We’ve been keeping a lid on this for some time now, but you might be interested to know that a bunch of us Pickles play old time music every Tuesday night at the Institute, located at 12th and Green in Philadelphia. that’s about a block north of Spring Garden, in what some out of town intertoobs magazine thinks is the most dangerous neighborhood in Philly. yeah, seriously.

It’s not a show exactly, more of a jam session, and we’re very open. On the other hand, it’s not a free-for-all: no Grateful Dead, The Band, or anything like that. Mostly strictly old-time, with some bluegrass and old pre-country country (if that makes any sense).

So if you have a fiddle/banjo/guitar/mandolin/kazoo/washboard/what-have-you, or you just want to drink some beers with live music in the background, we’ll be there tonight and every Tuesday, starting around 8:00-8:30.

On April 10, my buddy Jim is hosting a homebrew party (i had no idea so many of my neighbors were brewers). Below is my contribution, a basic extra-pale ale. I typically do all-malt beers, but I may opt to add a up to a pound of flaked rice to make it even crisper and lighter; I haven’t decided yet.

7 pounds 2-row German Bohemian Pils
5 pounds 2-row German Pale Malt
1 pound Melanoidin malt
1 pound Carafoam
1 pound white wheat
1 tsp Irish moss at 15 minutes, for clarifying
3 ounces of Citra hops, for bittering (at the 1 hour point), flavor (the half-hour point), AND aroma (the last five minutes). i may pick up a fourth ounce for dry-hopping
[optional: 1 pound of rice flakes]
[optional: 1 pound of table sugar at the end of the boil to increase gravity]

yeast: Wyeast 1764 PC (private collection): Rogue Brewery’s Pacman

as usual, I’ll mash with 170-175 degree water for a strike temperature of 150-155 degrees, with the mash lasting about 2 hours. Sparge water temp will start at about 175-180. then the boil begins.

The yeast I’m using is from Wyeast’s private collection: in this case it’s the Rogue Brewery’s proprietary pac man strain:

Profile: A versatile yeast strain from one of Oregon’s leading craft breweries. Pacman is alcohol tolerant, flocculent, attenuates well and will produce beers with little to no diacetyl. Very mild fruit complements a dry, mineral finish making this a fairly neutral strain.

This beer will be tapped on April 9, so I’m hoping that primary fermentation will be quick, as there’s not too much time for secondary.

Just an update.

Another update: if I can fit all the ingredients and water into my cooler/mash tun, I want to make an Imperial Stout based on the yeast cake from the porter. I came up with my grain bill last night:

12 pounds of 2-row mild ale malt
1 pound Carafoam
1/2 pound toasted wheat malt (the really dark stuff)
1/2 pound chocolate malt
1/2pound black patent malt
1/2 pound roasted barley

I don’t have a hops bill yet. I’m still thinking about what would be the ideal varieties…

About 3 weeks ago, I made what I’m calling “The Simcoe Bomb”: this delicious ale was made from 10 pounds of 2-row pilsen malt, 1 pound pf German CaraFoam (gives a nice head), 1 pound of light 2-row Munich malt, and a pound of US white wheat malt (again, for a nice head). We hopped aggressively with Simcoes: if you live in Philadelphia and enjoy Yards Philly Pale Ale, you know the flavor this hop imparts. The beer smells like grapefruits and weed.

Unfortunately, while the beer is delicious, it didn’t hit my target for alcohol content: I learned that I needed to increase my base malt by about 2 pounds, mash for two hours instead of one, and to increase my sparge water to 175 degrees.

So I did that for the next batch of beer, using the Wyeast 1056 sludge from the Simcoe Bomb. I used 11 pounds of 2-row pale malt, a pound of caramel-crystal malt, a pound of Carafoam, and a pound of either biscuit or Vienna malt. One ounce of Warrior hops went into the boil, followed by an ounce of East Kent Goldings at the half-hour, and an ounce of Fuggles at the end. This time I hit my target, and when kegged, I’ll have a yummy 6/5% alcohol beer. I suspect the hops profile is going to be a bit muted by the overpowering malt profile, so I’m expecting something more like a Scotch ale (which I’m not a huge fan of).

