Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Brewing videos!

I haven't watched these yet, so I hope there's nothing dirty in them.  Maybe you can get a feel for what happens on brew nights!  These two videos are from brewing on June 10th, 2010.

Video 1


Video 2

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Homebrew Festival next Saturday, May 29th at Langton Labs

in 2 weeks there we are having the UCSF Brew Fest and Competition! We will be attempting to make the best Brown Ale possible! Come taste brown ales and cast your vote! Last year it was a ton of fun and the venue is an awesome warehouse in SoMa! Check out the details below!

Topic: Homebrew Festival next Saturday, May 29th at Langton Labs

*What:* Spring Beer Brewing Festival
*When:* Saturday, May 29 at 7pm
*Where:* Langton Labs (9 Langton St., SF)

Mark your calendars -- the UCSF Brewers' Guild Spring Beer Festival is coming up next Saturday. There will be beer, there will be kombucha, there will be food, and there will be entertainment. Details below.

*Beer:* Come taste beers made by local homebrewers, and cast your vote to determine the favorites. Brown Ales are the focus of this year's competition, but there will be other beers as well.

*Kombucha:* Not a beer drinker? This year's event will include a home brew kombucha competition as well, with several local kombucha-makers sharing their tasty brews.

*We're also lucky to receive the sponsorship of **Lev's http://www.levsoriginal.com/
* (no relation to the resident of Langton) Kombucha brewed on Treasure Island. They will be providing free samples.*

*Food:* We are trying to get The Hot Dog Ladies, aka Da
http://www.dabeef.com/; to cater the event. They are our neighbors and they rock. Stay tuned.


*Other entertainment:* Our friends at Ploom ;http://www.ploom.com/; will provide smokeless flavored tobacco pods and contraptions for enjoying them.

Langton Labs North: 9 Langton St, SF CA.
http://events.langtonlabs.org/

langton labs is: agil alex anselm aurelia dave galit hanna jane kate katy lev lou michael mick mike peretz sam todd tristan




***

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Beer Tasting with Brian Yaeger

A few weeks ago a Brian Yaeger, beer blogger, organized a hefeweizen beer tasting at Clara St.  Its always really fun disecting subtle flavors with other craft beer drinkers!  Unfortunately the Franziskaner did not win as I secretly hoped.  The Weihenstephaner took first which is just as good.  I simultaneously brewed 10 gallons of my famous chamomile beer which will be ready next week!  More details on the tasting event can be seen at this SF Weekly site.  Come by and taste some beer for yourself!

Cheers,
     Bryan

The tasters! (myself, Gabrielle Chan, Jay Hinman, Brian Yaeger)

Friday, April 2, 2010

Thursday Night Brew night.. Success!



This video by the wonderful Nicole Sheikh, shows Patrick from Pacific Brewing Laboratories and I mashing in his huge double IPA recipe. I can't wait to try it in a month!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Featured in Flavorpill!



MORE FLAVOR: Food/Wine
Homebrew 101 with Clara St. Brewing
when: Saturday Apr 3 (11am–5pm)
where: Clara St. Brewing
price: FREE



Tired of Bud Lite, Blue Moon, and PBR? Maybe you could do a better job making beer for yourself. Bryan Hermannsson is a man with a passion for DIY beer, and he is paying it forward by hosting free weekly Homebrew 101 sessions out of the garage that he calls his "nano-brewery." The former bio-engineer teaches you how to mash and mill the grain, add the hop, and how the beer machine works. You then get to drink the dark lager fruit of your labor. Stay thirsty my friends. - Michelle Broder Van Dyke

Monday, March 29, 2010

Homebrewing 101 @Clara St

Hello Beer Enthusiasts!













This Saturday I will be teaching a homebrewing workshop at the Clara St Brewery space.  If you're interested on how to brew all grain batches of beer come on by.  I will get started at 11am and run probably until about 5pm.  You can come by for any amount of time and I'll get you up to speed.  I will be giving explanations of the brewing process as well as info on how to get started in your own kitchen.  During this session we will be crafting 10 gallons of a dark larger.  I'm asking for a $10-$20 donation to keep the brew machine running, but of course no one will be turned away.  In the past,  I helped teach a workshop along side the UCSF Brewer's Guild at Langton Labs with about 30 beer lovers in attendance.  This time it will be in a smaller space and therefore less people with more of a chance to ask questions.  I hope you can make it!

