Hey everyone. I thought I would take the time and mention that we are not living up to the our club’s verbal commitments to Old Ox. Of course we all know that we meet monthly at the brewery. They provide us the location on a night that they are closed and pay for the banquet license to allow us to be there. Our part of the equation was going to be that we would, at least once a month, have a beer brewed for a One-Off Wednesday. I know that I am failing to contribute. In fact, most of us are. Looking through the posts here on our website, it looks like we have only had a beer for OOW a few of times in the last year. Many of us find a way to brew for ACBW and I would like to help encourage keeping that momentum rolling throughout the year. I personally enjoy having a place to showcase one of my beers and try many of yours. I think it is helpful to get opinions and feedback from their customers. What are your thoughts, can we get the ball rolling? I propose that we try to get a list going, much like we do for ACBW, and have members sign up.
Ok, here is some structure to go with my previous post. We will need to coordinate these dates with Old Ox, but it is a start. Web has jumped in to get the ball rolling, pending date approvals. Feel free to add to this list and make this happen.
It is something I would be interested in. Is this 10 gal batches? I would first need to tag along for a session or two to learn the system/process. July 5th with Webster might work.
That is great to hear. Yes, we typically shoot for 10 to 12 gallon batches. Our agreement with Old Ox is to have all brewers assist an approved brewer to get acquainted with the equipment and learn where everything is kept. Then when they feel ready, brew their own beer to be checked out on the system, with someone watching/assisting. It is always nice to have a hand when brewing, so check your schedule and try to coordinate with Webster or one of us to set something up.
I have sent an email to Allison with the proposed brewing and serving dates. I will let you know what I find out. Everyone else, lets keep showing our interest in this opportunity. You do not have to have a date yet, but sound off and help us know where we stand. It will not be easy for us to hit out minimum estimated goal of a OOW a month if it is just 4 or 5 brewers.
As a quick update, we will all need to adjust our schedule and be flexible. The brewery will possibly be moving the BrewMagic (pilot system) to Middleburg on 6/14/2019. It is also unclear that it will be usable then or even for weeks to months later.
We will have to negotiate with Old Ox and how we would brew there to keep this up.
Please keep proposing schedules and ideas however, I would rather have Brent prepared with a populated list of potential brews, then nothing on the schedule when he talks with Chris/Allison.
Hi, Brent. I’d like to schedule a OOW for July or August for my Indian spiced ale with a brew day in June or July (estimated 5-6 weeks from brew to serve). Note that I would need help with the brew system and we’d have to work around it move to Middleburg and back. Using your format:
Jim Wolfe - India Spice Ale - Tuesday 7/9/2019 - Wednesday 8/21/2019.
After learning even more about the equipment move to Middleburg, we are going to have to wait for direction from Old Ox Allison and Chris. The pilot system that we use will be permanently kept in Middleburg until their official brewing equipment it purchased and installed. They must maintain a “working” brew system to be a brewery. We will need to let them get settled and see about us being able to brew out there without disrupting their plans.
As for your requested brew day, are you selecting Tuesday for a particular reason? All of us that are checked out on the system work full time jobs and are generally not available during the week to assist. Some may be available on an occasional Friday, but we have to make sure we are not in the Old Ox brewers way. Saturday generally is a good day as they are often not working.
We will keep checking in and seeing what we can figure out.
A Saturday would be fine. I’d just like about 5 weeks between brew day and serving. Assuming the Old Ox system is available, I don’t mind traveling to Ashburn or Middleburg but understand we’d have to work around its availability. I have starting looking for an alternative for brewing for the wedding event itself if the Old Ox system isn’t available.