More news about hop shortages, this time via an NPR story this morning

Give a listen here.

I have grown some hops the last few years as a homebrewer, but have placed
an order for a whole lot more of various hop rhyzomes to plant in Spring 2008
for cultivation and use.




It may take a second season before I have a decent yield, and even then -- even at
my small scale of brewing -- I'll likely need to purchase hops.

There might be a bit less of the hoppy Long Island Pale Ale 2 than I had hoped.

Tags: Hops

Have been debating about changing the recipe for the Long Island Pale Ale, which has been -- during my homebrewing days -- a hoppy India Pale Ale rather than a less-hoppy American Pale Ale.

I enjoy both styles, and so have decided to split the Blind Bat Long Island Pale Ale into two different beers.

Long Island Pale Ale (sailboat) will be an American Pale Ale.
Long Island Pale Ale 2 (speedboat) will be a higher-ABV, hopped up IPA.

This is all, of course, pending a license being granted by NY State as well as label approval by the Federal TTB. While a license to brew has been granted by the Federal TTB, each and every beer offered for sale needs label approval (which also includes ingredients and recipe approval -- for the protection of a nation of beer drinkers).

Tags: Hops, Pale Ale, IPA

Well, I obviously haven't been keeping up with the Brewhouse Blog,
so to quickly recap what's been happening since August 31st:

1. 
   
2. Completed paperwork for NY State License (round 2).
   
   
3. Submitted paperwork for NY State License to the New York State Liquor Authority ("gotta be in it to win it")
   
   
4. Filed first quarterly report to the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury). Even though there was no activity to report, a report had to be filed.
   
   
5. Unable to brew while State license is pending, so have been dreaming of milling grains, mashing, boiling, pitching yeast, kegging, and bottling.
   
   Oddly enough, haven't had any dreams of cleaning and sanitizing equipment. And that's the fun part!
   
   
6. With help of my Dad, Brother, and Brother-In-Law (the foreman), have built an insulated, temperature-controlled fermentation room (happy yeast makes happy beer) and brewhouse in what had been our circa 1928 garage.
   
   
7. Assembling stainless-steel conical fermenter.
   
   
8. Getting ready to file official TTB form (Brewers Notice) reporting items 5 and 6 above.
   
   
9. Met up a couple of times with the Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts. I haven't been able to meet up with the group nearly as often as I would like (work + brewery startup + some life = notmuchtimetospare).
   
   If you live on Long Island, and enjoy good beer and/or whiskey and/or scotch, check out http://groups.google.com/group/beermalt . You might want to join up. A great bunch of folks, bringing a wealth of perspective, knowledge, and appreciation of the finer things in life. And, it's fun! ....Tell 'em the Blind Bat sent ya.
   

Tags: Paperwork, Licensing