The WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery from WilliamsWarn on Vimeo.

They say commercial quality beer in 7 Days…http://www.williamswarn.com/

White House Honey Ale

According to the Obama Foodorama blog (I guess there’s a blog for everything) the Obama’s served a homebrewed White House Honey Ale at the White House Super Bowl party. It was made with honey from Michele Obama’s honey bees.

Brewed with one pound of honey from this year’s 160-pound harvest from the White House Bee Hive, the Ale was made by an unnamed White House chef who is a home-brewing enthusiast.

When they are homebrewing in the White House, you know homebrewing has hit the mainstream.

What’s cool is Hopville’s “Beer Calculus” section. You can build a recipe and it figures out target gravity, SRM (color), IBU (bitterness), etc.  It’s pretty straightforward so I won’t go into details about how to use it. Just dive in and start designing your next killer brew.

As they say, “You’re already a genius at brewing. Let somebody else to the math.”

That’s the concept behind Red White & Brewed.

We’re going to do something that has never been done before; by building a brand from the ground up via television, and perhaps more importantly, by offering the opportunity of a lifetime to one special amateur/homebrewer. The American Dream, personified. Red White & Brewed will provide a platform for the cast members to show the world that they’re the most talented at their craft, and also that they possess the experience, temperament, and judgment necessary to be the face of our brand.

At the site you can vote on audition videos and submit your own. The producers are currently looking for a network and are in “active discussions with some of the most watched network and cable television players in the industry.” I hope a network picks them up. This is actually a reality TV show I would watch.

The 33-year-old computer programmer is neither a monk nor Catholic, but as he surveys this emerald-green oasis in the midst of the city, he talks excitedly about his “American abbey project”: an attempt to bring the monastic brewing tradition to Washington.

In bygone centuries, beer was safer to drink than water, and monks brewed it for their own consumption as well as to supply thirsty wayfarers. As early as the ninth century, the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland had three breweries in full operation. Today, there are perhaps 18 monastery breweries throughout Europe that earn their keep by selling beer, most famously the Belgian Trappist breweries such as Chimay and Orval.(full article via The Washington Post)

I have tried to tell every one a good craft beer is heavenly. Maybe I should talk to our local monks at Subiaco Abby and see it they have any beer brewing tips?

Despite a lawmaker’s worries it could lead to legalizing marijuana, a measure that would allow Oklahomans to legally brew beer for their own use won easy passage Wednesday in the House of Representatives.
House Bill 2348 would allow Oklahomans to brew up to 200 gallons, or about 80 cases, a year for their personal use. Full Story at newsok.com

A bill pending in the Louisiana legislature could have major consequences on Bayou State homebrewers.

House Bill 503, which proposes the Louisiana Homemade Beer Law, would make the brewing of homemade beer for personal, family, domestic or household use exempt from any restraints covered in the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law. The bill also proposes limits on how much beer can be produced per household each year and how much can be transported outside a household to local and national beer-tasting festivals and competitions. In addition, the bill proposes making the sale of homemade beer illegal. The bill was drafted by Rep. Michael Danahay, D-Sulphur.

Danahay seems to be on the side of homebrewers, wanting to clarify LA’s somewhat ambiguous  homebrewing laws:

“It will give them some guidelines on the amounts of what they can produce and transport,” Danahay said. “We don’t want to get into a situation where they are stopped by law enforcement and get in trouble. We don’t want them to get caught in a quagmire. This gives them some protection.”

It’s always a little scary when politicians, even well-meaning ones, start writing laws that directly affect your hobbies. There are parts of this bill which worry some homebrewers.

The bill also places a limit on how much beer a person can transport from his or her home to local and national exhibitions, festivals, fairs and competitions that are recognized by the commissioner of alcohol and tobacco control. If passed, the law would allow five gallons to be transported to local events and twenty gallons to national events. Two gallons could be transported to events not recognized by the alcohol commissioner, according to the bill.

The American Homebrewers Association calls this “fairly restrictive” which seems understated to me. Hopefully this portion of the bill will be rewritten before (if) it becomes law.

The class has a cozy setting inside the storefront space, about five tables with four stools at each are set up for the students. Two wine glasses,coasters and what you might call the course curriculum for the two-hour lesson are laid out on the table at each seat. The classes are intimate, with no more than 15 in the one we attended. And whether you just want to learn more about how beer is made, or you actually want to start doing it yourself, the class is for everyone.

Gee makes homework sound fun!

via http://twitter.com/HomeBrewTalk/status/8384230785

They call this a “convertible” jockey box because you can remove the tubing and drop a mini-keg in. That sounds cool but I’ve never seen craft beer in a mini-keg so I doubt I would ever do that. As someone noted in the comments, you could also use this as a wort chiller for homebrew, which is something I would do. You would need some kind of pump, though.