Basic Brewing™

April 18, 2019 - Kombucha, the Root of All Starters

Homebrewer Doug Wawrzynski tells us how he's using kombucha to kick-start sour fermentations, such as sauerkraut, sourdough and kettle-soured beers.

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April 11, 2019 - Sparrow Malting

Brad Coker is starting up a new craft malthouse in northwest Arkansas. He shares his techniques of malting small batches of grain at home.

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April 4, 2019 - Catching Up with Fossil Cove

James samples beers with Ben Mills of Fossil Cove Brewing in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and learns about the brewery's recent expansion.

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March 28, 2019 - Hop Sampler - Motueka, Rakau, Nelson Sauvin

James and Steve sample hops from New Zealand and ponder about the lack of foam on this batch of beers.

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March 21, 2019 - DC Homebrewers SMASH

Omar Al-Nidawi shares beers from the DC Homebrewers Club experiment brewing different styles with Pilsner malt and Sterling hops.

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March 14, 2019 - Scaling Up with Sapwood Cellars

Mad Fermentationist Michael Tonsmeire talks about the brewery he co-founded in Columbia, Maryland, and the challenges of scaling up from homebrew.

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March 7, 2019 - Lab Testing HSBUs

David Curtis of Bell's General Store in Kalamazoo talks about Select Centennial Hops and shares lab IBU tests of beers brewed for the Hop Sampler series.

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February 28, 2019 - Astarte Bronze-Age-Style Beer

Homebrewer AJ Hart took part in an experimental archeology project on bronze age brewing techniques in Cyprus and collaborated with her husband, Justin, to bring those ideas home.

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February 21, 2019 - Chiller Stirring Experiment

Engineer Alex Roberts joins James again to test the effects on stirring a wort while it's being chilled by an immersion chiller. They also reverse the chiller's water flow.

- Alex's graphs of the results, courtesy of Applied Dynamics Engineering Group.

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February 14, 2019 - Golden Ale Yeast Experiment

Kyle Swallow of Twin Lakes Homebrew Club and Rapps Barren Brewing in Mountain Home, Arkansas, talks about an experiment fermenting one Golden Ale wort with 13 different yeasts.

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February 7, 2019 - Year-Long Stout Collaboration

Homebrewer Chris McKenzie shares his experience collaborating with five other homebrewers in a year-long experiment to design the perfect stout.

- Chris' blog detailing the experiment

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January 31, 2019 - Hawk Moth Brewing

James talks to Bradley Riggs of Hawk Moth Brewing in Rogers, Arkansas - a brewery focused on small batch, old-world-style, wood-aged beers.

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January 24, 2019 - Hop Sampler - Willamette, Amarillo, Falconer's Flight

James and Steve sample an old American standby against a relative newcomer and a hop blend.

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January 17, 2019 - Monster Cereal Beer Roundup

We sample a batch of five monster cereal beers brewed from Frankenberry, Boo Berry and Count Chocula.

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January 10, 2019 - Mead Yeast Sampler - US-05, S-33, BE-134

Steve splits a batch of mead and pitches three different dry beer yeasts to test the effects of each.

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January 3, 2019 - Ivory Bill Brewing

We visit Ivory Bill Brewing in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where long-time friend of the podcast, Casey Letellier, and his partner, Dorothy Hall, are serving up delicious open-fermented, gluten-reduced, English-inspired beers.

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