Wednesday, September 26, 2012
OK, I get it. Milkman Brewing Co. hasn’t been doing their part in spreading the word on the interwebs. THAT IS CHANGING! Like us on Facebook, and follow our shenanigans on the Twittersphere @milkmanbrewing.
Coming events!
Monday, October 8th at Diamond Market Grill, a 5 course dinner with beer pairings by yours truly.
Course 1 – Mac and cheese, sweet caramelized pork belly paired with our ESB
Course 2 – Spicy smoked Arctic Char, fennel and mustard green salad paired with our award winning Peppercorn Rye
Course 3 – Infused beef slider w/ caramelized onions, cracked black pepper, cambozola cheese, and balsamic tomatoes paired with the mighty Mean Assed Hank (Irish Whiskey-oaked DIPA)
Course 4 – House-smoked BBQ pulled pork crostini topped with slaw and greens, and a potato puree topped with bbq brisket, paired with Dahn Tahn Brahn, our new smoked-brown ale
Course 5 – Chocolate, marshmallow pretzel drizzled with butterscotch, paired with our Samoa Stout (inspired by the Girl Scout cookie)
Get your reservation into the Diamond Market Grill at 412-325-2000.
Stay tuned for info about 2012 Pittsburgh Brewfest happening Saturday, November 17th.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
The Milkman Brewing Kickstarter is live!
Check it out here
Hello drinking public! The opportunity to support a newly-arriving craft brewery with your hard-earned money is here. We know that you should probably put the money towards college funds and tacky Christmas sweaters, however, fermentors and kegs are gifts that keep on giving.
We are moving forward with the brewery this year. We realized that we will not be distributing very widely to start. The Kickstarter is the icing on top of the cake. We want to be able to get more beer, to more bars, more quickly. If we find the support, we will purchase equipment which will let us do that.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Hi all! It has been a long time since our last update… This is partly due to our trying to get our financials together for licensing. We currently have a location for the brewery, and have done some test batches there. The brewery space is near the Mexican War Streets, and we look forward to growing along with other businesses in the neighborhood.
We will be attending Pittsburgh Brewfest this year, and bringing a few beers with us to show off our wares. We will be returning with the Pitt City Peppermint Porter that won the attendees vote at last year’s Brewfest. To go along with last years beer (which tasted a bit like a thin mint cookie), we have brewed the Samoa Stout… think chocolate, caramel, and toasted coconut. We are also bringing a Peppercorn Rye beer that has been getting a very good response. The recipe is 50% rye, and is brewed with a variety of different peppercorns to give a subtle spiciness. For the VIP session, we have an Imperial Peach Ale (that is tentatively being called Impeachment… no political reasons behind the name, we promise!). This beer had fresh peaches added from the beginning to the end of the boil, and is paired with a Belgian yeast strain to bring out additional fruit notes on the palate.
The tickets for the event are $35 or $50 for admission to the VIP session, and are available at http://www.pghrugby.com/brewfest.html. Also, bring non-perishable food items for the food drive benefiting the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
Be sure to take a sober driver with you, as there are a LOT of beers to enjoy, and their ticket price is only $10 (which allows them to enjoy the food and entertainment).
More updates to come soon, I promise!
Hello all,
This is just a note for those who may be interested, Milkman Brewing Company is doing a beer tasting at Schenley park during the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix festivities on July 23rd. We will be at the B&W Autosports booth at 5pm.
B&W Autosports will also have the Milkman Brewing Company logo on their cars while racing, which we are pretty excited about. We are serving 3 beers, a Kolsch style beer (a German ale that is lagered for a few weeks), an Imperial Stout, and an English-style Pale Ale.
Stop by, say hello, try some beer! Be sure to bring ids as we have to card everyone due to this event being in a public park. The cars are pretty awesome too, so it is going to be a lot of fun.
Hello all, first, sorry for the lack of new posts. We have been busy getting our ducks in a row for eventually doing some production brewing. Right now we are looking for a small place to set up the brewery, so if anyone has leads (we need a small space with gas/water/electric preferably with a floor drain), let us know.
Mondays, June 13th and 20th we will be doing some beer dinners at Evolution Grille. We will be pouring some interesting beers that night and I am certain there will be a lot of meat dishes, so call and make your reservations today. 724-294-2088 or email Courtney at evolutiongrille@live.com.
