Double Dry Hopped HopWards – American Pale Ale Recipe

two hoppy hazy beers in 8oz glasses

The year that was 2017 was my lightest homebrewing year in nearly a decade, I brewed a handful of 10-gallon HopWards batches to maintain beer on tap but very little worth posting about. To be honest, the beer that spawned this post was planned to be more of the same. It was brewed out of necessity, … Read more

Arsenal On A String – New England IPA Recipe

grapefruit candi syrup

Remember back in late 2015/early 2016 when the internet was all “Ewww gross, why is that IPA so murky” and some of us were all “Stop being so butthurt, its good AF”? Well, are those days are long gone? Of course not! Every brewery in the world is brewing NEIPA, but it is so widely … Read more

Solera Year 3 Tasting: Blueberries And Unblended

Blueberries coming out of a carboy from a solera brewed beer

Its Solera season ’round these parts, it’s time to taste some bottles from last year, brew top-off batches, and package some new variations. Every year before I plan out the next top off batch I like to sit down and taste through a few vintages, as well as pull a sample from the aging vessel … Read more

PhiLambic Solera Year 3: Top Off Wort

philambic solera in better bottle with bootleg biology sticker on it

Last week I shared the tasting notes for my two (plus) year old Solera and how things had been progressing to date. The sample I took was prior to bottling some unblended and racking some onto Blueberries. But before I actually racked and packaged the beer I had to brew the next top-off batch to … Read more

Tired Hands HopHands Clone Recipe Revisited

glass of hopwards, a clone of Tired Hands' HopHands

It has been over a year since I posted my recipe for the Tired Hands HopHands “clone”, and since that time I have re-brewed the beer somewhere between 10-12 times with small tweaks here and there. In light of some recent subtle recipe changes that myself and some others have made to the recipe, and with that … Read more

Brett Trois Riverwards IPA Tasting

brett trois ipa sitting on kegerator

As if 100% Brett fermented beers weren’t already misunderstood enough it turns out WLP644 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois is actually Saccharomyces and not a strain of Brettanomyces. This is not breaking news to a lot of folks, and the point of this post is not to go into the specifics, the DNA sequencing stuff goes over … Read more

Riverwards IPA: brewing on a commercial scale

I recently had the opportunity to design and brew a beer with my friend, and head brewer, John Wible at 2nd Story Brewing Company in Philly. Back in April of 2014, I won 2nd Best Of Show for batch #1 of HopWards in the Philly Homebrew Cup, the prize was the aforementioned brew day. John … Read more

PhiLambic Solera Year Two: Top off wort

mesh sack of aged hops

Bottling the first pull of the Solera prior to brewing the top-off batch gave me the flexibility to make some changes to the wort composition based on the flavors and aromas I was getting from the beer. I did, however, brew this prior to tasting a finished bottle but my overall impressions did not change … Read more

PhiLambic Solera: Brew Day

lambic brew day

With my Solera Plan in place I prepped for the brew day, normally I will crush my grains a day in advance but I didn’t have the time leading up to brew day With everything weighed out, I filled the hopper in my mill and… the drill was dead, no worries I have a spare … Read more

PhiLambic Solera: Planning Stages

solera barrels

Ever since reading the Sour Solera Barrel post by Michael Tonsmeire, I have wanted to start my own project just like it. I kicked around the idea of getting a group together and filling a large 50-60 gallon oak barrel, but the logistics of getting everyone together to brew/empty/refill and not to mention store that … Read more