The best beers demonstrate length. No, not length in the context of wine, where it indicates how long taste persists on the palate. By length, I mean depth of flavor. Let me explain. Great beers are bold with vivid flavors and strong palate presence. They are finessed with subtle intricacies and refined delicacies. And great…(Read More)
There are few breweries that I revere as deeply as Russian River Brewing Company. Among creating world-class beers (Damnation and Temptation are two all-time favorites), inventing the Double IPA (Pliny The Elder, anyone?), and pushing the boundary of sour beers (since ’99!), owner/head brewer Vinnie Cilurzo has been nothing short of essential…(Read More)
Evolution is the secret for the next step. Back in December, I wrote about the unoriginal concept of perpetually repitching my foraged yeast into future batches of farmhouse ales. The project, aptly named the Evolution Series, seeks to embrace the natural, spontaneous mutations within yeast over numerous fermentations. Three Evolution batches were brewed in 2016…(Read More)
It’s no secret that my approach to brewing is more imitation than innovation. I am largely influenced by both commercial brewers and, especially, homebrewers. I do my best to gather, digest, and consolidate as much information from as many resources as possible. But I also recognize that I do not have to reinvent the…(Read More)
“It is not the strongest of species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin was probably not a brewer, but his contributions to the science of evolution certainly apply to Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In the 150 years since Darwin first introduced natural selection, commercial and homebrewers alike have…(Read More)
I am fortunate to have great friends at Bootleg Biology. In May, Jeff Mello and Isaac Brannon returned five lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolates from a variety of local yeast project captures I sent them earlier in the year. Each isolate was evaluated in the Foraged Bacteria Pilot Batch (blog post forthcoming) and my favorites…(Read More)
Failure is our greatest teacher (or something like that). Since the reincarnation of Third Leap, I have been diligently working toward realizing two beer concepts locked away in the deep corners of my mind; a farmhouse ale and a table ale. To date, I have brewed three versions of each, with the table ale being…(Read More)
Table Ale #2 was the second attempt at realizing my perfect summer session beer. Brewed in February with Flynn, this iteration featured six major recipe/process changes from batch #1. Change outcomes and abbreviated tasting notes can be found below. Higher mash temperature Jumping the mash temperature from 144°F to 160°F should have…(Read More)
Not all of last month’s Farm Bière wort made its way into the fermentor. Instead, a small portion was diverted into separate mini-fermentors to evaluate a dozen new foraged yeast isolates. These yeasts were initially foraged from Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire during summer/fall 2016 with the help of Flynn. Once…(Read More)
In late 2015, Flynn and I brewed 20-gallons of farmhouse ale over two separate batches. Due to scheduling conflicts, we were not able to evaluate the first batch before brewing the subsequent one. Therefore, we opted to keep the recipe and process identical (save for minor grist adjustments) and only introduce new microbes as…(Read More)
Drinking
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