Edit: The Tap and Mallet’s beer social is April 30, no this week as originally reported. Oops.

Rochester has some pretty cool beer events coming up. The Tap and Mallet will be hosting the fourth of its “Beer Social” tasting sessions Wednesday April 30. The theme is dark beers, and the guest presenter is some guy from the Southern Tier Brewing Company.

I run a regular tasting session too, but it’s nothing like what Joe does at the Tap. His beer selections are impeccable, his guest speakers knowledgeable, and dude puts out a mean antipasto tray. It costs $12, but you don’t go away thirsty. Or hungry.

Meanwhile, this coming Thursday, The Old Toad is kicking off Fish Fest, an ongoing celebration of the breweries Dogfish Head and Roosterfish. They’ll have rare casked ales and unique one-offs not usually available in Upstate New York. It’s going to be the first time Dogfish Head’s Chateau Jiahu is on draft in Rochester. I think the festival is going to go on until they run out of the beer, but for the best stuff, get to the Toad soon.

Fellow beercrafter Pat Hughes and I made a pilsner in his comically well-equipped basement brewery last friday. We did all-grain with a decoction mash. It’s a bit dark, but everything looks like it went well.

Of course, Pat gets most of the credit. He’s an experienced all-grain homebrewer and one of those guys who’s depressingly good at math. So he formulated the recipe did the timing, operated hos valves and levers, and handled the troubleshooting. I ground up grain and stirred. And lifted heavy stuff.

I gotta tell you, homebrewing is a terrific hobby for anyone who loves watching large quantities of liquid heat up.

-Mark