Beer Fests Are Officially Back!

I don't think I could contain my excitement for beer fests returning any longer, so thank GOODNESS Atlantic City Beer and Music Fest happened last weekend!

Beer fests are... an Experience. My first one was GABF and that was an amazing introduction! Obviously, nothing is ever going to compare to the sheer size of that (at least not in Jersey), but ACB&MF is probably the closest we'll get this year! With most COVID restrictions in NJ lifted only weeks before the festival, it was slated to be outdoors on an airstrip and each booth spaced about ten feet apart. 120 breweries from all over (including Terrapin, from Athens, GA!) the country showed up to celebrate a semi-return to normalcy. It was different not being on top of another brewery, and there was a lot more walking to be done, but that didn't deter folks.

Friday night's event was heralded by a massive thunderstorm, followed by a double rainbow, which made me gleeful driving down the AC Expressway. My partner Greg was with me, and was about to experience his second-ever beer fest - and his first was nothing of the size or capacity of ACB&MF. Through the wind, which shoved those storms out to sea, we wandered the tarmac, and he tried a lot of new stuff while I paced myself and was the responsible DD. I had to be up at 6am the next morning, anyway.

We had a great time Friday night, sharing jokes and making up new band names (for a band we'll never create, naturally) along the way.

Saturday morning, I worked my first ever Byrne Plaza Farmer's Market! I learned a lot from that experience, and am looking forward to the ones ahead.

And Saturday night, Greg and I headed back to ACB&MF to work the booth. We met up with the crew that worked the daytime shift, hanging out by Slacktide and Gusto (because where else would a Cape May County crew hang out?). The evening session flew by with the sun setting behind us and before we knew it, we were packed up and heading back to Wildwood.

If you saw us at ACB&MF, thanks for stopping by! I hope you had as great of a time as we did and we'll see you at Battleship New Jersey.

A Day In The Life: Brew Days

I haven't actually written much lately about what I'm DOING in the brewery, so I figured that needs to be rectified with a Day In The Life entry.

This will be a series of entries, starting with a brew day!

Most days, I get to work at 10AM (unless I'm cleaning tap lines, then I usually pop in no later than 9:30). By this time, Tony's either just beginning to mash in, or about to finish that process.

I usually begin with rinsing any gear that's been soaking overnight in detergent. Once that's done, and the gear not specifically needed to rebuild one of the fermentation vessels (FV) has been put away, I move over to sanitizing the FV we'll be knocking out into.

Sanitizing an FV takes approximately 18 minutes, not including the time it takes to attach equipment. When that process is started, I hop over to the mill room to vacuum it thoroughly. We don't want any leftover grain enticing anything to come in for dinner!

With that finished, I hop back over to the FV and crack open valves to sanitize the blow-off hose and racking arm. After that, I remind myself to crack open the door during the last 2 minutes of the cycle to ensure that gets nicely sanitized (sometimes I forget, stop the pump, and then turn it right back on and crack the door).

We then pump that sanitizer into several buckets (blow off buckets, extras, and at least one Lexan if we need to harvest yeast) for later.

If we harvest yeast to use in that day's brew, this is when that typically happens. We simply use yeast from a previous brew (that's finished fermenting, of course), and pitch it into the sanitized FV for the wort being made.

There's not much to do when the wort gets pumped into the brew kettle except keep an eye on things and flip a couple switches at the appropriate times - until it's Mash Out time! If I'm not doing something else, like a rack, I'll step in and pull the spent grain out of the lauter tun into our 400lb steel dumper. It's a team effort most times, with Tony hosing down the rakes and plow when the grain gets low while I scrape as much out as possible.

The dumper then gets fork-lifted into the parking lot where it waits for the farmer to come take it. The lauter tun is thoroughly hosed down, and the loose grain removed, before it's rinsed with the remaining hot liquor (really hot water, but not boiling hot). I'm still learning the precise process of opening and closing valves at the appropriate times to rinse the lauter tun (there's, like, a dozen of them and they all go different places, so it's important to remember which does what).

