Welcome to the Horsemen of the Hopocalypse

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

All-grain Oatmeal Stout

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Lichtenhainer

Q: What's your go-to commercial beer?

Velvet Hammer

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

It was an American Brew in a bag. It came out good. Found at Brewer’s Friend.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

The English Strong Ale. The beer changed my trajectory of brewing with its winning record. The Strong Ale got him the silver at BBBO. I've also done some pro-am opportunities with it

Q: What's your go-to commercial beer?

Karbach Hopadillo. One that I enjoy and drinks really well. I use that as a calibration beer for potential judges and ask them to write a score sheet against it.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

I brewed my first batch of beer in 2007, after getting back into winemaking and realizing that I wanted something that would turn around faster than a red wine would. At the time we lived in downtown Denver, not far from the Central Branch of their library system. As you can image, there were a few books on homebrewing available. I read a couple, and settled on designing a Robust Porter using the calculations in Randy Mosher's "Radical Brewing". Math isn't always my strong suit, and I ended up with a beer closer to 10% than the 6.5% I'd calculated. I also ended up overcarbonating the beer... by a lot. However, the four ounces or so I got from every 22 ounce bottle of my Imperial Smoked Porter with Green Cardamom was actually pretty good. I took some time to do a little more research and get some brewing software.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

This is a hard one- among the tops are: * A pale bitter beer that started life as an ESB (BJCP 2008) and shared some elements of an American Pale Ale. I brewed this recipe over and over, changing out one or two ingredients at a time for over 10 years. * My Peach Table Beer * An American Stout I brewed a couple of years ago. The recipe was a collaboration with Joel Darbro, who has a small hop farm in SE Kansas. * My Hibiscus Table Beer. * A Black IPA made with 100% Michigan Copper hops. I am hoping to brew this again soon!

Q: What's your go-to commercial beer?

Another tough one - for local beers, I like the Haziess at Turning Point and Maple Branch's English beers. When I am in Austin I try to stop in to Batch Brewing and Jester King. Trips to Houston mean picking up mixed ferm beers from True Anomaly and hop water from St. Arnold's. When I get the chance, AZ Wilderness' "American Presidential Stout" is also a favorite.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

My first batch was similar to many homebrewers just starting out. It was a "kit in a can" - just open it and boil it. The "chiller" was the pot in a kitchen sink with ice water. It was drinkable, but maybe not enjoyable. I've still kept one remaining bottle from that batch. I will never drink it (for several reasons).

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

A beer that stands out is one that made me realize homebrewing was for me. I haven't made it in 20+ years, but it was the Armenian Imperial Stout from Papazian's New Complete Joy of Homebrewing. It's a partial extract batch, easy to make. While I've made much better beer since then, this one is more of a favorite because of the inspiration it gave me to continue brewing, moreso than the beer flavor/outcome itself.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Failure is not an option. Only lessons learned. :) My worst was probably a 10-gallon batch which I believe was an American Pale Ale. It just didn't get going and I was traveling for work. I tried to be patient, but by the time I looked under the hood, there were some floaters in there that were not supposed to be growing in there. It had to go. If only it were an "unintentional sour," then I might have enjoyed it.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

My first batch was an Irish Red Ale extract kit from Texas Brewing. My dad's friend that used to homebrew brewed it with me and gave me a lot of helpful tips which I really appreciated. I definitely owe it to him for teaching me good habits and how good it turned out! Yum!

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

My favorite beer was probably an IPA I brewed relatively recently. I used my favorite hops for the dry-hop (Cascade and Centennial) and then a few experimental hops for the boil. The flavor turned out perfect and just what I wanted in an IPA. Ended up scoring really well too.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Biggest brew failure happened recently. I've been getting into kegging and the second beer I kegged got badly infected. Then after the next one I kegged, a piece for the CO2 line into the keg BROKE and I never realized it so I lost all my CO2 and then I had to replace the piece. So it has been a process for sure.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

My first batch of homebrew was “funktional fruit sour” by Norther Brewer. It was an extract beer and I added raspberry purée in secondary fermentation. After that batch I was hooked.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Favorite beer so far has to be Dark Czech Lager.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

I would have to say my biggest fail would be when brewing my first high-gravity beer. It was my first stout, an imperial stout at that and one night after dinner I heard a pop in the other room. When I went to investigate I found the airlock on the floor and beer all over the walls and everywhere! I had filled the fermenter to full and didn’t even know about a blow off tube. Needless to say, now I do!

