Home Brewing - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Mon, 09 Jun 2025 19:55:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Home Brewing - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 How to Brew Barleywine: A Comprehensive Guide https://thebeerthrillers.com/2025/06/09/how-to-brew-barleywine-a-comprehensive-guide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-brew-barleywine-a-comprehensive-guide Mon, 09 Jun 2025 19:55:03 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=16419 How to Brew Barleywine: A Comprehensive Guide

Brewing a high‑gravity beer like barleywine is an exciting challenge—it demands more time, ingredients, and patience compared to lighter styles. If you’re brewing all‑grain, be aware that your yield will likely be reduced because of the heavier grain bill.

A homebrewed Barleywine. Titan’s Tribute.

(See our article: Titan’s Tribute Barleywine (Homebrew Recipe) )

1. Grain Bill & Specialty Malts

Start with a substantial base malt—lights such as 2‑row barley or Maris Otter—and add specialty malts (e.g., crystal, caramel) to boost flavor and color. You’ll need much more grain than for standard beers.

2. Extract Brewing Alternative

If you prefer extract brewing, supplement your base malt extract with specialty grains for complexity. This simplifies the process while still producing rich malt flavors.

3. Water & Mash

Use a balanced water profile. For American-style barleywine, consider blending reverse-osmosis and tap water. Adding chloride enhances malt smoothness, while some sulfate (100–200 ppm) can help dry out the finish. Aim for a mash temperature around 152–156 °F to retain fermentable sugars but still allow body.

4. Boil & Hops

A long, vigorous boil (90 minutes or more) intensifies caramelization and concentrates the wort. Hops are essential—not only to balance the massive malt bill but also to define whether your wine leans English (more restrained hops) or American (bold, citrusy hops).

5. Yeast & Fermentation

Choose a robust yeast strain capable of achieving high attenuation. Pitch enough yeast and consider a starter to ensure a healthy fermentation. With high gravity, a secondary fermentation is recommended to clear and mature the beer.

6. Conditioning & Aging

Patience is vital. Barleywine usually takes months to mellow and develop. Many brewers age their beer for 3–12 months, monitoring flavor evolution—oak aging and bottle conditioning are popular enhancement methods.

7. Style & Serving

English barleywine tends to be rich, malty, and less hoppy, while American versions emphasize hop bitterness and aroma. Expect ABVs in the range of 8–12%. Serve it in snifter glasses to fully appreciate its depth.

(See our fun Facebook post about Barleywines here: The Beer Thrillers – Facebook Post.)


Quick Reference Table

Step Key Notes
Grain Bill Plenty of base malt + specialty malts for flavor and color
Water Profile Balanced ions; some chloride for mouthfeel, sulfate for dryness
Mash Temp 152–156 °F to balance fermentables and body
Boil 90+ minutes to concentrate wort and deepen character
Hops Use generously—up to 100 + IBUs for American styles
Yeast High-performance strain; plenty of yeast, consider a starter
Fermentation Use secondary—gives cleaner, better‑aged beer
Aging 3–12+ months; consider oak or bottle aging for complexity
Serving Serve in snifter; enjoy slowly to savor its depth

 

Homebrewing Recipes

We are circling back to include more homebrew articles. We have gotten some requests for recipes, so we have decided to write them up and post them here. Be sure to check for other Homebrew articles and recipes as well!

More Homebrewing Articles

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We are also now on BlueSky as well, so make sure to check us out there also. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server).

We also now have a SLACK channel – which acts as a hybrid chat room, message board, Reddit style; workspace and posting area for us. You can hang out with us there and chat about all kinds of things – not just beer, but “off topic” things like movies, TV, books, podcasts, hiking, sports, and more! Join us at: The Beer Thrillers on SLACK.

We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written. The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of May 2025.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

 

 

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The Beer That Had Medieval Drinkers Seeing Things https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/11/02/the-beer-that-had-medieval-drinkers-seeing-things/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-beer-that-had-medieval-drinkers-seeing-things Sat, 02 Nov 2024 13:54:17 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=15677 The Beer That Had Medieval Drinkers Seeing Things

Exploring the Surprising History of Black Henbane in Brewing

Craft beer today may pack a punch, but imagine drinking a brew so potent it caused hallucinations! In medieval Europe, that was a real risk. The culprit? A plant known as black henbane, or Hyoscyamus niger. This notorious nightshade family member was intentionally added to ales for its intoxicating—and sometimes frightening—effects.

Hyoscyamus niger -otherwise known as Henbane

The Strange Brew of Black Henbane

Before hops became the flavoring standard, medieval brewers often experimented with an array of herbs and plants, known collectively as “gruit.” Black henbane was a go-to ingredient in some regions. Its effects were intense: the plant could create a strong buzz, quicken inebriation, and even produce sensations far beyond ordinary drunkenness. For brewers, this meant happy (if slightly unhinged) patrons, thirsty for more. But the line between a good time and a hazardous experience was thin; just a bit too much henbane could lead to hallucinations and even dangerous health effects.

One peculiar trait of black henbane made it especially problematic: it causes a severe dry mouth. With every sip, drinkers grew thirstier, often downing pint after pint. For a 14th-century partygoer, that might sound ideal—until the hallucinations set in.

How Henbane Lost Its Place in Beer History

Henbane – Brittanica

By the early 1500s, the popularity of henbane-laced beer started to fade. Germany’s Beer Purity Law of 1516, or Reinheitsgebot, officially banned the use of ingredients like black henbane in favor of hops, which was safer, more affordable, and improved shelf life. Hops soon became the norm, and henbane was left behind, though not without lingering whispers of witchcraft and mysticism.

Since women often brewed beer, they were sometimes associated with the plant’s “magical” properties and faced accusations of witchcraft. In his 1827 Homeopathic Materia Medica, William Boericke even described the henbane experience as one of “mania,” highlighting its disturbing, almost diabolical effects.

Henbane as a Medieval Remedy

Henbane

While black henbane is best known for its wild effects in beer, it was also valued for its medicinal properties. Civilizations from ancient Greece to Persia used it in small doses to treat chronic pain, insomnia, epilepsy, and more. Although modern medicine has retained certain henbane compounds like hyoscyamine, it remains a toxic substance and should only be used under medical supervision.

The Safer—and Tastier—Alternative: Hops

Hops on the vine

Luckily, today’s brewers stick with hops, giving us beers that satisfy without the risk of hallucinations or worse. Curious about gruit ales? While they’re rare, a few craft breweries experiment with gruit-inspired recipes (minus the henbane, of course). It’s a fascinating throwback to the days before hops reigned supreme.

Next time you crack open a beer, raise a glass to hops and the steady hands of modern brewers. And if the idea of a henbane-laced ale has piqued your interest, remember: medieval brews were risky business. Hops not only bring bitterness but also a refreshing peace of mind—a perfect companion for today’s craft beer scene.

Cheers to history, mystery, and the safety of hops!

More Homebrewing Articles

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of August 2024.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

 

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Pumpkin Patch Noir – Chocolate Pumpkin Stout (Homebrew Recipe) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/08/21/pumpkin-patch-noir-chocolate-pumpkin-stout-homebrew-recipe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pumpkin-patch-noir-chocolate-pumpkin-stout-homebrew-recipe Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:05:12 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=15467

Pumpkin Patch Noir – a Chocolate Pumpkin Stout

Pumpkin Patch Noir

Introducing Pumpkin Patch Noir, a dark, decadent creation that brings together the cozy essence of autumn and the rich complexity of a stout. This beer is an ode to chilly nights spent by the fire, wrapped in warm blankets, and the scent of spices lingering in the air.