The rest of the brew is spent adding the needed hops at the right times, keeping the wort at a consistent boil, and then knocking out (transferring oxygenated wort into the FV where we pitched the yeast in order for it to ferment and turn into beer).

After knock-out is complete, it's time to clean the brewhouse equipment! It's a mostly automated process that takes about 30 minutes. If there's nothing else going on that day, this is when I usually spray down the emptied dumper, then hose down the floors. When we're done, if we have beers from other breweries that people have brought us, we'll crack open one or two and share our thoughts on it. Or we'll taste our own brews, just to see how they're coming along.

And then it's about time to head home! Brew days usually last 6-7 hours (again, if nothing else is going on simultaneously), so it's a good days' work making beer for all of you to enjoy.

Weather Permitting

This weekend marks MudHen Brewing Co's return to the Wildwood Farmer's Market. I'll be working it, as many Saturdays as the weather allows, through Labor Day weekend.

I'm not a morning person, but I can manage selling beer I help make with a smile on my face for a few hours every weekend!

We'll have a smattering of beers for sale in 4-packs and 6-packs, as well as Crowlers. The market will be open at 8AM sharp, perfect for early birds to stock up on beer to enjoy for the weekend.

Also back on tap this weekend - Captain Doug's Porter! Our award-winning porter is often requested by locals and visitors alike. Light-bodied enough to enjoy during the warmer months, it's still a robust, flavorful porter that beer drinkers of all kinds can enjoy.

We'll have it on Nitro, of course, listed as our Primary Cut beer selection while it lasts!

Forgetting to Write Blogs

Okay, so it's not that I'm forgetting, per se, rather there's so much going on that the blogging kinda takes a backseat to everything else. I've been returning things, coming up with weekly Beer Chats for ongoing beer education in-house, ordering items for packaging to go beers (did you know there's a national shortage on growler lids?!), and so on. Not to mention we did three racks this week. THREE. And, as I type this, Tony is just about to knock out the first half Kitty Cats & Fireworks - coming to MudHen Fourth of July weekend.

On top of a marathon canning run last week and everything else going on, I worked the first beerfest of 2021 up in Morristown, NJ with our marketing coordinator. The Beer, BBQ, Bacon festival started at noon on Saturday. So, I was up at 6am to get to the brewery by 7:30am to load out by 8am. Thankfully, no highway shenanigans were had, although we did show up and get placed, unloaded, half-way set up, and then... promptly asked to move to another location on the field.

A lot of things happened in Morristown that made me wonder if it's because two women were representing MudHen or if it was just happenstance. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty certain the dude who stopped at our tent and asked if we were "the brewers or just the cute faces" wasn't asking Three 3's or Spellbound reps that question.

Another guy asked if we were sisters... pretty sure he wasn't asking the dudes if they were all brothers.

And still another asked if I was married. Not sure if he meant to one another or to someone else, but it was still a really weird, random question I've only ever gotten working a beerfest with another woman. Things that make you go hmmm.

And things that make you go mmmmm!: This weekend we're debuting 2021's third iteration (already?!) of Fruitie Patootie. It's mango and pink guava flavored. A little sweet, a little tart, and perfectly balanced to quench your thirst on what will be a warm, beautiful weekend down here at the shore. Also back on tap this weekend is the Düneslager - it's been lagered since late March, patiently awaiting its return to service. Stop in, stock up on cans, or grab a Crowler or Growler of your favorite, and celebrate that Summer is nearly here!

Fourteen Hour Days

It's no surprise, to either Tony or myself, that our days in the brewery are getting longer. As the sun lingers in the western sky a little more each day, heralding the oncoming Summer - and maybe a return to semi-normalcy - we also find our days stretching little by little.

