Come And Brew It Radio

In this episode, talk about working with your wood. Wood aging of beers, types of wood and methods of getting the best out of each way you can add wood to your brews. Plus, we pulled in the Barrelmaster from Rahr and Sons Brewing, Austin Heisch, to help us talk about all of that and barrel maintenance. So, whether you have a barrel or just want to keep it simple using chips, prepare yourself for dumb wood jokes and good wood info so you can be ready to put your wood in it.

In this episode, we continue on the Belgians subject we started previously by focusing on one of the most commonly brewed summer styles: The Saison. BJCP category 25B under the Strong Belgian Ales. It’s a style that goes well with lack of temperature control and ends up nicely dry and refreshing, while retaining a large amount of crisp flavor character. Making it perfectly fit for summer brewing.

In this episode, start with another edition of our Hop-o-Rama segments on American, English, and Noble hops, then jump into a general discussion of one of our favorite style ranges. The Belgians. They are favorites to many for a reason because they are often cited as the beer styles with the broadest range of flavors and aromas due to the characteristics of the yeast--and sometimes--the bacteria. They stand out against the traditional continental lagers and ales of Europe in great contrast and they’ve inspired a variety of American off-shoots. So, before we get into episodes that are more specific, we’ll start here on an overview.

For this episode, it was is Raspberry Pi night. And it was Mikey’s birthday. So we went with a topic of his choice and began a discussion of automation for brewing and fermentation using a programmable controller that you can buy or build yourself.  We started with brewing automation (aka hot side control) by calling up Corey Simonson from Brewtronix.com. Corey is the brains behind the Hosehead brewery controller; a Raspberry Pi based controller that comes in several versions. Then, we explore the cold side of things by discussing Raspberry Pi based fermentation control with friend of the show and NHC gold medalist, Mike Treadway. You may remember Mike from our discussion about making small changes to produce better beers way back in episode 25. Well, he recently gave a great presentation for the Cap and Hare homebrew club based on his Raspberry Pi controller build and tonight he’s here to share it with you so you can add in something new to keep making better beer!

In this episode, we’re going to get into what we didn't discuss last week in our Haze Craze episode, the makings of a speedy brew day! Most of us love the time we spend working with our gear and ingredients, but most of would still prefer to use less of our valuable time doing it. We’re also going to discuss that “homebrew extract taste” that people often reference when tasting a beer that didn’t come out right by trying an older extract kit against an all grain version and we’ll judge a local customer’s beer on air.

In this episode, we invited the guys from the soon-to-be brewpub Turning Point Beer into the studio to talk about what they have in store and help us discuss what has been labeled The Haze Craze. It started with North Eastern breweries taking a new route by changing their blend of the East and West Coast IPA into the New England/North East/Vermont IPA: a hazy and often opaque version of an IPA that tones down the bitterness, focuses on hops with big flavor, and yet, leaves plenty of room for the malt and yeast to stand out on their own. So, love them or hate them, these “juicy” and “pulpy” beers have made a big splash in both the craft beer and homebrew world so we want to devote some time to them!

In this episode, we spend a little time discussing some of the recent industry happenings with the Big Beer Beast doing more to destroy the independence of craft brewing, talk about on-your-feet problem solving for brewdays, and then dive into a discussion on making cider. Including a call with friend of the show, author, Experimental Homebrew maestro, and all around good guy, Drew Beechum. Thanks for listening! 

In this episode, we start off discussing what happens when you’re mashing in for an all grain batch. We had some listener questions about running through the whole process and we wanted to answer those questions and take a few more from one of our Patreon Patrons, Will Kimmins. There are several steps between when you make your water calculations through to the final steps of lautering and getting your wort boiling and we often find that people feel most explanations aren't as focused on all the details they want to hear and they end up with questions about the mash and getting the best results, so here we dive in.

In this episode, we hit some more coverage of the basics of developing your own recipes for the first time. So, if you’re thinking of trying to branch out from kits or online recipes, we discuss those as your starting points and where you could take it from there. Also, tonight we follow up on episode 28 as we have Doug Zent back in the studio with us to talk about the brewery Victory Art Brew on the outskirts of Moscow. But this time, we actually have his Russian brewing partners in house too! They’re fresh off a Jester King collaboration brew and were enjoying some Texas beers.

In this episode, we get style specific and talk about BJCP category 14 Scottish Ales, including Scottish Light, Scottish Heavy, and Scottish Export. Plus, we still include everyone’s favorite, the Wee Heavy, which is actually now listed under category 17 Strong British Beers. And because we’re talking Scottish ales, we also follow up with a discussion of the Scottish ale recipes we developed on air with Shannon from Shannon Brewing Co in episode 65. We all finally had a chance to brew them and give them a little time to age, so it’s time we discussed our results. Note: There were some technical difficulties with the first version of this episode's file upload and the first 7 or so minutes were scrambled. So, if you were one of the few who got that version, apologies for that and please do check out this corrected edited version!

