Monday was a pretty great brew day. I worked the kinks out of the pump setup and ended up with a 4 hour 40 minute process, from lighting the burner to putting away the equipment. Having an assistant brewer for the first time in months probably didn’t hurt either. I’m also still playing with malt [...]
This is the third time I’ve made spent grain bread using this recipe, which is loosely based on Alewife’s. I used the Unholy Trinity grist for the spent grains, as well as the beer itself. It’s definitely a better fit for a bread recipe than the others. There’s something really satisfying and elemental about making [...]
Yes, my garage is a mess.
You guys, I’m seriously. Best Xmas ever. I brewed a batch of APA yesterday and got to try out my new Barley Crusher and March pump for the first time. So not only do I not have to lift 6 gallons of boiling wort to chest height any more, [...]
My half-assed hypothesis here is that the acid in the OJ will extract some of the flavors from the spices.
I’ve been wanting to do a Winter Spiced Beer for a while, and my 3864 (Unibroue) culture was closing in on eight months in the fridge, so I figured I’d dress up this dubbel recipe [...]
This is actually my first bitter and was kind of a lark; I had no idea so many people would be bringing kegs to Burning Man. At any rate, it seems to have been a hit. It’s pretty great how the simplest recipes generally turn out the best.
Black Rock Bitter recipe
Sherwood and I had lunch at LBC yesterday, and we both got their Amarillo APA, which is tasty but like most of their beers seems watery and one-dimensional. Amarillo is a fantastic hop, but in my experience, at least, it needs something else to really shine – just like potatoes don’t taste quite right without [...]
I’ve done a lot of research, with wide-ranging results both sensory and emotional, but I believe that at long last I have truly perfected the (modern, since the original probably used sweet vermouth, bitters, and lemon peel) martini. If you were going to order this in a bar, you would say something like, “Bombay Sapphire [...]
There are few things as satisfying as a homemade beer.
This page should serve as a comprehensive introduction to the brewing process. While John Palmer’s outstanding How to Brew is undeniably useful, its length can be off-putting for someone who wants to dip his toe into the hobby. As far as I know, there is [...]
(Pronounced kind of like Jaromír Jágr, who, coincidentally, is a great case study in why the drinking age should be lowered.)
After Primary
Anyway, anecdotes aside (ain’t alliteration amazing?), about a month ago I brewed a small batch (final volume about 1.75 gal, so an 18-pack) of what’s essentially a Standard American Lager, complete with 30% [...]
I don’t put much stock in numerology: as far as I’m concerned it’s on par with Kabbalah or reading bones or Catholicism. But when it turned out that I would be brewing my 25th batch in the month of my 25th birthday, I couldn’t resist. Hence the absolutely absurd notion of brewing a 25% ABV [...]