Be that as it may, I have another batch or two to go before the Wyeast 1056 is exhausted, so tomorrow I’m making a porter (when re-using yeast, you go from lighter-colored beers to darker).

here’s my recipe:

10 pounds of British Mild Ale malt
2 pounds of Maris Otter malt
3/4 pound of chocolate malt
1/2 pound of black patent malt
1 ounce of Pilgrim hops at the boil
1 ounce of Bramling Cross at the 1/2 hour
1 ounce of Bramling Cross at 5 minutes.

This porter will be done before the aforementioned amber is out of the secondary. I may have to buy a third keg.

As a taxpaying citizen of Pennsylvania, I demand that you rein in the PLCB and stop the destructive and embarrassing raids you are conducting in Philadelphia. As has become clear, the beverages confiscated for not being properly registered actually ARE registered, but the PLCB recorded the names improperly: two examples are Duvel and Monk’s Sour Ale. I am sure there are MANY more.

It’s been clear for some time that the PLCB is an outdated anachronism, and the latest raids further prove the case: obviously, the PLCB is unaware of the practice of cellaring certain beers in the same manner as wine, nor is the PLCB aware of what’s on its list of registered and unregistered beers. The economy in the state is already bad enough without the PLCB sending armed state police into establishments run by law-abiding business owners. Furthermore, in a time of economic crisis for the state, the PLCB is wasting taxpayers money and scant resources. Philadelphia’s murder rate, for example, is out of control: why are you wasting valuable man hours chasing down beer labels? I remind you that Prohibition ended 76 years ago.

It is not lost on me, or on anyone else paying attention to this gross abuse of authority, that none of you have any experience selling, marketing, or making wine, liquor, or beer:

Patrick J. Stapleton III of Malvern, Pa., was appointed to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board by Governor Tom Ridge on June 17, 1997… Stapleton, a native of Indiana, Pa., and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Tulane University School of Law, is an attorney practicing with the Philadelphia/Pittsburgh-based law firm of Weber, Gallagher, Simpson, Stapleton, Fires and Newby, where he specializes in commercial litigation, bankruptcy, medical malpractice and general casualty litigation.

Thomas F. Goldsmith of Easton, Pennsylvania, was appointed to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board by Governor Edward G. Rendell, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on April 23, 2003. He was reconfirmed for a second four-year term on Nov. 14, 2007… Goldsmith is a proven leader with a lengthy career in public service, having spent 20-years on Easton City Council and several years as an administrative and financial consultant to a number of communities in the Easton area before being elected Easton’s mayor.

Robert S. Marcus, a resident of Indiana, Pa., was nominated to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board by Gov. Edward G. Rendell on June 1, 2007, and unanimously confirmed by the state Senate on Nov. 14, 2007. Marcus, an attorney, is a founding partner in the Indiana firm of Marcus & Mack, P.C., concentrating in personal injury law. He is also chairman of Pittsburgh-based Apangea Learning, an online math tutoring system used in school districts around the country.

It is bad enough that your ignorance of the product you’re charged with selling and controlling drives otherwise law-abiding Pennsylvanians to Delaware and New Jersey to find wines unavailable in our state or to buy a six-pack at a reasonable price (at least one liquor store in NJ has a photo of an identified PLCB member buying his beverages at their store, with a humorous caption attached). But going after law-abiding businessmen on some kind of witch hunt better suited for the Roaring Twenties than the 21st century is wrong on all counts.

Stop the raids, suspend confiscations of so-called “unregistered beer”, and rewrite the liquor code. You are wasting taxpayer dollars, state police time, needlessly punishing small business owners in a time of economic collapse, and making the PLCB even more of a laughingstock.

sincerely,
brendan skwire

More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.

