It’s good to know that if vampires ever become a problem, the brewers at Clown Shoes Brewing have you covered. The Second Anniversary Ale Vampire Slayer Smoked Imperial Stout, is brewed with dark malt, holy water, and malt smoked with hickory, beechwood, and vampire killing stakes (I’m hoping these stakes are made of oak, but the fact that it is brewed with holy water makes me feel safer…). Clown Shoes Brewing’s story is an interesting one. They were founded by Jesse Dooley, Gregg Berman, and former Head Brewer Dan Lipke of Ipswich Ale Brewery. Ultimately Jesse Dooley was a manager at a liquor store owned by Gregg Berman. As Jesse began successfully integrating more and more microbrewed beer into the shop, Gregg took notice. They started mulling the idea of creating their own beers to stock in the store with their distributing license. Once they found Dan a brewery was born. They’ve got some great beers (an overall average of 3.9 on Beer Advocate) and some great marketing. Best of luck to these guys!
Dry Hopped Bud Light?
I know what you are thinking…. Mmmmmmm……DELICIOUS! Haha. Well in all seriousness, this actually is a great idea for peeps looking to improve their dry hopping skills/build a knowledge base on what multiple varieties of hops taste like when dry hopped. For ~$15 you can buy some premium quality American Lager (snicker ;)) and enough hops (roughly a gram each) to dry hop each bottle. Scott from BertusBrewery.com did an excellent write up of his experiment with this process with a 12 pack of Bud Light. The beauty of this experiment is that Bud Light is so mild that the hops stand way out. Simply recap your bottles after adding each hop, and let them sit for a couple of days. You can crash out any free floating hop particles by letting your bottles sit overnight in the fridge. You can view the entire article on this process at BertusBrewery.com.
NoAdhesive Homebrew Labels
I just stumbled across this product late last week. NoAdhesive.com has a great solution for homebrewers who would like to create their own beer labels. Its a super simple solution. You create your own label using whatever means you like (Beerlabelizer.com, Freelabelmaker.com, MSPaint, Instagram, or finger paint :)), then you print off the label, then you take your custom label and slip it under a NoAdhesive Label sleeve and dip it into boiling water to shrink wrap it to your bottle! The result is a professional looking beer label that will survive the scurge of any cooler you store your precious brews in.
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Cleanup is great too. You don’t have to worry about wax or glue scumming up your bottles when you want to re-use them. Just cut off the old label and add a new one. Simple idea, but very useful for those that want to add a personal touch to their beer. No-Adhesive has a list of retailers you can purchase these sleeves through, but they will also send you a free sample if you are interested.
The TapIt Cap
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Robert Scott of Denver, Colorado has created something great for craft beer lovers. Have you ever wondered what the shelf life of beer in a growler is? Once your growler has been opened, you can pretty much expect your beer to start losing carbonation similar to that of a 2-liter bottle of pop. Using the TapIt Cap you are literally converting your growler into a mini keg system that preserves your beer from oxidation, but also maintains pressure for perfect pours every time. Great idea! These would be great for 1 gallon growlers as well as 1/2 gallon growlers. If you are interested in supporting this idea, stop by Robert’s Kickstarter page and show the TapIt Cap some love. You can also follow the TapIt Cap on Twitter. This will be an interesting product to watch in the months to come. Best of luck to these guys!
BIMP Nut Brown Ale
Fountain Square Brewing’s 2nd Annual Peep Show!
Fountain Square Brewery will be holding their 2nd Annual Peep Shooting Contest on March 29th @ 7pm. This event was a big hit last year. Entrants into this Peep propulsion extravaganza are judged on Accuracy, Creativity, and “Total Annihilation.” Ultimately each entrant designs a Peep Shooting weapon of their choice (although they cannot use anything flammable or explosive) to fire at a target 35 feet away. Their registry page even has a drop-down field that lists the categories of über-Peep shooting power your weapon uses to mangle the poor Peeps: Mechanical, Magnetic, Pneumatic, and Hydraulic. Creativity is encouraged. You can register for the event here. Looking forward to this event. See you there!
BIMP Participating at the 3rd Annual Bloomington Craft Beer Festival
Beer Is My Passion will be pouring at the 3rd Annual Bloomington Craft Beer Festival on April 13th at the historic Woolery Stone Mill. We’ve got some great beers to share for the event! Our booth will be open from 4:00pm to 5:00pm at the homebrewer clubs section of the event. Expect plenty of beer from breweries spanning across Indiana, along with live music from The Secret B-Sides and 220 Breakers. Tickets are onsale now through the Brewers of Indiana Guild website. There are three tiers of tickets: $50 for VIP (for entrance at 3pm instead of 4pm), $35 for General Admission, and $10 for a Designated Driver ticket. A portion of each ticket sale will be donated to the Monroe County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Here are some great photos taken by Ryan Dorgan from last years event!
Oak, Bourbon, and Homebrew Volume I
John Byer of Great Fermentations recently posted a helpful article on the basics of oaking beer. John is currently helping lead GF’s wood aging project, which has already led to a pretty fantastic Templeton Rye Barrel Aged Imperial Porter. This project will definitely be something to watch in the months/years to come. There has even been some speak of lambics and sours in the future. Here’s his post via GF’s blog:
