Ok ladies,

Our 2nd podcast is scheduled

Date-Sat Feb 13th
Where-Jay's house
When-7PM
Topic-History of styles mainly IPA and Porters,Lists of Beer forums,
Good beer books to own.

Let me know who's coming so i can prepare studio B,
BTW we still have the 3 philosiphers and some homebrew in a 22,and rj's 9 yo bottle in a box(forget what it was)

We may have Josh/And or Jeremy from keystone HBS make a showing....
If they call me and want to come we may have to shift to a little bit later (they work on Sat)

The LIVE chat feature will work linked off of homebrewtoys site,so tell friends to caht with us,The show is not live yet but I am researching that avenue.

The chat room is here- http://www.homebrewtoys.com/chat

I am aiming for a 1-1.5 hr show,Want to try no longer than 2 hrs.

Jay

Really......the night before Valentine's day..........I may have to skip out. My wife turns 40 on the 14th so I am sure I will have to be doing something that Saturday night.

Shit!!!!! forgot it was SVD.......ok...let's set it for Feb 20th then.Yeah think I'd be up shits creek if I didnt take the wife to dinner on that day.......Good catch my friend.

Thanks Jay. I think this will work much better and I should be in. I'll try and keep my breathing away from the mic this time.

I have been collecting replies to the blending discussion that we had talked about on the last podcast (not replies to us, but the original article) and I don't want to beat the discussion into the ground, but would like to bring them and discuss this a little more. Based on the continued discussion happening on blogs and forums I think I have changed my opinion. Just a thought.

RJ

RJ,

Some insight please.

WW

Go to the general beer discussion in HBT and look for my post and pole on blending. Place your vote and add your comments. Something we can talk about during our meeting.

WW

Is this the "is blending for competitions cheating" discussion?

I don't think it's cheating (unless of course it's prohibited in the rules), but it seems kind of counterproductive.

Most people are entering competitions to get an informed evaluation of their beer along with some constructive criticism on how to improve their recipe and/or technique. Any feedback on blended beer isn't going to be very valuable.

If entering comps only to medal, blending is just another tool for the brewer to use, but if looking for ways to improve as a brewer it sort of defeats the purpose.

Just looked at your thread on HBT warren, I voted no.

I don't think blending beer is cheating anymore than adding DME if your mash efficiency is lower than expected, or any other adjustments made while brewing.

o.k., we don't have to discuss it further at the next podcast. Warren, I'll try to get over to the HBT thread. I was basically interested to see if anyones original opinion had changed as discussions have taken place over the last month. I have noticed a few posts in the AHA tech talk. Most seem to be in line with Barley and I think that I am leaning the same way. And even if the rules prohibited entries that were blended, who would know other than the brewer......

True.....Blending,Is a nice tool to utilize as a brewer,I would agree that it shouldnt always need to be done,but by doing so you can come up with a complex beer,Apparantly Guiness still blends some of there aging beer with evry batch that leaves the brewery...dont know if this is still true just a random factiod i read or heard somewhere.But lets save some of this meat for the podcast.Who else can make it?

See OP for podcast info

After much consideration I’ve realized my initial reaction in saying that it was shady was based on emotion, not logic. The short answer is that no, it’s not cheating.

The reaction that I’m having, and perhaps many of you are too, is that I perceive it as cheating since I feel that my trust has been betrayed by other homebrewers. What I mean by this is that I would not blend a beer just to win a competition and I naively believed that everyone else felt the same way. My personal agenda is to master various styles, not win competitions, but obviously not everyone feels the same way I do. Differences are not wrong, they’re just different.

Commercial brewers blend for whole variety of reasons: consistency, quality control, and competition too so why not us….I had never really given it much though before and I’m sure many would agree that it’s easier to say that someone else is wrong when really it’s just different then how you do things.

Blending is just one more tool in the brewer’s arsenal; at the end of the day it’s not how I brew, but that doesn’t make it wrong.

You all are wrong. It is wrong and you know it and I am always right damn it. hahahahaha. ;)

The thread is still being debated. However, 77% or so think that blending is not a bad process. Hmmm. the word is still out.....

I am recording some new intros and stingers tonight for the 2nd podcast fun fun fun!!!!

How'd it go? Got home last night with a massive migraine...I was like I'm just gonna lay down for 10 minutes and poof it was morning...I'm such a flake.

Jay:

Sorry I didn't make it last night. By the time I got your message I was not in any shape to drive. My neighbor came over and we started watching the Olympics alongside a couple six packs and some of my KiwiWit. At least now I should be set for next time.

Ken

Sorry that I could not make it up last night. I screwed up on scheduling and did not have a car to use to get up there........hope it went well.

It went well for our skeleton crew. Before we knew it nearly 1:40 went by. Could have used additional opinions but we did a great job, IMHO.

Next time :P

Warren