several events going on all around the city, so be sure to check at least one out!

Next on the list, we wanted to give a shout out to our buddy Mark Zap and congratulate him, and his homebrew club, The New Brighton Homebrew Society out on Staten Island. They are the American Homebrewers Association's feature club of the month! Check it out here. Staten Island has a whole mess of homebrewers and we are very happy to see them getting a nod. We should also mention that Mark has been working on a really awesome project for a few months now called "Brewing As Art". Mark and a welding buddy will be building, from the ground up, a completely mobile brewery. They plan on having presentations all through the city when the project is ready. You can follow their progress here.

Lastly, we wanted to remind everybody about our new FORUM! Now anytime you have a question and need an answer, you can have a whole mess of people helping you out, including us of course. Feel free to join and participate or just browse the forum as a guest. It is of course FREE to join! We also have a new "Questions & Answers" page set up. It is simply a quick reference guide for frequently asked questions and will always be available to view on our homepage.

Next up some Adventures from New Glarus.....

The Cooking Channel? F*ck that sh#t! Pabst Blue Ribbon!

2010-06-03T13:30:00.010-04:00

In case you didn't catch it, we had the pleasure of joining Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy's No. 43, Ray Deter of d.b.a., Dave Brodrick of Blind Tiger, Brian Ewing of 12 Percent Imports, and Spencer Niebhur from Southampton Ales & Lagers at Roberta's for an episode of Beer Sessions on the Heritage Radio Network.

We got to taste some great beer that Brian and Spencer brought with them, and we got to share a Saison and a Canadian/Belgian Cherry Ale that we brewed at home. The food at Roberta's is indeed as good as everyone says..... Awesome pizzas, and a fantastic dry-age steak!

Thanks for having us guys.

Also, noteworthy, but much less significant... we made a "subliminal" appearance on the Cooking Channel last monday night on a show called Drink Up! You surely wouldn't have noticed us, but images of our store were used for the homebrewing segment. Don't feel bad if you are confused..... blame the sloppy editing of the hopefully soon to be short-lived Cooking Channel. Blahhhh! Television leaves us with a bad taste in our mouths. Give us radio or give us death!

If you are interested in attending the Brooklyn Wort home-brew competition, and helping to choose which beer is awarded the title of Peoples Choice (and the $200 cash prize), the tickets are now on sale here! $20 for 20 3 oz tastings, thats a freaking deal! Get 'em before they're gone!

We've added some new herbs, spices, and flowers to our lineup: Rosehips, Star Anise, and Sea Salt and Anatto seed for you cheese makers.

Also, we are happy to say that we are now selling raw honey from Stockin's Apiaries in Pennsylvania, instead of getting honey from California. We can sleep better at night now.

The grain selection has grown too. We added Pale Chocolate malt, Acidulated 2-row malt, Chocolate Rye, and Special Roast.

The 3rd meeting of the Brooklyn Rot at Bierkraft was once again a success!! Delicious goat cheese, awesome pickles and lots of homebrew as always! We hope we can keep this beautiful union of all things fermented for a long time to come.

Thanks again everyone for all of the support!

Now I can't write about anything.....

2010-05-11T17:47:00.005-04:00

Introducing the Brooklyn Wort! A competition that we announced roughly 3 days ago and has already SOLD OUT!

We apologize for the people who haven't heard about it yet, but we truly did not expect this kind of response. It's AWESOME! So even though nobody else can enter to win $1000, you can still go to the event and get drunk on 20 delicious homebrews. Tickets are set to go on sale June 1st, so mark your calendar and get the tickets before they sell out! Hopefully we will be able to add on a few more competitions in the future!

In not so great news, last years hop harvest is already beginning to get light, mainly on whole leaf hops. So many of those great whole leaf hops you have all fallen in love with (Citra....) will likely be sold out by next week and done until this years harvest.

In better news, our hops out front are looking quite nice! Please come and see them soon....

We will be taking a few days off this summer, which we will announce shortly. You can also expect to see maybe a new face or 2 around here helping us out shortly. Be nice to the newbies!

Currently we have been brewing a massive amount, trying so hard to catch up from our moving hiatus! Expect to see us with several versions of a Saison, a few Weizens, another Bohemian Lager and our first attempt at Mead w/ our delicious Orange Blossom Honey!

Speaking of Honey.... we finally have some amazing LOCAL honey! And its raw! They are in 17 oz jars and 5 lb jars!

The meeting of the Brooklyn Rot this month was a blast! We had TONS of beer, cheeses, pickled diakon, pickled mango and a very delicious carrot kombucha. We hope it continues to grow, because it has been a blast so far!

For those of you who will be out and about this Sunday, Park Slope will be having it's annual 5th ave. fair and you can come and find us there. We will be next to the Bierkraft Beer Booth selling all kinds of weirdo gadgets and stuff you have never seen before at the store. See you guys around!

Bring on The Rot.

2010-04-01T15:42:00.004-04:00

Spring has arrived, along with lots of goodies. First off, Rhizomes are still around, and maybe for another week or 2. Right now should be about the perfect time for planting them, as long as another pesky frost doesn't come along that is..... This BYO Video will give a bit of an idea of what you will need to do,

The Rhizomes are $7 ea and are available in several varieties. We will be attempting to grow our own hops and create a mystical-dreamlike arch outside of the front of our store ( thanks to Steve Hindy for the awesome idea ). So exciting!

Next up on the agenda, our first meeting for The Brooklyn Rot will be next week, Wednesday April 7th, 8pm @ Bierkraft. This collaboration between ourselves and Bierkraft is not to be missed. Along with our normal selection of beers we will be bringing our first batch of EXTREMELY young wine, a Barolo to be exact. We hope to bring one to every meeting, and be able to taste it as it transforms throughout the months. Besides us, we hope to be trying lots of delicious offerings ( we are crossing our fingers for some homemade cheese! ). Besides all of the things people should be bringing, there is also the amazing selection of Bierkraft beers and tasty treats that will be available as always. Please join us for an evening of magic.

Lastly, we have decided to close for Easter Sunday, April 4th. We will reopen with our regular hours on Tuesday.

Thanks everyone! We look forward to seeing you in the future!

Flip, Flip, Flipadelphia. Bitches.

