Brewing Up A Celebration - Baltimore Style - National Resort & Spa | Examiner.com

BC's craft beer boom fuelled by homebrewers |2| Brewed Awakening blog | The Province

13-14, 1814. As part of the Star Spangled Summer celebration, Baltimore craft breweries are offering a variety of beverages for locals and visitors to toast the Anthem and Americas victory (again) over Great Britain in the War of 1812 , which ended in December 1814. For example, with 12 percent patriotism in every standard drink, Baltimore-based Union Craft Brewings Anthem Golden Ale is a light golden ale brewed with American grown barley, wheat, corn, and oats, and lightly hopped with Columbus for bittering and a kiss of floral Mosaic. For a stronger taste of Baltimore try Flying Dogs Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale, launching this weekend for summer distribution in New York, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and North Carolina. If there is anything better than Baltimore brew, its Maryland blue crabs. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Old Bay, Flying Dog Brewmaster Matt Brophy traveled to Baltimore to meet with the flavouring expert of McCormick, the iconic Maryland company that began in Baltimore in 1889, and owns the Old Bay recipe. With the basic Old Bay recipe scribbled on a napkin, and six months of development time, Flying Dog created a German-style wheat ale with a crisp dose of floral hops and familiar Old Bay notes of celery salt, white and black pepper, and garlic salt. A portion of proceeds from Dead Rise will be donated to True Blue, a program that advocates on behalf of the Chesapeake Bays 5,500 watermen and promotes sustainably harvested Maryland Blue Crab. Baltimore, founded in large part by hard-working, hard-drinking German immigrants, is home to a number of large and small breweries big and small, award-winning gypsy brewers, beer-mixologists, tap houses and sports bars, each serving the best of local ales, pills, IPAs and stouts. I found some of the city's best craft beers along with its best attractions and activities for a summer Beer-cation trail. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it. VINTAGE BALTIMORE BREWS Pratt Street Ale House, Inner Harbor 206 West Pratt Street Dating back to 1888 when Pratt Street was first constructed in the heart of Baltimores Inner Harbor, the Pratt Street Ale Houses story is that of the neighborhood itself. In 1940s, the building was turned into the Pratt Furniture Company until 1980, when it housed its first bar and grill, P.J. Cricketts. In 1992, the Olivers turned P.J. Crickkets into the Wharf Rat. The brewery was added in 1993 and has created award-winning ales ever since, making Oliver Breweries Baltimores longest-running brew pub. Serving Olivers brews, the Pratt Street Ale House been named Best Brew Pub three times in the past decade by Baltimore Magazine and City Paper. http://www.prattstreetalehouse.com/ Baltimore Brew: ESBCask-conditioned, its an English strong red ale Pair with: Sports Legends Museum, Geppis Entertainment Museum BEERS ON BEERS ON BEERS Maxs Tap House, Fells Point 737 S Broadway In the heart of historic Fells Point by the Inner Harbor Maxs Tap House is legendary for having Marylands largest selection of local and imported beer with 140 rotating drafts, five hand-pumped cask ales, and a world-spanning collection of approximately 1,200 bottled beers in stock. http://www.maxs.com/ Baltimore Brew: Evolution, Stillwater Artisanal Ales Pair With: Frederick Douglass Museum, Robert McClintock Studio, Charm City Food Tour, Chost Tour POST MODERN BEERS Of Love & Regret - Stillwater Ales, Brewers Hill 1028 S Conkling St A beer company and art collective, gypsy brewer Stillwater Artisanal Ale has found a new home in Of Love & Regret, featuring famed brewer Brian Stumkes brews plus a menu crafted around them. Top selection is the Stateside Saison - Stillwaters flagship brew, Stateside Saison is naturally brewed with the finest European malts & fresh aromatic hops form the US & New Zealand. Baltimore Brew: Stateside Saison, Cellar Door, Autumnal, Existent. Pair With: Canton Waterfront Park MEET THE BREWERS Heavy Seas Alehouse, Little Italy 1300 Bank St Meet the Heavy Seas Alehouse brewers in the old Holland Tack Factory building, where the Alehouse combines the charm and character of the historic space with the bold industrial elements that occupied the building for more than 90 years making fasteners that went into major league baseballs, countless