The alleged offense: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board – a process that requires the brewers or their importers to pay a $75 registration fee for each product they want to sell in Pennsylvania…

[M]ore than half the beer removed by the State Police was properly registered – but the cops couldn’t find it on their lists because of “clerical errors” or “blatant ineptitude” between the police and the Liquor Control Board, with whom the officers were conferring by telephone…

For instance, the cops grabbed Monk’s Cafe Sour Flemish Red Ale.

The beer has been sold throughout the state at dozens of restaurants and distributors for the last seven years. The brand appears on the state’s online list as “Monk’s Café Ale.” It’s on tap seven days a week at the Center City bar after which it was named: Monk’s Cafe, at 16th and Spruce streets…

[T]he State Police also confiscated bottles of Duvel, a popular ale imported from Belgium that is widely advertised and available in at least 200 bars throughout the city and suburbs. The beer appears on the PLCB list as “Duvel Beer,” while its label reads “Duvel Belgian Golden Ale.”

Note to the PLCB: PROHIBITION ENDED 76 YEARS AGO.

The PLCB is a costly anachronism that denies Pennsylvania consumers a real variety when it comes to wines and liquors. As i’ve written before, I get ALL of my wine at a store far enough in the interior of New Jersey that the PLCB won’t stake out the joint with PA state cops as they do in Camden (talk about wasting money and resources, you’d think PA was a paradise on earth and the cops have nothing better to do) because the selection at PA state stores is so lame, only a wino would shop there. I also buy six-packs in Jersey when i want to try new beers, because the price is so much better than PA’s “by-the-bottle” pricing for anything less than a case. That’s right, I break the law every single week, and I am damn proud of it because it’s a shitty stupid law.

But now the LCB has added insult to injury and raided a distributor as well, again carting away legally registered bottle of Duvel

As in armed raids conducted last week against three Philadelphia taprooms, the State Police alleged that the targeted beers were not properly registered with the state Liquor Control Board for sale in Pennsylvania – a process involving limited paperwork and a $75 fee.

The sketchy evidence available suggests that several of the beers in fact had been properly registered, and related liquor taxes had been paid.

But apparent miscommunication between the Liquor Control Board and the State Police has left the state’s investigators with only a foggy notion of what’s registered and what isn’t. The State Police proceeded with the latest raid in spite of the confusion.

A costly, and INCOMPETENT, anachronism.

This is what i say: abolish the PLCB and rewrite the liquor code. the agency is a vestigial hangover from the dying days of Prohibition, it’s run by people who have NO BACKGROUND AT ALL in marketing or selling wine, liquor or beer, and it seems pretty damn clear to me the Board has no idea which products are legal to sell and which aren’t. They are out of touch with PA consumers, a costly and obsolete white elephant, an obstacle to the free market, and an embarassment to the state.

Fucking PLCB, ruining my goddamn blogcation.

What i didn’t know was that the 1968 ferments EXTREMELY quickly. As in, “1.5 days in the primary”. That’s some fast yeast, and it fooled me: I thought I hadn’t extracted enough sugar from the grain, and so I added yeast energizer (essentially a concentrated mix of nutrients yeast loves). That didn’t work, and it wasn’t until I placed a call to my local homebrew supply that I learned what the deal was.

But after a quick burst of activity Sunday afternoon, the latest batch of IPA has been… well, dormant. I had the house thermostat set around 64 degrees since the yeast packet suggested a citrus overtone at a cooler fermentation temperatures, but nothing was happening. So last night before bed, I kicked the heat up to about 69 degrees: this morning, the fermenter was bubbling away like mad. In fact, some of the green beer had bubbled up into the airlock (no worries, it’s still sanitary).

I’m still thinking of adding another couple of ounces of fermentable sugar to see if I can boost the alcohol content, but such an addition is clearly not necessary at this point. i may be able to transfer as early as Thursday at this rate.

