Jan 15, 2015 insights from Tom at Titgemeier's.

I visited Titgemeier's this morning to buy bird seed, honey, and a bottle capper. I broke our capper last night.

I chatted with Tom for a while. We definitely missed a good Glass City Mashers meeting last Thursday. Chris spoke. He's the owner of Black Frog Brewery that started in 2014. Ken presented his brewing style, which involves brew-in-a-bag, I think, and lining a plastic fermenter bucket with a plastic bag and covering it with plastic wrap. Ken will pitch the yeast over a dozen times.

At the store, I discussed some brewing issues with Tom. For a bottling sugar, Tom recommended a 3/4 cup of corn sugar for a five-gallon batch.

Tom said that he likes to make a wheat beer with an all-extract method. His store sells an extract mix with barley and wheat. Tom said the key is the German yeast. He recommended a yeast type, but I don't remember the name.

Tom showed me the new fermenting system which Deb showed me this morning on the Northern Brewer website. It's a funky and fascinating setup. Tom got them at his store within the past month. It's called the FastFerment 7.9 Gallon Conical Fermentor.

Tom said that he heard that the Black Cloister brewery/taproom now hopes to open to the public in April, around the time when the Mud Hens start playing baseball.

He said that owner of J & G Pizza Palace, located in downtown Sylvania, will begin crafting his own beer for sale at the eatery.

According to what Tom read, Grand Rapids, MI is the second most beer-friendly city in the country. Number one is Asheville, NC.

Good conversation with Tom.

#beer - #business - #toledo