It’s going to be a tough year for cherry melomels, cherry wheat beer, cherry lambic, and (sob!) cherry pie. I have a cherry mel in secondary that needs a boost.  It’s a bit thin, and the cherry flavor could be better.  Of course, it’s January – not a fresh cherry [...]

This is my personal library of modern how-to-brew books for beer and mead.   Suggestions for additions are welcome; so are corrections.  I don’t have any surprises in here; experienced brewers will undoubtedly recognize all the titles and have a few of their own to add.  Schramm, Papazian, Acton and Douglas, [...]

I’ve been preparing my list of historical brewing sources.   I am chagrined each time I see a post from a newbie on one of the brewing history forums, asking whether there are period sources.  You bet there are!  Clearly my eleven-page bibliography needs to become a searchable database available from [...]

This is another recipe from the gotmead.com site, which if you make meads you should probably know about.  It’s very pleasant, and with enough malt that I’d call it a braggot, even though F.H. who posted it calls it a melomel (I truly don’t know why).  When the author mentions it “won [...]

Much to my regret, I didn’t save the email or the list link I got this from.  For those who like the richer flavors of buckwheat honey, this is a very nice recipe indeed!  Whoever and wherever you are, Sasper, thank you.  Have you tried this? Made it, tasted it?  [...]

At historical competitions, I provide two sets of documentation, 2-3 copies of each (assuming our usual three judges per category).  There is the executive summary, less than one page long: this document is an Executive Summary.  Then I will also bring the full documentation, with notes on everything from bottling to [...]

This is from http://byo.com/feature/875.html.  It looks like a reasonable, basic, extract-based braggot recipe for those who maybe aren’t up to whole grain or aren’t sure about braggots.  See, I think the thing about braggots is that, for women, they can be gateway beer.  Women don’t tend to like much hoppiness, and in America [...]

 This recipe is based on Ken Schramm’s “Don’t Cry For Me Spargentina” recipe, in The Compleat Meadmaker. The name reminds me to get a sense of humor sometimes, but the recipe is good. Have you tried this? Made it, tasted it?  What did you do differently?  Please let me know what you [...]

     This is one of my favorite recipes.  It takes about ten months to age and holds well.  Killer bee honey is dark, complex, very caramel-y – not like anything else I’ve ever  had.  It’s from Brazil, and organically produced.  It’s expensive, so I tend to hoard this. Have you tried [...]