Beer Diary...

I've been using pellet hops in hop bags in the boil since the beginning of my brewing habit. I first purchased the medium sized nylon type from MoreBeer and soon discovered how limiting the size was. After the boil, the hops had expanded into a fist tight ball that pressed against the constraints of the bag. No me gusta! So, I started using 5gal. paint strainer bags a couple years ago to give the hops some more room to be exposed to the hot wort. My thinking and hope was that I could achieve a higher degree of flavor and aroma. You can go here to see other ideas or here to see my 'hop spider' solution . But there were problems with using these techniques, mainly that even with the larger bags the expanding vegetative mass appeared to seal off the flow of wort through the hops. I haven't done any studies to prove this so don't hold me to this theory but just from the looks of it I'd say I'm not getting my fair share of the available goodness from the hops....

Sometimes I find myself suffering from high anxiety. I woke up late the other night from a dream in which I was flying around the countryside sitting on a pillow that was strapped to some sort of small wooden bench. As I blissfully moved through the air I followed the line of the street far below. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't need to follow the road, that I was free to cut across the country side on my flying bench to get to my destination and save time. This I did and my new route took me over a large grassy playing field where some older kids were throwing a ball back and forth. The ball ended up landing in my lap and before I could return it the kids started chasing me from below, yelling at me as if I intended to fly off with their beloved toy. Soon I began losing elevation and was floating dangerously close to the angry kids who were jumping up to catch me. As much as I willed myself to fly higher and faster I kept dropping like a leaky hot air balloon. Jus...

what to bring in. compare prices with mexican materials ingredients. A side by side cost analysis. compare shipping costs Nafta? b.s.

I'm at it again. This time as a professional brewer. We at Cerveceria Dos Aves are teaming up with the La Frontera restaurant here in San Miguel de Allende to present to the locals a three course meal featuring three seasonal Dos Aves ales. You may remember that our first joint venture was in 2009 and then again in 2010. I worked with Noren at La Frontera to create a beer/food pairing with some of my homebrewed beer. Those beers were brewed with a slant towards utilizing Mexican ingredients. Utilizing local agave in an American pale ale and brewing with hibiscus and tamarindo in a Belgian wheat to name a couple. This time around we are going with three of Dos Aves seasonal offerings. One, a pumpkin ale which most Mexicans have no idea about since they don't celebrate thanksgiving and subsequently are unfamiliar with the traditional pumpkin pie that north Americans are accustomed to. The other two are classics styles that we only have room at ...

Since this is the season for brewing pumpkin type beers I thought I'd chime in on my opinion about brewing these types of ales along with the process I use for my own version. First off, I don't particularly like the taste of pumpkin beers but I know a lot of people do like them or at least like the idea of them as a way to celebrate the Halloween/thanksgiving season. And so, since I am gleefully wanton of the income that comes from the sale of pumpkin type beers I’m all aboard the Ichabod Crane pumpkin train. Yes, I'd sell my soul for the resulting pesos that come from exploiting peoples desire for nostalgia and the taste of the season. But my soul doesn't come cheap and I have one rule as I exchange it for the mighty peso and that is that if I brew a pumpkin ale, it better be damn good beer! Most people associate the flavor of pumpkin pie with the spices that are used to make what is for the most part a pretty unexceptionally flavored squash. Cinnamon, all-spice,...