Posts Tagged ‘the friday question’
The Friday Question
Friday, May 7th, 2010
Last weeks question was a tricky one I admit and produced some interesting answers but I judge Dave G to be the winner as his guess of 14lbs of hops was spot on and he got 2 out of the 4 hops correct, nice one. For those of you interested here are the particulars of the hop additions:
start of boil : 4 lbs First Gold, 2 lbs Target
@ 1 hour : 2 lbs Bramling Cross
late hop (leaf in hop percolator) : 3 lbs Bramling Cross, 3 lbs Kent Goldings
so Dave you get a choice of prizes, either a growler of Oliver Ale and a t-shirt or 2 tickets to the forthcoming BAM Springfest in Frederick on May 29th.
For this weeks question the prize remains the same, tickets for Springfest or some Oliver’s merch/beer. The question is this :
Next week, as you know, we will be brewing batch #2 of the Hot Monkey Love. The recipe changes a little every time I brew it. What will be the original gravity of batch # 2 and how many lbs of grain will be used in making a 7 barrel batch? Have at it and good luck!
The Friday Question
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Wow, Westy 12 is a much sought after beer! We received a record number of submissions for this one, covering a huge range of answers but there can only be one winner! Much as I wanted it to be Mark’s answer of 666 lbs it wasn’t. I’ve been sitting here with my brew log and calculator and have just finished adding it all together (and even with the aid of a calculator, my brain hurts … of course that could be something to do with the night of 100 taps at Max’s last night!) anyway the answer is …. drum roll …. 344.75 lbs which makes Rick Z the winner with his guess of 350 lbs. Congratulations sir, the Beer Gods smile upon you! I guess if you ever wanted proof that I don’t brew double IPAs, there it is!
Well, there’s no way that I can top a prize like that but I think this weeks is pretty cool. As you may be aware, it’s almost time for the Brewers Association of Maryland’s Springfest at The Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick. Ticket details can be found at
All of your fave local breweries will be there with an awesome array of beer, including casks so this week I will be giving 2 tickets to the winner of the Friday Question. OK, it’s no Westy 12 I know, but a good time is guaranteed (sort of, barring acts of God etc.) Staying on the hop theme, of those 344.75 lbs of hops that we’ve used, how many pounds were Kent Goldings? As usual, please submit your answer via the comment section below. In the case of a tie the first correct answer posted wins it, judges decision is final etc.
Don’t forget that tomorrow is the City Paper’s beer festival in Fells Point, see you there.
cheers
Steve
Friday Question Prize Update
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
As I mentioned in last week’s Friday Question, as it was the 200th blog post I wanted to get something a bit special as a prize. I’m pleased to say that due to the unparalleled generosity of a local beer aficionado I think that we have something a bit special …. a bottle of Westvleteren 12 (http://www.westvleteren12.com/ ), regarded by many as being the best beer in the world. This is not the sort of thing that you see every day … it is only sold at the St. Sixtus Abbey in Belgium at which it is produced! I have never seen a bottle let alone tasted it, you could say it’s a little bit rare … beer collector’s throughout the world trade & buy/sell this beer online but you are never going to stroll into your local Liquor Shop and come across a bottle on the shelf! So, if you want a chance to win this bottle, check out last Friday’s Question and have at it. Good luck!
Steve
The Friday Question
Friday, April 16th, 2010
Wow, blog post 200 …. happy anniversary to me! So some of you think we’re lazy, just brewing once or twice a week! No my friends, the reality of it is that as of last Friday we’d brewed 10,057 gallons (we’ve done another 1000 since then)! That makes Chris the winner (again) with his guess of 9999 gallons. Congratulations, you’re the winner of a growler of Hot Monkey Love and a Hot Monkey Love t-shirt. This weeks question is this … in making those 10,057 gallons of beer, how many pounds of hops did we use? As usual, please post your answers via the comment section below. I’ve got to admit, I’ll be shocked if anybody gets even close to the correct answer. As this is the 200th post I’m going to try and make the prize something special, can’t say what yet but fingers crossed it’ll work out and I’ll post when I know for sure.
Please join us tonight for pint night @ The Metropolitan Coffee House (www.metrobalto.com) where they’ll be serving Hot Monkey Love & Cherry Blossom Ale (and a little surprise!). Come along, grab a free pint glass to add to your already bulging glassware cupboard and enjoy a hand crafted ale on what promises to be a beautiful evening.
The Friday Question
Friday, April 9th, 2010
Ah, hops glorious hops. Last weeks question was how many pounds of hops are we contracted to buy in 2010? There was a good spread of answers but it was a tricky question because we had a pretty good stockpile coming into the year so we didn’t need to buy everything that we anticipate on using this year! The winner of the super limited “My Monkey’s Got Wood” t-shirt is SteveJ with his guess of 880 lbs which came closest to the correct answer of 914 lbs. Congratulations Steve.