Appearance: Pouring a deep, velvety black with a creamy tan head, Pumpkin Patch Noir is as visually striking as it is delicious. The head slowly dissipates, leaving behind a delicate lacing that clings to the glass, hinting at the full-bodied experience that awaits.

Aroma: As you bring the glass to your nose, the first thing you’ll notice is a blend of chocolate and roasted malts, mingling with the unmistakable scent of pumpkin pie spices. Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and a touch of clove rise from the glass, evoking memories of freshly baked pumpkin treats.

Flavor: The first sip is an indulgent journey. The stout’s rich, roasted malt backbone provides a smooth canvas for layers of dark chocolate and cocoa, followed by the subtle sweetness of real pumpkin. The spices are perfectly balanced, adding warmth without overwhelming the palate. As the flavors develop, a hint of vanilla emerges, rounding out the taste and leaving a lingering, pleasant sweetness.

Mouthfeel: Pumpkin Patch Noir boasts a full, creamy body that coats the palate, making each sip feel like a luxurious treat. The carbonation is moderate, giving the beer a soft effervescence that enhances its drinkability while preserving its rich character.

Finish: The finish is smooth, with the roasted malts and chocolate gently fading, leaving behind a delicate spiciness and a whisper of vanilla. It’s the kind of beer that invites you to take another sip, savoring the complex interplay of flavors.

Pairing: Pumpkin Patch Noir pairs beautifully with autumnal desserts like pumpkin pie, pecan pie, or a slice of rich chocolate cake. For a savory match, try it with roasted meats or a hearty beef stew. It’s also a fantastic companion to a cheese board featuring aged cheddars and blue cheeses.

Seasonal Appeal: This is the perfect beer for fall festivities—Halloween gatherings, Thanksgiving feasts, or simply enjoying a crisp evening with friends. Pumpkin Patch Noir is more than just a beer; it’s a celebration of the season, capturing the essence of autumn in every glass. So, grab a pint, take a sip, and let the flavors of Pumpkin Patch Noir transport you to a pumpkin patch at dusk, where the mysteries of the night are just beginning to unfold.

The Recipe

Pumpkin Patch Noir: A Chocolate Pumpkin Stout Recipe

Ingredients (for 5 gallons)

Grains:

  • 8 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
  • 1 lb Chocolate Malt
  • 1 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt (60L)
  • 0.5 lb Black Patent Malt
  • 0.5 lb Roasted Barley
  • 0.5 lb Flaked Oats

Pumpkin & Spices:

  • 3 lbs Pumpkin Puree (canned or roasted fresh pumpkin)
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp Nutmeg
  • 1 tsp Allspice
  • 0.5 tsp Cloves
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (add during bottling)

Hops:

  • 1 oz Magnum (60 min) – for bitterness
  • 0.5 oz Fuggle (15 min) – for aroma

Chocolate:

  • 8 oz Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (10 min)
  • 4 oz Chocolate Nibs (Secondary fermentation, optional)

Yeast:

  • Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast or Safale S-04 (English Ale Yeast)

Instructions

  1. Mash:
    • Heat 3.5 gallons of water to 165°F.
    • Add the grains (Pale Malt, Chocolate Malt, Caramel Malt, Black Patent Malt, Roasted Barley, Flaked Oats) and hold the mash at 152°F for 60 minutes.
  2. Sparge:
    • Raise the mash temperature to 170°F and sparge with 170°F water to collect about 6.5 gallons of wort.
  3. Boil:
    • Bring the wort to a boil. Add 1 oz of Magnum hops at the start of the 60-minute boil.
    • At 45 minutes, add the pumpkin puree directly to the boil.
    • At 10 minutes, add unsweetened cocoa powder and the Fuggle hops.
    • At the end of the boil, add the spice mixture (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves).
  4. Cool & Ferment:
    • Cool the wort to 65-70°F.
    • Transfer to a sanitized fermenter and pitch the yeast.
    • Ferment at 65-70°F for 2 weeks.
  5. Secondary Fermentation (optional):
    • After primary fermentation, transfer to a secondary fermenter.
    • Add chocolate nibs and vanilla extract.
    • Let it sit for an additional 1-2 weeks.
  6. Bottle/Keg:
    • Bottle or keg your beer as usual, aiming for 2.2-2.5 volumes of CO2.
    • Condition for at least 2 weeks before tasting.

Tasting Notes:

Expect a rich, dark stout with a strong chocolate backbone, balanced by the subtle sweetness and spiciness of the pumpkin and fall spices. The roasted malts and chocolate flavors should complement each other beautifully, making this a perfect brew for cooler weather. Enjoy!

More Homebrewing Articles

Homebrewing Recipes

We are circling back to include more homebrew articles. We have gotten some requests for recipes, so we have decided to write them up and post them here. Be sure to check for other Homebrew articles and recipes as well!

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of August 2024.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

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Book Review: The Homebrewer’s Garden: How to Easily Grow, Prepare, and Use Your Own Hops, Malts, Brewing Herbs (Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/04/30/book-review-the-homebrewers-garden-how-to-easily-grow-prepare-and-use-your-own-hops-malts-brewing-herbs-joe-fisher-and-dennis-fisher/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-review-the-homebrewers-garden-how-to-easily-grow-prepare-and-use-your-own-hops-malts-brewing-herbs-joe-fisher-and-dennis-fisher Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:15:31 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=15172

The Homebrewer’s Garden: How to Easily Grow, Prepare, and Use Your Own Hops, Malts, Brewing Herbs by Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher

Homebrewing

Homebrewing is a fascinating and rewarding hobby that allows beer enthusiasts to create their own unique brews from the comfort of their homes. The process involves combining basic ingredients—malted grains, hops, yeast, and water—in specific ways to produce a wide variety of beer styles. Homebrewing offers an incredible amount of creative freedom, as brewers can experiment with different ingredients and techniques to craft beers that match their personal tastes and preferences. This DIY approach not only deepens one’s appreciation for the art and science of brewing but also provides a sense of accomplishment with each successful batch.

The journey of homebrewing typically begins with selecting a recipe and gathering the necessary equipment and ingredients. Beginner brewers often start with extract brewing, which uses malt extract to simplify the process. This method requires less equipment and shorter brew times, making it accessible for newcomers. As brewers gain experience and confidence, many transition to all-grain brewing, which involves mashing malted grains to extract fermentable sugars. All-grain brewing offers greater control over the beer’s flavor and body, allowing for more nuanced and complex brews. Essential equipment for homebrewing includes a large kettle, fermenter, airlock, thermometer, hydrometer, and bottling supplies.

The brewing process itself is a blend of science and art. It begins with mashing, where crushed grains are soaked in hot water to convert starches into sugars. The resulting liquid, called wort, is then boiled, and hops are added at various stages to impart bitterness, flavor, and aroma. After boiling, the wort is rapidly cooled and transferred to a fermenter, where yeast is added to begin fermentation. During this stage, which can last from a few days to several weeks, the yeast consumes the sugars in the wort, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. Monitoring and maintaining proper fermentation temperatures is crucial for ensuring the desired characteristics of the final beer.

