Coastal Brew Day Blog

OKTOBERFEST Call it an Oktoberfest. Call it a Marzen. Either way, it's delicious. Perhaps the most famous style of beer from Germany, the Oktoberfest is a celebration beer. It's brewed to commemorate the Oktoberfest folk festival, held annually in Munich. The Bavarian celebration is the biggest festival of it's kind in the world. Held annually at the end of September, it closes on the first Sunday of October and has done so since 1810, when King Ludwig of Bavaria allowed the general public join in his marriage celebrations. Today's Oktoberfest lasts between 16 and 18 days, and millions of people flood Munich to participate in the festivities. In 2013 7.7 million liters of Oktoberfest beer were poured, a quantity that would fill 3 Olympic sized swimming pools. Of course there are other beers poured at the dozens of beer tents peppering the fair grounds, but the Oktoberfest is easily the most popular. Oktoberfest is also called Marzen, as the beer is tra

Porter Porters are a traditional ale originally from England, starting their story way back in the 1700’s. Both the Northern English   and those in and around London developed their own individual characteristics, however the London style became more popular and eventually became the dominant version of the style nearly eliminating Northern Porters entirely. Porters were made for dock workers who wanted something stronger, bolder, and more alcoholic than the traditional pub ales that they were getting from their local taverns. Brewers used heavily kilned and roasted malts to give rich dark colors and roasted flavors to a beer powerful enough to appease 18 th century longshoremen. They enjoyed a quick rise to popularity during the rise of the Age of Enlightenment, with George Washington being a famous fan of porters, even frequenting an ale house in New York City that made a particularly good one. They became so popular in the UK that a kind of arms race evolved to see whic

Here at Coastal Brewing Supply, we want to bring the world of craft beer into your home. One of the ways to do this is by making your own beer. Homebrewing is a hobby growing in popularity, especially in these trying times. In the before times, we were hosting brew classes, but we can't do those anymore, at least for the foreseeable future. So we are going to bring those classes to you. Every week, when we brew, we will update you all with the beer we are making. Our recipe, something about where the beer originated, and why we are making this beer. We hope you like this and it inspires your next great brew! Cheers!