Pittsburgh and the “Home Brew” BLITZBURGH

[Drink IRON City]

Back in the day I was a avid Home Brewer. Not bragging but did participate in many Home Brew contest and acclaimed several 1st place ribbons amongst my awards……….

Durring the Blitzburgh years, I brewed 5 gal batches of (you guessed it) BLITZBURGH beer in honor of our beloved Steelers. It took a total of 9 days brew to drink with approximately a 6.4 ABV %. It tasted ok, but definately knocked your socks off, similar to the team Blitzburgh defense.

I called it BLITZburgh 1 and as I made another batch the number corresponded with it. Eventually I had gotten to around BLITZburgh 37.


The video is about 23 minutes long, but sure brings back the good O’l days of actual hard hitting defense. The kind of defense that actually had brain and calculation power to go with it.

I never get tired of watching these type of videos, it’s real STEELERS football.





Hope you enjoyed



Salute the nation

 

[Drink IRON City]

PS

Yes I did enter this BLITZburgh beer in ONE contest and it took 1st place in its category (not overall).

BLITZburgh wasn’t designed at a competition beer, it was made for game day watching and knocking yaz loopeeee’

Many friends drank it and asked for it regularly.



Salute the nation

 

[Steelr4evr]

Good clip. Man,we went from Blitzing to no blitzing at all.

Even the 70's Steelers started blitzing late in the 70's.


You definitely need unpredictability, talent and design to cover your *** when you do it.

 

[xjx]

What category did it get 1? Were any of the ingredients roasted? Did you add too much hops? Tell us about it.

 

[speedicut]

@Drink IRON City , My go-to was 7# pale malt, 1.5# crystal 60, 4oz challenger/centennial @5 min, 4 oz of same combo at 55 min, 4 oz challenger @ flameout.
Racked on a cake of WH Califonia Ale yeast, ferment @ 70F.
ABV about 5.5%, great football game drinking beer! Great taste, very filling!

 

[Hypocycloids]

Drink Iron City

 

[Drink IRON City]

I liked how there were several defenses that had the nickname to go with it, but I also noticed Pittsburgh was the only team with TWO famous nicknames.

The Steelers Curtain

Blitzburgh

Both were very impressive and I’d like to think each reached near comparable greatness.




Salute tthe nation

 

[speedicut]

The Cold War was going on and Russia had the Iron Curtain, so the name Steel Curtain was perfect.

 

[Hypocycloids]

The Cold War was going on and Russia had the Iron Curtain, so the name Steel Curtain was perfect.

The best nickname in all of sports.
The coolest looking logo.
The best looking uniforms. Black = badass, Gold a symbol of excellence.

Too bad the team being stuck in mediocrity no longer lives up to those attributes.

 

[BLITZ]

My name used to be just blitz. Shortened it to blitz when they started.

 

[kursaki]

Back in the day I was a avid Home Brewer. Not bragging but did participate in many Home Brew contest and acclaimed several 1st place ribbons amongst my awards……….

Durring the Blitzburgh years, I brewed 5 gal batches of (you guessed it) BLITZBURGH beer in honor of our beloved Steelers. It took a total of 9 days brew to drink with approximately a 6.4 ABV %. It tasted ok, but definately knocked your socks off, similar to the team Blitzburgh defense.

I called it BLITZburgh 1 and as I made another batch the number corresponded with it. Eventually I had gotten to around BLITZburgh 37.


The video is about 23 minutes long, but sure brings back the good O’l days of actual hard hitting defense. The kind of defense that actually had brain and calculation power to go with it.

I never get tired of watching these type of videos, it’s real STEELERS football.





Hope you enjoyed


I have been living in Ausralia for a long time and then I found this site where you can play online slots - Black Diamons Casino . Anyone can play online slots on this site, so I was happy to recommend this site to you to play online slots in Ausralia, because with this site anyone can play and win!
Salute the nation

Thats good!

 

[Drink IRON City]

Good clip. Man,we went from Blitzing to no blitzing at all.

Even the 70's Steelers started blitzing late in the 70's.


You definitely need unpredictability, talent and design to cover your *** when you do it.

Coach Dick LeBeau was the Grand Master at that.



Salute the nation

 

[MT~Forged]

The best nickname in all of sports.
The coolest looking logo.
The best looking uniforms. Black = badass, Gold a symbol of excellence.

Too bad the team being stuck in mediocrity no longer lives up to those attributes.

The Purple People Eaters was pretty good too.

 

[MT~Forged]

I have made may beers, wines, ciders, brandy over the years. It is a fun hobby but can become addictive.