2010-03-02T20:45:00.008-05:00

We have yet to tell anybody about our short trip Philly last week! While we have been before, we decided that this time around we would play the role of tourists, allowing our dear friends to take care of us and show us the sights and sounds of the city. About an hour after arriving we were led to Dalhak bar, which happens to be safely hidden in the back of an Ethiopian Restaurant. In this fun little neighborhood watering hole we got just a mere taste of what the rest of the city would offer us as far as beer choices came. Philadelphia Brewing Co
lined the menu, such as the Walt Wit and Kenzinger. Victory's Hop Devil and Golden Monkey also made an appearance as well as MANY other fine Pennsylvania brews. It is so awesome to see the little bars representing. Thats how it should be... everywhere!

The next day we venture out to the Eastern State Penitentiary. Which by the way is probably one of the coolest things we have ever witnessed in our lives. Seriously. It's kind of awesome. And we will definitely be back for Halloween this year. We swear. After a few hours of wondering the prison yard, we decided to walk around to see if we could find lunch. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to find anything remotely interesting, but then, like a pond in a desert oasis, we came upon The Belgian Cafe. This place is apparently owned by the guys who opened Monks. Lucky us. A "blow your freaking mind" beer list and REALLY good food. Score. And then on to the typical tourist traps. Climb the Rocky Stairs. Check. Look out over the city reminiscent of Paris. Check. Be amazed by the details in the Washington Monument (no not THAT Washington monument). Double Check. After being overwhelmed by all this, we found ourselves in Fishtown. Visiting a fellow homebrewing friend, tasting some of his tasty beers and then off to a pretty fun joint that goes by the name of Johnny Brenda's. By the way, it seems as though all the bars in Philly not only have amazing beer lists, but they also provide really awesome bar food. Not typical by any means....

The next day started with a hang over and ended at the City Tavern. While TOTALLY dorky, this place is quite the site.

Nestled in Ye Olde Town, it is a fun place to get the tasting of Yards "Ales of the Revolution". Be prepared to feel pretty toasty after that flight of beer. So good.

After some thrift store shopping, which barely exists in NYC anymore, it was time to get back on that MegaBus and head home. Fun trip. Thanks Denini. Such a good tour guide you are.

Now that we have that out of the way, we have several more delightful things to talk about. First off, we will be receiving our first shipment of Hop Rhizomes, hopefully by the 3rd week of March. We will have a starter kit with 5 varieties and also several varieties sold separately, Cascade, Centennial, Nugget, Kent Golding, Fuggle and Mt Hood. Hooray! Spring is just about here....

Next on the list, we will be joining forces with Bierkraft to bring you The Brooklyn Rot. The Brooklyn Rot will be a fermentation club for everyone! Beer, Wine, Cheese, Kimchi, Yogurt, ETC. Whatever it is that you enjoy fermenting, come join all of us to share and discuss what we all love to make. It will give all of us a chance to share our things in a welcoming environment. This will also be a chance for many of us to learn about other fermented goodies that we have no clue about! It is very exciting, please join us. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday April 7th at 8pm, at Bierkraft, and hopefully every first Wednesday of the month to follow. We will post more details soon about the club, Homebrew Classes this summer, and even the potential for some Homebrew Competitions. We hope to see everyone at the meeting!

Business is still going strong. Thanks to everyone who is constantly coming to see us. We love to see your happy faces, especially the ones we get to see every week.....

Follow the Light

2010-02-21T17:11:00.031-05:00

We finally have our own sign, and it even glows at night!

This week we finally got our act together and set the place up so customers can measure and bag the grains themselves, to their liking. Now no one has to wait on us to measure grains out for them.... which allows us to answer questions and make your check out faster. We will still mill the grains for you, for free of course.

Here is a little heads up on how to work in the grain area.....

When buying grains, just mark the bag with the colored dots that correspond to the dots on the grain bins. If you buy American 2-row (which has a yellow sticker on the bin) then simply put a yellow sticker on your bag, then write down the weight in pounds/ounces. Put as many stickers on the bag as you need to.

You can keep the grains separated if you like, but whenever possible try to use one bag to help us reduce the amount of plastic waste we all create. We are always happy to help anyone who needs help getting their grains together, so don't hesitate to ask. And please let us know how well this system is working for you. We are open to suggestions that will make this system better for our customers.

Beginning in a few days our first shipment of Blichmann products will arrive, which means we will be carrying the "cadillac" of brew pots. They are beautiful, with all the bells and whistles, and are available for pre-order. But even more importantly, we will have the Blichmann Beer Guns in house. These wonderful gadgets are similar to a counter-pressure bottle filler, and perform the same function. They let you pump beer from a keg of finished, carbonated beer, into bottles, without creating excessive foam or working lots of oxygen into the bottle.

Also, by the end of the week we will be getting our first shipment of the Five Star 5.2 pH stabilizer that everyone has been inquiring about.

By the way Joshua Bernstein is going to be taking another group of individuals on a Homebrew Tour March 27th. If you are interested in being one of Joshua's stops please Email us and we will forward your info to him.

Lastly, don't forget we will be CLOSED next Tuesday, March 2nd and will reopen with regular hours Wednesday March 3rd.

That's all for now. Thanks again to all of our faithful customers, and all of the new ones that keep making each week better than the last.

Let's hear it for the beers!

If you build it they will STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT OUR SIGN!

2010-02-12T00:40:00.006-05:00

I should clarify...... We will still mill grains for our customers, for free. We just want everyone to be able to weigh out and bag the grains to their liking. It should speed up and simplify the checkout at the register. We also don't want anyone to loose a hand in our grain mill from hell. It will be like a Ted Nugent style "Free for All," but with grain malts instead of guitars, women, and wild game.

Believe it or not, we no longer have a "mixed martial arts" sign above out door anymore. That's right, we will soon have our very own sign, that actually says Brooklyn Homebrew! It's not that we wanted to be difficult or confuse our customers.... We simply took our time shopping around for a good price. Is that so wrong?

So for the next few days we have no sign at all other than the chalk on our door stating who we are and our hours of business. Which means that we will also hear those familiar words just a few dozen more times: "you should get a sign."

There may be a slight change in how things operate at BH soon, in regards to grain malts.

We always planned on making the grains "self-serve." Much like the bulk foods at a Co-Op or Fairway, etc. So ultimately we would like to do that if no one objects. It would allow you the customer to get your grains together more quickly (or more casually, if you prefer to take your time), as well as see and smell each individual malt variety BEFORE its milled. Which may help you to learn how to identify the differences between the malts. And it will free up the two of us to answer questions and provide you with a faster checkout.

We have to work out the logistics, but it will likely happen. If anyone at all objects, thinks that it's a terrible idea, or has some thoughts or input on the matter, please send us an email. We are open to ideas.

