What's Brewing?
Here are just a few of our favorite recipes, collaboration beers and competitions we've participated in over the years, in reverse chronological order. Cheers to many more beers to come!
Iron Bird Hazy- Hazy IPA
Collaboration with Locust Post Brewery
We got the opportunity to brew the Hazy IPA that placed first in the Western Maryland Craft Beverage Festival at Locust Post Brewery. We had an awesome time with Tony and Denise over at Locust Post Brewery making this one! We also got to camp out on the property so made it easy for Tonys super early brew days.
Stay Puft Porter- Marshmallow Chocolate Porter
Taste the Biscuit Vol.2 - Sugar Cookie Ale
Gunslinger Graf- Apple Beer (Graf)
Patterson Park 5k and Homebrew Competition 2023
We had such a fun time in 2023, we returned to the Patterson Park homebrew competition in 2024. This time we came with 3 beers with 2 of them brand new recipes for us. We had to bring back the Sugar Cookie Ale as it was such a hit in 2023. We also made a Marshmallow Chocolate Porter and a Graf which is a Apple Beer. We picked and juiced about 40lbs worth of apples from a tree growing on the farm and added them to the beer right at the end of the boil. The term Graf comes from a Stephen King novel called The Dark Tower and there are mentions of characters in the story drinking a Graf (Apple Beer) but not much else explained about the style. We decided to start with some light malts and then add 2.5 gallons of the apple juice along with some nutmeg and cinnamon. The Graf turned out amazing but unfortunately did not place top 3 in its category but we did bring home 2 third places finishes for Taste the Biscuit and the Stay Puft Porter. Definitely hitting this one again next year!
Time Bandit - Hazy IPA
Lil Smokey - Smoked Lager
Western Maryland Craft Beverage Festival and Homebrew Competition
After a brewing hiatus moving from Maryland to Pennsylvania, we knocked off the rust and submitted our application for the first homebrew competition at the Western Maryland Craft Beverage Festival. We got to meet a bunch of really talented homebrewers with some really amazing beers along with tasting other craft breweries that attended. The homebrews brought to this competition were absolutely amazing, so we were super excited to take home first and second for the Hazy IPA and Smoked Lager respectively. The first place beer was going to be brewed at Locust Post Brewery, which setup our fifth collaboration beer.
Rye IPA
Collaboration with Slate Farm Brewing
We stayed up in our old stomping grounds of Harford County MD and worked with Dan, the head brewer at Slate Farm Brewing to come up with a new recipe neither of us had done before. We decided on a Rye IPA which was one of my favorite styles years ago but haven't heard much of them recently. Beer turned out fantastic and was a great sendoff party before we said our goodbyes to Maryland and made our way up to our new home in Bedford, PA.
Glorious purpose - Hazy IPA
Taste the Biscuit - Sugar Cookie Ale
Patterson Park 5k and Homebrew Competition 2023
We got our first taste of competition and were thirsty for more. The next competition was right around the corner in December of 2023 so we quickly spun up our Hazy IPA again with small tweaks and brewed a Sugar Cookie Ale, very appropriate for the season. We were very excited to bring home another second place for our Hazy IPA in the Hops category and a first place with the Sugar Cookie Ale in the Lights category!
Got 5 On It - Hazy IPA
Checkerspot Homebrew Competition
This was our first homebrew competition we participated in back in October of 2023 and we submitted our Flagship Hazy IPA. So many great beers and people we met with the proceeds supporting BARCS Animal Shelter. We finished second overall which was a surprise and also validation that our friends weren't just telling us our beer was good, but also strangers.
Relief Pitcher - Session IPA
Collaboration with Hopkins Farm Brewing
We teamed up with Aaron over at Hopkins Farm Brewery to create a very crushable session IPA for those dog days of summer. We took our flagship IPA recipe and scaled it back to a smooth 4.7%. All the IPA flavor but a lower ABV to make this beer an all day sipper.
Berrified! - Wheat Ale with Blackberries, Raspberries and Blueberries
Collaboration with Reckless Shepherd Brewing
Another collab beer, this time with our friends over at Reckless Shepherd Brewing in Columbia, MD. We took our Barry Wheat recipe and scaled it up for a 7 bbl brew. It came out just like we remembered it, bursting with berry flavor and a great beer for a nice spring day.
To Helles With You - Smoked Helles Lager
Collaboration with Small Batch Brewing
This was our first time brewing a lager so we brought in our buddy Dan from Small Batch Brewing to make this Smoked Helles Lager. We went light on the smoke as we didn't want it overpowering, just a hint of smoke flavor. Had a great brew day with some celebratory beers afterwards and then the waiting game began. This one sat in the fermenter for over 6 weeks at 38F but it was worth the wait. Super clear and flavorful coming in at 5.8% ABV.
Shut My Mouth - Sweet Potato Pie Ale
Every year we do a Pumpkin Ale, because they are delicious and if you don't agree, you're wrong! This time we substituted pumpkin puree with 5lbs of sweet potato that we roasted in the oven with brown sugar before adding to the mash. The goal was to get more pumpkin like flavor and using sweet potato definitely did the trick. This may be our new annual fall beer.
Fruitzooka - IPA
We've done this beer before but didnt take pics. This was the first time we kegged a beer which makes the bottling/keg day much quicker and the first time we did a double batch to fill the fermenter up with 10 gallons of beer. This IPA was brewed with Azacca, Citra, Mosaic and Ekuanot hops and then dry hopped with the same hop additions. Turned out great, only thing we want to perfect for next time is more haze in the body.
Juicy Juicy Mango - Mango Wheat Ale
Wheat Ales are great for fruit additions and make a great summer time brew. We added 5lbs of mango puree after fermentation which gave this beer a nice hint of Mango flavor. Honestly we thought 5lbs would be enough but we think we will up the amount next time to live up to the name.
Birds of a Feather- Belgian Wit- Plum, Vanilla and spices
Collaboration with Hysteria Brewing Company
Our first collaboration beer with a commercial brewery! We brewed this beer a couple times on the Grainfather G30 system and got the opportunity to do this on a much bigger scale with Hysteria Brewing. The beer turned out fantastic every time and is the perfect crushable beer for a hot summer day. Birds of a Feather has plum, vanilla and a lot of different spices that all work together to give this beer a nice flavor without any particular flavor stealing the show.
Monster Mash- Brown Ale- Pumpkin
Of course we have to have a pumpkin beer for the fall. Keyword...fall. Pumpkin beers SHOULD NOT be coming out in July, but I digress. We love pumpkin beer and you should to! We brewed this one twice and for some reason the second round didn't turn out nearly as good as the first. I suspect oxidation from the plastic fermenter that wasn't sealing as well after a couple years. That fermenter is now in recycling heaven so RIP and good riddance. We brewed this with 4lbs of pumpkin in the fermenter along with brown sugar and other spices.
JunIPA- IPA- Juniper berries
This was our first beer we decided to brew together back in 2018. We just had some of Checkerspot Brewing Company's Juniperus (which was delicious, so go check it out) and were inspired. This one actually was an extract kit to knock the rust off before we quickly dove into all grain. We were a little hesitant to add too much juniper berries to this so we went really light and the beer turned out great but now that we are more adventurous, we would have gone a little heavier to let the berries pop through. This beer actually won a blind taste test at work (yes we indulged after work at this job) going against another unnamed IPA that is brewed for 60ish or so minutes.
