Clever beer puns are all the rage, and bonus points if you can get the word “hop” sandwiched in there – Hops of Wrath, Hopsecutioner, Hoptimus Prime, Hoppy Ending, Tricerahops, Hopocalypse, Smooth Hoperator, etc etc etc.  Beer names tend to be  playful and punny: What kind of beer they are [...]

First thing, let me put in a plug for the American Homebrewers Association conference June 27-29 in Philadelphia this summer.  The theme is “Brewing Up a Revolution.”   Just ’cause I can’t go (my other hobby has a command performance) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.  It’ll be amazing, and there will [...]

I have only ever run one marathon, and in the cause of full disclosure, I didn’t run all that much of it.  I did complete the whole enchilada, got the medal and everything.  See, I’m a lousy runner.  I don’t expect to ever run in another marathon in this lifetime.  [...]

Contrary to what you may believe, the Reinheitsgebot, the famous German beer purity law, was no trailblazer.  Almost thirty years earlier there was the Statuta Thaberna in Thuringia (see map).  I’ve had a lot more trouble finding the exact text for the Statuta than I did for the Reinheitsgebot (though [...]

I made it through a whole hour-long presentation on malt without once mentioning diastatic power (what it is, how it works) or proteolytic enzymes.  Whups.  Thank goodness they were at least in my handout (see my last post for the handout). So, to make up for this rather large omission, [...]

I was tasked with a presentation on malt and malting for my BJCP class.  My instructor shared with me a PowerPoint presentation he and Guy Allan created for a class.  I’ve put together (at the eleventh hour) a PowerPoint for my own class.  I’m sharing them both here because they’re [...]

Ever think of making your own malt?  Uncertain you can do it?  Sure you can. I have a couple of friends wanting to reproduce medieval beers starting from scratch – they’re growing old varieties of barley and/or wheat and hops, and will take them through all the steps to make beer.  One [...]

BJCP CLASS – we were given a choice of presentation topics, and I chose Malt.  Turns out Malt is one of the very first presentations, so I’ve been scrambling through a very busy week (end of fiscal quarter at work, Baronial At-Home on Wednesday at my house) to get something [...]

Sometimes fate just calls your bluff.  I’ve been saying for a while now I’d like to take the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) certification – for mead, and maybe beer – and probably the Cicerone training too, eventually.  Well, last week I got an email from Les White, the president of [...]