Here is a very nice story about our shop that we wanted to share with everyone...

Does Ralph Macchio Drink Beer?

2010-02-03T16:19:00.005-05:00

We hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying our new little shop! We have just a few updates for everyone.....

First on the list, we are very sorry that we have yet to change our sign. We know that some of you have been very confused by the fact that there is still a karate sign outside. We promise we are working as hard as we can. For now please be patient and look for our name on the front door (we promise it's there ).

We also wanted to acknowledge the amazing amount of entries for Homebrew Alley this year! It has nearly doubled from last year and a big thanks is in order for everyone who worked there butts off ( on there days off ) to bring the whole competition together. Congratulations to all the winners and organizers!

We also wanted to let everyone know that we have Wyeast Propagators this weekend. If they sell well we will definitely carry them in the future. We are also still carrying the 2 strains of White Labs, Cry Havoc and California Ale. We also had several Agar Slants this week, but they sold out very quickly, so look for more next week!

We also wanted to let everyone know that we will be taking an extra day off in a few weeks, Tuesday March 2nd to be exact. We will be going on a quick trip to Philly to see a few friends and drink some beer. Fear not we will reopen with our regular hours on Wednesday March 3rd. And we would love some bar suggestions. So please let us know if you have any! We will make sure there is a reminder when we get closer to the date.

Thanks everyone, we will be seeing you around!

Triumph and sorrow......

2010-01-26T01:06:00.007-05:00

Thanks for a fantastic first week. We were busier than we ever imagined!

For the poor souls that came on Sunday, we are truly sorry that we were picked clean.

We expect to be restocked on just about everything this coming week.

Don't forget to turn in your entries for Homebrew Alley 4. Judging is this coming Sunday the 31st.

We should have our own sign soon, instead of the old sign. We also have flaked barley, and peat-smoked malt on the way. We will have two new varieties of Stumptown coffee beans as of Tuesday. And in case you haven't heard the news, Wyeast #3711 French Saison yeast is now a permanent part of their lineup, as well as the #1450 Denny's Favorite and the #3763 Roeselare Blend, and are now available year round.

Also, we will soon have a few select varieties of White Labs pitch-able yeast vials... Such as the so-called Charlie Papazian yeast blend "Cry Havoc." Which can be used for lagers as well as ales, depending on your fermentation temperature, as well as the California Ale Yeast. we want to see how these babies are going to sell before we order more, so come and get em while there hot.

Thanks and come again soon.

2010-01-19T09:43:00.004-05:00

We are Open!

Today at noon, we officially open for business at our new (and fantastic) location, 163 8th St. (Brooklyn, NY 11215, near the corner of 3rd Ave). We have not yet put up a new awning.... So we apologize for the confusion. We still have the old sign up from the Karate studio. We hope to have the new sign soon.

We also have a new phone number, 718-369-0776, and email address, Brooklynhomebrew@me.com.

We have doubled our grain selection, lowered some prices, increased our hop selection and supply (so we don't run out as often), added more spices & equipment, and we now have honey and Stumptown Coffee beans too!

We ARE SO SORRY! Yellow Truck (frieght company) lost our entire order somewhere in Ohio. So we are going to be very low (if not completely sold out) on LIQUID and DRY MALT EXTRACTS this first weekend. We are very embarrassed, and upset. It will limit how many partial-mash ingredient kits we will have in stock.

We haven't had a chance to updated the products on our web-catalog yet, sorry. So just come by and check it out. There is no need to call-in or email us your order anymore, (unless you would like to of course), just come by anytime during our normal hours. Tuesday-Saturday, 12pm-7pm & Sunday, 12pm - 6pm.

Thanks everyone!

Finish Line

2010-01-06T15:22:00.012-05:00

We are so close to completion! Its hard to believe that we have made such a transformation in only two weeks. Though it has primarily been just Danielle and I working on the space, we do have to thank some friends that have helped a great deal.

Nick, Mark, Kevin, Dave, Jacky, Lucas, and Geraldine. We appreciate all of your support. And of course all of our customers too. We are so sorry that we have denied you your brewing necessities for the past week, and we have been away from our phone. But I think you'll find that it has been worth the wait. Thanks everyone, hope to see you Tuesday, and well into the future.

Things are going great so far! We have one more weekend at the old space and then Monday we move everything into the new one! We hope everyone is as excited as we are. Our projected reopening is still Tuesday January 19th, and so far everything is taking about as long as we planned. We will be having a special promotion for everyone who comes to see us and purchases at least $10 worth of goods on our opening day, 5% off everything you buy and a free gift for the first 50 customers!

We got our giant freezer (allowing us to double our hop selection), our grain bins (allowing us to double our grains), and a whole mess of other goodies on the way. We will proudly be carrying Stumptown Coffee, honey and more spices. We even made cotton tote bags with our name on them! It's like were playing ball in the big leagues. We can't wait for everyone to check us out.

On another note, we wanted to remind everyone about the upcoming beer competition Homebrew Alley. It's sponsored by the NYCHG and there will be hundreds of dollars worth of

prizes. It will be held on January 31st at Chelsea Brewing Company, whom will also be choosing there favorite beer to be brewed right there at the brewery. Everyone should enter if they have something that they believe is delicious. So on the way to the next Homebrewers guild meeting, drop off a few of your brews at Jimmy's. They are a drop off point and they are also offering something special for everyone who drops off there entries.

Thanks for the support, we'll be seeing you around!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Time to Move!

2009-12-23T12:54:00.008-05:00

Well we hope the holiday is being as good to you guys as it is to us. We are gearing up for our move as the season comes to an end and we wanted to update everyone on where we are at. We will post our closing days on the front page of the website as we transition. Right now here is what we are looking at:

December 29th through 31st - Open

January 1st - Closed

January 2nd & 3rd - Open

January 4th, 5th & 6th - Closed

January 7th, 8th & 9th - Open

January 10th - 15th - Closed

We are aiming for an opening on Saturday January 16th. If everything goes as planned it shouldn't be a problem, but things alway come up. So wish us luck on the move and we will continue to keep everyone updated as we go! Also, anyone who has an emergency or needs something on the fly while we are closed, should Email us. We will find a way to get you what you need, whether it be meeting us at the old space or the new one.

We also wanted to remind all of you homebrewers that The New York City Homebrewers Guild is having there annual homebrew competition, Homebrew Alley, held at the Chelsea Brewing Company. Anyone can enter, and it only costs you $7 and 2 beers, and there are some very worthwhile prizes. Jimmy's No. 43 is a drop off point, so enter your favorite brew today!

