Hi, would anyone be interested in participating in a workshop on brewing session beers? I have both a professional brewer and an award-winning homebrewer in mind for helping to lead this workshop, which we could hold either at the CHAOS brewhouse or at the professional brewer's brewery. Before I contacted them, though, I wanted to do an informal check on how much interest there might be in this.
If there's enough interest, I'll contact the possible leaders and work on finding a date, which would be April at the earliest.
Let me know if you'd be interested in this. Cheers!
Jim
I'd be interested
I'm in!
I'm down
In like Flynn
In
http://tinfoilhatbrewery.com/
Always interested in any workshop!
Definitely interested in a session beer workshop.
Interested
The emperor is not as forgiving as i am
In!!
Great, seems like plenty of interest. I'll contact the potential leaders I had in mind and see if I can get it organized. Stay tuned.
www.singingboysbrewing.com
It just so happens that the most recent issue of BYO (March-April 2016) has a large article on session beers. It has "award-winning" recipes in it as well. I took pictures with my phone as I don't have a scanner (not the best quality), but I made them into printable PDFs if you want them (attached).PDF_Blondes.pdf PDF_IrishStout.pdf PDF_Kolsch.pdf PDF_LightLager.pdf PDF_Milds.pdf
Cheers!
thanks, I don't subscribe to BYO so this is great
www.singingboysbrewing.com
Interested
"Give a man a beer, and he will waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and he will waste a lifetime!" Bill Owen
I am interested as well.
Hi CHAOSites -
I spoke with Bryan Shimkos, head brewer and owner at Blue Island Beer Co. and he would be delighted to lead this workshop and I can’t think of anyone better. He does really nice small beers and the last time I was at Blue Island, in January, he had four session beers under 5% on tap:
Early and Often (American black seasonal ale 3.8%)
Coffee Early and Often (above with coffee)
Massive Political Corruption (pre-prohibition style ale 4.5%)
Downshifter (rye pale ale 4.7%)
In talking it through with him, we would meet at the brewery, he’d give us a quick tour, then he’d lead us on a tasting of his session beers and talk with us about each, his process, his recipes, and his thinking when he’s designing and brewing these beers.
He suggested a Monday or Tuesday night, since the taproom is closed those nights and we’d have the place to ourselves. You can get to Blue Island via Metra (I did it when I visited the taproom in January), but we could also arrange for car pools for non-drivers.
I’d like to give Bryan a couple of choices - what do you think about 4/4 or 4/5, or 4/23 or 4/24? Say 6:30 pm or so, we could bring in some pizza and salad, perhaps.
www.singingboysbrewing.com
4/23!
I'm not 100% sure, but I think Dark Lord day may be on the 23rd
Were those all supposed to be Mon/Tues? 23 and 24 are a Sat/Sun. Either way, I'd vote for the later dates, as I'll be out of town at the beginning of the month.
I'd like to put a vote in for earlier in the month.
Either way, this sounds pretty awesome! Thanks for putting this together, Jim! (and like Brock stated; 4/23 is a Saturday & 4/24 a Sunday).
Doh! Yes, both sets of dates were supposed to be Monday/Tuesdays. Dammit. So, April 4, 5, 25 and 26. Mondays and Tuesdays were Bryan's preferences, becaue the tap room is closed. Brock will be out of town for the 4th and 5th, he said - Brandon is your preference for the earlier dates because you can't make the later dates?
www.singingboysbrewing.com
Also, I didn't talk with Bryan about this, but while I'm happy to drink all the free beer Lagunitas will give us, they can afford it, I don't think that's the approach we should take at Blue Island. We should pay Bryan for his beer that we drink.
www.singingboysbrewing.com
Any Mon/Tues works for me. Thanks for organizing, Jim.
I agree, we don't need to mooch his beer. Is he cool with us bringing homebrew. I'm fine with either sets of dates, but prefer the later dates. Thanks for putting this together, Jim!
I would also like to vote for an earlier start time. Didn't realize how far south this was!
I might need to miss this one: the 25th is the only one of those dates that I could make it.
And yeah, I can't speak for anyone else, but my assumption with any kind of brewery tour or event is that I'm buying my own drinks. I certainly appreciate when the big ones are feeling generous and ply us like Lagunitas and Goose Island have, but certainly don't expect it from any of them.
With most seeming to prefer the later dates, I'll tell Bryan that our first preference is April 25, followed by April 26 and see what he says. I checked with Brandon K.and he's ok with this and will try to make it fit his schedule.
Once I get a solid date from Bryan, we'll put together the formal event listing and an RSVP spreadsheet, with car pooling info, too. I've also been talking with a homebrewer who won multiple medals for one of his session beers, about whether he would join us for this conversation. Stay tuned.
www.singingboysbrewing.com
Ok, we're set for Tuesday April 26th. I created an event here https://chaosbrewclub.net/event/bryan-shimkos-blue-island-beer-co-brewing-session-beers-workshop and you may RSVP here
www.singingboysbrewing.com