After fermentation, the beer is typically conditioned for a period to develop its flavors and carbonation. This can be done in bottles or kegs, with the addition of a small amount of sugar or pressurized CO2 to create carbonation. Patience is key during this phase, as conditioning can take several weeks, but the wait is usually well worth it. Once conditioning is complete, the beer is ready to be enjoyed. Homebrewers often take pride in sharing their creations with friends and family, and the feedback received can be invaluable for refining future batches.

One of the most exciting aspects of homebrewing is the community that comes with it. Homebrewers are a passionate and supportive group, often eager to share tips, recipes, and experiences. Many cities have homebrew clubs where members can exchange knowledge and sample each other’s beers. Online forums and social media groups also provide a wealth of information and camaraderie. Whether brewing solo or with a group, homebrewing is a hobby that fosters creativity, learning, and a deeper appreciation for the craft of beer making. It’s a journey filled with experimentation, occasional challenges, and the ultimate reward of enjoying a beer that’s truly your own.

Growing Hops

Growing hops is a rewarding endeavor for homebrewers looking to infuse their beer with fresh, homegrown ingredients. Hops are the flowers of the hop plant (Humulus lupulus), and they play a crucial role in brewing by adding bitterness, flavor, and aroma to beer. The first step in growing hops is selecting the right variety based on your climate and the flavor profile you desire. Popular varieties like Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook are favored by many brewers for their versatility and distinctive characteristics. Hops require a sunny location with well-drained soil, and they thrive in temperate climates with long days during the growing season.

Once you’ve chosen your hop varieties, the next step is planting. Hops are typically grown from rhizomes, which are root cuttings taken from mature plants. Plant the rhizomes in early spring, about 4-6 inches deep, and space them about 3 feet apart to give each plant plenty of room to grow. As hops are vigorous climbers, it’s essential to provide a sturdy trellis or support system for the bines (the stems of the hop plant) to climb. Regular watering, especially during dry periods, and mulching around the base of the plants can help retain moisture and keep the roots cool.

Caring for hops involves regular maintenance to ensure healthy growth and a bountiful harvest. Hops can grow up to 20 feet in a single season, so training the bines to climb the trellis is crucial. Pruning the lower leaves and shoots encourages airflow and reduces the risk of disease. Hops are susceptible to pests such as aphids and spider mites, as well as diseases like powdery mildew. Regular inspection and prompt treatment with appropriate organic or chemical controls can help manage these issues. By late summer, the hop cones will begin to ripen, and you’ll know they are ready to harvest when they feel dry and papery, and the lupulin glands inside the cones are a vibrant yellow. After harvesting, the hops should be dried and stored properly to preserve their qualities for brewing.

Book Review: The Homebrewer’s Garden: How to Easily Grow, Prepare, and Use Your Own Hops, Malts, Brewing Herbs by Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher

GoodReads Blurb:

Grow a beer garden! Enhance the flavor, aroma, and personality of your homebrew by cultivating your own hops, herbs, and malt grains. With expert advice on choosing and maintaining the best plants for your needs, Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher show you how to turn a small patch of backyard, or even a few window boxes, into a renewable brewing supply store. Discover the satisfaction that comes from brewing tasty beers using fresh homegrown ingredients.

GoodReads – The Homebrewer’s Garden

The Homebrewer’s Garden by Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher is an essential guide for any homebrewer looking to elevate their craft by cultivating their own ingredients. This comprehensive manual covers the entire process of growing, preparing, and utilizing hops, malts, and brewing herbs, making it a valuable resource for both novice and experienced brewers who wish to take a hands-on approach to their beer-making.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its detailed and practical advice on gardening techniques tailored specifically for brewing ingredients. The Fishers draw from their extensive experience to provide step-by-step instructions on planting, nurturing, and harvesting hops and other plants. They also include information on soil preparation, pest management, and seasonal care, ensuring that readers have all the tools they need to successfully grow high-quality ingredients. The authors’ passion for homebrewing and gardening shines through, making the text engaging and accessible.

Beyond gardening, The Homebrewer’s Garden delves into the preparation and use of these homegrown ingredients in brewing. The book offers a wealth of recipes and brewing tips, demonstrating how to incorporate fresh hops, malted grains, and herbs into a variety of beer styles. The inclusion of unique brewing herbs like yarrow, juniper, and coriander adds an exciting dimension for brewers looking to experiment with flavors and create distinctive brews. This holistic approach, from garden to glass, empowers homebrewers to craft beers that are truly their own, imbued with the flavors and aromas of their own gardens.

In conclusion, The Homebrewer’s Garden is an invaluable resource that combines practical gardening advice with creative brewing techniques. Joe and Dennis Fisher have crafted a guide that is not only informative but also inspiring, encouraging homebrewers to explore the full potential of their craft. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your brewing process with homegrown ingredients, this book is a must-have addition to your brewing library.

My GoodReads Rating: ***
My LibraryThing Rating: ***1/2
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.75 (as of 4.30.24)

Homebrewing Recipes

We are circling back to include more homebrew articles. We have gotten some requests for recipes, so we have decided to write them up and post them here. Be sure to check for other Homebrew articles and recipes as well!

Homebrewing Articles

Other Book Reviews

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

 

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Nebula Nectar Hazy IPA (Homebrew Recipe) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/01/29/nebula-nectar-hazy-ipa-homebrew-recipe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nebula-nectar-hazy-ipa-homebrew-recipe Mon, 29 Jan 2024 19:12:10 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=14523

A homebrewed Hazy IPA. The “Nebula Nectar Hazy IPA”.

Nebula Nectar Hazy IPA (Homebrew Recipe)

Creating a Hazy IPA, also known as a New England IPA (NEIPA), focuses on achieving a juicy, fruit-forward character with a soft, smooth mouthfeel and a hazy appearance. The haze comes from a combination of high protein grains, yeast selection, and dry hopping techniques. Below is a basic 5-gallon (approximately 19 liters) recipe to get you started on brewing your own Hazy IPA. Note that brewing involves some flexibility and experimentation, so feel free to adjust this recipe to suit your taste preferences.

Ingredients:

Malt Bill:

  • 8 lbs (3.6 kg) Pale Malt (2-row)
  • 2 lbs (0.9 kg) Flaked Oats
  • 1 lb (0.45 kg) Flaked Wheat
  • 1 lb (0.45 kg) Carapils/Dextrine Malt
  • 1 lb (0.45 kg) Wheat Malt

Hops:

  • 1 oz (28 g) Citra Hops (60 min from end of boil)
  • 1 oz (28 g) Mosaic Hops (15 min from end of boil)
  • 2 oz (56 g) Citra Hops (5 min from end of boil)
  • 2 oz (56 g) Mosaic Hops (0 min, at flameout)
  • 3 oz (85 g) Citra Hops (Dry hop on day 4 of fermentation)
  • 3 oz (85 g) Mosaic Hops (Dry hop on day 4 of fermentation)

Yeast:

  • London Ale III Yeast (Wyeast 1318) or any other high ester-producing, low flocculating yeast

Other:

  • Water adjustments as per your local water report to match a profile suitable for NEIPA (higher chloride to sulfate ratio is generally preferred)
  • 1 tsp Yeast nutrient (added 10 minutes before the end of the boil)
  • Whirlfloc tablet or Irish Moss (15 min from end of boil) (optional, but helps with protein coagulation)

Instructions:

