Well, the day when I had to drink a macrobrewed light beer finally came & passed like a bland but friendly ghost. A local bar was hosting a benefit dinner for a family member of a friend – the charitable donation to attend came with an all-you-can-eat Italian supper & a 10 oz. plastic cup for all-you-can-drink light lager. In my ongoing effort to shed conceit & negativity I had a couple pours of the drink touted as ‘refreshing’ by macro mad men.
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April 26, 2012 by tphelan
April 23, 2012 by tphelan
Look familiar? Bottle carbonating beer isn’t a complicated process, but to get consistant result across many batches requires a bit of extra planning. Continue reading
April 18, 2012 by tphelan
There’s a dive bar in my neighborhood that I go to for the cheap pool. They’ve got Summit Pale Ale on tap, which is a beer I love, but man, it doesn’t taste anything like it does at a good bar. The hop flavors are all muddy and indistinct, and they always have way too much foam coming out of the tap. I can’t prove it, but I’d wager that they need to replace their beer lines. Pictures like the one above show why beer lines should be regarded as disposable. These lines even had BLC used on them recently!
How often should you replace your beer lines? Well, Continue reading
April 13, 2012 by tphelan
When I hear about friends getting engaged, my first response is, “What kind of beer do you want for your wedding?” I love brewing, so much that I routinely brew way more than I actually drink, and so an opportunity to put my brewing abilities to use for the powers of good is most welcome. In the case of my friends Betsy and Andrew, a perfect pair if I’ve ever met one, I didn’t even bother to ask. They announced the wedding about a year out, so I decided to brew a batch of mead.
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April 10, 2012 by mdawson
My observation after 18 years of brewing and judging beer is that folks either hate smoked beers or love smoked beers, and even those that love them often can’t agree on what’s a tolerable amount or source of smoke character.
Personally, I fall into the “love ‘em” camp with a tendency towards unconditional. If you are in the “hate ‘em” camp, I respect that – you can read this blog entry as an academic exercise or as something to do while soaking the crust out of your primaries and sipping a non-smoked beer. But if you are with me on rocking the Rauch, then I encourage you to try this at home … Continue reading