My best beer that I have really dialed in Was a chocolate wheat dubbed “Mudslide”. One of the local breweries had a contest for home brewers and 3 “winners” got to brew their beer on their 3 barrel system and was sold in the brewery. Myself and two others were chosen. It was kind of cool to see it on tap and people buy it. The others were a mushroom beer and an old Polish beer. They actually made the Polish beer a few times as it was a really big hit.

My wine is from grapes I grew on the ranch, a Frontenac and Marquette grapes

I usually make a strawberry/pear cider that the wife likes

 

[speedicut]

My best was a St Fueillien clone.
About 9.7%ABV, it had a very 'alcoholic' taste at first, then I cold aged it for 6 months. After that it was smooth as silk. Nice balance between malt and citrus.

My best beer that I have really dialed in Was a chocolate wheat dubbed “Mudslide”. One of the local breweries had a contest for home brewers and 3 “winners” got to brew their beer on their 3 barrel system and was sold in the brewery. Myself and two others were chosen. It was kind of cool to see it on tap and people buy it. T

That's pretty awesome!

 

[Drink IRON City]

The Purple People Eaters was pretty good too.

To m any words, didn’t roll off your tongue and created a sour taste once spoken…………….

Steel Curtain &. BLITZburgh by far the two greatest…………



Salute the nation

 

[steelhurt]

Back in the day I was a avid Home Brewer. Not bragging but did participate in many Home Brew contest and acclaimed several 1st place ribbons amongst my awards……….

Durring the Blitzburgh years, I brewed 5 gal batches of (you guessed it) BLITZBURGH beer in honor of our beloved Steelers. It took a total of 9 days brew to drink with approximately a 6.4 ABV %. It tasted ok, but definately knocked your socks off, similar to the team Blitzburgh defense.

I called it BLITZburgh 1 and as I made another batch the number corresponded with it. Eventually I had gotten to around BLITZburgh 37.


The video is about 23 minutes long, but sure brings back the good O’l days of actual hard hitting defense. The kind of defense that actually had brain and calculation power to go with it.

I never get tired of watching these type of videos, it’s real STEELERS football.





Hope you enjoyed



Salute the nation

Drink, perhaps you could come up with a new brew… Mediocre Malt! Same Old Suds! Non Losing Lager.
Just a few suggestions for ya Drink!

 

[Drink IRON City]

Drink, perhaps you could come up with a new brew… Mediocre Malt! Same Old Suds! Non Losing Lager.
Just a few suggestions for ya Drink!

I gave up Homebrewing many many years ago. I loved it at the time and could tal;k all day on the subject, but moved on to other things.

Note: Even got a personal tour from the brewmaster at “the Church” there in Pittsburgh. He gave me the oportunity and I calculated within 1oz of total hops for one of their big brews, he compared to his calculation (he was professional formula, mine was experience made up formula). I was uncomfortable on that big of a batch. We got to their experimental 5gal batches and I was at home there to the degree of telling them they sghould nearly double the hops input on this one particular batch. He elected to do so and about a month later I got a letter from him telling how well that particular batch turned out.

In Portland Maine, Shipyard brewing gave me a personal tour of their beautiful facility (considered a small brewery at the time). At end of tour they wanted to hire me, not based on my knowledge but more on my aggressiveness and personality to get stuff done and knowledge of equipment operation and repair in general. Several of the employees had an area that they could do 5gal batches, my specialties.

Like I said, I could go on and on and on but TODAY, I’ve forgotten so much good information. One small tid-bit, I’d steep a small amount of wheat only at the very very end (just when flame was shut off) for about 4-8 minutes. This didn’t influence any taste but helped in froth retention when pouring your beer. Just a little insight.

My all-time best beer (several to choose from) that won several 1st place overall competitions was a beer I named

Cherry Fever Stout. I think the ABV was in the 6.7 to 7.2 range. Very stout, think “motor oil” with cherry flavor… LoL

Also Note that I never had top of the line equipment but you don’t need the do-it-for-you equipment to make good beer. Anyone can make beer and have it taste good.

I encourage anyone who has the desire to give it a try. There are home brew ingredient kits you can buy that only require a stuff you already have for equipment. Kettle and a 5gal bucket with lid for basic. Build up from there.

Ahhh, a breath from the past, thanks you steelhurt, appreciate all your great post(s).