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

Stubby’s Red IPA, I think he called it the Outlaw. I did the extract version on my then brand new single vessel system. I really didn’t know how to manage temperatures so I ended up hitting 170 or so during the steeping/mash phase. Dodged bees and wasps for a couple of hours, of course it boiled over almost instantly when I started the boil. The beer was drinkable, but oh wow I learned what astringency meant.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

The current version of my saison recipe. I've gotten dinged for carbonation, dryness and hop flavor many times so the last batch I doubled the carb pressure, added a bunch of honey and cherry puree at flameout and another ounce of hops. It came out at 11 SRM and IBUs so I hope it does well in the Austin Zealots Crusade class this year. It's also entered in our Belgian Draft Horse.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

A couple of years ago the AHA gave away some Vic Secret hops with a renewal so I decided to try making a southern hemisphere IPA with them. I didn’t think they’d be enough so I grabbed 4 ounces of Motueka hops. That beer was horrible! I don’t know what cat pee tastes like, but I bet it was close to what I just made five gallons of.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

I started with a basic Mr. Beer kit with an old can of hopped LME. I’d learned to brew with my dad, who had started a bit before me on the same kit. When it was my turn, I kicked things off wit a hefeweizen. Not award-winning, but not the worst beer you’ve ever had!

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Probably a tie between a smoked pecan porter I’ve made several years in a row, and my carrot and dried leaves ale. Both use smoke, which I love in beer, and homegrown ingredients. The pecans are from two big trees in the yard, and the leaves are from the same pecan trees. The porter is always robust and great for a cold winter’s night, and the ale is surprisingly balanced and refreshing!

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

I’ve got two horror stories. - One was after I had a perfect brew day — everything went just the way I wanted to. Hit my OG, mash was perfect, everything was going smoothly. First time I was really happy with the way a brew day had gone. Then, after I’d transferred six gallons to a carboy, I slipped and shattered the whole thing in my garage, sending wort spilling everywhere. - The other horror story comes from a terrible brew day where nothing went right. Stuck mash, low volume, missed a hop addition, yeast didn’t get started right, a total Murphy’s Law of a brew. I ended up calling it SNAFU Brown Ale.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

My first batch was sometime in the ‘90s. I did extract brewing for a few years but I am certain it was pretty miserable by today's standards. I had no community or internet to refine my knowledge and processes. I joined the Horsemen shortly after retiring a year ago and started asking questions about what I should get for equipment. I built my kegerator first using a 7CF chest freezer, and put in two taps. Now it's time for beer. Still treading lightly on what to buy, I went to Jarrett's big brew day, brought home five gallons of Old Ale and did the fermentation and kegging. Meanwhile, I met the Big Cypress crew at Stacy Myers' crawfish boil and Stacy stepped up to mentor for me. We brewed a Cali Common at his place and I brought home five gallons to finish. A month or so later, having purchased a surplus Anvil Foundry all-in-one kit from John Skelton, I endeavored to brew my first solo batch. A Ful Croi Irish Red. I was painstakingly careful...wrote out every step. It came out great. I entered a later batch of this same recipe in 2023 Bluebonnet (my first competition) and it scored a combined 41 and made mini-BOS.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

This past winter, I decided to try lagering. My medieval way of getting lower fermentation temp is an Igloo cooler water bath and frozen water bottles to modulate (thanks, Chris Bart for the suggestion). Six weeks or so later, I learned about diacetyl when my Munich Helles had a distinct buttery taste. (It cleared up in the keg.) At this time, I was a week into fermenting a Helles Export so I raised the temperature the second week to clear up the diacetyl. It worked and every time I poured one through the life of that keg I would think to myself: “that's a damn fine pour!” To this day, my favorite.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Two, actually. - The day I started late in the afternoon and rushed myself and forgot to insert the mash tun before adding grain. I brainstormed ways to save it but knew I'd always question the outcome so I bailed and dumped it. - I brewed an Oktoberfest and was preparing to rack to the fermenter. I hoisted the Anvil onto something that was inadequate for the purpose (although I'd done this same way several times before). I turned to get a piece of hose and the whole thing tipped. Five gallons of Oktoberfest wort down the driveway. I didn't initially want to share with club members but have since found everyone has a similar "oh s***!" story.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

