February Banter Thread

[Lowershoresadness]

random thought. When we are all in our 80's and above will we still care about tracking snow or worrying more about when our adult diaper will be changed?

[WeatherFeen2000]

2 minutes ago, Lowershoresadness said:

random thought. When we are all in our 80's and above will we still care about tracking snow or worrying more about when our adult diaper will be changed?

Not sure my father was a snow feen like me and he still likes it he’s 79

[Lowershoresadness]

4 minutes ago, WeatherFeen2000 said:

Not sure my father was a snow feen like me and he still likes it he’s 79

no one in my family was or is a snow chaser. as each winter passes my interest gets less and less but that's probably because of my location where we don't see much anyways but on rare occasions

[87storms]

i'm happy to report that i picked up some eagle rare today.  they had it at one of the stores nearby in virginia.  first review is that @Bob Chill isn't just a winter weather expert, but knows a good bourbon.  good stuff. 

[Fozz]

6 hours ago, Lowershoresadness said:

random thought. When we are all in our 80's and above will we still care about tracking snow or worrying more about when our adult diaper will be changed?

I think we’d be visiting some virtual reality world that’s full of heavy snow and blizzards all the time.

[ATreglown]

It's the 3rd week of February and my plum tree is in full bloom!!!  

[Cobalt]

8 hours ago, Lowershoresadness said:

no one in my family was or is a snow chaser. as each winter passes my interest gets less and less but that's probably because of my location where we don't see much anyways but on rare occasions

lol

[wxdude64]

20 minutes ago, ATreglown said:

It's the 3rd week of February and my plum tree is in full bloom!!!  

Yeah, neighbor's silver maple at the bottom of the hill that gets full sun all day looks ready to leaf out, crazy.

[CAPE]

Just picked up a six pack of DFH Wood-Aged Bitches Brew Stout after having dinner at Chesapeake and Maine. Had one with dinner and decided I needed a few more for later.

[Bob Chill]

4 hours ago, 87storms said:

i'm happy to report that i picked up some eagle rare today.  they had it at one of the stores nearby in virginia.  first review is that @Bob Chill isn't just a winter weather expert, but knows a good bourbon.  good stuff. 

I'm no expert but after buying pretty much every bourbon I've met over 20 years....I figured a couple things out along the way.

If you see Tin Cup whiskey in a store then buy it right away. If you like eagle rare the you'll like Tin Cup. If you like Irish whiskey then try Tullamore Dew. My wife barred me from buying Tullamore because we would open and finish a bottle in one night every.single.time. lol. Crazy smooth on the rocks. 

[nj2va]

We met friends at the Wharf tonight for drinks and dinner...that place is pretty awesome.  I gotta see a concert at the Anthem, too..that placed looked legit.  

[mappy]

i'm happy to report that i picked up some eagle rare today.  they had it at one of the stores nearby in virginia.  first review is that [mention=2035]Bob Chill[/mention] isn't just a winter weather expert, but knows a good bourbon.  good stuff. 

Told you


.

[psuhoffman]

I'm so glad we spent all that time talking about the drought. 

[nj2va]

2 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

I'm so glad we spent all that time talking about the drought. 

Maybe we need a “Snow Drought” thread and then we’ll get our blockbuster March.

[psuhoffman]

1 minute ago, nj2va said:

Maybe we need a “Snow Drought” thread and then we’ll get our blockbuster March.

My point was always it would balance out. Yes it had been dry. But before that it was wet. This is how it works. Most areas were only at 5 or 10 year drought levels. If we started getting to 25 or 50 year levels then it's severe and worth some significant concern but being overly worried about something that is supposed to happen every 5-10 years is overly alarmist. Odds favored it breaking and it did. 

[psuhoffman]

The current snow drought is only at 5-10 year levels now too. Yea sucks but not unheard of. And odds are it will break soon too. If not march then sometime next winter. If we get to next march still without a warning event then it's becoming a historic thing. 

