Wick's Home Brew

Last night I volunteered at a beer tasting in West Point. Anthony’s Good Food Market hosted the event. This sparked a question of mine. What does the Golden Triangle have to offer when Mississippi Craft Beer Week comes around? With last year as the inaugural year for MS Craft Beer Week, the GTR area has plenty of venues that are more than able to host these events. Who is willing?

Starkville

The Halfway House: This is the newest beer-centered establishment in the area. Opened up with 30-plus taps and have room for expansion. Roomy inside, perfect outdoor patio. The beer menu is always changing, so you can experience something different every time you visit. The only negative is parking.

Rosey Baby Starkville: Rosey Baby has stepped up their game with 50-plus taps installed. Installed a cold room behind the bar to store kegs. It’s a nice setup for your average beer geek. They have hosted beer and wine tastings by certain breweries and wineries. Rosey Baby is doing their best to get into the mindset craft beer enthusiasts. Twitter: @RoseyBaby_stark

Dave’s Darkhorse Tavern: Want a low key environment, good live music and good beer? Dave’s is your place. While their selection isn’t anything like the others. The environment and live music makes this place a worth while host for any craft beer event in the area. They were the first place in the town with Sierra Nevada’s pale ale- even though it was in the bottle, there was not another bar in town where you could find it. 

Ptolemy’s Taproom: When Ptolomey’s came into town it was the premier beer bar in Starkville. Started out with 12 taps and have upgraded to 20 taps. The venue is small, but it is located in the heart of Starkville’s Cotton District meaning you will get the college crowd to come and enjoy a beer with you. Twitter: @ptolemystaproom

Columbus

The Princess Theater: The current owner, who enjoys a good craft beer, has taken on the task to make this bar quaint with plenty of beer selections on tap or in the bottle. Then there is also the theater next door that brings in musical acts. If you ever find yourself in Columbus, go to this historic location and have a beer. You’ll be pleased.

West Point

Anthony’s Good Food Market: Good food and good beer. Average number of taps, but have a great bottle selection. Great space by the bar and the room next to the bar. Firkin anyone? Influenced by the best beer store in the area right down the street, the Smokestack, the writing is on the wall. Good food and good beer equals a good time and great potential.

So with Mississippi Craft Beer week on the radar the Golden Triangle is more than equipped to host any craft beer event. So which brewery or distributor wants to get their name out and promote craft beer? The Golden Triangle is more than ready for the task. 

To get us started off the four bills that are being introduced in this years Legislative session are: 

Gourmet Beer Bills
Senate Bill 2064: Beer; increase the amount of alcohol that it may contain form 5% by weight to 8% by weight.
Author: Senator David Baria 

House bill 744: Beer; increase by 3% the amount of alcohol that it may contain.
Author: Representative Bobby Moak

Homebrewing Bills
Senate Bill 2117: Homemade beer; authorize making of homemade beer for domestic or household uses.
Author: Senator David Baria
House Bill 401: Homemade beer; authorize making of homemade beer for domestic or household uses.
Author: Representative Bobby Moak

The following was my letter to my House Representative, I just edited the bill numbers and titles to my Senator. 

This email to ask for your support on the two beer bills that are being presented. The first one is the to increase the allowed percentage of alcohol that a beer may contain for it to be sold in our state. This is a great way to increase revenue in our state without raising taxes. Currently for me and many of my friends we travel out of state to enjoy quality craft beer. These beers are a craft to be enjoyed and not for drunkenness. The bill is House Bill 744: Beer; increase by 3% the amount of alcohol that it may contain. 

The second bill is to allow craft beer enthusiasts to create their own beer in their homes for personal consumption and to be shared with friends and family. There is already a law in place allowing Mississippians to make their own wine for personal consumption, now we need to make this concrete saying it is okay for Mississippians to make their own beer for personal consumption. The bill for this effort is, House Bill 401: Homemake beer; authorize making of homemade beef for domestic or household uses.

Again I want to reiterate these bills are not being put in place to help the citizens of Mississippi abuse alcohol. Craft beer is on huge upward movement. Take a look at our neighboring states. Alabama introduced a bill very similar to House Bill 744 two years ago, and already four craft breweries have opened in that time. How many jobs is this creating for Alabama? How much revenue in taxes are being collected from these business opening? This is nothing but positive for their state. Let’s do our best to keep OUR money in OUR state. 

I would appreciate your support in these two bills. 

Thank you for your time. 

Responses I have received:
From my Senator: “You are welcome and thank you for your input” 

Where does my Senator stand? Yay or Nay? Another email to him is in the works. Isn’t he suppose to be representing me? Ok if we have different opinions, let me know where you stand. Is he taking my input into consideration? Does he not even want to even worry about these bills? 

I have not heard back from my House Repsentative yet. Once I do, I will update this post.

As always, if you have any questions or comments drop me an email at wick at wickshomebrew dot com

Call me a beer nerd/geek/enthusiast/idiot, whatever you want to call it. I have enjoyed drinking a lot of beers. I have tried to document everything I have drank, if I am out and about I don’t usually whip out the cell phone to snap a pic. But my ole lady loves to take pics of the food we eat. I like to take a picture of the beers I drink. I sat down and tried to use Photoshop. I am not at all seasoned with it, but I try my best. Here is a collage what I have enjoyed. 