The first thing I did was a five-gallon batch of mead that I split into single gallons in secondary to play with fun flavors. My husband had been brewing for a few years at this point, and was on his second batch of mead, so he helped me out a lot. The flavors I made were plum, 'pecan pie', apple and strawberry with rose petals. The pecan pie was probably the best one.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

It’s a tie. - Big O Tatties, a sweet potato casserole inspired Wee Heavy. I’d wanted to make a beer based on my aunt’s casserole recipe (before you ask, she makes hers with pecans, not marshmallows) and with the help of another homebrew Facebook group I’m in, I decided on a Scotch Ale for the base. It turned out to be accidentally smoked because my oven doesn’t work, so to caramelize the sweet potatoes I used our smoker. This was a neat addition for about two months, and then it went weird. - Plum Out of Control, a plum pale ale, so named because when I added the plums to the secondary I roused the yeasties a bit too much and at around 4 a.m. the airlock came flying off and I was smacked in the face with plum from across my bedroom! This one was fun because in addition to the Cascade hops that the recipe (from The Homebrewers’ Recipe Guide) called for, I also added rose petals and heather tips. I also added champagne yeast, because I had some on hand, when the pale ale yeast seemed to have stalled in the primary. This all led to a light and bubbly pink beer that was perfect for floating the river.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Thankfully the last one didn't become a fail, it was close though! I have to say my biggest fail was my attempt at watermelon mead. If you've tried to brew anything with watermelon then you know what I'm about to say. It started out smelling so good, until one day, it did not. Apparently watermelon rots faster than the yeasties can make alcohol to preserve it, and it went from heavenly to sickening so fast. I had looked at so many homebrew forums and YouTube videos before trying this, to see how much fruit I'd probably need per gallon, and not a single one warned me.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

I started brewing in 1985 while I lived in Washington state where I was born and raised. My first batch was started on our kitchen cooktop in a ceramic canning kettle. I mixed boiling tap water with a can of malt and hop extract, purchased “off-the-shelf” at Albertson’s. How times were different. The mixture was transferred into a glass carboy of cold water and given a dose of Red Star yeast for two weeks until being siphoned to bottles holding a scant teaspoon of priming sugar. I’ll always remember the sight of the CO2 vapor as it curled up and out from the top of the bottle as a pop sounded with the removal of the cap. My mentors, a handful of men from the depression era, brewers of the ceramic crock and cheesecloth cover, cheered at the sight. According to them, this was the most important signal of a fine beer.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

That’s a hard question. Maybe my last brew. I made the Wanderlust Saison (from Rabbit Hole Brewing) as part of the April club competition. Ingredients such as Grains of Paradise, bitter orange peel and Belgian yeast were unfamiliar to me. The experience really opened my eyes to the greater world of beers.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

For several years, I brewed on a homemade three kettle, gravity flow, propane system consisting of full-size beer kegs modified with cut-off tops, and stainless handles welded near the tops and ball valves fashioned near the bottoms. After many months of use, out of the blue, two batches of beer spoiled from bacterial infections. I was flabbergasted because my sanitation practices are a top priority. After a lot of head scratching, I decided to disassemble the boiling kettle’s ball valve and fittings. Here I found the source of the problem where the ball valve connected to a compression fitting securing a copper pipe used to hold the transfer hose.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

A pale ale kit brewed on my first, and last, Mr. Beer little brown keg. The beer was very poor. It tasted a little tart, along with some apples and sadness. But I was hooked! Next weekend I went to Dr. Jeckyll’s Beer Lab and bought a basic brewing kit along with John Palmer’s How To Brew, and off I went!

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Two years ago I brewed an Imperial Stout with chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon and three different peppers. It took almost a year from grain to glass, so I nursed it slowly to the delicious final drop.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

I cleaned my keezer one day, then loaded back in the four kegs of beer and went off about my business. Of course, I forgot to add my temperature controller’s thermometer back into the keezer. So the next time I checked on them there were four frozen beer pops!