school bulletin boards and enough sofas to seat all of Baltimore. During the Civil War, the building served as a hospital for Confederate soldiers. Baltimore Brew: Heavy Seas Gold, Heavy Seas Cutlas Amber, Heavy Seas Powder Monkey Pale Ale Pair With: Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Star-Spangled Banner Flag House CRAFT BREWERY TOURS Union Craft Brewing, Woodberry 1700 UNION AVE Along the Jones Falls River in Baltimores historic Woodberry neighborhood, The Union Craft Brewery makes beer with reverence for tradition that unites old and new ideas, the science and craft of brewing, and the boldness and balance of flavor. Founded in the fall of 2011 by Kevin Blodger, Adam Benesch and Jon Zerivitz, brewing operations officially began in the spring of 2012 with the installation of a 20 barrel brewhouse and the initial launch of Duckpin Pale Ale. The brewery is open to the public for free tours and tastings every Saturday from 1-4pm. Happy Hour from 5pm 8pm Thursday and Friday. Baltimore Brew: Duckpin Pale Ale and Balt Altbier Pair with: Art on Purpose, Heavy Seas Brewery, Corredetti Glassblowing Studios COME FOR THE BREWS, STAY FOR THE BOOKS Eightbar at Atomic Books, Hampden Village 3620 Falls Rd Baltimore's legendary, alternative, independent bookstore specializing in zines, comix, self-published periodicals and fringe non-fiction now has its own craft beer bar in the heart of Hampden. No neighborhood says Bawlmer quite like north Baltimores Hampden, a 19th- century blue-collar mill town that has evolved into the epicenter of hipster Baltimore kitsch with original shops and an eccentric array of cafes mingling with the barber shops and pharmacies that keep this authentic, hard-working neighborhood real. Baltimore Brew: Elysian Brewing Companys Oddland series, which is a collaboration with artists from Fantagraphics Books (which Atomic carries) Pair With: Cafe Hon, Ma Petite Shoe WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE A NEW BEER AT ANY TIME The Brewers Art, Mt Vernon 1106 N Charles St Set in a grand Mt. Vernon townhouse, The Brewer's Art Crafthouse features 4 main beers and 20 seasonal beers brewed in house. Its beers have been named No. 1 on the Baltimore Suns list of Top 20 Beers in Maryland, CNBC named it as a Top-Notch Brewpub Brews and Esquire Magazine ranked it the number one bar in America. Baltimore Brew: Resurrection, Ozzy, Birdhouse, Saison Pecore, plus Brewer's Art remixes Pair With: Walters Art Museum, Maryland Historical Society DOG DAY AFTERNOON Pub-Dog, Federal Hill 20 E Cross St Nestled in Historic Federal Hill, the original Pub Dog is a locally owned and operated pizza and drafthouse serving up some of the best personal-size gourmet pizza and house-brewed craft beer. Its Dog Deal - two mugs of the same kind at the same time for only $4.50 Baltimore Brew: Imperial Dog, Bloodhound, Grand Mariner Ale and Fest Dog, Pub Dogs Oktoberfest Ale Pair With: Maryland Science Center, American Visionary Art Museum TAKE ME OUT TO THE BEER GAME Dempseys Brew Pub & Restaurant, Oriole Park at Camden Yards Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 333 West Camden Street Named after beloved former Baltimore Oriole Rick Dempsey, the sports bar is open daily on Eutaw Street at Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the ultimate beer experience among Orioles memorabilia and accomplishments of the Orioles Hall of Fame and the MVP of the 1983 World Series. Add to that 20 bottled beers, including 10 local and regional craft brews, plus some themed beer go-withs like the Black and Orange Burger, Camden Yards Crab Cakes, and the Dempsey Club. Baltimore Brew: Ricks Red Ale, Wild Pitch Wheat, Rain Delay IPA, and The 83 Golden Ale Pair With: Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards, Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum COCKTAIL HOUR B&O American Brasserie, Inner Harbor 2 N Charles St Where American Dining meets the American Rail, the B&O is a combination of style and substance worthy of the legendary Baltimore & Ohio Railway's headquarters, complete with original Beaux-Arts architecture and touches from old B&O railway carriages, and dining cars like The York. B&O Master Mixologist Brendan Dorr ensures the cocktail menu is never without a beer-inspired . Baltimore Brew: Suds Bucket... (Recipe: Barenjager, Allspice Dram, Lemon Juice, and Allagash White Ale) Pair With: Inner Harbor Waterfront
Source http://www.examiner.com/article/brewing-up-a-celebration-baltimore-style