So this week’s question is going to involve more mathematics (or more likely a lucky guess)! How many gallons of beer have we brewed so far in 2010? Remember we brew in 7(ish) barrel batches. As usual, please post your answer via the comment section below. I have to admit, I have no idea what the prize will be but chances are it will involve drinking beer so have at it and good luck!
Mark your calendar for Monday evening when the good people at Victoria Gastro Pub will be hosting an Oliver Ales evening with 8 of our beers on draft. Come along, grab a beer and souvenir pint glass and say hello to us …. we’re actually getting out of the brewery for a change!
Have a great weekend.
Cheers
Steve
The Friday Question
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
It’s been another busy week as we gear up for Opening Day. Justin has been putting in some serious brewing hours this week as it’s been William’s Spring Break so I’ve been out for a couple of days (building and painting WWII model kits, can’t wait to get out this afternoon to put the Sherman tank and landing Craft together!) We’ve put through a Bishop’s Breakfast, Best Bitter a double batch of Ironman and on Saturday I’ll be brewing batch #2 of the Cherry Blossom Ale. Some casks of Cherry Blossom Ale have been sent out this week (ChurchKey, Commonwealth Gastro Pub, Max’s and The Wharf Rat) and the rest of the batch is kegged and ready to go. As soon as the Bishop’s Indulgence kicks (we’re on the last keg) it’ll go on tap. Also this weekend I’ll be carbonating the Hot Monkey Love and we’ll be sending some of that out next week so expect to see it on tap soon. Speaking of which the designs for the “My Monkey’s Got Wood” t-shirts have been finalized. We’re going to hand screen a very limited number probably about 30 which will have a front pocket print, an inside tag print (see below) and the Monkey on the back (see previous post).
the "tag" print for the new limited edition t-shirt.
Pretty cool, eh? These will be so rare that even Justin and myself have to buy our own but I will be giving one away as today’s Friday Question prize!
Don’t forget that today, as part of our Cask Ale Appreciation Week we will have the glass head firkin on the bar serving gravity pour pints of Blonde Ale dry hopped with Maryland grown Chinook hops at a special price so come down and get a fresh, cask conditioned ale!
So, on to the Friday Question. There were a lot of guesses but one hit the nail on the head. Chris guessed correctly with 220lb and so wins the mixed 12 pack of beers from The Great Divide Brewery, congratulations. So on to this week’s question …. that hop delivery is one of several that we will take over the course of the year. What I want to know is how much (in pounds) have we contracted to buy over the course of this year? Now those of you who are veterans of the Friday Question (or those of you who can be bothered to search the blog archives) will know roughly how many times we’ll brew this year so should be able to approximate how much hop we’ll use (yeah, sorry, it’s that math thing again!) or alternatively you can have a wild stab in the dark! Anyway , the super limited “My Monkey’s Got Wood” t-shirt is up for grabs (just as soon as they’re printed). As usual please enter via the comment option below, first correct answer posted gets it. Good luck.
have a great weekend
Steve
The Friday Question
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Ah Friday is here again and what a week that was! We managed to squeeze 4 brews in, host a beer pairing dinner @ Commonwealth Gastro Pub, hang with the BrewDog crew @ Max’s and process 9 brews and keg 3 batches as well! Next week is the start of National Cask week in the U.K. so come in for a pint of delicious real ale which will be at the special price of $3/pint all week long. Also, on Friday 2nd we’ll have the glass head firkin on the bar for gravity pours of Blonde Ale dry hopped with Maryland Chinook…. come and check it out.
Come and check out the glass head firkin on Friday 2nd April
Wherever you end up having a beer, check if they sell cask conditioned ale and support the cause and try one. Don’t listen to that guy next to you who visited the UK in 1978 and says that the beer is warm and flat as he sucks down his ice cold Duff Lite …. it’s not. It’s fresh, it’s delicious and served at a temperature that will bring out a range of flavors that you would never detect at regular draft beer temperature! Come to the Ale House, go to ChurchKey …. somewhere not too far away is a pint of “Real Ale” waiting for you! Speaking of ChurchKey, next week we will be sending them firkins of Dark Horse, E.S.B., 3 Lions, Blonde Ale and Cherry Blossom Ale ….. a veritable cornucopia of cask ale goodness!
On to last weeks question ….. after I’d cleared up some initial confusion we had a few good answers. As Mark stated “algebra is tough” but hey I’m old enough to remember the days of slide rulers and log table books and it seems that Mark was tougher and his answer of gyle # 3240 was closest to the actual number of # 3248. Congratulations sir, you get to join team Oliver at The City Paper Beer Festival in April.
This weeks question is this. We recently received a hop delivery, picture below
Hops, glorious hops.
