A note from our bearded friends:

September Pub Night at Mellow Mushroom Saturday 29th @ 9pm 

HCBMS Folks,

Jonah of Mellow Mushroom, downtown King Street has been kind enough to offer their establishment to host our monthly pub night. It will be this coming Saturday, September 29th at 9pm. Come on out and grab some of their many brews & great pizza make new friends, hang out with old ones and talk all things facial hair. Bring a friend, bring the family.

If you havent come out to a pub night yet, time to do so! Tshirts will available for $15 and we are starting to run short on larges. I hope to get some stickers made with our logo soon.

There will be an “idea sheet” at pub night so members can brainstorm as to what activities they would like to see the society involved in.

“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man” - Shakespeare.

Yum! The kolsch and ipa are tasting really nice today. The kolsch will probably be ready to go in less than a week, a little bit longer for the ipa. We’re brewing a stout tomorrow, probably a Chocolate Rye. We are having to replace the glycol pump already- damn. Got our first electricity bill with the walk-in running full blast- ouch! But well worth it.

I think I am going to organize a painting party for next weekend. I am so tired of painting all by myself and with a few of us we can probably get it done pretty fast.

Well, with 2 full fermenters, I feel like  we can relax just a little. The kolsch is looking nice and the IPA is certainly lively! With a gravity of 19.5 on the first brew it’s no wonder we came in to this the next morning:            oh fermentation!                 woops    

David is a little concerned with a little thinness in the mouthfeel but time will tell.

waiting around     boil      mash-in          stir it up       

We brewed the IPA tonight, David was transfering to the kettle when I left.  Everything was looking really good. So nice to be in the brewery with this cooler weather. And ALL the kegs are finished being painted!! Thanks to all who helped paint, whether it was 1 or 20, they are done. One big check off my list, now on to the next……..

okay, I’m tired. Did another batch of kolsch today and David is starting the yeast for tomorrow’s IPA.  I was surprised as to the amount of hops he used, interesting. A farmer from Legare Farms came by and took the grain. Tomorrow we need to finish insulating the glycol lines. Major cleaning and organizing needs to happen and of course the never ending painting! Thanks to Faye, there is only about 15 kegs left to brand. Now on to the walls.

Well, the kolsch is brewed. Everything went well until the transfer. The heat exhanger sprung a major leak. One of the brand new gaskets busted. So David fixed it enough to transfer but now he needs to dismantle it and really fix it. We’re brewing another kolsch today and starting the yeast to brew the IPA tomorrow. Another long day ahead I’m afraid…..but nice to know we do have some beer going.

Just got off the phone with David and he has mashed in, no real complications! It is quite tortuous to be only about 300 yards away at my job and not be there for the first brew. But hey, at least it is happening.  We tried to brew last night but we had just started running the glycol system and it hadn’t gotten down to 30 degrees so we put it off. When he got there this morning it was at 20.  We milled most of the grain at Palmetto, but some small additions (one being cara pils) we had to grind on a homebrew mill with the drill- that was interesting. Other than that, so far so good. Stay Tuned….

well, the flow switch for the glycol didn’t come in on time today to get finished. first on the agenda for tomorrow, so that pushes us back a day. yeast came in this morning though and the pacific gem whole hops is stinking up the brewery (in a wonderful, make me want a beer way). i’m drooling with anticipation.

if i could post an audio file I would and you would hear the sound of steam! may not sound like it but steam is a glorious thing. we got the boiler fired up today and chugging along nicely on biodiesel; seemed very efficient too. this was a major step that needed to happen so we can brew this week so I am so glad it went well. David is now running hot water through the brewhouse and giving it a long overdue cleaning. can I get a “hell yeah!”????