Getting ahead - The Times of India

in Plover. By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel May 26, 2014 Central Wisconsin craft breweries thrive Click to enlarge Rosholt When it comes to the prevalence of craft brewers, one stretch of central Wisconsin is like a small-town version of Seattle or Denver. Including brewpubs, there are seven craft brewers operating in Portage County, home to Stevens Point, and neighboring Marathon County, where Wausau is the largest city. An eighth craft brewer is under construction, with plans to open in August. Those two counties have a combined population of nearly 206,000, according to state estimates. That comes out to one craft brewer for each batch of 25,700 residents compared with a national ratio of about 1 to 114,900 and a Wisconsin ratio of 1 to 63,500 residents. Portage and Marathon counties even beat Wisconsin craft beer hot-spot Dane County, where the ratio is about one brewery for every 45,200 residents. "Everyone is pushing each other, making good beer," said Marc Buttera, co-owner of O'so Brewing Co. in Plover. "Then, you look up, and you have four brewers in your county. It's crazy." Along with O'so, Portage County is home to Stevens Point Brewery in the city of the same name, which was ranked as Wisconsin's second-largest craft brewer in 2012 by the Brewers Association, a trade group based in Boulder, Colo. There's also Central Waters Brewing Co. in Amherst, and Kozy Yak Brewery, a small brewpub in Rosholt. Wausau has Bull Falls Brewery and two brewpubs: Red Eye Brewing Co. and Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co., part of a Madison-based group. Marathon County's fourth craft brewer, North Abbey Brewing Co., is opening in Mosinee. Dane County makes sense as a place where craft beer accounts for about 20% of the local market, compared with the craft beer segment's 8% nationwide market share: With the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there's a more educated, wealthier population that tends to favor beers from places like Capital Brewery and Ale Asylum. Scratch the surface in Wausau and Stevens Point, and you'll find some similarities. "We like the demographics. There's some money up there," said Eliot Butler, owner of Great Dane, which operates three brewpubs in the Madison area, along with the Wausau location. Wausau includes a relatively sizable number of people who earn good incomes in such industries as papermaking and insurance, Butler said. He declined to provide sales volume for Great Dane's local operations but said the business has grown after Butler's company reopened a failed brewpub in 2009. The shuttered brewpub, Hereford & Hops, once employed Kevin Eichelberger, who also previously worked for Great Dane in Madison. In 2008, Eichelberger opened Red Eye Brewing, which last year sold 532 barrels. This year's first-quarter sales were up 14% over the same period in 2013, with local patrons broadening their tastes for various beer styles such as India pale ales, he said. Stevens Point, like Madison, has a University of Wisconsin campus, a flourishing arts community and a strong tendency to buy locally grown foods from nearby organic farms, said Central Waters co-owner Anello Mollica. "The people in this market really like to support local," Mollica said. Dave Holborn and Doug Gilberts are part of the "drink local" crowd. The two retirees were sipping beers late Thursday afternoon at O'so Brewing's tap room, as Buttera chatted with other customers and his wife and co-owner, Katina, and son, Dylan, worked behind the bar. "It's fun to be able to talk to the owners," Gilberts said. Both he and Holborn said O'so also is known for supporting local charities. And the beer is very good. "It's legitimate," Holborn said. Long brewing tradition There's also a long tradition of brewing in central Wisconsin, with Stevens Point Brewery founded in 1857. It was sold in 2002 to Milwaukeeans Joe Martino and Jim Wiechmann. Five years later it was classified as a regional craft brewer by the Brewers Association after adding several new brands beyond its mainstay, Point Special Lager. Stevens Point Brewery produced about 114,000 barrels of beer, hard cider and soda in 2013, with contract production for other brewers accounting for about half that amount, Martino said. The company, which has 48 employees, a year ago completed its fourth expansion in four years, and sells its brands throughout much of the country. Stevens Point Brewery helped support Central Waters when it began operations in tiny Junction City in 1998, Mollica said. Central Waters, which now has 18 employees, was launched as a side business by local home brewers Jerome Ebel and Mike McElwain, Mollica said. They sold it in 2001, and current owners Mollica and Paul Graham moved Central Waters to its larger Amherst facility in 2007. Central Waters , with a lineup that includes several beers aged in bourbon barrels, sold 9,000 barrels in 2013 and expects to sell about 13,000 barrels this year, mainly in the Midwest, Mollica said. At the Junction City brewery, which was fashioned out of discarded dairy farm equipment, the annual capacity was just 750 barrels. Ebel and McElwain were active in the Focal Point Home Brew Club, now known as Central Wisconsin Draught Board. The club was started in 1991 by home brewer Mike Champion after a new job led him from Milwaukee to Stevens Point. O'so Brewing's Buttera moved to Stevens Point from Kenosha in 1995. His new neighbors included Champion, who gave him a home-brewed barley wine. "It was my first craft beer," said Buttera, then working at a metal fabrication shop while earning a mechanical design degree at Mid-State Technical College. Buttera became a home brewer and later started Point Brew Supply, a store for home brewers to buy equipment and ingredients. The Butteras launched O'so in 2007. The company, which consists of 18 employees, has since grown from selling 350 barrels annually to 5,000 barrels in Wisconsin and the Chicago area, with this year's sales projected at 6,000 barrels. Its brands include new forays into tart beers . Central Wisconsin's strong home brewing culture has helped launch other businesses, including Bull Falls Brewery, where co-owner Mike Zamzow was a member of Bull Falls Home Brew Club in Wausau. Zamzow and his father, Don, who own a Wausau software company, started their brewery in 2007. Bull Falls Brewery in 2013 sold 2,000 barrels and this year expects to double that amount after undergoing an expansion. The company, with 10 employees, is looking to grow beyond central and northern Wisconsin, Zamzow said. Other Bull Falls Home Brew Club members included Chad Hoffer, who plans to begin operating Abbey North Brewing in Mosinee by late summer. Abbey North's tap room will include a tap set aside for a changing variety of local home brews, he said. "We want to kind of nurture the home brewing culture," Hoffer said, "because that's where we all came from." Hoffer's home brewing experience includes taking a 1995 continuing education course on the science of brewing taught by Terese Barta, then a professor at UW-Marathon County, who helped start the Bull Falls club. At the UW-Marathon County center, Barta used home brewing to show her students real-life applications for microbiology. She is now an associate professor of biology at UW-Stevens Point and also offers continuing education classes for professional craft brewers. Another home brewer is Rich Kosiec, whose surname is the inspiration for Kozy Yak Brewery, which he and wife, Rose Richmond, opened in 2012. Their brewpub, with a menu limited to homemade pizzas and pretzels, operates at a renovated former house in Rosholt, population 503. "If you were trying to make money," said Kosiec, whose main profession is accounting and finance, "you would not choose downtown Rosholt." Continual innovation But Rosholt, where the couple also operate a winery, is just a few miles from their farm, where they grow grapes and raspberries. And the town's Main St. had a number of vacant properties in which to launch new businesses. Kozy Yak, which the couple operate with occasional help from family and friends, is open only Thursdays through Saturdays. It sold 40 barrels last year and changes beer styles weekly to give local customers a reason to return, Kosiec said. A recent selection included a beer flavored with tarragon. One local patron joked it was the finest tarragon beer he'd ever imbibed actually the only such beer he'd ever tasted. Continual innovation of new recipes and styles is a key to success in craft brewing, Barta said. "People are always going to want to try something new," she said. But tap handles in taverns and restaurants, and shelf space at supermarkets and liquor stores, are finite, said Martino, of Stevens Point Brewery. "That's where the pinch might come," he said. For now, though, Portage and Marathon counties are riding the craft brewing wave. In Rosholt, a couple of new restaurants have opened in the wake of Kozy Yak, and the brewpub's owners are planning to sell their kegged beer to those new businesses. "Eventually, we want to expand to all of downtown Rosholt," Kosiec said.
Source http://www.jsonline.com/business/central-wisconsin-craft-breweries-thrive-off-roots-in-home-brewing-b99273461z1-260624911.html

