OK, so the title of this piece may sound a bit religious, especially for a blog that started out discussing cutting holes in kegs, but stay with me.  The season of Lent has arrived in the church calendar. For those who may not know, Lent is a 40 day long season during which Christians prepare ourselves for Jesus' crucifixion, death, and eventual resurrection. Individuals do this by "fasting" from things, like meat, sugar, and Facebook. Others abstain from beer! Some others "add" something to their lives - like giving more to food banks, more devotional time, or the like. Many churches add extra worship services. We're in that boat, and the theme we're using for our worship series is Jesus' Dinner Table. It's a fun idea where we get to explore more about Jesus' interactions with food and, more important, with whom Jesus ate. And while this could easily go down the pathway of Jesus' community and the craft beer and brewery communi...

Full disclosure: I'm a pastor. Yeah, like, at a church. In particular, I'm a Lutheran pastor, and so beer kind of comes with the territory. ( Check out this NPR article if you want to read into that. ) The reason I lay this out there is pastors usually have a lot on their mind. And for me, what has been on my mind a lot lately is community. Churches used to be the center of the community. It was where one went to socialize and see friends on a regular basis. People would ask how your mother was doing. You could be fed on multiple levels: literally with pot-lucks, spiritually with worship, socially by being with those in your community. It's not news that the Church's central place in the community has slipped from what it was just a few decades ago. There are lots of reasons for this, but that's another post for another time. But even for those who do participate in worship on regular occasion, rarely does sitting in a church for an hour enhance community amo...

Can you dust off an old blog? I feel like I'm pulling a favorite book off my shelf - noticing the slightly worn jacket cover, hearing the creak of the spine as I open it again. It's been a while. A lot of things took me away from writing this blog. We can summarize it as "a season of life." Kids. A move. Wanting to do a good job in my new position. Blogging about homebrewed beer didn't really fit into that. But now, I'm in a different season. I still have the kids. And live in the same city. And the same job, like I have for the past five years. I don't see any of that changing. But something has been stirred in me to pick writing this blog back up - but pick it up with a different slant. Previously, this blog focused on the first half of the name: homebrewing. I wrote about recipes, tips, and tasting notes on my beers. I thought it was fun, and I wanted to banter back and forth with others about all things homebrewing. I don't read about brewi...

Several weeks back, I brewed up a German Wheat beer.  Well done wheats are one of my favorite sipping beers, and I felt this style would be perfect for summertime. Because I brew 10 gallons (a lot of one style of beer), I decided to split the batch by making two different beers off of one base.  Down the road, this will provide many options in terms of extra ingredients, varying dry hops, or even yeast options.  For this batch and for the next few I have planned out, I am going to keep one carboy true to the Reinheitsgebot, the German purity law , while the other I will "Americanize" by adding extra something to it. For the German Wheat, I kept one strict to the Reinheitsgebot with only water, grain, hops, and yeast.  The other, which I cleverly named German Wheat X, I dry hopped with one ounce each of orange and lemon zest as well as about 2/3s an ounce of Hallertau hops. Process As far as process, I simply used a single infusion mash at 152F.  Ther...

Few things get me as excited as beer.  So, when I heard that Stone Brewing Company was planning to open an east coast brewery (#StoneEast), I got a little excited (being an east-coaster and all).  I got more excited when I read that Myrtle Beach, my current place of residence, was vying for Stone to open up here.  " Pipe dreams, " I thought.  Though, now it was in my brain.  I sooo wanted it to happen. Then I read this article on beerofsc.com  which made me give my hopes up entirely.  Apparently, SC law doesn't even allow for what Stone would want to do: a production brewery with a restaurant.   Nail in the coffin.  I still had hopes Stone would open up somewhere close, like in NC so I could at least visit. But then, some even-keel, open-minded politicians decided SC should change its laws!  By golly!  The result was H.3512 (ok, really, the 'Stone Bill' is an amendment to H.3512, but whatever. You get the point). ...

Not what I mean when I say, "solo." My first South Carolina brew session is behind me. As I mentioned in my previous post, it was a solo brew.  This whole "brew by yourself" is a new thing for me.  While a typical brew day involves conversations over mash tuns and pints of beer over boil kettles, this one was a little different.  Ok, very different.  It was all up to me.  From hitting mash temps to sanitizing a plate chiller, it was all mine to do. "What's the big deal?" you may be asking.  "People do this solo brew thing all the time." Well, yeah, people do brew solo all the time.  But I think having a brew partner is a favorable thing - and it's something I am quite accustomed to. Sharing stories and beers is one of the best things about brewing with someone else.  But division of labor ain't bad either: one can monitor the boil-overs while another cleans the mash tun.  I knew that I wasn't going to have the luxury ...

