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 is just a few short hours away and as I sit at my desk trying to avoid work I keep thinking to myself: ‘self, you should really take notes this time so you remember what beers you drank’ But then I know in the back of my head that I’ll probably forget the notebook anyway and I should just enjoy the beer, especially since we’ve arranged group transportation.

Hopefully we’ll see some of you there. We’ll all be wearing our club shirts so feel free to say hello. Don’t forget to let someone else do the driving so you can enjoy the beer.

Fall is upon us and with the brisk air comes Beervana, tickets are available now at their website. They are going to offer educational seminars with Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery and Dann & Martha Paquette from Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project. Also a long list of breweries available here, hope to see you all there.

This is our last meeting at the East Ave Cafe then its back to Trinity Brew house. So come join us for our monthly meeting!

Going forward it will be back to Thursday’s at 7pm for the meeting.

We have our first group brew bottle conditioning and I will say that for bottling we had a pretty productive day with 90 bottles cleaned and capped. The beers that we put together were the RIBS red which was an interesting blend of a red ale with Dan’s home made BBQ sauce. The second beer was the Belgian white IPA WIPA Snappa.

We had tons of fun doing it, and I think we all learned a lot from each other in the process. It was really interesting to see how each of us take different approaches to brewing. This was the first and surely won’t be the last.

Have a look at the album here.

This was our 3rd year participating in Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire. We met some cool people, talked beer all day, made two batches of beer and overall had a blast!

See the pics here.

This month we’ll be meeting at Doherty’s East Ave Cafe (http://dohertys.com/) on the back porch at 7PM.

 Gather round fine libators and let me regale ye with a story of old as it was told to me by a fair lady who knew of the brewing process. As legend would have it the Pilgrims who sailed from England on the fine vessel named the Mayflower settled Plymouth for one simple reason….BEER! The geography and geology support this claim. The water is the right hardness and the soil is ideal for growing the finest of barley. Just one more piece in America’s rich beer history.

Now we flash forward to modern times. During which a man tired of his 9-5 job decided to start a brewery and live the good life. (As we all have thought about at one time or another) Fast forward 8 years later and we find ourselves touring a fine facility boasting a 20 Bbl brewing capacity. With a number of 40-100Bbl fermenters at the facility, distribution in MA, NH, RI is no problem for this craft brewery.

Having done a fair amount of beer exploring I was no stranger to Mayflower brews, though for the most part they were the mainstream year round ones. Not that they’re not all solid players, but I have to say the seasonal line up was quite enjoyable. For my money I especially liked the Summer Belgian Rye Ale. It was crisp and refreshing as a Belgian should be but with a nice hop aroma that danced on the back of your palette.

Video: Tour Highlights

Gallery: Mayflower tour

All in all I would recommend doing the tour and the tasting, both were very informative and a good way to spend a Saturday. Till we sail again, stay quenched.

Cheers!