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Aroxa off-flavor training notes

by Rob Friesel

During our 2017-2018 BJCP study group, we talked a few times about doing an off-flavor training. We’d pool our money, pick up a spiking kit, and spend one session working through a few of the common off-flavors. For better or worse, we didn’t manage to get around to that.

Meanwhile, a study group formed for the Certified Cicerone exam. While I wasn’t able to commit to that group in addition to the BJCP group, there was an open-ended invitation to attend some of those sessions. Luckily, I caught wind of one of their off-flavor training sessions and got myself on the list.

Who couldn’t use some bad beer education?

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keeping my brewing pipeline organized

by Rob Friesel

I like to keep things organized. I like to have a plan. I’m OK changing plans or deviating from them — even improvising from time to time can be fun. But at the end of the day, I like to have at least some kind of loose roadmap to point to. This even extends to my brewing.

And over the past couple of months, I found that Trello (in combination with a few other tools) is a decent lightweight solution to bring that kind of organization to my brewing. Here’s what it looks like right now:

First four and a half columns of my Brew Board Trello board.
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Homebrew #78: Le Rousse (Ambrée Bière de Garde)

by Rob Friesel

As we raced to the end of 2018, I wanted to fit in at least one more new-to-me style. I don’t know the Bière de Garde style well1 but the description was intriguing. And while it isn’t much of a clever name, I haphazardly dubbed it Le Rousse2– an ambrée bière de garde.

Le Rousse (Ambrée Bière de Garde)
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  1. Straightforward examples are hard to find around here, as our study group discovered last year. [↩]
  2. Confession: this beer was marked in Evernote for months as “🇫🇷 – Bière de Garde” and I almost named it “Literal French Flag Emoji” or something like that. [↩]

Homebrew #76: Lupulin-Industrial Complex

by Rob Friesel

Perhaps because I live in such a wonderland of New England IPAs, I’d never felt a burning desire to make one. Don’t get me wrong, the challenge itself is tempting — but only 4-ish years and 75 brews into the hobby, there are still so many challenges to choose from! However, when the opportunity to get a little hop hash came around, it seemed like the perfect excuse to take a stab at this. And this brings us to Lupulin-Industrial Complex:

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Judging at the 2018 NERHBC

by Rob Friesel

Yesterday, I judged at the New England Regional Homebrew Competition — earning my 5th judging point, which should put me into the Certified rank. It was a great experience, and I wanted to jot down a few notes while they were still fresh in my memory.

NERHBC

Photo blatantly swiped from Facebook, but 100% credited to Paul Hayslett, who published it publicly for all to see.

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