Home Brew Mart

Ballast Point Brewing Company!

Home Brew Mart has expanded to open its own microbrewery, Ballast Point Brewing Company. In this special issue of Ale Mail we will be talking all about San Diego’s newest microbrewery, the beers we make, and introducing some of the great places where you can drink our brews. The brewery sits right in the back of our San Diego store at 5401 Linda Vista Road. We added 2,000 square feet to hold our 15 barrel brewhouse built by New World Brewing Systems. We are selling the beer in kegs to bars and restaurants around town. Right now there are no plans to open a brewpub, though we may try to bottle our barleywine. In addition to the brewery the store now boasts a tasting bar with four taps where you can sample our beers or get jugs to go. Home Brew Mart will continue to serve you with the best products, prices and advice you can get. Please stop by to see the brewery and meet our Master Brewer Peter A’Hearn. Free tours are always available. Look inside for recipes for Ballast Point brews and beer bread; and ask your local bar for Ballast Point!

LOOK AT THIS !

• Ballast Point Tasting Room With Beer To Go!
• CO2 Tank Rentals For Keg Systems!
• Great Gift Ideas & New Items For Christmas!
• Get Your Friends Brewing For The New Year!
• Beginner, All-Grain and Meadmaking Classes!
• UPS Shipping Available On All Products

Brewing Spiced Beers

Malt, hops, water and yeast form the basis of every beer, but there is an endless variety of herbs, spices and fruits that can be added to create a unique and festive beer. Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves are the most common spices found in holiday beers. A recommended amount for these spices is:

1 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Cloves

Other popular flavorings include ginger, orange peel, cardamom, maple syrup and vanilla. Most spices are best added in last few minutes of the boil. You can also make a strong tea out of your chosen spices and add them at bottling or kegging for maximum aroma. There are several tips for using spices. First, use mellow finishing hops. Too much Cascade or Centennial can mask subtle flavors. Second, don’t use too much of any one spice. The aim is to create a balance of flavors. And last, be aware that many spiced beers are best when allowed to age so that the different flavors can blend together. Fruit flavorings are also very popular at this time of the year. Experiment with that Cranberry Stout or maybe a Blackberry Porter. Fresh fruit can be pasteurized or added into secondary. Fruit extracts are easily added at bottling or kegging. We also have a new spice extract that can be added to any beer at bottling to create that perfect Winter brew instantly.

Ballast Point White

White beers are an old Belgian beer style that come from a region near Liege centered on the small town of Hoegaarden. In the 1800’s there were 30 white beer breweries in this region. Then Belgian brewing went through a period of consolidation and homogenization. By the early sixties there were no Wit beer breweries left. Pierre Celis reopened Hoegaarden’s brewery in 1966 and began a worldwide revival of the style. Recently Celis moved to Austin, Texas and opened Celis Brewing Company, thus bringing this style to the United States. For a few months Celis White was distributed in San Diego, but then distribution was stopped. Avid fans like Ballast Point Brewmaster Peter A’Hearn and Yuseff Cherney were left to brew their own. Through long trial and error we developed a recipe that does justice to the old Belgian tradition, now sold in San Diego as Ballast Point White. Ballast Point White is created using the same ingredients that were once used in Belgium. Flaked unmalted wheat, oats and malted barley comprise the grain. The unmalted wheat has a high protein content, which causes the beer to be hazy, thus giving it a cloudy, or “white” appearance. A special yeast gives a refreshing tangy flavor that is different from both the sour Weiss beers of Berlin or the banana and clovey Weizens of Bavaria. The mild hopping allows the unique malts to show through and does not conflict with the subtleties of the citrus spicing. This unique citrus character is created by adding a blend of curacao (bitter orange), sweet orange and coriander to the boil. White beers are light and refreshing, yet provide a complex reminder that interesting high quality beer does not have to be bitter and dark. Ballast Point White is the perfect beer for sunny San Diego.