Bring on The Rot.

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.

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

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!

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?

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!