Jim
Hydrometer Down!!!
Well, it was bound to happen eventually.
That picture is of my very first (and only) hydrometer. I got that in the starter kit I bought over five years ago, when I began this long and crazy descent into brewing madness. Over the years, I’ve treated this thing with kid gloves – especially as the time [...]
Double the Beer, Double the Problems
The good news: I now have ten gallons of Kölsch fermenting in my chest freezer (which just BARELY fits two 6.5G plastic buckets inside).
The bad news: In brewing my first 10G batch, I completely botched my water measurements and had a generally sloppy brewday.
OK, so the good news outweighs the bad news – assuming the [...]
Finally – LootKölsch is Coming!
In trying to decide what my next brew should be, I contemplated many styles. A pumpkin spice ale is definitely on the list, but I want to wait a few weeks until pumpkins are available before attempting that one. I’d love to do another stout, but I’d rather schedule that for colder weather. I need [...]
Fixing Efficiency With the Barley Crusher (and a Nice Chocolate Porter)
If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you know I’ve been trying my hardest to pin down efficiency losses in my system. I started keeping meticulous records on water in and wort out numbers, going as far as weighing the liquid to be as accurate as possible. When my last brew session clocked in [...]
Renovations Underway
After an amazing streak of productivity, I have finished updating all previous posts. All images have been resized and web-optimized, all links should be working, all posts have been categorized and tagged, and your beer should taste a lot better now. Still working on a bunch of other improvements, so stay tuned!
Brew Report: California Common
It all starts with a starter. Saturday night I cooked up a 1.25L starter to get my yeast ready for a Sunday brewday. Usually I make my starters a week or so in advance, letting them ferment out completely and then crash-cooling them, but this time I decided to try something different. I’ve read that [...]
A Whole New Lootcorp!
Some of you may have noticed that the site has been down for the last couple of days. During some routine maintenance, I found some hackers had placed some malicious code in the site’s PHP files. It wasn’t anything that would pose a danger to any readers – rather, it injected hundreds of spam links [...]
Kicking Off American Craft Beer Week 2010!
Welcome to the start of another great American Craft Beer Week! Unfortunately, it seems Connecticut is a bit light on the offerings this year – the Brewery Event calendar shows just one entry for the Constitution State – Willimantic Brewing Company’s tapping of their Dry Hopped 2010 Cask Barleywine on Wednesday, May 19th 2010 (7:00 [...]
Review – Negra Modelo
I was in the market for a Vienna Lager, so I took a trip down to the local liquor store and started browsing. I was unable to locate any Austrian beer, so I whipped out the iPhone and loaded up the BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines, checking the entry for 3A – Vienna Lager.
I was quite [...]
"Tax Free" Dogfish Head Beer Dinner – April 15, 2010 in Philadelphia
I occasionally get these beer-related press releases, and haven’t posted any because I didn’t feel they were relevant to my audience. However, I recently received one about a Dogfish Head dinner at a restaurant called Chifa in Philly. I am a huge Dogfish Head fan, so I will happily pass the details on to the [...]