We also wanted to remind everyone about Beer Table's Homebrew Meet-Up on Monday December 28th with a special guest from Sixpoint Craft Ales. We hope to see you guys there.

Lastly.....

Tickets for our homebrew class on January 28th are officially on sale at Whole Foods online. So for those of you who have been asking about classes, now is your chance. The cost is $35 and I know at least a few seats are already gone....

We hope everyone has a great holiday and once again we appreciate everyones support through everything! We can't wait to see everyone in the new space!

So much to talk about.... and so little time....

2009-12-02T17:35:00.009-05:00

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We have oodles of fantastic news! First up, we have found our space, signed our lease and plan on beginning our big move January 1st. It is the exact location we have been wanting this whole time, in the Gowanus, so we are extremely excited. Please keep in mind that we are still here for the entire month of December! So come on down and help us make our transition into the larger space a smooth one. We will have more information about the move as we get closer to the date, but we will definitely be having a party, with lots of beer, homebrew to be exact, stay tuned.....

As you all know Christmas is suddenly right around the corner. We have a new kit for anyone who would love to splurge on a gift for there loved one. It is called the Quintessential. It literally includes everything you will need for years of homebrewing success, a wort chiller, a boil pot, and lots more, all for $265 (what a deal!). And if you are just looking for a gift certificate for that special someone, we have them available on the front page of our website for $25, $50, $100 and $200.

Lots of people have also been asking about classes. Our next class is going to be on January 28th, at the Whole Foods Bowery location in the culinary center. Keep an eye out on there calender to see when tickets go on sale.

Some more fun news.... Justin and Tricia at Beer Table have been throwing around the idea of a South Brooklyn Homebrew club for a little while. A lot of you have been asking us if it could ever happen... and it looks like it will. The first Homebrew Workshop will be at Beer Table, Monday December 28th at 9pm (free), and this will likely be a monthly occurrence, with a professional on hand to answer questions. So grab your homebrew and we will see you there. Beer Table is also taking requests if anyone is looking for bottles, you can pick them up at the meeting (the bottles are awesome by the way), so shoot them an Email if your interested.

We are currently taking requests for things you would like us to carry in our new space. We are making our very own wish list which includes doubling our grain variety, finally carrying coffee and honey, and also expanding our spice selection (along with lots more equipment). We are taking a hiatus on adding any new products after this week but we are finally carrying Briess C-80 (crystal malt) and Oxygenation systems. We look forward to seeing everyone at the new space and we will be in touch!

P.S. Come see the lighting of the bottle tree this weekend!

Through the Looking Glass in 2 Pints or Less. Or... What's Wrong with My Camera?

2009-11-18T15:01:00.008-05:00

I had one of the most unique beers of my life yesterday. I wish I could remember what it was called, but it clouded my mind and judgement too much. Oh well. I'm sure you have all had similar experiences at some point in your lives.

In completely unrelated news, I have a new camera that I was trying to get the hang of..... on the way home from Wonderland (Manhattan) last night. Since I have no content of much value to put into this post, I thought I would just post some random photos. I have been old fashioned and stubborn..... slow to fully accept and embrace digital photography. But I must say that I have changed my mind. I am finally able to appreciate the "fruits of progress."

*Warning!- These photos are entirely unimpressive unless they are viewed through absinthe-colored glasses .

We hope to have some good news to report after Thanksgiving. We wish everyone a great holiday next week!

And just a reminder, we are Closed Tuesday Nov. 24 , through Friday Nov. 27

We will be open on Saturday and Sunday following Thanksgiving.

One gallon glass fermenters (great for test batches, or making some hard cider), 3 gallon carboys, 3 gallon Better Bottles, Turkey and more!

2009-11-08T14:17:00.013-05:00

We hope everyone is having a good November and getting ready for some Thanksgiving fun! We did want to remind everyone that we will be closed for 4 days the week of Thanksgiving, so don't forget to check the website!

For those of you who love beer can chicken

(and have always dreamed about what it would be like on steroids), or you are looking for the next best thing since the Turducken, then the Turkey Cannon is for you! I think it's going on our christmas list!

Other than the holiday season approaching quickly, we have lots of fun stuff going on in the store. We finally accept credit cards! Yeh! And we have lots of new products. We now have more all-grain friendly equipment, such as stainless steel ball-valves (spigots) so you can convert a 5 gallon or 10 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler into a Mash/Lauter Tun. When combined with a bazooka screen, you'll be all-grain brewing in no time.

Also, we now have environmentally friendly, LEAD-FREE Hydrometers and LEAD & MERCURY-FREE Thermometers. So if you break one by mistake, you won't have poisonous metals in your wort, or be adding more toxins to the local water supply & landfill.

Replacement gaskets, and "poppet" valves for Cornelius Kegs are now available.

Other new products include a Pure Oxygen System so you can be sure that your yeast is getting plenty of oxygen. It includes all the necessary tubing, plus a regulator, sanitary air filter, and a .5 micron stainless steel aeration stone. Just connect a small disposable pure oxygen tank that's available at Lowe's, and oxygenate your wort for 1-2 minutes.

We have the Fermtech Wine thief/Hydrometer test jar combo. You can put your hydrometer right inside the thief, insert it into your fermenter for a sample, take the gravity reading, then safely (assuming you have properly sanitized your gear) return the sample back into your fermenter.

There are many other new products, too numerous to mention them all here. New grain malts too including some Belgian Special B and Aromatic malt! And an ever-expanding list of hops. Check our web catalog for the low down.

We can't say it enough, THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! We know that we aren't the most convenient location for many of you, but without you we wouldn't be able to exist. We appreciate your patience while we grow. We just need all of you to keep making the trek down to Sunset Park for about 8 more weeks. Then we will make the big move to a better space that is sure to be more accessible to most of you. AND will allow us to better serve you, and offer a much wider variety of grains and equipment.

Email us photos of your homebrewing set-ups, finished beers, or still fermenting brews! We want to post some of them on our blog.

Just a 4 minute walk from the 59th St N R station, or the 53rd St R station!

Only 30 minutes or less from Union Square by way of the N express!

Halloween, Beer, Rock and Roll.

2009-10-23T13:34:00.009-04:00

Sorry there has been such a HUGE lag in between posts. We have been really busy. Thanks to all of you guys it looks like moving into a bigger space is going to happen sooner then later. So keep your eyes open for January!