  1. Mash: Heat your water to around 152°F (67°C) and mash the grains for 60 minutes. This temperature allows for a medium-bodied beer, which is typical for Hazy IPAs.
  2. Sparge: After mashing, sparge the grains with hot water (around 168°F or 76°C) to collect 6.5 gallons (24.6 liters) of wort. This accounts for boil off and ensures you end up with 5 gallons (19 liters) of beer.
  3. Boil: Bring the wort to a boil, and follow the hop schedule as follows:
    • Add 1 oz (28 g) of Citra at the beginning of a 60-minute boil.
    • Add 1 oz (28 g) of Mosaic with 15 minutes left in the boil.
    • Add 2 oz (56 g) of Citra with 5 minutes left in the boil.
    • Add 2 oz (56 g) of Mosaic at flameout/0 minutes.
  4. Cool and Ferment: After the boil, cool the wort as quickly as possible to around 68°F (20°C), transfer it to a fermenter, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 68-72°F (20-22°C) for about 7-10 days or until fermentation activity appears to have stopped.
  5. Dry Hop: On day 4 of fermentation, add the remaining 3 oz (85 g) of Citra and 3 oz (85 g) of Mosaic hops directly to the fermenter for dry hopping.
  6. Final Steps: After the fermentation is complete, allow the beer to settle for a few days. Then, cold crash (if possible) to help more particulates settle. Package the beer into bottles or kegs, carbonate, and enjoy your homemade Hazy IPA after a few weeks of conditioning.

Remember, brewing is as much an art as it is a science. Feel free to tweak this recipe to match your taste preferences, such as adjusting the hop varieties or the grain bill. Happy brewing!

Homebrewing Recipes

We are circling back to include more homebrew articles. We have gotten some requests for recipes, so we have decided to write them up and post them here. Be sure to check for other Homebrew articles and recipes as well!

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

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The Ultimate Guide to Homebrewing: Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices for 2024 https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/01/04/the-ultimate-guide-to-homebrewing-tips-tricks-and-best-practices-for-2024/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ultimate-guide-to-homebrewing-tips-tricks-and-best-practices-for-2024 Fri, 05 Jan 2024 04:48:06 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=15105 The Ultimate Guide to Homebrewing: Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices for 2024

Essentials for home brewing.

Homebrewing is an exciting and rewarding hobby that allows you to create your own unique beers right at home. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced brewer looking to refine your skills, this guide covers everything you need to know about homebrewing in 2024. From essential equipment to advanced techniques, let’s dive into the world of homebrewing.

Getting Started with Homebrewing

1. Essential Homebrewing Equipment

  • Brew Kettle: A large pot where you will boil your wort. Stainless steel kettles are preferred for their durability.
  • Fermenter: A container where the wort will ferment and turn into beer. Glass or plastic carboys are common choices.
  • Airlock: A device that allows CO2 to escape during fermentation while keeping contaminants out.
  • Sanitizer: Keeping your equipment clean is crucial. Use a no-rinse sanitizer to ensure everything is sanitized before use.
  • Hydrometer: A tool for measuring the specific gravity of your wort to track fermentation progress.

2. Basic Homebrewing Process

  • Mashing: Steeping grains in hot water to extract fermentable sugars.
  • Boiling: Boiling the wort with hops to add bitterness and flavor.
  • Cooling: Rapidly cooling the wort to a temperature suitable for yeast pitching.
  • Fermenting: Adding yeast to the wort and allowing it to ferment.
  • Bottling/Kegging: Transferring the beer to bottles or a keg for carbonation and aging.

Homebrewing Tips for Beginners

1. Start Simple: Begin with extract brewing before moving to all-grain brewing. This allows you to focus on the brewing process without the complexity of mashing grains.

2. Maintain Cleanliness: Always sanitize your equipment to prevent contamination and spoilage of your beer.

3. Control Temperature: Keep your fermentation temperature within the recommended range for your yeast strain to ensure optimal fermentation.

4. Take Detailed Notes: Record your brewing process, ingredients, and observations. This helps in troubleshooting and improving future batches.

5. Be Patient: Good beer takes time. Allow your beer to ferment completely and condition properly before tasting.

Advanced Homebrewing Techniques

1. All-Grain Brewing:

  • Grain Selection: Choose a variety of malts to create complex flavors.
  • Mash Efficiency: Optimize your mashing process to extract the maximum amount of fermentable sugars.

2. Yeast Management:

  • Yeast Starter: Create a yeast starter to ensure a healthy fermentation.
  • Yeast Harvesting: Save and reuse yeast from previous batches to reduce costs and maintain consistency.

3. Water Chemistry:

  • Water Profile: Adjust your brewing water to match the desired beer style. Use brewing salts to modify pH and mineral content.
  • Filtration: Filter your water to remove chlorine and chloramine, which can affect beer flavor.

4. Advanced Fermentation Techniques:

  • Temperature Control: Use a fermentation chamber or temperature controller to maintain precise fermentation temperatures.
  • Secondary Fermentation: Transfer your beer to a secondary fermenter to reduce sediment and improve clarity.

5. Barrel Aging and Souring:

  • Barrel Aging: Age your beer in wooden barrels to impart unique flavors from the wood and previous contents.
  • Sour Beers: Experiment with wild yeast and bacteria to create complex sour beers.

Popular Homebrew Recipes for 2024

1. Hazy IPA:

  • Ingredients: Pale malt, oats, wheat, Citra hops, Mosaic hops, Vermont ale yeast.
  • Profile: Juicy, hazy, and bursting with tropical fruit flavors.

2. Belgian Tripel:

  • Ingredients: Pilsner malt, sugar, Saaz hops, Belgian yeast.
  • Profile: Light-bodied, high ABV, with spicy and fruity yeast character.

3. Coffee Stout:

  • Ingredients: Pale malt, roasted barley, chocolate malt, coffee beans, English ale yeast.
  • Profile: Rich, roasty, with intense coffee aroma and flavor.

Troubleshooting Common Homebrewing Issues

1. Off-Flavors:

  • Problem: Your beer has an undesirable taste (e.g., buttery, fruity, or sour).
  • Solution: Identify the source (e.g., contamination, fermentation temperature) and adjust your process accordingly.

2. Poor Fermentation:

  • Problem: Slow or stuck fermentation.
  • Solution: Ensure proper yeast pitching rate and oxygenate your wort before fermentation.

3. Clarity Issues:

  • Problem: Hazy or cloudy beer when it should be clear.
  • Solution: Use fining agents, cold crash your beer, and ensure proper mashing techniques.

Conclusion

Homebrewing is a journey of creativity and discovery. By starting with the basics and gradually incorporating advanced techniques, you can brew amazing beers right in your own home. Whether you’re crafting a crisp pale ale or a complex barrel-aged stout, the possibilities are endless. So, gather your ingredients, fire up the kettle, and start brewing!

Stay tuned for more homebrewing tips, recipes, and updates. Happy brewing!

By providing comprehensive information and addressing common interests in the homebrewing community, this article is designed to attract readers and achieve a top spot on Google. Enjoy your homebrewing adventures in 2024!

Homebrewing Recipes

We are circling back to include more homebrew articles. We have gotten some requests for recipes, so we have decided to write them up and post them here. Be sure to check for other Homebrew articles and recipes as well!

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

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Cox Brewing Company (CBC) Announces Closure At End of the Year https://thebeerthrillers.com/2023/10/11/cox-brewing-company-cbc-announces-closure-at-end-of-the-year/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cox-brewing-company-cbc-announces-closure-at-end-of-the-year Thu, 12 Oct 2023 02:36:30 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=12623 Cox Brewing Company Announcement

Just moments ago Cox Brewing Company (CBC) made the unfortunate announcement – that their brewery will be closing at the end of 2023. Just twenty minutes ago on Facebook they posted a “Brewery News” update, stating that December 31st, 2023 will be their last day.

