by DJ Spiess | May 3, 2010 | Brewing beer, Featured
Oak is commonly used in winemaking, but lately there is interest in putting the oak in beer. Oak can give your beer different flavors from vanilla to whiskey depending on the type of oak used. Types of oak for your beer There are many different types of oak. Oak...
by DJ Spiess | Apr 6, 2010 | Equipment, Featured
I decided I needed to find a better way to chill my beer, so I altered my immersion chiller to recirculate the water. The problem For wort chilling, I have always used a counter-flow wort chiller. It worked well and usually reduced the temperature from boiling to...
by DJ Spiess | Mar 15, 2010 | Beer, Featured
H.R. 4278 Federal legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 4278, is a bill which you want to bring to your representative’s attention. The purpose of the bill is to lower taxes on beer produced by smaller brewers. The new legislation will reduce...
by DJ Spiess | Dec 9, 2009 | Beer, Featured
When light strikes beer, the beer can become skunked. This flavor and aroma is described as tasting like onion and smelling like the nasty stuff that shoots out of a pissed-off striped mammal. The skunky flavor comes from the compound 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol, or...
by DJ Spiess | Feb 25, 2009 | Featured, Wine
There’s a large sign on one of the (many) organic/natural/vegan/I’m better than you for not eating “x” restaurants in Boulder, Colorado reading “biodynamic wine” in huge, bright letters. Boulder, being commonly referred to around Colorado as “25 square...
by DJ Spiess | Feb 22, 2009 | Featured, industry
History of beer distribution Before prohibition, the large breweries had their own saloons. If you wanted a Schlitz, you went to a bar which sold only Schlitz. The large breweries practiced anti-competitive practices by requiring retailers to carry only their...