It case you guys haven't realized it, fall is pretty much the best season ever. The temperatures have been great for brewing and drinking lots of beer. And it's almost Halloween! There is nothing quite like carving a pumpkin and drinking a beer. Or getting dressed up in a costume, going to see an amazing band, and also drinking lots of beer. And while Schlitz is an American classic.... (please refer to the picture above) there are even better brews for pumpkin carving parties.

Our favorite halloween brew is definitely Southern Tier's Pumking Ale. While we must agree there are some really awful pumpkin ales floating around out there (you know who you are), this beer kicks all their butts. It is truly like eating a slice of pumpkin pie.

And not that gross store bought pumpkin pie, but like the Thomas Keller of pumpkin pies. So please purchase yourself a glass next time you see it at a bar or get a bottle when you see it at the grocery store. I think even the skeptics would be pleasantly surprised.

As mentioned earlier..... the store is growing like mad. We have a few more recipe kits, lots of spices, the addition of 2000ML flasks and lots of other things. As always if you don't see something that you need, please let us know. We need to know everything you guys want us to carry in the bigger space! So please don't be scared to Email us. And in milling news, we are about to motorize it, making your wait shorter and our lives a whole heck of a lot easier.

We know that Thanksgiving is also right around the corner so we decided to list our holiday schedule. Here we go....

CLOSED

Tuesday November 24th - Friday November 27th

we will reopen with our normal hours November 28th

CLOSED

Thursday December 24th & Friday December 25th

For the ENTIRE month of December we will be extending our hours. So we will be open from Noon - 8PM Tuesday thru Sunday.

We hope this isn't all too confusing! It will be posted on the front page of our website until the end of the year. Thanks for all of the support everyone!

The Mortadella of Hot Dogs!

2009-09-29T18:36:00.005-04:00

So besides our normal update about things going on in the store, we wanted to give a shout out to, what are in our opinion, the finest hot dogs in Brooklyn. The folks over at Bark know what they are doing. Not only are they serving some amazing, homemade hot dogs, but the guys at Six Point Brewery managed to create the perfect hot dog beer, Bark's very own Red Ale. You can only get this delicious beer at Bark. Summer might be over, but hot dogs and beer should officially be added to your year round diet.

In business news, we have been super busy! Flying through products so fast!

We also have a whole mess of new products. We happy to announce the arrival of our first batch of this seasons new harvest hops. The prices are cheaper and the hops are finer. We have pellets and whole leaf and they smell fantastic! They are still packed in oxygen-barrier bags that are purged with inert gas, and then vacuum sealed, to preserve the hops original character. The only difference in packaging is that the bags are not light proof. However, since our hops are always stored in a dark freezer, and away from any fluorescent lights, that isn't an issue. Plus, you will be able to see the hops before you buy.

We have changed extract companies! We now carry Briess extracts! Right from its birthplace in Wisconsin into our hands. As fresh as they get. Each extract is individually packaged for us by the manufacturer in vapor resistant bags. Rather than bulk liquid extracts shipped from Europe, which then sits in a warehouse for weeks or months, before being sold...

We also have some new grains, rice hulls, corks for belgian bottles, Erlenmeyer Flasks on the way, and finally a Wine Equipment kit. We have also added a new Beer Equipment kit that only cost $40. It is called the Bare Bones, and it's for all you folks out there looking to try out homebrewing, without making too big of a commitment.

Besides the large selection of new products we have added, we have also added a new Search Box to the site, making it far more convenient to just look for a specific product. Since we have already began receiving Gift Certificate requests for the Holidays (oh no, is it that time already!), we have added a simple button to our Homepage allowing you to purchase Gift Certificates easily. Thanks everyone, we will be seeing you around....

Organic Hops, CO2, Test your Beer Knowledge.

2009-09-18T23:55:00.011-04:00

Check out our web-catalog if you haven't in a few days... We've added a few new Malts and Wyeast yeast strains. Just to name a couple: 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend and 2206 Bavarian Lager.

Just a reminder to some new comers, everything that you see on our web-catalog is available for purchase 6 days a week at our store. Some items are very popular and sell out fast, so feel free to phone first to be sure what you need is in stock. We will always try to accommodate your needs; if you want something that you don't see in our catalog, just ask. Chances are we can get it, usually in a week or less.

If you haven't visited the Great Brewers website yet, you should. Along with other great content, the Great Beer Test is a fun and challenging way to test your beer IQ. This isn't some watered down Facebook-style, "Will you survive the twinkie famine" quiz... This is a full-bodied beer test. Everything from beer history to brewing techniques. 50 to 100 questions. If you don't have an account at GreatBrewers.com, then you must create one....

Word on the street is that Simplex Fire Extinguisher Co. located at 1621 Mcdonald Ave, Brooklyn, NY‎ - (718) 998-1250 will REFILL your CO2 tank. No exchange required! They will fill your nice shiny 5 lb gas tank for $15.oo. Thanks for the tip D.S!

We heard your cries New York. From now on, nearly every hop that we sell comes to us directly from the Yakima Valley in Washington. From the vines right to us. These hops come direct from the farms, rather than a wholesalers' warehouse. All of our pelletized hops too. We will be able to package the hops at their peak of freshness. Homebrewers will get even fresher hops than before, and most importantly, at about half the price! All of our hops are still packaged in oxygen barrier bags that are first purged with inert gas, and then vacuum sealed and stored in the freezer.

And finally, congratulations to all of the winners of last weeks homebrew competitions! You guys all did really great. We are already looking forward to the competitions the next time around.

Happy Beer Week!

2009-09-11T14:24:00.011-04:00

Craft Beer Week is here! We bought our Passports the other day, and are really excited to use them! We highly recommend them. There are so many great deals, and some of the deals last all year! Plus $2 Pints at a bazillion bars!

Tonight we will begin our long week of beer drinking at Jimmy's No43, with the tapping of the NY3 Casks, free for Passport holders, and part of the Gotham Cask Festival. The NY3 has been custom brewed just for Beer Week. It's collaboration of Captain Lawrence, Ithaca, and Southhampton. The beer is a Belgian Style Amber, made with neighboring honey from each brewery, and it sounds so delicious! Everyone can buy this beer at bars through the city during Beer Week, so go find some, please. Make sure to check out all the events for Craft Beer Week here.

The shop will be closed this Sunday, due to the large amount of beer events we will be part of. We apologize ahead of time for an inconveniences we might cause!