Brew Riot: Yet Another Example of Dallas' Craft-Beer Boom | Dallas Observer

Today, we hear from our beer writer, Steven Harrell, who judged the event. Way back in 2009, some Oak Cliff Dwellers brought together eight home brewers for a friendly competition behind Eno's in the Bishop Arts District. Five years later, on Sunday afternoon, this was the scene: Over 60 homebrew teams pouring 200-plus different beers for a crowd of over 1,500 people. Brew Riot is, without question, Dallas' best homebrew contest, is damn near the top of the list for beer events in general, and is perhaps the best single example of how Dallas' beer love has blossomed in the last few years. There's something refreshing about how homespun and community-based it is. Folks stream past booths pouring Dallas' most popular local beers like Peticolas and Deep Ellum to get a first look at the unknowns -- something usually foreign to the Dallas psyche. Suggestive labels that would never be approved by the TABC are proudly hung behind booths. Groups of homebrewers, normally very protective of their hard-crafted treats, freely pour them for any random person with an approved sample cup. Most times, I'd rather hear about your "great" food truck idea than about the brewery you've been "thinking about for awhile now." But at Brew Riot? Anything is possible. A few years ago, an unlicensed Lakewood Brewing Co. poured beer. Four Corners and Peticolas are also Brew Riot alumni who successfully made the jump to legit businesses. I talked to Stacey Spillers, who runs the event with her husband, Matt. She emphasized the importance of the home brewers to the experience. "It's very special to make something and choose to share it with someone else," she said. "It's their passion for their hobby that makes Brew Riot work. We wanted to create a forum for that exchange to happen." As a judge, I probably had more than my fair share of brews during the days leading up to the event. But, since it was a blind tasting, I can't fully give credit where it's due to some of those that I wasn't able to go back and track down once the official blinders came off. Either way, here are a few of my favorites from the event. If I missed any, feel free to tell me about it in the comments. Mox Nix Brewery, Texas Breakfast Stout-- My oh my. Founders Breakfast Stout is one of the country's most coveted beers, and these fellas made something even better. I can't overemphasize how good this was. The oatmeal, coffee, chocolate, and grains all blended with just enough milk sugar to hold it all together. I would buy a six-pack tomorrow. And then another the next day. On Rotation's Jalapeno Saison-- I actually blind-tasted this one at judging, and proceeded to tell my friends and family about it for the next week. Somehow, the brewers extracted the flavor of jalapeno without letting the spiciness overpower your palette. And, in a saison? You're crazy, homebrewers, and we love you for it. Steam Theory's Triple IPA-- Hops on hops on hops on hops. But, it wasn't overly hoppy. Does that make sense? Does anything make sense? We just want to live in our perfectly-hopped world without your judgement. The Manhattan Project's Half-Life American Pale Ale --The Manhattan Project team thoroughly dominated the day with four appearances on the scoreboard. My favorite brew from them was their American Pale Ale, just because it so fully fit into the textbook description of what it should have tasted like. After a day of cherry-chipotle-stouts and watermelon hefeweizens, it was nice to taste beer again.
Source http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/cityofate/2014/05/brew_riot.php

