Posts Tagged ‘general lafayette’

New Beers

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

In case you missed it, we are now pouring the Philadelphia Philsner.  This “red pilsner” is a crisp, hoppy brew with a moderate malt balance.  It goes really well with spicy food and is just $3 AT ALL TIMES – while the Phillies are still in the playoffs.

Also, we are proud to pour the delicious Saison Vatour from McKenzie Brewhouse.  It recently won GABF Gold!  Come in a try some.  You won’t be disappointed.

Bad news/good news.  Scheduling issues and the release of the Philsner have precluded production of Oktoberfest and our Sly Fox collaborative brew.  The Philsner is not far from what Brian O’Reilly and I had planned to brew, though (a hoppy session beer with German roots brewed with German and English ingredients, fermented at ale temperature).  Some good news is that our Harvest Ale is sort of a hoppy festbier that is tasting fine and Novemberfest is in the fermenter (another hoppy-ish fest-like brew with more bready, biscuit flavors than the Harvest Ale – higher ABV and lower IBU’s).  We are also going to be tapping another Prism Beer Company prototype next week – a spiced Amber Ale.  But, the really good news is that a grain shipment should be delivered Monday or Tuesday that includes ingredients to brew The Emperor’s New Clothes (Tripel), The Loch Ness Monster (strong Scotch Ale) and, after much too long a delay, Raspberry Mead Ale.  We’ve been experimenting with the low alcohol beers for a while, but it’s clear that many of our fans miss the stronger beers that had become our forte over the years.  I expect to keep the ABV’s up for a while, following through the winter with East Coast IPA, Holiday Cheer, Winterfest, an , if things go as planned, a 2009 Barleywine.  Also, I’d like to brew Double Thunder, the Grim Reaper, the Weizenheimer and a Belgian Quad in 2010.  Feel free to post a comment with any suggestions for long, lost GLI specialty brews (Olde Curmudgeon, XSB, Hopeweizen, Malted Oat Stout, for example).

Cheers!

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Spiles, Shives, Keystones, and Bung Holes

Monday, September 14th, 2009

In the ongoing efforts to educate my staff (and patrons) on the nuances of the finer things in the craft beer world, I conducted an evidently comical tutorial of the hardware involved in true cask ale production.

We were pouring Union Jack ESB and Sly Fox Rt 113 IPA directly from the casks on the bar.  One of my newer servers did not know that the vessel is called a “firkin”.  She mistakenly believed that “firkin” was the name of the beer (the horror!).  So, I gathered my eager charges behind the bar to go over every piece of equipment.  The patrons sitting at the bar engaged themselves in the conversation, as I had peaked their interest as well.

So, the first item discussed was the spile.  I showed them a hard spile and a soft spile, describing the manner in which each is employed and for what purpose.  (I’ll leave that detailed discussion for a later entry, as the act of educating is the heart of this entry.)  Then, I moved on to the shive.  This is where it got interesting, as one of my staff mentioned she heard that it was the bung.  “Well,” I said, “the shive is inserted into the bung hole”.  (Giggles all around).  “We punch the spile into the shive hole to let the cask breathe.” (More giggles).  “Some kegs have bung holes into which are inserted bungs.  Because this is a firkin, we bang a shive into the bung hole.  Then we punch the spile through the shive hole.”  At this point, there were so many sophomorish chuckles and laughter, that it was clear the crowd wanted more “bung hole” humor.  I told everyone that bung holes existed long before Beavis needed “TP” for his.  I went on to dissapoint them by pointing out the keystone and saying, “what do you think this long pronged thing is that I hammered in through the keystone?  Sorry, it’s just called the tap.”  (some laughter anyway).  That’s when a patron chimed in, “yeah but after you do that you can open the tap for the money shot!”  I poured a half-pint for myself and said, “on that note, I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.”

Cheers

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