BUZZ
Member Profiles
Brian Pylant
1. Where do you live?
Merchantville NJ
2. What is your "brewery"
name?
Oh wait, I'm supposed to name this thing? Now you tell me...
3. Year you started brewing
Spring 2005. And what a mess I made in that kitchen!
4. Are you BJCP certified?
No. And boy from the looks of that exam, probably never will be! Some
folks might have a mind like a steel trap; mine is more
like a sieve. I'm lucky to remember my shoes in the
morning.
5. Favorite, most knowledgeable
styles
Beer: my taste tends to run towards either wonderfully complex porters,
or balanced but *very* hop-forward pales/reds/browns. (Is that
a contradiction in terms? I hope not!) I also really enjoy lambic
and other sour beers. I am not a big fan of high-gravity beers,
or anything overly malty or sweet.
Wine: I am really only beginning to explore whites, but I adore a
giant uber-complex red. I have found every Côtes du Rhône
I've tried to be marvelous, and I'm also quite fond
of many Virginia wines. (Yup, that's right, I said
Virginia - one trip to Barboursville or Linden and
you'll be a convert, too.)
6. Most Interesting Batch Made
So far I haven't really done anything that unusual, but stay tuned...
7. Greatest Brewing Moment
No awards yet, but I was very proud of the comments on my porter from
the 2006 BUZZ Off -- I didn't place, but apparently I
brewed a good beer and IMO that's what counts.
8. Worst Brewing Moment
My first time using whole-leaf hops. Without thinking I just threw 'em
in the boil, no hop bag or screening device on my kettle. When it came
time to transfer to my fermenter the spigot was hopelessly clogged
just a few minutes in. I frantically found and sanitized a hose
and my hands and tried desperately to start a siphon (which I'd never
done before since my kettle and fermenter had spigots). I managed
to get a little under three gallons into the fermenter, and that
batch (an american brown ale) actually turned out OK. Not great, nothing
to be particularly proud of, but OK. Lesson learned: stick to pellets,
and buy an Auto-Siphon ASAP.
9. Words to live by
I'm sure I used to have all kinds of cool, deep stuff written on my
Trapper Keeper, but all I can think of right now is
"time is the fire in which we burn."
10. Something "non-brewing"
I am a musician (visit http://myspace.com/brianpylant
and
www.spinninglucy.com
to see what I'm up to lately) and a graphic
artist. Not necessarily in that order, and sadly neither
full-time. I
play poker, not full-time and also not particularly well. I
am a huge
Phillies fan, sci-fi buff (oh, to live on the
Enterprise-D),
documentary-watcher, periodical junkie and all-around dork.
I use a
Mac, but I'm not a snob about it. My girlfriend Kristen has
Celiac, a
severe form of gluten intolerance (www.celiac.org)
and has never been
able to taste my beer, which saddens me to no end. I would
also love
to become Norm Abram, but I can't seem to find any sexy
flannel shirts.
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