This Sunday: Fremont Brewing Releasing Homefront IPA - Washington Beer Blog

Essential traits include attention to detail (measurements and timing can be crucial the length of the boil, when ingredients are added, for example); patience (conditioning beer, particularly lager, can take weeks); and cleanliness (the smallest contamination can spoil a whole batch, though this can also lead to some serendipitously delicious creations). Booth says a good brewer shares many attributes with a good chef. Someone thats got a good palate and balance. You dont need to be a rocket science, but if you know the science it definitely helps. A good sense of taste and judgment and creativity, says Booth, an experienced homebrewer himself. Overall, theres a particular mix of art and science, theory and practice to the process. You need to know some science behind the whole brewing process but then you have a lot of space for flexibility and creativity, says David Bowkett, a homebrewer who went on to set up Powell Street Craft Brewery in East Vancouver. Ive always liked doing things myself and being hands on. David Bowkett at Powell Street Craft Brewery in Vancouver. Im an engineer originally and I find it does tend to attract a lot of those types, says Chad McCarthy, another long-term homebrewer. theyre very much do-it-yourselfers, inventors that like to build equipment. This surge in interest in amateur brewing has resulted in an interesting mix of people that gather for the monthly meetings of VanBrewers , Vancouvers homebrewing society. Co-founded by Graham With in 2010, VanBrewers quickly gathered more than 100 members. A huge amount of homebrewers came out of the woodwork, recalls McCarthy. Tons of people like me brewing in their basements not knowing anyone else existed. VanBrewers quickly became known as a place to get inspiration and education. We offer quite the resource for people to improve, says Scott Butchart, who took over as VanBrewers president after With stepped down to focus on his job. Obviously when most people start out theyre not so great and they struggle a bit. People say they come to our meetings and they leave with 100 per cent more knowledge than they came with we have a really well rounded, well experienced group that can help you. VanBrewers president Scott Butchart with a sleeve of his homebrewed brown porter. That help comes from the collective knowledge of the many and variously skilled people who attend VanBrewers meetings. Such as the web designer with the award-winning barley wine; the opthalmologist who some say makes the best lagers in Canada; or McCarthy, an electrical engineer-turned lawyer whos a certified cicerone a beer expert on par with a wine sommelier as well as a national-rank beer judge. Im not as accomplished as a brewer but Im interested in the science of it and the judging aspect of it, training yourself to know what a beer should taste like and if it doesnt taste right, what might be wrong and provide advice to people, McCarthy says. (Theres) a little bit of an art to it as well as a science. Electrical engineer-turned lawyer Chad McCarthy is also a long-time homebrewer, member of VanBrewers, certified cicerone and beer judge. Hes pictured at an educational off-flavours class he taught last year. * * * With all this focused intensity among a tight-knit group of skilled crafters, itll come as little surprise to learn that some homebrewers can become obsessed. A phrase that seems to be in common use in brewing circles is going down the rabbit hole. And indeed, homebrewing offers a Wonderland of possibilities thats only limited by the crafters imagination and availability of ingredients. Tak Guenette left the rabbit hole for a brewing job at Steamworks in 2012, but he still burrows back into it several nights a week. Not content with his full-time position at the Vancouver brewpub, Guenette finds the time to brew up to four batches a week in the den of his apartment. I do have a bit more of a creative freedom to do odd things, Guenette says of his homebrewing.I can brew something exactly the way I want it, something with my tastes in mind. Steamworks brewer Tak Guenette with his homebrewing setup at his Vancouver apartment. Guenette says he began homebrewing because he simply couldnt find the styles he wanted to drink. Since then, hes become a local expert in lesser-seen English stylessuch as mild ale, which he often conditions in a traditional cask. He does admit his double brewing duty is slightly excessive. His fiancee, with whom he shares his apartment, likely agrees. We made an agreement when we moved in to a larger place, a one-bedroom plus den, that I put everything into that one small room so she can close the door and not look at it. And I think were both happy with that, he says.
Source http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/05/26/craft-beer-starts-at-home-how-homebrewers-are-fuelling-the-b-c-beer-boom-part-2/