It has been over a year since I last posted.  For anyone that is (or was) even remotely interested in this stuff, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.  Life happens.  With a second baby and a move under my belt, I feel like I am finally at a place where I can pick blogging back up. And while I wasn't writing about it for the world wide web to view, I still brewed. I still thought about what to write. I still want to share my experiences in hopes that one of you can relate or maybe even learn a thing or two. Now, since I have moved away from my brew buddy, Eric, the whole brewing process is up to me.  That makes for longer, tougher, more lonely brew days, but it does open up blog post topics.  (Silver lining, I suppose.) So, going forward, expect to see posts about differences in solo and partner brewing. I'll still be brewin' up 10 gallon batches in two separate carboys, so that also opens up a lot of potential. And I am in a whole new area with a whole diff...

So, I purchased the IPA book.  I was in a mental bind about whether to get this book or the new Hops book, which is part of the Brewing Elements series.  I posted about my delima on various social networks: "which one should I get?"  To which the reply was mixed.  Get this one if you want this, get that one if you want that.  So, to make a short story boring, I bought both of them - but read the IPA book first.  (Have not yet gotten to the Hops book.  Can you say, "future post"?) I chose the IPA book because it is more in line with what I want to brew and learn.  I want to brew a good IPA, and to a lesser extent, a good pale ale.  I figured the Hops book would talk about hops in each style, growing, selecting varieties, etc.  Not what I am wanting now.  So, on with the IPA! The book goes in depth in to the history of the India Pale Ale style, going way back in history to its roots.  It tracks the evolution through the ...

Waxing bottles looks bad ass.  I think almost everyone will agree to that.  So, when our homebrew club racked out the Russian Imperial Stout from the Maker's Mark barrel , Eric and I decided to bottle (who needs that on a keggerator?), label, and wax cap our share.  Coming up with a name is post all its own - as is labeling, so I won't talk about that here.  What most people want to know about is how to wax.  I found a very helpful post over on Passion Beer's website and we followed their example.   I'll walk you through our steps and give you our details.  We were going to wax about 48 bottles. 1.  You need crayons.  We used 12 Crayola crayons.  There were cheaper options, but I decided on quality.  I hear that when school supplies hit in the fall, these 8-packs are about 25 cents.  I ended up paying 79 cents for these.  But now I can do this seven more times. 2.  You need hot glue gun sticks. ...

I am an all-grain, fermentation-controlled, kegging homebrewer (with other bells and whistles thrown in there, too).  But I didn't start out that way.  I was thinking about my progression as a homebrewer and wondering if I would change anything about my journey (hindsight is 20/20).  So, I made a list of my progression.  The list below doesn't contain every gadget or step, and some steps include multiple purchases/equipment, but it hits key milestones.  Here is a brief overview of how I have progressed so far as a homebrewer: Extract on the stove top Wort chiller Turkey fryer/Burner for outdoor use Kegerator Pump Fermentation control Yeast starters All-grain (all the equipment at once) Plate Chiller Oxygenation system So, what would I change?  How would I choose to progress now that I am more advanced?  Or, I guess a pertinent question also is, where did I get the most bang for my buck?  What was most worth the money?  Below is m...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn't think my Pumpkin Ale had enough spice character to it.  The general process for adding spices, which we followed, is to add them with 5 to 0 minutes left in the boil.  You can add them earlier or later, but adding them around knockout is the general practice.  Some spices or flavors (like vanilla) can be added to the secondary. Some whole spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. But, I don't really want to make this a "how to" spice post.  I am no expert in the world of spices.  I can just tell you what I did when my beer had too little spice.  I wanted to add more.  But more of what?  And how much more?  Since I keg, dumping in a bottle of ground cinnamon would've been easy, but over-spicing is really, really easy to do and it can ruin a batch of beer.  ( Please note, a bottle of ground cinnamon IS too much to add to 5 gallons of beer. )  I wanted a way I could add a little bit of spi...

Life has a way of filling up pretty quickly.  But, no excuses.  I haven't been as diligent as I want with this blog.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, maybe I can get back in the swing of things. For this post, I am going to review our pumpkin beer, Fairytale Debacle . Appearance The beer looks great.  It is one of the clearest beers I have brewed with an amber color, almost with an orange tint.  The head is nice and fluffy.  Very respectable pint of beer, if I do say so myself. Aroma I get some spice flavors coming through the nose, though, not a whole lot.  Has a good malt presence, too.  Nothing to overpowering, but pleasant. Flavor Good beer, easy drinking.  I get a bit of pumpkin flavor with some spice, but not a whole lot going on.  The spice flavors are more subtle and in the background.  Also, I think there is too much nutmeg or ginger which gives it a bit of a sharp aftertaste, but that is not unpleasant and mellow...

As our homebrew club did about a year ago, we again decided to age a beer in a bourbon barrel.  The Belgian Dubbel turned out nicely last time and this year we are upping our game and going for a Russian Imperial Stout.  ( Here is the brew sheet for the RIS. ) To be honest, there isn't a whole lot of stuff for me to talk about... 11 of us brewed 5 gallons of the beer and brought it to our local meeting place, Canal Street, and all siphoned our individual beers into the one barrel.  We'll let it sit for a couple to a few months and transfer back out into our individual kegs/carboys.   I have an idea on a few questions you may be asking, so let me take a stab at what may be on your mind. How did you get a barrel? One of the main guys in starting the club, Colin Presby, works for Weyerbacher Brewing.  They use Maker's Mark barrels for some of their brews.  Last year, he got one of their barrels after it was used.  Thi...

