Maine Brews

Dry Hopping in a Corny Keg

Joel Mahaffey — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:48:27 +0000

I’ve long disliked the idea of putting hops into the fermenter. It seems like an unecessary step, and I’m always torn between getting the beer kegged fresh and letting the dry-hops have enough time to do their thing. This was further compounded by learning that firkins are often hopped in the cask (though their design [...]

Book Review: Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus

Joel Mahaffey — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:15:42 +0000

I must confess that Belgian beers still make me a little anxious. For a long time, I thought that I didn’t like Belgian beers. Something about them seemed a little strange, and I preferred the tamer ales. Then about a year ago, I had a couple that I really liked. My expectations were now very [...]

Spent Grain Dog Treats

Joel Mahaffey — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:39:40 +0000

Like most all-grain homebrewers, I end up with a lot of spent grain. Sure, I can compost it, but wouldn’t it be sweet if I could actually make something out of my spent grain? The first thing I tried doing was the most obvious to me, which was to try to use it in homemade [...]

Book review: Great American Craft Beer by Andy Crouch

Joel Mahaffey — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:46:17 +0000

Andy Crouch is a beer lover and a very talented writer on the subject of beer. American beer has been given the short end of the stick for decades, largely due to prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s. American beer, and craft beer specifically, has been on the rise for the past 4 decades, and [...]

Book review: Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow

Joel Mahaffey — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:49:43 +0000

Homebrewers are taught from the very beginning that sanitation is priority #1, and that anything growing in your beer other than saccharomyces (brewer’s yeast) is the worst thing possible, and as a result, we spend a lot of time cleaning and sanitizing. Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow brings to light a tradition of making beer [...]

French Saison brewday recap

Joel Mahaffey — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:16:08 +0000

With the brewday behind me and fermentation going strong, it’s time to reflect on what went well and what didn’t, as always. First of all, the recipe got altered on brewday. I had originally scheduled for only 4 pounds of wheat, but upon calculating what I was going to get for an original gravity, and [...]

Allagash Coolship: Cerise

Joel Mahaffey — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:49:32 +0000

In December of 2007, Allagash Brewery began experimenting with Coolship brewing techniques. From Allagash: Last month we brewed the first two of our spontaneously fermented beers at Allagash. In brewing these beers we are using an authentic, traditional process honoring the classic Belgian Lambic tradition, including the use of a cool ship, which we built [...]

Recipe in process: Farmhouse Ale

Joel Mahaffey — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:07:12 +0000

I’ve finished formulating my recipe for this weekend’s brew, another first for the summer, a saison inspired by this summer’s reading materials. 4lb Pale Malt 2lb Munich Malt 4lb Wheat Malt 1oz Centenniel @FWH 1oz Cascade @FWH 1oz Centenniel @15 min 1oz Cascade @15 min And the star of the show, 3711 French Saison yeast [...]

Maine made lambic

Joel Mahaffey — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 03:32:32 +0000

Tonight I treated myself and my wife to a sample of Maine’s first commercially made lambic beer from Allagash. A wonderfully tart and refreshing beverage, I look forward to future offerings from Allagash’s coolship and wild fermentation production.

We have hop-sign

Joel Mahaffey — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:45:41 +0000

Beginnings of flowers on my Chinook bines. Hopefully the others will follow soon.