Central Wisconsin craft breweries thrive off roots in home brewing

In my work at Carleton University, in Canada, Ive used custom integrated circuits and specially programmed microcontrollers for my designs, but recently I wondered how I could make a detector with spare parts lying around my basement. It turns out that you can make a cheap and effective radon detector with five basic elements: a webcam, a funnel covered with copper tape and mesh, a voltage multiplier built from some basic electrical components, a box, and a computer. The system works because radon and some of its daughter products emit alpha particles as they decay. These alpha particles are responsible for most of the damage to human tissue that occurs when radon gas is inhaled, but they will also produce a slew of electron-hole pairs that show up as illuminated pixels should they strike the CMOS image sensor chip thats at the heart of many webcams. As alpha particles dont travel very far through solid matter, its necessary to cut away the protective cover over the webcams image sensor. Starting with a spare Microsoft LifeCam VX-2000 webcam (about US $20 to $30 online), I cut away the protective cover using a Dremel tool and covered the indicator LED with electricaltape. Putting the modified webcam into a dark, ventilated box and connecting it to a computer via a USB connection gave me a workingbut very slowradon detector. In order to make it more sensitive, I added an electrostatic concentrator to capture one of radons alpha-particle-emitting daughter products. When radon decays into polonium-218, the polonium is usually left with a positive charge, so it can be swept toward the webcams image sensor with a suitably shaped electric field. Some copper tape (VentureTape 1626) and a powder funnel (I happened to have a Nalgene 4252-0100 powder funnel on hand) is all you need to make a two-electrode electrostatic concentrator that creates a field of the right shape. I applied the copper tape to the interior of the funnel, making sure to preserve electrical contact for both electrodes. I used a bottom electrode size and spacing of 15 millimeters. I then stretched copper mesh over the top, soldered a few spots into position, and I was done. To get an idea of how the concentrator would behave and how strong a field I would need to generate, I modeled it using Comsol s multiphysics simulation software. For a concentrator 10centimeters high, I estimated that an electric field strength of 50volts per meter would suffice for collecting charged polonium-218. Although high voltages are required at the concentrators electrodes to create this field, they arent that hard to generate because, effectively, no current will be drawn between the electrodes. Photos: Clockwise from top: Ryan Griffin (2); Jon Holmes RadCam: Copper foil and mesh applied to a funnel [top] form the electrodes for an electrostatic concentrator that boosts the count rate of the radon detector. The high voltages required are provided by a voltage multiplier [bottom left]. The detector itself is a CMOS-based webcam with its image sensor exposed [bottom right]. I put together a 12-stage Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier driven by a bipolar 555 timer feeding a Triad Magnetics SP-4 audio transformer. The multiplier converted a 15-V supply to the 1370V and 990 V I needed for the upper and lower concentrator electrodes, respectively. Although you should be careful dealing with voltages as high as these, the voltage multiplier supplies so little current that an accidental contact shouldnt be lethal. I also used small (1 nanofarad) capacitors to avoid a dangerous buildup of charge. But again, be careful, and proceed at your own risk. Turning on the high-voltage concentrator improved the count rate of the detector by 25 times or more. Not bad for an old funnel and copper tape! I used Matlab software to control the webcam and also analyze the data. As the image sensor can potentially also detect less strongly interacting beta particles, I set the detection threshold, over which a pixel is considered to have been struck by an alpha, high enough to avoid noise and beta impacts. Also, when the sensor is struck by an alpha particle, an entire cluster of adjacent pixels will often register the impact, so its necessary to identify any clusters to avoid overcounting strikes. I used an 8-nearest-neighbor algorithm to find clusters. In all, it took about 100 lines of code. Calibrated with a Safety Siren Pro Series3 radon detector (about $130), my system counted 5.2 alpha strikes per hour in an ambient radon concentration of 159 becquerels per cubic meter.
Source http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/how-to-build-a-homebrew-radon-detector

How to Build a Home-Brew Radon Detector - IEEE Spectrum

Molly Pitcher operations manager Mike Moll said the facility will include an open floor plan with a 30-seat taproom serving light fare. Patrons will be able to watch the brewing operations from the taproom.
Source http://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2014/05/molly_pitcher_brewing_company.html

CDT, May 23, 2014 As the craft beer renaissance continues in Chicago's suburbs, one Plainfield home-brew supply shop is getting ready to offer up its own homemade suds. Chicago Brew Werks, a supply shop and taproom that opened about a year ago at 14903 S. Center St., will be offering its own Werk Force Brewing Co. beer at its taproom bar by next week, according to Amanda Wright, who started the shop with her husband, Brandon Wright. The supply shop has featured a small bar serving other craft beers since it opened. But after seven months of getting the required federal and state licenses, the supply shop is ready to become a brewery. "We just received our final state license about a week and a half ago," Amanda Wright said on Thursday. "We started brewing immediately." Amanda Wright said her husband handles most of the alchemy involved in creating new and delicious beers, and he has so far been crafting pale ales and India pale ales, more commonly known as IPAs. "He did a few of his staple beers, just to get us started," Amanda Wright said. The modest brewery features an electric brew house, which Amanda Wright said allows a bit more precision on the part of the brewer. "The kettles are actually heated by electric probes," she said. "It's a lot more efficient, energy-wise, and Brandon has a lot of ability to tweak the temperature more precisely, so he has a lot more control over the beers." The couple currently has just a two-barrel setup, meaning they are just producing small one or two-barrel batches, Amanda Wright said, "which is extremely small compared to other breweries." Still, a smaller production means the brewery can experiment and fiddle with different grain and hops combinations, she said. "Obviously everyone has hopes and dreams of big breweries, but we're able to do small, experimental batches," Amanda Wright said. "We're excited to be a small research-and-development brewery. We can do a lot more fun stuff that the larger breweries might not try out." These initial beers will only be sold from taps, she said, but plans are also afoot to sell take-away growlers of the product once they figure out how to balance demand. Right now, the team is brewing almost daily to build up stock, she said. "We are trying to feel out our demand in the taproom, to ensure we don't run out of beer on day one," Amanda Wright said. "Once we have beers on tap, we'll be consistently changing them." While her husband handles most of the hands-on brewing, Amanda Wright said she loves the sense of community that their shop has generated and enjoyed. "I love the community, and that everyone's enthusiastic about craft beer and being local," she said. "I like the energy of doing something new and making something with our own hands and able to serve the community that way." Brandon Wright said last year that he's enamored by the fact that small tweaks to a recipe can create a completely different brew, and that brewing is an art. "Except for using different types or colors of paint, we have grains, hops and yeast," he said. "We can totally design things from the ground up to suit our tastes and styles."
Source http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/plainfield/ct-new-beer-place-plainfield-tl-0529-20140523,0,7067945.story

