Sin Bin Brewery

Brew Day this weekend...  a Sin Bin Saison!  Since we have a few French guys on the team... I'm definitely getting the word "Frog" in the title somewhere!  Maybe I'll just call it Froggy... or... "Grenouille... a Sin Bin Saison"

There is a bill going in front of the the Virginia Senate tomorrow...SB604 that will allow VA's production breweries to sell pints to customers on site. Contact your representative to show support of the bill! ... link below:

http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

Letter from Virginia Craft Brewers Guild Chairman Mike Killelea:

Dear Craft Beer Enthusiast: The Virginia Craft Brewers Guild needs your help. As you may know, the Virginia General Assembly is currently in session. What you may not know is that there is a bill, SB604, before the Senate that would greatly benefit many of the craft breweries in Virginia. This bill will be heard in the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services committee this Friday, February 10th at 8:30am.

SB604 allows a brewery licensee to sell beer at retail at premises described in the brewery license for on-premises consumption and in closed containers for off-premises consumption. In layman’s terms, production breweries would be allowed to sell pints to customers. If passed, you could tour a Virginia brewery and enjoy a pint afterwards, much like how you can enjoy a glass of wine at a Virginia winery. More importantly, this would put us on even footing with some of our neighboring states.

Craft breweries are an emerging manufacturing base in the Commonwealth of Virginia that generate good paying jobs. A tap room at a production brewery would create more jobs and badly needed revenue for the Commonwealth and local municipalities through existing sales and excise taxes. It would also help promote beer tourism.

I would urge you to contact your state Senator TODAY and ask them to support SB604. You can find you legislator by clicking on the following link – http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

Thank you.

Cheers, Mike Killelea Chairman – Virginia Craft Brewers Guild

I've broken into the Bourbon Barrel over the past couple of weeks and it tastes great... no longer over powering on the oak front.  I've been holding off on the Spiced Rum Porter as the first 2 bottles I opened didn't seem to carbonate very well... so hopefully I'll crack one open this week and it will be fine :)

Another great season of Rugby has ended with Virginia Rugby Football Club as the 2011 undefeated champions of VRU DIII rugby.

This is the 6th straight Virginia Rugby Union DIII title for the VRFC and it's 5th undefeated season in those six years.

http://www.rugby.org/f11leagss.html

League Table: http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/virginiarugbyfootballclub/s/league-table-30583.html

Results: http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/virginiarugbyfootballclub/s/fixtures-results-30583.html&archive_id=6811

Narrowly averted disaster

Bourbon Barrel Porter? or Spiced Rum Porter?

The correct answer to this question is... Both! Since I make 10gallon batches... one carboy will get the bourbon treatment... and the other rum...

The Porter will be from the same 10 gallon Porter I will soon be brewing up.

The variables/contestants in this experiment will most likely be Maker's Mark Virginia Gentleman and Sailor Jerry.

Who will be victorious ?!?!

*** My Local Brewers store only has one pack of Scottish Ale yeast... So I got a package of European Ale yeast to try on one of the beers. I am going to make a starter for this beer and realized I only have one 2000 ml glass flask... so I'm going to mix the two yeast strains in the starter.

I've been taking a break from brewing a bit to drink the beer I made in the first five months that I've been brewing... I was running out of room to store it all :) I think I'll slow it down to every other month or so and start kegging half of my 10 gallon batches.

Despite a last second loss in the Mid Atlantic Rugby Football Union DIII championship match... The Virginia Rugby Football Club will continue on having earned a spot in the Round of 16 of the USA Rugby National Championship Series for the second straight year... Last year as MARFU champions and making it through to the Final Four.

Dry hopping pale ale with Cascade hops!

I'm working on a recipe for a 10 gallon extract batch of Pale Ale. Still trying to work out a rugby related name for it...

I picked up about 2 lbs of American Crystal 20L, 8oz of Cascade Hops, and 15 pounds of Gold Malt Extract from Northern Brewer.

Northern Brewer has what seems to be some really fresh extract... So I am still buying that from NB while I'm still brewing extract beers. I picked up everything else from my local store 5th Season up the street from my office... I try to support the local businesses whenever I can... and they have a good selection of stuff.

While Brown Dog Ale continues to bubble away going on almost two weeks now (I'll probably leave it in the primary another week until the kraeusen settles completely)... I got back to action on the rugby pitch vs. Roanoke (My first and previous club) after missing last week's game due to injury.

Outcome: Virginia 67 - Roanoke 19

Match Report

Photos (Complete set of match pictures can be found in the link above):

[gallery]

My chest freezer came in and has been plugged in to the digital temp controller... My goal here is to save a few beers from each batch to be enjoyed again at a later date. My plan is to set aside at least six 22oz bottles from each batch. I've already noticed a pleasant change in the stout in just a couple weeks... Looking forward to trying it again in a couple months!

Shout out to my awesome wife for helping me bottle and cap 48 22 oz bottles of Fat Five Ale last night!

Added Open ID registration to the site... so now you can authenticate on sinbinbrewery.com using an existing account... No need to create a new username/password.

Added on a plugin to the site to post to tumblr when i publish via wordpress to the sinbinbrewery page... so the RSS feed (www.sinbinbrewery.com/feed) is being published to facebook, twitter and now tumblr.

It also updated tumblr when I update a post in wordpress... it's called tumblriz

Yesterday we (VRFC) opened our spring season with a 54-0 win over Blackwater RFC. and today I racked 10 gallons of my second beer “The Fat Five” to two secondary carboys.   Two more weeks and I’ll be ready to bottle.

20oz pint glasses are here!