In this episode, we want to begin a discussion about sour beer brewing in an effort to answer some of the questions we regularly receive about brewing and fermenting sour beers. Because these days, sour styles are very popular and show no signs of slowing down. Especially American style wild ales. But what’s interesting is that souring isn’t anything new. In fact, beers have been brewed with both wild yeast and bacteria for centuries. Since the first brewers started brewing actually, considering sanitation wasn’t a familiar concept for them.

In this episode, we begin a discussion we're sure to continue through multiple episodes about how experimenting with small changes can lead to better beers. For this episode, we had the 2014 Bluebonnet Homebrew Team of the Year and Cap and Hare Homebrew Club members, Mike Treadway and Sean Vreeland, come in to share some of their practices. Why? Because they often use multiple micro-variations in flavor additions to dial in the exact flavors they are looking for in their award winning beers. 

In this episode, we’ll continue our discussion of the restructured 2015 BJCP guidelines with the help of our local expert and Grand Master BJCP judge James Lallande and certified BJCP judge Brandon Martin so we can sort through the changes and hopefully help your understanding as well as our own. They’ve revised the categories, added styles, and divided other styles out, so there was plenty to discuss!

In this episode, we discuss the mash and different approaches you can take to brew a better beer. There’s definitely more to mashing your grains than simply throwing them in hot water and waiting. Numerous variables lead to many different results and you need to think about how to combine those variables for the best results. For example, different temperatures can change the profile of your fermentables. The water profile can drastically change the flavors and pH of the wort. The crush of your grains affects the extraction. The thickness of the mash can affect your end product. And the time you allow your mash to remain at temp can make a difference on your conversion efficiency. In fact, to prove that final point we’ve invited everyone’s favorite grumpy old man from the TBI staff, Johnnie “Red” Latham, to help us discuss the mash and give us a few details about his overnight mash method that’s helped him win a few awards.