It’s a pretty mixed bag, leaf and pellet, mostly English (First Gold, Kent Goldings, Fuggles) and some American Cascade. What I want to know is …. how many pounds of hops were delivered? The prize is a mixed 12 pack from the Great Divide Brewery out of Denver, Colorado, cool eh? As always please enter via the comment section below. In the event of tied correct answers, the first one posted gets it, nuff said!
Cheers
Steve
Strongman Analysis ….. Revisited
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Well it’s finally here …. Whitelabs have figured out the source of their error in IBU analysis and the results are in …. drum roll ….
| Style: | Test | Pale | Brand: | Note | Strongman | *999151* | 999151 | Units | Valu | Mean Results | All Beer | This Style |
| IBU | IBU | 54.0 | 17.8 | 19.2 |
| Density | SG | 1.012 | 2.683 | 1.009 |
| Alcohol | Percent Vol/Vol | 8.62 | 6.18 | 5.83 |
| Apparent Extract | Plato | 3.18 | 2.67 | 2.35 |
| Real Extract | Plato | 6.14 | 4.85 | 4.44 |
| Apparent Attenuation | Percent | 83.02 | 81.38 | 82.25 |
| Real Attenuation | Percent | 69.38 | 67.42 | 68.01 |
so there we have it, 54 I.B.U. which makes Graham Green the winner with his guess of 52. Congratulations!
We also had the 2010 batch of Hot Monkey Love analysed and just in case you’re interested the results for that are…
| Style: | Test | Strong Ale | Brand: | Note | Hot Monkey Love | *999152* | 999152 | Units | Valu | Mean Results | All Beer | This Style |
| IBU | IBU | 43.0 | 17.8 | 20.9 |
| Density | SG | 1.013 | 2.683 | 1.015 |
| Alcohol | Percent Vol/Vol | 9.81 | 6.18 | 7.24 |
| Apparent Extract | Plato | 3.23 | 2.67 | 3.77 |
| Real Extract | Plato | 6.55 | 4.85 | 6.28 |
| Apparent Attenuation | Percent | 84.40 | 81.38 | 77.52 |
| Real Attenuation | Percent | 70.73 | 67.42 | 64.75 |
Good stuff!
The Friday Question Update
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
There seems to be a little confusion over exactly what batch number I’m after for last weeks Friday Question. I’m after the Gyle (Batch Number) of the brew that we will undertake this coming Friday (3/26). The gyle # started at number 1, obviously the first brew, when brewing commenced at this site (back in 1993). Each batch is sequential to that. I’ve posted this question before so if you refer to the archives you can see the gyle number we were at at that particular time and hence have some starting reference point. A little bit of maths and hey presto, you should be able to get close at least to the answer. If you’ve already posted on the assumption that we start at #1 each year feel free to have another stab at it.
I’ll take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who attended the Spring Real Ale Festival and made it such a great day. Kudos to you all. I would especially like to thank everyone who was drafted into pouring beer at the last minute. Unfortunately some of the original volunteers couldn’t make it at short notice so you guys saved the day. Also a big thank you to the co-organisers, the fanastically fantastic SPBW, who do much of the behind the scenes work for these events. I strongly urge you to join their organisation (check www.spbw.org for details). I’m sure you’ll agree that there was a fantastic array of beer on offer and the weather could not have been better for the event. Check out the pictorial review @ http://beerinbaltimore.com/?p=3060.
The Friday Question
Friday, March 19th, 2010
This has been an exhausting week. I’ve scratched today’s brew as it’s going to be a late night with having to set up tomorrow’s Real Ale Festival and we’ve got a lot of processing to do. I’m excited about the festival tomorrow. Obviously as we’ve got a limited number of tickets available we can’t offer the extensive range of casks that are on offer at October’s Real Ale Fest but I have to say, I think the line-up of beers is very strong. Beer Festival season is definitely with us now. Next weekend sees the Heavy Seas Real Ale Festival (though of course they only feature their own beers, shame), April 9th and 10th is the Beer, Bourbon And BBQ Festival at Timonium Fairgrounds and April 24th is The City Paper Beer Festival on the Square in Fells Point. I’m sure that you already know that the City Paper Festival is a sell out every year and a good time is guaranteed (especially if we’re blessed with good weather as we have been in recent years). How would you like to join the Oliver Ales crew @ The City Paper Beer Fest., pour a few beers with us then take the opportunity to relax and try some of the other great beer on offer? Sound good. Well if you can answer the Friday Question, the chance could be yours. If you are a veteran of the Friday Question you may remember that some time ago I asked which gyle (batch) number we had just brewed. A little time has passed so the question remains. As of my post next Friday (3/26/10) which batch number will we be brewing? As usual post your answer via the comment section below. The first correct answer posted wins (and by correct I mean closest to the actual answer!). In the event of a tie I’ll post a tie-breaker question.
Coming soon..... (sneak preview at the Real Ale Festival)
Have a great weekend. I’ll see a lot of you tomorrow I hope.
Cheers
Steve