• Hefe Secondary
    Interview with a Homebrewer

    Interview with a Homebrewer – A Self Portrait

    Name:  Christopher Graf aka The Abbot Day Job:  Sr. Network Security Engineer for large telecom Night Job: Founder and blogger of CellarMonk.com When did you start homebrewing? I started homebrewing in early 2007.   What got you into homebrewing? A person? An unfulfilled interest?  Sheer boredom?This answer has many parts.  I had always been fascinated with the idea of brewing my own beer, but had never taken the steps to do so.  After a trip to Europe with some friends (hitting many a brewery along the way), I decided I wanted to try and emulate some of the beers that I had had.  With encouragement from one of my traveling companions, himself…

  • Brewery - Europe

    Brentwood Brewing Company

    Brewing in Brentwood Brewing started in Brentwood over 300 years ago with two if not three breweries in the town. These were renowned at that time for good honest robust porters and bitters. Though little remains of these today, except what has been passed down by word of mouth or written into the local history books, we would like to think we are a continuation of that tradition. Brentwood Brewing Company is the evolution of those legendary breweries.

  • Euston Tap
    Travel

    Luckily Lost in London

    It was a dark and stormy night…as it usually is in London in late February.   There we were, one floor deep in the London Underground, with nothing but our thirst, a day pass and some pounds. A shot rang out…No, no, that was a taxi backfiring.  Standing outside the Euston Tube stop, wondering if we would ever be able to find a pub before closing time. ________________ Our journey had started much earlier (actually about three weeks earlier when the author had asked the #beer Twitterverse for suggestions on can’t miss pub stops in London and vicinity). The name Euston Tap seemed to be at the top of everyones list of…