November 30, 2010

About A Beer - Winter Ale

Fall has only a few fleeting days when the outdoors actually smells like the season. Raking leaves, pressing cider, roasting pumpkin seeds, walking about a damp cold wooded path ... Spring's got Autumn beat for aromas, in my opinion. Even the beers of fall are the brews we've held on to from another season's brew sessions: Oktoberfests, Saisons, Biere De Garde.

November 24, 2010

Call for submissions/Yeast Experiment Round Two


Well, I was pretty excited about the mead yeast experiment, but unfortunately the results were not very illuminating, with one startling exception:

November 22, 2010

Eis is Nice



I wanted to post a blog about a process that I often try to do with my homebrews. The process of eis'ing or freezing beer to separate water (in the form of ice) from the beer, thus making it slightly more concentrated in not only alcohol, but in flavor.

NB MKE is 7 Dog Years old!

It was a Saturday in November and about 3,614 degrees warm at Northern Brewer Milwaukee...



November 19, 2010

Notes on a Brewday: Hopbursted Clustercream



Does everything happen for a reason? Does every batch of homemade beer have something to teach us, as brewers and as people? Must every accident be an unhappy one? Must every forgotten hop addition be ... oh, nevermind.

Now let's meditate on these mysteries and watch some yeast floccs swirl in that video up there.

November 17, 2010

Beer and Losing in Las Vegas


People get a certain look about them on about their third day in Las Vegas. Me, I looked awesome like this:

November 3, 2010

Product Review: Cellarmanship



I was glad to put my hands on a copy of Patrick O'Neill's Cellarmanship. It's distributed by CAMRA. I've been trying to get a copy for some time but it's been difficult to find any where in the US for some reason. Until now! NB now has them in stock.

November 2, 2010

Brewer's Log: My Comeback

First thing: clean all these!
Now two months after my wedding, my wallet has restored its modest dripping of funds, enough to get brew back into both fermenters & kegs.

I came into the wedding plans with the fervor to supply all my reception's beer intake. But, thanks to MN liquor statutes, I am left with a complete glass carboy & plastic bucket army. As I get back onto my feet, here's a rundown of my exploits in stocking our home with the gift of grain: