Following our successful introductory session, our BJCP study group re-convened two weeks later 1 to cover Category 1: Standard American Beer. After a quick round of group business, we launched right into the structured evaluations. That’s our cadence![↩]
I’ve decided to become a BJCP judge. In other words, I’ve decided to learn about the 34 beer categories (and their many sub-styles) recognized by the BJCP, about structured evaluations, about brewing ingredients and process and technique, about off-flavors and contaminants. I’ve decided to subject my palate to so-neutral-they’re-flavorless American Light Lagers and the sometimes-pleasantly-sometimes-punishingly […]
Given my promising results last year 1, I decided to go ahead and enter the 2017 Greg Noonan Memorial Homebrew Competition (organized by the Green Mountain Mashers) again. I entered three beers 2 and though not all of them came home with ribbons, I’d say I did alright… See also: these promising results.[↩]Technically, two beers […]
Though loved, the original Let the Wookiee Win probably didn’t get a fair shake. Readers familiar with that tale will remember that it was my first kegged beer, and suffered from just about every first-timer mistake I could manage. I wanted to give another crack at this one, perhaps without accidentally spraying it all over […]
For the past few months, I’d been idly kicking around the idea of doing a series of single hop pale ale experiments. I slapped together a few formulations, but there was no over-arching theme other than the fact that each one only used a single hop type. After thinking it over, I deleted all of […]
Since the bottles from batch #5 went so quickly, I was… forced to brew this again. And apply the lessons learned from the judges’ feedback. Honestatis (Mk. VI), my extra amber ale:
In 2016, my lovely partner and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. We never had a honeymoon, so it seemed time to remedy that by marking the milestone with a vacation that would make up for it. Being the gastronomes that we are, 1 much of our trip was […]
To bastardize the Rifleman’s Creed: This my brewing technique. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Indeed there are many articles about technique and process — everything from “basics for beginners” to super-specific niche techniques. I do not pretend to be an expert, but I also thought that a post like this […]
This beer didn’t start out as a master plan or a bright idea. This beer wasn’t a flash of inspiration. This beer was me staring at the sachets of leftover hops in my refrigerator. The hops I’d planned to use but at the last minute decided would add too much bitterness. The hops sealed up […]
In addition to all the homebrewing I’ve done over the past two and a half years, I’ve also been spending a lot of time around the local mead hall. As such, I’ve consumed my fair share 1 of mead. But I hadn’t yet made any. Deciding that this was an error to remedy, I combined […]