So, you want to brew a pumpkin beer, eh?  Good for you - now that is is the fall season .  Let me help you out by spinning two tales for you to ponder. First, a brewer and his partner gather up ingredients to brew a pumpkin spice beer - a beer with no pumpkin in the mash or the boil; there is simply pumpkin pie spices added at flame out.  Nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice... you can already smell the flavors, can't you? Actual pumpkin in a can. On the evening before brew day, the two decide they want to use actual pumpkin in the beer - to add a little extra flavor and fermentables, to make it more authentic, and just for the overall experience of brewing with a vegetable.  The quickest and easiest way to do this is to add canned pumpkin - not the pie filling, they know.  They want to add actual pumpkin in a can, which should be readily available at the grocery store.  After a quick glance at the "If you want to add pumpkin" section of the instructions whic...

The more I brew, the more I learn about how I brew. I think that is true with most things in life, right?  The more you do something, the more you learn about it.  "Practice makes perfect," as the saying goes. But practicing the wrong thing can lead to bad habits and, even worse, bad beer.  So, I want to go into a little more detail about the opening sentence. First, learning.  It is something I have been somewhat obsessed with since I started brewing.  I have gobbled up information from books, forums, and podcasts.  Learning is a good thing.  It helped me know what the heck I was doing - at least in the general sense.  It gave me an overview of the process, a map, a view of the entire forest.  I needed to know how to hit temperatures, how to sparge, how to do the basics of brewing.  Learning, reading, and listening gave me a bigger picture of the process.  Those various avenues of learning were, and still are, extremely helpf...

So, what is up with all the fall/autumn/pumpkin/fest beers being out already?  It's the middle of August.  It is hot still.  I, personally, don't really want to see those in the shelf til after Labor Day.  Autumn doesn't even start until September 21.  Maybe you've had similar thoughts. I liken it to being able to buy a 2013 car now.  It is like we are living in the future!  But facetiousness aside, if you are releasing a pumpkin beer or a harvest ale on August 1, that means you were brewing it in June.  Where do you buy pumpkin in June?  Surely you aren't getting the freshest pumpkins around...  Expired canned pumpkin anyone?  If you are releasing a fest beer, at least there aren't any special, seasonal ingredients.  But it takes longer to make.  When were you brewing that one?  May?  April?  Earlier? I understand trying to get your product out first so people see it, remember it, and buy it. ...

Hey, everyone.  Just a little note to say I will be without any posts for the next few weeks due to conferences and vacations.  That also means I won't be brewing for a few weeks, either, so there won't be much to post. Hope to catch up again in August.

So, in a couple of weeks, I will be heading down to Hilton Head, SC for a yearly vacation with my wife's family.  It is always a good time.  We usually keep a nice stash of beer on hand, but this year I want to do something extra.  I want to take a corny keg of homebrew down to share.  Since we will be at the beach, the beer should be easy to drink and yet flavorful.  This led me to a pale ale - hence why I have brewed so much pale ale recently. The second pale ale recipe I am trying comes from the same book as the first: Brewing Classic Styles .  It takes out the biscuit malt and adds some caramel malts and a higher mash temperature to give it a fuller mouthfeel.  Recently, the batch was ready.  Here's what I think. Mine's the one on the left... if you couldn't tell. Aroma:  No hop aroma, which is ok since this is a pale ale.  I get sweetness up front with a little bit of malt finish.  There is not a stand-out aroma. ...

Some of you may be familiar with a hop back.  Essentially, it is a container that holds hops while post-boil but still-hot wort runs through the chamber on its way to the chiller and then fermenter.  Probably the most famous user of a hop back is Troegs Brewing Company (who even have an amber beer named, "HopBack").  They use a hop back for several of their beers. Blichmann Hop Rocket It is something that I have been curious about using.   Blichmann Engineering produces a hop back called the Hop Rocket .  I have been thinking about purchasing one for a couple of reasons.  First, I like the idea of a hob back. I like the flavor and aroma it gives - at least in the beers I know have used it. It would be similar, I think, to adding a few ounces at 0 minutes.  Second, a hop back also acts as a filter for some of the hop bits from pellets and the like.  A loaded hop back can filter out some of the hop sludge so that a plate chiller won't get cl...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately.  With vacation and family visiting, writing wasn't one of my top priorities. Summer will do that to you.  But for now, I am back and I'm talkin' pale ale.  You can check out the recipe and some notes here .   Also, I do occasionally post some stuff over at Facebook if you want to "Like" that page.  I'll also update you when I have a new post up here. (Sorry for the shameless plug.) So, the first brew on the new equipment went well.  It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good, all things considering.  I think I did some miscalculations with my mash water amount (too little water), but the mash still went ok.  I was pleased with how the day overall went.  Fermentation was ok, too, except I couldn't get the stinkin' temperature controller probe to stick to the carboy.  I had to submerge it in the blow-off hose bucket.  So, the temperatures were a little less controlled than I wanted. Curren...