Been away from brewing for quite a bit unfortunately, but as evidenced by the photo it’s all for good reason…..there’s a new little brewmaster-in-training. Now that he’s ready, hopefully we’ll be brewing on a regular schedule once again.
We made this Sunday a whole afternoon dedicated to beer, so we cleaned and tuned our kegerator, drank some delicious beers, and posted them to UNTAPPD!
It’s been way too long and this post is months overdue. A while back in July we had a summer tasting and the first tasting en masse with our new kegerator. We tried two new delicious beers – “Belgian White Men Can’t Jump” from “The Homebrewer’s Recipe Guide” and our very own “beer.i.am. Black I’d. P.A. So how did it go over? Judging by this email from an actual OKB guest (who shall remain anonymous), I’d have to say it went just as planned:
“thanks to you i now own a pair of purple pants. how? on my walk back from the okb tasting i wandered into a store and tipsily grabbed a pair that looked to be maroon. but upon returning home with a more clear head i realized, no, purple”
So the absence of recent posts has not been without reason and certainly not for lack of continual and dedicated work on OKB’s part. We’ve somewhat purposefully held off posting for a while…..as we finished our new dual-tap kegerator system. Actually beer has been flowing from the taps for a few months now – we just wanted to wait until we finished our custom stainless bar top. Our first kegged summer homebrews (a cherry ale and an orange Hefeweizen – both variations from Extreme Brewing) have been delicious and the whole kegging process has been a great upgrade from all the bottling we were doing previously. In designing and building our system, we didn’t come across too many great step-by-step tutorials – not to mention how difficult it was trying to get exact cornelius keg dimensions, so….we put together some basic documentation of our process, if you want to see what’s involved…. read on…..
Summer is nearly here, so OKB is getting ready with some delicious new seasonal recipes as well as a few extra surprises for those lucky enough to make it to our next tasting. More to come soon…………..
Been a long while on posts………our apologies – even OKB brewmasters have other commitments – hard to believe.
It’s been a while since the last tasting and this time I have to say we really raised the stakes for ourselves. Not only did we sample two entirely new beers – the C.O.C.Wit (coriander, orange peel, and cardamon) and the Rhine Rye (a rye with peppercorn) (both based on recipes from our go-to guides, but with some OKB tweaks!) but Katie provided an amazing range of foods, perfectly paired with the really different beers. My favorite had to be the “Pastrami and caramelized onions with horseradish mustard cream on rye”!
Overall it was quite successful. Thanks to all that made it out – especially our special guests from Chicago….the Burger Fiend and Stephanie.
Pairing Menu
Ever wonder what we drink when we’re not brewing & drinking our own beer? Probably not….but we’ve added a new page OKB drinks….depicting a few beers we’ve been known to drink on occasion. Not meant to be a comprehensive listing – just some seasonally enjoyed beverages. We’ll try to update periodically.
Team OKB has been busy lately – finishing up the last of the JPA and Sleepy Saison along with devising some new seasonal recipes for mid/late summer. We’ll be brewing up a Belgian Wit with a bit of a twist (secret ingredients) and a Rye Bock of sorts – both based on recipes from some of our favorite sources but with several of our own modifications. Check below to see the team in action on brew day:
A recent weekend getaway took us to visit some friends up in Seattle. Not only is the Pacific Northwest beautiful, but it’s home to a huge number of Microbreweries. Our friends Steve and Kristen were kind enough to take us around and share a few of their favorites. Maritime Pacific was an excellent little brewpub with some rediculously large sandwiches on the menu. There’s The Pike Brewing Company in the famous Pike Place Market which had some fantastic brews. I think my favorite beers though, were from Georgetown Brewing Company, out of Growlers that Steve and Kristen get refilled on site!
Brewing/bottling area at the Maritime Pacific Brewery
And once again, OKB helping to spread the word……another homebrewing convert. OKB will look forward to a beer exchange program with Seattle.
As per usual, we’re slow in posting (and unfortunately in brewing as well lately). We still have some remaining Sleepy Saison and JPA in the reserves. Hopefully we’ll start a few new original recipes in the next week or two. In the mean time enjoy these shots of OKB just before I enjoyed drinking them…….
Just looking at our Sleepy Saison makes me relax…..catching a hint of Chamomile takes the edge off.
And here we have the crisp and hoppy JPA (Juniper Pale Ale with…..Juniper berries of course)
……and a little post production analysis. The JPA weighing in at a respectable 6.7%-7.0% abv. Not too bad!
ohio kraft brew 