Once again, if you have any questions, comments drop me an email to wick at wickshomebrew dot com.

One month ago you could have asked me if the craft beer movement in Mississippi was moving forward? One month ago I would have told you not yet, that a few Mississippians are working on it. I know I don’t do as much as I should for the craft beer movement here in my fine state, but I know the want to is there.  Living in Starkville, one would think a booming college town would have an affinity for the craft beer movement. Wrong! Every time I go to places I asked them if they know about Raise Your Pints, and 95% of the time I get a no. What is it? So I then go into my spill about how at least 85 of the top 100 beers in the world is not allowed to be purchased in MS. That this organization has been built from the ground up, lobbying lawmakers to get the laws changed. They are working their tails off, giving up free time with their family and friends trying to make our state more attractable to visitors and other businesses.

Forward onto about two and a half weeks ago, our Governor proclaimed this past week July 23rd through July 31st as Mississippi Craft Beer Week. YES!  Raise Your Pints has reached a major accomplishment. To have this proclamation put us in the minority of the states who actually dedicate a week (some even a month) to the craft beer movement. Great job guys, this is an awesome feat! Check it out at Mississippi Craft Beer Week.

Now forward onto this past Friday (July 30th). I stopped at a gas station to pick up a two-liter of cola for my girlfriend to have a mixed drink or two at a party we were going to. When I walked into Brewski’s (if you familiar with Starkville in any way, you about Brewski’s) I see a counter full of Rogue beers in bombers. WAIT! Did I see this right, bombers, bombers of craft beer. Yes sir, I scooped up a couple and I will enjoy them very soon. By the way, if you happen to be the manager of Brewski’s and you happen to read this, read up on Raise Your Pints, I’m coming to see you soon. I haven’t been to this establishment in quite some time, mainly because it’s more convenient to go to another beer store on my way home from work. But they have impressed me and impressed me enough to not go back to “that other store.”  Awesome job.

Now the day is July 31st, Mississippi’s first ever big beer festival has come to our state capital. Featuring over 150 beers, 40 different booths, now that isn’t 40 different brewers, but it was just about all the beers available in Mississippi. Having been to a couple festivals this year, I decided to donate my time to the festival. So I was assigned to the Atlanta Brewing Company’s (ABC) booth. Having had a couple of their beers on my resume I was quite excited to be pouring their beers. After the volunteer meeting I go to my booth to find the regional representative, Patti.  Talked over with her about all the beers they brought to the festival and I was getting more and more excited about this experience. She was awesome.  I was glad she was there, she made the most of everything and sold their product quite well I must say. All the distributors loved her and she loved them. The craft beer industry is such an close knit kind, and maybe one day I can be apart of that. Back to ABC’s beer booth, the most popular beer that we served was the Laughing Skull Amber Ale. I didn’t get to try it at the festival, but I tried it at the bar later that evening and it was a good beer and I see why it was so popular. The next popular was the Blonde ale. If you are new to craft beer, this is the beer to try, light, crisp, refreshing. Good beer for a hot summer day. The next one was their summer brew. It is a hefewiezen which showcases the yeast in which they pitch into their beers. Very spicy, very good beer, nice body to it. Their flagship beer, the brown ale was also a good hit, I myself am a fan of that beer, but my favorite of them all is their pale ale. Which let me tell you the story about that beer.  It is originally called Peachtree Pale Ale. Well, people who are familiar with Atlanta, probably do not know about Peachtree and probably will think hey that is a beer with peaches and it’s going to be a sweet beer. Well, sorry to disappoint, it’s not sweet, unless you think the grapefruit notes are sweet. It’s clean and refreshing and not too bitter. Of the 5 beers they have available in MS, this one is my favorite. I should have counted all of the people who thought the Peachtree Pale Ale was going to bring them a different flavor.

My only gripe about the festival were the people we came there just to get trashed. Spending $35 to $60 at a beer festival to get trashed is not fun in my book. I know having an event where alcohol is involved there are going to be people like this, but to come up to me and say just give me something, I don’t care, that takes away from what this festival is all about. Trying new beers that you haven’t had before, trying different styles to see what your palate likes, or even just trying different breweries beers that you haven’t heard of. Please don’t come because there is an abundance of beer available.

Top of the Hops beer fest was the absolute best ending of Mississippi Craft Beer week. But that isn’t the last event that MS will be having. The Snowden Beer Festival is happening this weekend (August 7th) in Southaven, MS. I am not able to attend this one, so hopefully I’ll hear great things on Twitter and Facebook about it. 

All in all I believe deep down Beer Mississippi is heading upward. We will be successful on getting the 5% ABW cap lifted, we will be successful on legalizing home brewing. Hey, on the proclamation the Governor stated that home brewing was important to the craft beer movement. So all you Mississippians out there, join Raise Your Pints, talk to your bar owners and beer store managers, tell everyone, we need everyone’s support with this movement. 

