Beer | Something's Brewing

Naukabout Beer

Posted on December 2, 2012December 2, 2012 by Sam Kornstein in Beer

I spent the weekend on the Cape and discovered a new pale ale, Naukabout, from the Naukabout Beer Company. I found it to be a light, refreshing pale ale, with strong, but not overwhelming hop character. It definitely hit the spot. From the website, Naukabout means: (verb) — doing what you love to do when you’re finished doing what you have to do, and (noun) — the places, events, & things that reflect this lifestyle. I’ll drink to that. The brewery’s founders are from the Cape, but production is currently contracted out to Paper City in Holyoke. It’s great to see more and more small regional breweries popping up all over the place. It seems like quite a few are

The White House Honey Ale

Posted on September 8, 2012September 8, 2012 by Sam Kornstein in Beer

I may have to give this recipe a shot:

Hazelnut Brown Ale Homebrew (2012 Batch #2)

Posted on August 17, 2012January 8, 2018 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Homebrew Recipe

I brewed a Hazelnut Brown Ale the other night. It’s an original recipe I put together after reviewing a few similar brew recipes online. I’m shooting for about 6% ABV and something a bit hoppier than a traditional brown. Here’s the recipe summary: Grains: 7 Pounds Light Liquid Malt Extract 1 Pound American Crystal 20 1 Pound American Crystal 80 1 Pound English Brown .5 Pounds Chocolate .5 Pounds Light Munich Hops: 1 Ounce Perle (7.5%) @60min 1 Ounce Saaz (3.5%) @20min Other: White Labs American Ale Yeast 1 Whirfloc Tablet @5min 4 Ounces Hazelnut Extract at Bottling 5 Ounces of Priming Sugar at Bottling Original gravity reading: 1.06 And here’s the detailed recipe.

Apricot Ale Homebrew Update

Posted on August 2, 2012August 2, 2012 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Homebrew Review

It’s been just over two months since I brewed an Apricot Ale, and it was finally ready to drink earlier this week. Overall, I think it came out well. It tastes a lot like a slightly hoppier and more bitter Magic Hat #9, which I attribute to the dry hopping. The apricot flavor is a bit stronger than I’d like, but my experience is that it’s strength will fade as the beer ages for a few weeks. It spent ten days in primary, six weeks in secondary with the dry hops, and about ten days in the bottle before I opened the first one. I had originally planned to only keep it in secondary for a week or two, but I changed

Apricot Ale Homebrew (2012 Batch #1)

Posted on May 23, 2012May 23, 2012 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Homebrew Recipe

School’s finally out, and my brewing equipment will be neglected no more. My latest brew is an Apricot Ale, and it’s my first homebrew in quite some time. Here’s the recipe for those interested: Grains: 7 Pounds Light Malt Extract 1 Pound American Crystal 60 Hops: 1 Ounce Amarillo (9.2%) @60min 1 Ounce Amarillo (9.2%) @30min 1 Ounce Columbus (13.2%) @ 10min Dry hop with 1 Ounce Cascade (5.5%) in Secondary (7 Days) Other: White Labs California Ale V Yeast 1 Whirfloc Tablet @5min 4 Ounces Apricot Extract at Bottling 5 Ounces of Priming Sugar at Bottling Original gravity reading: 1.056 It’s similar to a recipe I made a couple years ago, and it’s a bit like a hoppier and

The “Good Beer in a Can” Debate

Posted on February 13, 2012February 13, 2012 by Sam Kornstein in Beer

There’s been some great back and forth over on James Fallows’ blog about whether good beer can come in a can, and whether cans do a better job than bottles at protecting beer from UV rays, which are known to create some off-flavors. I’ll only add that I used to be in the pro-bottle “snob” camp until I had my first Dale’s Pale Ale a few years back. I later discovered Pork Slap Ale and Moo-Thunder Stout from Butternuts Brewery, which convinced me that Dale’s isn’t a fluke. And since then, I’ve found quite a few canned gems. I also tend to agree with the masses that beer always tastes better out of a glass, but I think this seems

Bullish on Craft Beer

Posted on December 29, 2011December 29, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Current Events

The market just keeps growing. It might be time to start a brewery. And don’t be tricked by impostors such as Blue Moon and Goose Island.

Shift from Beer to Coffee Fueled the Enlightenment?

Posted on December 11, 2011December 10, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, History

MIT Sloan Brews Beer

Posted on November 11, 2011November 11, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Beer

Last night a group of us from school went out to Barleycorn’s Craft Brew store in Natick, MA and made 60 gallons of beer. There were 4 batches: an Imperial Hefeweizen, a Tripel Beglian Ale, a Pale Ale, and a California common ale. Robin Bose created a photo blog of the event with lots of shots of the entire process. We still need to make labels for these brews, but here are a few the group came up with last year:

Oktoberfest!

Posted on October 8, 2011October 8, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Travel

Last week I returned from Oktoberfest in Munich – it was quite the experience. A few observations and reflections on the event: The way the event works is there are just over a dozen been tents, each of which has its own unique atmosphere and can hold anywhere from 5,000-10,000 people. Large parties can reserve a table, but for the average visitor, you need to arrive before 10:00am each day and grab a seat in a tent. I was initially skeptical as to whether I could spend four days sitting at one table per day, from 10:00am until sometime in the evening. But it turned out to be pretty easy. There were lots of great people, live music, and obviously