When I started this blog almost a year ago, I had a few goals in mind. First, I needed a place to keep all my homebrew content. I am not the best at note taking so I thought if I started a blog it would make me more honest, and I would have a resource to … Continue reading 2014 Hop Harvest at Stillpoint Farms (Grain-to-glass collection #2)
Category: Beer
So in my last post, I wrote about a saison I made with my normal house saison yeast, the Saison Dupont strain (Galaxy Saison with Dupont Yeast). I have been talking with people about their saison yeast preferences and people do not like the Dupont strain for a variety of reasons. People complain about it … Continue reading Recipe #19: Galaxy Saison with Brasserie de Blaugies Yeast (Batch #2014.14)
I am auditioning additional saison yeasts for my house blend. I've been trying different home brews by people I trust with different blends and harvesting yeast, or getting yeast, from different brewers in order to expand my options. I have a few promising leads for future beers but the first two I wanted to check … Continue reading Recipe #18: Galaxy Saison with Dupont Yeast (Batch #2014.15)
Spring has sprung and what better way to celebrate than starting a new brewing project and make some flower beers! This will be the first in a series of flower beers made this spring / summer...hopefully they will all turn out well. This is the only one out of the four or five where I … Continue reading Recipe #17: Hibiscus Brett Saison (Batch #2014.08)
I love lambic. I love gueuze. I love Cantillon, Girardin, Drie Fonteinen, Tilquin, Boon....I love these breweries and their beers. If I had more money, I would have more than the few dozen bottles of these amazing beers in my possession, alas. I love these beers so much, when I'm drinking them I don't even care … Continue reading Beer Pedantry #1: What is “lambic”?
Authors Note: I try to post a recipe a week (or a post about brewing once a week) but this week I'm posting two, this being the second behind the Chinook and Cascade IPA disaster. I'm doing this to minimize the impact of that bad beer post on this blog and to reduce my backlog … Continue reading Sour Program — Part 2: A Blended Sour
I'm past the half way mark with these beers and they have all turned out well so far. The first two were my favorites (the Azacca and the Expeirmental Pine Fruit saison). The last one, the Lemon Zest, was pretty underwhelming but still made for a good beer. Next year when I plan out this … Continue reading Experimental Hop Series #4: Experimental Grapefruit Saison (Recipe #15, Batch #2014.12)
I started this blog a few months ago but I've been brewing for about 10 years. I wanted to start the blog so I could keep better track of what beers I'm making and to force me to try more experiments...push my abilities and contact other brewers to refine my technique. This post isn't going … Continue reading Brettanomyces clausseni Ale
I want to do more traveling but with money being as tight as it is and having a small family, I don't get all the opportunities I would like. However, I did have the opportunity to visit a couple of good friends in Chicago...we drove from Washington D.C. to Chicago in our little SUV. Ended … Continue reading Beer Tourism #2: A Roadtrip from Washington DC to Chicago
This post is about beer, but in addition, this post is about the microbiology of beer, specifically the microbiology of the genus Saccharomyces. I am a microbiologist by trade, so there will be several posts throughout this blog concerning the organisms responsible for the production of beer and other fermentation products. This is the first … Continue reading Saccharomyces species experiment #1: Paradoxus Ale (Recipe #14, Batch #2014.07)
A Ph.D. in Beer - A Study of Beer and Fermentation Science 