Brewer's Notes
Much of my childhood was spent around agriculture, and Northern Kansas has a wonderful history. From pioneers (Little House on the Prairie) to brave farmers that worked the soil through the Depression, the Dust Bowl and two world wars, my mother's German family has very deep roots in
Rambling
It has been a while since I posted something meaningful... and this probably is not meaningful. I thought I would mention what is going on - and what I have planned. 1. I completed the BJCP Mead Exam. This took up a month of study, and most importantly, a lot
Rambling
I bought a Grainfather to let me continue to brew in the very hot summers here in Texas. Below are pictures of the unboxing and the first brewday. There have been some concerns about the boil strength. So while this took a bit longer to come up to boil (which
Brewer's Notes
One of the more frustrating (or fun, depending on your perspective) challenges for a brewer is developing and establishing your own recipes. A great brewer's recipe creation skills sets a path for a successful brew; outlining procedure and visualizing the beer in the glass. Every brewer seems to
Brewer's Notes
In February 2015, I brewed Brülosopher’s Best Brown Ale which naturally turned into a series of experiments. The intention was to ship beer off to Marshall from Brülosphy.com for evaluation, and that twisted into preparing some bottles, doctored, for sensory evaluation. I kept a set of the evaluation
Brewer's Notes
It has been a few weeks since my last article. In that time, I have chewed hard (over a beer or two) on what to do with this blog. When I started it, my intention was really to just cover my brewing - basically yet another brewing blog. Since then,
LHBS
If you live in Austin, you are aware of the great divide. The bridges over Lady Bird Lake, just south of downtown, is the demarcation point between the true “Keep Austin Weird” South Congress (SoCo) community and the rest. SoCo Homebrew fills a big gap that has existed for years…
Experiment
Well, the jury is in on this first stage experiment. Fail. Crash and burn... In the spirit of honesty the beer sucked. This is all hop flavor soup and way too much sweetness. A lesson in the need for balance, especially bitterness. Tastes like overly back sweetened Bud soaked in
Bru'n Water Tutorial
In March 2015, Martin Brungard released the Bru'n Water Spreadsheet 3.2 to subscribers with major improvements to UI and functionality. This walk through supercedes the 2.0 version which will remain up if you choose not to upgrade. If you have not yet received your 3.0
Safety
"Danger - this sign might contain traces of nuts " Photo Above by Simon Lieschke. Licensed under Creative Commons. We often do not recognize the very real and specific dangers in home brewing. I am not trying to scare anyone straight here, but any reasonable person would recognize that
Process
American Brown Ale The application of water profiles for homebrew typically starts with the beer style, and secondarily with the beer color and hop character. An American Brown Ale can be difficult as there is some variation between Brown Ales, ranging from a more malt forward beer to some that
Brewer's Notes
It was absolutely frigid. Frightfully cold, and I say this with the slightest nod to friends and family that are north and north east getting pounded with snow, sleet and ice and truly freezing again. After 20 years here in Texas, I have lost my tolerance for the cold. My