This is the second veteran owned brewery to be closing in the Central Pennsylvania area (with Tattered Flag closing in Middletown, Dauphin County).

Cox Brewing Company has been brewing for over eight years in the Rheems / Elizabethtown area of Central Pennsylvania. A huge proponent of home brewers, always offering assistance, as well as running events and local home brew meet ups, as well as participating in the Lititz Brewfest with giving prizes to home brewers.

Their closure will be felt in the brewing community as well as the home brewing community. A staple at many Central PA brewfests – like the Reinaissance Faire Brewfest at Mount Hope, at the Autos and Ales Brewfest in Hershey, the brand new Hershey Brewfest, the Fort Hunter Brewfest, the Lititz Brewfest, the old Lancaster Brewfest, and many more.

The Announcement

At 9:33 PM on 10.11.23, Cox Brewing Company posted the following on Facebook:

After running this family business for 8.5 years, we’ve decided that December 31, 2023, will be the last day we are open. With the rising cost of goods and services coupled with a 2024 military deployment, it’s time to let go.

Our families are incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to build together for the members of this community – we know it is more than just a place to drink craft beer. Our garage is sacred ground, and this decision was not easy for us.

We have watched love grow here and friendships develop; we also lost friends who were like family, and miss them. It has always been our priority to make the garage comfortable for our Veterans and first responders.

We dedicate these last three months to our loyal customers. We are grateful (especially during the shutdowns) for your support, showing up, and choosing Cox Brewing Company.

So, some good news…

Wednesdays are back, we have a lot of beer to drink, and the parties and events will continue! So come over, get some pints, visit with the BEST brewery staff in this business, and help us finish strong! We will not go gentle into that good night. We’ll see you at the garage.

Cheers and with much gratitude,

Nick and Tim

Cox Brewing Company (CBC) – Facebook Post

Cox Brewing Company

Cox Brewing Company was one of our absolute favorite stops and breweries. I’ve gotten to meet so many great people there and at the many different hang outs and parties at both the Rheems location as well as their Elizabethtown location next to the Pizza shop.

I will miss sitting with Ron Bell and others and listening to great stories and getting home brew advice.

Amy also enjoyed the location as well, and we had a tremendous time recently when we had brought Scarlet along.

I wish nothing but the best for Nick and Tim and hope the deployment is safe, and wish them the best in their future endeavors. Hopefully only good and better things to come from them, the area, the brewers of the area, as well as so much more. We know this decision couldn’t have been easy and I’m sure it was a fraught and tough decision.

For More Articles From The Beer Thrillers

For more articles from The Beer Thrillers that we’ve written about Cox Brewing Company, check out the following:

The Battle of the Breweries (2023)

Cox Brewing Company had a fantastic showing in this year’s Battle of the Breweries; losing to fellow veteran owned brewery – Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery in the Conference Finals.

Voting is still going on (for about three more hours) for the tournament finals. You can vote here:

For More Information on Cox Brewing Company

Cox Brewing Company (CBC) – The Garage – Brewery Sign

For more information on Cox Brewing Company – check out their Social Media Platforms. But first, Untappd describes Cox Brewing Company thusly:

Cox Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. It has 152 unique beers and over 14,100~ ratings. It has a global average rating of 3.76 (as of 10.11.23). It’s Untappd description reads: “Cox Brewing Company (CBC) is a veteran-owned brewery located in Elizabethtown, PA in the village of Rheems.”

Find them on social media at the following:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

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If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

If you would like to help keep the blog running soundly and smoothly, you may donate to us to help us keep the costs of the blog to a minimum. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you. (Clicking this link will take you to the page to make a donation. Thank you very much for helping us stay afloat!)

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

 

 

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INKBIRD ITC-308 Product Review https://thebeerthrillers.com/2023/09/13/inkbird-itc-308-product-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inkbird-itc-308-product-review Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:55:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=12419 Homebrewing Review

This is a overview and a review of the INKBIRD ITC-308 as it relates to homebrewing. The temperature control board can be used for several other things – for aquariums, terrariums, for food cooking, and more – but specifically for us – this review pertains to how it can be used for homebrewing.

I will cover it more later in the article, but I first want to say that this product was given to me in lieu of a review. .

Temperature

Temperature Graph

Ask any homebrewer what one of the most important things about home brewing is – and the answer will be quick and succinct – temperature. Temperature while formenting, temperature while mashing, temperature while pitching; temperature, temperature… temperature.

The INKBIRD ITC-308(S) WiFi temperature controller is considered to be the best option for homebrewing among temperature controllers. In the United States – the INKBIRD ITC-308 is considered to be one of the premier options for temperature control during fermentation.

What’s in the Box?

The Inkbird ITC-308 Box

“Whats in the box?! Whats in the box?!” No… I won’t do a full Se7en parody for you, but I will tell you what comes with the box:

  • Manual in multiple languages
  • A warranty card
  • The ITC-308 (135mm x 68mm x 33mm / 5.3in x 2.7in x 1.3in)
    • Temperatureprobe / sensor
    • Dual-Socket
    • 2 LCD Displays

Specifications

The specifications page of the manual
Feature ITC-308
Temperature control range: 50 ~ 120 °C
Precision of the displays 0.1 °C
Model of temperature control Control with switch, heating and cooling
Output control Max. 10 A, 100 V ~ 240 V AC. E.g. in Germany you’ll get 230V * 10A = 2300W = 2.3kW max output power
Body dimensions 140 x 68 x 33 mm (5.5 x 2.7 x 1.3 inches)
Outlet 85 x 42 x 24 mm (3.3 x 1.7 x 1 inches)
Working temperature: -30 ~ 75 °C / -22 ~ 167 °F
Storage conditions -20 ~ 60 °C / humidity 20 ~ 85% (no condensation)
Temperature control range -50 ~ 120 °C
Type of sensors IP68 waterproof NTC sensor
Temperature Probe 40mm length, diameter 5mm (1.6in length x 0.2in), including the thicker plastics part 58mm
Cord length: 183 cm (72 in)
LCD Displays Each display 38 x 15.5 mm (1.5 x 0.61 in)
Cord length Input: 140 cm (55.1 in)
Output: 20 cm (7.8 in)
Chart of Specifications

Features

The Inkbird ITC-308

Some of the high – level features of the Inkbird ITC-308 include:

  • plug and play design
  • Double relay output (cooling & heating at the same time)
  • Dual display (measured and target temperature)
  • Temperature calibration.
  • Alarms for too high and too low temperatures.
  • Adjustable (separate) heating/cooling difference function (hysteresis)

Installation

Installation Method

This is pretty much idiot proof – I do say “pretty much”. Its plug and play really, but you never know with some people. The INKBIRD ITC-308 is made up of a main control unit, which has a couple of LCD displays, and buttons for adjusting settings and configuration parameters.

If you would like to check out the online manual – you can find it here: INKBIRD ITC-308 Manual.

You should always read the manual first.

Mounting the Main Unit

The main unit of the INKBIRD WiFi ITC-308 can be easily mounted via the keyhole slot at the top of the unit. Easy peasy. This makes it easy to hang from a screw on the wall near the equipment you are controlling; although you could also easily use velcro strips or two – sided tape. I would like to point out here, it would be nice if there was a second keyhole slot at the bottom for a second screw positioned to make sure it stays on the wall good, but this is a bit superfluous.

