7/29/2009: Bridgeport, CT – Now that George John has fallen in love with beer, his teammates haven’t been able to pry him away from BeerAdvocate.com.  While perusing BeerAdvocate, John had an epiphany.  He could make his own beer – brilliant!  Would creating his own brew turn his excellent season into one that produced MVP-like numbers?  John was hopeful to find out.

He quickly ordered a 10-gallon brew kettle, propane burner, a mini fridge and a homebrewing starter kit from Northernbrewer.com.  A week later he got his goods, but quickly realized that he needed to decide on a beer to brew.  It didn’t take him long to decide on the style he was going to brew.  He plays better when he drinks IPAs, so that is what he was going to brew.

John was jumping into this hobby very quickly.  He went out and downloaded Beer Tools to help him formulate his recipes.  After all the reading John had done – consisting of some Daniels, Mosher, Palmer and Zainasheff – he knew how to start.  John was no slouch when it came to doing his research, which put him miles ahead in creating a good brew the first time.  John decided on using some American 2-row, Caramel 40 and some Wheat malts.  In addition he was going to add a pound of sugar to dry it out a bit.  His recipe looks like this:

14-B American IPA
Author: George John
Date: 1/18/09

Size: 6.0 gal
Efficiency: 65.0%
Attenuation: 80.0%
Calories: 227.78 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.069 (1.056 – 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 – 1.018)
Color: 8.04 (6.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 7.23% (5.5% – 7.5%)
Bitterness: 68.4 (40.0 – 70.0)

Ingredients:
15.0 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
0.5 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
0.5 lb White Wheat Malt
1.0 lb White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
0.5 oz Centennial (8.6%) – added during boil, boiled 15 min
0.5 oz Simcoe (12%) – added during boil, boiled 15 min
0.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 oz Centennial (8.6%) – added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (12%) – added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 oz Centennial (8.6%) – added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (12%) – added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
0.5 oz Simcoe (13.0%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 oz Centennial (8.6%) – added dry to secondary fermenter

John ran this by his peers and they agreed that it would be delicious.  He ordered his ingredients, brewed his beer and then he waited 2 weeks for it to ferment and mature.  His results were astounding.  He was last seen discussing the intricacies of beer with Nutmegger newcomer Tom Kirkland.  Kirkland was astounded at how delicious the beer John made was.  “Damn George, this is some great stuff.  It is great to get off that sinking ship in West Virginia and to be greeted with this!  This is awesome.”  Regardless of this seemingly newfound drunken friendship, onlookers waited for the tension to break.  In case you didn’t realize it already, John and Kirkland are both second basemen.  Will their drunkenness lead to friendship or will it result in a disastrous argument?  Only time will tell… only time will tell.