sorry for the lack of updates folks, been getting slammed at work these days.  will be getting back in the saddle soon.

• on saturday AP and I dropped by amsterdam cafe for a status update.  the place definitely has a good beer selection, but I found myself struggling to find anything I was excited about.  I ended up grabbing another pour of oaked arrogant bastard, poured ice cold, the exact same thing I picked up many months ago.
• for a change of pace, we then rolled over to tommy’s joynt, one of my favorite places for comfort food in the city.  we ordered up a ton of grub and got some great beers to match.  AP had a trumer pils on draft fresh from berkeley, and I had the petrus oud bruin from bavik, which wasn’t as tart as I had hoped (not at all actually) but was dangerously sessionable.
• on sunday I stopped by CB’s where he and TB were whipping up a barleywine.  CB brewed a pale, then a double IPA, and then a barleywine and each got pitched on the yeast cake of the former.  some airlocks definitely got blown out on this one.
• instantaneous cooling with in-line oxygenation via the therminator is the shit.  period.  I can’t believe I have been using an immersion cooler for this long without realizing how much time can be saved.
• after finishing up the brew a bottle of jubel 2010 got cracked open and passed around.  although the jubelale series is definitely not one of my favorite beers, this ramped-up version is great, with plenty of complexity that should increase with age.

after noticing that many of my weekend brew activities were too brief to merit an entire post, I decided to start a series of “weekends in review” where I comprise a rehash of last weekend’s beer events.

• saturday AP and I headed over to CB’s to check out his latest brew session (and new brew gadgets).
• CB was whipping up an all-grain IPA inspired by none other than my latest IPA.  I had bottled one flip-top of the batch and after getting a whiff of the intense aroma and great balance CB was inspired 😉
• CB also got to show off his new therminator, as alluded to during his last batch I checked out.  last time I checked, he got 10 gallons from a rolling boil to pitching temps in 10 minutes.
• sunday AP and I followed a hot tip to toronado, where DH and AF had scored pours of pliny the younger a day earlier.
• unfortunately, they were out of that grail beer (AP was told they should be tapping another keg of it today).  my consolation prize was a pour of critical hit, a leftover festival barleywine from ninkasi that had a great balance and an intense bitter finish.
• after running some more errands, we stopped by handy deli, where I hooked up a couple bombers of sculpin IPA for $4.99 each.  I told you this place was good!
• afterwards, AP and I scooped up CB and rolled over to the bevmo on geary, where we discovered a full stash of ninkasi beers (talk about coincidence).
• finally, tricerahops in CA!  we grabbed that as well as oatis, their imperial stout, total domination, their IPA, and believer, their double red.  I did a double take when the bombers rang up for $3.99-4.50!

the same weekend I was whipping up my partial mash IPA, CB was one-upping me with a 10-gallon all-grain double IPA brew day.

• now outfitted with a pump and quick disconnects, CB’s brewery was ready for any challenge.
• the pump made quick work of transferring sparge water to the HLT and transferring wort to the fermenters after cooling.
• I rolled by during the mash, and it was only a matter of a couple hours (and a TON of hop additions) until the wort was ready to be cooled.
• the only bottleneck left in the setup?  chilling 10 gallons of boiling wort to pitching temps takes quite some time with a 5 gallon immersion chiller.
• however, I hear a therminator may be on the horizon, and if that is the case, CB will be able to knock out a 10 gallon all-grain batch in the the same time is takes me to whip up a partial mash brew.
• seeing CB’s setup (and tasting the results – no more extract twang!) has convinced me that it is time to move up to all-grain: last week I picked up a turkey fryer setup and will use that and my homemade cooler mash tun to do some outdoor batch sparging.  anyone have any suggestions for a first batch style?