Recent content by EricSanJuan

It differs depending on your desired results, but each primary spice mentions when to add the spice under "Brewing Notes." In most cases you'll be adding at flameout, in some others you might be adding in secondary or at bottling.

Hey Jason, No need to dry them first. It's fine to put them in the compost right out of the mash tun. Compost actually needs some moisture to do its thing, so some wet grains certainly won't hurt. And yes, you can absolutely compost the break material as well. Same thing with hop cones you've...

Fantastic advice, Colby, especially pointing people towards potentially free soil tests in their area. That's something I should have considered and included. Hopefully people will scan the comments! My area gets fairly humid in the summers, so what I typically do is prune all the leaves and...

In the context of the American craft beer scene, I think it's a fair statement. The vast, vast majority of breweries in the United States are under 10 years old. More than half are actually under 5 years old (5,300 in 2016 compared with 2,050 in 2011). While it's a robust scene, it's still a...

Jason is the gentleman in the first picture. The second picture is Spencer Blazak, their sales and marketing guy. And for the record, both are very cool people. If you're in the area, stop in. Good conversation over some sample flights.

Excellent work. Really nice to see all these options broken down and listed in one place.

Fantastic tip! I have a sour stout waiting for bottling. Think I'll have to give that a try.

Good luck with it! Your mileage may vary, but I generally haven't gotten much carbonation any sooner than three months in the bottle. I do add some yeast (just a clean ale yeast) when I prime for bottling bottling, but only about 1/3 of a packet. Others recommend using more, or using champagne...

Absolutely. That's the fun of it for me. Though I have my moments as a brewer, if I want a really amazing porter or whatever, there are dozens to choose from made by real masters, and they're usually better than mine. But if I can do something I can't readily buy, well, that's a lot of fun and...

Wow, thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly with what you say, too. When I first started, I threw caution to the wind and tried anything that popped into my head. That was fun, but it resulted in a lot of awful beer. Once I refocused on dialing in a few core recipes, all fairly traditional stuff anyone...

Nice choices! I've wanted to try Hopsteiner Lemondrop -- the name alone is enticing -- but haven't come across it yet. My favorite of the "offbeat" hops is Sorachi Ace, which also has a distinctly lemon-infused flavor. I do a really light drinker for the summer with it, only about 3.3% - 3.5%...

Really enjoyed this one. I'm a big, big fan of exploring historic beer styles. Also of embracing the seeming simplicity of yesteryear's beers, something many new to the craft scene are often unwilling to do. And the funny, conversational style of writing certainly helped! Cheers!

Very nice style overview! All excellent choices and good examples of the kind of beers I'll be drinking this summer (though I echo the sentiment above regarding Berliners). Nice work.

I can't recommend splitting off batches highly enough. I use gallon wine jugs repurposed into single-gallon carboys -- the bung fits perfectly in the top -- and do experiments in them. That way I'll have four gallons of the standard stuff and a gallon of something offbeat, just to see how it is...