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| LCD Brewing Company: Last Call |
Mar, 2008 |
| by Matthew Cummiskey • Oxford, Pennsylvania |
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| Seven guys with seven very tolerant wives — the LCD Brewing Company. |
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No one really knows exactly when or how the LCD Brewing Company in Oxford, Pennsylvania got its start, least of all the seven of us members: Yetti, Archie, Clark, Salty, MJ, Eustace and Tapper. Individually we might claim it was the first time Yetti and Clark cranked out an extract brew in Clark’s kitchen while Archie and Salty toasted their health from the comfort of the kitchen table. But none of those details matter to us as much as why LCD started. “Why” is easier.
We never officially started LCD, rather we discovered it. In the mid 1990s, the seven of us settled in Oxford, Pennsylvania, the heart of Amish Country, from different parts of the country. We all had growing families, all had a great love for life, and, not surprisingly, we all had a great love of quality beer. We met over the course of a year in church (of all places) and found many commonalities, not the least of which was a shared passion for homebrewing. It was like this: one guy knew this other guy, who “is kind of goofy but loves brewing beer too. . .” etc. Someone suggested that maybe it would be fun to start working together to share ideas and learn from one another. Two of us brewed together, then a third and eventually seven: the LCD seven. As for the name, we try to pretend that it doesn't stand for anything, but it’s from the phrase "Lowest Common Denominator.” It kind of speaks to the quality of the jokes and comments that get traded on brew day.
Years ago, the Company used to rotate the brew location every month from home to home, emptying out the garage and hauling in pots, kettles, carboys, and burners. Over time, however, we realized that more effort spent setting up meant brewing later in the day, which meant cleaning up in the dark. This inevitably led to one of our wives wisely suggesting at midnight that it is still possible to purchase beer at the store.
So LCD set up permanent shop in “The Shed.” The Shed is located at the top of a big hill on Yetti’s property and got its clever name because it is a 12’ x 20’ tool shed. This arrangement didn’t last too long though, as more of us were progressing from extracts to all-grains. We found, with the added equipment, we were simply outgrowing The Shed.
Somehow (and it is a mystery to this day) Yetti convinced his wife to allow him to build a 25’ x 35’ Brew Barn with 13’ high walls at the end of his driveway. It’s so large that you can literally drive your car in and do a U-turn to get out. We installed six individual gravity-fed brewing stations, all with running water, individual drains and shelving. There is plenty of ventilation and light and the building is so tall that we constructed attic space for storing unused kegs, brew kettles and sundry equipment. We called this homebrewer’s paradise “The Shack.”
We average about 70 gallons (265 L) a month of various brews and would be surprised to learn that there is a beer style that we have not attempted to brew at some point. We like to say, “people with character, characteristically drink beer with character.”
The ultimate goal of the LCD Brewing Company is to open our own brewpub (check us out at www.lcdbrewing.com). We are still a few years away but we have a unique skill set among us and know we have the business acumen and creativity to pull it off. In our group we have an engineer, insurance agent, marketing executive, mortgage broker, real estate agent, product marketer and an artist. Some of us also happen to be excellent barbeque chefs (if we do say so ourselves), which comes in especially handy on brew day when you start hankering for a serious brisket sandwich. The only thing really preventing us from opening our own place is our ponderous lack of money. To remedy this, we pay monthly dues, but at the moment those funds would probably only the cover the cost of the sign out front and maybe the light for it — a small light.
It would be a grave injustice if we led you to believe that LCD Brewing Co. thrives with just us seven brewers. It’s also the love and support (or tolerance, depending who you ask) of the extended LCD family that has made this experiment so much fun and successful. When we do the numbers it shakes out to seven brewers and their seven patient wives, 22 children, three boxers, a beagle and few feral cats. Brew day normally finds us all together at the end, after hauling the last of a few hundred pounds of spent grains up the big hill and dumping them in the pit behind a lonely, little, former brew shed and having dinner. It’s always great food, better company and tankards of Yetti’s porter. Or MJ’s IPA. Or Clark’ s stout. Or Salty’s Pilsner . . .
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Brew Wizard
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Should I be concerned with fluctuating mash temperatures due to outdoor brewing and what can I do to control the temperature better?
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Brew Spreadsheet
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