Kickstarter

If you have a few moments we would appreciate you checking out our Kickstarter video and page.  Your support is greatly appreciated and we thank you for your time.  Please spread our project to as many folks as you can.

Cheers,

Zach and Erika Shumaker

Turn On the Lights.. the Party is Over

On March 3, 2012 a monumental event took place and several facts became known to ShuBrew and the guests at ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza. Our top ten list from ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza includes the following:

1.      Zach looks real nice in a sport coat.

2.      We almost sold out of ShuBrew t-shirts.

3.      Two people went home with remarkable raffle baskets.

4.      People who said they don’t like beer, really do!

5.      Our beer logos turned out amazing!

6.      We have awesome supporters and volunteers and without them this event would not have happened.

7.      Beer pairs well with food when paired with the right food.

8.      We can make some very respectable food.

9.      We are closer to opening ShuBrew than ever before!

10.  We make rockin’ beer that everyone enjoyed!!!!

ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza offered five beers, each paired with a carefully thought-out food option. Our most popular brew was The Great Valenki which is a Russian Imperial Stout 

and our most alcoholic beer with an ABV of 10.35%. We needed something bold to stand up to the roasted hop bitterness and what better than a dark chocolate bread pudding topped with homemade whipped cream and a dash of  cayenne. The sweetness of the bittersweet chocolate in the bread pudding was the perfect match for the chocolate flavors in the stout. Stouts are great beers to drink with desserts and they are an undeniably perfect match with chocolate providing both harmony and contrast to a dish in a delightfully, delicious way.

The runner up for most well-liked beer was Blackbeard’s Booties; an American Black Ale also known as a Black IPA or Cascadian Dark Ale. Our American Black Ale has a 7.2% ABV; is dark black in color and features four different types of hops followed by a generous dry hopping of Cascade hops. For the pairing, we decided on something savory that couldn’t be overshadowed by the strong hops flavors. Pulled pork is delicious on its own, better with a good beer and even better if it’s cooked in good beer. First, we coated the pork shoulder with a fiery spice rub and let it marinate overnight and then slow cooked the pork in the beer itself. No BBQ sauce was needed with this little piggy! Creamy, spicy coleslaw and a homemade dill pickle on the side made this pairing nothing less than perfection. 

One of my personal favorites was Tillie’s Ghillies which is a Strong Scotch Ale that is high in alcohol with a 9.56% ABV and brown in color. This style of beer is also referred to as a “Wee Heavy” and is known for being full-bodied, just like Tillie! Scotch ales pair well with game birds like pheasants or quail and roasted meats or vegetables. We decided to pair our Scotch Ale with a roasted tomato soup consisting of buffalo and ground turkey meatballs with a broth made from roasted plum tomatoes, onions and garlic. We received several compliments and recipe requests for this one!

Our most liked logo and name had to be the Galosha Raptor; our  American Pale Ale that is 5.9% ABV, dark golden in color and has a moderate hop aroma. Tangerines and pink peppercorns offer a unique quality to the flavor of the beer. These two ingredients were added at the end of the boiling process during production giving the beer a sweet tang.  Pale Ales are generally refreshing beers to drink and pair well with a variety of food options, but we wanted to make sure that we didn't serve something that overpowered the beer. We decided to go south of the border to Mexico with this food pairing and topped a freshly toasted crostini with a creamy guacamole.

Last, but not least is Murphy’s Paw which was somewhat of a misfit child and a beer that turned out to be something different than what was originally anticipated. It's a beer  loaded with caramel notes and maintains a hefty hop bitterness so we decided to call it an American Style Bitter for lack of a better descriptor. With this beer we paired a five cheese baked macaroni and cheese with diced jalapeño peppers. Our worldly cheese selections comprised of an Irish White Cheddar, Sharp Yellow Cheddar, Gruyere, Roquefort Blue Cheese, and Parmesan. The bitterness of Murphy’s Paw paired well with the sharpness of the cheddar cheeses and Roquefort, but not overpowering.

If you were not able to make it to ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza you missed a good time; however, we plan on having many more events like it and hope to partner with local organizations for future beer tastings and pairings.  Stay tuned for our next series of articles that will highlight each of our beer names and their logos. As always, don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for event news and updates for the brewpub!

- by Erika Shumaker 

ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza Tickets On Sale!

Click this link or the one on the right of our homepage to get your tickets today!

ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza Tickets

Ticket Presale

Today we are beginning a limited time presale for tickets to ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza.  There will be 25 of the 75 tickets up for grabs.. First come first serve. They are $35 per ticket. Limit 4 per person and all sales must be in person. Cash or credit is acceptable. The event venue will be located in the north Pittsburgh area and is to be announced soon.  The cost of the ticket gets you entrance, food, and a ShuBrew tasting glass (which is required to participate in the FREE beer tasting). The glass will be similar to this but may be slightly different...

Willy's Gillies

This past weekend I got to brew, which I am happy to say has become a more common practice at my house as of late.  It is my first shot at brewing a Wee Heavy, which is a Strong Scotch Ale.. this guy is so strong that he should weigh in at about 9.5% ABV if all goes well.  

