Sometimes you just can’t brew

22 Monday Dec 2014

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beer, brewing, Christmas, craft, craft beer, guy, holiday, holidays, IPA, red, Red Rye IPA, regular, regular guy brewing, rye, thanksgiving, wedding, weddings

Hey everybody in blog land, doing all the blog stuff you do. How are you? It’s been a while. Too long? Maybe, but hey, life is that way. What a great segue into the topic of this blog post! Brian, Seth and I would love to give you a blog post full of brewing pictures and beer porn every Monday, but sometimes when you’re trying to coordinate three very busy schedules, things just don’t work out.

Let’s put together a time line shall we?

October 24th, 2014 – we brewed our Red Rye IPA. We hit our target numbers, efficiency was great and the session went relatively smooth.

November 7th, 2014 – Brewmaster Seth was out of town and it was up to Brian and I to transfer the Red Rye IPA to secondary and do a little dry hopping.

November 14th, 2014 – dry hopping had gone long enough and we filtered and kegged our Red Rye IPA.

November 21st, 2014 – we bottled our Red Rye IPA and had our first taste of the carbonated masterpiece and have been enjoying it ever since.

November 28th, 2014 – we wanted to get a brew session in, but it was the weekend after Thanksgiving and our Brewmaster had family stuff going on. No big deal.

December 5th, 2014 – we wanted to get a brew session in, but Recess Brewing had just opened up and felt it was pretty important to pay them a visit on their opening week. Plus it’s beer, so…

December 12th, 2014 – Brian had a Christmas party to attend. When the brewery is in Brian’s garage, brewing becomes a little complicated.

December 19th, 2014 – I had a bachelor party to attend on Saturday and there was no way I could expect to spend Friday night brewing and all day Saturday drinking beer and playing golf and hanging out with friends until the wee hours of the morning.

December 22nd, 2014 – this is today. Now let’s chat about future brewing possibilities.

December 26th, 2014 – this is the Friday after Christmas. Probably not going to happen.

January 2nd, 2015 – I have a wedding rehearsal and dinner and a wedding the next day so count me out. Brian and Seth could possibly pull together a session without me though…nudge nudge, wink wink!

January 9th, 2015 – this is realistically the next possible day we can brew. That is if the weather cooperates and it’s not so cold our pumps will freeze up.

So we haven’t brewed a beer since October 24th, haven’t done anything brewing related since November 21st and probably won’t be able to brew until January 9th. Wow! Am I having brewing withdrawals? Yes I am!

Until next time…

A much overdue update

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Justin in Random Stuff

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beer, Beer porn, brewery, brewing, brown ale, craft, craft beer, ESB, extra special bitter, guy, IPA, Porter, recess, Recess Brewing, regular, regular guy brewing

Holy cow it’s been a while since we’ve posted anything on the old blogging machine! Well here I am to fill you in on the going ons of Regular Guy Brewing. We have been so busy brewing eight batches per day, it’s been insane! That’s a lie. We haven’t brewed for a while now. Our last brew session was our Red Rye IPA (just in case you forgot what it looks like)

and while it’s delicious and we love it like crazy, we are definitely chomping at the bit to get another brew session under our belts. We did have the opportunity to brew on Friday, but chose to support Recess Brewing, a local brewery that just opened its doors this past Tuesday. I know right, twist our arms. So we went, had some great beers and met the owner, Matt who is a really cool guy. He even let us into the brewery and didn’t get mad when we drooled all over his equipment. Good dude! We didn’t take many pictures because we were enjoying ourselves so much. Seth did snap a few which I will gladly share with you now!

Oh yes, beer porn! This is Recess Brewing’s Pedagogical Session Porter. You read that right, Session Porter. It’s got all the big bold flavor of a Porter, but you can drink it all day! That’s a win – win defined my friends! Want another picture of this beautiful beer? Ok!

Boom! Would have looked nicer with full glasses, but we had a tough time keeping our glasses full!

This is their 2211 IPA. Beautiful AND delicious, it’s the total package! I love their description of this beer as well.

“Have you ever been punched in the face by a flower? This floral IPA that is made with multiple hop varieties totaling about 2 pounds/barrel and with it comes an aroma that will attack your senses.”

I can now happily say I’ve been punched in the face by a flower and will continue to be punched in the face by a flower for many years to come! One of the best IPAs I’ve ever had.

Of course we have a picture of Brian doing Brian stuff!

Like I said, we didn’t take too many pictures, but I would like to share the other brews we had as well.

