Feast of St. Vitus

June 15 is the Feast Day of St. Vitus, the patron saint of Bohemia. He's also the patron saint of dancers, actors, and dogs, and his name is invoked as protection against lightning, snakebite, and epilepsy. (Sydenham's Chorea, a neuro-muscular disease, is known as St. Vitus Dance.)

If you like beer, you know that Bohemia is a sacred beer zone in the Czech Republic, home to famed beer cities Prague and Pilsen. Bohemian hops--Saaz--are prized for flavor and quality, and are crucial to the clean, crisp flavors we expect from pilseners.

It is also the name of a delicious Mexican beer, Bohemia. Beer drinkers and bohemians, unite! Raise your glasses to St. Vitus!





FSB will be on hiatus for the next few weeks. Our summer sojourn takes us southward, to México, in fact! July is a lousy brewing month here in the State of Jefferson anyway, due to the summer heat. The blog will be back in August. The brewing season will resume when cool, autumn nights come back. ¡Adios!

School's Out!

The work year is over for us here at FSB. We celebrated that fact many times this past weekend, culminating with tapping the keg at Steph's party. The School's Out Stout (SOS) was explosively foamy at first. I sprayed a half pint of the stuff around, sloshed another few pints into cups, towels, and the cooler before finally managing to get a decent draught pull. It took an hour perhaps for the foam to finally settle and the pressure to equalize. The first dozen pints required no help out of the keg, but I had to push the last few out with a bit of gas (about 3-4 PSI). It was worth the wait. The sumptuous, layered malt flavors had drinkers "oohing" and "ahhing." There was a rich toast-and-chocolate taste right up front, and a spicy hop tang on the finish. The beer was full-bodied, but smooth and easy-drinking. SOS was a success!



On another note, FRENCH STREET BREWERY is now the proud sponsor of a page in THE BASEBALL REFERENCE. Stuggling right-hander BRAD HENNESSEY was available for only ten bucks. I get him for a whole year. C'mon, Brad, show 'em what you got. Bring glory to FSB!