Mounting the Power Outlets

The Heating and Cooling outlets are combined in a “mini power strip” connected to the main unit by a short cable. This is a feature you can find on many similar devices, and its nice and easy.

Like the main unit, the outlets can be mounted via a single keyhole for a screw or nail. This is where having a second keyhole slot on both parts would be nice to make sure everything stays mounted straight up and down, but its not absolutely needed.

Temperature Probe Mounting

The temp probe is connected to the main unit via a hardwired, 5′ length of cable.

You will want to mount the probe as close as possible to the area where you are keeping your fermenting beer will be located, and away from heating and cooling surfaces. That should give you a pretty accurate reading, and help avoid rapid cycling of equipment.

Do not submerge the probe into your beer. Instead, make use of the Heating Difference Value, Cooling Difference Value, and Refrigeration Delay settings to compensate for temperature swings and protect your equipment.

Buttons

Lets look into how the buttons on the main user interface lets you do certian things.

Setting the Target Temperature

Setting the temperature the “old school” way is easy: First, press the “SET” button for less than 3s. Second, press the arrow up and down keys to change the target temperature. This will be shown instantly on the lower LCD screen. Lastly, press “SET” again to save the target temperature.

Remember when using buttons was “old school”; just like having to get up and change the channels on your TV by yourself?

Setting the Configuration

First, hold the “SET” button for less than 3s. The menu will cycle will show. To get to the next menu item, short press SET. To exit the menu, you can press SET for more than 3s anytime:

  • TS: Temeprature Set value – Setting the target temperature.
  • HD: Heating Differential value – Defines a deadzone, where the heating socket is not turned on, despite the process value being below the temperature set value.
  • CD: Cooling Differential value – same for cooling.
  • AH: Alarm high limit – set the alert if this temperature is exceeded.
  • AL: Alarm low limit – same as above, just the lower threshold.
  • PT: Compressor delay – Delay for the cooling socket. If the cooling socket is flagged for turning on, this periode has to pass. This is to protect your compressor from being turned on and off to often.
  • CA: Temperature calibration – If your temperature probe has an offset you can correct it here. The temperature relevant for turning on/off the sockets is calculated by “measured temperature + CA”.
  • CF: Display in Fahrenheit or Centigrade / Celsius

Pros and Cons of the INKBIRD ITC-308

So you got an idea of how it works, all the features, the nifty things it can do, but whats our thoughts on it? What did we like and not like about it? Well, here it is, the things we loved and didn’t love about the Inkbird ITC-308:

Pros

  • Easy to setup.
  • Nice app(s) – we used the Inkbird Pro.
  • Two displays are great to glimpse the current and target temperature – without having to pull out the phone and open an app.
  • The max power of 2.3kW is easily enough to power any fermentation device such as a fridge, freezer, or glycol chiller.
  • Data can be exported.
  • Calibration of temperature offsets.
  • Possibility to set alarms.
  • Plug and Play
  • Simple to Use
  • Connectivity
  • Overall Good Value

Cons

  • Relais is turned off when the target temperature is reached. This will inevitably lead to temperature overshoots. Which is bad during mashing, especially during mash out – where you want to stay below 78°C / 172°F.
  • The max power of 2.3kW (for 230V) is not sufficient to power common mashing devices such as the Hendi Induction Plate (3.5kW) or a typical heating element (3.2kW).
  • The temperature sensor is hard to replace. This issue is however solved with the Inkbird ITC-380S.
  • Logging interval is pretty long.
  • Hardwired Temperature Probe – In some ways, it’s good that the temp probe is hard-wired. You don’t have to make any connections.

In Summary

In my opinion, the Inkbird ITC 308 gets the job done well, affordably, and reliably.

The cost to value ratio is outstanding

Having everything integrated into a single unit makes it far more convenient than building your own setup and using a cheaper control unit or letting it up to chance. This gives homebrewers a better degree of control over the temperature.

This controller can be used for many different applications. Fermentation chamber control and kegerator serving temperature control are common uses.

These are easily the best homebrewing temperature controllers I have used or am aware of. (Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments.)

The Inkbird ITC-308 is great device for homebrewers – especially for fermentation. In this case, temperature under- and overshoots are as well as the fact that the temperature is logged only every fifteen minutes is negligible.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: Like I said at the beginning of this article, I received an Inkbird ITC-308 in lieu of a review. I have given my thoughts as my own, unchanged by receiving this item for free, and I have not been told what to say. I would like to thank Cecilia Kwok for the item and the chance to review it.

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

If you would like to help keep the blog running soundly and smoothly, you may donate to us to help us keep the costs of the blog to a minimum. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you. (Clicking this link will take you to the page to make a donation. Thank you very much for helping us stay afloat!)

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

 

 

 

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Getting Sworn In: A Sneak Preview of Sworn Brewing https://thebeerthrillers.com/2023/08/08/getting-sworn-in-a-sneak-preview-of-sworn-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=getting-sworn-in-a-sneak-preview-of-sworn-brewing Tue, 08 Aug 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=12179
Head Brewer and Co – Owner Jesse Mills greets Amy, Josh, and Ben at Sworn Brewing Company to give The Beer Thrillers a sneak peek of the brewery.

Getting a Look at Sworn Brewing

This is going to be a long post about the soon to be brewery – Sworn Brewing Company coming to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Josh, Amy, and I (Ben) got to come out and visit Jesse and Amanda at Sworn Brewing and get to hang out for a bit and check out the place in a behind the scenes look.

Firstly, I want to say sorry for it taking so long to get this article out. It has been super hectic here at The Beer Thrillers HQ, and with all of us writing this article. We had a crazy busy weekend – and busy week – when we got out to visit. (Saturday – Amy and I were in Vandergrift celebrating Allusion Brewing Company’s Battle of the Breweries Win; Sunday – a friend of mine invited me to go with to Philly to watch the Premier League games, and then Monday – Amy, Josh, and I got to visit Sworn Brewing Company.) (And this was all on top of the other stuff we had going on, most of which is articles you can find on here.) (Speaking of that – you can read the Allusion Articles here: Allusion Brewing Company Celebration Party and An Alluring Trip Out To Vandergrift For Allusion Brewing Company’s Appreciation Party.)

I have also been very busy with our “Futurama Monday” – which has been a new blog article as well as new YouTube video essay each Monday.

This is also Josh’s first time jumping back in and writing with us since 2021. So welcome back Josh! Good to have you back buddy!

So before I hand things over to Josh, I’ll give a quick set up to this, and then we will go from there.

The Set – Up

Amanda and Jesse are married and co – owners of Sworn Brewing Company. Jesse is also head brewer. We heard about them opening up their new brewery in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and I reached out to Amanda when I saw a post of hers’ on one of the beer groups. We locked down a meeting date – July 24th, 2023 – and all set to go. So Josh, Amy, and myself met with Amanda and Jesse and got a walk through and a sneak peek look at the upcoming brewery.

For this article, I’m going to let Josh start us off, then switch over to Amy, and then I’ll wrap things up and conclude the article. Please let us know in the comments section what you think of this, and if you like how this article looks and reads. (Josh and I did a similar article when we got a behind the scenes look at Mellow Mink – and Amy and I did similar with a sneak peek of The Beerded Goat).

