It’s been awhile. No particular reason for the hiatus, only that the IG:Homebrewing writing/editing (coupled with grad school) earlier in 2015 increased my writing energy threshold; hence, my slowly getting back into blogging and general swing of things. No matter; while my blogosphere airwaves were mostly static in the later half 2015, I was fortunately quite … Continue reading
After 12 months in the barrel and over 8 months of conditioning in the keg, the saison from the 2014-2015 Austin ZEALOTS Barrel Project is tasting wonderful. Sour, light, and crisp, this past years’ barreled saison came out surprisingly well. A continuation of the barreling series, this post is the follow-up of mostly my personal … Continue reading
I didn’t want to start this tech series with the typical brewing water motivation, but here it is anyway (read this as if Ben Stein was reciting this to his high school class). 85-95% of beer is made up of water so unsurprisingly great beer starts with great water. Not only for taste/flavor considerations (for example making sure your … Continue reading
I have to say it’s fantastic to be back brewing in my apartment. Three months of empty carboys is really a sad sight. Fortunately, last week I was able to crank out not one, but TWO brew days! SMaSH Session Saison The first brew day was a session-style saison using a SMaSH recipe in which … Continue reading
It’s been a busy past 10 months (or so) and unfortunately not with homebrewing in my small apartment. Three conference abstracts/presentations (for grad school) and a soon-to-be-announced brewing-related winter project kept me busy from regular brewing (and blogging). In fact, I haven’t been able to whip-up a batch since April. Luckily, this changes today as … Continue reading
Brewing a Rye Amber Ale Recently, I brewed an amber ale with a twist. Looking for something with a little more malt character for the cold weather but still craving something hoppy and citrus-y, I brewed up an amber ale with a large dose of rye and loads of late centennial hops. Since I’ve been … Continue reading
Almost three months since brew day, the California Common is nearly gone. Having saved the San Francisco lager yeast from the SMaSH Blonde I served at the Zealots summer picnic, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make a California Common for the fall season. While sadly I’m almost out of this fantastic … Continue reading
It’s been about a month since the Fall Equinox, and the days are noticeably shorter. Although it’s still 80+F in Austin, I’m sure many readers are experiencing noticeably cooler weather as well. I’m finally back after another short hiatus, and have wrapped up my travels for awhile. In this AHB blog post, I’ll provide some … Continue reading
Pitching rate is an important factor in the brewing process. Although not the only variable in clean fermentation, pitching rate plays a key role in lag-time, attenuation, and yeast-derived flavor production. From the brewing literature, “rule-of-thumb” pitching rates are tailored for harvested and re-pitched yeast on the commercial scale. However, when using lab-grown, propagated yeast … Continue reading
Many of my readers may be wondering where I am? No posts in over two weeks, WTF mate! Well, between travels, graduate school and conferences, life has certainly diminished the brewing operations in my apartment. Not to worry! While the busy times are still here for the month or so, I’m actively getting back into … Continue reading
The Apartment Homebrewer 