52 Weeks of Brewing: Researching
2.52.04: Researching
Originally uploaded by casualbrewery
Months before I first cranked my stove to brew my first extract batch, I hit just about every homebrew recipe site out there. My goal with brewing my own is I wanted to make an ale as good as what I would buy at the bar. In order to do that I needed learn which malt grains go best with my favorite styles, aka: research. When all was said and done, I had over a hundred pages of recipes of my favorite styles (over 50 of which were IPAs). I also spent way too much time on Amazon.com reading reviews to find the best recipe books, naturally I ended up purchasing Homebrew contest winner recipes & clone brews.
Whenever I really want to dive into a style, I do similar researching…though nowhere as intense. For example, right now that is North American Clone Brews in my hands. Purchased it earlier this week, partly because I had been wanting it for years, and partly for a current grain weight list found in the appendix.
Also earlier this week, while reading a friend of mine’s beer blog, I learned he brewed a brown ale w/ Earl Grey tea. Had one of those “why didn’t I think of that” moments. Immediately I decided to blatantly steal Dan’s concept and created the premise of the Market Spice Tea Porter.
Want the Market Spice Tea Porter to have strong roots from American Microbrew Porters, hence you find my nose in this particular book.
52 Weeks of Brewing 5/17 - 5/23