Club Update:
If there was ever any indication that the club needed comradery and sense of normalcy I believe last meeting was the indicator. Being the host for the first large get-together for the club since last October; many of us thirsty gentlemen were ready to break out of the feelings of an isolated winter we were wanting to leave behind.
By cramming all 10 of us into my small basement pub we were offered a reminder of how it should be. OTMP meetings should be a bit cramped and a little loud, we need the jokes and the shit talking. We need a sense of being close to one another to share our passions, knowledge and of course a thick layer of bullshitting all served up with a frothy white head on our beers.
I am not quite sure how it ended up being 1am before cleaning up the bar. What I do know is none of us wanted to let go. There was a real feeling of exuberance in the air. We all remember how it felt to be part of the good times and we were making new good times. We were all left thirsty for more of these connections and of course, great beer.
Items for newsletters wanted:
Want to share an article, recipe or write up on virtually anything related to homebrewing, send them along to the club at oldetownmashpaddlers@gmail.com
Deep Dives on Beer – Ryan Pachmayer
Ryan Pachmayer, likely the most active OTMP member and the guy that always knows what is up and coming and fresh on the Craft beer scene shares another article of his.
ICE BEER, BEYOND BUD
Remember Bud Ice, that line of Budweiser whose label came adorned with a zippy typeface that seemed to say I’m chill without outright saying it? Most of the ’90s teenagers who made Bud Ice and its brethren (Busch Ice, Keystone Ice, Natural Ice) house party companions probably never knew why the word “ice” even appeared on the label. But that moniker denoted a method of freezing and concentrating the beer, a process known as icing (or eising, in German), to increase flavor. continue reading here
Deep Dive on Brewing German Pilsners
German pilsner is a marriage of simplicity and depth. Often using just a single type of hop and malt, these beers achieve a fairly wide variety of depth and flavor by using specific, high quality ingredients and multi-step mashing regimes. But the most important ingredient of all in German pilsners is time. The time for the yeast to do its work in the beer, for the flavors of the hops and malt to harmonize, and for the beer to clear up. The result is a crisp, generally hop forward beer with an unmistakable snappy cracker-malt flavor. The beauty of these beers starts even before the taste. This pale yellow beer is brilliantly clear. An army of bubbles marches toward a pillowy, white, fluffy head in the heavens above. This is truly a simple, yet sophisticated beer. continue reading here