Hop Square: Hoppy American Brown –“The very first beer through the equipment. A happy accident that created a hoppier American brown. It has been so well received, we’re working to duplicate it to offer it alongside Four Square.”
This beer was very interesting. A different take on the traditional Brown Ale. Delicious to say the least!

Traitor: Extra Special Bitter –
“Like a famous traitor of the American Revolutionary War, this beer will deceive you. This ESB is hopped so it smells like an American Ale, but at first drink it reveals its true colors as an English Ale.”
Truly deceiving and truly amazing! You definitely can’t judge the book by its cover on this one!

Here’s Brian, Matt and Seth in the Brewery, it was a great way to end an awesome night! Thank you Matt for the wonderful hospitality, see you again soon!

Connect with Recess Brewing at
Recessbrewing.com or
Twitter.com/recessbrewing

Or go visit them at
307 N Main Street in Edwardsville, IL

Well, that’s it! You’re updated! We are planning a brew session for this Friday so you’ll have another Monday morning update to look forward to next week!

A chilly Monday update!

17 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by Justin in Brewing

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beer, brewing, carbonation, cold, craft, craft beer, frozen, guy, ice, IPA, keg, kegging, red, Red Rye IPA, regular, regular guy brewing, rye, winter

Happy Monday! Said no one ever. I do, however, have some good news and pretty beer pictures to brighten your day! Friday we got together on a rather cold night to keg our Red Rye IPA. It was a brisk 20 degrees and we had two kegs to fill. Now I know our friends up in the Great White North would consider 20 degrees shorts weather, but after a few hours outside in the cold, playing with water we were ready to call it a night! Ok, no more crying about the weather, let’s see some pictures!

The bubbles from the sanitizer froze in the bucket and all over the driveway.

Can you see a face in the frozen sanitizer bubbles?

Brian is a trooper and true bad ass! He was the one who dipped his arm into the sanitizer to retrieve the sanitized parts we needed. Rumor has it, his arm had to be amputated on Saturday.

Seth rinsing one of the kegs. Note the ice on the driveway from spillage.

Red Rye IPA being transferred from secondary into a keg.

Filtering the Red Rye IPA. It goes from one keg through both filters and into its new home.

The filtered IPA filling up the keg.

Two full kegs being carbonated, it’s a beautiful sight! It’ll be ready to bottle on Friday.

Even though it was incredibly cold, we toughed it out, with a whole bunch of whining (mostly by me, “I’m freezing, I can’t feel my toes” blah blah blah) but the end result was well worth it!

Until next time…

A short update for a long Monday

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by Justin in Brewing

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beer, brewing, craft, craft beer, guy, IPA, red, Red Rye IPA, regular, regular guy brewing, rye

When brewmaster Seth is away, Brian and Justin will play…the PS4! Yes we did get a video game session in, but we also proved that we can be an asset to Regular Guy Brewing. It was up to us to transfer the Red Rye IPA to secondary and dry hop that sucker, and we pulled it off! High fives and flying chest bumps and sprays of champagne filled the crisp night air. I was able to snap a few pictures if you’d like to see them.

After a VERY vigorous fermentation the Red Rye IPA is ready for secondary and a hearty dry hopping. According to the refractometer, we’re right on track for 6% ABV.

Brian really likes the Amarillo hops.

NO BRIAN THAT’S NOT WHAT WE DO! See what happens when Seth is out of town?!?

Filling the buckets. The Amarillo swirling around in that pretty red beer!

One more picture, just to rub it in! Beautiful!

Well, that’s it. I’ll spare you the details of the video game session, just know that many beers were drank, a good time was had and Seth was dearly missed.

Until next time…

Monday morning update is here!

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Justin in Brewing

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alpha brewing company, Bacon and Brown Sugar Storter, bacteria, beer, brewing, craft, craft beer, guy, infected beer, IPA, red, Red Rye IPA, regular, regular guy brewing, rye, Stolze Style Brewing

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, fellow brewers and lovers of craft beer. It is with a heavy heart that I have to report that we lost one of our most anticipated brews. Our Bacon and Brown Sugar Storter, has been infected. Yes, it’s true. We currently have a Sour Bacon and Brown Sugar Storter. Not really a great combination. While we’re not 100% sure at what point the bacteria was introduced, we have a couple of theories. Our biggest regret is that StolzeStyle Brewing and Alpha Brewing Company won’t get to enjoy, what could have been the best beer known to man. She’ll be laid to rest this Friday October 31st, followed by an intense cleaning and disinfecting session.

In death there is life, and we brought new life to a recently revamped recipe. We brewed our Red Rye IPA. I have a few pictures to share with you now.