Beer Brewing

Imperial Stout is the style I brew when I want something that will still be interesting in two years. I have a few bottles from batches brewed in 2022 that are drinking better now than they did fresh — the …

Dry-hopped Pilsner sits in an interesting category — modern enough to be a deliberate style choice, traditional enough that the base beer is one of the most technically demanding lager styles to brew well.

Belgian Lambic is the most technically distinct style in brewing — it’s one of the few beers that cannot be replicated by following a standard recipe and process.

Gose was the style that made my non-brewing friends look at me like I was pranking them when I described it: a German wheat beer with coriander and salt. The salt is real — and it works.

Munich Helles is the style that ended my assumption that simple means easy. A Helles has almost nowhere to hide — no roast character, no hop intensity, no esters, no adjunct complexity. It’s pale malt, noble hops, clean lager fermentation, …

Rauchbier is the most polarizing style I’ve brewed — the people who love it really love it, and everyone else asks what went wrong.

Mexican Vienna Lager is one of the most historically interesting styles in brewing — an Austrian amber lager transplanted to Mexico in the 1860s by European immigrant brewers, then kept alive in Mexican commercial brewing long after the style died …

Belgian Strong Dark Ale is the style I reach for when I want to impress someone who thinks they don’t like beer.

New England IPA changed how I think about hop character. I’d been brewing West Coast IPAs for years — dry, bitter, resinous — and assumed that was what hoppy beer meant.

Dunkelweizen was my introduction to German wheat beer yeast character as a deliberate variable rather than a side effect.