Muddy Puddle Brewing

Located in a 19-twenties bungalow in Mill Valley, Muddy Puddle Brewing produces small batch ales and lagers that appease the whim of a mad scientist searching for the perfect pint...

donate, taste, rock out, eat (repeat)

our little beer tasting fest is all growns up…

the 2nd annual small batch:big thirst event is around the corner.  by now you know what an amazing day we got lined up.  craft beer, food trucks and live music are enough to get most peoples attention, but throw in a solid karma angle and we may sell out!

like last year the event will kick off the fundraising efforts of the night train swimmers.  you can read more about them here. all you really need to know is they are bad-ass mofo’s who raise money for the baddest ass mofo’s who protect us everyday.

this year the event will add a little more beer aficionado  participation.  you, the esteemed beer geek, will have the opportunity to determine the best of show in the small batch brewers competition.  you will taste various styles and let your voice be heard! but that’s not it…if you’ve kept up with your muddy puddle blog, you know the twist.  for the rest of you, i’ll catch you up.
…back in september a few small batch brewers got together for a game of toss.  from that fateful game it was determined that all the brewers attending this year’s event must brew with the same yeast (london ale) and include fruit and/or vegetable as an ingredient for one of the beers they will bring.  it should provide for a pretty interesting and unique competition!
i hope to see you there.  you can get your small batch tickets here!

in a fog

on the subject of small batch…

it was a whirlwind of a day.  i had just swam from catalina island with my good friend vito and was running a little late for the dart toss at pac brew labs.  somehow i found a spot within a few minutes walk and hurried to the clara street garage, slid thru the billowing crowd and found the waiting brewers by the taps…figures.  after a brief announcement by master of ceremonies mr. horn, the brewers gathered by the dart board.  one of the paparazzi was given the honor of drawing names for the two dart tosses- van houten would toss for yeast and mr. holiday would throw for the special ingredient.  who’s idea was this anyway???  london ale yeast and fruit and/or vegetable???  really???

back to the future…

i’m brewing for small batch today.  here are some of my ingredients for tule fog, a gruit with currants.  

the beer will be released on brewtruc during sf beerweek. 

need a ride?

holy crap where did 2011 go?!  unreal how time seems to eclipse itself after labor day.  a quick re-cap of 2011 reminds me that although my current state of mind can’t comprehend, muddy puddle and friends had a solid year.  

- it all started with small batch:big thirst at sf beer week 2011

- 19 muddy puddle brews in 2011, standards and new standards

- development of sirwisa brewing collab with pac brew labs

- collab with mv beerworks on ned flanders red

- taking over the bialla fall harvest party

- brewed 6 new beers for breaktime studios holiday party, bottling 108 for holiday gifts

- oh yeah and launched brewtruc…

image

…2012 will be a big year.  stay tuned for exciting events both on the bus and off.

we’ll kick off with the 2nd annual small batch:big thirst.

it’s going to be one hell of a ride…

Good Morning Everybody- w/ translation

                       


It is that time again when we invite you fine folks over to 214 Clara Streetat 7pm this Thursday to try our new recipes and let us know what you think. We have some new creations this week and some standards with new twists. We hope that you can join us for a fun evening of Fellowship. 

Cheers,

Patrick and Bryan

What my friends were trying to say was…Muddy Puddle will be at PacBrewLab tonight pouring our Sirwisa Brewing Project beers Remi and Mutant Squirrel’s Blood.  

Dark & Stormy

There’s a season change afoot and with it comes hearty beer to get us through the cooler autumn and winter nights.  I’ve always enjoyed the winter seasonals, but when I set out to brew my own I wanted to do something different.  Cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice…it’s all been done and done well.  If you know me, you know I like spice, as in heat.  So this winter I decided to play around with some heat and cocoa nibs for a holiday brew.  The backbone will be an peat smoked imperial porter that I’ll ferment with a belgian yeast.  I’ll wait until 2ndary to add the chiles and nibs so that I can taste the beer to dose the additions.  This beer will debut at the Breaktime Studios Holiday Party and I’ll bottle a few for gifts.  Have you been naughty or nice?

I got the starter going last night.  The OG will be ~1.110, so I’ll need the yeasties to get a jump start!

The grain bill challenged the capacity of my mash tun, but the result was sweet nectar!

