In this episode, start with another edition of our Hop-o-Rama segments on American, English, and Noble hops, then jump into a general discussion of one of our favorite style ranges. The Belgians. They are favorites to many for a reason because they are often cited as the beer styles with the broadest range of flavors and aromas due to the characteristics of the yeast--and sometimes--the bacteria. They stand out against the traditional continental lagers and ales of Europe in great contrast and they’ve inspired a variety of American off-shoots. So, before we get into episodes that are more specific, we’ll start here on an overview.

For this episode, it was is Raspberry Pi night. And it was Mikey’s birthday. So we went with a topic of his choice and began a discussion of automation for brewing and fermentation using a programmable controller that you can buy or build yourself. 

We started with brewing automation (aka hot side control) by calling up Corey Simonson from Brewtronix.com. Corey is the brains behind the Hosehead brewery controller; a Raspberry Pi based controller that comes in several versions.

Then, we explore the cold side of things by discussing Raspberry Pi based fermentation control with friend of the show and NHC gold medalist, Mike Treadway. You may remember Mike from our discussion about making small changes to produce better beers way back in episode 25. Well, he recently gave a great presentation for the Cap and Hare homebrew club based on his Raspberry Pi controller build and tonight he’s here to share it with you so you can add in something new to keep making better beer!