Molly Pitcher Brewing Co. to open in Carlisle with taproom | PennLive.com

There are several ways to brew excellent coffee at home with plenty of room for innovation and tweaking. But there are a couple of fundamentals: You need high-caliber whole beans, and you must grind immediately before brewing. A quality burr grinder costs $75 to $200 or more (cheaper blade grinders shred the beans and compromise flavor). For some methods, youll need a kettle. Electric kettles are best and cost $50 to $100. For precision, use an instant-read thermometer to get the water to 195 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit. 1. Electric drip machine, $50 to $200-plus Most basic drip coffee machines dont get the water hot enough to extract the right balance of flavor out of the ground coffee. The Bonavita Exceptional Brew costs $169 and has a block heater that quickly gets the water temperature to 200-205 degrees. Further, the thermal carafe keeps the brewed coffee hot for hours. A hot plate and a glass carafe will make the coffee taste burnt the longer it sits on the hot plate. Coffee geek upgrade: I forgo the paper filters in my Bonavita (even with rinsing, I can taste the paper) and use a stainless steel filter from Able Brewing. The drawback? It costs $60. 2. French press, $25-plus This is one of the simplest ways to make good coffee. For a time, this method fell out of favor, mostly because poor quality beans tended to taste bitter with French press. But if you appreciate top-notch beans and use a coarser grind, you can easily achieve a full-bodied, expressive and nuanced cup of coffee in about 3 to 5 minutes. You heat water, put the proper ratio of coffee to water (standard is 2 tablespoons coffee for 6 ounces of water) in the carafe and steep for the allotted time. Push the filter to the bottom and pour. The nice thing is you can play with the ratio to get the strength of flavor youre after. 3. Aeropress, about $30 This simple little device has taken the serious coffee world by storm. Not only does it make a very good cup of coffee, but there are hacks you can apply to alter the process and make even better coffee. A stainless steel filter upgrade allows the coffee oils to add body and additional flavor to the cup. The drawback: You can make only one cup at a time. The advantage over French press: easy clean-up. 4. Chemex, $35 to $45 This elegant and simple device is a large, shapely glass carafe that showcases the pour-over method on a large scale. The one feature the manufacturer touts is the extra thickness of its paper filters, which are supposed to reduce bitterness. You add the ground coffee to the top of the filter, then slowly pour hot water over it. Takes about five minutes. Because the paper can come through in the taste of the finished coffee, you must pre-rinse the filters.
Source http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/25/6426301/with-right-approach-and-tools.html

Plainfield brew shop readies its own suds - chicagotribune.com

After coming back home, he told people, as every Indian does, to bring back alcohol from trips abroad. Only he didn't want an expensive single malt or a triple distilled vodka, but a six-pack. But there's only so long that you can make a six-pack last, and one fine day as he was having a drink, he decided to look up home brewing. "I was surprised at the amount of information on the web," says Mittal. It took some doing to source the ingredients etc but he finally managed to make his own. "The first one was pretty decent," he says. "I couldn't believe I had created beer. I opened the bottle, it had head and fizz... oh my god... that's when I got hooked." An impatient brewer, he kept checking on his second batch so much so that it got infected, but since then there's been no looking back and he has brewed about 150 batches to date. Though brewing has taught him patience, he does keep trying the brew so that sometimes by the time it is prime, as the adage goes, 'when beer is the best, the home brewer has none.' Not so with Delhi-based musician Garreth D'Mello whose interest was sparked off when his girlfriend, aware of his passion for alcohol, gifted him a book on home brewing. "I read it more than any textbook I've ever read. By the time I started brewing I knew most of the book by heart," says D'Mello, 35, who still has a couple of pints left from each of the batches he has brewed, an ale and a stout, but "now that I know it's happening, I'm not rationing it so carefully." It's a challenging hobby, not just because of the technicalities involved, but also because India lacks a home brew culture and brew shops where one can pick up equipment and ingredients. Bangalorebased consultant Archit Agrawal says his first shopping expedition yielded nothing. "We didn't get anything except baker's yeast which was useless to us," he says with a laugh. If some brewers here have understood the alchemy of alcohol, some of the credit goes to 40-yearold Mittal, who blogged about his experiences and experiments on indianbeergeek.com. He wrote in detail about the equipment one needs, how to DIY it and exactly where to source ingredients. The hops and yeast have to be imported though grain can be sourced from Gurgaon. "The yeast can be reused, I take a portion and keep it aside," says Chennai-based Harsh Bansal, who had a few failed batches initially until he figured out the processes with a little help from Mittal.
Source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deep-focus/Getting-ahead/articleshow/35581492.cms