A couple of the beers making an appearance are – Mean Assed Hank (big IPA aged on Irish whiskey-soaked oak) and Genever (a beer made with the same botanicals in gin)
There will also be a few more, and we are really excited about sharing them.
We will be doing something with one of the racing teams at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix in July, so stay tuned. Beautiful cars, hot weather, and craft beer…
Lastly, as we are in the middle of American Craft Beer Week, please support your local breweries! There are many great beers being made here in the Pittsburgh area. Try out some beers you haven’t had, you will be glad you did! (…and remember to drink your craft beer responsibly)
Thanks!
-Jamie
Hi all! Milkman Brewing Company now has some t-shirt designs up, in addition to some other cool little doohickeys. Check out the designs at http://milkmanbrewing.spreadshirt.com.
Check out this article from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It is about “nanobreweries”, and features us and other regional, small-brewing operations.
From ‘nanos’ big breweries grow.
Support your local breweries!
Hello everyone in beerland! Justin, Kyle, and I have been busy designing and brewing some beers for an upcoming food pairing. This will be happening at the Evolution Grille on March 14th and 21st, so check out http://www.evolutiongrille.com for information.
A quick rundown on some of the beers that will be there:
- Imperial IPA aged on Irish Whisky seasoned oak
- Indian-influenced Cream Ale (featuring some very interesting spices)
- Imperial Red Ale
- Pear-Honey-Wheat beer (featuring an interesting fermentation)
- Dry Stout (to be paired with a stout ice cream)
The food is excellent, so don’t miss out! Seating is limited, and at $39 per person or $75 per couple, reservations may fill quickly. Evolution Grille tries to source the majority of their product locally when they can, which we really like.
Support your local restaurants and breweries!
-Jamie
We spent the evening touching up the CO2 pressure on the kegs. The oh-god-so-much-foam pours were surprisingly enjoyable and gave a completely different profile to the beer. The adjustments made in the final batch took well and we found that the beer leaves an amazing aftertaste for a good 15 minutes. Also of note, carbonated kegs, much like babies and polaroids, should not be shaken.
A couple of retroactive posts on the brewing, fermenting, and kegging.
Brewing: No matter which way you cut it, bringing 40 gallons to a boil and back down takes a while. 8 hour day start to finish. Chris took the lead on sanitation and transit, Justin quality control and prep, Jamie managed the boils, Praise focused on support and wort chilling, and I tried to make sure everyone had what they needed. Brewing under a fume hood was a nice change of pace for us, by the end of the day there was a good 20+ degree difference in the ‘cloud’ of air above the lip of the hood and the air below! The excitement for the day came when we stumbled upon the fact that dried malt extract can act as a fuel-air explosive. Jamie’s eyebrows, arm hair, and curl were not permanently damaged in the advancement of science. All things considered, things went off smoothly at our first major boil.
Fermentation: The beer developed a considerable krausen overnight, overwhelming a couple of the blow-off tubes. The first time I went to the basement the symphony of blow-off tubes and and airlocks kept me entranced for a good 10 minutes before I started to get work done. It took about 3 days for the carboys to stop spitting foam, and about 5 more days for the primary to really slow down. The best part had to be the vague smell of Thin Mints that the basement took during fermentation.
Kegging: Jamie and Justin started the day at the hardware store rigging up some Y’s to speed up carbonation. The next few hours were a methodical mix of sanitizing, racking, and pressurizing. I finally got the call that kegging had started halfway through the Steelers game, arriving just in time to scrub carboys. Justin and I decided to bottle the leftovers while Jamie volunteered to brave the elements and start shaking kegs. Another 8 hour day (for those in the know) and we were ready for the brüfest.
Disclaimer: We in no way advocate the use of dried malt extract as an explosive.
Well, there’s no turning back now.
We’re slated to produce the official beer of the Pittsburgh Rugby Club’s Brewfest this year. Our logo is prominently displayed on the flyer, which pretty much puts us on the hook for pulling this off. The Rugby folks are excited that we’re making a beer just for them, and we’re excited that we’re going to have such big exposure. All in all, it’s an exciting time!
For the Brewfest, we’re trying something a bit unconventional. It’s a slight twist on a classic style that will surely be appropriate for the colder weather. Last week, Kyle brewed a small test batch of our brilliant idea, and it certainly has quite a bit of potential. We have a bit of tweaking to do with the recipe, but I think it will be a really nice beer once we’re through with it. We’ll announce the style once we have something that we’re confident in, but until then, I’d like to leave it as a mystery.