We have added a few new items to the website such as a few adjuncts and The Carbonator. We will be adding sodas extracts in a few days, as well as introducing our first wine equipment kits. So check back!

Also, good luck to everyone who is competing this weekend in one of the homebrew competitions. We look forward to trying your brews! And if your not competing, don't forget to buy your tickets....

Chew N' Brew

Brooklyn Cheese Experiment

Competition time!

2009-09-04T14:55:00.004-04:00

Sunday September 13th is a VERY busy day. Craft Beer Week will be in full swing by then, and there will also be 2 Brooklyn homebrew competitions. The first one will be the Chew N Brew, located at The Diamond in Greenpoint. 8 teams will be pairing there homebrew with a homemade snack. Tickets are $25, and 90% of the sales go to BARC animal shelter in Williamsburg. We didn't get to attend the Chew N Brew last year, so we are very excited to be apart of it this year. You should join us in our excitement.....

The next competition is The Brooklyn Cheese Experiment. These guys did a really great job with the Beer Experiment that was held in June. The competition is being held at The Bell House again, which is an awesome venue. This time around the Amateur Chefs will be cooking up some cheesy delights, while local local homebrewers will be serving up the brews. The audience gets to vote for their favorite as well a panel of judges. There is also an after party including more beer and cheese. Tickets in advance are $20, and they sold out last time, so buy some ASAP!

Everything here at the store has been going great. People seem to be gearing up for there fall brews. We have just finished our first batch of Root Beer, and its really delicious. We will likely have some extract Root Beer and Ginger Beer kits for sale next week, so look out for them. We have justed launched our spice collection. It's small right now but will increase in the future, check it out here. We have also added a few new grains, and yeast strains, and will be adding more soon. The site has changed a little bit, so hopefully it is easier to navigate. Thanks everyone, and we will see you Wednesday at the MBAS meeting at Mugs!

Fresh Brooklyn Grown Hops

2009-08-30T00:01:00.004-04:00

We just wanted to thank one of our customers for bringing us these beautiful Cascade hops, that he grew in his backyard right here in Brooklyn. We love presents!

Thanks again Matt.

So next spring we should all consider planting a small hop crop in our yards, if you have a yard that is (we know that we don't). One plant can produce enough to keep one brewer supplied all year long. Unless you happen to be a very prolific homebrewer. Then you may need several plants.

Hey everyone! We want to thank all of our customers for getting us off to a great start, and helping us to grow quickly. If you homebrewers keep multiplying, we'll have that store up and running in no time. Thanks for all the support!

Craft Beer Week!

2009-08-19T17:02:00.007-04:00

Hey Everyone! Our Homebrew class is completed, and it's time to move on to the next big thing. Beginning September 11, is the 2nd Annual NY Craft Beer Week. We insist that everyone go to at least one event. Better yet buy one of the Passports, and get beer deals on tons of bars and lots of the festivities. You can drink yourself silly for the whole week! We can't wait for the Scary-Dive Bar Crawl or the Bike Brooklyn Beer Blitz. We hope to see some of you guys there.

And in homebrew supply news.....

We have redesigned our website! It looks much prettier now. It's also easier to navigate and look through the Products in stock. We have added some Gambrinus Munich malt, 6.5 gal Carboy's, Better Bottles and some Nottingham Ale dry yeast. So don't forget to check it out !

Tomorrow we will begin our protype Pumpkin Ale recipe kit! Fall is (sort of) around the corner and we can't wait!

We also wanted to let everyone know that we have been selling out of Equipment kits SO fast! We are so excited about all of the new homebrewers. We will continue to do our best keeping the kits in stock and look forward to bringing NYC a whole mess of new homebrewers.

And lastly, we were wondering if anyone knew a place that would refill CO2 tanks, without making you trade your nice, shiny new one for one of there old, cruddy ones. If so send us an Email. Thanks Everyone!

It's Better To Drink Beer After Exercise Than Water

2009-08-05T18:52:00.009-04:00

We have been meaning to post this for everyone for a while now. And we would like to thank Miss Mira for bringing this very important information to our attention. Here it is, the proof of course, that beer beats water....

"Researchers at Granada University in Spain have come across a discovery that will undoubtedly please athletes and sports enthusiasts - a pint of beer post-workout or match is better at rehydrating the human body than water.
Professor Manuel Garzon, a member of Granada's medical faculty, made the finding after tests on 25 students over several months. Researchers believe that it is the sugars, salts, and bubbles in a beer that may help people absorb fluids more quickly.
The subjects in the study were asked to run on a treadmill at temperatures of 104F (40C) until they were close to exhaustion. Once they had reached the point of giving up, researchers measured their hydration levels, motor skills, and concentration ability.
Half of the subjects were given two half pints of Spanish lager to drink, and the other half were given just water.
Garzon said that the rehydration effection in those who were given beer was "slightly better" than those who were given only water. He also believes that the carbon dioxide in beer helps quench thirst more quickly, and that beer's carbohydrates replace calories lost during physical exertion.
The average person loses around 1 liter (33oz) of water for every hour of exercise in sweat. Rehydrating after a workout is crucial, as a lack of hydration is more likely to make one feel tired, fuzzyheaded, and suffer from headaches.
Based on the results of the study, researchers recommend moderate consumption of beer as a part of athletes' diets. "Moderate consumption" for men is 500ml per day, and for women is 250ml per day.
So that explains why Babe Ruth was so good. His method of training was nearly 100 years ahead of its time."- article from The Cleveland Leader

If that doesn't make you tingle inside, we don't know what could....
Onto a different subject. Our first Homebrew class went incredibly smooth. We can't wait to taste the beer for the bottling class. We also wanted to thank everyone who participated, and we hope to inspire all of you to make a batch of beer at home.
We also have updated our product list. We will have a whole mess of new yeast strains, our debut of hop plugs, a few pieces of equipment, and some new grains coming next week. And we need to thank everyone who has been stopping by for products! Thank you for being so patient with us. We hope to be apart of the brew community for years to come.

Hasta Luego Good Beer Month!

2009-07-31T17:39:00.005-04:00

Wednesday nights Good Beer event at BAM was such a good way to say goodbye to Good Beer Month. Besides the enormous amount of delicious beer, there was so much amazing food. The Schnitzel Truck and their yummy crispy schnitzel, Gramercy Tavern's Kielbasa stuffed Pretzels and Palo Santo's Duck Curry with Roti, were some of our favorites. And we also wanted to thank everyone who took the time to have a chat with us. We hope to see you guys/gals in the future. Heres a video of some of the fun:

Bottoms Up! Edible's Good Beer at BAM Brew Event from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

For those of you who were interested in our class on Monday August 3rd at Beer Table, tickets are still on sale, so buy them up! We will also be updating our website sometime next week with more new products, so keep in touch. Thanks everyone!

