Category: Beer

Homebrewing Crash Course: Bottling Beer

Posted on by in Beer, Homebrew Crash Course

The following crash course is a simple walkthrough of the homebrew bottling process. It’s not intended to be a comprehensive guide, and is written for those who want to learn as they go, or need a quick refresher. It’s based on my own experience, and if you find any errors or have any suggestions to improve the guide, please pass them along. Over the coming months, I plan to create additional guides covering extract brewing, all-grain brewing, the racking process, sanitation, and recipe creation. And of course I’ll update this one as I receive suggestions or think of ways it can be improved. Hope you enjoy. Estimated Time: The bottling process generally takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. After

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Why’s There Ice In My Beer?

Posted on by in Beer, Travel

I was surprised to find that in Cambodia, beer is often served in a glass of ice. This seems to be a bit ridiculous to me, as the cans and bottles are often cold to begin with — why dilute perfectly good beer? I’ve heard many explanations. Local Cambodian’s certainly like to drink, and one person told me that drinking beer with ice helps make sure you don’t get too drunk too fast (it’s not true). And then I read that establishments like to show off  the fact that they have a plentiful supply of fresh ice. Regardless, it’s a strange tradition. One I probably won’t be taking home. Also, as a follow-up to my previous post on Angkor Beer,

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Angkor What?

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I just had my first Cambodian beer, an ice cold Angkor. This appears to be the mainstream, mass-distributed “beer of Cambodia.” It’s a lightly-hopped, 5% pale lager. In the grand scheme of beers, this one doesn’t stand out in any way, but after a long day, it definitely hit the spot. It did get me thinking – many tropical climate countries seem to have one mass-produced national beer to compliment all of the imports. And they all tend to be VERY similar. Costa Rica has Imperial. Panama has “Panama” beer. The Bahamas sport Kalik. Guatemala has the infamous Gallo (rooster). What’s the story behind these? Are they all owned by a multi-national company that has tapped the “domestic” beer market

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Homebrew Review: Magellan’s Black Cherry Stout

Posted on by in Beer, Homebrew Review

It’s a complete coincidence, but I’m happy to say that my first homebrew review is of a beer that came out particularly well. It also happens to be the first recipe I ever brewed. Back in 2006 after being inspired by a Sam Adams brewery tour, a good friend and I decided the whole “brewing thing” didn’t seem all that hard, and we went out and picked up a homebrew kit. Given that we knew absolutely nothing about the process, the store manager suggested we try out one of the pre-packaged recipe kits. The most interesting one on the shelf was a black cherry stout, so we went with it. The kit was a pretty simple extract based recipe, and we

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Relax. Don’t Worry. Have a Homebrew.

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I’ve been homebrewing beer for about five years now, and plan to use this blog to discuss techniques, recipes, and of course the beer itself. There’s lots to talk about, but to start, I’ll share my homebrew recipe log. It’s a listing of (just about) every beer I’ve made since I began brewing back in 2006. The early brews are mostly extract recipes, and the more recent ones are all-grain. One thing I’ve neglected to do is write up reviews of each brew. I hope to change that with this blog, but for the time being, feel free to email me with any questions about a recipe. If you’re just getting started with brewing and are looking for a good

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