A much overdue update

08 Monday Dec 2014

Tags

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.

Looks like we’re brewing an IPA! Some of our hops were provided by Bobby at Music City Brew Supply.

Crushed grains are happy grains.

First runnings.

Last runnings.

Pre-boil in a glass. Just checking the color. Tasted great too! Brian looks like he’s mad at it!

Getting ready to boil.

Cooled wort filling bucket number one. Now that is a beautiful red beer!

Brian manning the chiller, keeping the cool water flowing.

Bucket number two almost full.

Seth checking the final numbers.

Well, that’s it! Another successful brew in the books. We hit our numbers and we dry hop in two weeks. Have a great week everybody!

Until next time…

It’s Monday, let’s update!

06 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Justin in Brewing, Just for Fun

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ale, beer, blonde, brewing, camping, carbonation, craft, craft beer, D'Arcy's Pint, disc, disc golf, dudes, fermentation, fire, golf, guy, Hot, Hot Blonde Jalapeño Blonde Ale, IL, jalapeño, keg, regular, regular guy brewing, Scheels, secondary, Springfield

This Monday morning update is a little different than the other updates. It’s not all about brewing or brewing activities. All I can say is, I have a DAFCAE hangover.

What’s DAFCAE? It’s the Dude’s Annual Fall Camping Adventure Extravaganza! Every Fall the Regular Guys go camping and engage in all kinds of manly activities. We drink a ton of beer, play a ridiculous amount of disc golf, have massive bon fires and burn random items, shoot things with guns all while eating unapologetically. It’s a weekend of male bonding at its finest.

Seth and I did manage to get some beer related work done on Friday before we took off to the great outdoors. Have a look.

Secondary was complete for the Hot Blonde Jalapeño Blonde Ale so it was time to keg that sucker! Here it is going into keg one.

The beer leaves keg one and then gets filtered.

Then it enters keg two where it’ll be carbonated. She’s a pretty beer!

We also put some stain on our serving station.

Here’s a closer look at the top. Turned out nice!

What our setup will look like on the day of the competition.

Little bit closer.

Even closer yet. The two stands on the side will be for our vote collection containers, one for each beer we’re bringing to the competition.

We also finally transferred the Bacon and Brown Sugar Storter to primary fermentation and pitched the yeast. I have no pictures of that though. Sorry.

Want to see some pictures from DAFCAE? I’m going to post them anyway so you might as well be into it.

Seth brought some wood, this was gone the first night.

Yes that’s a spice rack.

Pallets make good bon fire material.

Not even sure what we’re burning here.

Posing with honest Abe Lincoln at Scheels. Scheels is probably the biggest sporting goods store ever. It has a ferris wheel inside.

Hanging out at our favorite restaurant, D’Arcy’s Pint. Their horseshoe sandwich is actually made by angels. It’s the best thing you will ever eat in your life. Ever.

We found this kitten crying in the woods while we were disc golfing. She was a sweet little thing. After a while of holding her and passing her around to toss our shots she jumped down. We thought she was going to run away, but she followed us through seven holes of disc golf. When we stopped to throw, she stopped and waited. So damn cute. She needed food and water desperately so we took her to a no kill shelter near by to get cleaned up and checked out. The ladies were gushing over her and swore she would be adopted really quick.

We named her Simcoe after our favorite hop variety.

She took a liking to Seth.

I don’t have very many pictures of our camping adventure. When you’re drinking and having fun, the pictures kind of go to the wayside. Maybe I’ll remember to snap some more next year, but probably not though!

I’m going to dedicate this trip to our newest member of the RGB crew. Our Regular Cat, Simcoe.