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Homebrew #66: Peraridus

by Rob Friesel

Not immune to hype and novelty, the Green Mountain Mashers (the local homebrew club, of which I am a member) caught wind of a little style catching on in San Francisco: the so-called Brut IPA. The more adventurous and experimental of us immediately started digging into whatever resources we could find.

Not surprisingly, several of us almost immediately hammered out first-stab recipes. Also not surprisingly, there was a lot of overlap among those recipes. (What’s that saying about “great minds”…?) Rather than duplicate efforts (and spend way way more on the Amylo 300 enzyme than we needed to), we converged and planned out a 70 gallon club brew.

I took home a 4.5 gallon share that became the Peraridus 1 Brut IPA:

Peraridus, a delicious Brut IPA Continue reading →

  1. Originally I was going with some variation of “Brut Squad” (which, let’s face it, beer names and puns are like peanut butter and jelly) but there were competing claims within the group and I’ve got plenty of precedence for a clumsily-translated Latin brew name so “Peraridus” it is.[↩]

Homebrew #64: Hoarder Intervention #1

by Rob Friesel

Inspired by the Brülosophy Short & Shoddy project, I had me an idea. As I stuck a fresh shipment of hops into my refrigerator drawer, I noticed a few lonely bags hanging out down there. Hops that were (probably) still good, but certainly not getting any fresher. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I was practically swimming in hops that just needed to make their way into a beer. Any beer. Like maybe a session IPA called Hoarder Intervention #1.

Hoarder Intervention #1 Continue reading →

Homebrew #60: Glorified

by Rob Friesel

I don’t know that I’ve ever had a real actual true Trappist Single. There was St. Bernardus Extra 4 from our study group but… that seemed an unsatisfying answer, that singular data point. So what motivated this particular brew was two-fold: first, that I needed a glorified starter (hence the name) for a significantly bigger Trappist-inspired beer to follow, and second, to see if I could brew a serviceable Trappist Single. That brings us to Glorified:

Continue reading →

Homebrew #59: Honestatis (Mk. VIII)

by Rob Friesel

It’s been since December that I last had Honestatis on draft around here 1 and felt I was overdue to brew the next batch. I’d been tinkering with the formulation a bit, following some tasting notes from the last time I’d brewed it with Dan, but as it happens… so was he. Rather than duplicate effort, we decided once again to combine forces. Honestatis (Mk. VIII), the deviant redux:

Honestatis Mk. VIII Continue reading →

  1. Technically this is true, the keg having kicked December 16, 2017; but Dan was kind enough to give me a bottle from our last batch sometime in April so we could properly celebrate this beer’s performance in First Round of NHC.[↩]

BJCP exam tomorrow (wish me luck)

by Rob Friesel

I think it’s fair to say that I would eventually have gotten the itch to get a BJCP certification. But it was that November 2016 BYO Boot Camp with Gordon Strong that really kicked off this journey.

Me and Gordon Strong

In retrospect, it was only natural that he would encourage me to go seek my certification. But at the time it was flattering and just the kick I needed. Continue reading →

Homebrew #57: Clone in the Window

by Rob Friesel

Over the years, I’ve drunk more than my fair share of craft beer. And of all those craft beers, most of them were from our local Vermont breweries. And of those breweries, Burlington Beer Company has (in a short time) taken over the #1 slot. That is due, in large part, to their very (very) fine rye IPA called Light in the Window. So imagine my dismay when I learned that they were discontinuing production.

No matter. A little social media harassment and begging/pleading later and I got the next best thing to a revival. I got the recipe. Clone in the Window:

Clone in the Window Continue reading →