All of my brews, ranging across all styles.
This english pale ale is the first beer I’ve brewed since moving, and I’m very happy to get back into the hobby! I brewed this with my buddy, Chris, and had a great time doing it. It was definitely one of those low-stress, easy brew days. It’s a simple recipe that I think could be great with just a few tweaks, and a bit more time in the fermentor. Continue reading
I brewed this nut brown ale for my father in-law as a Christmas gift. To help ensure it went off well, I ordered a kit beer from Northern Brewer. Yes, it was tasty!
So this is attempt number two for the witbier style and coming out of the brew day I was very optimistic. I implemented a few controlled changes to my previous recipe, and the wort tasted amazing!
However, my optimism turned to disappointment a few days after my brew day when I learned that my temperature controller (a.k.a modified chest freezer) stopped cooling!! This was a problem because the yeast I pitched – Wyeast Forbidden Fruit – is well known for producing great clove-like phenols (technically, 4-vinyl guaicol) when fermented at optimum temperatures. The problem being that with a hot fermentation, these flavors can be overpowering, which is my one-word summary for this beer – “overpowering.” Continue reading
First off – before you ask – let me explain the name.
I brewed this beer a week after batch #16, both at brew days away from home. For this second beer, I wanted to brew a batch that would be simple and quick to brew – unlike #16 which took most of my Saturday the previous week.
What’s easier to brew than a BIAB SMaSH ale? Well… not much. That’s probably why I was the first one to finish my brew day at Cajun Cafe’s Brewer’s Day. Continue reading
Since my first attempt at a Blue Moon clone using a partial mash procedure, I’ve been eager to to do a witbier using all grain. I decided to take an initial stab at the style back in July, and I was happy with the process and the results.
I brewed this beer at a group brew day at Rapp Brewing with other members of the PUBGuild Homebrew Club. At the meet-up I received some great feedback from Robert Hilferding (AHA’s 2014 Homebrewer of the Year) and Greg Rapp (owner of Rapp Brewing) about the recipe and the taste of the wort. This gave me a lot of confidence in the beer from the start.
I brewed this beer for a purpose. No, not just to drink, but to use for an activity during a brewing water presentation I gave for my local homebrew club — the PUBGuild. The purpose of this activity was to demonstrate how the sulfate ion changes the way one perceives hop bitterness in a given beer.
At high concentrations, sulfate adds dryness and sharpness to the hop profile. By brewing a beer with distilled or de-ionized (DI) water to control the water profile, it is easy to observe how calcium sulfate (gypsum) impacts the hop perception of a beer by adding a gypsum solution to the finished beer.
