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By D Self, on January 5th, 2011
 So here we are, five days into the new year and I am two beers into Brewing Classic Styles a.k.a. The Danil and Jamil Project a.k.a. The Danil, Jamil, and John Palmil Project a.k.a. I’m brewing every recipe in the aforementioned book this year.
Feast your eyes on the “Brewing Classic Styles Recipometer” on the right side of this post. I will be using this recipometer for the entire year to track my progress through the book. The book’s cover claims to have “80 Award Winning Recipes” inside but if you leaf through, you will discover that there are more than 90 recipes in the book. Maybe only 80 of them are “award winning.” Actually, there are a few variations that were interesting enough, in my mind, to make me want to brew them. My face (happy for now) will rise as I complete recipes
My goal this year is to brew 94 one-gallon batches, all from recipes found in this book. That is almost 2 recipes a week. Two a week is fine and I think anyone could do it except that when you factor in vacations (Patagonia here we come!) and holidays, the 45 days of the year that I will be sleeping, and all those days doing whatever else it is people do when they are not brewing, I think it will be a tough run. That said, if I do brew two a week I will have the whole month of December to do the drinking.
You probably can’t tell by looking at the recipometer but I have already brewed two of 94. My first one was the Lambic, Lambicus Piatzii, and my second was the Oud Bruin, Flanders Brown Ale. Brewing one-gallon batches takes some getting used to. I really should have done a test batch. Different equipment, different measurements, much less yeast. Instead of doing a test batch I had not enough wort post-boil for the lambic and too much post-boil wort for the Flanders brown. In fact, I had to boil the Flanders brown for almost double what the recipe called for to get the volume where it is supposed to be. Good thing there is only the one early hop addition.
By D Self, on December 31st, 2010
 In the end, there can be only one.
This was a pretty good year for Second Floor Brewing. As you (may) have seen, there were at least seven moments in 2010 worth counting down on the site. There were also a few things I forgot runners-up such as discovering the other (possibly older) Second Floor Brewing, 2ndfloorbrewing.com, our first gig / non-gig, and getting an honorable mention in the Heavy Seas Letter of Marque home brew contest.
However… by the power vested in me I hereby pronounce that SFB’s GREATEST THING OF 2010 is our one year anniversary, September 29, 2010!!!! It was a day so great that I didn’t even bother to post about the anniversary, rather I posted about Baltimore Beer week. I know its an egotistical choice for THE GREATEST THING OF 2010, but sometimes thats just how it goes.
Happy New Year from SFB.
By D Self, on December 31st, 2010
 This was a tough call. In the 10 minutes it took me to come up with the top eight Greatest Things of 2010, two of those minutes were spent deciding between number one and number two. Both are great moments in the history of SFB.
The number two Greatest Thing of 2010 was Baltimore Beer Week in general but specifically SFB’s participation in the Homebrew Competion at Little Havana. This was our first in-person competition and our beers placed like this was our first in-person competition (almost last).
It was fun to be on the other side of the table for once, serving instead of consuming. I learned a lot about how my home brewing skills stack up against others in the area and a little more about the home brewing community that I pretend doesn’t exist.
I am already looking forward to next year’s Baltimore Beer Week and another shot at the homebrew competion.
By D Self, on December 30th, 2010
 Greatest Thing #3 for 2010 is my visit to Denver, CO and the Great American Beer Festival.
We bought tickets for the Friday and Saturday evening sessions as well as the Saturday members-only session. As I said in the post, Saturday evening might be the craziest but it is also when most of the breweries are out of beer.
The number one beer that I will remember from the festival is Utopias. I doubt I would have gotten a chance to try a free glass in any other circumstances.
Next time will be Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon only. It was a great experience and while I would like to go every year, I will probably just go to Savor because it is A LOT closer but I’ll be dreaming of the GABF.
By D Self, on December 30th, 2010
 A visit to Brussels, specifically to Brasserie / Brouwerij Cantillion, is our number four Greatest Thing of 2010.