Getting Sworn In – A Behind the Scenes Look at Sworn Brewing Company

The entrance to Sworn Brewing Company in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Oh … hey there. It’s that other beer nerd that used to do beer reviews. Long time no see, right? An even longer time since I’ve written a review, let alone been here to co-author a brewer interview. Perfect time to come back, right? Thought so. I could waste your valuable time reading more drivel or I could just cut to the chase. Probably best if I just got stuck in about the visit Amy, Ben, and I had at a small brewery called Sworn Brewing Company located off East Trindle Road.

Sometimes one just needs to let opportunity in when it knocks, lest one be left out in the cold, so when the chance to visit a brand new, not yet open, brewery came across my notifications, I may have had to invite myself (okay, who am I kidding, I totally invited myself) to check the place out and get to know the new face. Truth be told though, Jesse Mills is no new face in the brewing scene. He knows his way around a Fermenter and Brite tank as he’s got some serious chops, having been in the business for over a decade. An excellent starting point and will make for great conversation. Upon arrival, I’m greeted with a quaint location tucked behind the Atlantic Pools and slot in near a black Subaru WRX STi (don’t worry about the car bro, we’re here for beer). Ben and Amy haven’t yet arrived, but no harm I figure, I’m early so I’ll just walk in and introduce myself. Step through the glass door with a small sign denoting what was once a catering business is now a brewery and step into a remarkable little place. I’d never have guessed that Jesse and his wife Amanda had been working tirelessly for a month prior to put the place right. A month? Wait … *checks notes* … yep, a literal month since the spot was purchased, did the new owners turn the key and renovate the inside. And what a transformation they’ve done. The floors still bear the character of tire prints from being a garage and then the spots and spills of a catering hub, but they are as clean as ever, given the elbow grease put into them. A corrugated metal and Australian wood bartop adorn the rear quarter of the space, adding function, form, and beauty. The walls were painted dark to add an air of comfort and warmth, and the overhead Edison lights help to drive that feeling home. Even with the place 80% complete, I feel immediately welcome, as if this brewery has been here forever. Jesse is gleefully explaining how things will look when Ben and Amy finally walk through the door. FINALLY! We can get down to business and talk shop with the rightfully excited owners.

Sworn Brewing Company Patio

There’s something beautiful in watching someone who is passionate about their field of expertise talk about what makes them happy. In the few hours we spent with Jesse, I don’t recall ever seeing the mile wide smile leave his countenance. His joy was infectious and I know I’m not the only one that feels this way. The brewery is small on purpose, not because droves of people aren’t invited, but because a personal, individual approach is more easily achieved. Customers aren’t going to be seen as a number, but as friends or family. While that will come off as a negative to some, personally I see it as their greatest strength. In keeping things small, the beer will only benefit from this approach because scaling production up means many of the nuances and subtleties are glossed over or don’t have the chance to be experienced. I could go on and on about what was discussed, but there are two other authors waiting for me to finish gushing over the splendid time and laughs shared, so I’ll button up and discuss one of the liquid libations afforded to our visit.

Sworn Brewing Tap List

One such drink was called “Dreams Debunked”. This pineapple and strawberry kettle sour sits low on octane and high on enjoyment. With the outside reaching deep into the 80’s (and 90’s the week after), this sweetheart of a sipper could function quite nicely as a break from midday chores or a sweet treat at the end of the summer’s day. Tropical waves wash over your sense of smell and suddenly the absence of sand beneath your feet becomes apparent. You’re still in Central PA, but your nose is on a beach (lucky devil). Honestly, I could have lived in the nose of Dreams Debunked, but not tasting it would have been a disservice to our hosts, so … bottoms up! As in the description, so too on the tongue does pineapple show up first. And it does so in a very dominate fashion, almost to the point where I questioned if strawberry was included. Almost. You see, there was a bit of a time element to this tart concoction and not enough of it had elapsed. There was plenty of time left in our visit, which meant there was plenty of time to get acquainted with our hosts and this beverage. Good thing too, as the more my taste buds became used to the liquid, so too did more flavor notes appear. The once king pineapple had abdicated its throne to allow its equally tart and sweet partner time in the limelight. The bottom third of this sample is glorious, almost jammy (or marmalade for our Commonwealth constituents) strawberry. The flavors and fruit mentioned in the description are, in fact, present and accounted for. All it needs is a little time and patience. Speaking of time and patience, Sworn Brewing Company is not yet open, though the target is set for September. I’ll be honest, I can’t wait to get Sworn in. How about you, Amy?

  • Josh
Dreams Debunked by Sworn Brewing Company

Sworn To a Good Time at Sworn Brewing

It was just a few weeks ago The Beer Thrillers gang was invited for a sneak peek of the new Sworn Brewing company and taproom.  Owners Jesse and Amanda Mills were there to show us their second home.  The minute you walk in you can tell these 2 have poured their heart and soul into opening this nano – brewery. 

I mean that type of passion should be evident by this quote from their Facebook page “We will strive to make sure the highest quality items we can get our hands on will be used in every single process.  Everything that comes out of our taps, every single small batch of beer that we make will go through a rigorous quality control process.  If it does not meet our standards, it will never be consumed by the customer.  We are not here to cut corners, we are here to make sure we can provide you with the best possible experience that you deserve, what the craft brewing industry deserves!”

We also got the sense of feeling pretty comfortable like they were trying to create a second home for us and the rest of our beer drinking friends.  Well actually, there are plans to accommodate our liquor and wine drinking friends as well, stay tuned.  Jesse Mills adds using local distilleries and wineries is very important to him and the rest of the Sworn family. 

When they served us our first taster of beer Amanda has put down some chips with queso and some salsa as well.  The queso and salsa were house made and intentions of putting it on the menu were also discussed.  Both Amanda and Jesse started talking about the same passion about these ingredients as they did about the beer they just served us. 

Chips, queso, salsa, and Dreams Debunked

But let’s back up a second.  We were given a taste of the Dreams Debunked fruited sour with Pineapple and Strawberry.  This lightly fruited sour has an ABV of 4.2% and lightly dances on the tongue.  The fruit is not overpowering in anyway.  What excited me the most was the pairing of the smoked queso along with the Dreams Debunked.

Dreams Debunked by Sworn Brewing Company
Homer Drooling Over Dreams Debunked

The smokiness of the queso with the salt from the chip paired with the sweet from the Dreams Debunked also helped accent the two different flavors.  When I first started drinking DD I tasted strawberry by the end and including the queso I tasted the pineapple.

Jesse also commented, when they are setup and ready, they will be making fresh bread to go along with the house made queso as well as other items for dipping. 

Happy Hump Day!!!!

So… We hung up some lights and made some bread for a test run 🍞😍 we are more than excited to share additional details as we continue to progress. Opening date info is coming soon just a few more items to complete 🍻

Sworn Brewing Company – Facebook Post About Bread

(Photos courtesy of Sworn Brewing Company’s Facebook Page)

Sworn will be welcoming food trucks to go along with their beverage pairings. 

Don’t let the unyielding passion for high quality products steer you away thinking it is a serious crowd.  When you walk into the bathroom you are greeted with a picture of Mr. Jones above the toilet and as you would turn to use the toilet or hopefully walk towards the sink to wash your hands you are greeted with a picture of Craig Jones the Movie Friday.

Jesse and Amanda are giggling right along with us as they tell us they can’t wait to hear the first customer walk in there and bust out laughing from seeing the pictures. 

This is your place to hang out and for everyone wanting an excellent product, welcoming atmosphere and something relaxing and not so serious.  We can’t wait to add this spot to our frequent stops. 