90 min boil is key for this dark beauty.

1.080 reading at 180 degrees corrects to 1.111, right on target!

A taste before sealing it away in primary.  Can’t wait to see how this one turns out!

Saturday was the unveiling of the Sirwisa Brewing Project, a collaborative effort between Pacific Brewing Laboratory and Muddy Puddly up in Napa.  We poured Mutant Squirrel’s Blood and Remi at the prestigious Bialla Harvest Party.  It was great to connect with some of the wine folk, share some of our special beers and bring them over to the beer side.  Thanks to Linda and Vito Bialla for the great opportunity!  We hope to be back next year…we’ll bring our guitars. Today I got to check in with Ned.  Ned is a flemish red that was brewed with Mill Valley Beerworks on June 25th.  So after 3 months in a Cabernet barrel it was time to see how Ned was progressing… Slight funk on the bouquet, malt backbone, no hop presence…nice!  Malt backbone will provide the fuel for the funk to get down and dirty over the next 3-4 months.  Look for Ned at SF Beer Week 2012!

Saturday was the unveiling of the Sirwisa Brewing Project, a collaborative effort between Pacific Brewing Laboratory and Muddy Puddly up in Napa.  We poured Mutant Squirrel’s Blood and Remi at the prestigious Bialla Harvest Party.  It was great to connect with some of the wine folk, share some of our special beers and bring them over to the beer side.  Thanks to Linda and Vito Bialla for the great opportunity!  We hope to be back next year…we’ll bring our guitars.

Today I got to check in with Ned.  Ned is a flemish red that was brewed with Mill Valley Beerworks on June 25th.  So after 3 months in a Cabernet barrel it was time to see how Ned was progressing…

Slight funk on the bouquet, malt backbone, no hop presence…nice!  Malt backbone will provide the fuel for the funk to get down and dirty over the next 3-4 months.  Look for Ned at SF Beer Week 2012!

Brew weekend got off to a great start.  The plan was to brew two 10 gallon batches- a smoked wheat and a tripel.  Patrick from Pacific Brew Lab was on hand to help tinker with the new pump and plate chiller.  The brew day was broken up with the requisite beer tastings and some brew business talk- we settled on the upcoming dart toss at the Pac Brew Lab open house on Thursday and a name for our brewing collective- Sirwisa.  Now all we need is a logo.  The brew session came and went without a hitch and Kaisersoze is fermenting away…

Brew weekend got off to a great start.  The plan was to brew two 10 gallon batches- a smoked wheat and a tripel.  Patrick from Pacific Brew Lab was on hand to help tinker with the new pump and plate chiller.  The brew day was broken up with the requisite beer tastings and some brew business talk- we settled on the upcoming dart toss at the Pac Brew Lab open house on Thursday and a name for our brewing collective- Sirwisa.  Now all we need is a logo.  The brew session came and went without a hitch and Kaisersoze is fermenting away…

It’s going to be that kind of weekend…

It’s going to be that kind of weekend…

Best laid plans…

The Mutant is right on schedule.  This beer went into primary at just over 1.090 and is balancing out nicely at about 1.017.  Strong like bull.  I used some relative new hop varieties (Bravo & Calypso) and they are holding up nicely.  The Mutant Squirrel will spend a week in 2ndary before being transfered to kegs for the Bialla Harvest Party on the 24th.  I’ll do another tasting then and decide whether to pack some more Apollo hops into the Randall for serving.

      

In other news, we are currently at about 20 weeks out from SF Beer Week 2012.  This year Muddy Puddle will once again be organizing the small batch:big thirst event to be held on February 11th.  A twist to this year’s event will have the brewers all using the same yeast and/or category of adjunct for of their beers that they bring to the event.  The yeast an/or adjunct will be determined by dart toss on September 22nd at Pacific Brew Labs regular Thursday open house.  Come on by and join in on the fun!

Tough Choices…

I not only strive to create uniquely handcrafted ales & lagers at Muddy Puddle, but every now and again I get inspired to conjure up a beer infused meal.  This morning I prepped a 5+ pound pork shoulder for some slow cookin’.  I’ll throw together some sort of spicy slaw and grill up a few ears of corn to round out the pulled swine sandos, but first I got to choose a beer to cook the pork in…