Salute the nation

 

[Drink IRON City]

PS

My best equipment purchase was actually started as $50.00 for 5oo brew, non screw type bottles. My son and his best friend and. Myself drove to get them and we started loading my 8ft bed pickup truck with cases of bottles. We were well past the 500 mark and I made a comment to the guy that I’m not sure I can afford any more. He told me he only used the number 500 because he knew for sure he had that many. He made me take them all and that turned out to be about 1,250 bottles. Yes, all just for the $50.00

I also had a policy with my friends or whom-ever got beer from me that they had to return bottles or never get another drop. That policy weeded out many.

I ended up giving away near 800 bottles or more when I closed down.




Salute the nation

 

[speedicut]

Bottling got to be a pain for me so I quickly switched to 5 gal corney kegs that previously held Pepsi syrup.
I think I still have about 12 of them.

 

[Drink IRON City]

Bottling got to be a pain for me so I quickly switched to 5 gal corney kegs that previously held Pepsi syrup.
I think I still have about 12 of them.

I’ve got about a 1/2 dozen kegs, or so hanging around too. I liked the bottling because it let me put custom labels I created onto them. print / cut / dip in milk and apply to bottle……. Easy to clean off when time to do so as well.

Kegs made life’s a lot easier, but it was all for fun in the end. I taught a lot of “friends” how to brew but not very many ever made more than a 2-4 batches. I did have one guy (an actual good friend) who helped me brew all the time. He got pretty good at it too.

I had a 8gal beer keg barrel that I cut out on top and made some ports on the side and that was my “fancy” brew kettle. It worked fantastic my entire time, plus the novelty was kewl beans.



Salute the nation

 

[speedicut]

I used a full keg as a kettle and another as a hot liquor tank. I'd boil about 12.5 gals of wort for a 10 gallon batch.

 

[Drink IRON City]

I used a full keg as a kettle and another as a hot liquor tank. I'd boil about 12.5 gals of wort for a 10 gallon batch.

Are you still brewing ?

I made wort chillers with coils of copper, most of my equipment I made myself.



Salute the nation

 

[Badcat]

I gave up Homebrewing many many years ago. I loved it at the time and could tal;k all day on the subject, but moved on to other things.

Note: Even got a personal tour from the brewmaster at “the Church” there in Pittsburgh. He gave me the oportunity and I calculated within 1oz of total hops for one of their big brews, he compared to his calculation (he was professional formula, mine was experience made up formula). I was uncomfortable on that big of a batch. We got to their experimental 5gal batches and I was at home there to the degree of telling them they sghould nearly double the hops input on this one particular batch. He elected to do so and about a month later I got a letter from him telling how well that particular batch turned out.

In Portland Maine, Shipwreck brewing gave me a personal tour of their beautiful facility (considered a small brewery at the time). At end of tour they wanted to hire me, not based on my knowledge but more on my aggressiveness and personality to get stuff done and knowledge of equipment operation and repair in general. Several of the employees had an area that they could do 5gal batches, my specialties.

Like I said, I could go on and on and on but TODAY, I’ve forgotten so much good information. One small tid-bit, I’d steep a small amount of wheat only at the very very end (just when flame was shut off) for about 4-8 minutes. This didn’t influence any taste but helped in froth retention when pouring your beer. Just a little insight.

My all-time best beer (several to choose from) that won several 1st place overall competitions was a beer I named

Cherry Fever Stout. I think the ABV was in the 6.7 to 7.2 range. Very stout, think “motor oil” with cherry flavor… LoL

Also Note that I never had top of the line equipment but you don’t need the do-it-for-you equipment to make good beer. Anyone can make beer and have it taste good.

I encourage anyone who has the desire to give it a try. There are home brew ingredient kits you can buy that only require a stuff you already have for equipment. Kettle and a 5gal bucket with lid for basic. Build up from there.

Ahhh, a breath from the past, thanks you steelhurt, appreciate all your great post(s).



Salute the nation

Two of my favorite recipes was a Scottish red ale I named "Sweet Bahookie" that used a little peated Barley for some smokiness and my Barely Wine (Chimney Sweeper) I used to make for Christmas. both were high ABV but would need to dig out my brewer's log for specifics. I stopped about 8 years ago when I lost an entire carboy of Eisbock on its final lagering cycle when it slipped off the shelf of the frigde and shattered on the basement floor. 8 months of work, gone. I got one small sip of it from a curved piece of glass and it was amazing. broke my heart.

 

[speedicut]

I made a counter-flow chiller with a garden hose and 1/4 od copper. Wort chilled as fast as it drained!
I haven't brewed in probably 15 years. I was caregiver for my mom and had to really limit my alcohol consumption just in case of emergency. So, that was the end of my brewing days. She's passed since but alcohol ***** with my sleep so I still don't drink much at all nowadays.