Say Hello to C'est Bon Biere

Thank you to everyone who voted for the new name of our concept brewery. After a close vote, the winner is:

This will be our main logo, so remember it. Someday you will see more of it at beer festivals, homebrew competitions, and one day local bars.

The beer labels will be different for each beer, but here is our first C'est Bon Biere Label, the Double Fault American Pale Ale:

We still plan on keeping the idea of "His and Her Beers" when Sam and I make our own recipes. This is noted in the top of every label.
Let us know what you think about the logo and the label. Happy New Year! Drink a homebrew, or a local beer as you bring in 2014.

It's the most wonderful time ... for a beer!

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear!"

-Buddy the Elf

Buddy, you're really onto something here. Christmas cheer... presents... chocolate pancakes... and family! 

Well if he spent enough time with either of our families, he would quickly know the most enjoyable way to spend time with them... With a beer! 

But really now... it helps. 

In lieu of the season, we decided to make a Christmas Ale. Since the previous weekend had been National Learn How to Brew Day, we invited a coworker over to learn how to brew. This event, as usual, escalated from a two person team, to a four person team, to a brewing night with about twelve people. Everyone got to taste the Belgian Missile Crisis and it was a huge hit!

We brewed up the Christmas Ale without a hitch. It is a California Common spiced with ginger, cloves, cinnamon, orange zest, and honey, YUM!

This brew could even knock the big man on his back side.

During the fermentation process, we noticed that this beer was far less active than others that we had. Of course, we didn't want it to explode in the closet, but a bit of bubbling would have been nice. We worried because it was our first time using dry yeast, we had done something wrong. We visited Keith at LA Homebrew and he recommended we wait. At the end of two weeks, we took the gravity reading, and the beer measured at a whopping 9.0% alcohol by volume!

That's when it earned it's name... Wreck the Halls

We are headed to the Rockies for Christmas, so we will see what the family thinks! After Christmas Taylor and I will be revealing the new name of our blog and brewery concept, so watch out for that. Have a wonderful and safe Christmas!

        

New Name!

UPDATE (12/11/2013): Thank you everyone for your input on the new name for our concept brewery. I did not expect the volume of responses and comments. We have chosen a new name for the concept brewery. The new name and logo will be revealed soon!

Family, friends, Facebook friends, blog readers, and beer enthusiasts; I have an important announcement. This week is your chance to give feedback to us, your favorite homebrewers in the world (maybe not the world, but definitely the East Baton Rouge Parish). We are conducting a poll to decide on the new name of our concept brewery.

Thanks to the dedicated research by my grandfather, he found out that Baton Rouge Brewing is a trademarked name in Louisiana. Who knew? Anyway, we want your help in coming up with a new name. The link to the survey can be found here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CLBBZPN

Thanks for following our blog, and all of the positive encouragement when it comes to our hobby.

Feel free to leave comments at the end of the post. Let us know what you think about our beers, labels, ideas, fashion faux pas, etc.

The Belgian Missile Crisis

It's one thing for Sam and I to like our homebrew. It's an entirely different story for other people to like it. We realized this pretty quickly after moving to Louisiana. Our friends and family from Louisiana have a much different taste palate than in Colorado. If our beer is to be successful, then our brews need to cater to the audience.

The first batch of beer that Sam and I brewed in Louisiana was a Belgian wheat ale. The recipe was made to be smooth (adding fresh orange zest and coriander), easy to drink (the least amount of hops in any batch to date), and light in color. Sam surprised me with a label for the beer bottles.

I'm sure you are curious as to why it was named the Belgian Missile Crisis. well, after brewing this batch, we pitched the yeast and capped the airlock on the carboy. The purpose of the airlock is to let carbon dioxide out of the carboy, while not letting air in during fermentation. This particular batch of yeast was extremely active. The fermenting beer bubbled up into the airlock and clogged it. From this point on, all of the carbon dioxide had no way out of the carboy. After a few hours of this buildup, EXPLOSION! I came home from work to an airlock that was MIA, a giant brown spot on the ceiling where the beer gushed out of the carboy, and streaks of beer caked on the walls, shelves, vacuum cleaner, and other contents of the closet.

It took a while to clean up, but I believe all of the hassle was worth it. We planned on bringing this beer to Bayou Beer Festival in Houma, Louisiana. It was a great festival, and we definitely plan on attending next year as well. After an impromptu brewing party at our house a few nights before the festival, we got a preview of how big a hit this brew would be. Our friends nearly wiped our fridge clean. The few bottles we had left, we took with us to Houma. It was great to see people try our beer and immediately ask us where they could purchase it. Some people even showed up for seconds, bringing friends with them.

