Punch me in the Rye-PA, BarFreed's newest Black Rye-PA!
3/5/2013 10:16:01 PM
Our recipe for Punch me in the Rye-PA has been finalized. The artwork concept for the label came from the Nintendo Entertainment System game Mike Tyson's Punch Out®. We will be brewing this beer Saturday March 9th so stop over and have a pint!
2/9/2013 8:16:01 PM
Hopefully no real business ever opens up named Bar Freed because I have just locked down the social media scene. I guess a new 2013 resolution is born. My basement is the most socially connected basement in all of Portage.
Seasonal Beer Dinners
2/8/2013 8:22:11 PM
I heard rumors "Beer Dinners" were sweeping the state of New York. A good friend of mine Andrew S. explained that brewers from all over the country would come to Tap and Mallet, a bar near his home, and pair food and beer together. Fast forward to 2013 they are having beer and food pairings at almost every tap house in Kalamazoo.
Speaking with one of my friends Brad S. who is currently in culinary school, we decided that BarFreed needs it's own beer dinner. Championed by my wife we decided to have a small select group of people over to enjoy my brewing and his cooking. Head over to the Beer Dinner page and check out the menu for spring. The first dinner will be 5/25/2013. Mark your calendars.
Two Thousand and Thirteen
2/5/2013 9:10:01 PM
Looking back at my resolution for 2012 I don't know if I lived up to the hype. 2012 was a great year with the birth of my son, and all of the excitement of his milestones. JJ is fascinated with the process when I brew on the screened in porch. I can't wait to have my very own full time brewing assistant. In January I brewed the first addition to his 20 year vertical a 12.5% American Barleywine. I have it in the brite tank clearing currently and the first taste was amazing.
My brewing goal for 2013 is to focus on my process and where I can improve control and save time during the brew day. I look forward to this year being an epic brewing adventure. Drink less, brew more.
Oliphant The Prophet Artwork
7/2/2012 8:22:01 PM
Thanks to Tim Oliphant for doing the artwork and inspiration for the first beer in the 'behind the bar' bottle series at BarFreed.
Check out the label, fresh off the bottling line.
Larson's OGD Pale Ale
7/1/2012 8:22:01 PM
What happens when you combine four hop additions with four types of malted barley and oak soaked in Old Grand-Dad whiskey? We call it Larson's OGD Pale Ale. September 7th my good friend is getting hitched, and he has an unusual penchant for Old Grand-Dad. Why not light up the night with this strange brew?
35 gallons is a lot of beer
6/24/2012 6:45:33 PM
On Saturday I had the pleasure of brewing with my good friend Nate E. His new system has the capacity to brew 35 gallons of beer. For the 3 run on his system we decided on a Chocolate Milk Stout. We also assembled his brand new 40 gallon fermenter. Great times with great friends.
JJ's Vertical Birthday Series
3/21/2012 9:27:01 PM
Last year when Megan and I found out we were having a son I decided to do a vertical brewing series for JJ. I would brew a special beer each year on his birthday and when he reached 21 years of age there would be 21 beer styles aged anywhere from 0-20 years. Since we live in the era of social media I decided to set up a voting system on the left hand side of the site. Click on the familiar facebook thumbs up button to vote for a style, or click 'suggest a style' underneath to select a BJCP style.
Live Brewing coming soon
3/20/2012 4:35:22 PM
Thanks to a good friend Nate E, my HBS has been upgraded with several important automated features. We have added an 8 port USB temperature controller, PID controller, propane solenoid, march pump, and converted the
HLT to a heat exchanger. This combined with some software I wrote allows me to monitor temperature points at 8 different zones during the process. This automation is amazing, but we decided to take it a step further.
Enter the concept of live brewing: Since we can continuously monitor 8 thermocouples our goal is to push this information to our mySQL database on this site. Updating every second, this allows you (and us) to monitor the entire brew session as if you were there. Grabbing this information down from the site also allows us to monitor from mobile devices (i.e. iPad or iPhone)
A new year, a new commitment
3/19/2012 5:42:01 PM
This past year I spent considerable time and money on beer research. I call it beer research because sampling as many good craft beers as possible has helped my brewing abilities and refined my palate. In 2012 I vow to brew more of my own beer and spend less money drinking 24.99 4 packs.
This past weekend hit 80 degrees on St. Drinking Day, and I decided to brew a light summer beer that could potentially be a BarFreed regular. I have always been fascinated by the Cream Ale style but during my previous quest for high gravity beers, this didn’t quite measure up. I have a boss at work that enjoys a specific style/brand of beer. (Bud Light Lime and Miller Chill) I was up to the challenge to create a Lime Cream Ale that would bring the loyal BMC drinker to the ‘Craft Side’. This will be on draft next week and I am excited to keg it. If you haven't signed up for my mug club you better do so. 2012 is going to be a rocking brew year!
Welcome to Bar Freed
10/11/2011 10:42:01 AM
This is Bar Freed!
Way back in the year two thousand and eight (2008), three friends turned a garage into a Brewery/Draft Haus. (picture) The given name Lake Forest Tavern, or 'LFT' stuck and never left. LFT served over 100 gallons in one year, making it quite popular around our complex.
After moving to another apartment in 2009 the outdoor tavern was brought inside from the cold Michigan winters. (Thank you to my wife) With a new classy location comes a new classy name, Bar Freed was born. (picture) A new bar was built and flat screen was mounted. For two years Bar Freed served over 200 gallons of draft beer to friends and family. Now comes the end to the apartment life, and on to the house life.
Below are the top 50ish beers to have before you die. (Left to right starting with Pliny) How many have you had?