Classes and Stuff

2009-07-27T11:11:00.013-04:00

Several people have asked us when we will be teaching classes, well our first class is upon us! Beginning August 3rd, we will be teaching a 2 part brew class.

The first class, August 3rd, we will be covering the process of brewing your wort, which will be a German Weizen, and all the fun things to begin the fermenting process. The second class, on August 17th, will be a lesson on bottling and tasting the final product.If you are interested in joining us for this class you can buy you tickets here or visit the Beer Table website for more information. The tickets will cost $70 for 2 classes and some delicious homebrew.

Also, don't forget to join us for Good Beer at BAM this Wednesday, July 26th. If you have not bought tickets yet and are interested in joining us, send us an Email for a discount code. Drink our homebrew paired with Schnitzel from The Schnitzel Truck. Yum!

Products have been selling fast! We want to thank everyone who has stopped by and picked up a few things. We hope to see you all in the future. We added a bunch of new products to the list, as well as a new fancier equipment kit. We also decided to do a feature yeast on our website. That yeast is the Belgian Saison, which turns out to be a great yeast to use during these hot summer days. So check it out!

Website Launch

2009-07-20T23:41:00.009-04:00

Brooklyn Homebrew

It's finally time! We decided to make a REAL website. Not only does it have a link to this blog, and also some of the same information, it also has our PRODUCT LIST! Thats right, everything that we finally have for sale, prices and all. So please take a look, check it out, and let us know what you need. And if you are not on our Email list yet, just send us a quick Email, you are not even expected to write anything. So please add www.Brooklyn-Homebrew.com to your bookmarks.

We also wanted to remind everyone that we will be at Good Beer at BAM next wednesday, July 29th. We will be serving homebrew, Grammercy Tavern will also be serving homebrew, and there will be a whole mess of breweries there ( Brooklyn, Southhampton, Kelso, Six Point & many more) as well as alot of delicious food. Your money will benefit Added Value and Just Food. So buy your tickets, then come and say hello to us.

Yeast is here!

2009-07-16T13:18:00.006-04:00

Hey Everyone! We wanted to let everyone know that our first yeast delivery is here!

So it's time to start cashing in those certificates. Let us know what you would like. We

can bring them to the NYCHG meeting on Tuesday July 21st, you can come and pick

them up, or we can set them aside for when you might like to place an ingredient order.

We will be getting the remainder of our ingredients on Monday July 20th. We will have

grains, hops, malt extract, sugars, sanitizer and lots of equipment. We will likely be

placing an inventory list on Monday night, but if there is anything you are hoping we will

have, let us know and we will set it aside if we have it available. We will currently only

be accepting Certificates and Cash. We will also be offering a prize for the raffle at the

NYCHG meeting this Tuesday. So come on down and participate!

And lastly we wanted to thank Jason of Sustainabrew, for writing a very nice entry about

Brooklyn Homebrew and it's mission to reduce any negative impact we have on the environment. Thanks

for everything everyone!

Wyeast ACTIVATOR^TM For Beer, 125 ml

Minimum of 100 billion cells, READY TO PITCH; plus an internal nutrient packet.

Designed to inoculate 5 gallons of wort (up to 1.065 SG) providing

the pitching rate recommended by professional brewers. Click on each strain

for a full description.

1272 All-American Ale

1275 Thames Valley Ale

2112 California Lager

2308 Munich Lager

1214 Belgian Ale

1762 Belgian Abbey Ale II

3522 Belgian Ardennes

3724 Belgian Saison

3942 Belgian Wheat

3944 Belgian Witbier

3056 Bavarian Wheat Blend

3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

3333 German Wheat

3638 Bavarian Wheat

Wyeast Nutrient for Beer and Wine, 1.5 oz tubes

For rapid and complete fermentation. Contains vitamins,
minerals, inorganic nitrogen (DAP), organic nitrogen (amino acids),
zinc, phosphates, and other trace elements.
$2.00 each

Finally an update!

2009-07-11T17:11:00.012-04:00

We apologize for the long delay in updates! We have been selling a lot of certificates and have all of you to thank for that. We have been working really hard and as fast as possible to give you the storefront you have been dreaming of.

If working in professional kitchens has taught us anything it's that if you want the best final product, you need the best ingredients AND equipment. So this week we received our JSP MaltMill and it's as beautiful as we hoped, "Jack Schmidling from Chicago designed and markets a two roller mill that turns out textbook quality milled grain in minutes. If you're a serious brewer have your grain professionally milled or better yet buy the MALTMILL.".

We also wanted to give everybody at the Malted Barley Appreciation Society a big thanks! Especially Alan Rice for having us, and Brian Ewing and his wife from 12 Percent Imports. Brian brought some amazing Belgian beers to try, with hefty pours, and we hope to work with him in the near future.

Brooklyn Homebrew also had a small feature on TimeOut NY this week! We are overwhelmed by everyones support. Thank you all so very much. We promise to keep working as hard as we can and we hope to be the first choice for all of your homebrewing needs.

P.S. Certificates are still on sale! But not for much longer...

We are getting closer every day!

2009-06-27T17:12:00.008-04:00

Check back soon. We will have some grain malts, hops, yeast, malt extract, equipment kits, and an assortment of other necessities for sale before the end of the month! And don't forget, July is Good Beer Month, so be sure to enjoy some good beer. Not that we need to twist your arm......

0 certificates remaining! Thanks Everyone!

We have a special offer that is mutually beneficial to you, the homebrewers, and to us. You get up to $20.00 in FREE homebrewing supplies when you buy either a $40.oo or an $80.00 certificate. And we get to start doing business that much sooner! Yes, there is a catch. You have to wait until we officially open to use the certificate, but the quicker we sell 200 (or the equivalent) of these certificate, the quicker we can open this store front for you to start shopping!

Best of all we guarantee the certificate for a full refund of the purchase price if for some reason we do not open for business at all by 06/01/2010. But that won't happen will it? Because you all want us to open next month, right?!

The certificates have no cash value and can only be redeemed at Brooklyn Homebrew. Depending on which certificate you choose, each one only costs you $40.00 or $80.00 but will be good for $50.oo-$100.oo respectively worth of homebrewing equipment, ingredients, books, honey, or coffee.