[RevWarReenactor]

41 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

The current snow drought is only at 5-10 year levels now too. Yea sucks but not unheard of. And odds are it will break soon too. If not march then sometime next winter. If we get to next march still without a warning event then it's becoming a historic thing. 

[Interstate]

sounds like we are getting closer and closer to PSU epic rant

[psuhoffman]

5 minutes ago, Interstate said:

sounds like we are getting closer and closer to PSU epic rant

It's coming. Who cares if it does snow. March snow is like winning the lottery the day before you die. 

Just channeling my inner JI. 

[Ralph Wiggum]

Definitely ...for BWI / DCA and s and e and sw zones ( except coastal areas - Jan historic  blizzard) ...but many northern Md counties ...Allegheny,  Wash, Fred,Carroll, N .Balt . got a warning level storm March 14th last year( 5-10"+). 

Just curious, before the January 2016 thing, what was the closest warning event prior? I just would like to know how unprecedented this is and if the Jan 16 storm was just some strange anomaly in an otherwise historically extended piss-poor pattern. Either way it sucks. But on the bright side, nature has a strange balancing act going on so at some point you guys will make up for this, of this I am certain.

[psuhoffman]

3 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

11 minutes ago, losetoa6 said:

Definitely ...for BWI / DCA and s and e and sw zones ( except coastal areas - Jan historic  blizzard) ...but many northern Md counties ...Allegheny,  Wash, Fred,Carroll, N .Balt . got a warning level storm March 14th last year( 5-10"+). 

Just curious, before the January 2016 thing, what was the closest warning event prior? I just would like to know how unprecedented this is and if the Jan 16 storm was just some strange anomaly in an otherwise historically extended piss-poor pattern. Either way it sucks. But on the bright side, nature has a strange balancing act going on so at some point you guys will make up for this, of this I am certain.

No we had 2 warning events in 2015 one in February and one in march. And the year before that in 2014 there were several. We came out of a 3 year heater. We're paying the piper now. 

[87storms]

11 hours ago, Bob Chill said:

I'm no expert but after buying pretty much every bourbon I've met over 20 years....I figured a couple things out along the way.

If you see Tin Cup whiskey in a store then buy it right away. If you like eagle rare the you'll like Tin Cup. If you like Irish whiskey then try Tullamore Dew. My wife barred me from buying Tullamore because we would open and finish a bottle in one night every.single.time. lol. Crazy smooth on the rocks. 

Haha, yea the smooth whiskeys can be trouble. What’s also nice is this bottle was only $30 (luckily was on sale) which is definitely a bargain.  My final review is that it tastes like a sweeter Woodford Reserve, which is another one I like.

[nw baltimore wx]

@mattie g

I know you brewed one, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing your hop schedule when you brew your NE IPA. I'm brewing a version of one and just wanted to hear your thoughts. Some of my specific concerns are if you hop the wort as it comes out of the mash tun and how much, and if you do that, do you do any hopping in the boil?  Also, what temperature do you do hop additions after flameout and how long do you wait before cooling the wort. Any thing else you can think of?

If anyone else has thoughts, ( @jonjon , etc) I'd enjoy hearing them! 

 

 

[showmethesnow]

2 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

@mattie g

I know you brewed one, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing your hop schedule when you brew your NE IPA. I'm brewing a version of one and just wanted to hear your thoughts. Some of my specific concerns are if you hop the wort as it comes out of the mash tun and how much, and if you do that, do you do any hopping in the boil?  Also, what temperature do you do hop additions after flameout and how long do you wait before cooling the wort. Any thing else you can think of?

If anyone else has thoughts, ( @jonjon , etc) I'd enjoy hearing them! 

 

 

I can't help you with the brewing process but if you need a taste taster.... 

[Interstate]

I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

[nw baltimore wx]

1 hour ago, showmethesnow said:

I can't help you with the brewing process but if you need a taste taster.... 

