Today is the big day, RI Brew Fest! Tickets have completely sold out, and we are gearing up to serve (limited) quantities of our home brew. Hope to see you there, and enjoy the great beer, music, and enjoy the festivities!
February Meeting
Valentines day is really just a day for us to reaffirm our love affair with beer and brewing. Sorry to spouses/significant others, we’re cheating on you….with beer.
Our next meeting is February 14th (7:30PM) at Trinity Brew House in Providence. We’ll meet downstairs in the large corner with the banner. If you walk down stairs we’ll be on the right. Feel free to bring your SO’s and just tell them it’s a beer banquet if they argue or ask for a nice dinner out on the town.
Also, only 8 Days until the Rhode Island Brew Festival at the Pawtucket Armory. It’s not too late to get your tickets! If you’re already going, drop by our table to meet a few of us and sample some brews. We’ll also have fun brewing anecdotes and great company to offer.
Winter Warmers Stouts and Porters.
Winter has definitely set in, we here at RIBS thought it would be in true fashion to celebrate the long cold days by brewing Winter Warmers, Stouts and Porters. It is a well known fact that a bold dark beer goes well by the fire as the snow falls outside. Several months back the group decided that to do quarterly brew-offs where brew beer based on a particular theme/style which we will bring to one of our meetings. At the meeting we will try all the beers made for the challenge and pick our favorite one. This was the first time as group we have competed against each other (in a friendly manner of course). It was a neck and neck battle between a Breakfast stout by Nate and a Milk Stout by Armando. It was Nate who had the last (and tie breaking) vote, which he magnanimously cast in Armando’s favor. Truly a class act. Armando took home first place with his Milk Stout, we had Nate in a close second with his Breakfast Stout.
Armando proudly wearing his badge of honor.
On to some other news, if you haven’t heard, Rhode Island Brew Fest is coming on Feb 2nd to the Pawtucket Armory(right over the Providence line). This is the first RI Brew Fest event, which does make for a nice chaser to Beervana(Rhodes on the Pawtuxet) and the International Beer Festival(RI Convention Center). So far, 30 local craft breweries are signed up for what is promising to be a great inaugural showing. RIBS is honored to be a part of this fantastic event. We will have a booth giving out group information, answering your home brewing questions, (possibly) pretzel necklaces and we will also have a very limited supply of some of our own home brews for sampling. You can get more information about the RI Brew Fest along with tickets at their site. They are also offering Designated Driver tickets at a discounted price which is just one more reason to stay safe. Follow our Facebook, Twitter and G+ for updates from the festival….or better yet, get a ticket and join us!
Till next time, Cheers!
AHA Club of the Week
It is the new year and what a way to start it, RI Brewing Society was chosen to be American Home brewers Association Club of the Week! So if you don’t frequent the AHA home page on a regular basis it is worth a look to see what RIBS is all about. The full article is here.
Happy Holidays!
From all of us at the Rhode Island Brewing Society we want to wish you a happy safe holiday season.
Meeting Update
This is the month to celebrate, friends, family and of course good beer. In the spirit of celebration, RIBS will be having a members only event instead of our normal monthly meeting, sorry kids. So please continue to email us or check out this page for details on the next meeting and how you can become a super awesome member.
Yeast Starters
I just wanted to make a quick post about the importance of a yeast starter. While I am preaching to the choir on this one, since it is universally accepted that yeast starters are important for building healthy hardy colonies and can really help your beer get off to a good start. I am also going to go out on a limb and say that for mainly 2 reasons we don’t make them; first reason is some people don’t know how or why it is so important to make a yeast starter, and second, some times we’re all a little lazy.
While I cannot help you be more motivated I can give you a little background on my weekend of brewing. Last week I started working on a stir plate, a simple DIY project with a few spare parts, that will only run you $15 rather than $35-75 store bought version. The idea was simple build a stir plate, learn why yeast starters were important, make a yeast starter and compare the results from my prior brews. I went to work and made a yeast starter and threw it up on the stir plate for about 20 hours. I brewed a simple ale and pitched my yeast; to my surprise I had activity in the airlock within 2 hours. I am excited to see how the beer will come out as a result of using the starter, I will keep everyone posted.
Pro tip: Remove the stir bar from the flask before dumping the yeast into the wort. ::sigh::
If you are looking to learn more on making starters head over to brew365 or howtobrew.com
Cheers
Charlie
BlueHills Brewery
It has been some time since our last brewery tour, we had enjoyed the BlueHills brews at a Johnson and Wales beer tasting several moths back. So we thought we would head up to the brewery and check’em out here.
In Beer We Trust.
Every two years, in the waning days of the fall we hear the constant political drumbeat assaulting our brains through every channel possible. Some years it’s louder than others. This year it’s like having your head between the double kick drums of Lars Ulrich back in the days of Master of Puppets.
Some of you may be pretty jaded by now because of all the false promises, mud-slinging and pandering in the national spot light. And truthfully I wouldn’t blame you for feeling that way, but I’m obliged to point out, that though the political arena may be a two ring circus, it is still our duty to vote. Aside from contributing to a healthy democracy and the strength of our nation, a few very simple reasons come to mind: Continue reading
Beervana, ahh the fuzzy memories.
Beervana 2012 has come and gone and boy was it was a really good time. We would like to personally thank the staff of Pretty Things Brewery and Garrett Oliver for their inspirational, humorous and informative lectures. I don’t want to leave out the venders and staff members that could make Beervana such a great night. The newest set of pictures are up from Beervana check them out here.