In this episode, we continue some Back to Basics coverage of listener requested information and some stuff we wanted to go over again in general. Here we started with full boil versus partial boil and considerations for buying the gear you need to go from extract to all grain on a normal homebrewer budget. Afterward, we sampled and discussed a few more beers that our resident British ex-pat brought back from his most recent trip home. Plus, to help us discuss the topics of this episode and do some sampling, we had our friend Kevin Lane in studio with us. If you’ll remember, Kevin is the technical sales manager of the United States and Canada for Fermentis and a former professional brewer who comes from a brewing family. And he likes beer.  

In this episode, we recorded live at the 2017 Bluebonnet Brew Off where we not only had a chance to have a long discussion about mead making with Michael Fairbrother of Moonlight Meadery (the keynote speaker), but also learned the history of the event from two of the founders, talked a bit about the homebrew scene in Arkansas, finally got James Herrington from The Collective on the mic with Brandon, and even had a chance to get some brewer wives on the air to talk about their side of things.  For footage and interviews from the first night, check out: https://youtu.be/nualjy4oSgg For footage of our interview with Michael Fairbrother, check out: https://youtu.be/nualjy4oSgg 

In this episode, we took some listener requests and decided to go into a new segment we’ll call Back to Basics where we discuss some of the basics of homebrewing. Tonight, we start with extract brewing tips and will branch out to other basics in future episodes. After that, we discussed another set of hop varieties, including the versatile Columbus and the new Denali for the American hop, the widely used Fuggle and Challenger for the English hop, and also the very popular Magnum and Tettnang for the noble varieties. 

In this episode, we’re coming back to what we didn’t get to talk about last time. A subject that many brewers may not realize has a huge effect on their brewing endeavors. Calibrating their tools to get the best efficiency and correct measurements. Way too often we have someone come in telling us about problems they’ve had with their brews, only to find out that their problems were caused due to an incorrect thermometer, an uncalibrated refractometer, or because they measured gravity with their hydrometer without correcting for temperatures. So, hopefully we can help clear some of that confusion. Towards the end of the episode, we sampled beers we made with the Idaho 7 hop hash blend and then try Brandon’s Iron Mash beer, Hips and Tips. A bock made with rose hips and heather tips.  Thanks for listening to Come and Brew It Radio! Be sure to send any ideas or comments to info@texasbrewinginc.com and check out the individual brewing adventures of our hosts on their Facebook pages (@BrewwithStubby, @BrewwithBrand

Since our last episode, a pipe burst in the ceiling of our studio and so tonight we’re on location at the Rahr and Sons Brewery. They were gracious enough to give us the space and so we wanted to take advantage of our location and start our show with discussion of yeast handling and health with professional yeast wrangler, Nick Bigham, the Lab Manager for Rahr. Nick has been instrumental in helping Rahr get the best out of their fermentations, which means getting better beer on the shelves for all of you. We also have Lead Brewer and Barrelmaster for Rahr, Austin Heisch, who will hopefully join us in our discussions.

In this episode, we were live at Hop Fusion Aleworks in the ever-growing Southside area of Fort Worth, TX, with co-founders Matt Hill and Macy Moore and a crowd of locals, the Cap and Hare Club happy hour group, and even a few Come and Brew It Radio listeners to try our first night of recording on location live. Matt and Macy were both homebrewers with the same dream many of us have of opening their own brewery. But unlike most of us, they actually executed a plan and built Hop Fusion Aleworks from the ground up over a period of a year and a half, with a massive amount of their own blood, sweat, and tears. All with the goal of delivering great local experiences in their taproom, while also distributing their unique and tasty craft beer throughout Texas. And in just a few short months after opening, their popularity has soared and they are well on their way to accomplishing their goals.

In this episode, we discuss some recent malt experiments we did for a tasting at the last Cap and Hare meeting and we start a regular discussion about the many types of hops available to brewers, covering American, English, and Noble hop varieties. This time around, we cover Cascade and Northern Brewer for the American variety, East Kent Goldings and Target for the English variety, and Hallertau Mittelfruh and Saaz for the Noble variety.

In this episode, we talk about making the best out of your brew year by planning brews in advance to make sure you get what you want, when you want it. Whether it’s a specific style for a season or because you want to enter competitions or because you need to brew certain styles based on the weather being in your favor. All you have to do is consider your needs, what options you have, and how you can best use them. And with a plan, you can be sure you get those brews scheduled before those best times pass.

In this episode, we have the guys from the Collective Brewing Project back in studio after just over a year since their last visit to update us on what’s been happening at the brewery, tell us about their new barrel program, and help us develop and discuss a recipe that’d be good for putting in your own barrels or perhaps to start your own solera project with beers you already have at home.

In this episode, we discuss a recent hot topic in beer: East Coast IPAs vs West Coast IPAs. The IPA originated in England and was first updated into an American version on the East Coast, when American hops were used with English ale yeasts. Then, brewers on the West Coast grabbed it and took it to another level with hop character and bitterness and that became the generally accepted standard when anyone mentioned “an IPA”. But then the East Coast made a comeback that blended their original version with characteristics of the West Coast to create hazy, golden, malt-driven hop bombs that beer lovers fell in love with. And that’s when the battle began over which type was better. Here, we discuss both styles and brewing methods to get what you want out of them.