One requirement for everything to go well enough for me to hit my target alcohol percentage is that the yeast needs to ferment as efficiently as possible before dying becoming dormant.  Perhaps the middle of December is not the best time to be brewing a Scotch Ale.. which I hadn't considered until my wife, dogs, and I are all sitting here shivering in our home.  Scotch Ales need to ferment between 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit to maximize alcohol output and to create the proper flavors of the style.  The bad news for us is that unlike most other ales which take just about a week or so to complete primary fermentation, our house is going to be an ice box for about 2 1/2 more weeks.

Thank God I have a patient wife, and dogs who cannot willingly choose to move out.

After primary fermentation is done the beer is going to sit and condition in my cold garage for the next few months to be bottled just in time for ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza at the beginning of March.  I promise I'm going to release more details about the event in the next week or so.  So far plans are coming along; we have almost the full beer menu chosen and many of the food pairings decided, too.  

I'm also going to be looking for a select handful of volunteers who would be willing to help serve or cook at the event.  While I cannot pay you in USD, I will have some pretty fair compensation offerings for your time.  Also, it is worth knowing that all profits for this event will be donated to a yet to be announced charity, so your time and efforts will be going to a good cause.  I can only take some of those who volunteer, and it is best for people who are interested in enjoying all the food, beverage, and atmosphere to get a ticket rather than work the tasting.  If you send me an email I will out your name on a list and once I figure out the logistics of everything I will let you know how and if we can use you.  Thank you in advance to those who volunteer.

Email me

Judge a Beer By Its... Title

With more and more details being worked out with ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to come up with names for my beers that do them justice. The title of a beer serves several purposes. There is the marketing value, which is important for brand familiarity and customer approachability. Also from a beer's title we want to be able to let the consumer know the story that the beer tells. Allow me to expand on the latter notion...

This is a partially borrowed thought, but one that has stuck with me for quite some time. In the movie Sideways which is about a quirky pair of wine-loving friends one character explains that her passion of wine goes much deeper than the taste or ability to get inebriated by drinking it. What kept her coming back for more was the story inside the bottle.. the one about the grape harvester that earned very little money to spend their afternoon plucking the sweet fruit from the vine.. and if the wine is old, wondering whether or not that person is still alive or not. My thoughts about beer are familiar to these. I often think about how the maltster toasted or smoked the grain.. or the reasons behind why a certain hop contains the characteristics that make one beer unique from the next just because it was grown in Washington instead of Germany. What really blows my mind is the history of the yeast in a given bottle. The yeast is the most important worker in every batch, and it is the only ingredient with life. Each strand has been around for many years and has evolved to work perfectly with certain styles of beer. More on the science of yeast in a different post, but it's fascinating to think about where each strand started.

Now that I've gotten way off track I'm going to try and get my thoughts refocused. Ah yes, the importance of a name.. So in coming up with names for my beers I need to make sure that they encompass my brand image while also outlining the story and theme of the beer.  It needs to be memorable and comprehensible. At ShuBrew I've toyed with the idea of naming some of my beers after different styles of shoes that also play at the style of beer.  For example, we recently created a Wee Heavy Scotch Ale named Willy's Gillies .  ..gillies being a Scottish style of shoe, and Willy being a popular Scottish name.  

We are looking for more ideas for our soon to be unveiled lineup of beers. I am planning on releasing a Cascadian Dark Ale... Otherwise known as a Black IPA.  I had thought about using the name 'iPA D' (d for dark) but I don't think I'd get away with it. Besides that, it doesn't fit our brand.. lend me your thoughts for a killer Black IPA name that pairs as nicely with ShuBrew as these two pair with each other...

 

Jibber-Jabber

An anonymous reader of this blog posted a comment this week and reminded me of something I have been hoping to avoid for a long time.  What he or she reminded me of is that there is a lot of legal jibber jabber associated with owning and operating a brewery.  The email I received kindly informed me that to their knowledge it is against the law for me to host a beer tasting like ShuBrew-a-Pa-Looza due to the fact that homebrewers are not legally allowed to sell their beer.  

Before we get any further into this dictation I want to clarify with everyone that I have taken the appropriate steps necessary to ensure that our beerfest is done in a completely legal way according to counsel.. so there is no need to fret over that.  Why I'm bringing this up is because too many breweries are facing legal issues that make it hard for them to do business or even start up with doing business.  If it isn't licensing laws that are prohibiting, it's distributing laws.. and if it isn't that it's facing lawsuits from some of industry bullies.  

There was a scene in the movie Beer Wars that described a scenario where Dogfish Head was being sued by Anheuser Busch because they claimed that the terms 'Punkin' and 'Chickory' were too vague to use in their beer names.  It is never said what came of this suit, but DFH's initial reaction was "The name Natural Light isn't too generic?"  This is an example of the legal pressure small breweries face, as the major pee-water breweries full intentions are to bully the smaller breweries into adhering to their rules.

As craft brewers we are not about adhering to anyone's rules.. we make our own rules.  If there isn't a way around the law, we must get the law changed. There is much more to being a brewery than just brewing.  As part of this adventure, I am anticipating the hard fights as well as the rewarding moments a small business owner works for. I won't be pushed away by the trials and tribulations of someone's legal jibber jabber.