Anytime you're in the area...

[Bob Chill]

3 hours ago, 87storms said:

Haha, yea the smooth whiskeys can be trouble. What’s also nice is this bottle was only $30 (luckily was on sale) which is definitely a bargain.  My final review is that it tastes like a sweeter Woodford Reserve, which is another one I like.

That's a good description. Woodford has a distinct bite but very good. Makers is similar in that regard. Eagle has a distinct vanilla type favor on the nose. Evan Williams single barrel is right in between woodford and eagle. Evan single barrel is really good for a large distillery. Beam Black label is also very good for a mass production company. 

It's fun discussing this stuff even though I haven't had a drink in over a year. Lol. 

[jonjon]

2 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

@mattie g

I know you brewed one, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing your hop schedule when you brew your NE IPA. I'm brewing a version of one and just wanted to hear your thoughts. Some of my specific concerns are if you hop the wort as it comes out of the mash tun and how much, and if you do that, do you do any hopping in the boil?  Also, what temperature do you do hop additions after flameout and how long do you wait before cooling the wort. Any thing else you can think of?

If anyone else has thoughts, ( @jonjon , etc) I'd enjoy hearing them! 

 

 

We now have two NE IPAs  -- we just added "Multiple Hopgasms" last week and its been a big hit.  Our "Six Legged Frog" has also been very popular.

The key to those beers isn't so much what you do on the brew day, its the dry hop that is most important.  (your malt recipe, of course, needs to be appropriate -- a good amount of white wheat is necessary -- I love adding a little Golden Naked Oats as well). We don't add much if any hops to the boil, maybe a little FWH to get some bitterness, but we add a huge amount to the whirlpool right after the boil.  We whirlpool for about a half hour then transfer through the heat exchanger to cool on its way to the fermenter.  We've found it works best to dry hop in two doses, one on about day four while there is still active fermentation (for the yeast/proteins and hop oils to marry for good cloudiness and hop flavor).  Then a second dose after fermentation is complete and we've gotten the beer off the yeast (for that clean hop aroma).  We normally dry hop at 55 degrees (we lower to that temp to get the yeast to drop -- Sean Lawson taught me that) but in this case the first dry hop will be at fermentation temp, which when we use 1318 yeast (I hope that is what you are using for yeast) is about 67 degrees.

Hope that helps!

[Interstate]

Ever since BobChill changed it profile picture... we have been screwed.

[EastCoast NPZ]

37 minutes ago, jonjon said:

We now have two NE IPAs  -- we just added "Multiple Hopgasms" last week and its been a big hit.  Our "Six Legged Frog" has also been very popular.

The key to those beers isn't so much what you do on the brew day, its the dry hop that is most important.  (your malt recipe, of course, needs to be appropriate -- a good amount of white wheat is necessary -- I love adding a little Golden Naked Oats as well). We don't add much if any hops to the boil, maybe a little FWH to get some bitterness, but we add a huge amount to the whirlpool right after the boil.  We whirlpool for about a half hour then transfer through the heat exchanger to cool on its way to the fermenter.  We've found it works best to dry hop in two doses, one on about day four while there is still active fermentation (for the yeast/proteins and hop oils to marry for good cloudiness and hop flavor).  Then a second dose after fermentation is complete and we've gotten the beer off the yeast (for that clean hop aroma).  We normally dry hop at 55 degrees (we lower to that temp to get the yeast to drop -- Sean Lawson taught me that) but in this case the first dry hop will be at fermentation temp, which when we use 1318 yeast (I hope that is what you are using for yeast) is about 67 degrees.

Hope that helps!

I don't know the first thing about brewing, and probably will never care to try myself, but it would be neat to hear a summary of your process for brewing Over the Tip Top.  I freakin' love that Breakfast Stout.  I hope someday soon that I'll be able to obtain it locally, although being able to hit-up Stumptown Ales is one of the things that drives me to come out to the area.