The Hold Steady Homebrews

[jezmez68]

Hi everyone -

I homebrew and I came up with an idea to create 3 beers based on The Hold Steady themes. I just purchased the ingredients on Saturday and today, so over the next few months I will be brewing and bottling these beers.

The three beers are going to be called, "Ybor City", "Hoodrat Friend" and "Charlemagne". I may make another one later called "Multitude of Casualties".

I plan to make labels for these, and was wondering if anyone could offer up suggestions. I am only making these for personal consumption (it's illegal to sell homebrew) but I would be willing to send a sixer of these to anyone who comes up with artwork (it doesn't have to be something you can make - most of the time I search Google Images to get stuff for my labels). I'm going to end up with 2 cases of each kind of beer, so you would get 2 of each beer. This will also motivate me to get them done in a timely manner. It will still take at least 2 months before I would be able to be "done". I also plan on including a designed six pack holder as well.

[jezmez68]

If you were wondering about the beer styles, here they are:

"Ybor City" - Czech-style lager with an American twist - uses 2-row malt instead of pilsner malt, a tiny bit of Munich, Aromatic and Carafoam, and 4 additions of Ultra hops. Budvar yeast.

"Hoodrat Friend" - Belgian Pale Ale; pretty standard, sort of reddish brown, Ardennes yeast.

"Charlemagne" - American rye wheat ale made with Japanese Sorachi Ace hops; American Ale yeast.

[delboydrums]

Stringer may be your man - I'll contact him ASAP.

[stringer]

Down with this if you want dude!
I'll PM you my email address now.

[delboydrums]

I'm excited already!

Then again, beer always excites me.....

[jezmez68]

Guys, this is great, but I didn't think there were many fans in the UK. Might be difficult/expensive to send 6 beers to the UK (it costs $20 to send 6 beers in the U.S.). Still, I will ask how much something like this would cost - and Stringer, I hear you do the graphic design professionally, so I don't want you to kill yourself and get nothing for the effort. Mostly, I just want people to submit some ideas, I'll set up polls, everyone will vote, and I'll make the labels.

[jezmez68]

When I get home, I'll post some pictures, or you could head over to my blog and scroll down to see what I've done already:

freshbeereveryfriday.blogspot.com

[mick]

The first beer I made was called "First Night Porter." The label featured the skyline of Minneapolis.

I'll try to find a picture of it one of these days.

[jezmez68]

"First Night" Porter? NICE!

[stringer]

Well tell you what, use a postage calculator to figure out how much it would cost to ship 6, and if it's crazy then check how much for just 3 of them. Did you get my private message? My email is in there; we can talk about it there!

[bex]

Welcome back Stringer.....Ahhhhh Beer

[stringer]

Thanks bex!

[mikeflynn]

Love it. I name my homebrews after Finn lyrics also.

Euphoric Heights IPA
Constructive Summer Wheat
Tricky Talker Scotch Ale

Hoping one day to give some to the band!

[toastie]

Dude you totally must have been reading my mind. I've been thinking about such a thing. But I'm not confident about where to begin with homebrewing.

[motörben]

Jesus Christ this is the best thread we've ever had.

[Sunny D]

This really makes me want to start homebrewing...

[delboydrums]

Barlight and beer - I find hope in all the souls you gather.

[jezmez68]

Stringer - I'll get with you this weekend. I was hoping to brew the first, "Ybor City", this weekend, but we're painting the inside of the house and helping a buddy move out of state, so I may have to delay until next week. I get the remainder of the ingredients tomorrow.

Start listening to "Charlemagne in Sweatpants", "Slapped Actress", "Don't Let Me Explode", "Killer Parties", "Cattle and the Creeping Things", "Little Hoodrat Friend", and "Multitude of Casualties" for inspiration. Might as well as throw in Covenant's "One Tin Soldier", Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young" and Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" for good measure. Then chase it with some Thin Lizzy to clean it out.

[stringer]

Man, I love a bit of Billy Joel.

[delboydrums]

Stringer.

Dude.

You wait til now to tell me you like Billy Joel?!?!?



Billy Joel is the man.
Lots of good beer references in his songs too!

[Rhinovirus]

SunnyD, Go for it. The only thing that is crucial is sanitation. Beyond that you can screw up every step and still get some damn good beer out of it. I know because I did.

Toastie, get a kit. Go for a 6.5 gallon kit like this bellsbeer.com/store/products/Deluxe-Brewer's-Best%C2%AE-Beer-Brewing-Equipment-Kit-w%7B47%7D-Glass-Carboy.html. You will thank yourself for not wasting your time with one of those dinky 2 gallon kits. On top of this kit you would have to get a pot that can boil 5 gallons with room to spare and glass bottles(I clean and re-use my non-twist cap empties). After about 10 batches it becomes cheaper than buying good beer.

[hurricanejoe]

Multitude of Casualties is probably the best drink name ever.

[jezmez68]

Yes. I was told by another that if this is a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, then the name fits appropriately. She, however, thought the name "Charlemagne in Sweatpants" was an excellent name for a beer as well.

[jezmez68]

"Ybor City" Pilsner is fermenting away at 49*F in my kegerator. Now 4 days in the bucket. 1.043 OG. A little lighter than I wanted, but it should still be a solid beer. Ultra hops tasted swell.

[bigrob]

I'm brewing this thursday. Now I HAVE to think of a THS themed title for this one.

toastie, I'm going to hold on to at least a six pack of each brew I make before Little Rock to bring with.