John’s Beer

I started brewing beer at home in late winter 2007, after getting a homebrew kit for my birthday. Since then I’ve brewed more than a dozen batches of beer and one batch of mead (a beverage made of fermented honey).

There is a fine line between casual hobby and mind-warping obsession, and I crossed that line several batches ago. I’m constantly brewing something new — trying new styles or improvising with the recipe of an old favorite — and I created this page to keep you abreast of what I’m brewing now. Check back often, or get live brewing updates by following John’s Beer on Twitter.

Bottled and drinkable:

  • Pumpkin ale
  • Holiday ale
  • Orange-spice hefeweizen — my best batch yet, I think, and very few left
  • Lemon-spice hefeweizen, drinkable New Year’s Eve
  • Ferocious — a Surly Furious clone that Midwest Supplies formulated with the help of the furious folks at Surly Brewing, drinkable early January

Conditioning in the bottle:

  • Roggenbier (pronounced like bloggin’ beer, not like Seth Rogen beer) — “rye beer”, actually mostly a wheat beer with the addition of rye malt that supposedly gives it a crisp, tart finish, good on a hot day, but this batch will be drinkable mid-January
  • Vanilla bourbon porter
  • (Smooth Like) Strawberry Wheat

In the secondary fermenter:

  • Imperial stout — a thick, hoppy, high-alcohol substance to be bottled late January and best served after 1 month to 1 year in the bottle
  • Mead — a kind of wine made from fermented honey, possibly the earliest known alcoholic beverage, favored by Beowulf and his chums, ready by Rosh Hashanah (next fall)
  • Peace Coffee Java Stout — a stout caffeinated by locally roasted organic Nicaraguan beans

In the primary fermenter:

  • Nothing!  What’s wrong with me?

On deck:

  • Considering another hefeweizen, due to its popularity and my interest in working on the recipe.
  • I’ll mos’def be doing the Ferocious again soon.  It’s delicious, and I know many fans of the Furious who I expect will clamour for this one.

Keep up with live updates by following John’s Beer on Twitter!