Past Events
Meet-up at the Landmark Resort
Epic would describe the generosity of the Landmark Resort's Shae Dannemiller at the most recent meet-up of the MB Craft Beer crowd. Great beer, great food and a great time was had by all.
On January 15, 2011, we had our first get-together of the year.
Myrtle Beach Beer Festival Recap
Check out the photo slideshow from the Myrtle Beach Beer Festival
The Second Annual Myrtle Beach Beer Festival - presented by Piggly Wiggly at Market Commons and the Weekly Surge was on March 26 from 5PM - 9PM and March 27 from 12PM - 7PM. They moved to a new format this year with the purchase of tickets and the sale of 4 oz. pours for $1-$6 per pour. This new format actually worked well for this area. The fact that there was no entrance/ticket fee, encouraged the curious, as well as some families and an older crowd - at least until about 4PM.
We missed Friday night, although we drove by and it was quite busy by 5:30 p.m. We heard from several people that Friday night, while less crowded than Saturday afternoon, turned into a huge party.
We arrived Saturday morning and began to set up at 10 AM. Mike Shank, the event promoter/organizer was helpful in showing us where to go and offered any of the resources available to all vendors. Kevin and I set up our booth at the very end of the gazebo and put together the brew setup. Andrea and Gus put together the pretzel side of the booth and we settled in.
When the gates opened we trekked across Valor Park to buy tasting glasses and tickets. $3 for a glass then we bought some tickets and we were on our way.
This event was the debut of Dogfish Head beers on the Grand Strand. So we went there first. I ordered a Palo Santo Marron, and it was delicious. We are grateful to finally have the option of drinking beers from this fine craft brewery here at the beach. We visited their booth several times throughout the day.
We tried a variety of beers throughout the day including: Victory Helios, De Proef Van Twee (yum), DFH 90 Minute, Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous, Mendocino Double IPA, Meantime Porter, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, Terrapin Hopsecutioner, Woodchuck Cider, Victory Old Horizontal, Hoppin' Frog Hop Dam Triple IPA, Deus Brut ($6 - 4 oz. wow!),Oskar Blues Gordon and Mama's Little Yella Pils. We missed the Smutty Nose Wheat Wine, the Southern Tier and the Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Stout.
Around 4 PM we began to notice that the crowd had become much younger and there seemed to be much more drinking going on. This isn't a problem for me, although the lines and the crowds did get pretty crazy. I did rather enjoy watching a VERY drunk festival goer fall down on his face. He got up, dusted himself off and stumbled away amid the laughter.
Glad to see the turnout and the consumption of craft beer here in MB. Whether or not everyone truly appreciated said craft beers is open to interpretation, but we feel confident that folks had a wonderful time while enjoying some great beer.
The brew day went exceptionally smooth for having to pack and unpack and setup all our gear out of our normal environment. We did a one-step infusion mash at 154F (actually went down to 148F over the course of the mash despite our best attempts at bringing the heat up). We double batch sparged and collected around 8 gallons of wort that we boiled for 90 minutes. At 60 mins. we added an ounce of Perle, then the Saaz additions came at 30, 15 and 0 minutes. Not having access to a hose to operate the wort chiller, we chose instead a no-chill method. We let the kettle and wort cool down naturally for about an hour and then poured the approx. 120F wort into the better bottle.
It survived the ride home and it sat overnight in the chest freezer with the Johnson controls set on 42F. I woke up at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday and saw that it had hit it's target temperature. I pitched the gallon starter that had been in the fridge for 24 hours and capped it up and went back to bed.
Happy to report that since gradually raising the temp up to 50F over the course of two days, it is now at a steady 50F and bubbling vigorously.
We thank everyone that came out, including Jeff, Gabe, Lynn, Cheryl, Tony, Sabrina, Jared, Gordon, Jamie, Gary, Greg, Matthew, Tom, Peter, Mike, Jeremy, Nicole, Becky, Debbie, Phil, Jean and Debbie (II). If I forgot anyone, I humbly apologize. Also, many thanks to John who donated some Saaz hops and a fire extinguisher and Gabe, who brought 3 pounds of Pilsner malt (it's better to have too much, right?).
Check out the photo slideshow from the Myrtle Beach Beer Festival
Check out the slideshow from our first homebrew club meeting!
Watch Jasper the puppy going nuts after eating the spent grain from our club brew.
Watch part 2 here.
Post-Brewvival Rundown (3/1/10):
Read the post-brewvival brief here
Flying Dog Tasting at Surf Beverage
February 5, 2010
Flying dog beers were the focus of the tasting held on a rainy Friday night at Surf Beverage. Reid from Better Brands Distributing was pouring samples of Flying Dog Hefeweizen, Flying Dog Pale Ale, Garde Dog Biere de Garde, Snake Bite IPA, Amber Ale and the Flying Dog Blond Ale.
I would've loved to seen them pouring some samples of their Canis Major line which include their Gonzo Porter, Double Pale Ale, Cerebrus Tripel, and Barleywine, which I believe to be pretty outstanding beers. Thank you to Richard at Surf Beverage and Reid at Better Brands. We hope some eyes and tastebuds were opened to craft beer.
Lighthouse Beer Festival in Wilmington, NC
October 18, 2009
Unlike the torrential downpours of the previous year, the 2009 Lighthouse Beer Festival enjoyed seasonably warm weather. In addition to the weather, this year's beer fest was a huge party.
As folks lined up to get into the festival, the police were confiscating the Bud Lights (not a good sign of things to come) of those who simply couldn't wait to get in and start slamming beers.
OK, so maybe slamming beers is never the sole purpose of a beer fest featuring brewers such as Dogfish Head, Stone, Sierra Nevada, Eel River, etc., but some of these revelers made sure that even some of the highest ABV sippers were pounded in record time.
On a serious note, there were some great beers at this year's fest and we are sure to return. One-way trip from North Myrtle Beach to Wilmington, NC is less than one hour.
Some stand-out moments include drinking New South's IPA served on nitro (beergas) and talking with owner Dave. The keg of Sexual Chocolate hidden underneath the table at the Foothills booth - and can't forget the mix of Sexual Chocolate and Hoppyum IPA served to me by Scott.