Good ole Southern heat peaked into the mid 90s this week making me worry about how my fermentation on batch #5 is going. The t-shirt wrapped fermenter and fan method that people told me about on Twitter is working like a charm. Everyday I check the temperature of my carboy and it is hovering 68-69 degrees with an ambient temperature of around 75 degrees. Thank you Twitter people for chiming in and helping me out. 

The krausen hasn’t fallen yet and the blow off is still randomly blowing bubbles, so racking to the secondary is going to have to wait at least until after the weekend. As you may can tell I am very eager to drink this beer. It will be ready for me to drink by the time I head up to Kansas City for my summer vacation. 

Will keep the updates coming. 

Cheers

I have been reading this book “Microbrewed Adventures” by Charlie Papazian. Great read. Describes each brewery he visits and respective brewer as an adventure in the craft beer industry. This guy has got to have one of the best positions/job (if you can call it a job) ever! I often wonder what his source of actual income is, but he is one of the pioneers of the home brew movement. But onto to my own home brew adventure. Now you may wonder where us batch #4? Well what happened was I believe I let some contaminates get into this batch. How? I have a few theories. I also believe that I didn’t use enough yeast and when I bottled there were no more yeast alive to react with my corn sugar to naturally carbonate the beer. I have an idea I may try. Who knows. But I think it did not ferment down to it’s final gravity range. Home brewing is an experiment, right? So I scratch that batch and onward to my next batch.

I have really started liking to drink pale ales as of late. Talk to me two to three years ago and ask me if I wanted a pale ale, I would have passed on your offer. Well my palate has changed quite a bit since I have been on this craft beer movement. I have taken a liking to the Tommyknocker Pick Axe Pale Ale. Fruity flavors, bitterness all in my pint that I get at the local bar here in town. Well this book I have been reading has recipes for beers at each brewery Charlie has visited. I have always wanted to try the Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, but of course living in Mississippi I cannot find it around here. In the back of the book I find a home brew recipe adapted for the 60 min IPA. So me being one to try things jumped right into it. But I adapted the recipe to some ingredients I already had here at the house. So which made my order to Brewmasters Warehouse a little cheaper. Instead of using all pale LME. I had 5 lbs of extra light DME handy. So I just ordered enough LME so I could achieve some of the expected color and also increased the amount of caramel malt grains. I also changed the type of hops i used because Brewmasters Warehouse was out of warrior hops and they suggested I use Columbus instead. The smelled great!

Living here in the south we have devilish hot summers and it already feels like summer has already hit us. So I needed a way to keep my fermenter at around 70 degrees or below. Thanks to Twitter a couple people suggested the t-shirt and a fan method. I must say it is working pretty well I filled a large cooler up with water about half way, put my carboy into the cooler then wrapped t-shirts all around it and then put a small fan blowing on it constantly. I checked the temp earlier this evening and it is hovering around 67-68 degrees. The ambient temp is 74-75 degrees. Not too shabby. I do want to try to build a “Son of a Fermentation Chiller”. Looks very nifty and ingenious. Google it and you’ll see what I am talking about.

So my IPA is fermenting away. Once it’s time to rack to the secondary I will dry hop wit 15 grams of hops and let it sit covered in t-shirts with a fan blowing on it for a couple weeks and then bottle.

I am soon gonna post pics of my sweet stout and hefeweizen and let ya know my review on those. I also want to start reviewing beers I try. I’m still new to the craft beer revolution and am still developing a palate to the different flavors you find in each beer. But so far I am loving every minute of it, even if I did screw up one batch.

Cheers!

The ole lady and I along with another couple went to the Suds of the South beer fest in Tuscaloosa, AL in March. Great! Great! event I must say. Had a handful of southeastern brewers there. Lazy Magnolia (Kiln, MS), Terrapin Beer Company (Athens, GA), Sweetwater Brewery (Atlanta, GA), Good People Brewing (Birmingham, AL), Back Forty Beer (Birmingham, AL), Highland Brewing Company (Asheville, NC), Abita (Abita Springs, LA) and Yazoo Brewing Company (Nashville TN).  It was limited to 200 people. So we bought our tickets and headed on over to Bama country. I got a chance to pick the brains of the brewers there and actually talk to them about their beer. The only beer I drank that night that I did not enjoy was Yazoo’s smoked porter. I think I will limit my smokiness to only meats. It tasted like my smoker as I am smoking some ribs or a pork butt. All their other beers, GREAT! This was my first beer event and now I am itching for more. I am planning on going to the Magic City Brewfest in June. That will be a busy couple weeks for me. Ahh well, I can handle it. 

So anyways, on to the home brew. The reason I chose this kit is because the ole lady really liked Yazoo’s Hefeweizen. I found a kit on Midwest Supplies and ordered it up. The target OG for this batch was suppose to be around 1.049 to 1.053. So I got my hydrometer out and measured it and it was sitting around 1.070 after I adjusted for temperature. Not that I was worried, this just means it will have higher alcohol content.