2013: Thoughts for the New Year

Yes, that's really me.

I've had a lot of fun writing this blog for the last eight months or so. A lot of ground has been covered, but there's much left to do. My New Year's resolution is to take my brewing to a new level (which I imagine is the goal of all homebrewers).

Drew Beechum's "Brewing on the Ones" article in the November/December 2012 issue of Zymurgy has inspired me to start experimenting with the SMaSH (Single Malt/Single Hop) brewing technique. My goal behind trying SMaSH is to get a better handle on what impact individual ingredients have on my beers. This is because it can be challenging for me to tell exactly what's doing what in a beer with six grains, six hops and a blend of yeast strains. Of course, I'll also pop out the more adventurous brews too. But my focus will definitely be on doing more with less this year.

In addition to the new beers, you can expect more brewing advice gleaned from my experiences and those of fellow brewers. I'll also be exploring more advanced yeast culturing and making my own specialty grains. Finally, my hope is to start exploring ancient brewing techniques and beer styles, so I have Sahti and Gruit in the pipeline. I also hope to take a stab at brewing Steinbier, if I can find a safe outdoor place to do it.

Here's to 2013 and many happy brews.

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Birthday Brewing: Dark Session Saison

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Kitchen Brewing Part 2: The Mash

Always start your session with a beer. Now that the equipment is together from Part 1 , it's time to start brewing. I'll be brewing an English India Pale Ale for my demo batch. The beer's details will be out in a future blog. Ingredients ready to go. I'm lucky to have a homebrew shop with a grain mill, so I've crushed my grains at the store. The hops have also been measured out ahead of time to keep things simple. You don't have to do this, but I recommend it. My setup. My stove-top setup is pretty simple. Two kettles, a grain bag and a metal spatula are pretty much it. I also like using a hop bag (available for around $5.00), but it's completely optional. If you're doing all-grain brewing, canning pots work best for batches of 2.5 gallons or less. Anything larger and you'll be battling spill-overs. They also work well for partial-mash batches of up to 5 gallons, where you can top off your wort after the boil. We hav...

Colorado Kitchen Brew

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