June Lake Brewing
Beer is Finally Here ~ After much anticipation the time has finally come to taste our first batch of SmoKin Porter! That's right clear your calendar for the afternoon of Sunday March 17th (this coming Sunday), because we'll be hanging out in the June Mountain parking lot cooking some BBQ and pouring samples of our SmoKin Porter for our 21 and over TestPilot Crew. Tailgate June Mountain! Aside from it being International Drinking Day (aka St. Patrick's Day), it's also TestPilot 001 Jeff Kramer's Bday. Viva St. Kramer's Day! We're trying to make it a surprise, so don't tell Jeff... Also given our affinity for lowering our overall impact, we will not be providing cups of any kind. So BYOC (bring your own cup) if you want a taste, and you'll also need the secret password - you'll be required to quack like a duck without prompting in order to receive beer. We're going to get started around 2pm so get some while you can as we only have a limited amount set aside for the tasting. Bring your smiling face and any food you want to cook/share. If you're not able to make it to June for this momentous occasion, we highly advise reconsidering your priorities in life. In other news we brewed our second test batch, b002 Sierra Scotch Ale last weekend and it's fermenting along nicely (pictures below). This batch went much smoother than our first batch and we were able to use our immersion chiller, which cut the cooling time post-boil from 16hrs to 1.5hrs. The Sierra Scotch Ale should be ready for sampling around Easter, so get your costume ready.... Cheers! Justin/Sarah
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Drink it in, it always goes down smooth.... So for our second batch we delved into the classic Strong Scotch Ale style. The original samples of this brew that we brought up last year went over so well we decided to roll it out for our second batch. The brew went way smoother than b001 and with the addition of our properly plumbed immersion chiller we brought our post-boil cooling down from 16hrs to 1.5hrs. Yeast was pitched and corny kegs where utilized as the primaries. Currently the beer is fermenting nicely and should be ready for consumptions some time around Easter, so get your bunny suits ready! Cheers 2 Beers! Justin/Sarah June Lake Brewing
Clearly We Need Beer ~ We've put our ear to the ground and the verdict is in, June Lake needs beer. Luckily we brewed our first homebrew test batch of SmoKin Porter the other day (see pics below) and it's fermenting along nicely! If all goes to plan we should have our first samples for our TestPilot Crew mid March. In the location department, we've assembled a list of potentials and have begun contacting the relevant parties. If you have a prime location that you want to discuss lease options about, hit us back and let's get the beer a home. Let's take stock of our priorities:
Cheers! Justin/Sarah Oh Yeah... with the homebrew system setup we're underway! For our first sample brew we decided to jump right in with a 1bbl batch of SmoKin Porter. Though we were a little short on specific gravity, the taste is right on and it should come in around 5% for a good full-flavor session beer. Plus we've got the altitude on our side B-) The brew went well when all was said and done despite the trials and tribulations of brewing on a new cobbled together 1bbl system, and our introduction to brewing at altitude. The biggest issue was we didn't have all the components to plumb our cold liquor tank/immersion chiller for cooling, so we had to let the ambient air temperature do it's work... 16hrs post-boil we'd reached 70 degrees F and we pitched an 11th generation yeast harvested from one of Cismontane Brewing's barley wines. Suffice it to say it all turned out well in the end and the SmoKin Porter is fermenting and on track for a mid-March release. Cheers! Justin/Sarah June Lake Brewing
Beer is Nearer ~ Hurray for June Lake! Now in residence it was a nice treat to wake up to fresh snow on the ground. With ~2" on the ground at 6am another ~2" had fallen by 9am! All of the beer sacrifices to Ullr have come to fruition. Aside from the glorious snow, we've been hard at work setting up our homebrew system (see technical schematic and before/after visual representation below) and should brew our first batch with June Lake water late next week. Suffice it to say we're really excited! On the location front we've been talking and walking it in town and have a couple potentials in mind. If you've got an idea, or better yet have a commercial space you think would work, please reach out and lets talk beer! In the meantime getting some sample batches going is our priority #1. Big beers are what we're going for and we plan to make three of our first four sample batches along these lines (always gotta have at least one fizzy, though still full bodied session beer). Finalizing our initial recipes, we're working to ensure the scalability to production volumes once we get to that point. We'd never forgive ourselves if we created some phenomenal beer that we couldn't reproduce on a large scale due to insufficient supply of specialty ingredients. So stay tuned for more updates after our first brew. Cheers! Justin/Sarah Well we're here... Having setup residence in June Lake, we're diligently working at brewing test batches and locking down a location for our production facility/tasting room. We've got two batches currently fermenting and should have tasters for our TestPilot Crew in a week or two. Stay tuned for info on our b001 SmoKin Porter release get together as it will be pretty frickin sweet! If you're interested in joining our TestPilot Crew, click on the "Reach Out" tab above and submit your info to our dedicated panel of investigative pigmy chimps for proper vetting and background checking. Aside from that enjoy a good beer and get outside. Cheers! Justin June Lake Brewing
Beer is Near ~ With February fast approaching we're getting closer to June Lake. In the mean time we've been building our homebrew pilot system and getting the ducks in a row. With supreme tutelage and support from the groovy cats at Cismontane Brewing we've been cutting our teeth and learning what it takes to make good beer and craft a viable business that's a killer part of the community. In search of the right location for our production facility/tasting room/awesome hangout, JLB is a ways from selling beer. Fear not, with our budget pilot system (construction visually dipicted to the right) we plan on honing our skills at altitude and getting feedback on our fermented creations from our bipedal friends that search us out in June Lake. Lots of cool stuff happening so keep an eye and reach out to say what up. Cheers! Justin/Sarah |
Justin Walsh
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November 2018
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