Early this year, when it was cold and snowy here, my girlfriend and I visited the famed brewery (in the cold and snow of Belgium). Having visited a few breweries in the US, it was interesting to notice the differences both in process and equipment. The link above contains my comments about the brewery when we returned to the US as well as a slideshow containing the picture to the right, of me enjoying a sample gueuze.
Whether it was climbing to the upper levels of the brewery to see the open air cooling tub, looking down into the cellar at thousands of barrels full of beer, or trying to catch wild yeast on your tongue we had fun exploring this one of a kind brewery.
Next time you are in Brussels, check it out.
By D Self, on December 29th, 2010
 SFB’s Greatest Thing #5
The countdown continues. Second Floor Brewing’s number five Greatest Thing of 2010 is our entry and results from the 2010 National Homebrew Competition. Check out the original post here.
We entered an American Dark Wheat Ale we called White Shadow. It received a mini best of show and a decent average score. It did not however make it to the national round. So sad. There is always next year.
For our next entry I want to enter into a category without much competition so that (based on odds) we have the greatest chance to medal. I don’t recall what which categories had the least entries last year. Hopefully our entry this year will coincide with the Danil, Jamil and John Palmer Project beer that I am brewing that week.
By D Self, on December 29th, 2010
 Number six on our list of SFB’s Greatest Things of 2010 is “SFB Gets Hacked.”
Earlier this year, our site was down for a few days after being hacked into and having our index pages changed to the home screen of a Turkish hacker. Upon further review, it seems that a lot of sites hosted by GoDaddy were hacked the same day by this person. So it wasn’t really something that we did, e.g. easy password, but rather something that GoDaddy didn’t do to secure their systems.
We were lucky that the hacker did not delete all the files on our server, that I was able to quickly restore the home page in all its former glory, make fun of the hacker, and laugh about it during our Greatest Things of 2010 countdown.
By D Self, on December 29th, 2010
 Lets take a break from the count down for a day to discuss current happenings here at the home brewery.
Our latest beer, dubbed “Spicy Mistletoe” by our self-appointed Director of Marketing — @francogreco20 on the Twitter– may be one of the most delicious beers we have created so far. It is certainly the most talked about. Its not perfect, there is probably some extra bitterness at the end that I would like to be missing for the next brew but overall I like what the spices do to the beer.
In the new year I will start my attempt to brew all the recipes in “Brewing Classic Styles” in one year. I have all of the equipment I need besides somewhere to lager the beers. I will have to figure that out when I get to it which is not that long from now.
Thats it for now. Back to the countdown tomorrow.
By D Self, on December 27th, 2010
 Number seven relates only to SFB and if I had my way from the beginning, this would have been one of the best things of 2009. This thing is a wort chiller.
Read about it here. I blame myself. Myself and home brew books that don’t stress the unbelievable difference in wort chilling times. It used to be that we had to put the wort in a freezer or an ice bath for multiple boring hours. Now its 20 minutes and pitch. It couldn’t be easier.
If you are a homebrewer wondering if you need one, the answer is yes. I made mine out of 50 feet of copper tubing, some hose attachments, and a corny keg to wrap it around. It doesn’t matter if you buy or make it yourself, a wort chiller should be on the top of your list of brewing supplies.
By D Self, on December 27th, 2010
 Looking back: I think it is in the fine print when you sign up for internet service. If you create content, you must create a year-end review. If you consume content, you must read as many year-end reviews as your clicking finger will allow.
This will be my 92nd post this year, and you better believe I will be getting to 100 this week. Counting down..
Number 8…… Opening a beer from our beer celler and having it taste amazing. My original description of opening of that beer is in the third paragraph of the linked to post. We determined that it was our Honey Brown, brewed in February 2010, drank in September. I don’t recall the exact taste in February (or March) when we first drank it but in September it was delicious. It was rich and complex. On the other hand, last week we tried another beer from the cellar that was not very good. I think it was the ESB we brewed in the spring. Not all of our beers will benefit from aging but it is good to know which ones will and which ones won’t.
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So here we are, five days into the new year and I am two beers into Brewing Classic Styles a.k.a. The Danil and Jamil Project a.k.a. The Danil, Jamil, and John Palmil Project a.k.a. I’m brewing every recipe in the aforementioned book this year.