Sam and I were not the only homebrewers there. We made friends with a group from Chalmette, LA. They are planning on opening their own brewery, 40 Arpent, in the next few months. I'll always encourage my friends to drink local beers, but these people were friendly, passionate, and had great beers. I like to say we knew them before they were famous.

I apologize to my family and friends who did not get to try this batch of Belgian Missile Crisis. This will definitely be brewed again in the near future. Like I said, it's important to find a beer that your customers enjoy. I was excited and surprised at how quickly we ran out of it.

Next time you try this beer, you might have to drink it at our house though. For those of you who are new to Sam and Taylor's homebrewing adventures, then next post you will get to hear about our new brewing toy at home. Until then, Cheers!

Graduation Day

Graduation day was upon us. Four grueling years of our lives gone by, and we have two degrees in chemical engineering to prove it. Actually, our diploma sleeve was empty, with a nice letter saying we will receiver our diploma after our final grades are submitted. Nobody slips through that easily...

Two chemical engineers make the perfect brewing team

Both of our families would be coming into Golden for graduation, so Sam and I decided to brew a special batch of beer for the occasion. It was Sam's choice of recipe, so she decided on a raspberry porter. After the porter had fermented for about a week, we added the raspberries, 3 pounds of them! It was interesting to see them turn from a dark red to a white-brown color as they soaked in the fermenting beer.

It only took three days for these to lose all of their color!

The fruit flavor was strong, but still tasted like a porter. This was the first beer that anyone in our family got the chance to taste, so we were very happy with the result. I like to describe it as a dessert beer, similar to a port wine. You can drink one after a meal, and that's about as much as you will want. 

Because of this, the porter lasted a few months. It was very surprising how the flavor profile changed over time. After a few months, the raspberry flavor mellowed out tremendously, giving the beer less of a dessert flavor. This was the first time Sam and I tried to create a flavored beer. We unanimously agreed to use less raspberries next time, or perhaps add them earlier in the fermentation.

Two degrees in chemical engineering gave us more than just brewing experience, it also gave both of us jobs in Baton Rouge, LA. That is where our journey will take us next, from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains down to the heat, humidity, and Cajun culture of south Louisiana.

Pint Glass Collection

So Sam and I visit as many breweries as we can. It's partially a hobby, and partially research. Aside from drinking tasteful, unique beers,we like to see what aspects of the brewery give it a good atmosphere and what features could be done without.

Living in Colorado gave us a great advantage in visiting breweries because it seemed like a new brewery was popping up every weekend. Each visited brewery means two pint glasses. It is definitely a fun collection, because we have a different story for each one. When friends come over, they always get to pick their pint glass to drink from.

They make for great decorations in the kitchen

When we finally open our brewery, the idea is to use these pint glasses. Each visitor will get to drink out of a different glass. We consider it a big thank you to all of the breweries that we visited. Each one has been an inspiration to the beers we brew.

The Beginning of an Obsession

So here is the first post. It all began in February 2013. Sam convinced me to purchase a homebrewing kit from the local homebrew supply shop. I was hesitant to cough up $200 for the kit and ingredients for our first batch of beer, but I am so glad we did. Homebrewing has become a hobby that we can do together. With two chemical engineering degrees, I was sure we could have fun making great tasting beer.

For our first batch, we brewed 5 gallons of a partial mash red ale. We brewed on the stove, cooled the wort in the tub, and bottled on the bathroom floor. It was by no means pretty, but we had fun doing it.

It all began in a college apartment.

The first batch wasn't even in bottles before we brewed a second batch. Since Sam chose the red ale, we decided to alternate who made the recipe. Thus, the concept of "His and Her Brews" was born!

Sam suggested that I can pick the second recipe "as long it is dark". She loves dark beers, and I love hoppy beers. Naturally, I chose the best of both worlds, an English Double Black IPA... she was not thrilled.

Rule #1: You can't brew beer without enjoying a homebrew.

 In a matter of two weeks, my apartment had carboys fermenting in two closets. Good thing we had extra space!

Finally bottling time came. That's when we figured out that in order to bottle beer, you need to drink beer. Our favorite Old Chicago's waitress (also named Sam), helped us out by supplying Sam and I with extra bottles from the restaurant.

Peeling labels off 100 bottles is very time consuming.

This is a quick history of how Sammi and I got involved in homebrewing. There will be plenty of posts to come about new beers we brew, equipment upgrades, and hopefully changes in the Louisiana distribution laws.

Our big dream is to open a nano brewery. There will be many steps between our 5 gallon batches here, until nano scale brewing, so hopefully you enjoy following us on our journey.