  • Amy

A Look Behind The Sword at Sworn Brewing Company

As I said at the top of the article, discussed getting to meet with them, and we did get to on Monday – July 24th. Amy and I dropped Scarlet off at my parents after Amy came home from work and then we were off to Mechanicsburg. Hit a little traffic on the bridge, but got there in no time.

Josh beat us there, but we were immediately greeted by Amanda and Jesse. Both super awesome and wonderful people. They showed us around the place, talking about the brewery’s past – as a catering business (twice over) and a car shop.

It was great listening to their plans for the building itself. They discussed the bar top, the wood of it, the corrugated steel for the outside of it, the epoxy used on the wood, etc. The attention to detail is incredible with Jesse.

The story of them trying to pain the tiles of the ceiling for the bathroom was hilarious, and thus why only the bathroom has the black tiles and not the whole brewery.

Jesse is very focused on his beer and discussed his past brewing experience – both professionally and as a home brewer. The brewing system at Sworn Brewing Company is going to be a 1 BBL system. Not much bigger than home brewing for Jesse. He said he prefers it this way – it lets him be more precise, dialed in, and make the exact beer he wants.

With Jesse and Amanda we got to discuss a great number of topics big and small. From the brewery itself, to past brewing experiences, to consumer experiences, to new breweries in the area – and old breweries in the area – to competitions in brewing, to traveling for beer (Vermont, New Hampshire, The Answer, etc.), we discussed beer groups and beer blogs – both good and bad – online, Untappd, and the other factors that will play into how successful a brewery is.

Amanda and Jesse are very community focused. They love their location, love Mechanicsburg, and want to see both thrive. They live in Dillsburg which didn’t have any good locations suitable for them, so they opened up shop on Trindle Road.

Dreams Debunked (photo courtesy of Sworn Brewing Company’s Facebook page)

Dreams Debunked was absolutely amazing. A wonderful, delicious sour. From this alone – I know I can’t wait for the brewery to open up and get to try the rest of that tap list he’s preparing.

The brewery itself is very inviting. With the roll up bay door and the entrance leading you right to the bar, with all of the available seating (including a table reserved for their parents at all times – complete with LEGO Flowers), the entire place is just very homey.

Sworn Brewing Company (photo courtesy of their Facebook page)

Listening to Jesse and Amanda discuss their plans for the future – with food trucks, home made bread, the world renowned hot dog vendor that they know personally, and so much more – it will be fantastic. This will certainly be a great boon to the town and the brewing community in the area.

Jesse Mills comes with a great brewing background, having home brewed, and brewed professionally. He’s beaten some great local breweries in home brewing competitions, as home brewed with a group and worked with Derek Markel, and professionally brewed with Sign of the Horse Brewing.

(Plus rumor is that they are Bengals fans… so I mean… right there they gotta be good folk right?! Can I get a Who Dey?!)

This is what we love about the small breweries. Seeing how much they support, impact, and help out communities. And knowing that your money is going to a family that loves what they do, and wants to give back to their community, want to grow in their craft, and support their family and friends.

Congratulations to Jesse and Amanda Mills, we cannot way to come back for Sworn Brewing Company’s opening – and many more times in the future after that.

  • B. Kline

Sworn Brewing Company

For more information on Sworn Brewing Company, you can find them on the following social media pages:

Josh, Amy, and I

Again – I want to reiterate that Josh, Amy, and I (B. Kline) greatly appreciated the opportunity to come out and get to check out Sworn Brewing Company. It was a wonderful time getting to hang out with wonderful people and we can only help this gets them more attention before their opening. If you are reading it – I cannot recommend that you stop out and visit them enough.

Look for them to be having announcements about grand openings, soft openings, and more around the beginning of September.

Josh

We welcome Josh back after a hiatus of writing. At the end of this article I will post a link to Josh, Amy, and Ben’s most viewed articles. But for now, check out his Beer Review of Ghost in a Machine by Parish Brewing Company.

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

Author Articles

Amy’s Weekly Column Series

Since getting back to writing for the blog after a short hiatus, Amy has started up a weekly column style writing for the blog. You can find these articles here:

(And please take a moment to fill out Amy’s survey on her ‘Holiday Weekend and Bomber Bottles‘ column.)

Josh

Some of Josh’s beer reviews:

B. Kline

Some of Ben’s articles:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

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The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

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(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

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Truth Beer Company Grand Opening – September 3rd https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/08/27/truth-beer-company-grand-opening-september-3rd/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=truth-beer-company-grand-opening-september-3rd Sat, 27 Aug 2022 14:30:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=9687
Truth Beer Company Is Having Their Grand Opening on September 3rd, 2022

Grand Opening

Its time for another grand opening! (Seems like we’re announcing one every day right now…. which is completely and utterly fantastic news!) This time it’s Truth Beer Company’s turn to have a grand opening. They will be having their grand opening on September 3rd, 2022 – in Akron, Pennsylvania (Lancaster County).

Just yesterday we discussed Voodoo opening their brewpub on the North Shore in Pittsburgh, and now today we are announcing Truth Beer Company’s grand opening in Akron Pennsylvania.

September 3rd, 2022

Straight from the Truth Beer Company’s Facebook page:

“Join us Saturday 9/3/22 for our grand opening. We’ll be at the brewery 1-8pm serving samplers of four 5oz pours for $10 (1 per customer), and filling growlers and crowlers to go. We will not have sit down service at this location, instead focusing on selling beer to-go. The wait is almost over, and we can’t wait. 🍻

401 south 7th street, lower lever, in Akron, Pa”

Truth Beer Company – Facebook Post Announcing Their Grand Opening

They have a Facebook event listed – Truth Beer Company: Grand Opening. You can use this to keep yourself reminded of their opening as well as to list if Going, Interested, etc.

Their brewery will be located 401 South 7th Street, Lower Level, Akron, 17501, Pennsylvania. Truth Beer Company (Suite Number 5 – Lower Level).

Truth Beer Company

Many will recognize Truth Beer Company from various home brew events, competitions, and brewfests in the Central PA area. I know I had some beer from them at the FUNK – MOO DUCK Home Brew Event back in 2019. (I had the ORNG Drink (I gave it a 3.75 out of 5 on Untappd).

(Speaking of Untappd) – Untappd gives the following details about Truth Beer Company: it lists them as a nano brewery from Pennsylvania, United States (no city / location further given – yet); they are listed as having 7 unique beers with a global average rating of 3.98 (as of 8.27.22). They have had 197 ratings.

For More Information

For more information on Truth Beer Company you can check out their social media pages:

And their Facebook Event Page: Truth Beer Company – Grand Opening Event.

Other News and Closings

We have covered many brewery openings, expansions, closings, and other news here on the blog. Be sure to check out all the various articles we’ve written below.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out other brewery openings and other brewery news recently:

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone. Had an article posted yesterday (the Voodoo Brewing Opening article), having this one, and then tomorrow and the next, or maybe later tonight and tomorrow, I will have a few more (Boneshire Brew Works’s Octoberfest announcement, Human Robot’s Oktoberfest and Milko Pour Competition announcement, as well as a few others). So be on the lookout for all these great articles by checking us out daily! Greatly appreciate it and hope you enjoy reading the articles! (Also, if you haven’t seen it – take notice of the Amy’s Birthday post and article, she’ll soon be writing some more for us, so be on the lookout for those as well!)

Cheers!

-B. Kline

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

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