Bottle Rinsing Rant

posted by Jon

So I'm kind of getting tired of cleaning out bottles that are returned to me without having been rinsed. I just timed how long it takes to rinse out a bottle by adding a bit of hot water, putting my thumb over the top, shaking it, dumping it out and repeating that process twice more. It took a whopping 23 seconds. That's less than 3 minutes per month. Please make this a habit.

Even with this post, I'm sure I will still continue to get bottles with stale beer and 3 months of mold growth in the bottom. I was thinking that maybe I would charge per dirty bottle returned to me. The problem is that I imagine some of you would rather pay a little more than make a habit of cleaning, which still leaves me to do the cleaning. What I think makes more sense is that I just stop cleaning your bottles. I'll just mark which bottles came from which person. When you crack open a nice IPA and have a massive chunk of red and black mold floating in it, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

2011/12 lineup

posted by Jon

Trying to finish up planning for the current year. I will post my thoughts and edit as I get input.

Sep 11: "Gourdon Jr." Imperial Pumpkin Ale
Oct 11: Barleywine
Nov 11: Imperial Stout
Dec 11: Winter Warmer/Old Ale
Jan 12: Belgian Pale Ale
Feb 12: American Pale Ale
Mar 12: Berliner Weisse
Apr 12: Belgian Wit
May 12: India Pale Ale
Jun 12: DIPA/IIPA
Jul 12: Belgian Strong Ale
Aug 12: Stout

Brewfest - Budapest Hungary

posted by Jack

As the Central European member of this Brew club, I assigned myself the important and daunting responsibility of  attending the 1st annual Főzdefeszt (Brewfest) in Budapest on Saturday. The festival was actually billed as a craft-beer festival, with a number of Hungarian "brewers" represented. In Budapest a craft-beer brewer is generally a partner in a restaurant, and the actual product is only available if you visit the restaurant. The advance information on the website (www.fozdefeszt.hu) stated that eighteen Hungarian breweries would be represented, as well as a few "outsiders" from Austria, Germany, and Czech Republic.