The wine vending machine serves as the perfect metaphor for the failures of Pennsylvania’s Capone-era alcohol policy: An absurd, patronizing and pointless rip-off that by rights should be blown up. If you look hard at our government-dominated system for controlling the sale of booze in Philly and across the state, there are only cons. Pennsylvania’s liquor laws and liquor-retail monopoly deliver none of the benefits—politicians promise cost (the state gets great bulk discounts) and public gain (profits are supposed to come back to the state, for the good of the people)—and do not prevent the abuses—safety (preventing sales to minors or intoxicated drivers)—they claim to protect us from…

Philadelphians have no legal way of avoiding the system. If you buy alcohol in Jersey or Delaware and bring it back to the Keystone state, by law you risk up to 90 days in jail—you can’t even arrange to pay the state tax. Supporters of the LCB claim that our vintage setup actually works pretty well and represents a great trade-off. Though customers sacrifice the convenience enjoyed by drinkers elsewhere, the system’s boosters insist, there are benefits that outweigh the disadvantages. The big three usually cited are safety, cost and public gain. If delivered right, it sounds like a powerful argument for sticking with the status quo.

Sadly, it’s all bunk.

You can read more at Abolish the PLCB.

In almost every other state, the unit by which beer is sold is the 6-pack. But in PA, it’s by the case, which is only available at the wholesale distributor. if you want to buy a 6-pack, you pay by the bottle. So a sixer of Yuengling, a cheap local brew, costs about $6.00 in New Jersey and about $12.00 (sometimes more) in Pennsylvania. Then you add on a by-the-bottle tax in Philly, which goes to our schools. What this means is Pennsylvanians have less opportunity to try new beers: who wants to risk $25.00-$30.00 on a case of something they’ve never tried? Who wants to pay taproom prices for a sixer of beer they intend to drink at home?

On top of this, most of the distributors aren’t open on Sunday, so if you forgot to go buy a case and want a beer, you have no choice but to pay those by-the-bottle prices.

Our wine and liquor laws are even stupider: that’s sold exclusively in state-run “Wine and Spirit Shoppes”, controlled by the PA Wine and Liquor Control Board. For years those “shoppes” (yes, they spell it that way, although there seems to be some halting transition to that crazy 21st century word “store”) were run like a pharmacy, a vestige of the laws following Prohibition’s repeal: a man behind a counter would take your order, go in the back of the store, and obtain your bottle. The practice was clearly meant to stigmatize alcohol consumption. Until last summer, when they opened a new one, that was how the shoppe in my neighborhood ran: turns out it was one of the oldest liquor stores in the city.

The selection is exactly what you’d expect from a bunch of bureaucrats whose bios betray no particular experience in the food and beverage industry: ghastly and highly limited. The occasionally updated Chairman’s Selection is unintentionally hilarious and typically overpriced. I’d just as soon get a recommendation from a drunk on a park bench.

Even worse, the PA LCB is hell on bars and restaurants, and by extension the customers those establishments serve. In most states, restaurants can buy liquor and wine wholesale from a distributor. In PA, restaurants have to pay the same prices as retail customers: thus the markup is higher.

Compared to New Jersey and Delaware, where the market dictates what can and can’t be sold, and for how much money, Pennsylvania is stuck in the stone age. And that’s why the PA state police stake out liquor stores just across the state line, in an effort to bust Pennsylvanians looking for more choices and lower prices.

Pennsylvania is a truly ridiculous place to live.

Now, i have no proof Baucus is shitfaced on expensive bourbon. I wasn’t there, I didn’t smell his breath, and I doubt he took a breathalyzer.

But just watch that performance and tell me that Baucus doesn’t look and sound like he’s polished off a couple of pints of Old Granddad. And not just his voice: the guy seems to be having trouble standing up straight. look at him reel around like the Tin Man’s dance scene in The Wizard of Oz.

if you couple that with his disgraceful actions on health care reform, and you’ve got the makings of a REALLY good attack ad.

“Max Baucus voted for legislation that forces you to buy overpriced junk insurance… and he shows up DRUNK for work.”

Conversely, maybe he’s auditioning for the role of Gabby Johnson: