While in some corners of the world, spit (saliva) is a must-have ingredient when making a good brew, here in the United States we try to keep the spit out.  Saliva contains more than a few microbes and bacteria that would love to feast on the sugar in wort, or residual sugar left in a [...]

A couple recent posts from Nate have dealt with the nature of consistency in brewing.  The first article addressed the need for consistency in the brewing process if one is to become a good brewery.  More recently, another post stressed how inconsistency can make for a better beer experience. Both articles make great points, and [...]

I hate being sick.  You may be thinking, “Well, who likes it?”  That happens to be a very good hypothetical rebuttal. Perhaps you won’t begrudge me the aphorism in this case.  I really hate being sick.  Worse than the actual sickness is the crepuscular feeling of normal health slipping away into the darkness of a [...]

However rare, and contrary to the song, it’s been raining (and will continue to) in Southern California.  I’m not used to it and now consider myself spoiled on account of the fact that I’m from Indiana, a place that gets plenty of rain.  But it was too late, and I was too committed about my [...]

I’ve made no secret of my future brewery aspirations.  My goal is to be brewing commercially in a little over a year from now.  If you read this site, you know this and my friends know this as well.  So, Christmas came and we were going to be out of town.  My awesome friends hung [...]

Wyeast 1056, aka Chico Ale Yeast, is a well know American Ale yeast.  Plenty of Pale Ales, IPAs, and even hefes in the market use this particular strain. In fact, I’ve often seen is suggested that this strain be used for a lambic as well.  The reason that this strain has such a wide application [...]

Back when I arrogantly considered myself a musical maven, I remember growing so tired of the endless collaborations that were inundating the music industry…namely the pop music industry.  If one’s career was adrift in the doldrums of consumer yawns and poor record sales, the solution was to finesse a way into the studio of ex-boy-band-member, [...]

As a disclaimer from the start, I want to categorically state that I did not use this yeast for fermentation.  This yeast was used at bottling and for the conditioning of my Saison.  So, if you are looking for performance of this yeast strain of normal fermentation cycles, then perhaps this will not be that [...]

This is for you, Scott from Manland.  It wasn’t more than a year or so ago that I started having quite a bit of interaction with my (now friend) Scott.  He would write me, talk about beer, and ask some advice.  He was kicking around the idea of homebrewing, which I knew would keep getting [...]

It’s been a while since we’ve revisited the topic of how to mash brew, so I thought it was high time to complete the task.  I know that some of you are on the edge of your seats.  Now that you know how to perform various mashing methods, it’s time to get all those sugars [...]