January's VIB of the Month - Tim Dennis

The Wrecking Bar Brewpub would like to raise a glass to our VIB of the Month (Very Important Brewer) to Tim Dennis. Check back each month as we dedicate this section of our e-newsletter to highlighting a dynamic local homebrewer.

In which neighborhood do you live?

I'm an OTP'er. I live wayyy out in Woodstock. I've been here more than 10 years and I love it. Sometimes it's tough seeing the great events ITP and not being able to make them all, but overall Woodstock is a nice, quiet place to live with a small but nice downtown area. We have Reformation Brewery out here now and a couple of places with good craft beer selections. It's enough if you want to do something on the weekend you have choices here. Our city council is also very friendly to craft beer and open to new events, there are a couple things we've talked about and hopefully I can share more on that in the future.



What's your day job?

I'm a Technical Recruiter specializing in Telecommunications. I hire the guys who install the equipment that keeps our cell phones working.



In addition to your day job, you also co-manage Atlanta's beer subreddit, ATLbeer, and co-host Beer Guys Radio a one-hour weekly talk show dedicated to all things beer and brewing. How did those two projects come about?

I kind of just stumbled on both of these projects. I was a visitor to Reddit ATLbeer and became a pretty regular contributor. At the time one of the other moderators, who goes by Daebat on Reddit, messaged me to see if I wanted to join the moderation team. It sounded like fun so I signed up. When I take something on I really go head first into it, and being part of Reddit ATLbeer was no exception. I started reaching out to breweries to do features, meet-ups, Q&A sessions (we call them AMAs on Reddit), brew days, and more. At first breweries weren't all that receptive as we were a small community of about 400 users, but as we started gaining momentum, more of them were open to the idea. Over the last couple of years Daebat and I have worked to grow the community to more than 3,500 subscribers and we've connected with a lot of breweries and craft beer fans. We have an awesome and active community there and it's been great to see it grow.



For Beer Guys Radio that was a connection made through a mutual friend, it seems a lot of things I've gotten involved with work out that way. My friends Gary and Allan hosted a cigar show on AM 920 (the station Beer Guys Radio is on) and the program director, Aaron Williams, mentioned to them that he wanted to do a beer show. Another friend was there when he mentioned it and he told Aaron and I we should talk. After exchanging a few emails we met up and decided we wanted to do the show, that was just a few months ago and we've been going non-stop since then. We've launched our website (BeerGuysRadio.com) and began posting articles as well as interviews, and of course we're active on social media. Our official on-air launch date was January 2, 2016 and we'll be on from 1-2 p.m. on AM 920. You will also be able to stream via our website or IHeartRadio, and listen on-demand via the website and most popular podcast apps. We'll focus on Georgia beer and we'll have interviews, news on beer releases and events, coverage of beer-related legislation, beer reviews, and more. We're really excited to get the show launched and initial reception has been very good, make sure to tune-in!



When did you start homebrewing and why?

I've been homebrewing for a few years now. My good friend Brian Hewitt and I used to hang out and smoke cigars, go hiking, and drink beer. We'd do a nice long hike and that was our justification for drinking a ton of beer afterwards! We'd chat about beer and the possibility of homebrewing but never took the plunge. The big kicker for us was chasing one of those limited release beers one year, KBS, and just being tired of running around to get a good beer. We knew it would take us some time to brew anything close to KBS but we jumped into homebrewing, again going in full-steam. I'm happy to say just recently we brewed a beer "inspired by" Mexican Cake and it came out extremely well, and we brewed 15 gallons of a KBS-inspired beer that we're putting in a bourbon barrel very soon. We finally got to the point where many of our brews are as good as some of the commercial ones we used to chase, but we still have a lot to learn.



What are your favorite styles to brew?

Saisons, without a doubt. Not only do I enjoy brewing and drinking them but I've got a really good basic recipe that I work with, I've won medals for three variations of this beer and we'll be brewing a cranberry version soon. One of our more adventurous creations was one of Brian's ideas, a sun-dried tomato and basil saison. It came out really well and it seems people either love it or hate it. One friend said, "You really got what you were going for, I just don't want to drink it!", however others have said they loved it. Outside of that I love sour and funky beers and barrel-aged stouts, we've only done a few of those but I'd like to brew more in the future. We're formulating a recipe now for a blueberry pancake white stout.



Do you name your brews and if so, what are a few of your most recent?

Oh yes, obsessively. We like to pretend we're a real brewery and we have a logo and name and label all our brews. Fake it 'til ya make it! Some of our recent ones have been the tomato-basil saison, Johnny Saisoni; our Mexican Imperial Stout, Bandito!; and an American farmhouse and Brett version of our saison called Synesthesia American. Some others are Domain of The King, Atlantarctica, Kiwi Kaleidoscope, and Nutstalgia. Our label for Atlantarctica actually made it to the final round of an AHA homebrewing label competition.



Do you have any advice for the novice homebrewer?

Take it slow and take a lot of notes. Many homebrewers want to brew a double-barrel-cinnamon-cocoa imperial milk stout right out of the gate but it's really important to brew some basic styles to start. Learn the processes and hone your skills first and build from there. If something is not right in a complex beer and you don't have a baseline to troubleshoot from then it's hard to get it right going forward. This is also where your notes come in handy, Brian keeps us in check on that end. Whether it's to revisit a brew that we liked or troubleshoot one that's not quite right the notes are crucial. You may think you'll remember all the little things but you won't, and it really sucks to brew a beer you love and miss something small when you try to rebrew it. Outside of that don't forget the basics - clean and sanitize rigorously, pitch the right amount of healthy yeast into properly aerated wort, control your fermentation temperatures, and avoid oxygen exposure after primary. Most of the people I know who don't brew very good beer don't follow the basic processes properly, simply having a solid process in place can greatly improve the quality of your homebrew.

What do you love most about the Wrecking Bar Brewpub?