The Beer Thread • Page 259

Thanks! Would you recommend these over Kane and those around Kane?

 

What do you consider "North Jersey" haha

 

So I live in Marlton - so going to The Referend and Conclave would make sense in the same trip.

Or I could go out towards Asbury Park and hit up Kane and anything else that way.

 

Well I'll put it this way: my favorite brewery in New Jersey is Icarus in Lakewood. If you went out that way, you could hit Icarus, then go up to Kane in Ocean, then go to Dark City in Asbury Park, Bradley Brew Project in Bradley Beach, and Last Wave in Point Pleasant Beach.

That said, I would rank places like Magnify, Referend, Conclave, and Twin Elephant above pretty much all of those shore-area breweries other than Icarus and Kane, and even then I'd rank Magnify and Referend above Kane also. So going to the ones in Hunterdon/Essex would overall probably be better. But it's up to you, really.

 

This statement should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

 

Kane obviously has the best stouts/porters but overall I like Magnify better. Just personal preference.

 

Not trying to be a dick, but how often to you get Kane's regular hoppy releases? I like Magnify, but I don't think they're even remotely close to Kane in any style.

 

I go out to Kane pretty regularly. Kane's IPAs aren't anywhere near their best stuff in my opinion, they're always very good but I don't think I've ever been blown away by any of them, other than that collab they did with Troon. But then stuff like Mexican Brunch and Morning Bell are untouchable.

 

In terms of making a day out of it, I would say the best trip options are:

1.) West - Referend, Troon/Brick Farm Tavern, Conclave
2.) Shore - Kane, Icarus, Dark City, Carton
3.) North - Magnify, Twin Elephant, Brix City

 

This is genuinely shocking to me, haha.

 

It's still my fourth-favorite brewery in NJ haha, it's a great place.

 

According to their Instagram story, Twin Elephant looks like they're about to put some cans out this week. Hype.

 

Thanks all. I'll report back with what I end up doing.

 

That beer is so good. That's the only thing I'm going to miss about working up in Union is being so close to them and Magnify.

1. Kane
2. Troon
3. Referend
4. Icarus
5. Magnify
6. Everyone else

 

Yeah I mean those are definitely a solid top five, I'd also throw Brix City into that mix because I love them a lot. Twin Elephant and Conclave are also contenders, they're putting out some seriously awesome product for how small they both are (especially Conclave lol). I live like 15 minutes from Conclave so a lot of the time when my wife and I are going out for dinner on the weekend we'll go over to Conclave for a beer first, I love it there.

I work literally ten minutes from Magnify and 15-20 from Twin Elephant. It's awesome/bad.

 

A follow up to my last post, I ended up finding one cool nano brewery in Croatia so all is forgiven

 

Yeah, Conclave is TINY. I really don’t get up to the northern breweries enough. Definitely going to miss the office happy hours at Twin Elephant. Btw, definitely let me know next time you’re heading to Kane so we can grab a beer. I’m a couple minutes away, so I’m there like every weekend anyway, haha.

 

Yeah I definitely will!

 

Not sure why it took me a month, but I just realized being out of work means I can focus most of my day on brewing for now. Replacing my kegerator lines and planning on brewing like 3 beers this week.

 

Lol, the new Sam Adams commercial brags that it’s “only brewed with two-row barley.”

Who is the audience for that? The only people that know what two-row is, know that isn’t true/is a horrible way to word the point they’re trying to get across.

 

What are you brewing?

I haven't seen that Sam Adam's one, but I'm assuming it's just to cash in on the Bud vs. Coors commercials and them using rice and/or corn syrup in their beers.

 

Triple IPA for a club competition to decide on a recipe for a collab we’re doing with a local brewery. Simple saison to test an East Coast Yeast strain I haven’t used before (03B). And then either a Berliner or gose base that I’ll probably fruit as a nice easy drinker for the summer.

 

My problem is although I really want to start homebrewing, I would love to start with a style I love (say a berliner weisse or a gose). Seems daunting and presumably ill-advised to start out with something non-basic.

Is there an entry-level or gateway style anyone would suggest? My fiance got me a class for Homebrewing 101 to cash in on, but I didn't want to sign up until I was ready.

 

Nice! That saison strain definitely sounds interesting. Are you using it as primary or adding it later on?
I have a berliner I'm planning on doing sometime soon too with a blueberry puree I have sitting in the fridge.

A blonde or amber ale is generally pretty easy to start with. A pale ale or wheat ale would be other good choices. The hardest thing is to have an area with a decent and stable temperature that you can ferment in. My old house had a basement that stayed pretty much between 60-65 all year so it was almost perfect. Now my basement gets a little warmer so I have to be a little more careful with the yeasts I use and the time of year. Homebrewtalk.com is a pretty good website for all things homebrewing and has a pretty big beginners forum on there.

 

For me personally, I would say get a few normal batches under your belt before the sour. But there is also probably something to be said for doing a "harder" thing first and then everything after it being easier. In terms of style, there aren't too many drastic differences in brewing different styles. You'll be a bit limited by ingredients if you start with extract, but besides that you can kind of go for whatever you want. Like @BlueEyesBrewing mentioned, temperature control is going to be the biggest thing. So you may want to pick something with an ideal fermentation range around whatever the ambient temperature where you'll be fermenting is. Saisons and wheat beers typically being a good choice for the summer when it's a bit warmer.

Just using that by itself as the primary. On the sour, I can't decide if I want to do something new, or remake one from last year (cherry/raspberry/pomegranate) that I really enjoyed.