My first stop was in Charlotte North Carolina to see my grandson and family. After picking me up from the airport my family took me to a local (NC style) BBQ joint. I love NC style BBQ and I try to make it here from time to time. Anyway here was the beer list from the place:
I was too hungry so I forgot to take pictures of the BBQ which was excellent, sorry. But here is a picture of some BBQ I made recently to fill in this space. Just as good the the NC stuff!
The next day, I went to the supermarket to pick up some necessary supplies (6 pack naturally), and this is what I was confronted with:
Mind you this is just the regular local supermarket, not a beer specialty store. I ended up with this, A Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA, which is a double IPA. Right now, this is my favorite beer style. The Drifter Pale Ale turned out to be very nice as well.
My next stop was to Pittsburgh (home of the Superbowl champion Steelers) to visit some old friends. One of them being my ex. So one night she says I have to accompany her to visit one of her friends. After trying and deciding I could not get out of it, I told her I would go but we had to take separate cars so I could leave early if I wanted to. So she agreed to that. That is how I met Bill the brewer.
Bill turned out to be a very interesting man. For one thing, he built his house, and by build it, I meant almost every single nail in it. This is what his house looks like:
So Bill meets me as I got out from my car and after the introductions, he takes me into his basement and asks me if wanted a beer. Before I could ask what he had, he apologised because all he had was some Yuengling on tap, he actually apologized! For those of you not familiar with it, Yuengling is a very good lager made by one of the oldest (if not the oldest) continuously running brewery in the United States and has an excellent reputation for making very good craft style beers. I say craft style because they are a major regional brewery and not a microbrewery.
This is his beer on tap inside his homemade keg fridge:
Before I cold say the words myself, he says "I'm a home brewer". While he was saying this, I started to look around his basement and saw this:
These are 5 gal carboys filled with mead, some of which has been aging for over 10 years!
and this:
and this:
He had the most complete homebrewery I have ever seen. Most home breweries, especially those here in Japan, the equipment is set up to do the brewing and then taken down and stored away until the next time. Most of us here just don't have the luxury of a permanent brew setup like Bills. I wish I would have taken some better pictures because what I'm showing here just does not do justice to Bill's setup.
Anyway, after this introduction, I told my ex that it was a good thing that we came in 2 cars because she may be leaving before me!
Here is what I think he has:
Mash tun with a stirring motor to do what he says is reverse PIM (never heard of that before).
2 hot liquor tanks where he can do the boils
a steam pot (a modified pressure cooker) which he can use to maintain the mash temperature or sterilze his counterflow chiller or whatever else he needs steam for.
A LONG straight counterflow chiller.
The 2 pipes shaped in an extended "V" is Bill's counterflow chiller. It runs from his brew setup and runs to the other end of his basement.
And all of it is connected with a system of pipes, valves and pumps so that he never has to lift anything during the brewing process. He kegs his beers so there are no bottles involved as well.
Unfortunately he said he had not brewed in 5 years since he had to go back to work. But he did offer the fire up the equipment if I should come back for another visit. I had not planned on it but the offer was/is tempting.
The next day we went to church. Really we did. Here is the church:
But what kind of church you ask?
A little bit of Pittsburgh history is in order here. When Pittsburgh was steel town, many workers came here from many countries in eastern Europe and most were catholics of one sort or another. And this led to many catholic churches in the Pittsburgh neighborhoods, each one with a priest/pastor who spoke the language of the local congregation. I went to a Lithuanian catholic high school in Pittsburgh when I lived there. But as Pittsburgh matured and the steel industry was no longer the predominant industry, many of the people in the neighborhoods moved away, either to the suburbs or to other cities/states where there was better economic opportunity. This meant that a lot of the local neighborhood churches no longer had congregations big enough to sustain it. That left a lot of real estate of former churches available in Pittsburgh for the taking. So the Church Brew Works came into being.
It is now a full working brew pub and microbrewery. Where the altar used to be are the copper brewing kettles.
And here is the very happy me with the beer "sampler".
Each "sample" had to be at least 200ml. And of course none of it went to waste. Although most of the beers were very good, there were 2 that stood out for me, one was a super hoppy but not all that bitter IPA named "Thunderhop IPA" and a seasonal triple bock flavored with coriander. The Thunderhop was amazing in the hop flavor but because it did not have the corresponding extra bitterness, it was very refreshing and easy to drink. Damn, I wish I had some now. But the triple bock really stood out for me. I'm going to have to try some coriander in my next batch of home brew.
There was an enclosed courtyard with outdoor seating. The brick walls were covered with hop vines, very nice:
Next stop on my tour of the USA was in San Diego, home of Stone Brewing. Coming up next
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