Coffee at home: Brew like a champ with the right tools - Food & Drink - The Sacramento Bee

Everyone is invited to stop by and enjoy a pint of this very special beer. Official festivities run from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., but stop by any time to get a beer. Otherwise, look for Homefront IPA in 12-oz cans at better beer retailers around the Seattle area. This limited-release beer typically lasts about one month. Fremont Brewing is one of the 11 breweries across the USA producing Homefront IPA this year (see below) as part of the Hops for Heroes project, which benefits Operation Homefront , an organization providing emergency financial and other assistance to the family members of our service members and wounded warriors. Fremont Brewing became the first brewery to join the Homefront IPA team back in 2011 when Chris Ray approached the brewery about producing a special kind of beer for a very special cause. At that time, Chris played for the Seattle Mariners but planned to someday open his own brewery. Not many professional baseball players spend their free time raking spent grain out of the mash tun. (Chris Ray at Fremont Brewing in 2011.) Chris met with Fremont Brewing and devised a recipe that included using Louisville Slugger baseball bats as part of the conditioning process: unused maple bats are added to the conditioning tanks. Today they still condition the beer using pristine Louisville Slugger bats. On July 5th, Fremont Brewing holds a raffle to give away the bats. Buy raffle tickets at the Urban Beer Garden. I attended the inaugural Homefront IPA brew session back in 2011 at Fremont Brewing and wrote a story about the experience ( read it ). Since then, Hops for Heroes continues to expand and this year hopes to pass the $200,000 mark. Collectively, participating breweries produced over 800 barrels of the beer this year, much of which will be packaged in uniform Aluminum cans provided by Crown Beverage Packaging and distributed across the nation. Following the 2012 season, Chris Ray retired from baseball. Today he and his brother own and operate Center Of The Universe Brewing (COTU Brewing) in Ashland, Virginia. The Homefront IPA project continues to grow and this year ten different breweries across the country brewed Homefront IPA (listed below). Center of the Universe Brewing Company, Ashland, VA Fremont Brewing Company, Seattle, WA Sly Fox, Pottstown, PA Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL Perennial Artisan Ales, St. Louis, MO Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Houston, TX 21st Amendment Brewery, San Francisco, CA Left Hand Brewing Company, Longmont, CO Stone Brewing Company, Escondido, CA Palmetto Brewing Company, Charleston, SC Maui Brewing Co., Lahaina, HI Click on the image below to see full size poster. Press Release: Hops for Heroes is excited to announce the participating breweries for this years brewing of Homefront IPA Ashland, VA, March 18: Since 2011, Hops for Heroes has been expanding each year. The dedication to our troops by the craft brewing community can be seen with 11 total breweries participating in 2014. This dedication can also be seen by the growing number of sponsors, including Crown Beverage Packaging USA, who has come on board to supply a uniform can for this years efforts. Center of the Universe Brewing Company, Ashland, VA Fremont Brewing Company, Seattle, WA Sly Fox, Pottstown, PA Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL Perennial Artisan Ales, St. Louis, MO Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Houston, TX 21st Amendment Brewery, San Francisco, CA Left Hand Brewing Company, Longmont, CO Stone Brewing Company, Escondido, CA Palmetto Brewing Company, Charleston, SC Maui Brewing Co., Lahaina, HI Homefront IPA was developed in 2011 by Fremont Brewing Company and Center of the Universe Brewing Company in order to raise money and awareness for Operation Homefront. Operation Homefront is a charity that provides emergency assistance to military heroes and their families. Aged on Louisville Slugger maple bats, this IPA does more than just quench your thirst; it improves the lives of our soldiers. Homefront IPA is a unique charity beer in that 100% of the proceeds go towards Operation Homefront. With the help of 6 participating breweries and other organizations that donated the hops and grains used to make the beer, Hops for Heroes was able to raise roughly $80,000 dollars for Operation Homefront in 2013. This year, Hops for Heroes is hoping to top $200,000 and is set to brew 800 barrels (24,800 gallons) of beer between the 11 participating breweries.
Source http://blog.seattlepi.com/washingtonbeerblog/2014/05/22/this-sunday-fremont-brewing-releasing-homefront-ipa/