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

I don't exactly remember it has been a long time, but when I started, all-grain wasn't a thing for homebrewers. I brewed my first batch in 2002. A neighbor taught me how to brew with extract using specialty grains. It was basically a turkey fryer set-up and a glass carboy as a fermenter that I kept in a cool closet. And the saying is absolutely true: 'Give a man a beer and he will waste a day. Teach a man to brew and he will waste a lifetime'

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Eisbock! I brewed a recipe that has been handed down several times and the stars literally lined up the first time I brewed it. It took first at Bluebonnet and Nationals that year and Rabbit Hole selected it to brew (and invited me to help brew it) and called it School of Bock. The cool thing about this recipe (which you can find on the AHA website) is there is no freezing involved.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

There was one winter our temps were expected to drop below freezing for a time and someone suggested it would be a good time to freeze a keg. I happened to have a dopplebock in a keg and set it out on the patio to make a traditional eisbock. I weighed it before it froze and after I racked off the non-frozen liquid to another keg. 20% remained in the original keg as ice. I set that keg aside for a year to let it lager and when I tasted it, it had picked up an infection and it went sour and I had to dump it.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

It was a kit called black dog amber ale - probably wasn't very good but in my memory it was amazing! LOL.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Every few years I make a Flanders Red or Brown and I always love the result and the amount of time that they can cellar as I experience the change over time.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Back in the day I threw some herbs into a beer after some inspiration from a book called The Homebrewer’s Garden. It became rosemary beer and it was NOT good.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

The first one was a Mr. Beer kit in like 1998 or 1999. Man, it was a bad experience. Fast forward to 2012-ish and I tried a real kit from one of the LHBS. I don't remember exactly what it was.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

One of my most recent brews, was a kit just before I switched to all-grain. A saison with some Bootleg Biology yeast. Turned out GREAT!

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Had to have been about 8 years ago. I had a batch get infected and it was before I found sours like Jester King. I listened to others and wound up dumping it without even trying it.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

Our first batch was an oatmeal stout all grain. BYO magazine recipe.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

The beer I’ve brewed the most is Ashley Carter’s slow pour pils. I’d love to win a medal for that recipe at BBBO. It’s all pilsner and all hallertau. There’s no room for mistakes with that recipe. Feedback has been all over the place, but it’s such a great beer!

Q: What's your go-to commercial beer?

Velvet Hammer by Peticolas. If I see it on the menu somewhere it’s what I’m choosing.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

My fist batch was an extract kit called Caribou Slobber based on Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewing (a brown ale).

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

12-gallon batch of tropical stout. Wish it had been 20! 10 gallons went into a rum barrel and the other 2 gallons bottle conditioned. The BA won lots of awards but the 2 gallons that were plain won bigger ones including a BOS at Operation Fermentation and a Bluebonnet stein.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

EASY, a barrel aged Flanders red. It pressurized in the barrel blew out the bung plug and painted our upstairs bathroom in a fine red mist. Looked like something out of a horror film and my wife still claims to find bits of it lol.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

I guess it was around 2006 or so, I was at a LAN party (if you know, you know) and one of our crew had brought in some homebrew that he had made. I got to asking Nick about it, and he told me I should check out one of these homebrewing kits if I was interested in learning how to brew my own beer. I bought a simple Brewer’s Best two-bucket kit, a recipe kit for a hefeweizen, and the rest is history.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Probably my Vanilla Bourbon Milk Stout.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Without a doubt, my strawberry blonde ale. Trying to be clever (my wife is a ginger), I decided I would make a strawberry blonde ale in her honor. Great idea, right? Unless you use a terrible strawberry extract AND manage to get your wort infected during bottling. Not so much a strawberry blonde ale as a Robitussin and Band-Aids ale.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

My first batch was one gallon a version of Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead. Honey, water, yeast, one orange quartered, one cinnamon stick, four cloves. It wasn’t too bad but the cloves overpowered the mead. One day, I would like to repeat the mead but use the better mead processes.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

Rum barrel aged tropical stout. It was a style I never tasted so it was a complete chance.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

I attempted to heat pasteurized bottles of a sweet mead but waited too long before the pasteurization process. Every bottle was a very carbonated fountain upon opening.

Q: Tell us about your first batch of homebrew. When did you start?

Wheat beer extract kit from the local homebrew store. Matt said I nailed the color and carbonation, and that was about it.

Q: What's your favorite beer you've ever brewed?

I have many favorites including German pils, rauchbier, roggenbier, altbier, IPA, oatmeal stouts, wit, fruit beer, etc. Favorite will depend on time of year.

Q: What about your biggest brew-fail?

Currently have a keg on tap with acetaldehyde. it happens. Not the first time and won't be the last. Stuck mashes suck too!