If anyone does not want to receive email from me and Home Brew Mart, just let me know and I will take you off the list. Otherwise I will simply assume that you enjoy my ramblings and want to stick with it. No big news this week, though the date is now set for the all-grain class. Something to consider for your next batch--the America's Finest City homebrew competition is coming up the first week of March. This is San Diego's premier Compton and is an excellent chance to get feedback from qualified judges on your brews. Start thinking about what to enter and when to brew it.

Some beers need time, others will be better brewed after the new year. There will be a web address for the competition that I will pass out once it is up and running. Hope all those holiday ales are getting ready to go. This week I will bottle last year's champagne mead for New Years to give it 5 weeks to carbonate. I'll let you know how it goes. Next week I will include my annual champagne recipes.

Cheers,

Tom

CONTENTS:

BALLAST POINT
STRONG BEER FESTIVAL
ALL GRAIN CLASS
CIDER RUN
PUB UPDATES

BALLAST POINT

There will be a Ballast Point Bagpipe Night this Friday, November 21st. Our roving band of bagpipers will be visiting O'Briens in Clairemont Mesa, Porter's Pub at the UCSD student center, Round Table also at UCSD, Pizza Port in Solana Beach and Jay's in Cardiff accompanied by beer specials wherever they play!

New Accounts include Cilantro's in Del Mar, Round Table in Solana Beach and Mountain Mike's Pizza in Clairemont.

O'Breins has local beer nights every Thursday with $2.50 pints including Ballast Point and Alesmith's 8.25% alcohol Wee Heavy!

STRONG BEER FESTIVAL

1st Annual San Diego Strong Beer Festival

This festival will bring together San Diego's best strong beers for one night of beer tasting heaven. It will take place at Pizza Port in Carlsbad (See Brewing Scene for address and phone number) on Thursday, December 18th from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. All eleven beers are over 8% alcohol by volume and will be served in a 4 oz commerative taster glass for $1.00. There will be information available on all of the beers including starting gravity, strength, and ingredients. In addition to the fantastic beer selection there will be a raffle and as always great pizza from the Port.

Beer List:

Ale Smith Brewing Co. J.P. Gray's Wee Heavy (Scotch Ale)
Baja Brewing Co. Baja Belgian Trippel
Ballast Point Brewing Co. Navigator Barley Wine
Del Mar Stuft Pizza Belgian Holiday Ale (Belgian
Strong Ale)
Hang Ten Brewing Co. Barney Whine (Barley Wine)
Toes Over Stout
(Imperial Stout)
La Jolla Brewing Co. Blitzen Holiday Ale
Pizza Port Solana Beach Old Boneyards Barley Wine
Santa's Little
Helper Imperial Stout
Pizza Port Carlsbad Elfin Holiday Ale
San Diego Brewing Co. Red Star Stout (Imperial Stout)

That totals 3 Barley Wines, 3 Imperial Stouts, 2 Belgian Ales, 2 Holiday
Ales and a Scotch Ale!
See you there.

ALL GRAIN CLASS

The all-grain class is on for Sunday, December 7th from 12-4 pm at the Linda Vista store. The class cost is $20 and includes a certificate for your first batch of grain. In the class I will be brewing a batch using our insulated cooler mash system. I will also cover the different grains we stock, recipe formulation, and equipment needs. Its all the knowledge you need to brew your own all grain beer! Please RSVP by email.

CIDER RUN

The cider may not happen this Friday since it looks like the cider guy will be out of town. I will be heading to Julian soon myself, so if he can't bring it down, I will pick up fresh juice at the end of the month. If you are interested, let me know and I will call or email you when I what is going on.

PUB UPDATES

La Jolla Brewing Co. has its Big Rock Bock on tap right now. Its a very good beer, though a bit hoppy in my mind for a bock. There is also a very smokey scotch ale on tap--a must for smoked beer fans. And as usual the Nitrogen tapped porter is very enjoyable. LJBC has some of the most interesting specials of San Diego's brewpubs; look for Shark meat tacos and Ostrich burgers.

Callahans Pub in Mira Mesa is still under renovation--though the restaurant is open, the brewery is not. Do not fear, however. Charles at San Diego Brewing Co. (its sister pub-same owners) is handling the brewing duties in the meantime. Look for the Old 395 Barley Wine in the Spring.