Cheers,
-Bryan

What: Clara St Beer Brewing Workshop
When:  11am-5pm, Saturday April 3rd
Where: Clara St, SF, CA (email me for the address)
Why: Because you love craft beer.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Clara St. Brewing Sessions

As many of you know, we have weekly brew sessions where we experiment with amazing new beer flavors never before heard of to the modern world.  You will have to visit in order to taste and hear what these flavors are!  Below are a few amazing pictures of two brew nights we've had recently.  Photos taken by the talented Chris Willis.

Wafting in those wonderful beer aromas during the boil.


Owen take'n a sip of unfermented wort from the hydrometer cylinder.         

Joey from Cherry Voodoo and guests enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Beautiful grain shot post mashing.

BOIL OVER!

Controlling the boil overs with a spray gun while Yuri adds hops.

The beer machine at work.

Explaining my precious tanks to Patrick, a fellow homebrewer.

The grill master in the back yard!


Socializing amongst the hoses.

Milling the beautiful grains.

"Have some grains, I promise you'll love it!"

I'm probably telling a fascinating story.

TASTY!

Get'n rowdy during clean up!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Blog Love

Clara St recently got some great shout outs from other great beer enthusiasts.

Hess blog:
From Clara St Brewing
(I'm actually a Bioengineering researcher, but its all science....)

Pencil & Spoon Review of my Belgian Ale:
I brought my Belgian Ale over to Richard's homebrew superbowl party and apparently someone liked it. Rock on!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Pirate Cat Radio Podcast!

Recently I was on the radio again, but more local. Pirate Cat Radio is a small low power pirate radio station in the Mission where people from the community can have show about anything they want. My friend Will does a show called Sound Bites about the local food and beverage scene in SF so he asked me if I would come on. Richard from Elizabeth Sreet Brewery was also on the show with me. We had a great time talking about the SF Beer scene and the great fun of homebrewing! Check out the podcast!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Clara St. featured on NPR

I was interviewed for KQED's California Report along with fellow homebrewer, Richard Brewer-Hay from Elizabeth St Brewery in Noe Valley, San Francisco. The show was mainly interested in homebrewing during the recession. I have to say, I don't really save much money making my own beer. Renting the warehouse, the initial cost of the equipment, throwing away bad batches, not to mention all the time I spend brewing, it all adds up. I definitely save money and time if I just bought beer from the store, but it just wouldn't be as fun.

Opening a brewery in a recession is other story. I think opening any business in general in this economy is tough. However, I think beer businesses (especially micro breweries) are receding a lot slower than most businesses. Science research, for example, is very slow. So the bottom line... now is the time to open a brewery.

Check out the radio piece!
http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R910161630/c

From Clara St Brewing

From Clara St Brewing

Monday, January 18, 2010

Pulished on Wired.com for hacking a kegerator

My friend Tim and I created a Tweet-a-Beer device for a kegerator. Every time a beer is poured from the tap, the amount poured is sent to a computer and twittered to the world! Tim created the magic software and I installed the hardware. Check out the article!

From Clara St Brewing
Tim vs. BeerRobot
From Clara St Brewing
Tim pondering how the pressure sensor outputs can be interpreted by his C code.

From Clara St Brewing
Me goofing off after testing too much beer!

teaching the craft

Back in November I helped teach a FREE workshop on homebrewing with the UCSF Brewer's Guild. We held the workshop at a neighboring warehouse space called Langton Labs. We had about 40 people come out to learn about beer. I had a nice simple Pale Ale on tap. It was a success! Here are 2 pictures of the event.
From Clara St Brewing

From Clara St Brewing

Welcome to Clara St. Brewing Company

I've been brewing in this warehouse space for 6 months or so now and I think its time to document my adventures in brewing to organize my thoughts and also show the world that anyone and everyone can brew!


Below are some pictures of my brew beginnings: A 3 tap kegerator, 10 gallon Sabco Brew-Magic System, a grain mill, a heat exchanger (which caused many bacteria problems), a converted keg fermentor, a converted keg serving vessel, 5 carboys, 5 buckets, 5 Corny kegs.

From Clara St Brewing

From Clara St Brewing


Bring on the brewing adventure!