But a fourteen-hour canning day was unexpected. I'd only read about absurdly lengthy canning days, and it always seemed it was due to there only being one person doing the task.

It couldn't be helped, seeing as how there's always new things to learn on our Wild Goose machine, and this was our first experience doing 12oz cans on it. We take what we know of the machine, as well as what others have taught us, and apply it. What weights to go by, our personal preference on can fills, and what can actually be sold as viable product all go into deciding the final product. There's always loss when we dial in for a new beer type on the machine, but we usually manage to get everything up and running fairly fast.

Of course, the day we try to can two new (for the machine) brands in a new size can (for the machine), we run into issues we have to stop and troubleshoot, which slows everything down.

Smaller can sizes meant I, as the in-house Can Weigher(tm), had to seriously adjust to keep up with the flow of things coming down the line. And even though we achieved a good rhythm of cans going through the labeler for the Pils canning, with the help of some Bob Marley in the background, it seemed the labeler had had enough by the time we got around to canning Holly Beach Wheat.

With several people assisting the machine components and ensuring cans don't tip over or get jammed up somewhere, it's inevitable that we're only able to move so fast. A long day was expected, but once we hit the twelve hour mark, we resigned ourselves to just Doing The Thing and getting the product packaged.

And holy MOLY what a package it is! The cans are simply beautiful. The gold foil on the Pils cans shines in the late morning sun. The copper foil on the Holly Beach Wheat makes the lettering and painting simply pop. Stop by this weekend and grab a 6-pack of either for $10 and enjoy it. These beers are sure to welcome you to the shore and remind you that Summer 2021 is just around the corner.

A beautiful day down at the shore - perfect for picking up a 6-pack of this crisp Belgian Wit style beer

Don't you wish you were here?! Grab a 6-pack for your favorite person (or yourself - or both)!

See you soon!

Mother's Day at the MudHen

Mother's Day is fast approaching and - thankfully - I'm ahead of the game this year. Having already ordered my mom a gorgeous bouquet of tulips from my favorite flower delivery service, I naturally forgot to put her card in the mail this morning!

Oh, well. We can't all be perfect, right?

Speaking of Mother's Day - what better way to show Mom you love her than bringing her out to MudHen Brewing Co? We'll be having Bloody Mary and Mimosa specials as well as a special Mom's Day menu available. If your mom enjoys beer, treat her to a strawberry Fruitie Patootie (or two)! After all, who doesn't like a strawberry blonde?

Just tapped last weekend, the strawberry is 2021's second iteration of the rotating fruited blonde ale series you've come to know and love. Organic strawberry puree was added (by yours truly) to a crisp, balanced blonde ale and is available only on draught while it lasts! If mom's far away or you have other plans for Mother's Day, stop in and grab a crowler or growler of her favorite brew.

Isn't she gorgeous?! Photo by social media guru Hannah.

Mother's Day menu and information can be found here: MOTHER'S DAY | Mudhen Brewing Co. We'll see you soon!

Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days...

Alright, wrong artist, but I can't help that Nat King Cole is my go-to for summer anthems involving the word "hazy." I didn't grow up in Wildwood, NJ, which has its own anthem performed by 1960's teen idol Bobby Rydell.

"Wildwood Days" debuted in 1963, almost 60 years ago, and shined a national spotlight on Wildwood, NJ.

Almost anywhere you go in Wildwood these days, you'll find tributes to Rydell and the rock-and-roll movement that erupted out of this small, Atlantic Ocean community.

And to honor those musical pioneers, from Bill Haley & His Comets to Chubby Checker and everyone who came between and after, we've released a New England-style IPA aptly called "Wildwood Haze."

Now in 4-packs available for purchase in our pub, it will soon be on tap adding to our pre-summer IPA line-up of Bakers' Double IPA, 1883 IPA, and Ryesing Tides Rye IPA.

You won't want to miss out on this hazy IPA, heavily hopped with cashmere and motueka. Only available while it lasts!