Posts centered around the process, theory, and science of brewing beer. Usually, but not always, related to home brewing.
This year I decided to run for the American Homebrewers Association Governing Committee. I’ve been a home brewer for just shy of a decade. It’s been such an important part of my life for so long that I want to contribute back in a big way. I can’t think of a better way to get … [Read more…]
I was recently given an old five gallon barrel that had sat empty for about 5 years. Increasing my barrel collection by 50% seemed prudent, even if had to work for it. The process took me longer than I intended, but mostly because life got in the way, if you’re on top of things this … [Read more…]
For a while now my dad has told that after he retires he would like to try brewing beer again. His retirement is finally upon him, so I figured a good way – a very me way – to welcome him into his post-work life would be a new brewing system. The requirements I laid … [Read more…]
At the 2017 HomeBrew Con in Minneapolis, I was wandering the exhibition hall on the last day with a few friends and one of the Briess representatives looked at my badge and saw I was part of the AABG. Every year Briess brings some grain to give away, and presumably they brought more than they … [Read more…]
I volunteered to give a talk on bioprospecting (aka wild yeast capture) to my home brew club, the AABG, before our May monthly meeting. This post is a recap of the material I covered in that talk, supplemented with links to sources I pulled from and/or more information on specific topics if you want to dive further … [Read more…]
If you’ve looked around my blog or talked to me, at some point you’ve surely heard about my Burton Ale. I’ve brewed this two years in a row, and will definitely make it a third this year. Last yeast I changed the recipe slightly and am happy with those changes so it’ll remain the same this for year’s … [Read more…]
The idea of wild yeast capture, sometimes known by the much cooler name bioprospecting, for making beer has interested me for a long time. I have started down this path a couple of times, with my first attempt successfully capturing a yeast from a blend of Michigan grown apples pressed into cider. This was used in my first attempt at making … [Read more…]
About a year ago I decided that I would bottle my sour beers instead of kegging them. I figured I would want to have a variety of sours available to drink at any given time and kegging would mean I’d have to constantly rotate them in and out based on what I want to drink and also … [Read more…]
In my previous post, I talked about making a beer for Arbor Brewing Company’s competition, RatFest. Well the day have come and gone, the beer was served, and sadly we did not win any awards for it, but that’s OK! The festival itself was a great time with many good and plenty of interesting beers available, … [Read more…]
For the post-event update, click here. On November 13th I participated in brew session at Arbor Brewing Company‘s Ypsilanti location to make a beer for a semi-regular event/competition called Rat Fest. The goal is to come up with something off the wall, yet enjoyable, and you brew enough to fill couple of 5 gal kegs on … [Read more…]