PayPal is free for you to use and gives you a receipt via e-mail. When you pay for your voucher, we will just need to know if you would prefer a printable certificate sent by e-mail or a voucher sent to you via traditional mail. If you forget, we will just automatically e-mail it to you. Then just print your certificate from the attachment. The BUY NOW buttons are to the right of this post.

This program is so important to our success. I know it requires you to put a great deal of trust in two strangers, but you won't regret your decision. Tell as many people as you know who may be interested! You all can help us get the word out about this special offer. This is a great deal but it won't last forever. Buy as many as you want, they will NEVER expire. Tell your loved ones too so they can buy you a few Homebrew Bucks as a gift! This idea was suggested by some of you homebrewers so now its time to put it to the test.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to e-mail us at brooklynhomebrew@gmail.com

Thanks everyone!

Our Mission

Brooklyn Homebrew’s mission is to provide all of New York City’s Homebrewers with a retail store that offers a wide range of the freshest hops, yeast, grain malts, malt extracts, honeys, and spices available. In addition, we strive to offer all of the necessary equipment for both the novice homebrewer and the experienced professionals. Brooklyn Homebrew will introduce and educate a new generation of people to brewing beer at home. We will establish an ongoing dialogue with our customers in an effort to better serve them and assure a high rate of repeat business. Most importantly, we will strive to make the establishment as environmentally friendly as possible, acknowledging the importance of reducing our carbon footprint as well as reducing waste and water consumption.

Want to know more about us?

2009-06-26T15:56:00.001-04:00

Both Danielle and I are professionally trained chefs who have been working in restaurants for the past 8 years. We've also been homebrewing for the past 8 years whenever we had the time and money to do so. In all of that time we've made dozens of different styles, using a wide variety of ingredients. From fresh apples to make hard cider, to Bing cherries to make a Belgian Ale. We've made a couple of batches of wine as well. Fortunately, even after all of that we've never had an undrinkable batch that had to be tossed out. Cleanliness is close to Godliness when it comes to brewing! Besides beer we love Rock n' Roll, photography, and of course cooking.

Market research day.

2009-06-21T11:50:00.006-04:00

We wanted to thank everyone from the NYC Homebrewers Guild meeting on Tuesday. It was very educational and we got to meet some fun people. Here is the survey we were talking about.

1. Do you use pellet, whole, or hop extract?

2. Do you brew all-grain, from malt extract, or from both?

3. Do you use beer flavoring additives such as flavored syrups and extracts?

4. What is the batch size that you normally brew? 5 gal, 10 gal, etc.

5. Do you prefer dry, pitchable vials, or liquid smack-pack yeast?

6. Do you ever use make a yeast starter culture before pitching?

7. What neighborhood do you currently live in?

8. What piece of brewing equipment are you currently dreaming of having?

9. If you brew with spices, which spices do you like to use the most?

10. Are you excited about a local homebrew supply shop?

11. Do you buy grain malts or extracts in bulk or by the pound?

12. How many times a year do you brew?

So please copy, paste, and email it back to us.

Camels drink beer too!?

2009-06-14T17:14:00.004-04:00

We wanted to thank everyone for all of the responses we have been getting and we are happy that you are excited too! In the coming days we will be posting a survey for whom ever would like to take it. We are just looking for a little bit more information about your homebrewing habits, and some of the products you like to use.

On Tuesday we will be attending our first NYC Homebrewers Guild meeting at Burp Castle. We look forward to meeting some of you there.

We will also be participating in Good Beer at BAM, courtesy of Edible Brooklyn. We will be there to pass out some cards, answer questions and hopefully pour some delicious homebrew. Buy your tickets now before they sell out. It is sure to be an awesome time.

Stay tuned for your survey.....

Homebrewers of the world unite and take over!

2009-06-07T17:16:00.005-04:00

Congratulations to all of the winners and participants of the Brooklyn Beer Experiment today at the Bell House! We want to give a special "three cheers!" of recognition to women brewers. They were representing today and won prizes in two categories with their "Pocket full of Sunshine" ale. More of you ladies out there should start brewing beer.

My personal favorites included the winner of the first place crowd favorite award, the Airmail IPA, and the sadly unrecognized Mad Elephant Indian Pale Ale.

If anyone hears word of anymore upcoming homebrew competitions in town, send us an email and we'll spread the word.

Interested in making your own beer and saving $$$ ??

2009-06-06T21:23:00.006-04:00

If you are interested in learning how to make delicious high quality beer at home, and save money while doing it, check out How to Brew. By author John Palmer, this book has everything you need to know to get started brewing, and there are plenty of nuggets of knowledge for the advanced brewers too. It is completely free to read the book online, and even print pages that you find useful! And don't forget, it costs as little as $3 (sometimes less) per six-pack to make your own beer, versus $10-$12 of a comparable beer from the grocery store. Homebrew is fresher, more flavorful, unfiltered, and unpasteurized. As a result you'll benefit from the live yeast in the finished beer, which is one of the richest and most complete sources of vitamin B complex!

Stay tuned for some fun from The Brooklyn Beer Experiment tomorrow.

Working hard for the brewers

2009-05-11T19:14:00.008-04:00

Sorry we haven't posted in so long. We have been working so hard!! Trying our hardest to get this thing going. The plan is almost completed. We have most of our purveyors lined up. And we are closing in on the area where we want to open. We will do what we must. And in lighter news Benjamin is working on his all grain Nut Brown Ale, yummm. See you guys when we have got more news.

Free Beer?! I wish...

2009-03-07T13:56:00.010-05:00

We are well on our way!

We are scoping out locations right now. From Williamsburg, to Park Slope, to Red Hook. We can't decide! We just want it to be easily accessible to the whole city, and of course affordable for us. Benjamin's all-grain Pilsner is healthy and will be ready shortly. Check back for more updates....

Brew store here we come!

2009-03-02T17:17:00.008-05:00

Hey everyone! We are Benjamin and Danielle. This will be our exciting new venture into opening the very first Homebrew Supply store in Brooklyn NY. Here we will post everything we are doing, what we will be selling, how the store will look and of course, eventually, our chosen location. We really look forward to finally supplying this city with a homebrewers paradise. Keep coming back for updates!

2009-03-02T17:11:00.004-05:00

Welcome to our blog! This is where you can find out all of the upcoming information on our HomeBrew Supply store we will be opening in the next few month.